I’m normally awake before my alarm goes off. My alarm is my iPhone which is stationed out of reach in the hallway so I have to get out of bed to turn if off.

Some mornings I get up before my alarm. If I’ve slept well and gone to bed early, it’s easy. My goal time to get up is 5:30am. If I’m awake naturally at five, it’s five. There are some mornings, however, when I feel my bones talking to me. They feel heavy. Hard to describe but deep in the marrow, there is something. I just know. I need rest. Then I get up at 6:30am but it feels wrong. If I get up after the sun has risen I feel positively debauched.

Where I’m living now, I’m high up over the trees of a cemetary and I look partially to the east so I get to see the sun come up over the shores of Lake Ontario. The winter trees are so still. It’s so restful. And gladdening. To start the day with a reminder of how beautiful the world can be is a balm.

I’ve made it on to my meditation cushion faithfully first thing in the morning for almost a year now. Ganesh, Tara and Buddha are in various corners of the room. I say good morning, tea in hand.

It feels like a miracle some days. So many years of stopping and starting but now, I couldn’t imagine starting my day any other way. And it’s not for the meditating. It’s for the prayer. That’s what gets me out of bed.

This morning prayer was long. Long. Some mornings it starts with breath. Actually, I’m missing a few steps. It always starts with cleaning: tongue, ears, nose, eyes, mouth and teeth. I can’t pray or meditate without my senses. They’re my antennae.

Yoga is a discipline. You don’t come to it without having at least a little but you don’t stay with it unless you learn to have a lot.

I have a board of old family photographs at my desk and the other day I looked over at this one photograph of myself and my siblings and I suddenly saw the doshas so clearly. The whirling wind of upwards moving energy of Vata (my brother), the fiery red cheeks of Pitta (me) and the earthy-watery contentment of Kapha (my sister).

We’re all in our 40s now and while we’re all relatively healthy, the doshas are predictably at play: my brother has vertigo, I have inflammatory skin issues and my sister has cysts.

What powerful information in knowing your constitution. From the hobbies you take up to what you do first thing in the morning, everything you choose to do or not do can either support your metabolic tendencies and bring you into balance or take you off kilter. One man’s medicine is another man’s poison has suddenly never seemed so true. Coupled with the fact that most of us crave what is bad for us, not understanding your ‘make-up’ can be really disastrous.

“The idea of constitutional types is simple, but not simplistic. Every individual has a body and mind that is quite unlike that of any other”. (Robert Svaboda)

I didn’t have a lot of time for Ayurveda a few years ago. I thought it was cute and fun and not unlike simple astrology. Oh, yeah, wow.. I am a bit like that. And now onto something else.

Many of my primary yoga teachers were from a TCM background and I had come to a conclusion that it must be a more solid basis of alternative medicine. One of my teachers said that she had fared much better with Traditional Chinese Medicine rather than Ayurveda and that influenced me a lot. Aside from hearing about it in yoga, my only direct experience with Chinese Medicine had been years prior with my acupuncturist in London, England. I took Dr Chen’s advice to help me ward off my lopsided headaches: I don’t eat fried food, I don’t read on the subway, I carry a napsack and make sure that I don’t have one heavy bag hanging off one arm and, above all, I try not to label my illnesses (I don’t always succeed with that one).

The acupuncture had helped but as a self-employed person with a very variable income, it was something I felt I couldn’t do on a regular basis. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for to help me but I needed something. My health was suffering quietly and in a very subtle way that no one could really pinpoint. I had tried osteopathy, kinesiology, astrology, rolfing, sacro-cranial therapy, naturopathy, reiki….

Every person gave me something and contributed an important piece to the puzzle but after I stepped away and was back to my own devices…. it was the same old story. Yoga was the one constant and I definitely felt worse when I wasn’t practicing.

When Ayurveda came knocking on my door in 2010, my aunt had just been diagnosed with not one but two deadly diseases and I was in shock. For the past ten years, I had watched one family member after another succumb to some really nasty illnesses and it left me feeling helpless. Ayurveda spoke to me and stayed with me and as good luck (or karma) would have it, a course opened up in Toronto the following year.

Most people, including myself, have pegged me as a Vata-Pitta. I remember filling out an Ayurvedic questionnaire in my first yoga teacher training and I came out as Pitta-Vata. Well, part way in to the Ayurvedic road trip, the jury is out. For sure, looking at those pictures of me as a kid, I see the Pitta big time.

