Ayurvedic living Archives - Page 10 of 14 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Intuitive Eating Vata + RD Recommends

Intuitive eating can be a reframing way to develop a healthy relationship with food and greater food appreciation.

Intuitive eating is mindful eating thta can open up personal tastes to more healthy food variety that helps our bodies.

When your body is running well, intuitive eating can be a sustainable non-diet approach. 🧡 It can be more automatic than programmed into our day. We don’t need to count calories and other nutrition data content.

As daily eating routines, you listen to what your body wants and needs. This is where intuitive eating and Ayurveda meet. Ayurveda is body and mind listening for balancing and learning what your body is telling you by its wants. You can discover more about this with a body balance quiz you can take to get results.

In healthy terms, Ayurveda is more specific in what works for each type of imbalance, whereas intuitive eating is a general description for eating with when and what feels natural and healthy.

That would include a diet balanced with proteins, healthy fats, and good carbs (both veggies and minimally processed grains and starches).

Below, I share some valuable nuggets from a Vata (body) perspective who doesn’t need to lose weight… along with some RD thought weigh-ins.

For most of us as we age, we need more proteins that help build muscle. If you’re a natural Vata especially, you need more filling foods that give you the most energy like proteins with amino acid building blocks.

Intuitive eating refocuses our attention on what our bodies are telling us, rather than hard and fast, food “rules” that are imposed on us from diet culture and other external forces.

Vatas tend to get hungry easily (and can lose weight even faster), and we’re more likely to get close to the 23 servings per day Food Pyramid diet than the other body types, just to feel full.

Food is fuel and as a Vata example, realized I wasn’t getting enough proteins… because I wanted to tone muscles and despite doing the same toning exercises I couldn’t make a dent. That’s normal after age 40.

So the change I made is trying to get 50 grams of protein in per day. I work in the yogurt, seafood, legumes, nuts… and eggs that have a smidgeon of protein. Like an appetizer plate of shrimp doesn’t hurt 🍤

Intuitive eating could be enjoying a calm moment with shrimp and spices. One shrimp could be enough to set the mind off in enjoyment and send a wave of calm peace in the mind-body.

Many of us Vata bodies are lean (or have a small frame) and need to eat more, not less… and more often. For many Kapha metabolisms, that would not work well.

In either body types, it’s easier to get daily full-satisfied with proteins. Where a Vata can easily gravitate toward comfort starchy carbs that’ll help satiate hunger, while a Kapha body could lean into veggie carbs.

Vatas can also get a skinny-fat build if eating too many sweets (that’s a natural Vata body trait) or processed foods, and if they don’t work on moving and exercising like everyone else.

And while this is the profile of a typical Vata, whatever body type you have, you want to figure out what works for you.

Protein and plant-based are a good combination for most people. With most healthy eating habits, healthy intuitive eating is about getting enough good healthy foods in the diet.

While I do like some food rules, the RDs I collaborate with who promote intuitive eating, describe it as a way to make peace with food and prioritize your physical and mental wellbeing.

So, it’s intuitive eating is like another piece of the puzzle for heathy eating.

“It’s a way to get back in tune with your body and refocus your mind away from “food rules” that can be good for certain people.”

Intuitive eating de-prioritizes weight as a primary measure of health, while inviting you to eat the foods you want when you’re hungry—and to stop eating when you feel full.

Eating intuitively means being curious about what and why you want to eat something, and then enjoying it without judgment.

It’s about trusting your body’s wisdom without external influences. When you have a healthy body, it’s a reliable way to see what’s missing in a diet.

These were the original 10 Intuitive Eating principles that Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch (practicing registered dieticians) came up with decades ago:

Reject The Diet Mentality

Ditch diets that give the false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. You are not a failure for every time a diet stopped working and you gained the weight back. Until you break free from the hope that there’s a new diet around the corner, you cannot fully embrace intuitive eating.

Honor your hunger

Your body needs adequate energy and nutrition. Keep yourself fed to prevent excessive hunger. By honoring the first signal of hunger you can start rebuilding trust in yourself and food.

Make peace with food

Stop fighting with food and give yourself unconditional permission to eat. Stop fostering intense feelings of deprivation by denying yourself a particular food, as these can lead to cravings and bingeing. You don’t want your “giving in” to lead to overwhelming guilt.

Challenge the food police

Confront the thoughts that you as a person are “good” or “bad” based on what and how much you eat. Diet culture has created unreasonable rules. The food police are the negative, hopeless, or guilty thoughts you can chase away.

