Herbs

The Star of the Weeds: The Dandelion (Recipe!)

The Star of the Weeds: The Dandelion

The common weed that often springs up willingly in your lawn or garden, the dandelion, is actually one of the best things you could be eating in addition to all of your other springtime foods. In the plant kingdom the proper terminology for the dandelion is Taraxacum. I like this because it makes me think of the hindu goddess, Tara. Tara is known as one of the wisdom goddesses and is a form of Shakti. Tara, like the goddess Kali, helps to slay all of our inner demons! Like the goddess Tara, the dandelion acts similarly in its ability to remove and clear toxins out of the body. Tara also stems from the root word star which also channels the Dandelion perfectly: the star of all the weeds.

The Dandelion is so incredible because it’s loaded with properties that help to boost your immunity and overall wellness. It’s packed with vitamins (A, B complex, and C) and minerals (iron, potassium, and zinc) and it is because of its tremendous healing properties that it has been used in many and differing ancient medicinal practices as a liver tonic, a digestive tonic, and even a skin tonic. It can also help with water retention with its natural ability to pull fluid from the body.

Benefits of Dandelion

Decreases Water Retention and Bloating The dandelion has diuretic properties that help to relieve fluid from the body
Detoxes the Liver The polysaccharides in dandelion help to detoxify the liver
Blood Detoxifier The vitamins and minerals in the dandelion plant help to filter and cleanse the blood
A Powerful Antioxidant with its heavy beta-carotene content
Prevents UVB Sun Damage The flower of the Dandelion and the lead actually help with oxidative stress from the sun and can help to reduce aging skin

Dandelion was used for its therapeutic benefits in Native American practices for the skin and the stomach. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it’s used for combating inflammation, stomach ailments, and detoxification. In Ayurveda dandelion is most used in detoxification, liver cleansing, and for kapha dosha imbalances. It is best used in the springtime when excess kapha has accumulated from the winter.

Dandelion is bitter in flavor and can be used in a variety of culinary dishes. It’s so delicious sauteed with a little ghee and spices, brewed as a tea, or (my personal favorite) made into a pesto! Check out this amazing dandelion pesto recipe below.

Dandelion Pesto

Ingredients

2 cups of dandelion (chopped)
1 cup of fresh basil leaves
½ cup pine nuts (or walnuts)
¼ cup parmesan cheese (grated)
*option to substitute vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast here
2 cloves of garlic
¼-½ cup of olive oil
Juice from ½ a lemon
1 tsp sea salt

Directions

Add all ingredients to a high powered blender or food processor *except for the parmesan. Blend until it has reached your desired consistency. Add in the parmesan and blend until it is fully incorporated.

Add to your favorite pasta dish, salad, or use a dip!

Resources:

Ayurveda in the Spring (antiviral tips included)

The beginning of spring is such a magical time of the year. For many of us there is a feeling of relief having survived another winter when there is less sunshine and blue sky to keep our moods elevated. During this time, most of us are overjoyed with the sight of the newly forming buds, the daffodils poking their heads out, and the return of all the chirping birds.

In Ayurveda this is the time when the water and earth elements are most present. When water and earth come together it can make for some pretty beautiful happenings: the growth of new seedlings, flowers bloom, trees grow and reproduce, ice melts, and rivers flow freely. However, when water and earth combine it also forms mud! This mud, or kaphic overload, can take up space in our physical bodies which can cause some imbalances like lethargy, allergies, congestion, and more mucus. And what’s worse: it's often when we're feeling out of balance that we tend to reach for the things that will further take us out of balance such as overeating, laziness, overconsuming sugar or alcohol, or going down a social media spiral. Here are some things you can do to avoid getting stuck in the mud AND that will be extremely helpful for boosting your immunity.