Robert Svadoba says anyone with red hair is at least a little bit Pitta. He also says that “while constitutions do not change, your perceptions of them may vary”. It actually didn’t take me long to bring my Vata down, which for one of my teachers, was a massive clue as to my true constitution. Eating an anti-Vata diet, coupled with an anti-Vata routine brought my Vata down within a few months and then …. then I was left with the underlying Pitta-Kapha problem which when I look at pictures of myself as a child and teenager, is probably the real issue. That’s the big clean up.

Is my constitution PItta-Kapha? For now it is.

“Use today’s evaluation as the basis for planning your current health strategy. Even if you have erred today in determining your constitution you will find that living for a while according to your current condition is therapeutic. [..] Constitutional analysis is the foundation of your road into personal enhancement.” (R. Svaboda from ‘Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution’.)

 

If you’re interested in finding out what your Ayurvedic constitution may be you can take an online questionnaire and find out here. You’d be amazed at what even the smallest changes to diet and routine can make to your overall physical and mental health. There’s no overnight miracle but changes will manifest over time. I’ve been working with someone for six months who’s had a terrible allergy to sunlight for ten years. Last week, for the first time he went out for a long walk in the midday sun with only a 15SPF as coverage instead of sun block and he didn’t break out in to a huge rash. *sigh*

There is light at the end of the tunnel. And it’s not always a train.

AB

It was a couple of years later that an Ayurvedic consultant brought up Miso Soup again. “This will be a really good breakfast for you”. I don’t think my face betrayed the “Right, very unlikely” thought that went through my head but I relegated it behind various other recommendations that I liked the sound of more.

I remembered it though. The thing with healing is when the process actually starts to work you grow in confidence and think: “Ok, he said I should try this… maybe it’s time?”. So it took me several months and I followed a recipe and discovered miso paste, buckwheat noodles and then adapted it to my own concoction. The first few mornings felt like a lot of work but once the mystery was over… boom, it might take me 15 minutes to get the whole thing done and in my bowl.

The key for me, as a predominantly Pitta person (fire type) is that I need to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing. When I understand that the miso helps to stoke my Agni (digestive fire, or enzymes) when its sleepy and cold first thing in the morning, it makes me want to go and make it. As I slice the ginger and put it in, I imagine all the built up toxins (ama) being loosened and eliminated. The spring onions I put in I know are strengthening, the green vegetables cut down on the acidic build up and create an anti-cancer alkaline internal environment, the nettles act as a blood cleanser and the noodles and/or sweet potato help to build my tissues and ground me. My mind and heart become as satisfied as my body. I feel cared for.

A great blood sugar regulator, this has become my staple breakfast (and did I mention it’s cheap to make?). Personally, I find it needs a side of protein especially in the winter months. I tend to eat this with a good handful of nuts, soaked pumpkin seeds etc. If I still feel like something is missing a slice of gluten free toast with almond butter. A hard boiled egg might be a good option too (egg yolks tend to increase Pitta so bear that in mind!).

Listen to your body. It will, hopefully, tell you what it needs.

BREAKFAST MISO SOUP

Buckwheat Noodles

Organic Miso paste (approx 1/2 tsp per person)

2/3 slices of ginger per person

1 or 2 finely chopped spring onions

Assortment of vegetables of your choice

Ghee and coriander 

First, cook the noodles (getting them from a Japanese grocery is by far your best bet as you can get a big box for less than $5) and then let them sit while you get on with the broth.

I fill a pan with as much spring water as I think I’ll eat and then bring it to the boil with a little sweet potato. Add a few slices of fresh ginger and let that simmer for about 10 minutes.

Stir in a half teaspoon of organic miso (I use brown rice) and let that melt into the water. You might want more or less so taste it at this point. Then add the cooked noodles back into the soup with whatever other vegetables you want (sliced mushrooms, bok choy, broccoli, chopped spring onion, kale, nettles etc.) and let it simmer gently until the vegetables are al dente. I definitely like my green vegetables crunchy. You might need to time it so the vegetables that you want cooked the least go in virtually at the last minute. A little ghee and chopped coriander on the top makes it beyond delicious. Ghee is great for Pitta and in moderation acts as a liver cleanser. In our dry, winter months, it’s an overall wonderful internal lubricator.

After a few attempts, it’s as easy as anything to get this on your breakfast table. You can even prepare your veggies the night before and leave them in water to minimize fuss in the morning.

With deep gratitude for all the input and pointers over the years towards this start of health in the morning. I finally listened.

AB

The janitor of my mother’s building is a great guy. I’ve known him for years and he’s my mother’s Guardian Angel. Always helping her with things she can’t lift or move, installing her air conditioner in the summer and just generally being a godsend. He’s a quietly spiritual person. A Zen Buddhist master as he once told me. I don’t doubt it.

