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women health

The Secrets to Healthy Ovulation Part 2

Estrogen Dominance: Signs you may be estrogen dominant
& What to do about it

The Secrets to Healthy

Estrogen is an essential component of being a woman. It's because of estrogen that we ovulate, that we have breasts, that we have a libido, and that we maintain healthy bones and muscles. Estrogen is not the enemy. It actually regulates over a thousand genes in our bodies (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783169/).

So, you don’t want to have too little estrogen, however, when we have too much estrogen, and not enough progesterone, it can cause a lot of unwanted symptoms.

Unfortunately, we are operating in a time where estrogen is at an all time high. Living in our environment today we are constantly surrounded by xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens are endocrine disrupting chemicals that mimic estrogen in our bodies. Xenoestrogens are in artificial fragrances, pesticides, plastics, unfiltered tap water, non-organic meat and vegetables, birth control, the list goes on... In our modern industrial world, it's difficult to escape the toxic overload of xenoestrogens.

Why don’t we want to have excess estrogen?

An overabundance of estrogen can lead to a number of problems in women (and men). If not treated it can cause things like hormonal cancers, thyroid dysfunction, autoimmune disease, candida overgrowth, and even obesity. And, as we age it becomes increasingly important to make sure your estrogen is as balanced as it can be.

Common Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance: 

  • Depression or Anxiety
  • PMS
  • Menstrual problems (heavy bleeding or light bleeding)
  • Sore, swollen, or fibrocystic breasts
  • Uterine Fibroids
  • Weight gain (usually in the hips/thighs/abdomen)
  • Loss of libido

Estrogen is metabolized through different pathways in the liver. If these pathways are blocked it can start to cause a lot of the negative side effects mentioned above. When it comes to balancing estrogen, your liver health is key. And, in order to keep your liver happy you have to make sure that your nutrition is dialed in, your stress levels are in check, and you’re getting an adequate amount of sleep. Other common causes of estrogen excess include: Perimenopause, impaired metabolism, and obesity.

Why don’t we want to have excess estrogen?

  • Reduce your exposure to xenoestrogens: check your personal care products carefully, avoid the use of plastics, buy organic, drink clean water, take walks in preserved lands!
  • Exercise to maintain a healthy weight
  • Get off hormonal birth control
  • Reduce inflammatory foods like cow’s dairy (cow’s milk causes your estrogen receptors to be hypersensitive)
  • Limit your consumption of alcohol
  • Incorporate more ways to decrease your stress: meditation, grounding in the forest, and limiting EMF exposure
  • Maintain healthy gut bacteria: Avoid antibiotics and eat in a way the supports your microbiome
  • Eat to support the liver: greens, cruciferous vegetables, sprouted grains and legumes, healthy fats, and organic sources of protein.

Our favorite supplements for lowering estrogen:

Calcium D-Glucarate

Iodine

Banyan Breast Care Balm

Women's Support Tablets

“Healing begins when we start to live the life we really want to be living.” — Dr. Claudia Welch

It’s amazing what can happen when we choose to be open to healing. It can be difficult to stay positive, inspired, or creative when our health is feeling out of whack or weakened, but sometimes we get stuck with a “dis-ease” in the body when we aren’t truly embodying the life we are meant to be living. One of the most powerful medicines can simply be to choose the life you know you are meant to be living out. Maybe that looks like taking a sabbatical to work on the book you’ve always wanted to write, maybe it means quitting your office job to pursue wellness coaching, or maybe it simply means allowing yourself to eat that french croissant at your favorite bakery. Whatever the thing is, before you buy the next supplement, make sure to check in and ask:

“Am I getting in the way of living my best life?”

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The Secrets to Healthy Ovulation

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What is ovulation? Why is ovulation important? How do I know if I am ovulating? And, what are the tips for healthy ovulation? 

Ovulation is when an egg is released from the ovaries. The egg is released by a surge of hormones that is regulated by the hypothalamus (located at the base of the brain). So, it’s your brain that is the main decision maker when it comes to keeping your body ovulating. If the hypothalamus is unhappy, scared, or stressed this could be the reason that you’re not ovulating (and in some cases, not having a period).

