Balanced Life Ayurveda & Yoga

04/26/2024

We will have a booth at 50 North this Saturday 10am-1pm for the inaugural Parkinson's Empower Walk and Resource Fair. 🙂

11/11/2023

This excerpt from an editor's letter by Nicole Cameron of Elephant Journal reminds me to pull back from that tendency to react from a place fear and judgment which only further separates us and to move toward compassion and connection - asking myself "what is it that separates us and where can we find a thread of connection?" It really is our only hope for healing.

Disconnection.

There are so many uncomfortable emotions that have been floating around the world—and my world—these past few weeks.

But the emotion I’m struggling with the most is disconnection.

We feel detached from what is going on in the world around us, or even what we’re experiencing daily in our own lives, because it feels too big, too hard, too depressing. We feel isolated from those we don’t agree with or those who seem unable to understand our point of view or recognize our value.

There’s a separation. A gap that feels too big to fill. A bridge that appears too long to cross.

So we stand on our side wondering if there will ever be enough words, or the right words, to bring us back together.

And in the absence of finding the right words, so many of us choose to give in to our pain. We react. We become defensive. We choose anger.

And in doing so, the divide just grows...

06/26/2022

Effective and tasty alternative to NSAIDS and other headache relieving drugs. These common OTC pharmaceuticals come with some pretty substantial risks that we sometimes don't consider.

Infuse equal parts (~1-2t ea. per cup) in your french press or tea infusion cup/tea ball/etc. for at least 5mins. If you need a bit more power, add a dropper of Willow Bark tincture to your prepared tea. 1/2-1C daily 3-4x/day. Not for use in pregnancy or those with allergies to plants in the Asteraceae family.

05/15/2022

Judith has been one of the primary influences in my yoga teaching journey. Very grateful for her wisdom.

Part One.

‘My Philosophy of Teaching Yoga in Eight Parts’

Jai!

03/31/2022

More wonderful recipes from Hale Pule…

Black rice is renowned for both its rich nutritional profile as well as deep flavour. ​​​​​​​​
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Mixing black rice half and half with a white basmati or jasmine variety yields a perfect texture: light and fluffy with a touch of nutty chewiness. It also increases digestibility.​​​​​​​​
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It calms Vata thanks to its sweet and grounding qualities. This recipe is nice for Pitta as well, thanks to the cooling qualities of rice, the spices used, and rosebuds. ​​​​​​​​
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Enjoy this dish as part of your balanced meal, with a legume or soaked and peeled almonds, as well as cooked seasonal vegetables.​​​​​​​​
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Aromatic "Forbidden" Black Rice​​​​​​​​
Serves: 2 people​​​​​​​​
Preparation time: 30 minutes​​​​​​​​
Augmenting​​​​​​​​
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You'll need​​​​​​​​
Rice Ingredients​​​​​​​​
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1 tbsp ghee​​​​​​​​
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1/2 cup black rice - rinsed and soaked for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight​​​​​​​​
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1/2 cup white basmati rice​​​​​​​​
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1 1/2 cup water​​​​​​​​
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1 tsp grated fresh ginger​​​​​​​​
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1 kaffir lime leaf​​​​​​​​
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1/2 tsp mineral salt​​​​​​​​
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Topping​​​​​​​​
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1 tbsp coriander seeds​​​​​​​​
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1 tsp aniseed​​​​​​​​
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2 tbsp ghee​​​​​​​​
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2 dried rosebuds, crushed​​​​​​​​
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Here's how​​​​​​​​
Heat 1 tbsp ghee and gently cook the ginger and lime leaf till the aroma comes up.​​​​​​​​
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Stir in the salt, both types of rice, mix to combine​​​​​​​​
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Pour in the water and pressure cook for 18 minutes and use natural release. Alternatively, cook on a hob under a lid till the black rice is soft. (You might need a little extra water.​​​​​​​​
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Just before serving, heat the remaining 2 tbsp ghee and gently toast the coriander seeds along with aniseed for about a minute.​​​​​​​​
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Stir the mixture into the rice and serve with the crushed dried rosebuds.

