Ayurvedic Cleanse Methods for the Liver

The liver is the second largest organ in the body.  It plays a pivotal role in nutrient assimilation and utilization from the foods we consume; it is a primary detoxifier; and houses many important vitamins and nutrients.

According to ayurvedic medicine, the liver houses the emotions anger, irritability, and frustration. Symptoms of toxicity are mostly related to excess pitta dosha and include skin disorders such as acne, psoriasis and rosacea.  Physical symptoms include autoimmunity and inflammation. 

The best liver antidotes cleanse the blood and expel excess pitta out of the small intestine. Leafy greens, cooling alteratives, and cooling spices reduce pitta dosha. If pitta is in excess, specific herbs such as turmeric, cumin and fennel seeds can help to break up toxins without increasing internal heat. Additional symptoms of excess pitta are candida imbalance; quick digestion; malabsorption of important nutrients; heat and inflammations of the skin, acne, and rosacea; and diarrhea.

Do you need to cleanse your liver?

• Inflammation
• Autoimmune diseases
• Hyperacidity
• Acid reflux
• Acne
• Psoriasis
• Boils
• Diarrhea
• Malabsorption
• Fast digestion
• Pungent body odor
• Pungent breath
• Aversion to garlic and onion
• Candidas, or other bacteria infections
• Anger

Liver Cleansing Tea

The liver is a crucial part of the detoxification system.  It also is pivotal in digestion, by helping the utilization of the nutrients we extract from the foods we eat.  When the liver becomes overloaded from a poor diet, to much alcohol, medications or drugs — you can be left feeling angry, critical and hot tempered.  This tea can help repair the liver.  Hibiscus and rose are cooling while dandelion root are natural diuretics that clear excess water.  Burdock roots has long been used as a blood cleanser and helps circulation, providing blood to your skin and giving you a radiant complexion.

Ingredients

• 2 tsp dandelion leaf
• 2 tsp burdock root
• 1 tsp ground organic red rose petals
• 1 tsp hibiscus flowers
• 1 tsp coriander seeds crushed

Directions

Put the herbs in a warmed teapot.  Bring a kettle or a medium saucepan of spring water to just below the boiling point and pour 1 3/4 cups water over the leaves, roots and flowers.  Steep for 10 minutes and strain into 2 cups and enjoy with a bit of monkfruit sugar. Drin 2-4 cups per day for maintenance.

4-Week Ayurvedic Lifestyle Course with 21-Day Cleanse

Ayurvedic Treatment Snehana Virechana

The ayurvedic cleansing method used to powerfully cleanse the liver is called snehana virechana.  It includes specific dietary and herbal regiment for a specific period of days in a row in conjunction with a strict fat free diet, and the drinking of ghee or coconut oil first thing in the morning for a period of 3-7 days.  The restriction of dietary fats in conjunction with consuming fats at certain times causes the gallbladder to build and store bile.  On the last day, the practitioner drinks an herbal laxative which causes the gallbladder and liver ducts to dilate and purge the stored bile and toxins. 

This treatment reorganizes digestive strength, balances metabolism, and cleanses the liver the blood and the small intestine.

To learn how to do Snehana Virechana, join my 4-Week Ayurvedic Lifestyle with 21-Day Guided Cleanse Course beginning this September.

Meditate with Rice

Meditation with Rice:  How Yogic Philosophy Aids Healthy Eating Habits

The Answers Are Within

We have all heard the phrase, 'the answers are within.'  In times of confusion, it is generally best to be quiet and to take pause, in order to allow clarity to surface, so that we can see our direction with more ease. 

It's just a matter of listening. But listening can be challenging when the mind is turbulent with stress, confusion or pain.  

One of the most popular yogic texts, called the Patanjali Sutras, explores the complexities of our inability to listen, the causes of this inability, and how to solve the problem of not being able to listen through the practice of yoga.  The formula of yoga quells the obstructions that inhibit the inability to listen by quieting the mind. 


Create The Space for Calm in Your Life

In the Patanjali Sutras the stuff that clouds the mind, our thoughts, and mistaken beliefs are called vrittis.  Vrittis are often translated as 'swirling fluctuations of thought,' and are considered mental debris that block our ability to perceive the truth of things.  

Further, we project our vrittis on to the things, people, and experiences we perceive, further inhibiting our ability to accurately interpret.  Most of us, according to yogic theory are in a constant state of projection.  It is yoga and meditation that diffuses our vrittis and allows them to settle, so that like a clear lake, our mind becomes calm and translucent, enabling the direct perception of truth, as it is.