As women it’s extremely important that we ovulate: ovulating is the only way that we make the ovarian supporting hormones estrogen and progesterone.

E S T R O G E N helps with muscle growth, it helps keeps your bones and brain healthy, and increases the long term health of the entire cardiovascular system. Estrogen aids in producing serotonin, which is why you’re more energetic in the days leading up to ovulation.

P R O G E S T E R O N E reduces inflammation, it keeps your immune system healthy, increases the health of your breast tissue, and your thyroid. These hormones are also responsible for making you feel good, they aid in sleep, rest and recovery, and help in the process of releasing Dopamine, Serotonin, and Oxytocin which are essential chemicals responsible for your happiness!

So, even if you’re not planning on having a baby, you still want to make sure you are ovulating in order to benefit from all the gifts that having a healthy cycle has to offer. And, this process is one that the female body absolutely expects to have in order to maintain optimal wellness.

--- In the women’s health world we talk a lot about “balancing hormones,” but the reality is that if our hormones were always in balance  we wouldn’t have a period, we wouldn’t have that juicy feel-good feeling, be outgoing or energetic, and we wouldn’t ovulate. It is necessary for our hormones to fluctuate because that’s what gives us a flow every month. The key to keeping things 'in balance' is to ensure that progesterone and estrogen are rising and falling at the appropriate time. We can best achieve this through living a healthy lifestyle, eating nourishing meals, managing our stress levels, eating the appropriate foods, and moving our body (preferably outside). These balancing habits are what we discuss in depth in Ayurveda School. But, for now here are some simple tips on how to get your hormones back on track.

Signs you are ovulating: your temperature rises (you'll know this if you're tracking your basal body temperature, which we recommend doing whether or not you're trying to conceive), you are getting a period, you have cervical fluid (cervical fluid is not always a clear sign, but it’s at least always a sign that the body is trying to get back on track).

Ovulation inhibitors: stress, inflammation, thyroid imbalance, being undernourished or underfed (are you eating enough? Are you too low on carb?), PCOS, taking the pill (more on why alternative health experts are calling the Pill chemical castration in part 2 of this series).

Supplements and foods to support healthy ovulation and healthy cycles in general: Check out our products we love page and our store for our recommended supplements in addition to these food sources.

Magnesium - regulates cortisol, improves sleep, activates Vitamin D, slows aging,and  fuels cellular energy, helps with period pain, pms, and PCOS. Sources of Magnesium: leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, almonds, mineral water, and organic dark chocolate (fun fact! Chocolate cravings around the time of your period is actually your body saying “Give me magnesium!”

For more information on Magnesium check out: https://helloclue.com/articles/cycle-a-z/magnesium-and-the-menstrual-cycle

Selenium - good for progesterone production (link pubmed). Sources of Selenium: Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, mushrooms, and seafood

Zinc - reduces inflammation, clears skin, regulates thyroid, blocks excess androgens, regulates stress response. Sources of Zinc: oysters and grass fed red meat (unfortunately, if you are vegan/vegetarian you are probably zinc deficient unless you are already supplementing)

Iodine - regulates thyroid, helps prevent cysts, reduces fibroids, increases progesterone, regulates heavy periods and pms. Sources of Iodine: seaweed, organic wild caught seafood, grass fed butter (but only if they are fed from nutrient dense soil), mushrooms and leafy greens.

Our entire team loves these supplements for optimal health and ovulation success: Trace Minerals, Trace Minerals Electrolytes, and Magnesium Natural Calm

Read Part 2 Here

Learn how to heal yourself
with Ayurveda

Copy of Ayurveda School 2020
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Ep. 54 Interview with Brodie Welch

In this conversation Brodie and I unfold the effects of contemporary living on women’s health, eroticism, connecting to our dharma and Traditional Chinese Medicine perspectives on living and loving.

