Who doesn't love fancy camping hacks? These are my top 3 favorite Ayurvedic tricks that you can use on your next weekend getaway!

1. Make your own mosquito repellent that actually smells good!
Directions: Just add the following ingredients to a small jar, cover with a lid and shake well.

• 2 tablespoons of sweet almond oil
• 1 tablespoon of Aloe Vera gel
• 10  drops of rosemary essential oil
• 10 drops of lavender oil
• 10 drops of lemon balm oil (citronella)

Application: Just dab it onto your skin and watch those mosquito's run (or fly) for the hills!

2. Quick and Easy 10 minute Coconut Chai (serves 4)
Ingredients: cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, fine ground black pepper, fresh ginger, black tea bags, optional: maple syrup or natural sweetener of choice

• Before you leave for your trip, mix equal parts cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper in a small jar.
• Add 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of the pre-made spice blend, and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger to a medium size pot. Boil for 3 minutes.
• Add 4 tea bags and boil for 2-3 minutes.
• Remove tea bags with a spoon and add 1 can of coconut milk. Heat until it starts to boil stirring occasionally.
• Sweeten to taste and ENJOY!

Ingredients:

• Medjool Dates (10)

• Coconut Butter (sometimes it's called "coconut manna" NOT coconut OIL... You can find it at your natural foods store) (1/2 cup)

• Unsweetened shredded coconut (1 cup)
• Ghee (1 tablespoon)
• Lime (1)
• Cardamom Powder (1 teaspoon)
• Cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon)
• Himalayan Pink Salt (a pinch)  

Directions:

• On low heat- Warm up 1/2 cup of coconut butter with1 tablespoon of ghee. Only warm until soft. Just needs to warm up enough to melt… then let it cool to room temp in a separate bowl
• Squeeze the lime juice into a separate bowl and strain pulp/seeds if there are any.
•  Add the cardamom, cinnamon, salt, and lime
  
• Dry toast about a half cup of unsweetened coconut shreds on medium heat until golden brown (this happens fast, so keep a close eye!) Then remove from heat and put in a separate bowl so they don't continue to cook.
• Open dates and remove pits- split in half with your fingers and make little boats.
• Slowly add the coconut shreds to the coconut butter mixture until you have reached desired firm “stuffable” consistency.
• Stuff the mixture into the date boats and sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon if desired.
  

Please like and share if you enjoyed this post!
All the best,
Britt

What do you do when you start to feel that scratchy throat and stuffy nose? Everyone has their own cold prevention remedies and recipes, but in my humble opinion, green mung bean soup is the winner!

First thing first, it's incredibly delicious! It may look a little funny if you aren't used to it...but it tastes amazing. The caramelized onions and garlic and cumin seeds give it a rustic and comforting and appetizing aroma and the mung beans have a very pleasant creamy texture.

Not only does it taste like heaven, each ingredient is incredibly healing. When I was healing from Ulcerative Colitis, green mung bean soup was one of my staples because each ingredient is so medicinal. Now I just cook it when I want something that I know will digest well, or if I would like to do a little cleansing.  If I feel like I am getting sick, I just make a pot of green mung soup and eat it throughout the day. Works like a charm!

The key is that it's warming and nourishing, but not too heating and also light and easy to digest which makes it ideal for people who have compromised immunity. The green mung beans are high in protein, but they are very light and also have a mild scraping action to help pull out impurities from the body. Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory and helps to purify the blood. Cumin seeds, mustard seeds, garlic and onion all help to stoke your digestive fire.

The best part about this soup is that you can keep all of the ingredients on hand at all times so you don't have to make a special trip to the store if you feel like you are getting sick. You even add any vegetables that are in your fridge and make it even more delicious. I like adding greens and carrots to mine, but you can add any kind of vegetable that suits your fancy!

