2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

What lies in the shadows: The true meaning of Halloween

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

It’s Halloween 2022, where we mock danger and death in an attempt to master our fear of both.  Many make popcorn, grab a chair, and join friends or family to engage in the ritual of looking for the scariest possible thing on TV.

During Halloween, the squeamish need not apply. 

But beneath the bravado and misleading attempts at mirth, other emotions and acknowledgments stir: the very real sense — and the rock- solid belief, in many cases — that disembodied spirits do move restlessly among us, looking for ways to connect.  But to what end? That’s what gives a lot of people pause.

Who are these disembodied spirits? Do they wish us well … or not so much?

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

Today, I’m going to address that question. And the answer won’t necessarily pacify. Because there are indeed some spirits who are not nice. In Germany, they’re called poltergeists, “pelting ghosts.” But the good news is that most spirits are more likely invested in the wellbeing of the loved ones they left behind.

It all depends on the lives those departed spirits led and how well they learned the lessons set before them while they were on our side of the veil, and how prudently they navigated the adventures, activities, and relationships of those lives while living them.

Some of them are sad, some are angry, and a few are even malevolent. But again, malevolent spirits are in the minority, but that fact doesn’t make them any less problematic.

We live in a world of duality. Both good and evil, light and darkness coexist. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the same conditions exist on the other side.  Not everyone makes it out of here “healed and happy.” Sadly, some leave in worse shape than they arrived because of  influences that sabotaged their psyches and twisted their perceptions to create self-defending, ego-directed fortresses against further scarring. Trapped inside the resulting inner darkness, some souls succumb before they can rescue themselves from the torment and terror of their troubling incarnations.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

What is inner darkness? Basically, it’s our resistance to knowing the truth about ourselves. It is only when we can admit that nobody is perfect that we can begin to tear down the walls we erected because of ham-handed influencers in our lives who made us feel we didn’t measure up. Those who view themselves as failures or no-good develop blockages that stifle the free flow of cosmic light and energy, the lack of which creates the darkness that encompasses them.

Souls on both sides of the veil can be impacted by erroneous concepts of themselves. So, today, I want to help you overcome any unhelpful beliefs and attitudes that you may have about yourself, because I don’t want anyone in my tribe transitioning to the other side and remaining trapped in regret, misery, anger, or shame. All lower emotions.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

The first step is to recognize what’s going on inside you. What mind tapes are repeating in your mind? Whose voices do you hear when you castigate yourself for a perceived misstep or failing? A negative, caustic parent? A sibling or teacher? Or is the voice, gasp, your own?

As women in this culture, we have been indoctrinated to support and serve everyone else in our spheres of influence without feeling indentured or complaining. We are trained to have false expectations about the ways in which we should show up and serve. 

But men don’t have it a whole lot easier. They’re indoctrinated to walk off pain, tolerate emotion (rather than express or share it), and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

When we agree to embrace and abide by these burdensome conditions, jealousy, envy, unhealthy competitiveness, pettiness, insecurities, judgments, hatred, and false pride can show up.  And when they do, we castigate ourselves for having them. It can become a never-ending circle of dysfunction and quiet despair.

When you desperately desire an outcome, dark forces can beguile you with a tempting offer. Just how far will you bend your ethics to get that inheritance, that big promotion, that top prize? Whenever you resort to lying, cheating, stealing, manipulating, or trampling over someone else, the dark forces celebrate, while your essence grows dark. And the most damage occurs when you lie to yourself and employ ego and pride to cover your tracks.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

Every time you ignore, hide, or deny your negative feelings, the darkness gains the upper hand. So, the best way to deal with your unhelpful feelings is to acknowledge them so you can process and let them go with loving-kindness.

