The Shakti School

Feminine Form Sacred Technology

holistic health

Self-Love? How About We Start With SELF-LIKE

The biggest epidemic we face right now is the sickness of our lack of loving ourselves. I hear about it all the time in my line of work. And as I read the millionth blog post about self-love, I take pause. I think a much better place to start is self-like. You can’t fall in love until you fall in like.

Last week, a gorgeous, talented, 20-something woman asked me if I thought she was beautiful. She felt so ugly. Fat. She asked me if I thought she’d ever make something of herself. If I believed in her…I looked at her, mouth-agape. How is the beauty butterfly not landing on this child’s heart? How is the beyond-obviousness of her beauty escaping her?

But I know why.

Inside all of us lives a tiny little wounded bunny. The proverbial Inner child.

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This stuff is so real. Until we actively begin to engage with this creature….like it, snuggle it, ask it what it needs,

get to know it, can we ever hope to truly love it and integrate it. There is so much talk in the spiritual world on transcending. Just get over it. But you can’t get over it until you’ve gone through it. Felt it. Healed it through an intimacy that combines the Love Witness with the Wounded One. That love session creates the alchemical fuel needed to burn and rise.

Self-love can be defined by how capacious we are at actually liking our funny, quirky, silly little inner child. Self-love happens when we know where she/he got hurt, and we remain SUPER gentle with those places (without letting them run the show).

When I was little I would hide peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my piano bench. I used to hate that little kid and would get mad as she showed up in me as an adult. Why can’t “hide peanut butter sandwich girl just go away!?” I did not like her. In fact, I hated her.

My first step towards healing was a full-on shamanic love fest with her. I had to SEE her. See her geeky glasses, her braces, her chubby fingers, her broken heart that longed to be comforted and understood. I had to be with the fact that she needed soothing. She was a little girl. And she wasn’t getting that soothing from the people that she wanted it from the most. Ergo, peanut butter.

Today I can honestly share that I like that chubby girl. She has mad piano playing skills. She still eats peanut butter. She’s not perfect. She’s emotional. And I like that about her. I’ve worked hard to keep her alive in a world that so often destroys innocence.

Beloved friend – what parts of yourself have you kicked out of your own heart?

Join us in Ayurveda School. I’ll teach you how to fall in like with these unintegrated spaces. And who knows, maybe even fall in love…

~Katie

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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

Read more in Healthy, Happy, Sexy!

Photos by Naomi Huober

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You Are So Much More Than You Know

Two big questions that most human beings will ponder at some point in their lives: “Who am I?” and “How can I get more of what I want in my life?”

Some of us may even ask ask them on a daily basis.

One of the things I love about the Tantric yoga tradition is its systematic approach to answering both of these inquiries. The Taittiriya Upanishad, one of the most important yogic scriptures, says that if we really want to know who we are, and get more joy and fulfillment in life, we gotta get to know our subtle anatomy.

Why? Because we are, according to Tantric anatomy, not one, but a composite of five bodies (pancha koshas): the physical body, the energetic body, the mental/emotional body, the inner-teacher or wisdom body, and the bliss body. When we can bring awareness into the deep layers of each of these bodies, we gain access to our highest, most evolved, powerful Self.

Body Mapping

Each of these bodies comes with their own limitations, access points, and super-powers. The more we know about each one of them, and the more familiar we get in their unique flavors, the more we have a relationship to them. And when we can relate them as as layers of who we are, the more they begin to show us their hidden contents.

The teachings go on to explain that what is hidden in these bodies is both our unconscious negative patterning, as well as our greatest gifts and powers. When the patterns that are hidden in the bodies emerge, we are no longer under the pull of the unconscious stuff. We can now get more of what we truly want as we bring the limitations and the latent capacities of the unconscious to the surface. In the end, when we penetrate the last layer of who we are, we are left with an endless power to create, act, and know.

Access Points

The physical. Many activities invite us into the physical body. Asana, for example, is an excellent way to tune in. We can feel our bones and they way they stack on top of each when we come into a Plank Pose. What happens to the tops of your thighs when you do Warrior 1 for long enough? Perhaps a burning sensation or a “shaking with joy.” Dancing will also bring you into the physical. So will a big meal, strong pain, sex, or a sunburn.

