“Agni is the main source of life and if you worship agni, you will be blessed with perfect health.” – Dr. Vasant Lad

I have struggled to digest and release emotions and conflicts my whole life. Variable mental and emotional agni caused a buildup of ama and anxiety.  I ate to numb my feelings instead of working things out. Emotional eating weakened my digestive agni. A healthy relationship and friendship with mental and digestive agni is my growing edge.

Before Ayurveda I did not understand how to seasonally adjust to support my agni. Stuffed full was it for me. Hunger was something I only thought of when “Save the Children” commercials came on TV. I used to overfill my life with experience, food toxins, medicines and stuff to numb emotions.

Smothered Agni Slows Digestion and Builds Ama

Overwhelmed, I lost the capacity to be present and experience. Too much of everything is just numbing and blocks awareness.  It dampens our digestive fire and increases ama. Ama blocks prana and burns through resiliency.  I ignored the opportunity to get in touch with and listen to my agni and ignored the resulting symptoms. Things got worse. I had to befriend agni and rebuild my digestive wellness.

Fan the Fire

What does befriend agni mean?  With Ayurveda I understand it means to choose and meter inputs, mental challenges and food based on prakruti and ability to digest healthily.  Pay attention to seasonal effects. In spring eat less, decrease dairy and grains, and eat more greens.  Add foods that are growing and living like sprouts and microgreens. Live life at the level that optimizes and grows your true nature.  Stay out of overwhelm and carve out ease.

I want more experiences, great memories, growth and less ama. Ayurveda has taught me the relationship between agni and ama. Click this link to check in with your agni and ama.

Stoke Digestive Fire

Sama Agni is not my forte. (Strong Even Digestion) I struggle to build and maintain digestive fire. Listening to my body and understanding my feelings are developing  skills for me. Spring is a great trigger for me to refocus on breathwork and to change over to lighter eating.

• Redefine satisfied.  No food coma or discomfort at all. On a scale of 1 being starving and 10 stuffed I aim for 5 to 7.

• Find a way to feel deeper hunger once in awhile and befriend it. Historically it was normal to feel hunger and be hungry. Every so often my body needs to burn accumulated fat, not just carbohydrates. For me this means fast or juice fast one day a month or so.

• Lighten up on the starches and add growing green stuff to your plate.

• Eat living foods. 70 to 80% of your immune system lives in your gut. These guys take a beating and need active support. Probiotic organisms in your gut biome are the front line agni decision makers. They decide what is transformed and what is streamed to waste. Add back the probiotics in fermented foods to replenish these fire keepers on an ongoing basis. A healthy biome also helps balance my hormones and my mental outlook.

• Release anxiety and any regret for  actions and feelings throughout the day. I journal to help me with this. I ask myself did I respond in wisdom or in ego?  Was what I said true, accurate, said at the right time, and with the right intention?  Add some alternate nostril breathing post journalling to flush any residual mental ama.

• Get out in nature and tap into the power of plants to help me detox and heal.

Eat Seasonally to Support Agni

For the spring Kapha season this means lighten up your food and get moving. The quantity and quality of food and all your inputs, need to be in right relationship with your digestive fire to fully engage with your life and live at your highest vibration.

Check out foods to help flow with Kapha season here

Unload Ama

Ayurveda describes several types of specific agni at work in my brain, senses, muscles and digestive tract. Are you listening to your agni and giving it what it needs throughout your body?

• Meditate to clear out the mental and emotional trash. If you are not processing daily conflict and stress it builds mental ama.

• Cleanse each Spring by simplifying diet and life, for a week or two. If you need help to do this find a really good group cleanse or detox program and join.

• Sleep on a regular schedule. Sleep is an important time when ama is processed for elimination.

• Eat whole organic natural foods; eliminate pesticides and food additives that are chemically based. Check EWG’s 2023 “Clean 15” list here to help with your choices.

• Reduce or Eliminate Toxins. Cut down or out recreational drugs, like tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol. All these things put stress on your liver and are amagenic, or ama building in the body.

• Keep your vibration high by eliminating violent and dark TV, reading or music.

• Clean up.  Throw out old junk and clear out clutter in your life.

• Reach out to friends to work through conflicts and stress as it comes up. Stay connected and don’t let anger or frustration build up.

Support Detox Pathways

Your body sequesters toxins with help from your small intestines and  liver, so they won’t hurt you then moves them out through your exhalation, your sweat, urine and feces. You can help your body do this more efficiently.

• Sweat. Sweating through the skin is often a completely underutilized detox pathway. Get moving every day as your muscle movement pumps moves toxins out of your lymphatic system.

• Breathe with awareness.  They don’t say take a deep cleansing breath for nothing you know. Every exhale releases ama we don’t want or need.

• Drink clean water. Sip it regularly over the course of your day. Water is the medium for communication and transportation in the body.  Water saturates and flushes tissues and releases toxins for disposal out through the kidneys.

• Add Antioxidants. The key antioxidants; Vitamin C,  E, Co Q 10 and Glutathione give your body a detox boost. A plant rich diet full of color gives all the nutrients you need to stoke your fire.

Agni Can Be A Lifelong Friend

With a little support your agni can be sturdy and resilient. Balance the qualities of spring; cold, wet, and heavy to burn strong and bright. Healthy Agni, means you can eat and assimilate a wider variety of information and foods. You’ll be able to thrive in a wider set of circumstances. Strong Agni is my partner in a rich vibrant experience of life full of growth and learning.

This spring befriend your digestive fire.

Let’s share self care practices to burn steady and bright! Add what you do to build and balance your digestive fire in the comments below.