In this episode we discuss:

~What is Yin & Yang

~How to embody Yin in a Yang obsessed world

~Cultural implications of contemporary life on women

~How we embody self-respect

~What is the erotic?

~How women can connect with their eroticism

~How do we get our heart aligned with our dharma

~Self-care as a radical act of feminism

~Being a change-maker and having confidence in our knowledge

~Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective on auto-immune disease

~Being an introvert in an extrovert crazy world

~Survival strategies for the Element types in TCM

~The Self-Care Manifesto: BrodieWelch.com/remindme/

~Find Brodie online: BrodieWelch.com

~Interested in Ayurveda school? Book a free coaching call with Amaury here

Or Subscribe on iTunes

This episode is sponsored by the Ahara Ghee family! They churn their butter in small batches. Use promocode GHEESPOT at checkout for $5 off your order.

Learn more:

Shakti Ayurveda School

Free Divine Feminine Ayurveda Mini-Course

Lineage of Love Community

HELP US SPREAD OUR POD WINGS

This show is a passion project that I produce for the love of sharing. If you enjoy this show and want a free and easy way to help it grow, the most effective way you can help is to:

  1. Subscribe to the show by clicking “subscribe” in iTunes
  2. Write us a review in iTunes
  3. Share this show with one friend right now!

It’s seems simple, but you’d be AMAZED to know how much it helps my little love project reach more people. iTunes’ algorithm uses ratings and reviews to know who to show our show to in their app.

Here’s the link to leave us reviews in iTunes.

From my heart to your screen,

Katie

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Ep. 48 Interview with Alicia Fajardo

A fascinating interview with one of my favorite holistic biomechanics teachers (and dear friend) on movement and the nervous system.

In this episode we discuss:

~What is the Fajardo Method

~How Biomechanics effects psychology

~What is functional movement?

~The relationship between the nervous system and our structural body

~Alicia’s experience healing pain and a dislocated sacrum

~How our brain maps our body

~What happens in the body when we’re in a Fight-or-Flight nervous system

~The problem with modern exercise and even modern YOGA!

~Alicia’s website: www.transformationspdx.com

~Book: The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards

~Event: Rasa // Emotions as Portals to Divinity

~ApotheKary’s Pitta Latte!

~Book a free coaching call with Amaury here!

Or Subscribe on iTunes

We love this lady biz ApotheKary! My friends started an ayurvedic wellness store! Our discount code is GHEESPOT10 for 10% off.

Learn more:

Shakti Ayurveda School

Free Divine Feminine Ayurveda Mini-Course

Lineage of Love Free Trial

HELP US SPREAD OUR POD WINGS

This show is a passion project that I produce for the love of sharing. If you enjoy this show and want a free and easy way to help it grow, the most effective way you can help is to:

  1. Subscribe to the show by clicking “subscribe” in iTunes
  2. Write us a review in iTunes
  3. Share this show with one friend right now!

It’s seems simple, but you’d be AMAZED to know how much it helps my little love project reach more people. iTunes’ algorithm uses ratings and reviews to know who to show our show to in their app.

Here’s the link to leave us reviews in iTunes.

From my heart to your screen,

Katie

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Ep. 32 The Ultimate Body Yantra Meditation: A Taste of Lineage of Love

One of the most important episodes I’ll record. This is a special meditation and sneak peak into the work we’re doing in the Lineage of Love and Ayurveda School.

In this episode I discuss:

~My life's work

~A practice to experience reality and the body as it is

~Paying attention to yourself without judgment = Love

~Building a holistic nervous system

~Alicia Farjado: https://www.transformationspdx.com/about-transformations-studio

~Lineage of Love Free Trial!

Or Subscribe on iTunes

We have new friends in the Ahara Ghee family! Use promocode GHEESPOT at checkout for $5 off your order.

Learn more:

Shakti Ayurveda School

Lineage of Love Community

HELP US SPREAD OUR POD WINGS

This show is a passion project that I produce for the love of sharing. If you enjoy this show and want a free and easy way to help it grow, the most effective way you can help is to:

  1. Subscribe to the show by clicking “subscribe” in iTunes
  2. Write us a review in iTunes
  3. Share this show with one friend right now!

