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daily routine

Kick off the New Year with Delicious Self-Care – The Ayurvedic Daily Ritual

Alright ladies and gentlemen, it’s the New Year. We are all a-buzz with that excitement of new vistas and catalytic potentialities. And, wanna’ know the best way to super-charge your dreams? Start taking care of your body. Your mind will thank you.

Here is my basic Daily Ritual, pulled straight from my soon-to-be-published book on living healthy, happy and sexy with ancient Ayurveda:

Morning Routine

Your morning routine begins the night before: Getting in bed by 10 or 10:30 PM (can be a little later in the summer) will help you start the morning off right.

  1. Wake up at sunrise: If you are exhausted, sick or elderly, please sleep as long as you like. Upon waking, do not get out of bed right away. Try to be aware of your body and feel grateful to be alive before your toes touch earth. Pray.
  2. Drink warm lemon water: This helps to wash the G.I. tract, flushes the kidneys and stimulates peristalsis. If your digestion is sluggish, add 1/2 tsp ginger root powder.
  3. Nature calls: Going to the bathroom upon waking will help clear your digestive system. A healthy “motion” will have a soft brown log quality, little odor and will be well-formed (like a banana). Undigested food, foul odor, mucous, excessive dryness or “pellet-like” quality suggests a digestive imbalance. Altering diet, lifestyle and using herbs will help better this.
  4. Gently scrape your tongue: Buy a silver tongue scraper. Scrape from back to front 5-8 times. The tongue is a mirror of your intestines. When there is a thick white coating on the tongue, it is indicative that ama (toxins) are present. Tongue scraping helps prevent diseases of the oral cavity, improves our ability to taste, gets rids of old food debris and prevents bad odor in the mouth.
  5. Wash the face, mouth, teeth and eyes: Splash your face with cool water. Wash the eyes with cool water or real-deal rose water. You can also buy an eye cup at most pharmacies and use for washing the eyes. Massage your gums with sesame oil. This improves oral hygiene, prevents bad breath, increases circulation to gums, heals bleeding gums and helps us maintain strong healthy teeth.
  6. Mouth detox: Take 1-2 tablespoons of pure sesame oil (not toasted) in the mouth. Gargle and swish until it creates a liquid texture (about 10-15 minutes), and then spit out into trash can. This strengthens teeth, gums and jaw. It also improves the voice, and is said to remove wrinkles from the cheeks! I know you may think 10-15 minutes is a long time – but, just swish it around while you do something else (like your self-massage).
  7. Use a neti pot: Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to warm water in the pot and drain through each nostril. Afterwards, put 3-5 drops of warm sesame oil or ghee in the nostrils to lubricate the nose. This keeps the sinuses cleans, improves voice, vision and mental clarity. Our nose is the door to the brain. Nose drops nourish our prana and enhance intelligence.
  8. Abhyanga (Self-massage): Massage is one of our greatest allies for total health. It nourishes and soothes the nervous systems, stimulates lymphatic flow and aids in detoxification. It also improves circulation, increases vitality, nourishes the skin and promotes body/mind balance.
  9. Exercise: One of greatest allies in moving towards balance, exercise boosts the immune system and is an excellent way to counteract depression. Exercise daily to half capacity. We want to get a little sweaty glow, but not burn out before our day begins.
  10. Bathe: Use natural products.
  11. Meditate: Begin your day with some form of breath-work and meditation. Start with five minutes and work up to at least 20 minutes daily. I sometimes do my meditation before exercise, which is also fine.
  12. Eat breakfast.

Lunch Routines

  1. Try to make lunch your biggest meal of the day. Eat in a pleasant, calm place without distraction.
  2. Take some time to bless the food prior to eating.
  3. After eating, if you can lay down on your left side for 5-20 minutes, this is ideal. Why? Because it helps the digestive organs to do their work to assimilate the meal. If you are at work, even just leaning to the left side in your chair will be helpful.

Afternoon/Early Evening routines

  1. One afternoon routine that helps you deeply relax into your evening is the practice of yoga nidra – a yogi nap. Its also nice to do this prior to dinner, just before sunset.
  2. Eat light at night: Having your last meal before sun-down, and at least 3 hours before bedtime will ensure better sleep. If you feel don’t feel hungry, drink one of my nighty-night tonics like my Golden Yogini Milk.

