holistic

Subtly Sweet Harvest Muffins

~sweeter foods are a reminder of the sweetness of life~

Craving more sweets this fall? A vata-pacifying diet actually calls for more sweet (madhura) taste. Beyond being comforting, soul-hugging and grounding, the sweet taste pacifies vata, invigorates the mind, strengthens the immune system, nourishes body tissues and enhances the ojas. Satisfy your sweet taste with these yummy fall muffins crafted from whole grains, a good dose of vata-pacifying spices and some orchard-fresh apples!

Gluten-free Buckwheat Muffins with Apples & Walnuts

Dry ingredients: ½ cup crushed walnuts; 1 cup almond flour; ½ cup buckwheat flour; ⅓ cup ground flax seed; 1 tsp each powdered ginger, cinnamon & salt; ¼ tsp each nutmeg, cardamom & allspice; ½ tsp each of baking powder & baking soda

Wet ingredients: ½ cup coconut oil, ½ cup maple syrup, 3 eggs, ⅓ cup non-dairy yogurt, ¼ cup nut milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 finely diced apples (medium-sized)

Instructions: Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients, including apples. Add wet to dry and mix well. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Pair a freshly baked muffin with a nourishing cup of Golden Yogini Milk or another Shakti-infused recipe.

Tips for Autumn Thriving and Lovin’ on Your Liver

Just… WHEW! As we shift from summer’s on-the-go intensity to the calmer, more introspective winter months, let’s pause and take a cleansing breath, shall we? 🙏🙏🙏

Change is in the air, and we’re in that blurry space between summer and fall. During this time of flux, you might experience Mamma Earth’s seasonal changes in yourself: dry leaves = dry skin; windy weather = gassy belly; swirling, erratic leaves = scattered mind; naked trees = raw, exposed feelings. ⚡POW!⚡

Repeat after me: Grounding. Warming. Routine. Release. That’s my autumn mantra for vata-balancing goodness.

⭐Grounding: Rather than maintaining the activity of summer, now’s the time to slow down and adopt different rhythms. Savor simplicity and cultivate balance in the stillness. Stabilize your mind with rhythmic breathing and leave space in your day to rest and reflect. During your yoga practice, try less postures with longer breaths.

⭐Warming: Introduce vata-based nutrition: root vegetables like carrots, potatoes and beets; soups and broths; and late-summer harvested apples and pears. Lube your skin with oil massages, take a bath with ginger powder and use warming essential oils like geranium, mahanarayan and vetiver.

⭐Routine: Make conscious effort to stick to your daily routines of sleep, work, exercise and eating. Routine is always a good idea, especially during fall when erratic vata can knock you off balance.

⭐Release: Autumn invites time to pause and reflect on what is holding you back from reaching your life’s true dharma and purpose. Just as the leaves eventually release and let go this season, YOU TOO can release what is not serving you. ❤️

Cleanse Your Liver with Ease this Fall

~give your liver some lovin’~

Ode to the liver! As our body’s primary detoxifying powerhouse, we want to keep our livers in tip-top shape. 🎺Enter a liver detox!🎺 Before vata can take over this fall, help your body get rid of old pitta heat accumulated over the summer. A simple liver detox will help you restore and enhance liver functionality, boost your immune system and prep your body for the winter ahead.

✨Limit caffeine, alcohol, sugar and dairy and swap excess fats and proteins for more vegetables, bitter greens, aloe vera, rice and berries.

✨Eat lighter, smaller portions (broth-based soups are great!) Steam or lightly saute your foods.

✨Prioritize your Zzzzz’s. Liver detoxification happens during sleeping hours.

✨Your liver is a hotpot of emotions. Quiet your mind with meditation, pranayama and yoga.

✨Add herbs that support a liver cleanse: bhumyamalaki, kutki, guduchi, amla + turmeric.

✨Cleanse your colon. Yes, really. Your colon is home to the vata dosha and a therapeutic enema (basti) can be a powerful step in cleansing toxins and buildup.

✨If you’re seeking a more in-depth, traditional Ayurvedic cleanse this fall, get started with Katie’s kitchari recipe!

It’s Never Too Late: Honoring the Unlimited Power of the Wise Older Woman

By Christine Griggs

I will never forget my first day of Shakti School.

I had signed up for Level 1 of the Ayurveda Training just two months before. It had caught my eye -and my soul- over a year ago, but I kept
finding reasons not to sign up.

~I was 58 years old. I already had my midlife crisis when I gave up my
translator career to become a yoga teacher thirteen years ago. Did I
really need to embark on something new? Wasn’t yoga enough?

~Wasn’t it too late to learn Ayurveda, The Science of Life, when over half
of my life was behind me?

~Wasn’t it too late to change my lifestyle with new Ayurveda practices?

~And, as some of my acquaintances felt the need to share: “I could do it
too, but it’s too much of a commitment.”

As I sat in our virtual classroom, seeing fresh young faces pop up in their Zoom boxes, I realized I was one of the oldest participants, and this question popped into my mind: “Do I belong here?”

I sat with the discomfort for a few minutes, I melted into it and let it carry me into our first class. As the class unfolded and Katie did her magic, I realized that YES I belonged here. And the commitment was a joy. Over the next 2 ½ years, those classmates became sisters, some are now dear friends. Age did not matter at all. I felt closer to those young women than I did to most women my age. It was not too late for me to enter this sisterhood. It was exactly the right time!

At 61, I just graduated from Level 2 as an Ayurveda counselor. Not joining Level 2 was not even an option! I couldn’t imagine a better container of love and support to enter my sixties than my family of sisters and this ancient knowledge that sustains me.