It’s seems simple, but you’d be AMAZED to know how much it helps my little love project reach more people. iTunes’ algorithm uses ratings and reviews to know who to show our show to in their app.

Here’s the link to leave us reviews in iTunes.

From my heart to your screen,

Katie

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3 Steps Toward Divine Feminine Ayurveda

A Movement Towards True Ayurveda and Healing

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

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

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

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

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

Begin Now: Divine Feminine Ayurveda

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

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

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

A practice to connect with your subconscious self:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Laws of Nature

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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Womb Wellness

It’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Week.

Cervical cancer, although treatable, is the 3rd leading cause of death of women worldwide. Ayurveda has a lot to offer in terms of prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. I want to start with the emotional and energetics first…

The womb area is our feminine heart. It is the seat of our creative capacity, as well as where our ability to heal and rejuvenate our own body. The feminine womb is also a storehouse for much of our past pain, whether it is sexual trauma, abandonment, or other forms of abuse. Ironically, it is the center of pleasure and watery, creative power. Think of your womb as an oceanic force—dark and healing.

I have found that this area tends to be quite numb in many women and that they have a hard time connecting with this part of themselves, particularly if they have experience trauma like surgery on or removal of reproductive organs, or abuse. Abuse depletes self-worth, our personal power. This especially effects the womb.

One of the most enlightening and surprising realizations I came to with Ayurveda is how the seat of female sexual power lies in the womb—the dark, fleshy home of our creative energies. What I learned is that in this sacred female heart, we create. Our creation makes babies, it births social activism projects, it produces art, it bakes bread, and it starts businesses. I also learned that the womb is the seat of our destructive powers. In this sacred female heart, we bleed, we feel pain, and we slough off a layer of who we are each month.

To expand into our fullness and heal energetic balances, we must first create an open, wide base in which energy can move. Many of the women I work with have a lack of prana moving in their pelvic bowl. How alive do you feel at your roots? If you close your eyes, what does it feel like “down there”? Assess the situation with love, and then practice this meditation for increasing prana in your sacred pelvic bowl.

Tune In

Close your eyes and sit comfortably with the spine straight, or lay down. Feel your whole body begin to relax. Take a few moments to watch your breath, let it become even, smooth and full. As you feel your body beginning to relax, take your awareness down into your pelvic root and bowl. Without judgment, look around down there with your inner felt-sense. Are there spots that feel alive, vibrating and full of light? Are there spots that are tense, scary, dark or numb?

Take a few moments to breathe your presence into the realms that feel stuck, numb or emotionally/physically painful. Feel that you can access energy from outside of the body as you inhale, and on the exhale, direct it into the stuckness, allowing it to dissolve. Do this for 5-10 minutes. As you begin to notice energetic shifts, there may be emotional releases that accompany this meditation. Try your best not to judge the release, but to let it unravel.

Come back to your practice, and back to your breath. After 10 minutes, begin to visualize a dark, downward-facing dark blue triangle, its apex pointing downward towards earth at your tailbone, and the base as wide as your hips. When you feel your body breathing in, sense your awareness, and energy, move through the dark blue triangle and down to the tip, concentrating there. As you feel your body exhale, sense any holding, tension, toxins or unwanted emotion leaving through the tip, and moving down into the earth. Repeat this visualization and movement of energy 8-12 times.

The mantra SOM (pronounced sohm) is an excellent healing tonic for this area.

The female womb is the seat of our deepest emotional mystery, pulling us down and out each month, asking us to deeply feel the truth of what we didn’t process the month prior, nourishing us throughout our lives with hormones. This center is the home of our unconscious lust, and in it dwells our secret desires, hopes, and loves. It’s why at various times of the month our sensitivity can be more intense—when we might feel our most vulnerable both physically and emotionally. If this center is blocked or numb, undernourished and unloved, you may feel disconnected from your creativity, sexuality and power. Through these practices, you will nourish this center, making it a viable home for your spirit to work and live.