Practices to Pacify Kapha

Wake early
Dry Brush
Exercise first thing in the morning: take a brisk walk, do some jumping jacks, or go on a short run
Keep warm
Get an invigorating massage
Add stimulating music to your playlist
Go out dancing!
Laugh and spend time with loved ones

Foods Tips to Pacify Kapha

Add foods that are pungent, astringent, and bitter: aloe, nettle, dandelion, quinoa & barley, turmeric, mung beans, mustard greens, lemon, spiced broths
Add apple cider vinegar to your foods
Consume less meat
Avoid dairy
Add activating spices like Cayenne, ginger, black pepper, and mustard

Herbs & Supplements to Support Immunity, Viral Infections & Decrease Kapha

Mycelized Oil of Oregano (easy absorption)
Oil of Oregano
Garlic
Triphala (KATIE15 promo code)
Immune Health NOW (KATIE15 promo code)
Wellness Formula
Paavani Hydrate Tea (SHAKTIPOWER promo code)
Paavani Golden Milk (SHAKTIPOWER promo code)
Reishi Mushroom
Elderberry
Astragalus
Milk Thistle
Zinc
Vitamin D
L-Lysine

It’s important to take care of your health at all times, but especially during flu season and other viral epidemics. These foods, supplements, and practices will help to boost your immunity and to ward off viral disease.

How to Keep a Healthy Belly During the Holidays

The holiday season is a wonderful time, but let’s face it, it can also be super stressful, physically taxing, and can leave us with that post-holiday belly bloat. Ugh !

There is nothing worse than starting the new year with your digestion in a funk. When you’re not able to digest your food you're not able to digest your life either, and when we can’t digest our life things start to get really gunked up. This can lead to a number of problems like disturbed sleep, mood disorders, hormonal imbalances, adrenal fatigue, weight gain, and many other unwanted winter-time stressors.

So, how do you create EASE during the holidays?!

Stoke that digestive fire (Agni)! Cultivating strong Agni pre-holiday season will have tremendous benefits during the festive season and the months to follow. In order to keep your Agni strong do what you can to create ease on your digestive system and lower the intake of anything that is more toxic or inflammatory. Another key element for maintaining easeful digestion is eliminating any stressors that may be causing adrenal upset. Your adrenal glands play a huge role in regulating your stress levels. They help to regulate your blood sugar, your blood pressure, help you burn fat and protein, and they also determine how you react to stress.

Here are some helpful tips to eliminate stress and help you prepare a strong digestive fire pre-holiday feasting:

*Mung bean cleanse (pre and/or post holiday) - leading up to the holidays (and also after the holidays) can be a great time to eat a more simplified diet. A kitchari (ayurvedic mung bean) cleanse helps to clear away any excess sludge in the body, it strengthens your digestion, and will leave you feeling light and clear as you go into the family and eating frenzy. It’s also an appropriate cleanse to do during the cooler months because you aren’t depriving yourself of foods, but rather eating enough food that is warm, nourishing, AND cleansing. This is also a perfect cleansing protocol to do at any time of the year, especially for the working woman who needs to be fueled throughout the day! A mung bean cleanse can help to keep your vata balanced and will give you loads of energy for all the events on your holiday calendar.

*Tulsi-Ginger tea - This is a great tea to help keep you calm while also aiding in digestion. Ayurveda’s “Holy Basil” is an all around beautiful tea to soothe your mind, boost your immunity, and calm your belly. I love the addition of ginger in this tea for the added “debloating” effect that it has. Try using this in between meals while you are out of your normal routine and watch how it creates more stability in your mood and in your tummy.

*Float Tank- This could be a hard one to find, but Float Tank spas are popping up all over the place and if you’re lucky there might just be one located near your holiday destination. A float tank is a sensory deprivation tank that is filled with water and epsom salts. It is meant to be a meditative experience helping to reduce external stimulation and create ease on your neurotransmitters. It can be extremely helpful when we are traveling, out of our normal routine, or if we are just looking for a targeted way to unwind. You could even suggest doing this as a family event! If a float tank isn’t available, try adding some time for some sort of mindfulness and meditation practice. This will help you to stay present and enjoy each moment through the holiday season.

*Take a walk with the family before/after meals- The holidays are all about togetherness, but this doesn’t mean that togetherness always has to happen lounging on the couch. Of course wintertime is a great season for rest, but it’s just as important to expose yourself to the elements and move your body as it is to relax. Doing some form of exercise in the open air to fuel your lungs and stretch your body will keep you from sinking into that holiday slump. It’s also a wonderful way to have more intimate moments with the people you love.

*Try to stay away from dairy- It can be difficult to keep to our healthy eating habits when we travel great distances and visit people that may not have our same dietary needs. Please be gentle with yourself no matter what you’re eating (your mind plays a huge role in your digestion). However, if you can limit the amount of dairy you take in this holiday season it will significantly aide your digestive system. Dairy is often overused ingredient in holiday cooking. Even if you normally do okay with dairy, it is still best avoided during the times when excess Kapha can start to clog up your digestive tract. So, maybe this means you politely pass on the heavy whipped cream and gravy.

