Ayurvedic feminine practices

Ayurveda is an ancient science dating back around 5,000 or more years. It originated in India, but it is relevant to every culture and society in the world. I have not seen a more holistic system of wellness and I have tried a lot of them!

Ayurveda has many many practices that involve a lifetime of learning. Today I am going to share a practice that will start to build your own, inner, feminine radiance. In my healing from Hashimoto's, I found that the missing piece that I was not seeing in literature, was the importance of nurturing our femininity. I believe that so many women are struggling with autoimmune conditions because we are on autopilot, trying to operate in our masculine more than is healthy for our bodies. Our physiology is inherently different to men, so we need to treat our bodies differently.

Starting to treat my body kindly, started to build my ojas once, again, after it had been depleted from many years of pushing myself too hard.

Ojas building practices:

What is ojas, you say? Ojas means: "The glow of health from which we derive a strong, vibrant, immune system, it is the source of water, it enables us to sustain wholesome activity in our lives. It is the end practice of perfect digestion."

There is no western medicine equivalent for ojas, but think of it as that inner glow. Think of a newborn baby and how alive and radiant they appear. That is ojas.

As we grow and move through life, we can deplete our ojas. But this does not mean that it is a lost cause. We can build it up again.

What depletes ojas:

· Trauma

· Stress

· Depression/grief

· Fear and anxiety

· Not respecting yourself

· Overworking

· Abusing drugs and alcohol

· Malnutrition

· Starvation

· Unfavourable environmental factors: too much sun, wind, water or radiation.

Ayurveda is based on the understanding that like increases like. So, if we incorporate qualities that are like ojas, we can increase it within ourselves. It is the universal law of cause and effect. Build it and it will come.

Ayurveda looks at everything in the universe as a quality. Every quality has an opposite. When we understand this, we can work with the qualities to our benefit.

We need to understand the qualities of ojas so that we can play with them. The qualities of ojas are: cool, sweet, soft and stable.

When it comes to your life, think about food and activities that increase these qualities.