Benefits of One-Minute Meditation with Bhastrika Pranayama (Bellows Breathing)
One-Minute Meditation with Bhastrika Yoga, including asana, pranayama (breathing), and meditation, became popular in the US in the 1960s and 70s when yogis from India were shown to be able to control aspects of their physiology that were previously thought to be involuntary.1 Based on these early Western studies, yoga has become a well-studied science, […]
BONUS: The Mwebaza Foundation with Devaki Douillard
Join me as I interview my daughter Devaki on the work she is doing with our favorite organization, The Mwebaza Foundation!
Oxytocin: The More You Give, The More You Get
Do You Touch with Love? I remember watching a lecture of a sadhu (holy person) who lived in Gangotri, at the mouth of the Ganges river. While he talked, he gave himself an oil massage. This, of course, is a daily practice in India, called abhyanga, but the way he did it took me by […]
Grace Starts with Gratitude: Giving without Expectation
What is Grace? The word gratitude comes from the Latin gracia, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness, depending on context.1 During the holidays, unwrapping a deeper understanding of gratitude and taking actions based on it promise more joy and meaning. When we look to world religions for some ancient wisdom on grace, we find very clear […]
Cleanse Emotional Trauma with Ayurveda
Ayurvedic Anatomy of Psychology According to Ayurveda, we feel emotional impressions in the emotional heart. This is called sadaka pitta—the aspect of pitta that feels everything. These impressions are then transported to the brain through the carrying channels of prana vata—the emotional aspect of vata. Emotional impressions felt by sadaka pitta are carried and written […]
094: Mindful Rewilding with Micah Mortali
December 3, 2019 | 49 minutes, 31 seconds Download Natural Healing By now, we’ve all heard of the healing properties of nature, like the healing magic of a walk through the woods! Ayurveda described the benefits of nature thousands of years ago. More recently, in the 1980s, a Japanese practice became popular called shinrin-yoku, which […]
Stop Sugar Cravings with Gymnema
Wired for Sweet For 10,000 years, humans have been infatuated with sugar. Since the first sweet taste of mother’s milk some two million years ago, our early ancestors established a strong brain-gut neural pathway that the sweet taste was safe and happy. It also gave them energy, and the more of it they could forage, […]
Vitamin C with Full-Spectrum Bioflavonoids: Surprising Benefits
Where to Find Vitamin C For humans, consuming vitamin C is essential because we cannot make our own, like other mammals do. Therefore, consuming enough vitamin C is a requirement for optimal health. In summer, the abundance of fruits and vegetables makes this pretty easy. But in winter, fresh vitamin C-rich foods are scarce. While […]
HIRING: Product + Inventory Coordinator
As the number one leading online resource for Ayurveda and Natural Health, LifeSpa is revolutionizing the natural approach to health by combining Ancient Wisdom with Modern Science. The result is a continuing expanding product portfolio with lots of room for further innovation and growth. Would working for a company like this excite you? If the […]
Brainwave Benefits of Yoga for Stress, Anxiety + Depression
Yoga + the Brain Yoga, including physical postures (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation, have been studied extensively. Yoga has so many benefits, but for this article, I will focus on its effect on the brain and brainwaves. Studies show that yoga decreases anxiety while boosting cognitive function.1 A meta-analysis of 15 studies found that […]
Clean the Air + Fight Stress with Tulsi
The Taj Mahal’s Air Pollution Solution We’re all aware that air pollution poses health risks, but few of us realize what a global threat air pollution actually is. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is now considered the world’s largest environmental health risk.1 In India, air pollution around the Taj Mahal had […]
Train Your Nervous System for a Longer Life: Meditation + REST Protein
How is Your Nervous System? What are you doing to calm your nervous system? Keeping your cool on the inside may be more important than you think! A new study in one of the world’s most prestigious journals (Nature) may have just proven a fundamental Ayurvedic principle,1 showing that nervous system activity is linked to […]
