Gharshana Is an Ayurvedic technique meant for the removal of waste products from the cells and lymphatic clean up.

BENEFITS

Everyday millions of cells in this body die and are transported into the bloodstream by the lymph. If the lymphatic drainage is impaired in anyway it may lead to overloading of the immune system ultimately causing inflammation and later on disease. Dry brushing improves the lymphatic circulation leading to detoxification or removal of AMA from the body.

It promotes the renewal of the cells.

Gharshana leads to exfoliation of the rough dry skin leading to the opening of the skin pores. The skin becomes tight and looks smooth and glowing.

Dry brushing also removes the effects of stresses,whether they be mental or environmental leading to relaxation.

METHOD

The best time to do dry brushing is just before the shower in the morning. A brush with soft bristles or a dry massage glove can be used. Dry brushing should be preferably done in the shower so that the dry flaky skin that falls off can be washed off. After the shower make sure to apply any oil or cream to remove the dryness.

The direction of the brushing should be from the legs up =ankle to hip, waist to chest, wrist to shoulder. The strokes should be gentle and the movement should be towards the heart. The area around the navel should be brushed in a circular clockwise direction,also on the buttocks.

CONTRA-INDICATIONS 

Gharshana should not be done if the skin is sensitive or there are cuts/bruises on the skin. It is also not advisable for people with sin conditions like eczema,psoriasis or skin cancer. People with sun burn should also refrain from doing dry brushing till the skin returns to its normal state.

Yoga is often viewed as an outward exercise when, in fact, the real purpose of yoga is meditation or the development of higher consciousness. It is an inward exercise that in the process yields the outward effects that people seek.

In the Patanjali Yog Sutras, the great sage Patanjali tells us that ‘Pratyahara’ or ‘Restraining of the Sense Organs’ is bringing one’s attention, energy and awareness back inside and happens when the mind eliminates the impressions produced by the external world.

Pratyahara is especially important in today’s age as our senses are constantly bombarded by various vibrations emanating from the world. If the mind can be detached from external impressions and vibrations, the sense organs can follow suit and can instead be tuned towards one’s own Self. This can be achieved by the help of Pranayama or breath control because it is the prana (life force or breath) which helps in the movement of the mind.

According to Yog Vasistha, when the breath is stilled, the mind becomes still [6:69:41]. By the cessation of prana, cessation of the mind takes place. Even as the shadow follows the body, so does the mind follow the prana [5:13:83]

The practice of Pratyahara gives us complete mastery over the sense organs or the Indriyas. We are then no longer slaves to our sense organs and are able to look inward and find our highest Self – the true purpose of yoga.

The clear liquid found inside unripe coconuts is coconut water. As the coconut matures most of the water turns into flesh. The coconut water tastes yummy (So good!) and in the summer season acts as a coolant in addition to just quenching thirst. It acts like a sports drink - in addition to being low in calories and high in electrolytes like sodium, potassium and magnesium.

• Coconut water can be used for the prevention and treatment of dehydration.

• Drinking coconut water before exercise can help to increase endurance and exercise performance due to the presence of carbohydrates and electrolytes (which can maintain blood volume and heart health).

• The high quantity of potassium helps in reducing blood pressure.

• Antioxidants present may help reduce liver damage

• Calcium and magnesium in the coconut water help in reducing muscle tension. Magnesium helps in the absorption of calcium into the blood. Calcium in turn helps in muscle contraction and relaxation.

योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां ।

मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ॥

योऽपाकरोत्तमं प्रवरं मुनीनां ।

पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि ॥

Which translates to:

1: I bow down to him who purifies the impurities of the Mind by Yoga, who purifies the expression of Speech by Pada (Grammar) ...

2: ... and who purifies the impurities of the Body through Vaidya (Medical Science), ...

3: ... He who is an expert in removing the impurities of the Body, Mind and Speech, the most excellent of Munis, ...

4: ... (Who is) Patanjali, I bow down with folded hands

It’s that time of the year when watermelons are in season again and the market is flooded with them.

Benefits:

• Watermelon is about 90% water and so it keeps you well hydrated when you have it.

• It acts as a good diuretic flushing the kidneys well thus helping in prevention of kidney stones.

• Watermelon helps the skin by keeping it well hydrated. It also has Vit C which is necessary for the formation of collagen. Collagen helps in maintaining the elasticity of the skin.

• The Vit C also increases immunity and keeps the gums healthy.

• The luscious red colour of the watermelon (as also the tomatoes) is due to lycopene. Lycopene is an antioxidant which decreases the risk of developing diabetes ans some forms of cancer. Lycopene also protects from sunburn.

• The citrulline present in watermelons (the white flesh just below the rind has more citrulline) reduces BP and the risk of heart attacks. It also helps post menopausal women by reducing arterial stiffness.

• The presence of potassium in watermelon (a cup has about 4% of daily requirements) prevents post workout muscle soreness and cramps.

• The abundant amount of vit A in watermelons keeps eyes healthy. Go ahead and enjoy this fruit.

Raw turmeric is a bright orange coloured stem also known as HALDI in its powdered form. CURCUMIN is its principal ingredient.

Benefits and healing properties:

1. Curcumin helps in the digestion of food by increasing the production of bile in the liver. It also helps in prevention of formation of gall stones.