Our menstrual cycle can be a time in which we can let go of any toxic emotions or holding patterns that we accumulated the month before. If we do not allow ourselves the necessary time and space for this to be felt as a visceral, emotional and spiritual experience, we dishonor the very power that we are, perhaps, longing for all month long. Not only can we slow down during our menstrual cycle, but we should also take exquisite care of ourselves. Practice inwardness and slowing down during the last week and first few days of your cycle, to honor the feminine energy working through you and cultivate intentional nourishing energy.

Ayurveda’s personal approach to nutrition, as well as following a healthy daily routine, and emotional wellbeing, are the first line of defense when it comes to dealing with all diseases, including cancer…

Recent researches have proved that many of the spices used in Ayurvedic cooking have anti-cancerous effects. Curcumin, the compound that gives Turmeric its yellow color, is a powerful antioxidant, which neutralizes free radicals that increase the risk of cancer and is said to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. Ginger is particularly significant for cancers which show high levels of inflammation, a characteristic of cervical cancer. Holy Basil/Tulsi, an herb rich in Ursolic Acid is regularly included in a cancer fighting diet.

Another tool for prevention and relief is vaginal douching, steaming, and suppositories, prepared with herbs according to each woman’s personal needs. Suppositories are easy to make at home with a little coconut oil. You can find powerful yet simple recipes for making your own online. Goldenseal and coconut oil is a great one.

If you are on the pill, reconsider. I know that this is not a popular option, especially for modern career-minded women, but here is the thing—menstrual blood helps cleanse the organs and kill off any foreign invaders (and by the way, men’s sperm is rife with bacterial friends). With every period, you literally clean out any foreign bodies in your holy womb. This is probably why many of us actually feel “cleansed” from life’s experience after a good menstrual cycle. If you are taking a pill that alters or even eliminates this natural cycle, you may be missing out on one of the best immune-boosting, life-giving processes in your life.

There are many other reasons why we may want to reconsider taking synthetic hormones. New and emerging scientific evidence actually shows a clear link between taking hormonal contraceptives and depression and an increased risk of cancer. In 2005, the World Health Organization’s cancer research group listed hormonal contraceptives as “carcinogenic to humans.” Do the research, be informed, and know that there are time-tested natural ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy. What’s more, is that natural contraceptive methods will help you further tune into your body and womb.

And finally, keep your immune system strong. Certain strands of HPV can cause cancer. If your immune system is strong, you should be able to clear this virus within a couple of years. If you have a family history of cervical cancer, you should get a PAP smear every year. Otherwise, make sure you’re having one done every three years.

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Vitality Like A Goddess

The first days of January are associated with the Nativity of Inanna, Pagan Goddess of Sumer (later she appears as Ishtar in Babylon & Asherah in the Levant)

Inanna is a goddess of love, beauty, fertility and war. Graced with a stream of lovers, including the ill-fated Dumuzi, she is cognate to Venus. The celebration of her nativity is done with good food, good sex, and warmth.

This celebration aligns with the Ayurvedic concept of OJAS, one of the three subtle forces in our body. Think of OJAS as the container that holds your abundant energy. It is the ultimate energy reserve of the body and mind. It is the purest essence of Kapha, and physically, it is related to reproductive, hormonal, and cerebrospinal fluids.

Today, in solitary ritual, pay attention to Inanna’s role as mediator of the changing themes of a woman's life, and how we might revitalize and nourish our OJAS, which can be easily depleted this time of year by running around instead of taking it easy and practicing pratyahara, as nature does.

Cultivate OJAS with a short meditation:

Close your eyes.

Take a few deep breaths. Relax for a minute, allowing your breath to deepen and smooth out.

Now slowly start to draw your attention away from your thoughts, emotions or aches, and drop it down into your belly, holding it there until you feel sensation. Then, slowly, bring your awareness into your heart.

Remember a moment in your life when you felt very deep love. Maybe it was a time when you let yourself be totally vulnerable. When you add love to your point of focus, it builds your OJAS.