Discover the satisfaction factor

Pleasure and satisfaction are some of the basic gifts of existence. By allowing yourself to feel these when you eat, you can enjoy feeling content and fulfilled. When you do this, you will be able to identify the feeling of “enoughness.”

Feel your fullness

Trust that you will give yourself the foods you desire. Pause in the middle of eating and ask how the food tastes. Listen for the signals that you’re not hungry anymore. Respect when you become comfortably full.

Cope with your emotions with kindness

Restricting food can trigger a loss of control and feel like emotional eating. Be kind to yourself. Comfort and nurture yourself. Everyone feels anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger. Food won’t fix these feelings—it’s just a short-term distraction. Ultimately, you have to deal with the uncomfortable emotions.

Respect your body

Everyone is genetically unique, whether it’s shoe size or body size. Respecting your body will help you feel better about who you are. Being unrealistic or overly critical of your shape or size makes it hard to reject the diet mentality.

Movement—feel the difference

Feel the difference activity makes. Not militant or calorie-burning exercise, but simply moving your body. Focus on how energized it makes you feel.

Honor your health—gentle nutrition

Choose foods that honor your tastebuds and health. Don’t focus on eating perfectly. One snack, meal, or day of eating won’t suddenly make you unhealthy or deficient in nutrients. Look at how you eat over time. Choose progress, not perfection.

The science behind intuitive eating

Studies show that people who eat intuitively tend to also have lower body mass index (BMI) and higher levels of body appreciation and mental health.

They are also associated with lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and inflammation.

A review of eight studies compared “health, not weight loss” eating styles with conventional weight-loss diets. While they found no significant differences in heart disease risk factors between the two types of diets, they did find that body satisfaction and eating behavior improved more for people in the “health, not weight loss” groups.

Another review of 24 studies of female college students showed that those who eat intuitively experience less disordered eating, have a more positive body image, and greater emotional functioning.

Overall, there is a growing amount of research that shows the benefits of intuitive eating for both physical and mental health.

The non-diet approach of intuitive eating fits within the concept that there can be health at every body size.

It’s good to come up with your own sustainable healthy habits so you’ll stick with them, finding the foods that satisfy you and your body.

Removing the “good” or “bad” labels on food and ditching the guilt or pride about eating a certain way is at the heart center of peaceful eating.

Taking care of our bodies and embracing what we enjoy eating as balance are healthy ways to live.

Seated Yoga Poses + 12 Summer Cooling Tips

Seated yoga poses are popular and good for your flexibility. And you can do some yoga to restore your daily chair and weekly car seated positions.

This week I’m sharing all about staying cool, with seated yoga poses and 12 cooling tips you can take with you on the road (including a healthy and easy rainbow meringue pie recipe 🌈).

Rainbow meringue pie recipe.

I’m highlighting the Spinal Twist below that goes waaay back with me… and practical car yoga poses we all can use when doing regular driving, or taking long drives and trips.

If you’re spending time driving, car yoga moves can really help ease the pain especially when the thermostat reaches a new boiling point.

Seated as the driver in the lumbar position in your car seat, your back and right side get stressed.

So when you can, you want to reverse the damage. That’s different than doing chair yoga or seated yoga poses in an office chair I talked about last time.

One way is: when you’re sitting in the driver’s seat, you can put the front of your palm on the back of the passenger seat and press forward.

You’ll immediately feel a nice stretch up your primary arm nerve near your bicep muscles that may just be what the doctor ordered to restore any arm pain.

This is good to do at stoplights when your eyes are on the light or during driving rest breaks.

My clutch driving days are over, but if you drive a standard shift, this is a really gooood small exercise.

You can also send your right arm back to the back part of the car between the driver and passenger seat, where there should be plenty of air space to do car yoga tricks. Then bend down at your right wrist.

Ohhh... that can zap the radial nerve in just the right nerve pain releasing angle.

The first few seconds can hurt so good!…

Plus, save you from physical therapy for repeated motions that irritate your body parts that get the most wear-and-tear.

And since we put our right foot down regularly to hit the accelerator and brakes, our right leg gets overly used too.

So to straighten out the leg nerve pain, ideally, you would want to lay down.

But in your car you can’t, so you can play a little game of Twister here on yourself following these instructions when you take a car park rest break… and without getting any funny stares from the people in the cars nearby. 💚💛💙❤️

You may need to push your car seat back to do this more comfortably and have more leg room away from the steering wheel.

And that’s another game you can play: to not hit the yoga car horn. That’s probably more challenging than getting in this pose. 😊

Then, rest your right foot on top of your left thigh (with a sharp bend in your right knee). And lift your left leg and foot off the car floor slightly. That’s important, so you don’t use your left leg to ground you (and some call that cheating in a game 😉). And so you can get the right resistance.