He was talking about his 90 year old mother the other day who’s as healthy as a horse, eats a lot of meat and bananas and smokes like a chimney. My mind boggles when I hear things like that. Meat and bananas? I practically get indigestion thinking about it.

It’s times like that you think “Oh why do I bother?”. We scurry around doing this and doing that. Taking our supplements (although if you’re not absorbing much because your intestines are clogged that’s expensive urine you’re eliminating) eating our 8-10 servings of fruit and vegetables per day (can anyone actually afford to do that – organically anyway?) working out at the gym, having our teeth cleaned… the maintenance and to-do lists are endless.

We are extremely fortunate to have all the dietary and health information out there on the internet at our fingertips, beamed into our inboxes through updates and newsletters and this isn’t the 1970s anymore. We know. We know that smoking, eating too much meat (and bananas) and not exercising is not good for us… but how does that explain perfectly healthy 90 year olds living this way? Another friend of mine blogged recently about his 94 year old great aunt who lives in Paris who’s signature dish is spaghetti butter and cheese….

I’m grateful to all the doctors in my life, Western, Naturopathic, Homepathic, Oriental. Each one has given me either important insights, temporary relief, hope, a path to follow but….. it seems to me that nothing has helped me take the giant leap I feel I have taken in recent times towards helping me find the sap within and connecting me to my own healing force on a daily basis than Yoga and Ayurveda. It certainly was Ayurveda that made me understand some fundamental things about myself and just the simple truth of hearing that I couldn’t continue with my life the way it was if I wanted to be well was the most important realization of all. Most of us go to the doctor seeking ways for us to be able to continue with our lives as they are, not change but take something – chemical or natural – to make the symptoms go away. Well, it doesn’t work like that and Ayurvedic wisdom will point this out. If you are going against nature (your nature), there will be no genuine or lasting healing.

Food, health, spirituality.. it can all turn into a neurosis pretty quickly. Becoming anxious about not eating enough fruit and vegetables is probably worse for you than having a day go by where there weren’t much fruit and vegetables to be had. It’s February in Toronto. Who can afford organic raspberries? I know I can’t.

Tomorrow I shall share my other breakfast secret. Miso Soup with noodles and veggies. Yes. I know. It’s hard to believe anyone can eat that so early in the morning but, it’s worth it. It also means if you’re so busy the rest of the day and and an abundance of fresh vegetables did not materialize for lunch or dinner then you know you’ve had a few good portions already in your daily quota and you can relax.

I was going to blog about the spine tonight but somehow, this popped into my head instead. Another day. This PItta knows that it’s time to turn the computer off and do her alternate nostril breathing and think about bed.

AB

“Get inside your spine. If you can get inside your spine, I could take mountains of your karma.”

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

That said, particularly in winter months and especially for those of us living in freezing climes, we need warmth, boosting and something sufficiently grounding to start the day off in a good way.

My breakfast growing up was a big bowl of Frosties (or Ricicles, or any cereal I could get my hands on with frosted sugar on it) swimming in a bowl of half and half. Sometimes there’d be croissants with butter and jam, sometimes blueberry muffins, or for special Sunday breakfast we’d have bacon and eggs. Those were the days.

We ate porridge in the winter but eating it in recent years was not what I remembered. I found it heavy and glutinous and because I don’t put brown sugar and cream all over it anymore, it had lost much of its allure.

A lot of food lost its allure in recent years. After about age 30, I couldn’t really touch sugar anymore. I was hypoglycemic and worried about becoming diabetic so I was cautious around all types of sugar and sweeteners. It was quite miserable in many ways. I felt at sea with food. Eating things I didn’t enjoy but I knew were “good for me”. Lots of rice cakes and sunflower sprouts. So much of the sensual pleasure had gone from my relationship with food. Hello, Nigella Lawson… help!

One of the things I have loved most about Ayurveda is that it’s taken me by the hand and helped me repair my relationship with food. I’m learning how to make it warm, sweet and digestible again – through spices, oils; through knowing when to eat, how to eat and what combinations I can use to offset potential digestive discomfort. I have to say, it’s worked. Or rather, it’s working.

I found this simple recipe for Spicy Oatmeal a few months ago and have been eating it a couple of times a week through this very cold winter we’ve been having in Canada. It’s not “spicy” in the traditional sense but think warming sweet tones. Ginger, cinnamon and cardamom are all spices that enhance digestion as well as other good things like promoting circulation (cinnamon), removing old ‘sludge’ from our stomach and lungs (cardamom) and relieving cramps and gas (ginger).

I never feel heavy or sluggish after eating this. It tastes delicious, goes down without a peep and I don’t feel hungry til lunchtime.