Bring that moment fully to mind and notice where you feel the sensation of love in your body. Allow this sensation to move, to expand and permeate every cell of your being. When you grow the feeling of love inside your body, you boost the power that enables you to remain strong and wise in the face of heartache, disease and change.

Relax into this loving container, watching how, over and over again, you will gain and lose the feeling, and how you can refocus and experience your inherent enduring, sustaining power.

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Many peoples’ definition of health is simply “ Many peoples’ definition of health is simply “a state of well-being free from disease.”⁠
⁠
But this is just one part of health’s full picture.⁠
⁠
Ayurveda describes a true state of good health as svastha, meaning “established in the soul.”⁠
⁠
In other words, Ayurveda is not just interested in you getting the “perfect body,” killer washboard abs or seeing a certain number when you step on the scale.⁠
⁠
It’s biggest concern is you becoming who you truly are.⁠
⁠
When we are in svastha, we rest in the unchanging center of who we are, which makes us feel good. We feel at home and at ease in our bodies.⁠
⁠
We created Shakti Ayurveda School to honor this fuller picture of health—a picture that yes, includes radiant physical health, but that also includes an authentic relationship with our own personal understanding of the Divine and a true sense of knowing who we are beneath all of our superficial layers.⁠
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🕯 Discover YOUR own personal definition of balance and start reconnecting with your heart’s deepest core desires—comment WISDOM to access our free course, Women’s Wisdom and Ayurveda, now.
Only a Vata could channel the entire Broadway cast Only a Vata could channel the entire Broadway cast of Hamilton, download cosmic insights and redesign their altar, all before 10am. 🎤💃🦋

(Feat. Kristen Wiig absolutely nailing the Vata vibe 🤣.)

By the way… we’re not making fun of Vatas, we’re celebrating the spontaneous, creative and inspired way of being that comes so naturally when this dosha is present. 😉

All of us—not just Vata types–contain multitudes. And Ayurveda, when practiced in a feminine-form way, serves as a map for honoring our individual spirituality, physicality and creativity.

🌸 Are you ready for an approach to Ayurveda that honors your intuition, embraces your feminine nature and helps you TRUST your own, direct experience?

Comment WISDOM below to get instant access to our free course: Women’s Wisdom + Ayurveda. 🕯
The chakras can be viewed as a digestive process, The chakras can be viewed as a digestive process, helping us move through our life experiences. Each chakra represents a different layer of our perception – and when we become “stuck” in one of these perceptual layers, it can cause our spiritual and emotional development to feel “stuck” too. 🌀 ⁠
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On the other hand, when we learn how to work with our experiences, moving them up and through this system, we can open into more empathy, compassion and freedom.⁠
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The Spirit Sessions membership is your monthly dose of spiritual growth and feminine wisdom, with live workshops, guided meditations, movement practices and heart-plus-smart teachings from Katie Silcox + our guest teachers.⁠
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Right now, we’re doing a deep dive into the energetic centers known as chakras, and our upcoming July session will focus on the third eye center. 👁️🧘🏽‍♀️⁠
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When you join the membership, you’ll gain immediate access to this full lecture on the heart center, as well as our archive of over 120+ past lectures, movement and energy practices. ⁠
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💫 Join the Spirit Sessions membership now at the link in bio.
“Unlike other wellness platforms, The Shakti Sch “Unlike other wellness platforms, The Shakti School doesn’t sell fast transformations. It offers a slow and thoughtful return to practices that center the body, the spirit, and the feminine perspective. And while that may not fit neatly into marketing trends, it has built a steady, loyal following.⁠
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Katie’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? ‘Find that pain point you’ve faced and offer something that speaks directly to it. Don’t let anyone talk you out of your passion. If it matters to you, it will matter to someone else.’” – HuffMag⁠
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Thanks @huffmagz for creating such a beautiful reflection of our heart and mission here at The Shakti School! 🫀⁠
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🌸 Learn more about our upcoming Ayurvedic Wellness Coach certification program that starts this upcoming January: Comment “more info” and we’ll send you all the details on joining us in 2026!
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