To maintain your personal positive power, remember the Biblical command from Phillipians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

And a warning about the evil and violence that comes by way of entertainment venues. If you are vulnerable, it can slip into cracks in your energy field because of unprocessed traumas you’ve endured and pull you down.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

Darkness can also take advantage of you when you don’t take good care of yourself. Abusing alcohol or prescription drugs, doing recreational drugs, eating junk food regularly, or not getting sufficient sleep and exercise can be all that dark energies need, to get hold of you.

There are three categories of dark energies that are most prevalent. I’ll identify them and give you some tools for dealing with them.

The first category is psychic attack. This happens when people aim their shadow or dark side at you. You’ve heard of “the evil eye,” “the stink eye,” and other expressions of malevolent mental maligning. Whether you can recognize them outright or not, you have “frenemies,” people who may say and do all the right things when you’re with them and then stab you in the back by maligning you or sabotaging you after they depart. Parents who are jealous of their children instead of being proud of them for exceeding their growth and reach, and stalkers and abusers are among those most likely to engage in psychic attack.

You know the signs of being under attack here. You feel off-balance. You feel like you’re walking on eggshells around them, measuring each of your words as if any of them might cause an explosion or backlash of some kind. And you pretty much can’t stop thinking about that person, which is exactly what they want. You are corded to each other in a dysfunctional relationship because of the prevailing negative energy that they are sending out.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

Cords are streamers of light that connect us to each other, chakra to corresponding chakra in our bodies. And cords are connected on the 4th level of the universal energy field, so even when someone dies, our cords to them can continue on.

Some cords, of course, are good, but a negative cord can be established by any kind of abuse. In my case, I had a negative cord to my father, who sexually abused me, but  a positive cord to him because otherwise he was by leaps and bounds my best parent; he did indeed love me, and I him. When I was able to “cut the negative cord” by forgiving him for the sexual abuse, the positive cord allowed me both to forgive him and to do my best to understand the kind of compulsion that drove him to interact with me in inappropriate ways.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

Cutting negative cords can be relatively easy in most cases. One of the  methods I use and teach is called The Sweeping Breath, and I teach it in this Program: LifeForce Energy Healing® I

The next category is energy vampires. These dysfunctional folks use a form of psychic attack that drains you of your energy. They make mountains out of molehills, and they are drama queens and kings. Everything minor mishap becomes an overwrought major catastrophe in their retelling of the tale. They complain about everything, especially their illnesses. Usually, they blame everyone else for their problems. 

Sometimes, we can be too nice to energy vampires. We can give them as much as they want in the way of attention or help, which only makes us co-dependent and increasingly weary and dispirited. 

It’s up to you to stop it. And it’s easy to do! Spend as little time as possible with them. Call off their telephoned monologues with “Gotta go, my dog is asking to go out” or something else — anything else — that requires your immediate attention and positive energy.

Remain as calm and detached from their negative energy as possible. Don’t try to fix their problems; leave them empty and unfulfilled. If you  can, just walk away. And do your best not to be in enclosed spaces with them, like cars, small rooms, or elevators. Avoid eye contact. Assert your boundaries.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

When the energy vampire in question is someone you simply can’t avoid, figure out what type of energy vampire they are. There are five types:

The betrayed energy vampire (also known as the psychopathic mind/body type). The fear-based energy vampire (also known as the schizoid mind/body type). The insecure energy vampire (which is the oral mind/body type). The passive-aggressive energy vampire (also known as the masochistic mind/body type). And, finally, the robot energy vampire (the rigid mind/body type). For more on body-types, check out my Inner Secrets of You course.

And then there is the slimer. The slimer energy villain will hit you with one of the most common types of low -level psychic attack. They will cut you off in traffic, treat the souls in customer service poorly, you know the type. If your energy field is vulnerable, even the briefest online or phone encounter with a slimer can do it.

You end up feeling lousy and don’t realize why. You may start coming down with a cold, or old issues may surface, or you’ll have a sudden urge to eat a huge serving of junk food. If the hole in your energy field is near your heart chakra, you may revisit grief as old feelings of betrayal surface. If the hole is in a lower chakra, you may turn to an old, addictive pattern of behavior. Usually sliming isn’t conscious on the part of the attacker, but that doesn’t make it less powerful and harmful.

