Have you taken your own mother for granted? You know, the one who created your body out of her body. Who gave you calcium for your bones from her teeth. Who wiped your butt for years. Who enabled you to survived until you could care for yourself? Maybe, even, who set your feet on the path to Thrive? Someone in your life provided this, however uniquely and imperfectly, and it’s time to sit in awe and offer gratitude. Honor thy Mother and you connect to the cosmic force of universal care… the Divine Mother.

The Divine Mother is a Weed

I cannot separate my deep appreciation for the nurturance of my own mother from the deep nourishment of God’s Green Earth.

We all know humanity has been on a rapid growth/rape/demolish/disturbance of Mother Earth’s topsoil. Some might argue Mother Earth has “had it up to here with us”. “Invasive” weeds are spreading rapidly worldwide, and the same people who came up with the idea to disturb her gentle skin are perpetuating the disturbance by spraying her gems – the “invasive” weeds -with chemicals toxic to soil, water, and life. Interesting “solution”.

The Gem in the Rough

Just like we take our own mother for granted, we take our Earth, for granted. But, when we look at what the Nurturer of All Nurturers is providing….our hearts open with the sheer abundance and our livers are cleansed. Let’s step out of the lens of the Divine Father, the king of ”how things should be”.  Step into her territory, the queen of cooperation, and “make do with what we’ve got.”

Introducing the Wild Weeds

Let me pass this task to my dear colleague and new friend, Katrina Blair. She is the expert, renegade and community mobilizer on the wild weed front:

“Wild weeds grow on every continent of the globe next to human civilizations. Their home is planet earth and their niche is disturbed and compact soils. Humans and weeds are a perfect example of a symbiotic relationship. Humans help make the ground “fertile” for these species that grow in disturbed sites. Wherever we live, we disturb the ground and compact the soil. Our survival foods and medicines are soon to follow. They provide a source of protein, abundant vitamins, a rainbow of minerals and enzymes. If we had to live on these permaculture plants alone, we would not only survive but thrive as well. The roots, seeds, fruits and greens are edible in different seasons providing our bodies with abundant nutrition year round. Our human activities encourage the weeds to take hold for only a period of time. Once the land becomes re-fertilized and stable again, these first succession plants (the weeds) will move on to other disturbed soils.

The dandelions, the mallow weeds, the plantains, the purslane, and yes, even and especially the thistles, are the medicines and foods our society needs right now: liver cleansers, colon scrubbers, chlorophyll, minerals, muscle and tissue toners, bone builders, and organ strengtheners.”

My daily bread.

Honor Thy Mother – Eat Wild Greens.

We don’t always like what Mother is serving. I’m sure you can recall a memory or two on that note. But, she is older and wiser and can see what we cannot. She provides for our health and longevity. Mother Earth could be no other way. So, while you might not think of thistle as a choice beverage to start or end your day, you might not know what is best for you. Yet.

Here is how to start:
Find where thistle is growing and hasn’t been sprayed with poison. Bring a shovel and gloves. You’re looking for young thistle, like the one in my picture above. Thank the thistle for offering it’s leaves so that you might live better. Put the shovel where the root becomes the leaves. Take the leaves. The root will generate more. Proceed with the dandelion.

Wild Weed Smoothie Recipe

One small thistle plant (leaves only)

• Handful of fresh dandelion leaves
• 3 organic or local apples
• 3 c. water
• 1/4 of an organic lemon, derinded

Blend in a high-powered blender. Voila. If you just have a regular blender, blend. Then, strain. Voila.

I’ve been eating Wild Weeds 3 times a day this month for my Yogidetox. Only 10 days in, I wake up craving thistle. Yes, the crazy prickly one you may owe an apology to.

And, perhaps more important to my physical thrive, I have deeper understanding of “Mother knows best.” I see her working on my disturbed land. I feel her teaching me how to pay attention, how to cooperate. And she nourishes me in explicit interconnectivity and abundance, as my own mother did. 

Want to learn more?

I’m hosting a Raw Foods Fest June 29-July 1 here in the Tetons. I’ll show you how to eat wild year round. The workshop is an investment in the knowledge will feed you for free for life.