Nighty-Night Routines

There is no excuse, anymore, for us to not be sleeping. Women need sleep. Men need sleep. Bunnies need sleep. Everybody on the planet needs 6-8 hours of sleep on a regular basis. As Ayurveda expert and author, Dr. Claudia Welch says, “Every cell in the body needs stimulation, and every cell in the body needs nourishment.” Just as we need to exercise, we also need to surrender into rest.

It is also impossible to accomplish your goals if you are chronically sleep-deprived. Plus, your mind/body uses sleep as the washing machine for the subconscious mind. If we aren’t slipping into deep dream-time every night, much of our toxic, unprocessed emotions and experiences don’t get drained away. As Dr. Robert Svoboda says, “Sleep is the wet nurse of society.” Raise your hand if you feel like you need to be wet-nursed?

Ayurveda offers an ideal way for transitioning from the activity of the day into the sacred chamber of sleep. Following these routines will make sleep come effortlessly, and will help keep you asleep through the night:

  1. Set the mood: Depending on the season (in the winter it may be earlier), start turning off overhead lights after dinner. Avoid fluorescent lights always, but especially at night. Low lighting helps tell your body it is time to go to sleep. Lots of light confuses your circadian rhythms and messes with the natural hormones that pull you into the “sleepy feeling.” One of the first questions I people who suffer from insomnia is, “Are your overhead lights still on at 8 and 9 PM?” Switch to low level lighting, candles, or install dimmers on your overhead lights to set the mood for sleep.
  2. No more screen-time: Set an intention to turn off all screens (computers, cellphones, TVs) by 8 or 9 PM. Science now confirms that screens and lighting are also messing with our circadian rhythms.
  3. Be in bed by 10 PM: Have you ever noticed that you get a second wind around 10:30 PM? That’s because the metabolic energy your body normally uses for detoxing you while you sleep gets diverted to mental energy, and we get activated. Our body detoxifies and rejuvenates from 10 PM – 2 AM. When we stay up late, we truly do miss out on beauty sleep. If you currently go to bed at mid-night, use the fifteen-minute rule. Each night, trying going to bed a mere 15 minutes earlier. Within a few weeks, you will soundly sleeping at 10 PM.
  4. Take a warm bath: Taking a scented warm bath can help reset the nervous system towards sleep. Use oils such as frakenscense, myrrh, lavender, honeysuckle, jatamamsi, sandalwood, chamomile, neroli or pure rose for deep slumber.
  5. Avoid too much mental stimulation: Don’t watch evening news. It’s toxic for your dreams. Similarly, avoid planning your future, having intense conversations or any other activity that promotes mental movement before bed.
  6. Light a candle, read a sweet book that makes your heart melt. Say some prayers, and turn in.
  7. Unravel the day: There is a powerful meditative practice for unraveling the day. It actually builds your power of assimilation and boosts memory. Once in bed and laying down, mentally go backwards through your day in increments of 30 minutes. Try to simply register what was happening to you during the day without judgement. Notice your feelings, relax and let all events go. End with the point where you woke up in the morning. Gently drift into sleep.

~Katie

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A Morning Ayurvedic Routine for Lasting Change

It’s so easy to get excited about a new lifestyle change at the beginning of the year. But once February hits, that bright fire of desire may start to burn out, leaving our new life goals a bit cold.

Ayurveda understands this, and encourages us to work slowly and consistently with our life changes. Its better to throw a little stone into a pond daily than try to heft a huge rock once! With little daily-routine pebbles, waves of consistency will ripple out and create a new set point for your life choices.

This slow, steady path is achieved through daily routine (or dinacharya in Sanskrit), and it is essential for real, lasting change. Here are some of the steps in Ayurveda for a bright awakening, that can help set your day on course. Print this list up. Post it in your bathroom or refrigerator until it becomes second nature.

The night before  Try to be in bed by 10 or 10:30pm (it can be a little later in the summer). The body renews and detoxifies itself between the hours of 10pm and 2am.