Ingredients:
1 cup whole green mung beans (must soak at least 5 hours)
3 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp Ghee11/2 tsp ginger - chopped
1/2 tsp garlic - chopped 
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds 
1/2 tsp Turmeric          
1 small pinch of hing (asafoetida- available for purchase at the Indian Store)                                              1 tsp Himalayan Pink Rock Salt or to taste (available at Trader Joes or Whole Foods)

Directions:
1. Soak the mung beans overnight in water. 
2. Finely chop ginger and garlic. 
3. Drain the mung beans, rinse them and put them in pot with 3 1/2 cups of water.
4. Add salt and turmeric and bring to a boil.
5. Cook Mung beans fully stirring occasionally. (they are not fully cooked until they are breaking apart. Will take approx. 45 min unless you use a pressure cooker in which case it will only take about 20 minutes)
6. Heat ghee in a separate pan. Add hing, mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Wait until you hear the cumin seeds pop. Then add garlic and ginger and let simmer for a few minutes until garlic becomes golden brown.
7. Add ghee mixture to cooked mung beans and stir.
8. You can add greens like kale or spinach to this for some added texture. If you want to add other harder veggies like carrots or potatoes, add them after the mung beans have been cooking for 10 minutes, always add greens at the very end.
9. Enjoy :)

A little back story...
When I started studying Ayurveda, my teachers had me purchase a copper vessel to use for drinking water. At first I was nervous that my water would taste funny, like the way pennies smell. But I gave it a shot anyways, not fully understanding how or why, I just trusted that it was somehow more magical and sacred than drinking out of an old mug, so I gave it a shot. 

To my surprise, it didn't taste like pennies. To be honest, it only lasted about a week, and then the novelty wore off and I got too busy and just forgot about it.

Then a few months ago, I received an email from a beautiful stranger named Mantreh Atashband. She had been following my blog for sometime and noticed that I never mentioned the medicinal value of using copper vessels for drinking water. She offered to send me one of the beautiful copper tamba cups that she sells on her charitable website, VasantiHealth.com. 
When the package arrived, I was blown away by the sweetness and care that went into the packaging. There was even a handwritten note from Mantreh herself! The tamba was so bright and shiny, it was not like the old dingy one I purchased at the Indian store. It was bold and beautiful and had amazing energy. Once I started using the Tamba I noticed that my water started tasting fresher, and full of life. 

I have been using the cup on a regular basis for over a month now, and can honestly say that I am hooked. It is such a special practice, and a wonderful way to increase mindfulness and show your self a little extra love. 

Cheers to your health! 
With love,
Brittany

There is a tradition here about setting New Years resolutions, and a trend of people not even bothering because: who keeps them anyhow?  People have made enough broken promises to themselves, why make one more?

WHY BOTHER?
Because we know there is an opportunity for growth for us, and to affect that change it’s going to take some dedication and determination.  As humans we are creatures of habit, and most everything we do is habitual.  Our morning routine, the way we tie our shoes how, many times we chew before we swallow, how often we check email or facebook, whether we walk on the inside or outside of our feet… the list goes on forever.

The habits we have create our reality.  The habits we have point our lives in a direction that determines an almost certain future.  If looking at that future feels good to you, then fantastic! On your jolly way.  If looking at that future has some room for improvement, it’s time for a course correction, and the thing about course corrections is: the sooner you make one, the smaller the change you need to get to your desired destination.

To grow in the way we want to grow, we can create a habit that points us in that direction.

MAKING IT WORK
So you have a vision for a positive future, a habit pattern from the past, and here you are, always in the ever changing present, with a choice between going to the past or the future.

Put your attention on the now. The present is where you can make decisions.  Leaving your decisions in the past is habit.  Making decisions in the future is procrastination.

Making decisions in the present is power.  Sieze your power.

FACING THE HURDLES:
Following through on these changes takes determination, like running hurdles.  In the hurdle races there is an end goal, and a number of obstacles. If you miss a hurdle, it hurts and slows you down, but does not disqualify you or cost you style points.  The worst thing you can do is look back at the missed hurdle and regret missing it.  That almost guarantees you’ll smash right into the next one.  Look forward for the next one and do your best to clear it, keep running, looking forward.  The natural consequences of missing the last hurdle was penalty enough.

This is the subtler habit to shift to enable the bigger changes.

INTEGRITY: RECOMMIT, RENEGOTIATE, AND/OR CONSEQUENCES
The problem people face with these changes is when they miss one commitment they tailspin out.  They feel they’ve broken their integrity and don’t want to proceed out of integrity.