As a Wellness Educator, Cleanse Specialist + crusader for whole-body nourishment, Ashley Pitman supports thousands of people in achieving a hot body and radiant beauty with a blend of raw food education, Ayurvedic inspiration, guided detoxes + courses, and lots of loving encouragement. All the action takes place at Vixi.com, a digital ashram for wellness-inspired people looking to use food as medicine and health as a spiritual practice. Stay devoted to your radiance and well-being by joining the free weekly newsletter with health and lifestyle tips that work. Click here to join & claim your free gift.

Do you ever find it challenging to celebrate holidays while maintaining your Ayurvedic diet?

If this challenge is showing up right now around Mother’s Day, you’re not alone.

Green Tea Apple Spice

After all, most of us are the first generation to bring Ayurveda into our families and consciously prepare seasonal recipes, eat for our unique body types and use food as medicine.

But, I can tell you from experience that there are two keys to happy holidays meals:

1. Taking the initiative to contribute or cook food that you will enjoy eating.
2. Being an invitation for your mom and the rest of your family to try something new. It could be a new dish, a tea for post-meal digestion or a yummy treat. The fact is that nobody likes to be harped on or made wrong about what they’re putting in their bodies so it’s import to learn how to gracefully usher in change.

If you’re up for being a Wellness Warrior this Mother’s Day let’s talk strategies for food.

Right now, we’re still in the heart of Spring, which is Mother Nature’s detox season. If you’re feeling an urge to detox and get rid of any heaviness and stagnation from winter, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re on the right track according to Ayurveda.

The best way to experience vibrant health is to pay attention to what’s naturally growing in your environment right now. You’ll likely notice an abundance of bitter roots, sprouts, greens and berries. These pungent (spicy), bitter and astringent foods help us naturally detox any excess fats and proteins out of our system.

Chilled Berry Soup

This is really important for obvious reasons like disease prevention and immunity boosting. But it’s even more important for subtle reasons like being able to listen to your body, being able to tune into your intuition and your ability to show up fully in life.

Now you might be curious about what to specifically eat during the spring, so here’s a quick rundown:

• Eat more foods that are Pungent (spicy), Bitter, Astringent / Light, Dry, Warm
• Eat less foods that are Sweet, Sour, Salty / Heavy, Cold, Oily

This Iced Ginger Chai recipe is a perfect fit for a warm afternoon because of the pungent spices:

Ingredients

Raspberry Lemonade

Just for YogaHealer Readers
I’ve put together a free Mother’s Day Guide just for you. Head over to Vixi.com, drop in your email address, and I’ll send you over this special guide that includes:

• A springtime Ayurvedic grocery list for you to keep as a resource
• The 12 foods you’ll absolutely want to buy organic (due to pesticides)
• The 15 foods you can get away with buying non-organic
• 5 easy-to-make celebratory drinks for Mother’s Day
• 3 Ayurveda-approved dishes mom will love

Have fun incorporating Ayurveda into your Mother’s Day celebration (or just use this guide for specially-crafted spring inspiration)!

Click here to get your free Mother’s Day Guide.

Sick of cleanse and detox bullshit, yes I am Published on January 23, 2012 by recoveringyogi

I wrote:

Hi Shana,

I agree- any lack of consciousness of of nourishment from earth to table is reprehensible.

Yet, I sense in your accolades e a lack of appreciation for a positive perspective of what is happening in yoga culture.

Yogis have been opening their subtle energetic channels (nadis/srotas/etc.). Basically, the more you do yoga, the more easily your subtle channels clog (because the more channels are actually open in the first place).

By eating “foods” furthest from fruit and vegetable plants, yogis will feel sick.

This is actually quite fantastic. When eating more plants yogis feel better. Eating more green plants, locally especially, the yogi wakes up to eating their ecosystem.

When we point this out, we become part of a major grassroots personal and planetary health recovery.

Let’s not forget statistically that Mexicans have the highest obesity rates in the world, “According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 69.5% of the Mexican population aged 15 and older is overweight or obese. This is the highest rate in the world, even higher than in the United States — which historically had the highest rate — and the United Kingdom, which has the highest in Europe.”

But, like I said, any lack of consciousness of of nourishment from earth to table is reprehensible. I hope you helped invoke more consciousness and gratitude at the table at the retreat.