Rise and shine!  Generally, waking around sunrise is ideal. People who need a little more sleep are children, pregnant women, folks who feel exhausted or burned out, the elderly, or anyone who is sick. Upon waking, try not get out of bed right away. Try to be aware of your body, your breath, and a connection to gratitude. Ayurveda understands everyday as a diamond opportunity inspiring thanksgiving.

Scrape your tongue  One of my favorite Ayurvedic health tools! Buy a silver tongue scraper and scrape from back to front 10-12 times. The tongue is a mirror of your intestines. If you notice a thick coating, it may mean you may want to eat a more cleansing diet, as toxins may be present. Tongue scraping has been shown to help prevent diseases of the oral cavity, improves our ability to taste, gets rids of old food debris and prevents bad odor in the mouth. Plus, if you dont get rid of that gunk first thing in the morning, it will end up back in the body.

Brush your teeth  Check out an herbal/Ayurvedic toothpaste at your local health food store. Look for ones containing neem, triphala and/or peelu.

Washing the face, mouth, teeth and eyes   Splash some cool water on your face, or cleanse with a nice Ayurvedic soap containing neem or sandalwood. If your eyes feel dry or red, you can splash them with a little rose water. Massage your gums with warm sesame oil. This improves oral hygiene, prevents bad breath, boosts circulation in the gums and helps us maintain strong healthy teeth.

Drink warm lemon water  Squeezing half a fresh lemon into some warm water will help to wash the GI tract, flush out the kidneys and stimulates good bowel health. If your digestion feels slow, add a splash of cayenne or 1/2 tsp. of ginger root powder.

Nature calls   Going to the bathroom upon waking will help clear your digestive system. A healthy “motion” will have a soft brown log quality, little odor, and will be well-formed (like a banana). Undigested food, foul smell, mucous, blood, excessive dryness or “pellet-like” quality, as well as “sinkage” indicates digestive imbalance. Altering diet, lifestyle and using herbs will help better this.

Get oily   Self-massage, or abhyanga, is one of our best allies for radiance. In fact, the old texts say its better to pay the “oil man” today than the doctor tomorrow. Massaging your skin daily nourishes and soothes the nervous system, stimulates lymphatic flow and aids in detoxification. It also improves circulation, boosts your vitality, and makes you feel more balanced emotionally and mentally. Use a high-quality organic oil such as sesame, sunflower, or coconut. Warm the oil in your hands, then rub down, making sure not to skip any parts. Let the oil soak in for at least 20 minutes and then shower.

Meditation, prayer, devotion   I like to meditate after I’m drenched out in my warm oil.

Get your body moving   Do some exercise that suits your mood and the season. When done regularly, exercise grounds us, boosts the digestive fire, and burns up any extra fat and toxicity. Adding yoga to your routine will open and clear your energy channels, as well as your physical body.

Bathe  Use non-toxic, all-natural soaps without chemicals. Look for soaps with sandalwood, neem, and other skin-friendly herbs.

Nourish your belly  Eat a healthy, seasonally appropriate breakfast. The best time? Eating around 8-8:30 in the morning will give your agni (metabolic fire) time to be strong for lunchtime.

~Katie

This article originally appeared on the Yoga Journal Blog on February 1, 2013.

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Sleep Like A Baby

“There are three supports (pillars) of life. They are food, sleep and observances of bramacharya. Being supported by these, the body is endowed with strength, complexion and growth, and this continues up [until] the full span of life, provided that the person does not indulge in regimens detrimental to health.”

Charaka Samhita

This Ayurvedic quote reminds us that sleep is one of the most critical elements of health and well-being. Flip ahead a few thousand years to modern times, where lack of sleep tops the charts for chronic health complaints. Ayurveda holds sleep as the “wet nurse of the world.” It is a time when our body heals tissue, detoxifies and does a major sub-conscious dump on any undigested life emotions and scenarios. And so, if we aren’t satisfied with our nightly slumber, we just aren’t getting enough of the wet nurse.

In that light, I wanted to give you some super-practical, easy home remedies that will help ensure that you sleep like a baby this season.  These pointers will help you turn bedtime into sacred ritual:

Make it cozy. Make sure your body feels comfortable. Sometimes feeling cold is enough to keep your body from relaxing into dreamland. Invest in eco-friendly, soft sheets and other bedding.