Oh, and I’m no longer hypoglycemic and can enjoy this with a dash of maple syrup. So good. I hope you enjoy it too.

SPICY OATMEAL  recipe from the Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amadea Morningstar

2/3 cup dry oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free)

2 cups of water

1/4 t salt

1/4 cup raisins (or cranberries if you don’t like raisins)

1 cardamom pod (cracked, about 3 or 4 seeds)

1/4 t of cinnamon

1/8 t of ginger

Put oats, raisins, salt, and water in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add rest of ingredients, breaking open cardamom pod to put whole seeds in the cooking cereal. Cover and cook on low until done. 2 to 10 minutes depending upon the type of oats you used.

Serve with a spoonful of ghee, maple syrup and/or coconut (or soaked peeled almonds). A splash of almond milk is good on it too.

There’s a man on the subway at the moment doing the rounds. I’ve seen him several times this week. He pulls a suitcase on wheels and holds a stack of printed paper. His ginger hair hangs over his forehead and he speaks with a very high pitched voice, very fast. Almost as fast as his gait. “I’ve had an experience with Jesus and I’ve written about it. Would anyone like to read it?”. Over and over. Everyone on the subway puts their head down as he passes. He doesn’t really wait nor do any of the passengers make direct eye contact with him.

The first time I saw him and heard his invitation, I looked over at the stack of papers he was holding. It was a large sheet of A4 covered with the smallest font imaginable. Several pieces of paper stapled together. I felt badly putting my head down but the truth was, I didn’t want to go there. He was nervous and slightly manic and whatever the experience was it didn’t look like it had left him glowing and at peace.

I saw him a few days later. Again, on the subway but in a different part of town. Same everything. This time though I did see several people take the paper. I wondered if I should too? But I didn’t.

The ‘God’ word is a tricky one. I couldn’t use the word for years after my adult self started to understand more about Catholicism. Phrases like “Lord, I’m not worthy to receive you…” which are standard part of Catholic mass make me cringe. We have a modern epidemic of low self-esteem. How can this be helping?

I loved the stories and the rituals as a child but I was fortunate enough to leave the nuns behind and go to a secular school when I was in my teens. We had moved and stopped going to mass as a family as the Catholic church was too far away so by the time I ended up back in a Catholic church as an adult I saw it all through an entirely different lens. Homophobic sermons, priests lambasting the community for poor attendance and never mind the sexual scandals in the media.

Nope. I had moved on. Religion was not something that I wanted in my life anymore. When I shared a flat in London with a born again Christian, I was leary and suspicious.

I didn’t turn to yoga for spiritual direction and I’m quite sure I would have been turned off had it been my first introduction. In recent years, since becoming a yoga teacher, I’ve had students come to my yoga classes very uncomfortable with some of the yoga rituals for much the same reasons. One lovely woman said she could just not bring herself to put her palms together in front of her heart. It brought back too many memories of church.

It’s a hard balance to find sometimes in class between bringing the sacred aspect of yoga and uniting it with a clean, neutral and therapeutic space. It’s a dance. Familiarity and trust in the person leading the class is important and the feeling that no matter what you bring or would rather not participate in is all valid and accepted.

It took me years to be comfortable with chanting.

One’s own faith or connection to whatever may lie beyond the material world is a largely private matter but as a teacher bringing yoga, ayurveda and buddhism together it hovers around and feels very much part of who I am. My aim is to keep it subtle and unobtrusive.

Don’t expect me to walk around with a suitcase or feel compelled to give you a written account of “my experience with Jesus”. That’s not going to happen.

AB

Kirtana is the devotional singing of God’s name. Even if you don’t believe in a God with form you can select a name which represents whatever you do believe in and repeat it with devotion, allowing that force to enter and heal you.

Kirtana, which helps us rectify our relationship with nature, is the best of all rejuvenators. The true meaning of Yoga is union with the divine, and an attitude of sincere request for divine assistance is the royal road to real Yoga.

~ Dr. Robert E. Svoboda, Ayurvedic Doctor and Scholar

Ayurveda is the ancient healing science of India. It was born at the feet of the system and science of Yoga. Learning about it, living it has been a journey. I did it for my family. I did it for me.

And I do it for you.

AB

Old Red Eyes is Back

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On the subject of Kirtan, if you’re in Toronto and would like to go to a yogic Kirtan (singing, chanting, opening your voice and heart) there is one tomorrow evening at Ahimsa Yoga
with a beautiful singer and person, Lana Sugarman (pictured) with friends.

Date: Saturday, February 16, 2013

Where: Ahimsa Yoga, 440 Bloor St West

Time: 7 – 9 pm

Cost: By donation ($10 minimum)

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