Cate
founder of yogidetox.com

Here are 3 quick tips to design your own detox.

(1) Align your Detox. Your detox isn’t about bootcamp. However, it may be about embracing austerities to cultivate discipline for higher goals. Your detox isn’t about deprivation. However, your detox may be about stirring up true hunger and experiencing deep satiation. Get clear about what you’re after.

(2) Choose Your influences When you design your detox, choose your influences. I chose to be influenced by these people for the Spring 2012 Yogidetox season.

(3) Find a buddy. The buddy-system is for accountability. Otherwise, you might forget your higher aspirations halfway through, and indulge instead of abstain. Aside from derailment, the buddy system is actually about amplification. Having a buddy (or a household, or a posse) to detox with uplevels you into community-based health evolution. From there, it’s a whole new ballgame.

Design your own cleanse. Or, just join mine.

The intelligence of our life force detoxes the body.

Each organism’s body has an innate intelligence. This intelligence enables health. When this innate intelligence is impeded by diet or lifestyle the organism’s health suffers. (By diet and lifestyle I include overeating, eating processed foods, stress, pharmaceutical drug toxicity, recreational drug toxicity, etc.)

During a detox, we ingest foods to make it easier for the body to move the accumulated waste or toxins out. We facilitate this already natural process and inner intelligence. Interestingly, water fasting is also very effective for highly conscious individuals with greater mental strength.

However, for us mere mortals, we eat while we cleanse. Therefore, what we eat while we cleanse is of utmost importance. We want to facilitate the body and create a calm ease in the mind during our detox.

Top 5 foods for detox

These 5 groups of foods encompass the 6 tastes of Ayurveda. The six tastes account for the 20 gunas, or attributes of matter. Using the 6 tastes during cleansing decreases cravings and increases satisfaction. The six tastes have therapeutic effects on the tissues of the body, enabling nourishment of tissue and release of ama (toxic waste). Here are the Top 5 foods for detox:

• Dark Leafy Greens (kale, collards, nettles, dandelion greens, turnip greens, etc) have a bitter and astringent taste which stimulates the action of scraping and squeezing, respectively. Used to scrape excess waste and toxins on a cellular level, greens create lightness with their high nutrient portfolio. Greens are rich in chlorophyll which oxygenates and alkalizes your blood. Celery is an additional green that consumes calories with digestion and has a salty taste to add moisture during detox. Greens detox your lymph, blood and fat cells.
• Lemons & limes have sour taste which gently stimulates digestion. Lemons stimulate the release of enzymes and helps convert toxins into a water-soluble form that can be easily excreted from the body. Drinking lemon water, which is alkaline-forming, first thing in the morning balance your appetite and transform the acidity in your blood. Lemons and limes are foods that detox your liver.
• Sprouts! are baby plants. With bounding new born energy, sprouts have exponentially more nutrients than the adult plant they become. Sprouts are in the sweet taste phase of the plant, (even if it’s a pungent sprout like daikon radish). This sweet taste helps build muscle tissue and maintain high energy levels during detoxing. Sprouts give you energy during detox and repair tissue.
• Spices (turmeric, ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, fennel) improve circulation, aid detoxification, and stimulate the digestion of toxins both in the digestive tract and on a cellular level. Spices detox your lymph, blood, kidneys and bowels.
• Sweet Juicy Fruits are sweet taste and help those with sweet cravings cleanse with ease. Fruits are high in fiber, and some, like apples, are high in pectin, which serves an intestinal broom to clear out the toxins. Juicy fruits contain the purest, most absorbable form of water for our cells, giving your body energy to detox in pace with modern life.

Wild leafy greens like thistle, dandelion, lambs quarter and nettle will detox the body much faster than leafy greens from the store. More on this in another post.

Next live Yogidetox course with Cate starts Tuesday May 1!

 
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1. Take the largest possible perspective.
2. Don’t get wrapped up in a method.
3. Be part of a movement.

1. Take the largest possible perspective.

When your detox is seated in the perspective of your human anatomy as being as the current vessel of 14 billion years of the evolution of consciousness some of your neurosis may be minimized. When you allow consciousness to have full access to your body for a set amount of time… the time of your detox… you enable an optimization to occur. In Ayurveda,we call this lining up with Nature. We do specific actions to align with Nature, to align with Consciousness, and allow that which blocks Consciousness to be transformed (digested) by Consciousness. For those new to detoxing I imagine you have no idea what I’m talking about. 