The fear of getting older

Most women fear getting older. Our society does everything to drive that fear, bombarding us with images of what the ideal woman supposedly looks like: eternally smooth-skinned and flat-bellied. Once they’ve instilled that fear in us, we’re a captive audience to buy their stuff that will supposedly make us feel and look younger. It’s a billion-dollar industry.

My friend Debbie is 73 and has been letting her gray roots grow out. Her female acquaintances are pestering her with: “You should cover those grays, it ages you.” She started to doubt herself. Believe me, she looks vibrant and beautiful. And I keep reminding her of that. A woman should never submit to society’s pressure of what she should look like or do. What liberates her is what makes her beautiful.

Let’s encourage our sisters to be themselves instead of gnawing at their self-esteem with words that stunt their growth.

“The making of a woman who has continued to grow is a beautiful thing to behold.” –Naomi Wolf

Dare to be yourself

Like most of us, when I was younger, I thought 60 was super old: time to retire and pursue hobbies. But I find myself in my sixties feeling young and vibrant, with a growing business and more projects and ideas than I can handle. I’m pursuing the dreams I didn’t have time for as a householder working and taking care of my family.

My first love is writing and, growing up in France, I dreamed of being the youngest literary prodigy of the century. Well, it took me several decades to write my first book, not as a young prodigy, but as a 57-year-old woman who believed it’s never too late. Remember that your dreams take different shapes.

My friend Dede just launched her own brand at 62, combining her love of dancing and helping others. She tells me she’s never felt so alive: “It’s my time now.”

Carol has been my private yoga student for 10 years. She dared to start yoga at 69, because “some part of me was not whole. I could feel it in every part of my being. I had no idea what was in store for me…” It changed her life.

On the other hand, I know many women of my generation who are paralyzed by the fear of stepping out of the box society built for them. They’re so worried about doing the “right acceptable things” that they’re not doing the right thing for them. This box is comfortable, but it’s not fulfilling. Filling the box with more stuff does not fill their soul.

Sadly, most of the time, we’re the ones setting limitations for ourselves. For example, whenever people hear I’m French, they almost always tell me: “I always wanted to learn French, I dream to go to Paris and speak French with the locals.” My answer always is: “Why don’t you?” And they invariably answer: “Oh, it’s too late now!” And I reply: “No, it’s not too late! You could either start now and you will be ordering pastries in French in a Parisian patisserie next year or not start and be in the exact same place: wishing you were speaking French in Paris.”

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream.” –C.S. Lewis.

Wear the Crown of the Crone

Our society has been disparaging old age, especially in women, for too long. The meaning of Crone is not the derogatory term used in our society, that of the withered disheveled ragged old hag. The Crone is a majestic title to wear with pride, it means the One who wears the Crown.

Disrespecting the older woman means dishonoring the Sacred Feminine, a principle seriously lacking in our modern world. Our role as women is to put the Crone back on her throne. As we do this, we reclaim our Goddess status for ourselves and future generations.

I have made it my mission to demystify aging. I want my younger sisters to see passing years as a joy and privilege and something they can actually look forward to.

I also want to encourage my older sisters to see their mature years as an empowering opportunity to learn, grow and dream, and be a role model for younger generations. Not with their material possessions, but with their wealth of experience, wisdom and especially with their example. Young women look up to us to see what “getting older” looks like. They notice how we act and react. They notice if we still have a passion for life and if we care about the world. They notice if we are willing to take risks and go on adventures, learn and grow alongside them. Just as they are our hope, we are their hope for what’s awaiting them. Let’s show them that owning their aging journey is their superpower!

“This time belongs to the Crone. She’s arriving into the greatest time of her life. Creativity is blossoming, even exploding within her. She’s never felt more free and she’s never felt more empowered than now to be all of herself.” –Sukhvinder Sircar

The Wise Older Woman’s Empowerment Journey through her Chakras energy centers

As we become older, we become what the Vedic teachings call The Forest- Dweller. While still playing our part in the world, we’re able to detach ourselves from mundane attachments and spend more time attuning to the deepest parts of our being. We become our own best friend. I have noticed a deeper relationship and dialogue with my energy centers and I’d like to share the lessons they have taught me about becoming a wise older woman.

1. I am Grounded in the Roots of my ancestors and my culture. I honor my heritage, but I do not let my history limit me. I am not stuck in the drama of the past. My roots are my strength, not my burden.

2. The power of my womb is not limited to its physical ability to create human life. It is an unlimited fountain of spiritual and sensual creativity. It is a fertile ground for the awakening and flow of the Goddess energy all around me. I Feel and I Flow.

3. I am Worthy. I am exactly who I want to be and I am becoming who I want to become. I truly don’t care what people say or whisper about me. I do not judge myself or others. I have no time for gossip and limitations. I keep company with souls who uplift and support me. I am Strong and I Can do anything.

4. I give myself the greatest gift of all: Forgiveness. I stop keeping tabs on who didn’t love me enough and who hurt me. I forgive, but I am careful about whom I allow into the sacred space of my heart. I focus on gratitude for the love that I have. I know that I Love and that I Am Loved unconditionally.

5. I speak my spiritual Truth and what I believe in. I surround myself with the voices of teachers and soul companions who inspire me. I use my Voice for good. The world needs to hear my Voice.

6. I Trust my Inner Guidance. I know how to find it in stillness and meditation. The merging of my Intuition with my life experience is a magical formula that guides my decisions and every step I take.