Or, take your digestive enzyme and choose the dairy dish that you just can’t pass up! 🙂

*Take it easy on the alcohol- I know that alcohol can sometimes help to ease the tension that may come from stressful holiday gatherings, conversations, or family members you don’t quite tolerate as well, but it’s not always the best choice. When misused alcohol can make you feel worse. It also slows down your metabolism and wrecks your digestive fire. If you do decide to drink try to drink moderately, drink lots of water in between, and maybe try adding in some supplements for additional support. Activated coconut charcoal, vitamin C, and digestive enzymes will help aid in your liver’s ability to detoxify the alcohol. It’s also best if you can try to have your last drink earlier in the evening and the next morning add a dash of celtic salt to your water to help replenish any minerals you might have lost.

*Hack your sleep: Getting plenty of rest is so important for the body’s ability to repair itself. This is crucial during the times when we are overloading our system with different foods. It’s not always easy to sleep outside the comforts of your own bed, but I’ve found that earplugs and a face mask can really help in keeping my sleep consistent. Try using some essential oils like lavender, geranium, frankincense, and cypress to lead you into a more restful state. I love adding these essential oils to a carrier oil like sesame or coconut oil for a little self massage pre-bedtime. My favorite oil to use is the Vata Balancing Massage Oil from Banyan Botanical.

*Bring your non-negotiables with you! For me whenever I travel I have to bring a few essential items that I know will help keep me close to my routine and will also help to keep me sane. These items include my morning beverage (right now it’s matcha green tea with oat milk), triphala for healthy digestion, heavy amounts of leafy greens (a green liver powder works great), and my essential oils for body love! I also find it crucial to bring my stash of supplements. I may look a little cookey on the plane, but if it works, it’s coming with!

Supplements We Love

Triphala - Shakti School insiders get 10% off at Banyan! Use promo code SHAKTI10

Oil of Oregano (for immunity)

Maca - Chaste Berry - Ashwagandha powder (healthy hormone balance)

Lipotropic Complex (liver support)

Quinton Water (mineral replenish/post drinking remedy)

Digestive Enzymes

Thorne Brain and Mitochondria support

Nordic Naturals DHA Algae

Thorne Vitamin D3 + K2

Kettle & Fire Bone Broth (digestive aid)

Oils:

Transdermal Samadhi Roll on Set

Banyan Vata Balancing Oil

Essential Oils: Frankincense, Geranium, Lavender, Cypress, and Eucalyptus.

Balancing Vata for Fall

As we shift into fall we are leaving the Pitta season and entering into the Vata season.

The Vata element is associated with air and ether. It functions as movement and energy, and seasonally it is the time of year when the atmosphere is dry, cool, and rough (windy).

It is easy to see how Vata presents itself if we look at what is happening in nature (especially those of us that live in a four season climate). The cool air begins to dry the leaves making them brittle and rough and eventually they fall. These qualities translate to our own inner climate as well. Often with the rise of Vata our skin can become more dry and rough, our hair and nails more brittle, and it is not uncommon that our digestion and immunity may suffer. The sometimes erratic nature of the Vata element can also make our minds feel more scattered, disrupt our sleep, and even contribute to unwanted mood swings.

So, how do we avoid the usual struggles of fall?

Balancing Vata can be simple if we are diligent about balancing our system as a whole. This means we have to look to not only our diet but, exercise, self care and lifestyle habits as well.

Diet:

Favor more warm or cooked foods
Add more healthy fats like ghee, avocado oil, olive oil, and coconut oil to your dishes
Spice things up with more warming spices: black pepper, cumin, ginger, mustard seed, cayenne, and cinnamon
Eat more tubers! Pumpkin, beets, Sweet potatoes, and all types of other hardy winter squash
Drink more warming teas in between meals
Make golden mama milk
Add soups or stews into your weekly meal routine

Exercise:

Walk more and run less
Favor resistance training over cardio loading
Gentle yoga and meditation

Self Care:

Take a sauna break !
Make self oil massage a daily ritual
Read a book by the fire

Lifestyle:

Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day (vata craves routine for balance)
Try not to overdo it with too many social obligations
Take more time to pause throughout the day and observe your breath

The BEST Summer Herb

Amalaki (aka Indian Gooseberry, aka Amla) is COOLING. It’s great for pitta tendency people like me who get overly heated (think menstrual related acne, or loose stool), especially this time of year.