01/18/2022

Remember to pre-register for next weekend’s Introduction to Ayurveda - The Science of Self-care!

https://www.mybalancedlifeayurveda.com/products/intro-to-ayurveda

Learn how Ayurveda can set you on the path to better health, increased energy and overall well being. In this 2-part introduction to Ayurveda, we'll explore how small changes can bring about big results. It's not about turning your life upside down, it's about maximizing the impact of small changes

11/15/2021

I just love Myra Lewin. She is an inspiration and a beautiful voice for Ayurveda & Yoga.

“When I came to Ayurveda and Yoga I had already been through quite a bit of experience in life and done many things that could be considered successful on the outside and I was miserable inside. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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My practices gave me tools to feel better and to develop a deeper sense of life. My practices helped me to see more of the gift of human life and being a woman. My personal practice is just that. It is personal and it is meant to be that for each of us.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Getting to know our inner world is the most important thing to have fulfilled living. Not to analyze or evaluate, but to recognize how our inner world is creating the outer experience. It not only brings meaning to life but also creates this view of the expansive possibilities in life that are too vast to describe.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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As women we are so amazingly powerful in the most beautiful ways when we come to peace with that and fully express ourselves” — Myra Lewin

10/18/2020

04/08/2020

Shifting Towards Love in An Uncertain World: This is a free online retreat taking place April 18 and 19, featuring wisdom teaching from Ram Dass, Mirabai Starr, Krishna Das, East Forest, Govind Das, Bruce Damer and more...

04/03/2020

As always, reasonable, balanced and reliable advice from Ms. Aviva...I know you all have time to read it!

Be well,
Pamela Locke, Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist (C.A.S.)

To say that we all have some significant concerns right now is an understatement. We're worried about how long this dystopian period in all of our lives is going to last, how we’re going to pay our bills, and what life post-COVID-19 is going to look like. And of course, we all worry if we or a lov...

02/08/2020

Let's guard against yoga becoming about doing more when what most of us need is to do less. Judith is such a wonderful teacher of this through restorative yoga. I'll be with her again in Yellow Springs, OH this Spring. If you're interested and need the info, contact me.

s a v a s a n a
Jai! 🙏

02/08/2020

02/01/2020

Study shows elderberry to be effective in inhibiting a pathogenic coronavirus in chickens, concluding further studies are warranted to determine efficacy of elderberry in treatment or prevention of other strains of coronavirus. In the meantime, Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is a valuable herb to use during cold and flu season in general, as it has diaphoretic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory actions. It can be taken preventatively and is often preferred in the pleasant tasting form of elderberry syrup. Elderberry taken at onset of cold/flu has been shown to disrupt viral replication, shortening duration and severity. It is generally a very safe and well tolerated herb, even in children. Ayurveda advocates for the use of herbs over pharmaceuticals, as plants taken in their whole form (vs extracted constituents) retain complexity that makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for pathogens to develop immunity to. As the rampant overuse of antibiotics continues, we will be looking more and more to our herbal allies for sustainable remedies.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24433341

BMC Vet Res. 2014 Jan 16;10:24. doi: 10.1186/1746-6148-10-24. Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

01/26/2020

For those who have become frustrated and turned away from their "efforts" to meditate, this article I ran across this morning is a wonderful reminder that there is no right way to meditate and there is no reason to put effort toward stopping the thinking mind. It's about becoming the witness to the thoughts. It's about creating some space between the thoughts and our true selves, learning to observe from a place of objectivity and curiosity. You are perfect just the way you are. Blessings and I hope you thoroughly enjoy your Sunday, just the way it is. 🙏🙏🙏

Leave yourself alone!
Zen teacher Barry Magid describes the practice of just sitting.