Then, take your right hand and push upwards from underneath your right knee, up towards the car ceiling. You should feel a nice feeling stretch in your right butt cheek and lower right back side and down your right hamstring where you feel tension when you put the pedal to the metal.

It’s definitely worth the effort relieving right leg strain… and well, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

And that should restore-fix you until you pull over for your next car driving break.

…Which hopefully isn’t to fix a flat tire, that I can’t help you with. But I CAN help you restore your body vehicle! 🧘🏻‍♀️

And when you get back to flat land where your mat is, you can do this move laying down where both your legs are off the mat. And where you look like you’re kinda doing an abdominal crunch, that btw, wouldn’t hurt to do either since you’re already there. 😊

Your abdominals help support your back. We can give love to our gut in more than ways than one!

And after that move, don’t forget to do your supporting Bridge pose, Happy Baby …yes, you!

And then when you sit back up, you can cross your legs in your Seated position. 🧘🏻‍♀️

…When I was a kid, I remember we did a variation called sitting Indian style back when we were young and innocent 😉

And we’d been doing Spinal Twists since elementary school gym days to warm us up (before we knew there was a yoga name). We were sitting in seated yoga poses on a big and thick cushion mat either yellow, blue, or maroon red that I still remember being heavy vinyl material.

On those mats, we did tumble exercises like summer-saults, maybe named after the summer season that was meant to be fun and inventive. 🤸🏻

We also did our rotating torso seated spinal twists that I enjoyed, even though we didn’t need the stretch or mindfulness so much back then as we do now, older (!!).

And those twists complemented the real activities and past times.

On good summer days, my childhood was spent rafting on a lake or going to the swimming pool which are great ways to cool off. I didn’t see it as a camp staycation back then, but that’s what we did.

…And that’s the first time I remember being able to do yoga. And the inkling that I could do yoga years later was confirmed after the first few years I tried it as an adult when yoga started taking root in the Western world.

…Goes to show ya, you don’t need many yoga moves or seated yoga poses to give you that edge, in case yoga ain’t your thing. Just one pose can do. Liked the seated Spinal Twist did for me.

And if that’s not motivation enough… a practical adult application can be working on restoring your hunched forward rolled shoulders that most of us carry daily.

Another one of the great restoring seated yoga poses where you can work on this is:

Bend one knee and thread the same side arm through the hole between your knee and the mat or floor. Then reach and wrap that hand as far to the other side of your body as you can. It’s sort of a strange feeling if you’re not used to this pretzel-like seated position.

You could grab or rest your hand on your other inside thigh leg. Wherever your hand lands, make it purposeful where you know where each finger is. It’s like octopus tentacles grabbing onto a sturdy surface. 🐙

In yoga, when you make contact with other body parts, and you know where your arms and feet are at all times, that’s big progress!

One way to practice this is in Tree pose: you can move your opposite foot and rest it on various parts up and down your leg while skipping over your knee.

Then when you’ve settled on your temporary Tree, try different arm poses like straight up in the air or “Y” hands in the air like you’re doing the “YMCA.” Oh my, that’s an oldie.

Or keep at heart center in prayer hands. Now, you’re really expressing your yoga postures.

You get out of the structured metal confines of a car. But sometimes you don’t have that choice, as most of us spend decent amount of time in a car at some point.

And in the summer, that can be work keeping cool and staying hydrated.

Because when you’re in a car, you don’t want to drink a lot of beverages. That’ll slow you down having to make a rest stop.

For longer trips, I usually drink up a day or two before traveling to have some reserves to go off on.

Some good car hydrating alternatives are fruits like watermelon, peaches, and apples that have high juice water content.

Bring your lubricating cough drops too. Just be sure to keep those in your cooler so they don’t turn into a hot sticky summer mess.

And here are 12 cooling tips (I promised earlier) that are good for summer traveling (and driving away any imbalanced Pitta feelings):

1. Keep aloe vera near you. Aloe helps with burns and to instantly cool your skin. That’s like giving a spa water bath to your body when it’s thirsty for cool relief. Many moisturizers have aloe ingredients, but I like to go straight to the ingredient source.

2. Bring a water spray bottle that comes in handy. You can clip it to a bag in case you run out of car cupholders, and so you don’t have to go rummaging for it like a regular water bottle.