It's one of the fruits in ayurveda's digestive formula Triphala. It's english name is Indian Gooseberry.

But it's also a potent external medicine for hair and skin!! ⠀

You can take amalaki internally. It is a super-well-known rejuvenate as it gently cleanses the colon, beautifies hair and skin and is an all-around tonic for the organs. In India its known as a super-food, youth-enhancer!

It’s also SUPER helpful for blemishes. Scroll down for my summer Amalaki face mask.

➳ You can also use the powders in your smoothies or yogurt. It has a delightful sour taste.

➳ Mix it with coconut oil and use as a hair mask. It makes your hair really shinny and strong. This is so good for pitta hair that’s often very fine and breaks easily. It’s hard to grow out your hair sometimes as a pitta.

➳ Mix it with almond oil to make an anti-aging treatment and soften fine lines. (Amalaki is high in Vit C, which helps build collagen).

➳ Mix Amalaki juice or powder with aloe vera juice for a refreshing facewash.

➳ Banyan Botanicals sources THE BEST amalaki, it’s potent, organic and fair trade. Banyan is supporting farmers in Asia, not just doing business and then peacing out. Use the discount code SHAKTI10 for 10% of your order.

Try this facemask, it will change your skin routine forever!!!!

Amalaki facemask with honey (& optional parsley)

This is a great mask for blemishes but it may dry out your skin if left for too long, or used during dry months, or during dry skin cycles. Use this in humid environments, in the high summer season or if you have oily skin.⠀

➳ Start by chopping up finely a sprig of washed parsley⠀

➳ Crush it up in a mortar and pestle until the juice is coming out (the bottom of the clean jar on a chopping board can suffice if you don’t have one)⠀

➳ Add 2 teaspoons of Amalaki (Amla) powder and hot water to make a wet paste with the crushed parsley⠀

➳ Add a teaspoon of Manuka honey to the still warm mixture and blend them all together into a paste⠀

➳ The crushed parsley won’t spread consistently but this doesn’t matter as the hot water will have dispersed its compounds into the paste⠀

➳ You want your face mask to be the consistency of yogurt – easy to spread but not too watery/runny.⠀

➳ Apply the paste while it's still warm⠀

➳ Wash your face of any dirt or makeup⠀

➳ Apply the paste to damp, clean skin⠀

➳ Lie down in your room with mask on for 20-30mins⠀

➳ Wash off with warm water and apply your favorite moisturizer!⠀

3 Steps Toward Divine Feminine Ayurveda

A Movement Towards True Ayurveda and Healing

Feminine form Ayurveda is the true Ayurveda of ancient India. You might wonder—what does it mean for something to be the true Ayurveda? There are two answers to that question.

The first is that before India came under British rule, Ayurveda flourished not only as a system of medicine, but as a spiritual practice. Healing was known to be a spiritual affair, medicine and spirit were one. The influence of the West in India changed India’s approach to medicine. The wisdom of Ayurveda was all but lost under British rule. For Ayurveda to have legitimacy as a healing system, it needed to conform to allopathic (Western) medicine’s approach. Thus, it was stripped of its spiritual and feminine roots.

Second, it was the women of India who continued to practice the Ayurveda of pre-colonial times. There are two reasons for this: i) woman had always been the communities’ healers, both in the West and in the East. Their knowledge was passed down orally; and ii) In the age of modernization and patriarchy, women were excluded from the healing arts, medicine became institutionalized and one had to study for many years in order to “practice medicine”. This excluded woman who were mostly kept out of higher education and the sciences.

In the West, the eradication of feminine form healing arts was exhaustive due to the millions of women killed during the witch hunts that cycled through Europe and the Americas. We have of our Indian sisters to thank for keeping the flame of feminine form medicine lit for us.

That is why I refer to feminine form Ayurveda, and why my students have now come to call it Divine Feminine Ayurveda. It’s an approach to health that is radically different from the “traditional medicine” that we are familiar with in the West. It even differs from what Indians of the last few hundred years have known due to the Westernization of Ayurveda in India.

