ask lah Archives - lah life

Ask LAH: Tips for PMS & PMDD

March 3, 2017 by lah Leave a Comment

jellyfish — take the sting out of PMS & PMDD

Please give me tips for PMS & PMDD!

When you look at all the drugs, hormones and more drugs doctors prescribe for PMS and PMDD it makes you wonder. How is it possible that such a huge chunk of our population has a problem that needs to be treated so drastically?

In Ayurveda we look at root cause and try to bring people back to balance naturally.

From everything I have read and personally experienced, the issues underlying these “female troubles” are, for the most part and barring serious underlying medical issues, directly related to diet and lifestyle.

Stimulate the bodys natural wisdom:

Once some balance is restored the natural intelligence and wisdom of the body can start to solve even more problems. So from my medicine chest and recommendation file to you here goes:

Diet:

Refined flour, sugar, caffeine, alcohol are the worst offenders as can be dairy because of so many hormones in milk products.

Start balancing blood sugar first thing by eating whole grains (oats or multi-grain muesli breads), proteins like eggs and nut butters for breakfast.

Do not get constipated. Look to ground flax seeds ( couple of tablespoons daily) or 2 Triphala tablets before bed.

Avoid all foods grown with pesticides, environmental estrogens. Go Organic!

Check your Levels:

Make certain that your Vitamin D, B6, calcium and Magnesium are within recommended ranges. If not then look to supplements.4. Develop stress relieving practices on a regular basis. Look to Yoga nidra, Mindfulness Meditations and breath work.

Keep Active: Walk, bike, yoga 30 minutes daily.5. Get the lymph moving. Read more HERE.

Alternative methods: Try Acupuncture and Homeopathy.

Try Relizen? There is also a product called Relizen out of Sweden. I have been reading a lot about it though have not yet tried it myself. It looks VERY promising!

Hope this helps!!

Just Sit. Find YOUR practice

December 7, 2016 by lah

Just Sit and Find your Center, An Anchor for your calm self.

HOW? Easy. Cultivate a ‘practice’ that you can sustain because it’s not hard, or boring, or demanding. A practice that works for you – not your friends or some expert. It’s you and only you who has to keep doing it! So love your practice!

And by ‘practice’ I do not necessarily mean any conventional ideas about meditation – I mean finds your own ways to find calm, find ways to purify your nervous system and re-invigorate naturally. This is NOT complicated, this should NOT cost alot of money. This should feel EASY and SATISFYING and make you want to keep coming back for more because it doesn’t get dull.

I have created the Just Sit methodology precisely to provide a simple framework with variability of both time and content.

REMEMBER: Many practices! One Intention! Gratifying Results.

“Sit now. stress less”

5 easy steps to finding your way into a sustainable meditational practice

Make it a Habit: 7 days in a row to start?
Set up you space – cushion, chair, scent, timer
just sit framework – See SST below
3 minutes or 33. Just Sit
Techniques – just breathe or try some different approaches

Just Sit as simple as SST

The Just Sit framework is what provides the continuity. Within it you must feel free as a bird to play, try, experiment. Don’t yuck anyone else’s yum over this. Chanting may seem silly to you but may just work a charm for your friend.

Settle – Pick a time and set a timer. Take a seat. Feel grounded.

Sit – Pick a practice: Easy breathing, patterned breathing, chanting. (We will have a variety to choose from)

That’s It – Acknowledge your efforts however long or short. Promise yourself to be back tomorrow.

CLICK HERE TO TRY IT: Here’s a version of the Practice to get you familiar and get you started. Like it? Share it but let me know!

Basics of the Just Sit way:

Can You commit to 10 minutes a day? (even 3 will do, or stretch yourself to 18!)

Just Sit for 3 minutes so you can say you did it! Don’t get hung up on time. Just do it.

Can you commit to 28 days in a row? (even 7 will do)

Habits are formed for sure in 28 days but even 7 will show you how many benefits there are so if it is easier for you to get your mind around 7 then go for it. The only way to develop a habit is to commit to it and keep re-committing any way you can. Some days you’ll feel like skipping. Please don’t skip, just do less. WE all have 3 minutes.

Techniques make the sitting easier and we will keep recording them but for now check out

There are any number of techniques and “things to practice” while sitting and those will be available (some are already are from plain deep breathing, alternate nostril, to counting backwards with breath, to So Hum) on this site. These techniques will give you a lot of choices on how to approach each sit.

I am going to say it again: One man’s meat is another’s poison

Try as many techniques as you like within thin JUST SIT framework. and see what works!

Remember this adage. It is true for everything from self-help to food and medicine. Only you can know what is best for you.

You will only know what works by trying it. (possibly working with someone like me to guide, teach and keep you inspired to continue).

The benefits are real:

Clarity, better sleep, calmer nervous system and a host of medically proven benefits related to blood pressure and the immune system.