3. You can use cooling spices like cumin. My personal herb faves are cilantro and mint. Another one is cardamom that I like to add to cold coffee in the summer. The exception is if I get in an overdose spell of summer Vata… that can happen to any of us, just in case you’re wondering why you prefer warm drinks in the summer. 🤔

4. Take cool showers or end on a cool setting for 10-30 seconds. This is just a reminder. 🚿

5. Start your day with a smoothie, that has chilled ingredients like nut-based milk, bananas, coconut, and berries.

6. Eat foods that hang between a fruit and a veggie like beets, avocados, and medley color tomatoes.

7. Try cutting up summer tropical fruits like watermelon, mangos, guava, dragonfruit, passionfruit, and pineapples. Just thinking about them gives me sweet motivation.

8. Add refreshing whole fruits to your list like peaches, plums, and apples that are usually summer abundant. Handing them out to others in the car is always fun and well received. 🍑

9. Eat juicy fruits like kiwi, pears, and oranges that make great food garnishes too.

10. Bring cool veggies winning you plant-based points, like salads, beets, carrots, and celery that you can easily transport.

11. Like a cooling blanket, you can bring a cooling towel or T-shirt. A day or two before, roll up a towel and leave in the freezer or fridge, and then bring along with you.

12. Use an aluminum water bottle that keeps water and beverages cold longer.

Another cool item from the fridge I like to bring out, are high antioxidant-rich fruits like sweet-scented pineapple chunks. Not for eating this time, but I can take one that isn’t pre-occupied on a dessert plate 😋, and run one down my face for a ‘lil Vitamin C fruit facial love and hydration.

It’s a topical tropical 🍍😎🍍

Some of the anti-inflammatory foods in the food medicine cabinet can directly do wonders for your skin.

Afterall, you are what you eat!… and what’s in your home is a reflection of your healthy habits.

You can also get inspiration from this 200 anti-inflammatory grocery food list.

Have a cool week! 🍉

Enjoy this Rainbow Meringue Pie recipe: 🌈

Rainbow Grit Pie

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

cherries, tropical fruits (guava, pineapple), oranges, kiwi, bananas
coconut cream
grits

Instructions

Whip egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar and sugar until light and fluffy
Bake on low temperature (200°F) until firm.
Add to pie crust.
Decorate with chopped fruits into a rainbow pattern.
Pipe coconut cream with the star tip baking bag.

Chair Yoga + The Beatles Yoga Inspiration

Chair yoga poses will be a lifesaver if you’re like many work in an office and sit in a chair most the day since your shoulder, neck, and back posture are compromised.

And if that’s your daily work ritual, then these poses described below will help…

chair yoga poses for office workers.

Towards the end, you’ll also learn what structure I think in Liverpool (that’s home to The Beatles band) is an inspiration for a special yoga pose at day’s end!

…oh, and I won’t even let Sir Paul McCartney ruin it as he’s looking pretty calm and relaxed here in his leaning pose outside the Liverpool cavern he used to play at. 😀

…His work, btw, at Abbey Road wasn’t one like the modern worker. And if you’re working in an office, most likely you’re not just leaning around with nothing to do.

In any day, your body is under stress and experiencing some form of tension even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time.

And especially if you’re in front of a computer, it’s smart to invest in a desk keyboard and keyboard rolling tray for your desk.

You don’t want to type long form on your laptop’s keyboard if that’s your habit… or a keyboard that sits on your lap… or even on top of a desk where your wrists are unnaturally raised.

…Those were all big no-no’s that I learned the hard way.

Small, but repetitive moves wreak havoc on your wrists, neck, shoulders, and back over time. That’s what happened to me for one season… where I had daily pain in my upper arm from the repetitive typing motions.

Then I learned to stop and do yoga, and bend my right wing (arm) in just the right way to restore the stress pain daily.

Now that’s a smart move… combining yoga and therapy all in one without having to leave my chair or spend a dime 😉

I also recommend a rectangular pillow on the small of the back. Remember, your lower back supports your mid to upper back and everything above, so treat it carefully.

But even with the right ergonomic office tools and desk alignment, you’ll still find chair yoga moves super helpful in your day.

Chair Yoga Poses 🪑

Just like it sounds, chair yoga you may have heard of is done in your chair.

You could set a reminder every hour to do some chair yoga. …or when you take a sip of your warm beverage …or are waiting for the computer screen to refresh or take action.

For starters, turn your neck to look out your left and right sides.

That also gives you an opportunity to take a quick looksy outside your window and see what’s happenin’ or around your room for an eye break.

Then, tilt your head down to each shoulder from side to side, and look up toward the ceiling.

Roll your neck in a circular motion from front to back and reverse the roll. That should feel really gooood!

