It is not uncommon for parents of toddlers to stress over getting their children into top pre-schools so that they will have the best possible start in life. But according to Ayurveda, getting the best start for your child should begin months before the child is even conceived. While it is becoming common for mothers-to-be…

While a great deal of thought is often put into choosing healthy foods, less thought is given to our ability to actually digest the food we eat. Ayurveda considers good digestion to be central to good health. The only way to take advantage of the the health-promoting benefits of the food we eat is make…

The change from Vata season to Kapha season is not as clear as the change from Kapha to Pitta or Pitta to Vata. Both Vata and Kapha are characterized by cold. When the dry cold of fall and early winter transforms into a wetter cold, this heralds the switch of seasons. Often this change occurs…

Barley is a wonderful grain to begin working into your diet during the late winter months. As we transition from the cold, dry Vata days of early winter to the cold, wet Kapha days of late winter and early spring, our attention should be on shifting our diet to Kapha-reducing foods. Favoring astringent, spicy and…

Ayurveda specializes in determining what brings balance to each individual. The term Ayurveveda means “knowledge of life”. Ayurveda’s approach to creating balance is to look at every aspect of your life to see what is promoting health and vitality and what is creating strain on the mind/body system. Balance means balance in the biological factors…

By the end of January and beginning of February those of us who live in northern climates have peaked in terms of the accumulation of Vata in our physiology. Months of cold, dry, windy weather results in an increase of those same qualities in our bodies: dryness, coolness, movement and quickness. When Vata becomes imbalanced we…

The holiday season is over and so is the parade of celebrations and get-togethers with their enticing treats. How many New Year’s Resolutions lists have “Weight loss” (or “Improve diet” or “Cut out sugar and carbs”) near the top? Luckily for the diet-inclined, the ancient science of Ayurveda offers some simple tips that can help…

Ayurveda considers removing toxins and impurities from the body and preventing their build-up in the tissues to be of prime importance. Ayurveda refers to these impurities as “ama”. Ama is considered to be a contributing factor in many diseases because it disrupts the delicate biochemistry in the tissues and blocks the channels of circulation and…

What is “Ama”? “Ama” is the Ayurvedic term for toxins and impurities that build up in the physiology, creating blockages to the flow of nutrients, circulation and biological signals. These impurities can be attributed to environmental pollutants, poor digestion and/or stressful experiences. Ama tends to build up in the tissues and channels of circulation over…

If you are familiar with Ayurveda, you are familiar with the concept that everything in life — including our bodies, the food that we eat, and the environment around us — is composed of the three “doshas”; Vata, Pitta and Kapha.  These qualities, or principles of nature, each have their own fundamental traits. Vata, the…