7. I know that I am Connected to Source and never alone. I let go of anything that causes separation and honor my community of Souls who share my journey. Together we are stronger.

Women helping women

One of my greatest teachers was Frau Ursula Redeppening. I was her au pair while studying in Munich. I was 21, she was in her early forties. She
was a formidable woman, divorced mother of two teenagers, the youngest woman ever elected to the Bavarian parliament. She was a prodigy! One evening, as we sat together sipping wine, she gave me one of the greatest lessons one can give to a young woman. She told me that her perfect life was not one she had chosen for herself, she had followed others’ vision of her: her deepest desire was not to be a famous politician, but to help the world and reduce hunger and poverty. And then she said the words that guided my life: “When my children are raised, I will follow my own vision. It’s never too late.”

It is now my turn to pass along the wisdom I was given. Whatever age you are, know that it’s never too late. Write that book, take that course, learn a new language, a new dance, train for a marathon, travel, move to your dream city or country, make brand new friends, have a love affair, start your business, and most importantly, let your Spirit shine. The world needs your Light!

“You playing small doesn’t serve the world… As you let your own light shine, you indirectly give others permission to do the same.” –Marianne
Williamson

About Christine

Growing up in France, Christine always felt a deep longing for the spiritual and the powerful resonance of words and stories, accompanied with a passionate desire to explore the world. After years of globetrotting, this multilingual translator Mama of 3 and her family settled down in Coastal Virginia, where she discovered yoga. She instantly knew she had found the universal language that would help her empower others to find their own voice and share it with the world. She is an ERYT-500 Yoga and Meditation Teacher and Trainer, and an Ayurveda Health Counselor. Yoga helped her reconnect with her love of writing and write her first book: “Yoga with a French Twist: A Journey through the Chakras” as well as create her business: Yin Traveler. Her love of learning, Nature, and Spiritual Activism led her to Shakti School and the integration of Ayurveda into her teachings. Her new projects include a new book and planning spiritual retreats. You can find more info at her website at Yintraveler.com

How I Learned To Embrace the Life-Affirming Nature of Ayurveda

By Crystal Hoshaw

I wasn't a typical little girl in pigtails and Mary Janes. I was an unapologetic tomboy.

I loved all things tough and rough and turned up my nose with disdain at my finger-nail-painting and dress-up-playing contemporaries.

Tagging along behind the boys like Anybodies following the Jets, I was ostracized in much the same way.

No matter what sports I excelled at or Mortal Combat nemesis I defeated, I was forever branded by my unsavory gender, to my great chagrin.

On top of that, I saw myself and my fellow females through the eyes of the boys.

I avoided the “girly girls” like the plague. I strained to avoid displays of emotionality, frivolity, and vulnerability—traits I had come to understand as patently feminine.

It wasn't until much later in my life that I understood this rejection of my own gender as a rejection of myself.

Still, this masculine tone carried into my attitude as a teen. I felt I had to single-handedly prove that women could be just as good as men at anything, and had a duty to my gender to not be conventionally, predictably, vapidly feminine.

I wove in and out of this head trip for much of my life, ranging from a bleach-blonde cheerleader with acrylic nails to an angry feminist who only wore men’s clothes and didn’t shave her legs for several years.

Through it all, I was seeking my authentic self, behind all the conditioning, ideology, and social judgment.

Attempting to stamp out the non-spiritual

My anti-feminine attitude bled into my spiritual outlook as well.

When I joined a 10 month yoga teacher training at seventeen, I was the pitta kid in the front of class competing with myself, obsessed with nailing every asana.

That same training introduced me to Ayurveda, but my approach was no different. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it hard.

That meant vegan, sattvic, salt/garlic/onion-free, and no more than two anjalis—or handfuls of food—on my plate at a time.

I thought of the Buddha's feeble renunciate's body, nourished only by a single handful of rice each day. That’s real spirituality, right?

This strictness gave me the false belief that I had succeeded at controlling my desires and base impulses. In reality, I was repressing them.

Waking down into the body

While reading in the cafe on my college campus one day, I came across a line in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Satchidananda saying that sex—at least, to the detached, enlightened mind—was just as inconsequential as rubbing two sticks together.

That can’t be right, I thought.

Surely the aim and fruit of enlightenment isn’t to reduce our human experience to something so unfeeling. Surely the point is not to desensitize ourselves to the basic, innate, and ultimately innocent pleasure of being embodied.

Shouldn’t our spiritual path lead us to an experience of life that’s more vivid, more multidimensional, more intimate? Even more sensual and pleasurable?

This was an early tell-tale sign that I needed Tantra in my life.

After enough little insights like this, it eventually dawned on me that my previous spiritual orientation held a subtle desire for self-negation.

Just as I had tried and failed to negate my gender as a young girl, I found myself attempting to negate the qualities that made me human, woman, and allowed me to express my unique and divine personality.

Through a misunderstanding of what it means to lead a spiritual life, I had confused individuality with ego and strove for spiritual homogeneity instead of authenticity.

Letting go of control

This applied to my food choices too.

When I learned the word “orthorexia,” alarm bells went off in my head. First coined by American physician Steve Bratman in 1997, it comes from the Greek word “orthos,” or “right.”

It wasn’t that I was fighting with my weight or my body in the conventional sense. I was fighting with a constant need to be correct. Of course, I was only setting myself up to fail.

When I started to give up the need to make the “right” choice all the time and the pressure that goes along with it, I started to experience an inherent pleasure and satisfaction with life that is the true beginning of the road to spiritual bliss.