When it comes to eating food in a balanced way, it is often creating the space to connect with the self and really listen that is needed.  The more frequently we do this, the more often we take pause, the more we allow ourselves to 'stop,' the more easily we can act in accordance with our inner truth. In the practice of connecting with the self, many of our habitual patterns to food can be alleviated. 

Try A Meditation with Rice

Just take a moment and plunge your finger tips and hands into uncooked rice.  Feel the temperature of the rice and its texture against your skin.  Notice its weight, temperature, and smell.  Really let yourself experience the physical presence of the rice. 

Ask yourself: 

• How does this rice make me feel?
• Do I enjoy this rice when I eat it? 
• Where do I imagine that this rice comes from? 
• Is this rice good for me? 
• Am I grateful for this rice? 

The Benefits of Contemplative Practice with Food
The primary reason it is good to take pause, and contemplate your food every once in a while is that it slows you down.  It is this slowing down that allows your voice, intuition and inner knower to awaken.  You have a guide within you, but it often takes effort to reestablish trusting your inner guide.  Just like any relationship, it takes consistency and effort to nurture the relationship with that aspect of yourself.  In so doing, you develop self-reliance in your eating habits.  It frees you from the constraints of rules, lists and dogma — even ayurvedic dogma.    

My Coaching Programs & Intuitive Eating

I always include mindfulness into the work that I do with clients to restore a healthy relationship with food.  If you are interested in beginning a program with me so that I can help you, book a consultation with me.  If you have already had a consultation and would like to initiate a longer healing program that can help you develop a healthy and intuitive relationship with food, please email me directly at monica@hamsacenter.com, so that I can suggest a program specifically for you.  

Book A Consultation Here
*Consultation fee can be used toward longer program.
Coaching programs start at $750
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Imagine Your Dream Day Into Reality

One of the first exercises that I have new clients do is take a few minutes to imagine their 'dream day.' The 'Dream Day' that I am talking about is rooted in the reality of every day life.  It's not a dream vacation or a super hero power day — it is a 'what would you be doing with your every day life,' if you realized all your health and wellness goals type of day.  How do you want to be living your actual life?   To help my clients get started I pose a few questions: 

CONTEMPLATIVE EXERCISE

1.  What time would you go to sleep and wake up?

2.  What would you eat and what time would you eat it?

3.  What would you be doing for work and what time would you work?

4.  How about exercise and physical activity? 

5.  Where does leisure or social activity fit in?

6.  Are there any important projects, hobbies, interests you are working on during your dream day?  When?

IDENTIFY THE BLOCKS

After we collect these answers, we put their dream day on an actual calendar and identify where the blocks are in living this dream day.  Often, lack of preparation (didn't grocery shop, didn't prepare food, etc) is the primary impediment to eating right.  Not creating the time is the biggest cause for not working on projects or exercising.  Not getting enough sleep, or staying up to late, is often a huge factor in not utilizing time during the day as well.

INDIVIDUAL PURPOSE (DHARMA)

We use what we discover as my client's 'dream day' as one of the end goals in our working program together.  Each person has an individual purpose (dharma) to realize in this life.  In ayurveda, the realization of individual purpose is foundational to health.  My job as an ayurvedic practitioner is to be supportive of my client's realization of their dharma, which is a very personal discovery for most.

AYURVEDIC DAILY LIFESTYLE TIPS

Of course, I interject a few helpful ayurvedic tidbits on daily lifestyle that I believe will help to maximize my client's strength.  While there are many other daily lifestyle practices in ayurveda, these are are often the suggestions I make to the new comer. 

• Eat at regular times to maximize digestion and immunity while balancing weight.
• Meditate daily connect with your Inner Knower.
• Get good sleep, it helps to keep you vital and strong.
• Favor seasonal fruits and vegetables and try to get them locally for they are higher in nutrient value and are carry special antidotal properties that will keep you healthy.

BENEFITS TO WRITING OUT A DREAM DAY

The benefits of writing out an ideal dream day are innumerable.  Mostly, it gives us something to work toward.  It helps identify how we would like to be living our lives, and how we are actually living our lives.  It provides the framework for a strategy and a plan to get from where we are at to where we would like to go.  It brings to light where our resistance lies, and what opposing factors we need to over come to realize our dream day.  I encourage you to take a moment and write out your dream day and see what comes up for you.