Lovely spring face mask

Maple syrup is intimately connected with spring so use it in a facial mask.

How to do it:
Mix 1 tsp of syrup with 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp of oat flower and 1 drop of mandarin essential oil.

Apply on you face for 11 minutes while listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. You’ll feel as fresh as a blooming garden. Rinse with cool water and tone with chamomile hydrolate.

Thank you samyukta for this tip.

Tips to avoid toxins forming.

All through the year, and especially while detoxifying, it's important to follow the ayurvedic eating guidelines for reducing ama.

These include:

1. Do not fast or skip meals during any part of the self-detoxification program.

2. Eat at the same time every day so your agni can "fire up" for the meal.

3. Eat your main meal at noon and lighter meals at breakfast and dinner.

4. Eat while sitting down in a settled atmosphere; paying attention to the food when you eat (no TV, no phones, no reading).

5. Engage in pleasant conversation with friends or family (no business meetings or emotional discussions).

6. Eat only when the previous meal has been digested (no grazing or untimely snacking--this really disrupts digestion. Eat only when you are hungry again.

7. Sit quietly for a minute at the beginning of the meal (saying grace before meals is one way to do this), and wait for a couple of minutes after eating before leaving the table. This gives your digestion a settled start.

8. Leave a little space in your stomach at the end of the meal to give your digestion room to function. Ayurveda recommends that you regularly eat to only 3/4 of your capacity. This last guideline is especially important when you're on a detoxification program. You don't want to overeat when your body is detoxifying.

PREPARE YOUR OWN DETOX WATERS

If you feel your impurities are located in either the bowel, urinary tract or the skin, you can follow these special recommendations while preparing to detox and during the actual self-detox program. You can also follow these recommendations whenever you feel toxins building up in that particular area.

1. Detoxifying the Bowel

Constipation or irregular bowel movements causes the malas (body waste such as fecal matter) to be reabsorbed by the body. This creates toxins in the rasa dhatu (nutritive fluid), the rakta dhatu (blood), and from there the other dhatus. Regular bowel movements is the primary day-to-day detoxification channel.

If the stool is very dry or slow, try adding more ghee to the diet and drink Herbal Water for Constipation. Add spices to your food, using the Herbal Spice Mixture for Slow Bowel Movement. This will also support digestion and liver function. Eat foods with more soft fibers such as oatmeal, tender leafy greens, summer squashes, and cooked or soaked prunes and figs. Avoid a Vata-aggravating diet or drying diet, and avoid drying foods such as crackers, dried cereal, raw foods and any foods that are trying for the bowel. Take Psyllium Seed Husk (take one t. soaked in one cup of warm water before bed) to scrub out the bowel.

Herbal Water to correct Slow Bowel Movement

1/4 t. whole fennel

1/4 t. marshmallow root

2 leaves mint

Boil two quarts of water. Add the spices and let steep. Sip warm throughout the day.

Herbal Spice Mixture to correct Slow Bowel Movement

1 t. turmeric powder

2 t. ground cumin

3 t. ground coriander

4 t. ground fennel

Mix the spices in a jar and store.

When preparing vegetables or grains, sauté 1 t. of spice mixture in Ghee until the aroma of the spices is released. Add vegetables and grains and sauté the mixture, or drizzle the Ghee and herb mixture over the veggies and grains. You can also add the sautéed mixture to dhals and soups.

2. Detoxifying the Urine

The kidneys and urinary tract form an essential purification system in the body. If you do not have a diagnosed problem with the prostate, kidneys, or water retention, but even so you feel that you are retaining water and that the flow of urine is not quite normal, you can detoxify the urine and kidneys using Herbal Water to Detoxify the Urinary Tract. You can also add some white daikon radish to your vegetables, as this helps purify the urine and normalize its flow, so you're not retaining any toxins. It does this without irritating or adding pressure to the urinary tract.

Herbal Water to Cleanse the Urinary Tract

1/2 t. whole coriander

1 t. whole clove

1/4 t. whole fennel

2 tablets of Genitrac

Boil two quarts of water. Add the spices and two tablets of Genitrac. Allow the herbs to steep and the tablets to dissolve. Sip warm throughout the day.

3. Detoxifying the Skin

If you harbor toxins under the skin or in the fat or blood tissue, this will manifest as excessive oiliness, breakouts or extreme photosensitivity. For this situation, drink Herbal Water to Detoxify the Skin every day. Also use the Detoxifying Spice Mixture for the Skin on your vegetables and grains.

Herbal Water to Detoxify the Skin

2 pinches of Indian Sarsaparilla

2 pinches of Manjistha

1/4 t. whole fennel

2 leaves of mint

Bring two quarts of water to a boil. Add the spices and let steep.

Sip warm throughout the day.

Spice Mixture for Detoxifying the Skin

1 t. turmeric

1 t. cumin

4 t. coriander

6 t. fennel

1 t. fenugreek (if you don't like the smell of fenugreek, then use

black pepper instead)

Mix the spices together and store them in a jar. When preparing vegetables or grains, sauté 1 t. of spice mixture in Ghee until the aroma of the spices is released. Add vegetables and grains and sauté in the mixture, or drizzle the Ghee and herb mixture over the veggies and grains. You can also add the sautéed mixture to dhals and soups.

The Detox daily Routine

1. Get enough rest. You may need more sleep while detoxifying. It's also important to go to bed early (before 10 p.m.) and get up early (before 6 a.m.) as both staying up late and sleeping late in the morning can flood the shrotas with toxins. Practice the Integral meditation program regularly.