2. Turmeric also has many anti inflammatory properties and thus helps in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. It helps in relieving pain when taken with milk.

3. Raw turmeric helps in gastric issues like heartburn and stomach ulcers. It also decreases the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

4. Raw turmeric is very good for the kin due to the presence of anti oxidants in it. It promotes skin health.

5. Turmeric also has antiseptic properties and boosts the immune system. It also lowers the risk of catching cold.

6. It regulates blood sugar and works as a blood purifier. helps in reducing risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

7. Turmeric promotes brain health and prevents Alzheimers disease. It also reduces the inflammation of the tissues of the nervous system.

8. Having turmeric tea in the morning on an empty stomach helps in weight control.

Turmeric tea recipe:

1. Boil a piece of raw turmeric in water.

2. Strain the water and drink the tea.

Caution:

People with gall bladder issues like gall stones should consume turmeric with caution.

Trust leads to approachability and open communications. The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

- Ernest Hemingway

To have faith is to trust yourself and the water. When you swim, you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you did you will sink down. Instead you relax and float.

- Alex W Watts

Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people tend to transcend apparent limits discovering new and awesome abilities of which they were previously unaware.

- David Armistead

Partner Yog helps you to:

1. Go into or hold positions which seem difficult or impossible

2. Allows you to open up. It also increases ones sense of self worth.

3. Due to the sharing of energy, the practise becomes stronger as two people are putting in energy to achieve the same result or pose

4. The word yog means to join or yoke. Partner yog gives one a chance to yoke in with another person.

5. It teaches good communication.

Being the closest celestial body to Earth, the moon tends to have a prominent impact and a greater influence on our mind and emotions. This can especially be experienced during a full moon, when our emotions become expansive. Buddhists consider the full moon sacred and a good time to deepen the spiritual reflections and practises. In Buddhism, meditation during this period can help one transcend the mind and realise the divine powers present inside all of us.

Meditating during the full moon also helps in releasing one from old thought patterns and blockages of the mind. It helps to unbind from everything that needs to be let go. A good way of doing this is to pen down these thoughts on a piece of paper and subsequently tear the paper. This helps to achieve release and wipes the slate clean. By imagining that all dreams have come true, meditation can also lead to the manifestation of one’s dreams.

Meditating in a group is a powerful way to expand its impact and effectiveness by harnessing the group’s collective energy.

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.

— Hermann Hesse

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but mix that with beetroot and carrot, and the benefits grow tenfold.

Benefits of drinking ABC juice:

• Detoxification

• Boosts the immune system thereby preventing allergies and infections

• Improves haemoglobin and white blood cell levels in the blood

• Reduces body odour

• Enhances vision

• Brings a natural glow to the face; removes acne, pimples and black spots by flushing out toxins

• Good for internal organs like liver, kidney and heart:

  • Makes the heart healthy. Maintains blood pressure and prevents heart disease

  • Acts like a tonic for the liver which is the chemical factory of the body: It works all the time to remove unwanted pollutants from what we eat & drink and also those from the environment.

• Delays ageing

Understanding where the benefits come from:

Apple: contains a lot of dietary fibre which regulates bowel movement and also regulates blood cholesterol level. Apples also have vitamins A, B, C, K, folate and minerals like Zinc, Magnesium and Potassium. The high Vitamin C helps in boosting the immune system as well as in keeping the connective tissue and skin strong. Vitamin K helps in clotting and maintains strong bones and teeth. It also helps in repairing wounds.

Beetroots: are rich in Vitamin A, C, B complex, Iron, Magnesium and Potassium. Potassium in the beetroot and apple helps in building proteins and maintains the body's acid base balance. Beetroots are packed with antioxidants, Lycopene and Anthocyanins which give it the rich purple colour. They also have soluble fibres and anti inflammatory properties.

Carrots: are a rich source of Vitamin A which improves eyesight and increases immunity. It also helps in flushing out toxins from the body. Carrots are also rich in Vitamin B1, B2, B3, C, E, K and folate and minerals like Magnesium, Selenium and Phosphorus. The minerals in carrots prevent tooth plaque.

The Vrksasana is a pose that works for all experience levels. It requires concentration on one’s balance while offering tremendous benefits in return.

To hold the pose, you need to rest the sole of either of your feet on the upper inner thigh of the other, thereby tracing a 90 degree angle. Similar to a tree, it is important to remain steady as if your roots were extended down into the earth.

Once stable, stretch your arms towards the sky and the sun and join them together, while continuing to maintain the gracefulness and steadiness of a tree.

The Vrksasana helps you to stabilise your mind by stabilising your body. It helps to ground a person while also activating all metal faculties and improving the ability to concentrate.

By holding this pose, you will gain both physical and metal steadiness and poise and notice a decline in the fight or flight response.

It is true that Laughter is the best medicine! Laughter cannot only improve your mood, it can improve your health.

Laughter helps in the release of endorphins which make one feel good. Laughter also releases the muscle tension and mental stress - working on both the body and the mind. A good laugh also increases blood flow to the various organs of the body. All resentment and anger melts away with a dash of humour and laughter. It also promotes a sense of well being and helps in bonding with other people.

Laughter yoga is the best way to simulate laughter in a fun way with the help of a few exercises. It also helps create a sense of shared joy and happiness.