Imagine sitting down in front of a mirror. Your face automatically appears. There is no effort required; the mirror is doing all the work. You can’t do it right or wrong. The Zen Buddhist practice of “just sitting” is like that. When we sit, our mind automatically begins to display itself to us. Our practice is to observe and experience what appears moment after moment. Of course, just as when we look in a real mirror, things don’t stay that simple for long.
We notice how our faces or our bodies look in the mirror, and we immediately have an emotional reaction and form judgments about what we see. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote that Paul Cezanne was capable of painting a self-portrait with utter objectivity, of looking at his own face with no more reaction than “a dog which sees itself in a mirror and thinks, ‘Here is another dog.’” For the rest of us, it’s not so easy to simply observe who we are. Looking in the mirror, we are tempted to use it as a makeup mirror to touch up the parts of our self-image we don’t like.
Our minds are never what we want them to be. That’s part of why we sit in the first place. We are uncomfortable with ourselves as we are. The greatest dualism we face is the split between who we are and who we think we ought to be. Sometimes that gap fuels our aspiration to follow spiritual teachings, sometimes it simply fuels our self-hatred, and all too often we confuse these two notions of self entirely.
Just sitting means sitting still with all of the aspects of ourselves that we came to practice in order to avoid or change—our restlessness, our anxiety, our fear, our anger, our wandering minds. Our practice is to just watch, to just feel. We watch our minds. Minds think. There’s no problem with that; minds just do what they do. Ordinarily we get caught up in the content of our thoughts, but when we just sit, we observe ourselves just thinking. Our body’s most basic activity is breathing: No matter what else is going on, we are breathing. We sit and breathe, and we feel the sensation of our breath in our bodies. Often there is tension or even pain somewhere in our bodies as well. We sit and feel that too and keep breathing. Whatever thoughts come, come. Whatever feelings come, come. We are not sitting there to fight off our thoughts or try to make ourselves stop thinking.
When we sit, we realize how unwilling we are to leave anything about ourselves alone. We turn our lives into one endless self-improvement project. All too often what we call meditation or spirituality is simply incorporated into our obsession with self-criticism and self-improvement. I’ve encountered many students who have attempted to use meditation to perform a spiritual lobotomy on themselves—trying to excise, once and for all, their anger, their fear, their sexuality. We have to sit with our resistance to feeling whole, to feeling all those painful and messy parts of ourselves.
Just sitting means just that. That “just” endlessly goes against the grain of our need to fix, transform, and improve ourselves. The paradox of our practice is that the most effective way of transformation is to leave ourselves alone. The more we let everything be just what it is, the more we relax into an open, attentive awareness of one moment after another. Just sitting leaves everything just as it is.

09/28/2019

"You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you". I am uncertain of the author, but what a powerful message. As we transition into the Vata time of year (fall/early winter), although it's often a busy time with school, sports, etc., it is a time to consider the potential for letting go of activities which do not fill you up. There is a natural slowing down and turning inward as we move toward winter and you honor this cycle of Nature by carefully choosing your activities to be those that are rejuvenating rather than depleting. This is one way we protect our resilience to stress and illness, our joy, our zest for life (known as "ojas" in Ayurveda). Build space into your daily schedule for practices and activities that will nurture and feed your soul.

09/08/2019

04/28/2019

The National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) is a professional organization dedicated to bringing high standards and professional recognition to the practice of Ayurveda in the United States. I am privileged to be attending the annual conference in the beautiful red wood forest of Scotts Valley, CA. Here, an amazing group of teachers and healers have congregated to learn, network and promote the professional practice of Ayurveda. I am thoroughly enjoying the sessions, the people, the hiking and the delicious freshly prepared plant-based meals! Ayurveda has been around for thousands of years, but it seems it is needed now more than ever. This year's conference theme is Ayurveda and the Mind and how Ayurveda and Vedic wisdom and counseling can heal the deep root causes of our mental and physical imbalances. Today many imbalances, including addiction, are rooted in a lack of genuine human connection and a sense of belonging within a community. A quote I love from one of today's speakers is "Life happens between WiFi signals". At every opportunity, set aside your devices and have a genuine human-to-human interaction. It's good for you and good for the other person and great for the world!🙏