2. Exercise each day. Gentle exercise such as Yoga asanas and walking can support detoxification by improving digestion and elimination and moving toxins out of the body. Walking for twenty minutes or half an hour is ideal because it allows you to breathe deeply, purify the respiratory system and supply the cells with cleansing prana. Walking in the early morning especially helps move toxins out of the body. During the preparation for detox and the actual self-detox program, it's best to avoid strenuous exercise.

3. Massage daily. One of the most important purification procedures in Ayurveda is warm oil massage (abhyanga), and you can do it every day on your own. Abhyanga loosens impurities from the shrotas and tissues, allowing them to flow into the digestive tract, where they can be easily eliminated through the bowel. While you're detoxifying, take a little extra time with your morning massage, and you'll magnify the results many times.

Always follow your abhyanga with a warm (not hot) bath. Purifying Therapeutic Bath Salts, a blend of natural salts and the essential oils of Niaoli, Sandalwood and Eucalytpus, can be added to your bath to draw out the toxins. If you don't have time for a bath, a shower can substitute.

3 steps for your spring self-detox program

PREPARATION FOR SELF-DETOX

(15 Days)

I. Follow the Detox Diet

1. Avoid ama -producing foods. In general, you'll want to avoid foods that produce ama, such as leftovers, dead foods such as packaged, canned, frozen foods. You'll have to stop coffee, alcohol, nicotine, drugs, protein, sugar, wheat, and dairy, because that will assist to prevent a blood sugar crash because your body will be eased into the detox You'll also want to avoid foods that create garvisha, such as non organic foods, foods grown with chemicals, pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and foods with chemical additives. Stay away from nightshades, which are tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers and eggplants.

2. Eat ama -reducing foods. Favor vegetarian foods that are lighter, warm, cooked and digestible. Avoid heavy dairy products such as cheese or yogurt (although lassi is good); foods that are fried or oily; raw foods of any kind; heavy desserts; and foods with refined sugar and honey as these are harder to digest and create ama. Avoid yeasted breads and dry breads such as crackers. Freshly made flat breads, freshly made soups and dhals, organic vegetables cooked with spices, and freshly made grains are ideal.

Certain fruits, vegetables and spices are especially helpful in detoxifying, so you'll want to favor them during detoxification.

Fruits: cooked prunes, figs, apple, pears, pineapple and papaya.

Vegetables: cooked leafy greens, brussel sprouts and cabbage.

Grains: quinoa, barley, amaranth, rice and kanji (rice water).

Spices: ginger, turmeric, coriander, fennel and fenugreek. These spices help open up the channels and support the flow of toxins from the skin, urinary tract, colon and liver.

3. Choose foods according to your body type or imbalances.

4. Drink plenty of hot water throughout the day to flush toxins out of the body through the urine. Or better still, choose one of the detoxifying herbal waters mentioned later in this newsletter.

HOW TO DO A SELF-DETOX CLEANSE

10 days

First I want to introduce a few herbs that will be your best allies in your detox journey.

Avipattikar, a wonderful Ayurvedic herbal combination for detox. Avipattikar is easy to get online http://www.banyanbotanicals.com/prodinfo.asp?number=7521.

Mix eight teaspoons of avipattikar, eight teaspoons of ghee, and eight teaspoon of raw, unrefined sugar. You may substitute guava or xylitol or stevia. Take one and a half teaspoons of this mixture on day one, one teaspoon on day two, one and a half teaspoons on day three, two teaspoons on day four and two and a half teaspoon day five. Then reduce the amount by one half teaspoon per day until done.

Many people with cholesterol issues express worry and concern about taking ghee because it is made from butter. This concern is understandable, but misplaced. Ghee is the oil of butter. It is what is left after the heavy fats of butter are removed. Ghee is the lightest oil known to mankind. It is lighter than flax oil, olive oil, almond oil, and coconut oil. There is extensive research done which proves that ghee actually reduces cholesterol rather than increasing it.

Most Westerners think of using water to detoxify the body and question Ayurveda's use of ghee to purge the body. Very simply, ghee - the oil of butter - loosens toxins in the body by saturating bodily tissues with a lubricant that cleans the tissue and leaves it lubricated. 

Learn how to make ghee.

Other supporting herbs

·      Triphala 

Take triphala powder one hour after supper or before bed. Place 1 tsp. of triphala on your tongue and swallow with hot water, or steep for ten minutes in a little hot water and then drink. 

Learn more about the herb

    Learn where to find the herb , if you are in Ottawa the wheat berry in Main st. carry this herb.

·      Aloe Vera Juice

Taken internally, aloe vera juice helps to cleanse the liver and digestive system, soothe stomach irritation/acidity and tonify the tissues.  Take aloe vera gel: 1 tbsp with a pinch of ginger and turmeric three times a day or aloe vera juice: 4 tablespoonfuls with a pinch of ginger and turmeric three times a day in warm water.  Best taken around 30 minutes before meals.

·      Milk Thistle

This powerful herb is a gentle liver cleanser. 

Cleansing the liver is essential for all three doshas,

The liver is one of the sites of Pitta.  Pitta's tend towards illnesses involving the liver and must take care and cleanse regularly. Take it with meals in a form of tinture or caps as indicated.

Diet

The third step which is critically important is that after the cleanse you must follow the diet that is correct for your body type. Here a suggestion soup for all doshas ( body types) to take during your detox self-program.

Kichadi soup

This is the traditional healing stew used for centuries in Ayurvedic cooking.  It uses a combination of mung beans, rice, ghee, vegetables and healing spices to create an easily digestible and protein-rich meal.  It is quite nourishing and can be made as a thick stew or a lighter soup.

Spices and vegetables can be modified and played with to suit your dosha and the season.  Fresh, organic and in-season are best.

Learn more how to do it