Begin Now: Divine Feminine Ayurveda

1. Intentionally cultivate and expand your community. The human Ātman, soul, desperately wants to be seen. Not necessarily fixed or saved, but simply witnessed and loved unconditionally. Organize a potluck and extend the invitation to your outer circle of acquaintances, plan a community activism meeting and get in the habit of regularly volunteering your time to a nonprofit. Feminine medicine comes through the oral tradition, through community, and through relationships. It’s not entirely taught and learned through a textbook, it’s learned through direct experience and relationship.

2. Honor your desires—spring is when we are intuitively most attuned to our deepest driving desires. We learn Divine Feminine Ayurveda not through the pre-frontal cortex alone, but through the back of the brain and body as well. This is foundational because it means that we first heal ourselves and learn the healing arts through our own practice of self-love and self-healing. It means digesting the material IN and WITH the body, not just the intellect.

There exists a culturally imposed need to be very masculine about our approach to health: What pills, what herbs, what’s wrong with me? With a feminine approach to health, we’re not adding anything, instead we are subtracting what isn’t real anymore, what’s not serving us. Divine Feminine Ayurveda ask us to find the place within our being that is already balanced, that needs nothing else, and begin the process of healing from there first.

A practice to connect with your subconscious self:

For 40 days, first thing every morning, write down your dreams. The more you practice this the more you will remember from your dreams. Our beloved Ayurveda father, Dr. Vasant Lad, explains in our Shakti Ayurveda School textbook: "Dreams are a discharge of the nerve cells, the drainage of incomplete thoughts, actions, and feelings. In a dream, you finish unfinished business and the brain is able to restore order”[1].

According to Ayurveda, dreams are classified as vata, pitta, kapha. Vata dreams are very active, includes: flying, death, autumn and are sometimes fearful; pitta dreams are fiery, includes: feeling of having arrived too late, being embarrassed, problem solving, summer; and kapha dreams are often romantic, includes: doing something slowly, eating, spring or winter. Dr. Lad says “Classify the dreams, then treat the dosha and you will have good results”.⠀

Many times, studying our dreams gives us a window into the subconscious—our deepest anxieties and dreams.

3. Adaptability as health. The adaptability of our nervous and immune system is directly linked to the strength of our Ojas, the subtle energetic honey of our body. Think of Ojas as your psychophysical container or shield. When Ojas is strong, we have abundant energy, strong immunity and can adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of life with ease.

My go-to super ojas building plant is Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus). It’s a staple in my kitchen and I always recommend a student on the path of Ayurveda befriend this unctuous plant. Shatavari builds the tissues and fluids of the body. It’s a nutritive tonic, powerful adaptogen and a wonderful demulcent for vata-type bodies that struggle to retain water. It’s especially recommended for regulating and rejuvenating the female reproductive system. To stay hydrated, strong and lubricated, use Shatavari to make a tea. Let it steep as long as you like (a whole day even!) and then sip it warm, little by little, throughout the day.

Divine Feminine Ayurveda understands that there is no ideal health. That the mind/body complex is never in perfect balance, but always in flux. When we study Shakti, Life Force, we see that she is always shifting and changing. For that reason, she is not reaching for a standard of perfection, but instead concentrating on her own resources of adaptability. Feminine form medicine understands health as your ability to adapt to the changing environment and circumstances of your life. Divine Feminine Ayurveda is subtle.

The Laws of Nature

Divine Feminine Ayurveda is the ancient wisdom of the body and the cosmos. It reminds us of what we have forgotten--it asks us to remember, Smarana, our ancient knowing. Divine Feminine Ayurveda is deeply connected to nature. It awakens the deep knowing: You Are Nature. You are Already Connected to Nature.

Our society has confused scientific opinions, social media, and advertising, with the limitless knowledge that lives in our hearts. Instead, feminine form medicine asks us to trust ourselves and our bodies. It’s a practice of radical trust, creativity and insight in ourselves: radical self-sovereignty. It asks us to claim our power, our experience and our understanding of our bodies.

Divine Feminine Ayurveda asks us to trust in OWN bodies, as our bodies contain the intelligence of the cosmos, the intelligence of nature. Nothing external can help us if we are not in conscious communion with our body. It posits that we can find balance through our OWN resources.

