Last night saw a beautiful full moon.
In Ayurvedic terms the full moon is Kapha therefore in the few days prior to and including the full moon it is not unusal to have feelings of tiredness - as some of the principles of Kapha are slow, heavy, solid & stable.
Kapha is the Earth principle and is comprised of Water & Earth. Think of the effect the moon has on our oceans. Considering that the human body is anywhere between 55% - 75% water depending on age and body size, is it any wonder that the lunar cycle effects us too!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Spicy Pumpkin Soup
Spicy Pumpkin soup
IngredientsFor 4 persons:
- 25g of butter or ghee
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 400 g pumpkin flesh (e.g. garden pumpkin or Hokkaido),
- 1 potato, peeled and chopped
- 900 ml vegetable stock
- 75ml of cream
- 1/4 teaspoon curry powder,
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
- pepper and salt,
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds,
- a few leaves of coriander.
Preparation
Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Peel, de-seed and dice the pumpkin. Melt the butter and sweat the onions and garlic in the oil, add the curry powder. Add a third of the pumpkin and gently sweat for a few minutes over a gentle heat. Add the rest of the pumpkin, the potatoes and the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes. Add the cream and liquidise the soup until it is smooth and velvety.
Season with salt and pepper. Add the pumpkin seeds and coriander leaves and serve.
IngredientsFor 4 persons:
- 25g of butter or ghee
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 400 g pumpkin flesh (e.g. garden pumpkin or Hokkaido),
- 1 potato, peeled and chopped
- 900 ml vegetable stock
- 75ml of cream
- 1/4 teaspoon curry powder,
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
- pepper and salt,
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds,
- a few leaves of coriander.
Preparation
Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Peel, de-seed and dice the pumpkin. Melt the butter and sweat the onions and garlic in the oil, add the curry powder. Add a third of the pumpkin and gently sweat for a few minutes over a gentle heat. Add the rest of the pumpkin, the potatoes and the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes. Add the cream and liquidise the soup until it is smooth and velvety.
Season with salt and pepper. Add the pumpkin seeds and coriander leaves and serve.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Releasing your inner Pharmacy for healing
Ayurveda:
David Simon: Connecting With the Five Basic Elements
I came across thess video clips on the Chopra centre website. Simple yet powerful principles
Video:Dr. David Simon, Medical Director of the Chopra Center, talks about the Ayurvedic principle of being present by connecting with the five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air and space.
http://www.chopra.com/simonvideo
David Simon: Connecting With the Five Basic Elements
I came across thess video clips on the Chopra centre website. Simple yet powerful principles
Video:Dr. David Simon, Medical Director of the Chopra Center, talks about the Ayurvedic principle of being present by connecting with the five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air and space.
http://www.chopra.com/simonvideo
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Pranayama
Believe it or not very few of us are breathing properly!
Place your hand on your belly and chest and take a few slow deep breaths.
If your tummy rises and falls with each inflow and out flow - well done - you're breathing properly. However if your chest rises and falls on inflow and out flow your breathing maybe too sallow.
Balanced Breathing exercises in Ayurveda are a gentle form of balancing breath - moving from one nostril to the other - a technique called Pranayama. Its purpose is to make the respiratory rhythm more regular, which in turn has a soothing effect on the entire nervous system*.
Learn this and other Breathing techniques to ease stress, calm the mind when faced in stressful situations or enliven the body when you need to feel more alert by booking one of our 1 2 1 consultations. Call 086 8269371 or info@perfecthealth.ie
*Italic text is an excerpt from Deepak's book Perfect Health. This and other Chopra Center books are available from Perfect Health Ireland - email info@perfecthealth.ie for more details
Place your hand on your belly and chest and take a few slow deep breaths.
If your tummy rises and falls with each inflow and out flow - well done - you're breathing properly. However if your chest rises and falls on inflow and out flow your breathing maybe too sallow.
Balanced Breathing exercises in Ayurveda are a gentle form of balancing breath - moving from one nostril to the other - a technique called Pranayama. Its purpose is to make the respiratory rhythm more regular, which in turn has a soothing effect on the entire nervous system*.