Next Month I will introduce a Just sit 7 day Practice called “Get your Flow on”

Facial Oil Recipe –

June 29, 2016 by lah Leave a Comment

Some call it serum but it’s a Facial oil

(anti-aging)

1 tsdp. Rosehip seed oil: essential fatty acids (wrinkles and premature aging

1 tsp. Jojoba oil – hydrating, matches skin, wont clog

1 tsp. Pomegranate seed oil and (or carrot seed oil 10 drop) – antioxidant repair damage and protect from wrinkles

1 tsp. Evening Primrose oil – omega-6 essentail fatty acid, heal bruises, treat eczema

20 drops Frankincense oil dry skin, scars, marks, wrinkles

3 vit e capsules

Get Calm, Balanced & Energized- a Daily Breath Challenge

April 13, 2016 by lah

A Daily Breath Practice for calm, clear thinking, more energy & better sleep

Six weeks ago I took on a personal challenge. It is called a sadhanna in Sanskrit (“a means of accomplishing something”.) Think of it simply as a committed practice towards a desired result.

I challenged myself to practice Alternate Nostril Breathing for at least 5 minutes daily, often practicing for 5 minutes morning and night. The benefits were truly amazing.

In the case of the Alternate Nostril Breathing the benefits are manifold and manifest quickly.

CLICK HERE for the Audio on how to do it. or click here to read the how to.

Since you don’t breath equally through both nostrils (dominant nostril alternates every 90 minutes or so) this is a balancing, equalizing practice. It is known that breath is a direct link to the brain and the nervous system so it stands to reason that a balancing and equalizing breathing practice will not only bring more oxygen into your body but will produce clarity and composure as well.

Right nostril=Energizing Left Nostril=Calming

When you breath through the right nostril you are accessing the energizing qualities and through the left, the calming ones.

Some Benefits You may Experience: I Did.

Energy Up!

Simple fact: more oxygen in the blood, hence to the brain and organs affecting everything from liver to digestion brain etc. Read as — more energy.

Balanced Brain: Clarity and Concentration up!

This breathing pattern balances both side of the brain – thinking and feeling, the calming and the energizing. This will replace dull, sluggish performance with clarity and enhanced concentration.

Calm Mind. Anxiety down!

Stop that racing mind. If you are prone to stress, anxiety and worry, as I am, this is a huge benefit! The effort of regulating the breath ropes in the mind and voila, releases the strangle hold and escalating grips of anxiety and worry.

Purified lungs. Waste out!

Literally clean the lungs deep down by replacing stale old air with fresh new oxygenated air. We actually eliminate a lot of waste through our lungs!!

Sleep. Better Everything! (from mood to performance)

Overall the alternate nostril breathing will improve your sleep but here is my trick for those nights when i wake up and cannot get back to sleep (early morning awakenings are particularly prevalent in pre and menopausal women.)

TRY THIS: Lie on your right side and breath for a while only through your left nostril. The parasympathetic nervous system will kick in to create a calmer sense of being. Then release and breathing through both nostrils, count the breaths backwards for the count of 27. You should be asleep in no time.

Here’s the Challenge Plan:

Every day, any time you like, take 5 minutes and do alternate nostril breathing.

If you get really ambitious do it morning and night.

Otherwise just do it whenever you can every single day for 40 days.

Report your results:

I was hoping that some of you would join me and then either report back (when you do I will send you a sample body balm if you give me your address), or just enjoy the fantastic results!!

Getting into Creative Flow

February 3, 2016 by lah

Creative Flow

TS Eliot called it “the mystical quality of creativity” and Julia Cameron called it the spiritual electricity of creative flow . In Sanskrit the word for this is Santosha (also one of the moral dicta).

This is the art of feeling at ease and at peace with yourself. It is an ethical precept in yoga-land, but for me it has become a signifier for being with an energy and a sense of being that is fully engaged yet open to the flow of ideas.

The place where I feel most exhilarated and most excited and, yes, most alive, is when in the act of creating. For some people, the zone and the flow are on a tennis court, computing numbers, holding a baby. Everyone has their own access points. The trick is to find and live in those points.

The Art of Creativity revealed.

Julia Cameron wrote all about this creativity for artists and there is a great article on Brain Pickings.org CLick Here to READ all about the connectivity and spiritual electricity of creativity.

In a practical sense, I reach for Santosha two principal ways: Yoga asana and meditation.

Asana

Physical practice with the body literally gets the energy flowing.in the body, oxygen and blood flow are maximized. the result after even just a short 10 minute practice can be that I am better able to sit to meditate and even without meditation feel more open, more clarity and a sense of possibility, less fear, doubt confusion.

Here is a sequence to try. Coral is a yoga genius. Click HERE

Mantra & Meditation

My short go-to to stimulate creativity is to cycle through the chakras (energy center of the body), breathing into then focusing my mental eye on each one in turn while chanting the bija mantra (sound) that represents each center. If I am thinking about anything it is to open up and release any blocked or stagnant or fearful feelings my minds eye encounters in each center.

Finish up with three deep breaths: inhale from the base of the spine to the crown and exhale back down again, flushing, in effect, the whole spinal column channel (shushumna) as you go. Then sit for a few more minutes simply watching the breath flow between heart center and third eye point.

Click Here for the WELL SNAP, Chakra Mantra Chant