And when you’re warmed up…

You can do a variation of a Cow face pose that you would normally do on a mat, but you can do it in your office chair too. You can do the pose with the top half of your body where you reach one arm over your shoulder to your back, and then grab the opposite arm and hand coming from underneath your back on the opposite side.

If your hands don’t meet or clasp at the fingers, you can use a towel as a prop to grab onto. One side is usually tighter than the other. Keep trying. And alternate sides. Your shoulders should feel instantly better.

This is a great chest opener for rounded shoulders that are usually rolled forward on a computer desk.

When you breathe, you can use “moo” as your “om” exhale sound for this pose. Now you won’t forget the name of this Cow face pose. 🐮

Cow face also helps to reverse your arm tension that’s usually swinging in forward motion.

[Just FYI, it’s good to send your arms behind you or your back whenever you can. You could grab your opposite elbows behind your back as an easy way… or grab and pull on the top of a chair with each arm for some resistance.]

For your body’s good, keep body parts movin’ so you don’t hear hard snap, crackle, pop sounds that mean you’re really tight and need mooo-re stretching in those areas.

To silence crunchy sounds if you’ve experienced those, I always start off by thinking about what body parts feel tension without movement …and then move and wiggle around a little to see what feels good.

Your body is intuitive for you. And some people’s muscles are more stretchy, so don’t compare yourself to what others can do.

And if it feels good to you, then it’s doing you good!

And from there… I figure out what needs to happen. If you’ve been doing yoga for a while or know various yoga poses, then you can think of specific poses. But if you can’t, then you can either follow the poses prescribed or flow poses like I’m giving here.

Or just make up your own. Stretching doesn’t always have to have a name, but most standing, sitting, and laying down on front or back poses do have a name.

And here are a few more office chair moves that you can for chest and shoulder openers:

Have prayer hands behind your back like in Camel pose I mentioned last time about travel yoga poses you can take with you.

And in the spirit of chair yoga, another great one is having raised Cactus arms to your sides. You raise your arms to your sides like Airplane arms and then bend them so they’re in an “L” shape beside your shoulders (palms facing forward).

You may be thinking you’re not really doing anything good to your body if you’re in a chair and not doing active poses on a mat, but any movement that takes your weight off your body in places and spaces carrying your own body weight helps your body.

…That’s one reason we sleep laying down and not actively seated where tension is added to the body so it can rest-reset-restore.

So yes, just sitting is work for your body! Tell that to your boss 😉

Away From Office Chair Yoga Poses

And away from your chair, you get up, you can stop and do a Mountain, Tree, and Chair pose (I call it “the invisible chair” without a chair)… always good for any prolonged sitting activity.

You could try a creative Mountain-Tree-Chair pose variation. I made this one up where I fold my leg on top of my opposite thigh, bend down in an invisible chair pose and raise my arms to the ceiling.

This does a world of good for your entire body and you can do this while you’re watching television and transform into a one-of-a-kind chair if you want to get off the couch potato pose. 🥔

And at the end of the long day, when you get yourself to a yoga mat, a great neck reversing restoring pose is laying down in Fish pose.

Lay face up on your mat with your elbows lifting most of your back up to your head off the mat. And then let your neck gently hang like a rag on a laundry line, so that you’re looking upside down at the opposite side of the room.

This takes the weight and pressure off your neck.

Then take a rest pose moment.

And when you feel ready, raise up into your Bridge pose… and when you come back down onto your mat, next time go for the high-energy arms Wheel pose, that’s amazing for stretching your back and giving you a burst of energy. You might be surprised at how high you can go, and freeing it feels to let your head and hair hang down!

In Wheel pose, I think of a Ferris wheel and how grand and controlled they look. This is the Liverpool one on the pier. Remember I mentioned I would share a ‘lil yoga inspiration.

The view from above ferris wheels is different from that below. And you can end your day on a high note even if it was spent in an office chair all day. 🎡

Flow Yoga Poses In 10-Minute Baking ⏲

Flow yoga is something you can add to your practice 10 minutes while you’re waiting and working on baking.

5 yoga flow stretches while waiting for your bakes.

For the next few weeks, I’m focusing on a new flow yoga mini-series to help you go from one pose to the next easily. Yoga means “union” and is the mind-body-spirit connection that we all can use.

And If yoga is intimidating (or it’s better) to you, you can call it modified stretching or something similar so you can remove the mental blocks (…and yoga blocks if you choose 😉).

Stretching is needed to reset our tight and daily working bodies. So I hope this will help you through the rest of the year whether you’re traveling or staying put where you are.