2022 Hallows Eve Halloween

Here’s what to do when you feel slimed: take a clearing bath. Add one pound of baking soda and one pound of sea salt to comfortably warm bathwater and soak in it for up to 20 minutes. After draining the tub, rinse yourself in the shower and wash your hair. Notice how fresh and clean you feel afterward! Then follow that up with a good night’s sleep to fully recharge your energy field. The resulting smile will remind you that you’ve handled the situation wonderfully well.

Other ways to dislodge psychic slime are to go for an ocean swim (the saltwater will work wonders) or sunbathe nearly nude for twenty minutes.

Let’s wrap this up with a few reminders. Remember, your toxic emotions make you vulnerable to dark energies. The more you live in the light, the less you’ll hear from dark energies; they really can’t bear the light! So protect your personal energy and power at all times. Keep your energy and emotions clear. Ask your spiritual guides and divine mentors for guidance. And finally, clear your home of unwanted energy by smudging with sage, sweet grass, cedar, or juniper. When you smudge, open every closet and cabinet door and make sure to smudge around every opening and the mirrors in your home.

Another easier and faster way to clear your space is to sit there and take slow breaths to center yourself. Then picture in your mind a white tablecloth or sheet that covers the entire floor beneath your feet. Using your energy and with focused concentration, start to raise the white sheet off the floor. It will go up right through you because it’s energy. Raise all the dark energy above the sheet up, up, and away! Let the white sheet take away anything that is depressing, negative, sad or anxious within your space and within you.

Would you like to experience the energy and power of this time of year by reliving a powerful retreat? You can, by gaining access to our Highlights of Hallowed Retreat video series. You will get the full retreat highlights live from the spiritual vortex of Ojai, California. Click here now to learn more >>

2022-HealingvCuringBlog-1

Healing vs. Curing

One of the most important questions you will deal with in your quest to walk the path of the shaman has to do with who gets healed versus who gets cured. And it’s not an easy one, as it can derail your faith in yourself.

While wandering through the woods in the winter of 1858, a shepherd girl named Marie-Bernarde Soubirous saw a beautiful lady in a flowing white robe near a small grotto along the banks of the river Gave de Pau in France. The daughter of devout Christian peasants, the 14-year-old known as Bernadette eventually saw the lady a total of 18 times. The woman told the young girl to advise her village priest to construct a chapel on the site of the encounter. On March 25, 1858, on the occasion of the 16th visitation, the lady revealed herself to be none other than the Blessed Virgin. In an ecstatic trance, Bernadette rose from her knees, walked a few steps, and fell back to the earth, where she began to scrape the ground until a small rivulet of water formed a puddle in the dirt. In the days that followed, the puddle formed a sacred spring and pool that is now the famous healing shrine at Lourdes.

Although Mary told Bernadette that the waters would heal people, the spring did not cure this sickly girl, who suffered from debilitating asthma until her death at an early age. And yet, for 30  years after she passed, Bernadette’s corpse did not decay. To this day, Lourdes is the most visited shrine in all of Christendom, with some six million people making the pilgrimage each year. Within the first 50 years, roughly 4,000 miracle healings were recorded.

Of the 10,000 people who visit the spring at Lourdes each day, why do some dance away from the sacred waters while others depart still dependent on crutches? Why is one woman relieved of alcoholism, never to drink again, while another person who also attends her 12-step group religiously and stays sober for many years suddenly falls off the wagon, stays drunk, and ultimately dies of liver failure? Why do some people get the message, grace, miraculous reprieve, or spontaneous remission . . . and others do not?

As shamans and healers, we make a distinction between a cure —physical recovery and elimination of a disease condition—and a healing, which can occur on spiritual and emotional levels and may not involve a correlating physical resolution. Ideally, both will take place.