No better teacher than the body

When I became pregnant with my son, I experienced a resurgence of my body’s inherent intelligence and natural wisdom that completely overrode any conceptualizations I might have had about ahimsa and veganism.

While pregnant, my regular diet included steak, a hefty pile of dark leafy greens, and over a gallon of whole cow’s milk a day. This rapid shift came at the ardent insistence of my natural urges—urges I didn’t even know I had.

As a result, I felt nourished, juicy, and—to my midwife’s great relief—no longer tested as anemic.

I learned firsthand that depriving the body of what it needs is a form of violence. Somehow, this only became clear to me when I had another body growing inside of me to make the point.

Now I know that my body, on its own, deserves the same gentle compassion and nurturing care.

After all, even the Buddha gave up his meager renunciate’s diet, to the dismay of many of his austere followers.

Ayurveda reimagined

As I sought a way to continue to deepen my relationship with Ayurveda while honoring these newfound insights, I found myself turning away from so much of the messaging I encountered, whether in courses, in books, or on social media.

Like so many fields, many of the voices are men. Like many rich traditions, much of the messaging has been distorted by the legacy of colonialism.

And like so much of wellness culture, there’s often subtle language implying that our bodies, impulses, and desires are threatening—even dangerous, that they should be controlled, subdued, and even snuffed out completely.

Then I found The Shakti School.

Finally, an Ayurvedic community addressing this strange self-negating bent in what is actually a deeply intuitive, life-affirming science.

“Ayurveda is the science of love, intuition, and intellect,” writes Vasant Lad in The Textbook of Ayurveda.

To me, this triad represents the union of intuitive Shakti with intellectual Shiva. The result? The pure, unadulterated love that is our true nature.

Just like an excess of tejas can burn off ojas and disturb prana, an excess of intellectualizing and rule-following reduces Ayurveda to a dogma instead of the living embodiment of natural wisdom that it is.

The chaos of Shakti is necessary for life, and the hosting energy of Shiva provides the stage where chaos can dance. From this perspective, the categories of good and bad, profane and sacred become indistinct, even limiting.

Ayurveda in its most profound expression presents us with the freedom and responsibility of meeting the world each moment without the aid of simplistic dichotomies of right and wrong, requiring an open and hosting attitude toward the polarities of our own experience and of existence itself.

True Ayurveda is the ultimate compassion.

Just as much as Ayurveda asks us to get real with ourselves, to practice discipline, and implement healthy boundaries, it also asks us to do so with a softness, acceptance, and reverence for our human experience and everything that comes along with it—including our cravings for ice cream, our emotional breakdowns, and those times we decide to skip the gym to binge Netflix instead.

For Ayurveda, beauty and pleasure and even coffee and depression can be medicine.

Ayurveda can host all of it, and when we live Ayurveda as a practice, so can we.

This is the gift that The Shakti School provides: a community to marinate in acceptance of ourselves—foibles and all—as a means to deep, connected, embodied health and wellbeing.

About Crystal

Crystal Hoshaw is a mama, writer, and lifelong lover of the sacred. She's the founder of Simple Wild Free, where she leads online group courses for adults and teens to learn deep self-care based on the wisdom of Ayurveda, the power of intuition, and the insight of sacred creativity. Follow her on Instagram and join the community on Vibely.

What I learned in Shakti School: Radical Responsibility, Remembering the Wisdom of the Body and Launching a New Business

By Becky Nethery

When I signed up for Shakti School, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and how the trajectory of my life would transform.

Back in 2018, a good friend told me about Shakti School and I checked it out online. I had never heard of this southern woman with a beautiful drawl, but her book Happy, Healthy, Sexy, sounded pretty epic. “Ah, ya…I want more of that,” I remember thinking.

I’d read a little bit about Ayurveda, but I didn’t really get it. It seemed pretty confusing and like a lot of rules, which just piqued my inner rebel. I’d been on my own healing journey for many years and I had a lifelong love of all things spiritual, mystical and philosophical. So I signed up and got ready to learn. But little did I know that Shakti School would become a major turning point in my life.

At the time, I was in my 10th year working as a high school teacher in Canada, feeling deeply constrained by the role and wanting the freedom to truly be myself. I felt that what I was teaching teenagers didn’t truly serve them. Instead of teaching iambic pentameter or how to pass a standardized test, I wanted to help them explore their gifts, talents, and how they wanted to contribute to the world. I believed in education and learning but I was losing my faith in the system and feeling deeply frustrated by the constraints on how I could show up. I also had this deep inkling that I wanted more for my life. I was ready for the next adventure. I wanted to keep learning. I wanted true expression and connection. I was sick of hiding as this hollow version of myself. I wanted to be myself, all the time. Maybe you can relate?

From the very first call of Shakti School, I felt the energy of the divine. I can still recall this full- body presence as the group gathered and Katie initiated that year of Shakti School. For the first time in my life, someone was saying the things that I knew deep inside but had never had the words to express. The more I learned about honouring the feminine and respecting the beauty, magic and simplicity of life, the more I started to feel at home in myself. It was a mystical remembering of things that had been buried, but not lost.

Of everything that I learned throughout that year, the concept of radical responsibility took hold the strongest. Realizing that I had the power to create the life I wanted was a double edge sword. It was extremely freeing and yet equally terrifying. Instead of playing victim, I slowly started to realize that I could honour my experience and desires. I knew that I felt deeply unexpressed in my career and confined to showing up as a “robot” version of who I was every day as a teacher. And yet, it wasn’t quite the right time to leave.