Get rid of the clutter. There should be nothing in the bedroom that distracts the mind from relaxation. Remove stacks of papers you need to file at the office. Take any spare change and old piles of mail off the top of your dresser. Throw out anything that has lived under your bed for more than a year.

Eat light at night.  Have your last meal at least 3 hours before bedtime.

Set the mood for sleep. One of the first questions I ask insomniacs is, “Are your lights still on at 8 and 9 pm?” Start turning off overhead lights an hour or so before bedtime. Avoid fluorescent lights always, but especially at night. Low lighting helps inform the body that it is time to start turning in for sleep. Try using lamps and candles instead, and if you do have overhead lighting, think about installing dimmers.

Turn off the screens. Set an intention to turn off all electronic screens (computers, cellphones, TVs) by 9 pm. Screens and artificial lighting can disturb the circadian rhythms that produce sleep hormones.

Be in bed by 10 pm.  I know, I know, this one is tough. But have you ever noticed that you get a second wind around 10 or 10:30? That’s because the energy and metabolic processes your body normally uses for cleaning itself out while you sleep get diverted to mental energy if we’re awake. According to Ayurveda, our body detoxifies and rejuvenates from 10pm through 2 am. When we stay up late, we truly do miss out on beauty sleep. If you typically go to bed at midnight, try the 15-minute rule. Each night, head to bed a mere 15 minutes earlier. Within a few weeks, you will be soundly sleeping at 10!

Take a warm bath. Taking a scented, warm bath before bed almost always induces amazing slumber. Add a few drops of essential oils, such as myrrh, lavender, honeysuckle, jatamamsi (an Ayurvedic herb that grows in the Himalayas), sandalwood, chamomile, neroli, or pure rose.

Oil up. Rub some pure sesame oil in your ears, nose, on the crown of the head and on the soles of the feet before bed. This is a tried-and-true Ayurvedic sleep enhancer.

Unravel the day.  This powerful Tantric practice actually strengthens your ability to assimilate life, and can enhance your memory. Once in bed, mentally go back through your day in increments of 30 minutes. Try to simply register what happened during the day, in the 30 minutes before bedtime, then 30 minutes before that, et cetera, without judgment. Notice any feelings that come up as you go through the catalog of your day, then let them go. End with the point where you woke up in the morning. Gently drift into sleep.

Brew a cup. Herbal teas soothe the mind and body, and are a lovely way to wind down before sleep.  Try lavender, chamomile, oat straw, or lemon balm. Add a little ghee or coconut oil for added lusciousness, or a few strands of saffron and some warm milk.

This article originally appeared on the Yoga Journal Blog on November 15, 2012.

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TheShaktiSchool

Goddess - I can’t wait for you to get your hands Goddess - I can’t wait for you to get your hands on my Summer Ayurveda Recipe Mix Tape - where every slurp, sip and spoonful is a devotional act of beauty, pleasure and full-body honoring. 🍓💦 ⁠
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Inside its 30+ drool-worthy pages you’ll find smoothies that melt like silk on your tongue, hydrating herbal coolers that will kindle your inner flirt and goddess-approved, belly-loving meals that whisper: ⁠
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“Slow down, lady. You’re allowed to feel this good.”⁠
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Because that’s what Summer of Love is really about.⁠
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Right now we’re offering the LOWEST price, PLUS the highest-value free gifts, that we’ll be offering for Shakti Ayurveda School all year. Period. ⁠
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Sign up for the 2026 Ayurveda School before 8/11 and you’ll get my Ayurveda Summer Recipe Mix Tape e-book FREE, plus:⁠
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Ready to claim 2026 as your most transformational, soul-honoring, juicy year yet and join us in Shakti Ayurveda School? ⁠
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What Vanilla ice has to do with our Ayurveda progr What Vanilla ice has to do with our Ayurveda program. Ice ice baby summer! 🔻🌺🪐😉🌹🙌🏻😝
The Summer of Love Sale is ON, babe. ☀️⁠ ⁠ The Summer of Love Sale is ON, babe. ☀️⁠
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This is your invitation to turn up the pleasure, turn down the heat and say YES to healing, soul purpose + reclaiming your innate feminine wisdom.⁠
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When you join our Ayurvedic Wellness Coach Certification Program now through August 11th, you’ll receive:⁠
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— 💸 $100 off tuition on any payment plan (which is already the lowest earlybird price you’ll see all year)⁠
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— 🍹 A downloadable, 30+ page Ayurveda for Summer Recipe Book chock full of brand new recipes like Creamy Cucumber-Mint Kitchari, Herbed Turkey Patties with Yogurt Mint Sauce and Strawberry-Rose Moon Smoothie (trust me, you’ll be drooling 🤤)⁠
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🎁 Gifts only available until August 11th. Grab your spot + your gifts now at the link in bio.
Katie here. The real one.  It is summer in Virgi Katie here. The real one. 