The Mystery School I attended taught that the higher self or soul of an individual ultimately makes the choice as to whether or not someone will physically heal. To an extent, I believe this is true. However, I saw that students often took the low road when a physical cure didn’t manifest. Many of them would step back and accept too readily that a tangible result had not occurred, rather than work diligently on raising their own vibratory ability to bring more juice—a stronger connection to Source with a higher potential for healing—to their work. The explanation provided in that environment was: “Your client’s higher self knows best and will decide whether or not to be cured. You, the healer, are not responsible for the choice of the client’s soul.”

I have given this a great deal of thought over the years, and I am bothered when the explanation serves as an easy way out for the healer when a cure doesn’t take place. For a period of time, it was convenient for me to excuse my own failures to effect a cure based on the idea that the client had decided at a soul level not to accept the help. But some part of me remained unconvinced, and I continued to grapple with the issue.

What I’ve come to believe, after working on many tens of thousands of people, is that it is uncommon for someone who is seeking to be cured of a physical condition to be at the point where his or her soul has said, “Time’s up—I need to leave.” So I’ve swung back to my original training: I believe that it’s the healer’s job to make it happen. In my early apprenticeship with Christian healers, I was deeply impressed by the work of Agnes Sanford. In her book The Healing Light,  she explains: “Let us understand then that if our [healing] experiment fails, it is not due to a lack in God, but to a natural and understandable lack in ourselves.” This puts responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the healer.

Suppose I decide to try firewalking and several people in front of me make it across the burning surface without so much as a blister, but my attempt forces me to jump off the red-hot coals with third-degree burns. Are the coals at fault? Self-responsibility requires that I look at my state of mind and heart at the moment I took my first step.

Invariably, in the world of healing there are many individuals who are not physically cured even though they might be emotionally and spiritually healed, and I am constantly humbled by these failures. Fortunately, thanks to those who have successfully walked across the coals ahead of me—Mary Baker Eddy, Agnes Sanford, and Kathyrn Kuhlman, for example—I’m reminded that miraculous healings are indeed possible. This brings me back again and again to focus on my responsibility to forge a stronger and more reliable connection with Divine power.

Reprinted with permission. Excerpt from pages 165-167 of Be Your Own Shaman by Deborah King, published by Hay House Books. ©2011 by Hay House Books.

Mediumship

EDGAR CAYCE & MEDIUMSHIP

Mediumship

So, let’s talk about mediumship, Edgar Cayce, and contacting our love ones on the other side, a very fun subject! Connecting to “the other side,” or what’s commonly called “mediumship,” is the practice of communicating with the dead. During a typical reading, the medium conveys messages from the deceased to the living. There are two types of sessions with a medium: in the mental type, the spirit supposedly takes over and controls the speech of the medium. In the physical type, the communication may claim to include voices, rapping on walls and tables, and movement of objects. Wild for sure! The practice can be traced back to early times when shamans in our communities provided guidance to the tribe by talking to the spirit world. The heyday of mediumship was back in the late 1800’s, when spiritualism, a movement that focused on mediumship, was in vogue. They didn’t have TV or internet back then, so this was evidently their form of entertainment. Mediumship is generally frowned upon by most modern religions but is mentioned in the Old Testament. Mediumship has seen a real rise in popularity recently, that’s why I want to address it today.