As I continued studying, another life-changing concept that I was introduced to through Shakti School was the concept of embodiment. It sounds so obvious now, but it was an entirely new learning for me. I had always valued my intellect, being smart, solving problems and making plans. I thought these were my superpowers (when in fact they were deeply honed survival patterns and trauma responses).

When Katie would pause the intellectual learning in class to do an embodiment practice, I would feel deeply frustrated. I remember thinking “I’m not here to feel, I’m here to learn.” My reactions reflected the deep imbalance that values the thinking mind above all else, as reflected in education and society at large. This imbalance had been internalized. “Thinking will keep you safe, thinking will solve everything. Thinking is what matters the most.”

But through Shakti School, something radical started to happen. For the first time in my life, I started to connect and truly witness the wisdom that was present in my body. It was an entirely new experience and it changed my life forever. It was a portal into something that I knew deep inside but didn’t know how to articulate, let alone the community to express and explore with. The reality that I could access this inner wisdom at any time, just by bringing my simple awareness to my body was deeply transformational.

It was a reconnection to the pieces of me that I had ignored, abandoned and neglected, both consciously and unconsciously. Honouring the divine feminine and moving into my body and out of the realm of the thinking mind helped me to feel deeply grounded and present. I started to feel stronger and more powerful in my ability to trust myself. My body offered me this strength, courage, knowing and presence that I had never been able to access just with this floating brain, disconnected from my body. I felt these “other” parts of me start to come online and they had so much to offer me. I started to feel safe again, safe to be me.

Between these two concepts, radical responsibility and reconnecting with the wisdom of my body, I realized that something needed to change. I longed deeply for true expression and contribution where I could show up with all of my gifts. I wanted to contribute my zone of genius to helping end suffering on the planet and I deeply wanted to honour my creative expression. To put it bluntly, I wanted the freedom to be myself.

And it’s pretty amazing how life conspires to support our desires.

Through various circumstances, that September I bravely decided to take a year-long leave of absence from teaching. I didn’t have it all figured out, but I had the courage and the faith to make the jump.

I decided to take radical responsibility for my life. I opened my own copywriting business and started writing brand stories and website content for local entrepreneurs who were in the healing modalities or who were doing good in the world.

You see, I deeply believe that business can be a powerful conduit for change in the world. Honouring our creative expression and gifts has the power to deeply heal us, as many of us have abandoned our creative expression and gifts in exchange for doing what we think will keep us “safe.” Yet, this so-called safety is slowly killing us. At least that was my experience. Opening your own business can offer healing to yourself and to the collective. It’s the ultimate growth opportunity as you must first honour your gifts, talents and contributions and then bring them forward to help others.

Not everyone can do what you do. There is a creative contribution that wants to flow through you, it’s the thing that lights you up, it’s this creative prana, and it’s when you feel most alive. And the really cool thing is that people are looking for your gifts. And they will pay you for them if you want! (Although I also strongly believe that not all creativity should be commodified.)

The more I learned about business and connected with entrepreneurs, I started to realize that they were deeply engaged with life, they were connected, innovative, and passionate and they were expressing their creative energy and contributing to making the world a better place. They were my kind of people. And despite my imposter syndrome, they wanted to work with me!

Since opening my business, there have been many ups and downs as I continued to learn and grow. All of the areas of personal healing showed up in my business, inviting me to continue releasing what doesn't serve me and coming back to the wisdom of my body, being present in the moment and offering my gifts to the divine and the collective.

Over the past 2.5 years, I’ve helped 100+ heart-centred business owners clarify their brand message so they can make real connections, show up with confidence online and make more impact and money. I absolutely LOVE the clients that I work with. They are badass entrepreneurs who are using their gifts and talents to solve problems for people and help end suffering on the planet. But they often have no idea how to position themselves and tell their story in a way that truly resonates and helps them sell their services or programs.

They are gifted and talented changemakers, but they need help with their messaging as over-thinking, imposter syndrome, comparison and self-doubt often creep in.

It is my honour to witness my clients, truly see them in their greatness, and contribute my writing, gifts and intuition to craft their brand story in a way that sets their business up for success. They feel seen, heard, understood and clear, excited and confident to move forward with their business. I get to show up with all of my talents and I’m no longer operating as a “robot” version of who I once was as a teacher.

Shakti School gave me the foundation to make this leap of faith and take radical responsibility for my life. I can’t say that I would have done it on my own. Through the teachings of Ayurveda and the Shakti School, I continue to ground into and connect with the truth of who I am. Shakti School provides the fundamental health foundation that every woman needs to help nurture her true expression. And this is deeply healing.

I’m so thankful for Katie and the Shakti School staff and this epic community. It has been a safe place to explore who I am and how I can show up as the happiest, healthiest and sexiest version of myself.

I’m studying Level 2 this year and continue to be amazed by the practical teachings that help me regulate my nervous system and connect with the divine through the wisdom of my body. I truly believe that even if you don’t want to be an Ayurvedic Health Coach, studying Ayurveda with Shakti School has the power to transform your life in ways you might not expect. But that is the beauty and joy of this great unfolding called life.

If you need help with copywriting or telling your brand story, I’d love to connect with you. Check me out at beckynethery.com and follow me on Instagram. It would be my absolute pleasure to help you establish your brand, connect with your people and make more money in your business.

I also created a course called The Embodied Marketing Method where I teach entrepreneurs how to write for their business by first being grounded in the body. By combining embodiment techniques and copywriting skills, you can learn how to connect with your message and use your marketing as a form of leadership and service. If this sounds like something that could help your business or you’d like to learn more, check out this FREE GUIDE I created on how embodiment can revolutionize your marketing.