The energetic. Commonly referred to as the prana body, this can be felt when we keep the physical body still. We experience prana, according to the teachings, as subtle moving sensations like vibration and pulse, or we see it when we close our eyes as color or light. We can also experience prana as the impulse that pulls breath into the body (without us trying at all), and the force that causes air to leave again. This is one of the reasons the yogis encouraged such a strong connection to the breath. Prana also rides along the many intelligent processes in the body: the heart beat, the circulation of blood, and the capacity of our sensory organs.

The mental/emotional. This is where many of us spend a lot of time. It’s the part of us that thinks, plans, decides, emotes, and reacts. Its also the part of us that over-thinks, obsessively plans, sits in indecision, represses emotion instead of channeling it, and overreacts. Meditation is a wonderful way to access this body in a balanced and helpful way. Simply sitting and watching your thoughts, opinions, and judgements with a sense of detachment can give you more access to witnessing (and being less identified by the pulls of) this body.

The inner teacher.  This is also often called the Wisdom Body. We can think of it as the highest aspect of our intuition and conscience. It’s the part of you that urges you out of bed to meditate or go for a run when you’d much rather lounge in the sheets checking Facebook. It’s the part of us that always knows the right path to take. Just like we would lift weights to make the physical body strong, we strengthen this body by sitting in silence, and sharpening our ability to hear the voice of our soul. When this body is strong, our daily actions become giant steps forward in the direction of our highest life purpose, our calling, our big destiny. We move from a place of knowingness instead of reaction.

The bliss. It’s pretty amazing that the subtlest aspect of who we are, at the core of all the other bodies, is referred to as an ocean of unending waves of bliss. Ironically, we access this body by actually dis-identifying with everything. To practice being in your bliss body, you can try the Tantric practice of neti neti, a word meaning “not this, not that.” In a meditative seat, notice what arises in your field of awareness. A thought about your job pops up and you say/acknowledge, “I’m not that.” You feel your low back ache a little, same thing: “I’m not that.” You feel your desire for more intimate love, “I’m not that.” A hunger pang arises, “I’m not this.” You sense light in front of your forehead, “I’m not that.” You may even feel, for a split second, the bliss. And in that moment, remember,  “I’m not even that.” The more you keep surrendering into non-identification, the more, the teachings promise, the bliss can flow.

~Katie

This article was originally published on the Yoga Journal Blog on June 25, 2012.

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Fire and Nectar: Creating Balance the Tantric Way

416A6278 I’ve experimented a lot lately, really looking into how to be a balanced lady.

On one hand, I like to dance. I like to dance hard. Like a wild African trance-healer. And on the other hand, I like to sit still. I meditate like a silent sturdy mountain and I feel like Shiva’s best student (or even better, his consort). On one hand, I like to laugh – loudly. I like to run through trees and make love. On the other hand, I know I need to lay down, rub my self in oil and get intimate with my deep belly breath.

Being a yogini means you can KNOW and to DISCERN when you need to be a wild African trance dancer. And when you need to sit in the silence of the present moment.

Most systems of organizing the universe – including Ayurveda, Tantra, and Traditional Chinese medicine – understand this dyad as the two polarity-forces permeating all of nature. The Tantrics referred to these forces as Agni and Soma. The Ayurvedically-inclined called this duo Brahmana and Langhana. The Chinese called it Yin and Yang. You can call it, as does my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Claudia Welch, Ginger and Fred.

You see, the words don’t matter. It’s the way in which we begin to see these two polarities in our own life that will bring insight. For the sake of ease (and because I like saying the word “nectar,”) let’s use Dr. David Frawley’s terms – agni (fire) and soma (nectar).

Agni

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What is agni? Agni means fire. It is both living and conceptual, metaphorical and practical. Fire is transformational. It is the eater, the enjoyer, and is related to your Spirit as a transforming process. It is related to pitta dosha, purity, digestion, clarity of mind. On the hormonal level, it is related to our stress hormones, and our need for activation and stimulation.

How do I build agni? Through things like asana, cleansing techniques (diet), bhanda, tapas, tejas, certain pranayamas and meditations that bring more focus and silence.

Soma

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What is soma? Soma means nectar. It is both living and conceptual, metaphorical and practical. Soma is related to earth and water. It is what is eaten and what is enjoyed. It is the body and the moon.  It is related to the kapha dosha and to our core vital essences. It is the nectar and enjoyment of life’s experiences. It is the rasa, the lymph fluids, the immune system, our sexual fluids and the subtle electro-watery secretions of the nervous system from brain to root. It is the Divine Spirit linking all creatures in the “flow of bliss.” In the endocrine system, it is related to our sexual hormones.