Mediumship

So, the question is – why talk to the dead, is it helpful, and is it safe? I can assure you that when someone on the other side weighs in during one of my healing sessions with a client, to offer insight or direction, I pay attention, so yes, it can be helpful. However, I teach that guidance from the other side be allowed to come to you, the practitioner, naturally, in the course of the session with the client, as opposed to you, willy-nilly, reaching out to the other side. Further, I believe that any information received should be used solely for the purpose of helping that individual heal. Here’s why:

  1. A common problem I have seen with individuals who make a practice of regularly reaching out for information from the dead, is that individual medium’s third and sixth chakras, that is, their power center and their third eye, get blown all out of proportion by doing this work, to their ultimate detriment. You don’t want to have that kind of imbalance in your energy field as it can affect your body, mind, and spirit, in negative ways. Again, I distinguish the limited practice of occasionally receiving information or advice from a loved one who reaches out to you, the practitioner, during a healing session, to aid their loved one back here on earth. When these fairly rare occasions occur, you, the healer, quietly, and with no fanfare, gently guide your client based on the information received. That way, you don’t fall into the old ego trap, and try to impress with your abilities.
  1. Another problem I’ve seen over a lifetime of practicing and teaching energy medicine, is that spending too much time in the areas beyond this realm in order to connect to someone on “the other side” is a risky endeavor: it’s not uncommon to pick up undesirable connections “out there;” some of these connections may be just minor annoyances that a qualified practitioner can later clear for you, but other connections I have seen can be as serious as outright possession. My experience is that it takes a lot of skill and self-awareness to know when you are “out there,” when you are safe, and when you are not. It seems like it never fails that when someone tells me they feel like they have “picked up” some dark energy, they will also volunteer they have worked with a medium. Even more problematic, I’ve found, when I’m asked for help by a medium, is that they are often quite bound up with negative energy and spirits they’ve accidentally encountered.
Mediumship

Now that I’ve laid out the dangers of mediumship, whether practicing it or receiving it, I want to distinguish the time-honored and valid practice of you personally connecting, whether alone or under the umbrella of a trusted teacher, to your ancestors, to animal guides, to ascended masters, and to the divine, which I do daily, and encourage you to do also. We can all benefit from continuity beyond this earthly realm, and that continuity can help heal ourselves, or someone who has requested our help. At the same time, however, we want to accept the wisdom that spirits beyond the veil can impart in a state of humility and quiet devotion – never use it to impress. 

So now, with all those provisos, I want to tell you about the life and legacy of a man with the most amazing abilities in the area of obtaining really valid guidance from beyond this realm. I’m talking about Edgar Cayce, of course. I discovered him when I was in my 20’s and devoured everything I could read by him and about him. I was ultimately invited many years ago to his campus in Virginia Beach, to his Center for Research and Enlightenment, to teach there.

When Edgar was a young man, he totally lost his voice; he couldn’t speak at all for a whole year. Desperate for a cure, he let a traveling hypnotist, and hypnotism was very big back then, put him in a trance, and, for as long as he remained in the trance, he could speak, but as soon as the trance ended, he couldn’t talk again.

After that, another hypnotist offered to help him, but when Cayce got hypnotized by him, he was able to diagnosed himself and found he was suffering from a psychological paralysis and then suggested to himself a treatment that worked. That’s when the local hypnotist said that Cayce should offer trance healing to the public, that clearly, he had a gift. A secretary recorded Cayce’s readings after he had already done about 8000 of them; eventually some 14,000 of them were memorialized in writing. I have read many of them. They are available online and today I’ll share a thumbnail version of some of his most profound insights.

Mediumship

Cayce said he got all his information for the requested readings from the Akashic Records, a term he coined, by the way. His subjects didn’t have to be present for him to do his work. My experience in this field has been the same: you can see from my work with guests who call into my Facebook Live show on Tuesdays that the call-in need not be physically present for me to get the information I need to help them. I’m getting the info from the same place that Cayce did, that is, the Akashic Records. And I can train you to get information from the Akashic Records too, in a safe way.

When Cayce was asked to explain the Akashic Records, and I just talked about them at length on a recent show on FaceBook and YouTube, he said they were “the record which each individual writes upon the thread of time and space.” Cayce said that, after our death, each of us is presented with our personal Akashic Record, an accounting of our karma. Cayce’s readings indicate that we each write our own life story with what we think, what we do, and how we interact with everyone and everything. Just as an aside, my own experiences with Near Death Experiences, which I talked about a few Facebook shows back, along with all the studies I’ve done on the NDE’s of others, establishes that we do often go through a life review during the NDE.