About Becky

Becky Nethery is a Copywriter and Brand Strategist who helps heart-centred business owners clarify their message, so they can show up with confidence, attract their ideal clients and sell with ease.

Writing high converting copy, Becky translates business ideas into clear and powerful brand stories that truly resonate and lead to an increase in profits. She is passionate about using business as a tool for change and loves supporting entrepreneurs who are bravely honouring their creative skills, solving real-world problems and making life better for their clients.

She is also the creator of The Embodied Marketing Method a program that teaches entrepreneurs how to use their marketing as an act of divine service. And she is also the co-host of the Entrepreneurial Inquiries Podcast which explores the intersection of business and being.

Connect with Becky today! Visit beckynethery.com or email [email protected]

Hot Girl Summer! ☀ Cool & Fun Tips to Stay Balanced this Season

Isn’t summer just the best? Sandy toes👣 and sun-kissed glows☀️. Farmers’ markets and scents of jasmine, rose and honeysuckle wafting through the air. I don’t know about you, but I CRAVE summer – it means road trips, BBQs, outdoor concerts, barefoot walks and quality time with friends and friends.

Full stop.

What I don’t crave is summer’s annoying skin rashes, hot flashes and indigestion, or feeling hangry, impatient and leave-me-alone frustrated. Sound familiar? Yeah, total hogwash!

As fiery pitta 🔥 builds and the earth gets uncomfy, humid and hot, so do we! And, I don’t mean in a cute, “lightly flushed + glowing” way… No, I’m talking full-on hot, angry face. 🥵 So how do we keep pitta at bay and actually enjoy summertime?

Easy! Ayurveda tells us how to cool our jets so we’re not walking around red-faced and moody all season – generally, stay hydrated, eat a summer diet and prioritize SELF-CARE. ((Good news! Ayurveda permits napping during the summer months! So allow yourself to take a conscious rest or siesta when the afternoon slump hits.))

Hey, speaking of self-care, summer is the perfect time to unleash your sensual goddess and get your sexy on, girl – nudge, nudge, wink, wink. More on that later…

To help you beat the heat, stay mellow and enjoy summer’s sun-drenched days, I’m sharing some essential pitta lifestyle tips (SPOILER: yummy DIY recipes + HOT hints on how to rediscover your sensual self.) Get ready to roll with the heat by priming your body and soul for the season! Onward…

Katie’s 10 Favorite Pitta-Pacifying Foods

~foods that cool your body + calm your mood~

A pitta-pacifying diet includes heaps of hydrating, fresh seasonal produce that have cooling energies. During summer, it’s best to favor sweet, bitter and astringent tastes and reduce salty and pungent tastes. Here’s what you can always find in my kitchen during the summer months.

✨ Aloe Vera

✨ blueberries

✨ cucumber

✨ coconut (coconut water with slices of lime - yum!)

✨ leafy greens: radicchio, watercress, arugula, spinach

✨ turmeric

✨ stone fruits: peaches, pears, apricots

✨ melons: cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon

✨ mint, cilantro, basil, coriander

✨ beets

Sexy, Sassy Summer

~celebrate your divine sexual energy~

Balmy nights, bare legs, sun-kissed skin – summer is an oh’ so SEXY season, isn’t it? Connecting to your physical and energetic sexual centers is key to boosting your vitality and should be an area that is nurtured and attended to regularly. This summer (heck, anytime!!), I want you to tap into the HOT sensual goddess that you are and rediscover your feminine magic.

Try a few of these tips to reconnect with your sexual prowess… or have fun with a partner.

💋 Light up your libido with a sensual photoshoot. No, really. Grab your sexy boy shorts, summery lingerie or go a la’ nude. Keep the photos to yourself to gawk at or share with another!

💋 Cultivate self-love. Stand in front of a mirror and note all of the intricate details you love about your body. Say them OUT LOUD, lady! You are special and deserve to hear it.

💋 Let loose your inner Beyoncé! Move your hips through dance to ignite your sexual energy. Your hips, located at your second chakra, are linked to your sexuality and pleasure.

💋 Go skinny dipping and relish the erotic feel and freedom of water on your bare skin.

💋 Write yourself love affirmations: I am desire. I am sexy. I am magnetic. Yes. You. Are!

💋 Try this meditation for building and healing sexual energy.

💋 Share a chilly treat with your bae – chocolate-dipped strawberries, ice cubes, whipped cream, need I say more?

💋 Incorporate intimate acts of deep connection with your partner, such as massage, talking, walking hand-in-hand, long hugs, kind words or simply gazing at one another. Pleasure is a journey, not a destination!

💋 Get busy! Wild and spontaneous or soft and sensual – sex is a magical and beautiful part of life. During summer, the body’s ojas are not up to optimal levels and sexual frequency may be reduced (but hey, you do you).

✨For more deep real-talk on sex, spirit and shakti-infused self-care,✨
subscribe to Katie’s Spirit Sessions podcast.

Skin That’s Good Enough to Eat

~homemade scrub for dewy, glowing skin~

Keep your skin cool, smooth and lickable with a DIY body scrub. Whip up this super-simple scrub using coconut oil (one of Ayurveda’s best pitta-pacifying ingredients), brown sugar and your favorite pitta-balancing essential oil. Ready to get your sexy back?

🥥Sugar Scrub for Sooth, Supple Skin

¼ to 1 cup coconut oil
2 cups brown sugar or any organic sugar
10-15 drops of essential oil
Mix oil & sugar until creamy
Add essential oil while stirring
Add remaining sugar until you reach desired consistency

Katie’s favorite cooling oils to calm fiery pitta: Jasmine, rose, chamomile, geranium

honeysuckle and sandalwood. Choose one or mix and match!