…And a flow yoga routine is something easy you can practice and do year-round and anywhere, so I’ll give you a flow yoga sequence below for someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen (myself included).

This time I’ll focus on yoga for those who do regular cooking or baking. If you know anyone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen, you could share this with them.

Body Balance Quiz

Even if you don’t think you’re good at yoga, the benefits to your body outweigh the few minutes spent… and some benefits can’t be achieved with other exercises, as you’ll not reach those hidden body muscles and crevices.

We tend to use the same few muscles for everyday use like our biceps and legs, when in fact we have about 600 muscles.

And whether you’re in the kitchen, traveling, or in an office, it’s good to plan to have a yoga mat or towel nearby, so you can stretch every day.

A mat can be a good reminder, as we take for granted that our bodies work for us every day without missing a beat. 🫀

We can all use a stretch once in a while where we let our hair down and take off our shoes and socks.

So grab your mat and here we go!…

If you’re working in the kitchen often, you’re looking down most of the day at the kitchen counter or the baked items you’re preparing. This puts a strain on your neck and all the nearby muscles running down your shoulders and back.

This mini-series of poses, or flow yoga, would be great to help you unwind and restore as you wait for your timed baked goods to bake in your oven.

You gotta love the oven for that reason!…

And last time I mentioned how great your freezer is for storage (another great piece of equipment to be grateful for). And this week it’s all about optimizing your waiting on your oven.

With an oven, you can set and forget your food cooking for a few minutes. So you can get to your other tasks… and a few resetting yoga poses while your food is baking evenly.

What flow yoga will help you do:

🧡 Undo the tension and strain you put on your body from preparing your food and bakes, even if you don’t feel it in the moment.

🧡 You may realize you need more stretching which is exactly what your body wants. Note: you can’t do too much yoga, but you can overwork parts in yoga. And if you ever do, you realize how delicate and resilient your body is.

🧡 And the best part of yoga (I think) is you will feel like a million bucks when you get back to the rest of your day.

Most poses you can do while you’re watching television, but after you already know the correct posture and alignment. That’s why it’s good to get proper instruction from a studio. But if that’s not possible, then use this general rule:

1) If it feels like a good stretch to your body in the moment, then you need more of it. It should never hurt (where you bite your lip in wincing pain).

Yoga is individualistic. Everyone has different bodies and nuance tolerances, so you have to use how YOU specifically feel as a guide and not what others tell you they feel when they’re in the pose even from one Vata to another (or from Pitta to Pitta, or Kapha to Kapha)…if you get my drift?

2) If you’re in a pose carrying any body weight, then do not move the body part that is carrying the weight if it’s a weak area.

For example, in Plow pose laying down where your legs go behind your head, your neck carries the weight of your legs and parts of your torso, so you wouldn’t want to move your neck when you get in the pose (and it’s easiest to stare at one distant spot or a light in the ceiling above).

Yoga is totally a personal journey where you get to know your body after you get the basics down.

Yoga has good body benefits even if you don’t get into your zen (and that’s a good mind benefit).

Determine Your Weak and Strong Areas

For each of us, we’re physically stronger in some areas and weaker in others, and that can be specific to specific poses.

For example, my strength is flexibility and balance. And the more I do yoga, the stronger the muscles become to support my weight (like in a Plank). It can be the same for you or you could be strong and want to work on balance, like in a Tree Pose. Or flexibility and balance in bird yoga poses. It’s all just practice.

And in yoga, endurance of how long you can stay in a pose is mostly determined by your patience and the strength of specific muscles.

If you’re newer to yoga, find out what your strong areas are. And what the weak ones are. We all have them and sometimes we don’t know what they are until we make a small mistake in yoga that shows up as a ‘lil pain a day or two later.

…That teaches us for the next time and also lets us know we’re alive!

Baking Flow Yoga Poses

So to start, practice some Cat-Cows to loosen up.

Then you can rest in a Child’s pose (or Hare pose if you want to really tuck in). There’s no hurry in yoga (except when your buzzer goes off for your bakes! ⏲)

…And so when you’re ready, then lie on your front like you would on a beach towel laying face down or reading a book.

Then reach back and grab your ankles if you can, or just alternate one ankle with the same side arm at a time, if that’s too much of a stretch initially.

You’d be surprised that you can change pretty quick in flexibility after a few minutes or sessions! The longer you hold the pose, the easier and better it is and becomes.

…Remember when you tried the splits and you could stretch even more the longer you stayed in the pose? …And don’t raise the bar too much, like a gymnast who’s built for that!