Cayce usually couldn’t recall later what he said to a client during the trance state, and when I’m in the slightly altered state that occurs when I’m getting information for you and helping you, I can’t usually recall much of it later either. It’s as if the information just flows through you, but doesn’t stay in your consciousness, and Cayce’s experience was the same. Nevertheless, I am 100% present when the info comes in, which is an important distinction: One of the things I want to be sure to mention is how dangerous it was for Cayce to not be conscious and present during his readings; another man, John of God, by the way, also followed that risky practice of not being conscious. When I worked with John of God in Brazil some 20 years ago, I saw with my own eyes just how dangerous it was to have another consciousness take over your mind and body. And we all know how sadly John of God’s life has turned out, my heart goes out to him, despite the horrific nature of his crimes. But we’ll talk about John of God another day. The important thing to know is that you need to be fully awake, aware, and present whenever you’re working to help heal someone or in contact with the Akashic Records or souls beyond the veil for someone else. I am always fully conscious of myself and my guest, and what I’m saying and doing during every reading and healing. That old style of reading and healing where the practitioner allowed their consciousness to leave their body is dangerous because negative entities can enter your body, mind, and spirit, and take over. 

Another classic mistake that Cayce made was that he overworked, and consequently died young at 67, as do others who can’t seem to say “no” to the needs of others. When I see that personality attribute, I recognize it as a need for approval that isn’t healthy; it means the healer is out of balance. Been there, done that. In case the shoe fits ☺

Edgar Cayce’s immense library of readings has been grouped into six categories: (1) health; (2) philosophy and reincarnation; (3) dreams; (4) ESP and psychic phenomena; (5) oneness; and (6) spiritual growth, meditation, and prayer. In the decades since his death in 1945, many terms that he invented — including Akashic Records, spiritual growth, auras, soul mates, and holistic health—have become an integral part of our language.

 

Edgar Cayce made a number of prophecies that are of interest to us today:

Mediumship

First, he predicted, long before they occurred, the stock market crash of 1929, World War II, and a shift in the electromagnetic poles of the earth that started in the year 2000 and is still going on and is likely a major cause of us moving into the New Age.

As for the future, he also made these prophecies that have yet to occur:

When asked if human life would be extended beyond what was happening in his day, he said yes, it would be extended considerably longer.

When he was asked, “Will we discover the design for a self-fueling  machine?” Cayce said we would, which offers hope when it comes to the climate crisis and ways to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, since they are devastating our ecosystem right now.

Cayce revealed that since humanity’s consciousness has evolved and expanded over time, a New Age and a new understanding of humanity’s relationship to God would appear right about now; that each of us must work with our own soul development to resonate with this new consciousness. He also said that an ancient “Hall of Records” from Atlantis would be rediscovered that would signify the manifestation of this new level of consciousness. 

Cayce prophesied that eventually China will become the center of true spirituality. In light of what’s going on right now in the world, this is an especially interesting insight.

Mediumship

He also had plenty to say about reincarnation and karma. His readings essentially counseled those fascinated by these subjects that one’s past lives should be of considerably less concern than one’s present life. I couldn’t agree more: I’m always telling my students to focus on this lifetime, since this is the one where you can make changes. He said that although we retain skills and lessons from past lives, it’s important to understand that the value of this life is to evolve further by adding skills and lessons by living, growing, and being of service in the present. Our abilities from past lives are provided to help us fulfill our purpose in the here and now. He also said that we pre-select our surroundings before each incarnation (parents and family, location, time period, etc.) that will best help us learn the lessons we need for completeness.

Cayce stressed that prayer (talking to Source) and meditation (listening to Source) affects your consciousness and your vitality and that the survival of our planet literally hinges on those of us who view life in all its diversity as crucial elements of a sacred whole. 