Cooling Blends for Sultry Days

~kick back with a refreshing cuppa~

A scorching summer day = cooling off poolside with a citrusy, refreshing drink in hand, am I right? Before reaching for a margarita, cue da herbs! Our plant companions (like, mint) can help us beat the heat while supporting our constitutional balance. And, it’s yummy! Mix up this delicious, totally guilt-free Ayurvedic-inspired limeade and get outdoors to kick back.

🥒Cooling Cucumber Mint Limeade

1 cucumber
3 limes
1-2 sprigs of mint
Honey or agave to taste (optional)
Peel & cube cucumbers, removing seeds if needed
Put cucumbers, juice of limes, mint, sweetener of your choice & 4 cups water into blender
Blend until smooth & sip away
Drink at room temp to allow the herbs to naturally bring down your agni

✨For more tasty recipes, visit Katie’s blog! ✨

Frayed Nerves? Try Sitali Breath!

~pacify the building heat in your body~

Sitali Pranayama, “the cooling breath,” is my absolute go-to yogic breathing exercise during summer. It helps lower our body’s temp, calm our nerves, take the edge off hunger pangs, and reduces fatigue, fevers and high blood pressure. It’s a super easy practice and will leave you feeling renewed, refreshed and energized. Here’s the deets!

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

- Sit in a comfortable position with your head, neck and spine in alignment
- Close your eyes, breathe consciously for several minutes
- Form the lips into an “o,” curl your tongue lengthwise and project it out of the mouth
- Inhale deeply through your tongue as if drinking through a straw
- Focus your attention on the cool breath across your tongue as you fill up your diaphragm
- Bring your tongue into your mouth and exhale slowly through your nose
- Start with 2-5 minutes of Sitali breath and increase to 10 minutes over time

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Not a tongue curler? 🙋No worries - lots of people aren’t! You can get the same results with Sitkari.

- Sit in a comfortable position with your head, neck and spine in alignment
- Close your eyes, breathe consciously for several minutes

- Press your lower and upper teeth together, and separate your lips so your teeth are exposed
- As you inhale slowly through your teeth, focus on the sound of the breath and the sensation
of the air on your teeth
- Close your mouth and exhale slowly through your nose

- Repeat Sitkari breath for 2-5 minutes and increase to 10 minutes over time

🙏 Finish with several minutes of meditation to notice the sensations throughout your body. 🙏

I hope that my recommendations assist you on your journey this season. I wish you the most balanced summer in your being.

Love yourself. Enjoy yourself.

Parsley Magic, Moon Gazing and Dream Yoga – Yes, Please!

As the spring equinox arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, we shed the cold, dry, dark of winter to welcome spring’s 🌼 blessings🌷— rejuvenation and rebirth, promising seeds and unfurling leaves, euphoric birdsongs and glorious blue skies.

I hope this finds you dancin’ into spring with joy in your mind, body and spirit.

Or… maybe spring is kinda kickin’ your booty!

While the transition of vata to kapha season brings incredible abundance and beauty, this rtu sandhi (seasonal juncture) can carry with it an intensity that’s as challenging as it is euphoric.

Just as nature is thawing and cleansing the toxins and heaviness accumulated during winter, so are our bodies. And, not every sexy goddess’s body moves gracefully into new phases of the year. Mine included!

You may feel unbalanced, lethargic and blah as your body pushes out of hibernation mode to make room for the lightness of spring. Allergies, congestion and colds are common. And, with the rise in spring’s water element, your emotions (hello, anxiety!) can feel OUT OF CONTROL.

Sound familiar? Spring can be darn HARD on your body, y’all.

My dear friend, use this time of dynamic renewal to tune DEEPLY into yourself. Observe the exuberance of spring, and enjoy this sense of thawing and awakening. Set judgment aside to breathe deeply, turn your face to the sun and receive the melody of nature with open arms.

I’m excited to share our April content to help guide you in seeking harmony and balance with kapha this spring. This month’s newsletter offers some simple Ayurvedic wisdom — like sipping parsley water and meditating by moonlight — to help you get the wellbeing you crave.

P.S. I’m thrilled to announce that my second book, Holy, is set to be released in Fall 2023. Look forward to a spirit-infused, sensual guide on how to connect with and 💗love your body.

Reduce the Springtime Imbalance of Kapha on Your Body

~gentle, time-tested methods for resetting~

Come kapha season, receive the abundance of spring with your fullest self by bringing balance to your internal systems with Ayurveda activities, spring diet and self-care rituals.

✨ Wake up with the sun

✨ Get outside for a walk, reconnect with nature as it
flourishes

✨ Eat your largest meal at noon when your digestive
fire🔥 is strongest

✨ Consume less meat and dairy

✨ Eat light, easy-to-digest foods: broth-based soups and
whole grains like amaranth, millet, buckwheat

✨ Favor foods that are bitter, pungent, and astringent:
lemon, dark leafy greens, chilis, mung beans, radishes

✨ Use spices and herbs: cayenne, ginger, turmeric,
black pepper, fennel, parsley, nettle

✨ Protect your immune system with 🌿parsley water🌿
(yes, parsley offers extraordinary health benefits!!)

✨ Indulge in garshana (dry brushing)

✨ Cleanse a cluttered mind by journaling

✨ Be playful, dance, invite newness and freshness into
your daily routine

Click here for more Shakti School wisdom on how to clear away kapha this spring.