It is summer in Virginia and today it’ll reach 101 degrees. I’m covered in rose oil, drinking coconut water and main-lining some sweet watermelon chunks to power up the morning. 

In other words - it’s HOT.

And I seem to always forget how activating the summertime can be. It comes out of nowhere, right? The intensity. The anger. The insomnia. The hot-flash.

But, there is one thing I come back to time and time again - and that’s The Shakti School Basics. 

Here is what that looks like:

1. Stop. Pause. Lay down or sit down. 
2. Make a commitment to be still for a bit.
3. Feel and open to everything that is arising in this moment.
4. Breathe. Let your awareness drop in and down your body. 
5. Breathe. Let your awareness rise above your body. 
6. Breathe. Let your heart soften and open and receive. 
7. Rest in the opening and stillness and energy that is always there. 
8. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

This is the starting point for everything we do in Level 1 Ayurveda School, which BTW we have just opened for early bird registration! 

And in honor of cooling our collective summer heat - I want to give you SO much cool stuff. Plus, a way to connect and start studying with me RIGHT NOW! 

🌞 Summer of Love is Here, Sister! 

When you sign up for 2026 Ayurveda School during our Summer of Love Sale (now through August 11th only), you’ll get:

💖$100 off tuition 

🌿FREE Paavani Pitta Summer Kit (aka a mini Pitta-reducing spritzer, cooling body oil and soothing spice blend)

🌸A YEAR-LONG FREE MEMBERSHIP to our thriving Spirit Sessions membership platform where you get immediate access to ALL of my Spirit Sessions meditations, classes, workshops and other resources. Plus! Immediate access to my ground-breaking CHAKRAS course (a $1000 value!) and LIVE monthly workshops with yours truly and special guests.

✨A downloadable Ayurveda for Summer recipe book, straight outta’ Katie’s kitchen

Just use the code SummerofLove at registration check out to receive the discount and ALL the gifts (and YES, this applies to 2026 Level 1 & Level 2)!

🍉 Sign up before 8/11 to claim your free gifts.

With sunshine + soul,
Katie + The Shakti School Team
The best food on the planet can’t help you if yo The best food on the planet can’t help you if you don’t have the digestive fire to transform and assimilate what you are putting in your body.⁠
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The ancient texts called this digestive fire AGNI.⁠
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Agni is what transforms and assimilates what we are taking in, whether it’s food, life experiences or thoughts. ⁠
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Ayurveda holds that many of our diseases start with the accumulation of toxins (ama) in the body. This sludge builds up when our metabolic fire is unable to burn what we are putting into the body. ⁠
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When our agni is functioning well, Ayurveda teaches that our body will be healthy, our skin radiant, our mind clear and our energy balanced.⁠
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The good news is this: You can start boosting your agni right now with this little tip. ⁠
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👉🏽 Add Ginger Pickle to your routine! And no - it’s not the kind of pickle you pile high on a sandwich - it’s more of an agni-honoring, pre-meal ritual.⁠
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A small dab (about the size of your thumb tip) is traditionally taken before meals to stimulate the digestive fire and awaken agni.⁠
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🫚Here’s the Ginger Pickle how-to: Slice a few pieces of fresh ginger. Add a pinch of rock salt and a spray of fresh lemon or lime juice. Eat before meals to kick-start your metabolic fire!

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