And now — to answer the question that nearly everyone asks after they’ve learned that we survive death — ‘’What are our loved ones  doing on the other side?”  Edgar Cayce had this to say: “When we die, we merely change form and are very much alive. Death is only passing through God’s other door.”  I very much agree with this – so let’s make the most of ourselves while we have the advantage of a physical body!

Mediumship

If the idea of tapping into wisdom from beyond this Earthly realm is of interest to you, think about enrolling in our best-selling Astral Travel course. It will teach you to safely go beyond what we experience here in physical form, to attain knowledge and guidance that isn’t otherwise available. Click here to learn more now >>

Ayurveda diet

Eating with the Seasons

 

Your Ayurveda guide to healthy eating for your body type

Ayurveda is an ancient energy medicine protocol based on the idea that the universe is composed of five elements — air, fire, water, earth, and ether — and so are humans, and all other life forms and matter, as living progeny of the universe.

The rishis (accomplished and enlightened seers) proclaimed that, as microcosms of nature, all five elements exist in each of us and are represented by three doshas (energies).

Ayurveda diet

VATA (air and ether) is the force that directs nerve impulses, circulation, respiration, and elimination.

PITTA (fire and water) is the force that governs digestive metabolism and organ and tissue systems.

KAPHA (water and earth) is the force responsible for growth and structure (protection and integrity of the being or element).

These three energies are where your body connects with your mind—the place where your thoughts turn into matter that affects how well balanced you are as a being. When any of these three energies  go out of whack, Ayurveda offers specific lifestyle and nutritional guidelines to help reduce the turbulence so your body and mind can be restored to balance. In Ayurvedic terminology, a healthy person is defined as “she whose doshas are in balance, appetite is good, all tissues of the body and all natural urges are functioning properly, and mind, body, and spirit are cheerful.”

Your unique mind-body constitution is called prakruti, which means “nature”— your individual nature and body type. It is immensely helpful to learn what your mind-body nature is — which of the three energies are most prominent in your make-up — so you know how to keep them in balance.

TAKE STOCK OF YOUR MIND-BODY BASELINE

By looking closely at your tongue, face, eyes, nails, and lips over a period of  time, you can learn which of your energies need to be adjusted. Ayurvedic practitioners can also determine which of your energies are on overload by taking pulses similar to those acupuncturists consult to determine how strong, weak, flat, fast, or shallow these indicators are.

Ayurveda diet

DIET, EXERCISE, DAILY, & SEASONAL ROUTINES DETERMINE LEVELS OF WELLBEING FOR ALL THREE MIND-BODY ENERGY TYPES

If you’re principally Vata, your key to optimal wellbeing is regularity. If you’re experiencing poor digestion, if you catch colds easily, or if you develop insomnia and fatigue, you’re likely experiencing excessive oppositional energies.

If you’re quite Pitta, your key to optimal wellbeing is moderation. When you find yourself flying off the handle or experiencing inflammatory conditions, or if you’re  a super-stressed workaholic or overachiever, your energies are out of balance in this area, and need a tune up.

If you’re mostly Kapha, your key to optimal wellbeing is stimulation. When your energies are out of balance, you will most likely experience sinus congestion, poor circulation, and sluggish digestion which can lead to obesity and depression.

Ayurveda diet

Ayurveda outlines a set of seasonal guidelines known as Ritucharya. The guidelines serve as prescriptions for diet and lifestyle changes throughout the year to help  keep your mind clear, lift and fulfill your spirit, and help ensure vibrancy within your entire body.

According to Ayurveda, each year is divided into two periods, each covering three seasons:

Uttarayana, the cold months, containing the seasons Sharath, Hemanta, and Shishira

Dakshinayana, the warm months, containing the seasons Vasanta, Grishma, and Varsha.