Holidays and traditions allude to what our ancestors thought would be important for us to remember. These are their visions and values and by understanding them we can get a stronger connection to our roots.  Even if we do not embrace these beliefs in the same way our ancestors did we can still learn from these clues that were left for us.

Tradition and rituals are like habits. They are grounding.They mark the passing of the years. Why is this important? Without these markers, each day becomes the same without any real natural stop and start to each new season or phase of our lives. Our ancestors were more tied to the changing of the seasons and their ancient religious and secular holidays celebrate these changes. Holidays and rituals redefine the focus and activities for the different seasons of the year.

With Easter and Passover we are celebrating a rebirth and a rescue that began a new phase for both of these traditions.This reflects the idea of spring and rebirth. Even as the traditions remain the same every year, our role in these rituals changes and evolves. We go from hunting for the Afikomen (a piece of matzo from Passover) or Easter eggs, to being “too old” for these “little kid activities.” Years later we have fun being the ones doing the hiding so we can observe the joy in our children when they find them. Although these traditions may be consistent year after year, they are always changing for us because we are changing too.

We Come Together to Celebrate

Seasonal celebrations often bring people together.  No matter what else is going on, families tend to stop all other activities and come together around the holidays and traditions. Even those who dread coming back to the “same old traditions” can often find connections.

In addition to religious traditions, there are the family stories and memories that are associated with these seasonal holidays that can remind us of how we used to enjoy things as a child. Maybe it was hunting for Easter eggs or looking for the Afikomen after a Passover meal. We can get insight into how we were as children. How we remember feeling as we discovered something hidden or found  something new. We can reclaim a sense of wonder and joy we may have lost and forgotten. It’s like a clue to help us rediscover our Prakruti.

The More We Change, The More We Are The Same

Sometimes we are reminded of how much we have grown and changed and gotten beyond family conflicts or issues (or not). The holidays are goal posts marking our journey through the years. Whether we dread them or look forward to them they are great places to stop and smell the roses. Or just to stop and see if we can make this holiday a little more festive.

Using the habits we have developed around self-care and meditation, we can remain mentally stable during difficult times at holiday gatherings. When we are focused on our habits, it can be easier to navigate through difficult gatherings. Our habits can also release us from the burden of having everything perfect and missing the joy of the occasion because something did not go the way you expected. 

Traditions pass on the things our ancestors thought would be important for us to remember in order to keep connection to our true values.

This season take a look at what you choose to celebrate and remember:

1. Stick to your regular routine as closely as possible. Even when traveling, stick to your routine to keep you grounded.
2. Look past some of the things you might not enjoy and try to focus on why you are celebrating the occasion. Keep your mind on the why when things are challenging.
3. Connect with those celebrating with you. Holidays are a time of creating new memories and traditions. You never know when you may be creating a memory or a tradition you may want carried on into the future.
4. Use challenging situations as ways to practice acceptance. Practice acceptance not only of others, but of your own needs.

Ayurveda Guidelines for Spring – Print + Share

Detox the Junk in your Trunk

Unglue your gut. Unflannel your channels. After the long winter every cell in your body is begging for you to press the reset button. Spring is the season of burning the fat and turning on the inner a.c. before summer. Don’t miss out on nature’s season of the reset button … and you’ll look good for those summer short shorts. Join the next yogidetox.

Move it or Lose it

Spring is the easiest season to up your exercise. It’s Kapha season, which means your body is strong and ready for endurance. Turn up your workout. Play your edge. Put some hustle in your bustle.

Prioritize Prana Pathways

Our nadis (subtle and not so subtle energy channels) get clogged. Drain-o your nadis each morning with deep nasal breathing. If you can’t inhale through your nose – try to exhale a “humming” sound. The Humming Exhale breaks up the junk and helps your blood take up oxygen.

Allergies, Sinus + Spring Cold Relief

If you or your posse have more issues as the grass grows greener do this: Make a hot drink to clear mucus with ginger juice, lemon juice, cayenne, hot water and raw honey.

Get Out

Get in the habit of having an early dinner and then playing outside. Take a walk. Go for a bike ride. Weed your garden. Just get out. And don’t make the mistake of being out and then eating late, or you’ll burn out before summer’s end.

Ayurveda – Food for Spring

Start Sprouting

Sprouts have more protein per pound than lean meat and bucket loads more absorbable and diverse nutrients. Talk about holy cow. Sprouting takes 2 minutes a day. Buy your seeds and sprouter and get going. Don’t waste plastic. Sprout your own. Aim for 1 cup per adult per day.

Eat Green

Chlorophyll is the color of spring. It’s natural for primates, like yourself, to eat green 3 x a day, especially in Spring. Use green smoothies or juices, salads, cooked greens and living soups.

Drink Your Dandelions

Wild weeds, including our invasive friends like Dandelion + Thistle are superfoods. Both with detox your liver, blood and fat, while replacing long lost minerals from your caffeine addiction. Plus they’re free once you stop spraying your yard. Add young dandelions or thistle to make your fruit smoothies green.

Get Down and Dirt-y

You’re at the start of the active food growing season. If you’ve been eating green you’ve noticed you spend more on your greens and sprouts than anything else. Grow your own. Upgrade your outside with grow boxes or hoop houses. Getting your hands in the dirt is the quickest way to ground yourself and discharge EMF’s. If you’re already a gardener start to permaculture your place.

Print it, and put it on your fridge. You are welcome to forward it around on Facebook or link in your next newsletter if you have yoga students to share it with. The next live Yogidetox with Cate begins April 20th, worldwide. And yes, the Aussies can do a fall detox with me then too.