Toxicity in this day and age is mostly caused by being out of alignment with how homo sapiens thrive. Stress, diet and lifestyle are the main causes. The toxicity shows up as acidity or inflammation in our blood. It also shows up as a plaque-like substance caused by undigested food. This gunk is called ama, and it blocks the flow of Consciousness in our physical and subtle body. Toxins also show up mentally and emotionally and also need release for a full detox or health evolution to occur.

Every person comes with an inbuilt radar which can detect that which is healthy from that which is unhealthy. During a detox, we choose to pay attention, and act on what attention reveals. The formula is simple:

Detox formula = + Consciousness. Stir. 

With an evolutionary perspective of detoxing you are essentially giving up all of your habits and tendencies that keep your body in an acidic state or stress pattern. You’re also letting go of the emotional drama which may appear in a detox. You’re identifying outdated patterns in the way you relate to yourself and others. You’re connecting with yourself as part of evolution unfolding, and taking responsibility for showing up from this higher perspective in the future.

Onto the second Fresh Tip.

2. Don’t get wrapped up in the Method.

Which detox – kitchari, green smoothies, master cleanse, juicing, etc. might not matter as much as you think. Many people are caught up in “My detox is better than yours” or “You shouldn’t do that detox if you’re that sort of person”. While this might be true at some level, for the most part… most detoxes are good for most people. We live in a world of (1) very available non-nutrient foods and (2) a unfathomable accessibility of good information. We’re busy, we’re inflammed, we’re toxic. Anything you do to reduce your busyness, your inflammation and your ama will render you feeling better. That said, here are 3 components to my Yogidetox Method that you might pay attention to, but don’t need to get wrapped up in:

3 components of the YogiDetox Method

1. Learn how to collaborate with the process of healing. Ultimately, you create the space and line up with Nature’s ability to detox you.
2. Become an active scientist in the body-as-a living-experiment station. Become very curious about your health and energy potential.
3. Upgrade your Self-Care.

That’s it. This is the method I teach in the Yogidetox. You’ll hear more in the phone call. Onto the third Fresh Tip for your Detox:

3.Be part of a movement.

There is a world wide movement of people waking up to:

• Eating closer to nature.
• Growing food (through permaculture, urban gardening, kitchen gardening and just gardening period)
• Discovering the prana in living plants.
• Waking up to health evolution.

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p.s.

My next Live Yogidetox begins May 1st. Join the movement. 

Dear fans and rebels,

Before I get to that, a quick announcement: Tomorrow, I’m offering a free call about the cutting edge of detox. Many repeat detoxers have been impressed with this year’s course, and I’ll talk a bit about what is going on in the courses for those who are on the fence. The May Yogidetox begins May 1. Free Fresh Tips for your Detox Call Tomorrow.

Okay, back to Mexico.
When we were down in Punta de Mita last fall, where we love to surf. A great deal on a little condo in front on a easy long right crossed our path. Based on instinct (perhaps vijnamayakosha), we went for it.

There were a few factors that lead us to take the leap:

• Freedom Business: I’ve been moving Yogahealer from local to virtual over the past 5 years. My goal was to create a freedom business and now I can work with you from anywhere. In the Yogahealer Mentors Business program, I help other yoga teachers and healers leverage there impact and reach more people.
• Unschooling: I’d been reading about unschooling and following Sandra Dodd’s RSS feed. My sense was that being in Mexico in spring and fall would nudge us fully into an unschooling lifestyle. And, help us raise a bilingual, mulitcultural surfer girl with an education in freedom lifestyles.
• SurfMexicoRental.com: When we decided to buy the condo, we knew we’d rent it to our friends. We’ve created a condo with all that we found lacking when we’d rent from other, less conscious, less alternative people! Our simple, bright condo overlooks a fun, beginner’s surf break.

Scroll down for Indy’s first surf report below.

Since early March, we’ve been caulking and painting and the other things we do to make a place our own. The condo now feels like home. We’ve made friends. We’ve surfed. And surfed. (Watch Indy’s fir

Cate's surf condo rental in Punta de Mita

zst surf report). Indy taught herself to swim. I’ve taught what is being claimed as the best, most insightful and enlightening Yogidetox ever.