Why eating for the season is crucial to greater wellbeing

If you’re a nature lover, as I am, you have probably noticed how differently wild ones behave and eat during the four seasons we usually think of: spring, summer, winter, and autumn. Their bodies, like our own, instinctively recognize and respond to seasonal environmental cues and conditions by processing nutrition so their bodies can prepare for the upcoming span of time that lies directly before them.

Ayurveda diet

Meat-eating mammals become voracious as the cold winter months begin to announce their arrival. The bodies of bears, raccoons, wild cats, and wild dogs in their hemispheres begin to fill out as some species ready their bodies for hibernation and other species prepare their bodies for days or weeks of starvation. It’s almost as if Nature/Source has placed a calendar in their craniums that prompts them to consume as much as they can find.

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise (as Gomer Pyle would say)!  We humans have the same internal promptings.  As the cold months approach, we begin to crave foods that help calm us even as they pack on extra fat, even though you aren’t environmentally bound to seasonal deprivation, as were our ancestors, not long ago, before refrigeration and mass transportation. But our bodies are still designed to operate the way they were back then, so eating in opposition to your promptings can set you up for a compromised immune system, unhealthy weight gain or loss, less healthy and robust skin and hair, and some illnesses. So, eating with the seasons does two things: It makes you feel good and it’s a powerful way to help ensure your wellbeing physically, mentally, and emotionally.

In the West, the Ayurveda practice of Ritucharya is characterized by four seasons, unlike India where there are six. In both countries, though, the energies go through a cycle of accumulating, aggravating, and palliating during the seasons, so our goal is to keep them as balanced as possible by way of lifestyle and diet.

Ayurveda diet

In the U.S. and in Canada, Vata season runs from autumn to early winter, mid-September to January, Kapha season happens from February to May, and Pitta season goes from June to mid-September. But, depending on where you live in the U.S. or Canada, always take your cues from your natural surroundings and fellow creatures. Up against and above the 54th parallel (the border between the US and Canada), the winter season is considerably longer.

Balance your diet by way of opposing energies. What I mean by this is that,  during Pitta season, as just one example, the weather is frequently hot, dry, light, and sharp, so counter those with cool, heavy, and bland foods; avoid sour, spicy, salty, and overpowering foods.

DIETARY INSIGHTS AND INFORMATION

Meat

Beef increases Pitta and Kapha but reduces Vata. It is heavy, thick, tastes sweet and its post-digestive effect is sweet. Eating beef heats your body. Beef increases Pitta and Kapha and reduces Vata.

Chicken is moderately okay for all three mind-body types. Sweet and astringent, its post-digestive effect is pungent (stimulating). It is strengthening.

Fish increases Pitta and Kapha but reduces Vata. Eating fish heats your body.

Dairy

Unsalted butter is sweet, astringent and cooling. It promotes intestinal absorption. It increases Kapha and reduces Vata and Pitta.

Unsalted cheese is sweet and sour and cooling. It increases Pitta and Kaphs and decreases Vata.

Cow’s milk is sweet and cooling. It increases Kaph and decreases Vata and Pitta.

Eggs are sweet, astringent and heating. Post digestively, they are pungent. Eggs increase Pitta and Kapha and decrease Vata.

Ghee is sweet and cooling. Taken in excess, it increases Kapha. Taken moderately, it is good for all three energies. It promotes digestion and strengthening.

Goat’s milk is sweet, astringent, and cooling. Post digestively, it is sweet. Increases Vata, decreases Pitta and Kapha. Relieves cough and fever.

As always, consult your health care provider before you undertake any new health regime.

Ayurveda diet

It’s important that your routine, diet included, fits your doshas – the combination of three energy sources that create your unique makeup. When you don’t align with the energy that is unique to you, that is when you feel out of balance. To get started on a deeper exploration of Ayurveda and the wisdom it holds for your health and well-being, take my Dosha quiz to find out which doshas are most prominent in you >>