Learn this and other Breathing techniques to ease stress, calm the mind when faced in stressful situations or enliven the body when you need to feel more alert by booking one of our 1 2 1 consultations. Call 086 8269371 or info@perfecthealth.ie
*Italic text is an excerpt from Deepak's book Perfect Health. This and other Chopra Center books are available from Perfect Health Ireland - email info@perfecthealth.ie for more details
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Traditional French Toast
I've chosen this recipe from The Chopra center cookbook because it's a perfect breakfast for the Vata season, we are now entering. Vata is made up of the elements Space & Air to to help balance this, amongst other things are foods that are warm and grounding. You could top the toast off with some blueberres, cranberries or nuts to help you get your six tastes in - which is an important part of Ayurvedic nutrition
Traditional French Toast
2 eggs or 4 egg whites
1/2 cup of low fat milk, or soymilk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ghee*
8 slices whole grain bread
In a medium sized bowl combine eggs, milk spices & vanilla. Whisk the mixture for 1 minute. Heat a griddle or pan to medium heat & place the ghee on the pan. Cut the bread slices & working one at a time dip the bread in the batter, covering both sides then place in the pan. Toast/fry the bread for 2 or 3 minutes each side until golden brown.
*Traditional Ayurvedic clarifed butter. For a link to the chopra center for instructions on how to make Ghee go to : http://www.chopra.com/ghee
Traditional French Toast
2 eggs or 4 egg whites
1/2 cup of low fat milk, or soymilk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ghee*
8 slices whole grain bread
In a medium sized bowl combine eggs, milk spices & vanilla. Whisk the mixture for 1 minute. Heat a griddle or pan to medium heat & place the ghee on the pan. Cut the bread slices & working one at a time dip the bread in the batter, covering both sides then place in the pan. Toast/fry the bread for 2 or 3 minutes each side until golden brown.
*Traditional Ayurvedic clarifed butter. For a link to the chopra center for instructions on how to make Ghee go to : http://www.chopra.com/ghee
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Living with Cancer - The Carer's perspective.
Most of us at some point in our lives are affected by cancer – either ourselves or a diagnosis of cancer in a loved one, a friend or a work colleague. A diagnosis of cancer is devastating and will bring a range of emotional reaction with it – bewilderment, anger, grief to name some of the more obvious ones. Thankfully there are fantastic people researchers, doctors, nurses and carers working in oncology & a number of support groups too – The Irish cancer society & Arc are two such organisations. However, I’m writing in relation to a different group - the people that look after the cancer patients or people living with any long term illness for that matter. Husbands, wives, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, life long friends. The people whose lives are also turned up side down when someone they love is facing a serious illness.
When some one you love is diagnosed with a serious illness, many will have the natural reaction to jump right in to help - putting their own lives on hold. Some on the other hand will bury their head in the sand and leave it to someone else to cope with. Others help out of a sense of duty. Living with long term illness will often tear families apart as emotion; anger & resentment run high.
No one really stops to consider the person who is doing the emotional caretaking of the patient – trying to keep their spirits up, being in good form while themselves being under huge stress by being the caretaker and seeing someone you love being so ill. It’s like as if they are not allowed a voice after all they don’t have the illness! Maybe, it’s an Irish thing whereby we’d feel guilty if we complained or we feel we have to suffer in silence.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, suppressed emotion will manifest itself somewhere in our physiology. If you continually live with unreleased stress and pent up emotion the chances are sooner or later you to, will get sick.
I’ve recently spent some time with a friend who is a carer of her an elderly parent, and naturally she is distressed to see her loved one ill. However she had additional worries of single parenting, finances, caring for children & work. Yet she wasn’t complaining. When I suggested, that what she was going through was very difficult the answer was always the same ‘ oh, but it’s much worse for…..’ . When I put it to her, that yes, it is horrendous to be facing a life of illness, that did not in any way lessen how her life has also been seriously affected and that it’s OK to admit you feel frustrated. She was a little taken aback at first – it hadn’t occurred to her that she had ‘a right’ to feel this way because she wasn’t the one in the hospital bed. However, she eventually started to talk about how sometimes she feels like screaming and the next moment she feels like crying. Her emotions were a whirlwind of fear, sorrow, resentment & anger. She was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and in her heart. Once she’d ranted for a while then shed some long over due tears, it all eventually gave way to much needed laughter.
I personally find visiting hospitals hard – I feel very drained of energy when I leave. I’m lucky, in that with an Ayurvedic lifestyle and my Life skills couching – I’m trained to deal with stressful situations but as the saying goes....doctors make the worst patients…….seriously though, I have found practicing what I preach an immense benefit. For me, meditation works a treat. If I meditate for 20 minutes before facing the hospital I feel protected from being drained energetically and I hope bringing with me a sense of peace that the ill person can tap in to too. I also breathe – ‘Don’t we all!’ I hear you say but I use a relaxing breathing technique that can be used during the car journey, in the lift etc. That’s what works for me. If you are reading this and you are someone who is looking after a loved one, then I send you a big hug and urge you to acknowledge to yourself what a wonderful job you are doing. Release any negative emotion you maybe feeling – if that means thumping a cushion in private then do it.