Divine Feminine Ayurveda bows to nature as the eternal feminine, the most creative and nourishing channel of this world. It is not static or idealistic. It has no preconceived notions of what our body should look like or our minds should be like. It is not authoritarian structures, it is not statistical averages and standards. It is fluid and adaptable.

With this self-sovereignty and trust in nature, feminine form medicine stresses the importance of asking—What do I need now?

It’s a meditation on self-love as the very first step in healing. It’s a mentorship with Self. We are in a moment of revitalization of the feminine. We are remembering Her and finding the courage to live from the heart. We are awakening the Divine Feminine Ayurveda.

[1] “Chapter Five Dhātus.” Textbook of Ayurveda, by Vasant Lad, Ayurvedic Press, 2002, pp. 161–162.

A version of this article appeared on Banyan Botanicals blog on June 20, 2018.

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 principles that we’ll start with, so you have a clearer grasp of Ayurveda’s view of the universe—both macro and micro—and our relationship to it and each other. These basic tenets of Ayurveda are really a jumping off point both for beginning to introduce Ayurvedic ideas into your everyday life and for further study, should you wish to do so, of the deeper philosophies of Ayurveda.

If you have a yoga practice, you can also look at this Ayurvedic foundation as a way to deepen that practice. The mat-based poses many of us would refer to as “yoga” encompass just the tip of the iceberg that is the broader Vedic tradition. A part of this breadth is Ayurveda, yoga’s forgotten, but incredibly important sister science.

Think of yoga and Ayurveda as two interrelated branches of the same massive tree of Vedic knowledge, each playing its own role in your journey towards health, happiness and vitality. While yoga typically deals with the use of techniques such as asana (postures), mantras (sacred transformational sounds), and pranayama (the management of energy), Ayurveda deals with reducing disease and healing the body and mind.

Yoga supports your health, and living an Ayurvedic lifestyle supports your spiritual journey. While yoga supports healing, it is the ancient art of Ayurveda that teaches us how to heal.

~Katie

How to Get Sexy Skin and Feel Like a Goddess

Ayurveda says that self-massage is essential for radiant health and youthful glow. Why?

Whether you make time for a quick foot massage before bed, or you can get into the routine of a deep 10-20 minute self massage before your shower, massaging with our Ayurvedic, herb-infused oils will better your daily life by ridding you of accumulated toxins and coating your body with a layer of love. In fact, the word for oil in Sanskrit is sneha, or “love.”

There are other significant benefits of doing self-massage with good oils.

Here are some to try:

Vata Massage Oil: This rejuvenating oil is a synergistic blend of nine herbs, including ashwagandha, bala and passionflower. The certified organic herbs nourish and ground vata, supporting vitality and vigor. Vata Massage Oil is made from a base of organic sesame and olive oils. These oils warm and lubricate the delicate vata system. Ayurveda highly recommends a daily self-massage to restore calm and provide strength.

Sleep Easy Oil: This calming oil brings you powerful Ayurvedic herbs that promote healthy sleep patterns and deep rest and relaxation. Healthy sleep patterns are crucial as they allow the body to restore and rejuvenate while letting the mind process, learn and de-stress. This cooling and soothing formula is intended to be used with the traditional method of head and foot massage at night before going to bed. Application to the head, temples and soles of the feet helps ground the light and mobile nature of vata and balance the sharp and active nature of pitta, promoting the heavier qualities needed for sleep. The blend is in a base of four organic oils, which come together to bring nourishment, subtle warmth for penetration, and gentle cooling for relaxation. Sleep Easy Oil is then finished with a hint of jasmine and chamomile flowers, bringing soothing scents with ever so mild floral notes. Massage this oil into your head and feet and for a rejuvenating night of rest.

Mahanarayan Oil: Based on an ancient Ayurvedic recipe that delivers powerful muscle and joint targeting herbs in a base of certified organic sesame oil. A nourishing and strengthening oil with rejuvenating and analgesic qualities, it is used to soothe sore muscles and tendons, supporting an active lifestyle and preventing over-use damage. In Ayurvedic terms, Mahanarayan Oil is particularly good for rehabilitating those suffering from disorders due to high vata, supporting rejuvenation of joints affected by wear and tear, joint space narrowing, and synovial fluid dehydration.

The oil can be applied locally to areas where there is physical discomfort. It may also be diluted with a base oil and used in deep-tissue massage.