So then after grabbing your ankles, look up and peel your shoulders and thighs off the floor if you can. Lift off. Look upward. This is really good for your back and neck. And this pose is called Bow pose. Stay there for as long as you can and let go and then try again a few more times.

And from there you can move into Pigeon pose, where your forearms are perpendicular (straight up from the mat), and then hinge one leg forward, and the other leg straight back behind you.

You’ll feel a nice stretch in your thigh, back, and legs that withstand so much weight when you’re standing. In your pigeon, look up slightly. And whenever you have the opportunity.

Pigeon pose is a really good stretch for your neck, back, butt, and legs. One side tends to be tighter than the other. And you’ll feel it as you alternate sides.

You can then get into a neutral Downward Dog as a flow yoga step for transitioning.

Then flip or turn over to your back on the mat (so you’re facing up).

It’s tempting to take a nap. And if you have time, go for it! But don’t forget about your oven if it’s on!

And then lift your bottom up off the mat into Bridge pose. You can feel relief in your back. This is a good one to use a yoga block.

You can insert the elevating block where your back ends and meets your tail bone. And then just comfortably rest on the block without doing anything. How nice!

The block isn’t preventing you from reaping yoga physical benefits as it helps you get stretched further in height. So it helps you and isn’t a crutch in case it feels that way!

You go higher (literally) than you would normally. Yoga is all about making your life easy… gotta love that! 🧡

And finally, when you come back down, get into your Happy Baby pose where you grab your big toes with your forefingers and thumbs (something monkeys can’t do!).

Happy Baby can leave you feeling relaxed without a care in the world for a few minutes and is a great way to end your yoga session. And you may just want to come back for more!

…And your bake should be about ready now or ready for you to check on. 😉

For more inspiration, take a look at these 100 yoga poses.

If you want to get more awareness about what your body is telling you, or would like to learn more about the Ayurvedic perspectives in the mind-body connection, you can take the body balance quiz.

Planning Your Unforgettable Next Vacation Using Ayurveda

Are you deciding on where you should go next for vacation or for summer vacation? …Or maybe thinking about taking time off and what you could do with it?

Vacation should be fun & enjoyable, but it’s also an investment in cost, time, and energy.

…So below I help spell out some Ayurvedic perspectives to consider for planning your next vacation.

Keep in mind there are many vacation time-off options, but not all of them will leave you the happiest. And before you start packing your bags, you may want to pause for a minute and consider your Ayurveda mind-body needs (that could be a bit different than your wants).

…And possibly telltale in what’s going on with you in your life today, so that you have the opportunity to discover more about yourself.

But first and foremost, of course, you want to plan an unforgettable vacation (and not just any ‘ol vacation with your precious time)!

So, the below tips are meant to help you figure out what will be your most enjoyable and memorable vacation wearing an Ayurveda hat… (and using me as a ‘lil guide). 👒

…Which btw, I’m someone who loves adventure and travel exploration, so I’m not one to deter anyone from exploring the world and what it has to offer.

But I also know when it’s better to just chill near home…. so I’ll give you the different takes below.

But before I do that, I wanted to show you my fruity celebration of the summer solstice week that just passed in the U.S. I made a healthy grit-based morning pie with high Vit-C papaya, pineapple, and kiwi fruits. The final rainbow version is above.

Okay, so back to your vacation planning…

You want to be sure to stay cool, especially with the changing extreme climates everywhere. You find places and countries that are hotter, feeling droughts, and/or more humid these days that can drive our bodies haywire.

If you’re a natural Vata, you’re sensitive to changes. Think of yourself like the wind with gusts changing around you.

(There’s a chart in my last blog post in case you missed it, and want to know if you’re mostly Vata, Pitta, or Kapha?).

…And keep in mind, thermometer temperature doesn’t always account for humidity, so it can easily feel 10-degrees hotter outside. And your thermostat can automatically turn on when the temperature reading on your phone or internet check-in appears lower. That can keep you wonderin’ about the real temps around you.💭

Traveling Vata vs. Kapha Body

On two extreme poles, Vata and Kapha bodies have different tolerances for weather, travel activities, food/beverage changes; and traveling can exacerbate or calm.

And certain foods, such as tropical juicy fruits like the ones above (kiwi, papaya, and pineapple) will help Vata stay hydrated.

For Vata, take liquid pouches and an at-hand water bottle; and for Kapha bodies, you may want to go for more dry fruit options like berries, papaya, or apricots that make for good trail mixes to take on your vacation.

As for activities, sometimes you want to explore, and other times, you wanna chill and relax by a pool, beach, or be by nature. This can be influenced by your body type and what will best restore you.