I’m on my edge as a evolutionary health educator. I’m excited to have time to focus on what Yogahealer can be for all of you. Ayurveda demands svadharma – being seated in our authentic self. I hope to be as much as an inspiration as a guide in what we can make of this sacred life.

Thanks for being part of the community.

If you eat an early dinner (before 6 pm) and water fast for 13 hours, and get a good night’s sleep your body will go through a natural detox cycle.

The most simple, gentle way to detox on a daily basis:

• Eat a light dinner of soup or salad by 6 pm.
• Water fast between 6 pm and 7 am.
• Go to bed by 10 pm.
• Wake up by 6 am.
• Drink water when you rise.
• Vigorously exercise before breakfast.
• Eat mostly fresh, local plant-based foods.

Now, for those who want to experience a giant leap forward in their health, a complete change of diet and lifestyle is calling. Doing a deeper detox entails changing what you eat and how you live. The simple and gentle guidelines above are the baseline.

How to detox with the seasons

For a deeper detox, three more components will enable you to take a giant leap forward in your health. Seasonal detox is another natural rhythm that occurred each spring before the abundance of cheap nutrients. Nutrients are becoming cheaper in terms of dollars and nutrient value… even as they are becoming more abundant year round. To make up for the lack of a natural seasonal-imposed famine, we create our own through a natural, seasonal detox.

Top 3 strategies for a Natural Detox

There are many strategies for a natural detox, and the ones I choose I’ve seen work for hundreds of clients participating in my Yogidetox. I offer many strategies, but these are the 3, when used in combination, that I see the greatest and easiest success.

1. a living liquid diet
2. colon cleansing
3. detox yoga & meditation

(1) A living liquid diet – an introduction to detox drinks

Your whole body is in a liquid medium – simply squeeze your arm to check it out. When we simplify our digestion by ingesting nutrients in liquid form, we save buckets of energy that normally goes to digestion. Living liquids include:

• fresh vegetable and fruit juices
• fresh vegetable and fruit smoothies
• fresh vegetable (& sometimes fruit) living soups
• (occasionally nut and seed milks are used for those needing more fat during detox)
• Spicy lemonade (or the master cleanse lemonade drink)
• Watery Kitchari (traditional Ayurvedic detox meal of cooked rice, mung beans and spices)

Once you realize your body is flexible and strong when you feel great, you want to enhance that flexibility and strength. Getting your nutrients (a.k.a. food) through a liquid medium starts to become a higher priority. You can have a liquid diet for a week or a lifetime.

(2) Colon Cleansing – get the waste out

Simple enough, the second strategy is to get the waste moving out. In Ayurveda, we have 5 main techniques (pancha karma means 5 cleansing actions). 2 of the five include moving waste out of the intestines. They include taking purgative herbs, such as Triphala or castor oil, and doing enemas (called bastis).

The philosophy goes like this: as you take pressure off digestion through eating a simple liquid diet, your body releases waste & toxins (ama). Where does this ama go? From your bodily cells, the ama is releases back into the blood stream, and from there, back into the digestive tract. Once in the digestive tract, we need to move it out. Your anus is the easiest and most natural gateway for release.

Colon cleansing through enemas, salt water flushing, or taking herbs such as triphala, greatly enhances your bodies ability to keep up with the waste that needs to move out. Because you’re eating mostly liquids, your peristalsis might be less active than normal.

(3) Detox Yoga and meditation

The third strategy in how to detox is to move and to sit still. Most vigorous short term exercise is beneficial for cleansing simply due to the increase in circulation. Detox yoga, however is much more effective than regular gym or outdoor exercise.

The reason detox yoga is a top detox strategy is that you are accessing every gland, muscle, and organ in your body. You are collaborating with your body to remove unwanted waste and unwanted toxins in a methodical, strategic and highly conscious way. Due to the conscious component of detox yoga, you literally feel what is happening during your detox. You’ll leave your practice craving that which will bring your detox through it’s full and natural cycle.