How do I build soma? Dr. Frawley says, “When the mind is still and calm like a mountain lake, it will produce its own inner soma.” Inner soma is built through re-attuning to natural wisdom, meditation, mantra, and the descent of “grace” that comes through stillness and silence. Outer somas can be built through balanced sensory enjoyment, the flow of releasing stagnant emotion, through imbibing sacred plant essences (herbs and diet), smells (incense, oils and other aromatics), ritual, and restorative yoga.

~Katie

Photos by Naomi Huober

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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.

~Katie

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Eat Well

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That you are what you eat may be standard wisdom, but according to Ayurvedic tradition, the state of your mind, emotions, and your environment while you eat also has direct impact on the way you feel. These teachings (as well as modern scientific nutrition studies), show us that eating in the right way can reduce stress and promote calm.

The ancient yogis taught that one of the first and most important of spiritual practices was food sadhana, the art and discipline of what, when, where, why and how we put food into our bodies.

For physical, emotional, and mental health, it may not be enough to just load up on organic fruits, veggies, and grains. Even if we eat super-healthful food, if we consume mindlessly, eat in a rush, or shovel it in while texting or similarly distracted, the body can’t settle into its digestive processes. And if we eat while feeling sad, angry, or under significant stress, the digestive fire gets weakened, and instead of feeling satisfied, the mind will feel disturbed post-digestion.

Here are 10 simple Ayurvedic tips for cultivating calm-body nutritional habits:

Prepare your food with love.  The energy of the cook is always in the food. Avoid eating meals that may have been prepared in anger or resentment. Ayurveda understands that we not only eat the food, but also the emotions of the chef. So, if you are angry or distracted and can’t seem to focus, put down the kitchen knife, pick up the phone, and order some yummy take-out instead.

Awaken to your food.  Begin to bring consciousness to your eating habits. As you are preparing the food, sense that you are offering it up to your divine self. Tune into the smell of freshly baked bread, the color of sunny turmeric, or the texture of jasmine rice in your hands, even before you taste the flavors of the food.

Tune into nature.  When we eat, we are not only consuming the food on our plate but also the stimulus in our environment. According to Ayurveda, the impressions we take in through the senses can disturb the mind and hinder digestion. If you are watching television or reading the newspaper, you are “ingesting through your eyes,” causing prana to move out and not inward where it needs to be for proper digestion. It is highly recommended that you eat in or near to nature. If that’s not practical, even placing houseplants within view of your table will help. Of course, birds and flowing streams are an added bonus.

Savor the chewing. Take time to chew your food slowly, until it becomes an even consistency. Ayurvedic practitioners recommend chewing each bite of food 30-50 times so that you begin to break down the food in the mouth before it travels the rest of the digestive tract. Complete chewing allows complex carbohydrates, sugars, oils, proteins, and other minerals to reach maximum levels of absorption.

Make eating a ritual.  Pause for a moment as you sit down to eat, mindful of what you’re doing and where your food came from. Possibly offer up a prayer of gratitude for all the people, animals, plants, and Universal forces that brought the meal to your plate.

Let it digest. Following your meals, take some time to relax to let your food digest before going on to your next activity. Even if it’s just for 5 minutes, it is helpful to take a small pause between your meal and the next activity. One of my Ayurveda teachers in India offers this easy little ditty for remembering a post-digestion ritual:“After lunch, rest a while. After dinner, walk a moon-lit mile.” And allow at least three hours between meals to allow your food to fully digest. If you feel hungry, sip herbal tea.

Stop before you’re full. This is easier to gauge when you eat mindfully and slowly. When you overeat, you weaken agni, or digestive fire. Whatever you don’t digest will turn into accumulated toxins in the gut. This has a dramatic impact on how you feel physically and mentally.

Take a lunch break. Make lunch the largest meal of the day, and take time to eat it. Digestion is strongest around mid-day, when the sun is at its peak. The body’s rhythms mirror the rhythms of nature.

Watch emotional eating. Do you turn to the chocolate or coffee when you feel overwhelmed or exhausted at work? Do you dig into a bag of chips when you feel lonely? If so, try to consciously make a different choice like taking a brief walk or having a cup of herbal tea and see how you feel.

