Latest Blogs
Keep your cool for back to school
Even though we are each made up of all five of the mahabhutas, or great elements; earth, water, fire, air, and ether, we each also have a predominance of certain elements in our prakriti (nature). By knowing our elemental makeup, or our individual...
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Spring Recipes
Eating is a fire ceremony....Say what? Well, in Ayurveda it is understood that the foundation of your health is based on the strength of your agni, or your internal digestive fire. Agni transforms. Whether it is sensory impressions or physical food, what we take in...
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Spring Into Balance
In Ayurveda, spring is understood as the kapha season. It often shares the wet and cold qualities of kapha dosha, and as like increases like, can aggravate people with a kapha predominance, or children who are in the kapha stage of their lives, the juicy, wet,...
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Little Thyme Sister
Common thyme, or Thymus vulgaris, is a calming and aromatic kitchen herb with disinfectant and nervine properties. It's nature is warming and drying. It is particularly good to remediate vata and kapha tendencies in Ayurveda. Thyme is antiseptic, decongestant,...
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Summer Self Care
Did you know that in Ayurvedic tradition, we understand there is a need to shift our diet according to the season, as well as according to our own individual dosha, or psychological and metabolic type? The doshas of Ayurveda are vata, pitta, and kapha; air, fire, and...
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Ma Elder, the Music and Medicine Tree
Ah spring, and the buzz of bees in the creamy umbels of elder blossoms. This year seems to be a particularly good year for the local elder with the few good spring soakings we've had. The elder tree in my back yard, which came from a traditional Lakota Wopila ceremony...
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Taste as a Therapeutic Tool: Rasa
Rasa is a Sanskrit word which, like most Sanskrit words, has many meanings, or shades of meaning. It can mean flavor, sap, essence, or sexual fluids. Here we are addressing the meaning of Rasa as taste, and the way that Ayurveda understands taste and how to use...
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Spring Tonic Tea and Shiitake Mushroom and Daikon Radish Immune Tonic Soup
Recipes, yay! I think I've only done one other recipe blog before, and I think it's time I do more. I have so many amazing recipes, many that I've learned to do by heart over the years and I want to share them with you. The two recipes in this post are a soup that is...
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Kapha Season Self Care: Late Winter and Early Spring
Depending on where you are in the country right now as you read this, you may still be in the midst of a cold snap and snow, or, like us (sorry east coasters), having a heat wave that sends you to the beach in your bikini to soak up the rays in February (while...
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Autumn Self Care
Autumn. The days are getting shorter. The light has that special golden quality. I'm deep in the magical rhythm of holiday creations; fragrant pomanders, melted beeswax and hand dipped candles, and herbal alchemy with summer and autumn harvests for natural...
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Foraging for Connection, Harvesting Home
I am often searching the web and other sources for information on local plants and herbal preparations. Recently I was exploring content on our indigenous Santa Barbara wild gooseberry (ribes menziesii) as a possible local analogue to the famed Ayurvedic gooseberry,...
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Chumash Liniment
In the images above is my harvest of Artemesia Californica, or Western Sage, gathered on my recent foraging workshop in Romero Canyon. A group of nine ladies and one gentleman, including a 9 and 11 year old and three...
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Ylodst Wyrta, Motherwort
Artemesia douglasiana, or mugwort, is named in several ancient herbal texts as ylodst wyrta, the oldest herb, or the first herb, sometimes referred to as 'Una'. It is an ancient herb, with the wisdom of thousands of years of adaptation on planet earth, truly one of...
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As Good as Gold:Turmeric
As you know, I'm crazy about herbs, spices, and medicinal plants. Turmeric is definitely a top star in my go to list of herbs and on my counter in fresh root and powder forms used by me daily in several different applications from self oil massage to teas, cuisine,...
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Delicious Medicine: The Art of Abhyanga
The word medicine comes from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing. Massage is one of the most delicious medicines I know. It is truly an art that engenders the body's own ability to heal. It facilitates deep relaxation and encourages the body's...
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Tending the Garden of Inner Being (part 3 of 3)
Just like any well tended garden, in the garden of inner being, the soil has to be fed, weeds need to be pulled, mulch needs to be laid, and decisions need to be made about which plants we want to introduce, encourage, tend, or remove. Tending the inner garden...
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Exploring the Roots (Part 2 of 3)
A number of years before I was diagnosed with clinical depression, I went to a Naturopath to address some issues that were arising for me at the time. In the mornings in those days, I would often read a book after breakfast on my days off, and find myself having...
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Descent into the Underworld: Depression as Initiation (Part 1 of 3)
(art by Mara Berendt Friedman) The name of Woody Allen's famous character 'Annie Hall' comes from the Greek word 'anhedonia', meaning an inability to feel pleasure in activities that normally would bring enjoyment. Sylvia Plath likened the experience to being in a...
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Calendula, Lavender, Borage Salve
It's hard to believe, but I taught my last workshop from my six month series, New Year's Re-Solutions, this past week, and we are on our way into the height of summer. The final workshop offered in my six month series was on creating homemade salves for all manner of...
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Why Meditate?
How does meditation benefit its practitioners? Why should anyone spend 20 minutes or more each day, with all the exciting and stimulating things there are to do in our modern world, just listening to their breath, performing meditative movements, or chanting in some...
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“Let’s Get Saucy”
“Let’s Get Saucy” Easy green chutneys and dressing to enhance flavor, health, and vitality with ease and grace. Tahini GreenGoddess Dressing: ½ c sesame tahini (roasted or raw sesame tahini as preferred) ½ c-1c water (depending on desired thickness (I often...
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