Meditation is also a top strategy because it’s the most effective way we have to detox the mind and emotions during a cleanse. Meditation gives the time and space for your awareness to completely focus on awareness itself. As this happens, the mental and emotional patterns begin to unwind. Your old habits and old thinking habits their grip on your awareness and you step deeper into your vibrant health and inner freedom.

Let me know your top 3 strategies for detoxing below!

Ayurveda explains how this waste being stored in the tissues (dhatus) of the body affect the quality of tissue (quality of your lymph, your blood, your muscle, your fat… and on down the line). When we store waste we create a weakness of cellular integrity. When our cells lose integrity it creates confusion. Confused cells create poor health.

My friend, Angela Stokes Monarch told me a story about 2 fat cells. One fat cell was in a body that the person ate too much food, and and at irregular times (most calories in the evening). This fat cell looked like a big yoga ball.

Your fat cells and detox

The other fat cell was in a body where the person ate just enough food to thrive, ate most of the calories in the day (for energy, not storage), and didn’t eat past 6 pm. This fat cell looked like a ping pong ball.

The difference in the size of the cells is the accumulation of stored waste. In Ayurveda, we call this waste ama. Ama is the byproduct of improperly digested and eliminated food. Ama is more than waste… it’s a toxin. This is why you feel so much worse when you’re not at your optimal weight.

During a detox, you turn over your fat cells. Instead of metabolizing on a superficial level, you metabolize your fat cells. When you metabolize your fat cells, your fat cells go from being huge, bloated and confused… to compact, intelligent and vibrant!

Listen to Sara to experience her weight loss experience with the Yogidetox.

Print your Body Map

The thing about Ayurveda is it gets how we’re the same and it fully owns how we’re different. There is a universal component to being human and having a human body. And, of course, we’re all having very different experiences in our bodies.

An individual approach to allergies

The one-size-fits-all model of medicine and medication for problems like allergies is outdated. If you’ve had allergies and haven’t investigated what as at the root of the issue, you have some homework to do. it’s time to investigate from the inside out what is happening in the microcosm of a universe called your body.

I have an easy tool I use in my Living Ayurveda Course to help the course members learn how their body works. I call it a Body Map. Print your Body Map here.  (In the Allergy Relief Workshop, I guide you very specifically how to map what is happening in your body).

Map out your allergies.

Once you print (or hand draw if you don’t print) your blank body chart and tables, we need to figure out what is going on in you. Get your markers or colored pencils ready. The more color, the more specific and the more fun. This is going to be a creative drawing experience for you to connect what is happening in your body on a piece of paper. Conjure forth your inner problem solver and your inner artist at the same time. Then, using arrows, colors, and directional lines, let’s figure out what the heck is happening.

• What body parts are experiencing the allergic reaction? Draw all those in. Use your colors to get the point across of exactly how you feel. The details matter. You might make a list at the same time.
• Have you been pooping well? If not, draw that in.
• If anything going on with your lungs? Draw that in. What does it feel like in color.
• Throat? Draw that in.
• Eyes?
• Ears?
• Nostrils?
• Sinuses?
• Mouth/Tongue?
• Appetite?
• Skin?

Be thorough here. The details count. The colors inform. The directional arrows and showing how the imbalance is trying to leave the body.

Now that you have your map, look at which qualities are most present. Hot? Itchy? Irritable? If so, choose the opposite, especially where it will affect that body part. If you eye balls are hot, itchy and irritable, you’ll want to cool those down with some rose water. Just rinse your eye balls a few times a day with rose water. Simple. Soothing. And definitely not going to get to the root of the problem. Reaching for a beer and pepper for your salad at dinner? You might not want to as those are both heating substances. Choose Pitta pacifying foods if you’re hot and itchy.

Once you have your map, you’ll want to either sign up for the Allergy Relief Workshop, or check out the great blogposts below. With your handy Body Map and these Ayurveda Allergy Blogposts, you’ll get a picture on how to uproot your allergies at their source.

8 Great blogposts for Ayurveda and Allergy Relief

Once you have your Body Map filled out, you can check out these blog posts to get a clearer idea of what to do:

If you are ready for me to walk you through understanding your particular allergy pattern and get relief with Ayurveda, check into the  Allergy Relief Workshop.

Once you’ve filled out your Body Map and/or taken the Workshop, let us know what you discovered below!