Treat yourself too – take a long warm bubble bath with a few drops of lavender oil. Listen to your favourite music. It is not selfish to have time out – it’s essential, even if it's only 30 minutes. If you don’t love and care for yourself, you won’t have anything left to give to the people you love and care for.
My friend knows I am writing about this and she hopes it encourages someone in a similar situation to herself to allow themselves to be human. Her loved is bravely living with cancer for 13 years .
In love & light
Siobhán
When some one you love is diagnosed with a serious illness, many will have the natural reaction to jump right in to help - putting their own lives on hold. Some on the other hand will bury their head in the sand and leave it to someone else to cope with. Others help out of a sense of duty. Living with long term illness will often tear families apart as emotion; anger & resentment run high.
No one really stops to consider the person who is doing the emotional caretaking of the patient – trying to keep their spirits up, being in good form while themselves being under huge stress by being the caretaker and seeing someone you love being so ill. It’s like as if they are not allowed a voice after all they don’t have the illness! Maybe, it’s an Irish thing whereby we’d feel guilty if we complained or we feel we have to suffer in silence.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, suppressed emotion will manifest itself somewhere in our physiology. If you continually live with unreleased stress and pent up emotion the chances are sooner or later you to, will get sick.
I’ve recently spent some time with a friend who is a carer of her an elderly parent, and naturally she is distressed to see her loved one ill. However she had additional worries of single parenting, finances, caring for children & work. Yet she wasn’t complaining. When I suggested, that what she was going through was very difficult the answer was always the same ‘ oh, but it’s much worse for…..’ . When I put it to her, that yes, it is horrendous to be facing a life of illness, that did not in any way lessen how her life has also been seriously affected and that it’s OK to admit you feel frustrated. She was a little taken aback at first – it hadn’t occurred to her that she had ‘a right’ to feel this way because she wasn’t the one in the hospital bed. However, she eventually started to talk about how sometimes she feels like screaming and the next moment she feels like crying. Her emotions were a whirlwind of fear, sorrow, resentment & anger. She was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and in her heart. Once she’d ranted for a while then shed some long over due tears, it all eventually gave way to much needed laughter.
I personally find visiting hospitals hard – I feel very drained of energy when I leave. I’m lucky, in that with an Ayurvedic lifestyle and my Life skills couching – I’m trained to deal with stressful situations but as the saying goes....doctors make the worst patients…….seriously though, I have found practicing what I preach an immense benefit. For me, meditation works a treat. If I meditate for 20 minutes before facing the hospital I feel protected from being drained energetically and I hope bringing with me a sense of peace that the ill person can tap in to too. I also breathe – ‘Don’t we all!’ I hear you say but I use a relaxing breathing technique that can be used during the car journey, in the lift etc. That’s what works for me. If you are reading this and you are someone who is looking after a loved one, then I send you a big hug and urge you to acknowledge to yourself what a wonderful job you are doing. Release any negative emotion you maybe feeling – if that means thumping a cushion in private then do it.
Treat yourself too – take a long warm bubble bath with a few drops of lavender oil. Listen to your favourite music. It is not selfish to have time out – it’s essential, even if it's only 30 minutes. If you don’t love and care for yourself, you won’t have anything left to give to the people you love and care for.
My friend knows I am writing about this and she hopes it encourages someone in a similar situation to herself to allow themselves to be human. Her loved is bravely living with cancer for 13 years .
In love & light
Siobhán
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Mid summer
I was really looking forward to this years Summer Solstice - I love this time of year. However, my enthusiasm was somewhat dampened by the torrents of rains that just didn't want to let up. That said, I was amazed at the amount of people that turned up to the Health & Yoga day in Cultivate Centre Temple Bar. The day was a great success - which was reflected in the amount of brolly's lined up at the entrance. I guess if we let the weather in Ireland dictate to us when we could go out, we'd end up a nation of hibernators. I meet lovely people and enjoyed a few belly laughs with my colleagues Mary & Shabina - the beautiful ladies of Inner Bliss. www.innerbliss.ie
So my Solstice wasn't the romantic mid summer day I'd envisaged but it that's the way it goes. If we hold on to set ideals of how things should be - we are setting ourselves up for disappointment - who wants that. Much better to be flexible in your outlook and somehow the sun will always shine through.
So my Solstice wasn't the romantic mid summer day I'd envisaged but it that's the way it goes. If we hold on to set ideals of how things should be - we are setting ourselves up for disappointment - who wants that. Much better to be flexible in your outlook and somehow the sun will always shine through.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Save our Supplements
It appears hard to believe that by 2010 health food supplements that we currently take for granted may no longer be widely available to us. Watch the video and make your own mind up!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
What's your Dosha?