You can leave an old mood behind that gets enhanced by your vacation (or can add some havoc to your mind-body while away).

..And what you wanna avoid on vacation, is arriving at your destination and then feeling really off and not enjoying your time that can happen if you in a season that needs mood reset.

And if you run into vacation hassles on top of that, that can compound your unenjoyable vacation experience, leave remorse, and thinking there’s nothing much to write home about.

So here are some tips on how to pick the best and right vacation for you (and not just the one others envy!)…

First, if you’re holding onto salty moods (irritated by people, news, situations, etc.) that have been with you almost every day every hour for an entire season, then you’re better off to stay-put with a staycation.

Going to check-in counters could add to stress levels plus the unpredictability of travel delays and hassles. Your mind can be on overdrive and it’s better to inner calm first before you enter situations that can create more stress.

If you’re in a busy go-go-go season where your body has been working on overdrive or lacking sleep, visiting an easy to get to beach or mountain lake, can be just what the doctor ordered. It’s the next best thing to rest your body while enjoying relaxation.

Even though flying to tropical locales may sound nice, after you factor in time zone, layover, and connectivity changes, you could enjoy your closer-to-home spots over a tropical place on island time that you can’t fully get into.

If your busy times are filled with high stress and burnout that work and life situations can bring… stay away from crowds like Florida spring break beaches, or even the busy beaches I grew up on along the east coast in the Delmarva area. You’re better off going south or further north to quieter Carolina or Maine beaches.

If you’re tired or depressed, an adventure filled with activities could be a better choice for you. Like an eco-tour or hiking in tropical terrains.

If you’re feeling stuck… and here I mean trying to decide not only what type of vacation to take, but what to do with your life (or if you’ve hit a main roadblock), then there are two route options that are better for the different situations.

The first is, if your mind is free from dealing with problems at home, then a travel adventure could be the way to go. If your vacation getaway is motivated by the idea to escape reality or problems, that could backfire for you (as you’re stuck with your mind wherever you go).

Delaying addressing situations on vacation, can lead you to feel like you need another vacation when you get back.

Travel can exacerbate what hasn’t been put at ease in your mind.

…So how to tell beforehand? You can use the book test. Can you focus mindfully on reading a book or a chapter in a book and know what you just read?

If you sit with mind unrest, then journaling and taking yoga classes outside of the home could be better activities. If that doesn’t create the space, then maybe additional longer time off or even a sabbatical (with months or a year off) could be what you need.

Doing what you could at home in your free-time doesn’t sound exciting for vacation, but that could be what your mind-body could be telling you that you need.

To Vacation Travel or Not? ✈️

When you’re traveling, you have less consistency in your day. Routines are off and that sends your body and mind off. So too much travel excitement can actually exhaust you more than give you happy energy.

With exhaustion and stress feelings, you’re better off staying in your own country and exploring your town or nearby town excursions within 2 hours that let your mind relax and wander for a few hours at a time.

Like going to a museum and learning something new or discovering a farmer’s market. This is also a good idea if you’re looking for new ideas and want to feel more alive!

The second one is learning more about yourself and not just about your town and what it has to offer. Like in a mini-sabbatical, you’re discovering what you really want to do with your life.

If you’re exploring the town, you’re not really exploring yourself.

And if you’re watching live sporting events, that can be relaxing… but you’re focused on the game and not introspection. It just depends on what you’re looking to get out of your time off.

Activity vs. Introspection

Focusing on an activity is competing for time and introspection in many ways. If you journal, you can often tell by how much journaling activity is about yourself vs. not journaling or taking notes about activity ideas in a new skill or topic.

And the last point on this is:

Prioritizing meditative introspection helps for a better future life. You see what you want and don’t want to do next; while doing activities focuses on today for a better day.

Both have their time and place. If you’re in a social environment or with others, then you won’t be journaling or meditative. And you’re not likely to want to do both at the same time.

Vata, Pitta, and Kapha Vacation Suggestions

So, to sum up, if you have imbalances in Vata, Pitta, or Kapha, here are the suggestions:

Vata – take a staycation and day trips within 2 hours driving or flying distance.

Explore your town and/or go to yoga classes.

Pitta – take a vacation by the beach, lake, or nature.

Find time each day to do your favorite physical activity.

Kapha – take an adventuresome vacation (away or close to home depending on above moods). Add some challenging physical activity.

You could get up early for a nature challenge before the sunrises, tour another country and culture, or hike in a micro-wilderness adventure.

…While Life is one BIG adventure that keeps moving.

Hopefully, this has helped you with additional wise vacation planning considerations, to better recharge this season and into the next. 🏖