Warmer and Brighter
Warmer and brighter, with you
Package holders, course participants and YF teachers…We are, and have been for over 25 years, because of you. Thank you to all of our students, and particularly those of you currently enrolled in our courses and participating in monthly unlimited and 10 and 20 class packages. This month, we offer you a complimentary talk and live Shirodhara demonstration with president of the New York Yoga and Ayurveda Association and Ayurvedic Practitioner, Kim Nicholetti, of Golden Thread Ayurveda. Presentation includes and ayurvedic + biomedical explanation, discussion and Q&A. Register here and/or email Danielle for your personal coupon code.
Shirodhara is a delightfully favored way to calm the frenetic mental energy characteristic of winter season and holiday season. Along with abhyangam, Ayurvedic oil massage, it’s our favorite form of body/mind body. Yoga’s do-it-yourself nature is essential in day to day pacification and purification; however with life’s load and overload, we sometimes need extra help to keep us healthier, warmer and brighter, winter season and beyond.
Dietary and lifestyle opt ins and outs can ease the burden of a 98.6 degree fahrenheit, moist inner body navigating dry and freezing earth body’s outer body. Drink warm beverages only. Warm water, tea, and particularly warming, aromatic herbs and spices like ginger, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, and sage. You may already have these in your burgeoning kitchen apothecary. If you don’t, do. The added warmth kindles the digestive fire, supporting the adequate digestion of what we consume. What isn’t digested turns to ama, poison, in the body. This simple remedy supports your taste buds and health at the same time.
Get outside, bundled up, hat on, scarves wrapped, no wet hair, and move. Outside walks will also build warmth to create a shield so the body can endure cold season. Generating warmth from the inside ensures our host has more resistance to the cold and the pathogenic infiltrators the season carries with it. Regular, level-headed movement (not excessive exercise) strengthens us and improves the immune system’s healthy response.
Applying warmed oil to the body is one lifestyle modification you will appreciate as another layer of protection from the dryer, colder climate that settles in for the next few months. Start at the neck, and move down toward the feet, with long strokes and circular strokes around the joints. As it coats and seeps into your body, it moisturizes the skin, warms and lubricates the muscles and joints. It’s calming for the nerves, promotes a grounded feeling and encourages better feet.
Additionally, Pranayama classes, Lighten the Mental Load, Chair Yoga and the Ayurveda presentation all establish you in self soothing practices to hold you through this season and the rest of the year.