There are three basic ways to restore integrity:

• CONSEQUENCES:
  Normally the natural consequences of missing a commitment are enough, but sometimes adding a consequence that one can complete quickly – as running out of time for the commitment is often the cause, and we don’t want the excuse for the integrity commitment.  Something like a cold shower, a donation to a cause, or publicly confessing on facebook can serve.  This works because the commitment was to either complete the task OR do the commitment.  If either is done we are in integrity.
• RECOMMIT:
  Okay, so we’ve missed something.  Do we still want to do it the same way?  “90 minutes of yoga six days a week?  Yes!  I still want that!  I feel the consequence of missing that and I recommit to that moving forward.”
• RENEGOTIATE:
  Sometimes we realize we’ve overcommitted and need to renegotiate.  “I was overzealous.  I think what would actually serve me is 15 minutes 3 days a week and 90 minute practices 2 days a week.  I can keep that one for a week and see how it goes”

YOGA TIME:
Yoga is the practice of getting present.  In the hatha form that I teach and practice, we move into our bodies, which are always and only ever in the present.  We face the places where we habitually store tensions, and instead of taking that as a permanent reality, we make choices around how to deal with them.

Patanjali (author of the yoga sutras ~0AD) said one of the forms of ignorance is misidentifying the temporary as permanent.  You were not born with your habits, you will not die with your habits, they are temporary visitors.  Acknowledge them as such, and let them go if they do not serve you.

To leverage yoga to help your life, make use of “Sankalpa” (intention setting).  Take a moment at the beginning of each practice to get quiet and remember the changes you are looking to make.  Get a sense of the kind of person who would make that changes.  Allow yourself to be more like that person.

When in the flow of your practice, you’ll want to add in some warrior poses, and set a timer for 2 or more minutes – increasing over time – noticing when you want to leave the pose, but staying in your commitment unless you feel like there would be tissue damage.  Feel the power as your strength sustains you well beyond what you thought you’d be comfortable doing, guiding you towards the fullness of your capacity, and reminding you of the quality of persistence you have that you can achieve what you set out to do.

Written by: David Schlussel
www.yogilifecoach.com

For the 10 years prior to studying Ayurveda, I didn't feel consistent hunger. Along with my naturally high vata (air & space), I also lived a very erratic lifestyle which only added to my digestive troubles. Somehow I discovered that a small cup of tea made of grated ginger before meals would help me feel hungry enough to eat. Not ideal to rely on all the time but it worked and it was all that I knew at the time. Years later, it was enlightening to be able to spend a lot of time studying the properties of ginger.

There is a funny thing with ginger. In Ayurveda, fresh and dry ginger have some different medicinal properties due to the drying process. It’s quite remarkable. Fresh ginger is actually considered to be more drying for the body and dry ginger is said to be more unctuous. I've listed some of the common and best uses for each type of ginger below. Some of these can be interchanged with each other but you will have overall better effect by following the breakdown on this list.


13 Health Benefits of Ginger:


Fresh Ginger

1. Acts as an appetizer  
   
2. Digests aam (deep-seated toxins) 
3. Reduces fever 
4. Reduces chilliness by increasing heat and circulation in the body
5. Eliminates nausea 
   
6. It’s a mild laxative

Dry Ginger

1. Helps relieve joint pains from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
   
2. Beneficial in edema and other swelling
   
3. By reducing vata, it relieves pain in back or neck
   
4. Stops diarrhea
   
5. Helps treat some forms of IBS, abdominal pain and hemorrhoids
   
6. Reduces respiratory tract ailments such as cough, hoarseness of voice, rhinitis, asthma, etc
   
7. Acts as an aphrodisiac 

Tips:

• Before meals - slice a little fresh ginger, add a sprinkle of rock salt and a squeeze of lemon or lime to enhance taste and nutrient absorption

• Can make a paste of dry ginger and water for local application in cases of swelling or also on sinuses and forehead in cases of cold (not for those with very sensitive skin) 
  

Note: 
Ginger should be used sparingly in summer, early fall and for anyone with vitiated pitta. 


Warmly,
Lisa Lesser