When our digestion is good, our sleep is deep and our emotions and sexuality are being channeled properly, we have more energy to engage in our passions and pursuits in life—in Ayurveda, our foremost pursuits are known as the four goals of life. According to the Vedas (the spiritual root texts of Ayurveda), your soul … Continue reading
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Sister Sciences in the Vedic Tradition
Ayurveda is a complex and ancient system of well-being, and just as Western medicine is based on biology and other sciences that can take a lifetime to understand, Ayurveda has many foundational concepts and tenets that you can explore and deepen your understanding of for years and years. For our purposes, there are some basic … Continue reading
Why Katie Silcox Thinks You Should Eat More Butter
My little sister called me a few weeks ago. She had dreamt that I had a little baby in my lap, and I was endlessly feeding the baby sticks of butter. Her dream was a Jung’s bullseye right to the heart of my love affair with all things oily. And wet. And unctuous. And nourishing. … Continue reading
A Little Love, a Lot of FIRE
Not long ago, a friend told me that the holidays had sent her on a “downward-cookie-spiral-of shame.” Like many of us, she was having a hard time recovering. There’s a reason that January signals the prime season to begin diets and make resolutions for change: after marathon Yuletide party schedules and over-indulgences (and less exercise … Continue reading
Tattoo This To Your Fridge
When we are balanced, our senses actually feed our good choices, and we become more tuned toward balance. When we are out of balance, they send us toward the people, places, foods and forms of entertainment that bring us into deeper states of imbalance. Personally, I know I’m in balance when I start craving steamed broccoli, early nights … Continue reading
Ayurvedic Pillar #3 – Sex
“So long as lips shall kiss, and eyes shall see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” -Mallanaga Vātsyāyana, Kama Sutra Ayurvedic practitioners were great believers in the management of sexual energy, valuing what they called bramacharya, or the wise use of this vital sexual energy. When we are using our sexual energy in … Continue reading
Ayurvedic Pillar #2 – Sleep
“Happiness, misery, nourishment, emaciation, strength, weakness, virility, sterility, knowledge, ignorance, life and death—all these occur depending on proper or improper sleep.” -Charaka Samhita Walk into any pharmacy in America and you will be overwhelmed by the number of laxatives and sleeping pills on the shelves—laxatives because collective America is chronically constipated, and sleeping pills because we are a nation … Continue reading
Ayurvedic Pillar #1 – Food
“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.” -Ayurvedic proverb According to Ayurveda, all disease originates in the digestive system. Choosing the right foods for your particular body, as well as the time of day or even the particular season of year, is essential for coming into the … Continue reading
Ayurvedic Health
Coming back into balance can mean a number of things for different people, but in general it means that we are healthy, which we all typically define as: a state of well-being free from disease. But this is just one part of health’s full picture. Ayurveda describes the state of good health as svastha, meaning “established in the … Continue reading
Tejas—The Power That Brings Out Our Light
Tejas (TAY-JUS) is the illuminating light that comes from your inner radiance. It is the healing and subtle energy of Pitta. It is the fuel of transformation, the fiery essence behind all of our thoughts, and the force that brings out our light. In your body, it is the subtlest aspect of your digestion that … Continue reading
Katie Silcox 