June see the start of the Pitta season
The Pitta Dosha is the Fire principle in Ayurveda. Pitta increases during the summer months and if it gets unbalanced it can lead to irritability, road rage, skin rashes & indigestion. During this period favour local organically grown seasonally available foods. Swimming is a great exercise and at any time of year but especially during the Pitta season. (note - always contact your health care professional before commencing an exercise regime)
To book a consultation to learn more about your body type & relaxation techniques go to http://www.perfecthealth.ie/consultations.htm
Alternatively, for our Ayurvedic lifestyle program to learn about your Mind/ Body type and changes you can make for a healthier lifestyle try our Perfect Health program, designed by Deepak Chopra MD & David Simon MD to promote health and wellbeing
The Pitta Dosha is the Fire principle in Ayurveda. Pitta increases during the summer months and if it gets unbalanced it can lead to irritability, road rage, skin rashes & indigestion. During this period favour local organically grown seasonally available foods. Swimming is a great exercise and at any time of year but especially during the Pitta season. (note - always contact your health care professional before commencing an exercise regime)
To book a consultation to learn more about your body type & relaxation techniques go to http://www.perfecthealth.ie/consultations.htm
Alternatively, for our Ayurvedic lifestyle program to learn about your Mind/ Body type and changes you can make for a healthier lifestyle try our Perfect Health program, designed by Deepak Chopra MD & David Simon MD to promote health and wellbeing
Friday, May 16, 2008
Karma
Karma
Karma is the principle of cause and effect. It’s summarized simply by the proverb “As we sow, so shall we reap.” If we plant seeds of health, harmony and abundance, we’ll ultimately receive these beneficial fruits. On the other hand, if we sow seeds of anger, greed or fear, such will be our harvest. - Source The Chopra Center Web Site
Read more about Karma at www.chopra.com/karma
Karma is the principle of cause and effect. It’s summarized simply by the proverb “As we sow, so shall we reap.” If we plant seeds of health, harmony and abundance, we’ll ultimately receive these beneficial fruits. On the other hand, if we sow seeds of anger, greed or fear, such will be our harvest. - Source The Chopra Center Web Site
Read more about Karma at www.chopra.com/karma
Thursday, May 15, 2008
SOS on You Tube
This is a promo video for the up coming Seduction of Spirit in City West hotel in July.
SOS - to me is like a 5 star spa treatment for the soul!
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=lTDY2kyfSZI
SOS - to me is like a 5 star spa treatment for the soul!
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=lTDY2kyfSZI
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Oh No - Does this mean I've to wear Moses Saddles!
I sometimes find it funny when people think to living an Ayurvedic lifestyle involves locking themselves away from 'the real world' to live like a white bearded guru tucked away in a mountain cave.
If I'm being honest when I first started shifting my awareness to find a deeper meaning to my life, my own reaction was similar and I lived in terror of having to swap my skinny high heels for a practical pair of Moses sandles - it was all about the shoes.
The Perfect Health program teaches ways to optimise your health and well being - how much you want to apply to your life is, of course, entirely your choice. Some people, dive head first into it, others - myself included, adapt a few of the principles at a time. For me, the well-being I felt from just making a few small changes to my daily life encouraged me to continue making more awarness based decisions. What a wonderful feeling it is to take control of your own well being. Wasn't it Einstein who said - 'The Definition of Madness - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result' .....
Knowledge is a great thing - applying it to our lives is our own choice. The key is to live a balanced healthy life and for me that continues to include 'having the craic' and plenty of belly laughs - and no I'm not living in a cave in Tibet and yes I still wear the high heels - but perhaps just not every day. It's all about balance - stillettos optional.
If I'm being honest when I first started shifting my awareness to find a deeper meaning to my life, my own reaction was similar and I lived in terror of having to swap my skinny high heels for a practical pair of Moses sandles - it was all about the shoes.
The Perfect Health program teaches ways to optimise your health and well being - how much you want to apply to your life is, of course, entirely your choice. Some people, dive head first into it, others - myself included, adapt a few of the principles at a time. For me, the well-being I felt from just making a few small changes to my daily life encouraged me to continue making more awarness based decisions. What a wonderful feeling it is to take control of your own well being. Wasn't it Einstein who said - 'The Definition of Madness - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result' .....
Knowledge is a great thing - applying it to our lives is our own choice. The key is to live a balanced healthy life and for me that continues to include 'having the craic' and plenty of belly laughs - and no I'm not living in a cave in Tibet and yes I still wear the high heels - but perhaps just not every day. It's all about balance - stillettos optional.
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