Do table meditation. Before eating, take a moment to close your eyes. Bring your attention to your belly and breathe slowly. Ask yourself, “What do I really need?” Before eating, ask yourself, “Am I hungry, or am I just angry (tired, lonely, exhausted, bored, etc.)?” This is the crucial moment where we have the capacity to move from the unconscious realm of compulsive and dysfunctional behavior, and into the realm of awareness and calm. From this place, we have better access to the inner teacher that knows what we need for nourishment and strength.

This article was originally published in the Yoga Journal Blog on January 26, 2012.

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Sex and the Three Doshas

We are all a composite of all three doshas. There are times when you may feel like making love like a bunny (vata style) or lounging about like a tigress (kapha style). Remember, you have all of nature’s gifts at your disposal, so don’t put yourself in a sexual doshic box.

That said, we do have tendencies that we were born with, and those tendencies lead us toward behaviors, which in turn have their own doshic expressions. For example, vata is the part of our sexual expression that is mobile. When vata is balanced, we have freedom of movement, but also the ability to hold back our climax. When out of balance, climax can happen too fast and sex can leave us feeling depleted and breathless. Pitta is the part of our sexuality that relates to sexual vitality and vigor. It is the part of us that initiates sex and feels the burning passion for our lover. When out of balance, we may have no desire. Kapha sexuality is related to our sexual staying power, potency, and physical unctuousness. When in balance, our sex secretions are of good quantity and quality. Excess kapha can lead to sexual laziness and a heavy quality to lovemaking.

Sexual expression is all about expansiveness. Through the union of two beings, and orgasm, there is a potentiality to experience a state of consciousness very different from the consciousness you hold, say, in line at the post office or on the phone with your mother (thank God). Due to this potential for expansion, sex can be incredibly healing or incredibly destructive.

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Healthy, life-bringing, satisfying sex requires open channels. Think of the entire mind/body as a complex and interrelated system of physical and energetic tubes (srotas and nadis). Just as there are channels that move our blood, lymph, and waste products, there are also channels that move our sex

ual energy. In general, if we are blocked in any of the channels, our sexual energy can be blocked. This is why chronically constipated women commonly suffer from depressed libido and sleep disorders, in that both sleep and sex require a relaxing and an opening in the channels that govern letting go.

Similarly, if we are worried or unsatisfied, our sex channels get blocked. In this holistic framework, taking care of your digestion, skin, and emotions can create a mandala-like positive effect on every other realm of your life. Who would have thought it? Igniting the power of your digestion may be the best way to have more fulfilling orgasms.

~Katie

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How to Stay Warm, Wet and Loved Up Like a Tigress This Fall

My new plant-crush is on an herb called Kapikacchu. Its a natural source of levadopa (L-dopa) which is an essential precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine. And um, can you say “in the mood?” Here are some good links and info on my favorite How to Stay Fabulous in Fall Ayurveda products.

Sleep like a sweet baby with jasmine and sesame oil for the scalp and head -an ancient Ayurvedic method for calming the system before sleep.

Feel as strong as a horse with Ashwaghanda tincture – Ashwagandha is one of the most highly regarded and commonly used adaptogens in the Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia. Maximizing the body’s ability to resist stress, it enables the body to reserve and sustain vital energy throughout the day while promoting sound, restful sleep at night. It is considered one of the best herbs for calming vata and for revitalizing the male reproductive system. Used by both men and women, it maintains proper nourishment of the tissues, particularly muscle and bone, while supporting proper function of the adrenals. This potent herb is used to promote muscle strength and to support comfortable joint movement.

Have a happy baby belly – Vata Digest’s heating quality enkindles the digestive fire, stimulates a healthy appetite and helps ensure that nutrients are properly absorbed and assimilated. Its grounding quality helps calm the excessive air movement in the system that is characteristic of vata. The oil quality of the herbs supports the natural lubrication of the intestines, assisting in thorough and healthy elimination.

Make love like a tiger with Kapikacchu. This beautiful plant is a nutritive tonic commonly used in Ayurveda as an aphrodisiac and to support proper function of the reproductive system. It increases sexual energy and strengthens and tones the reproductive organs. In men, kapikacchu supports potency, stamina and control. In women it promotes a healthy libido and fertility. The vitality bestowed by kapikacchu nourishes the entire body and calms the nerves making it an excellent rejuvenative for vata. It is also natural source of levadopa (L-dopa) which is an essential precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine.

~Katie

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