Parsley is Spring Magic

~power up your health and immune strength with parsley~

I love 🌿parsley🌿. It’s the perfect spring herb. With several times the vitamin C of citrus and packed with flavonoids, chlorophyll, calcium, vitamins A, K and E, sodium, magnesium, iron, and loads of other minerals, nutrients and antioxidants, parsley is a powerful source of nutrition with incredible medicinal potency.

This potent, bitter wonder herb improves digestion, reduces inflammation, controls blood sugar and helps dry excess mucus. And, parsley’s magical green goodness can improve liver, bladder and kidney health by promoting urination, reducing urinary infections, and treating kidney and bladder stones. Yep, all of that and more!

Plus, come springtime, parsley helps drain excess kapha by flushing out winter’s heaviness and toxins — ‘cause, we all overindulged a little this winter, right?

I’m excited to share a super cleansing parsley water recipe from my friends at Blue Sage Ayurveda. It’s easy to make and crazy affordable… like $2 a day!

Click here for my simple parsley remedy and to listen to my Spirit Sessions Ep. 102 Parsley is Spring Magic podcast.

✨For more deep real-talk on sex, spirit and shakti-infused self-care,✨
subscribe to Katie’s Spirit Sessions podcast.

It’s Time To Start Moon Gazing

~add this mind-body practice to your spiritual routine~

Did you know that lifting your gaze to the moon can calm an anxious mind, reduce anger and irritation, and soothe inflammation? I was recently featured in InStyle Magazine, sharing how the timeless practice of moon gazing has been used for healing all over the globe.

Moon gazing is simply soaking in the calming energy and effusive glow of our celestial gift.

The moon’s liquid-like energy is feminine in nature and has long been associated with women’s health, vitality and spiritual wellbeing. Basking in the moonlight cleanses, replenishes and EMPOWERS our Divine Feminine force. And, it activates our sex and bonding hormones, too!

By incorporating moon gazing into your practice, you can add a level of internal peace that transcends what you achieve with your regular meditation routine. With the promise of warmer evenings ahead, why not schedule intentional time with the Earth and cosmos?

How to meditate while moon gazing:

✨Go outside and sit or lie down where you can see the moon. Connect to your breath as you softly let your eyes move to the moon’s light and shape.

✨Gaze at the moon as an object of meditation. Become curious about its shape and contours as if you were observing something you really loved.

✨As you breathe and observe, begin to gently pull the cooling qualities of the moonlight into you, filling your body with this healing light.

Check out the full InStyle article on moon gazing. Then head outside and soak in the silvery energy of this benevolent light source. Let me know how it goes!

Katie’s Spring Time Ice Cream

Katie’s Spring Time Ice Cream

“Oh my horror of Ayurveda horrors! Ice cream in the spring is a big no-no Katie Silcox!”

Yes, yes. But you still wanna’ eat it, right?

You, see I don’t believe in dogmatic Ayurveda food rules. (I ditched all fundamentalism a few years ago :-))

But what I DO think is really cool is using the principles of Ayurveda and the seasons to adapt and work with my cravings and desires. Ice cream in the spring included.

So, how do I do that in the spring? In this season there is a domination in the heavy, wet and unctuous qualities. And what’s so weird about imbalances in our system is that when we have imbalance, we will often crave things that are exactly the opposite of what we need.

Which is why, before I got way healthier, I craved lounging about with an ice cream bowl on my belly exactly in the Kapha season.

End result - mucous, sad-face, lethargy and a lack of getting s%$t done.

So, my hot little healer-woman, here’s a GREAT spring ice cream replacement that will totally douse your cravings, but also keep Kapha at bay.

It’s fruit-only sugar. A powerful protein and healthy-fat punch. As well as chock full of mind-tonic herbs that will keep you sharp all day. The secret ingredient is that it replaces the dairy of ice cream, which is super heavy and mucus producing with a wonderful Kapha-reducing replacement. Cauliflower! And I don’t even like cauliflower.

Give it to me, Silcox:

2 cups frozen cauliflower

One cup frozen blueberries

One scoop of any good bone broth protein. My favorite is this chocolate kind from Ancient Nutrition.

One scoop Anima Mundi Qi Energy powder

One scoop Anima Mundi Shroom mocha milk

Add in 1/2 tsp ginger, cinnamon cardamom to spice it up and further reduce the kapha

2 cups water- add a bit more if needed

Blend in a blender til’ creamy smooth.

Subtly Sweet Harvest Muffins

~sweeter foods are a reminder of the sweetness of life~

Tips for Autumn Thriving and Lovin’ on Your Liver

Cleanse Your Liver with Ease this Fall

It’s Never Too Late: Honoring the Unlimited Power of the Wise Older Woman

About Christine

How I Learned To Embrace the Life-Affirming Nature of Ayurveda

About Crystal

What I learned in Shakti School: Radical Responsibility, Remembering the Wisdom of the Body and Launching a New Business

About Becky

Hot Girl Summer! ☀ Cool & Fun Tips to Stay Balanced this Season

Katie’s 10 Favorite Pitta-Pacifying Foods

Sexy, Sassy Summer

Skin That’s Good Enough to Eat

Cooling Blends for Sultry Days

Frayed Nerves? Try Sitali Breath!

Parsley Magic, Moon Gazing and Dream Yoga – Yes, Please!

Reduce the Springtime Imbalance of Kapha on Your Body

Parsley is Spring Magic

It’s Time To Start Moon Gazing

Katie’s Spring Time Ice Cream

Katie’s Spring Time Ice Cream

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