Welcome to The Ayurveda Glow Podcast. I’m so happy you’re here! I’m your host, Katrina, an Ayurvedic Health Counselor and former web developer turned full-time holistic wellness &amp; plant-based nutrition advocate based in Santa Monica, California. This podcast is focused on how we can optimize our health and our lives holistically, glow from the inside out, and experience our full potential. I’ll be sharing with you what I’m learning in the areas of plant-based nutrition, meditation, exercise, sleep, emotions, and holistic mind-body approaches to optimal health. I aim to explore each of these areas through the lens of Ayurveda. If you are new to Ayurveda and wondering what it’s all about, this episode is for you. Let’s dive in! Okay, so what is Ayurveda? Ayurveda is one of the oldest holistic medical systems in the world, originating in India over 5000 years ago. For thousands of years, Ayurveda has acted as a preventive medicine, offering a body of wisdom designed to help us stay healthy so that they we may realize our full human potential. The word Ayurveda is derived from the Sanskrit words "Ayur" which means "life" and "Veda" which means "science" or "knowledge". Ayurveda, therefore, is a science of life. A fun fact to know is that Ayurveda is also known as the “sister science of yoga”. Yes, Both yoga and Ayurveda share the same foundation, both having come from the Vedas, the oldest books in the world. In the West, we often think of yoga as a practice designed to support the body and physical wellbeing but as I learned years ago during my yoga teacher training, the purpose and aim of yoga –&nbsp;which means “union” in Sanskrit – is oneness. Yoga was created to help us access our Higher Self and cultivate higher consciousness. Meanwhile, the science of Ayurveda was developed for healing purposes with the aim to keep the physical body healthy so that we can pursue our dreams and experience our full potential. After all, we know that when we’re sick, lacking energy, or feeling unwell, it’s challenging to focus on anything else other than simply getting better. A question that often comes up is, “How is Ayurveda different from modern Western medicine?” This is a great question. The main difference is that the Western medicine approach is to focus on treating the disease instead of the whole person and treats the symptoms of a condition instead of the root cause. Western medicine is focused on alleviating the symptoms so that we feel better as soon as possible. Ayurveda, on the other hand, considers the whole person - mind, body and spirit - and aims to address the root cause of the disease or imbalance. In addition, Ayurveda recognizes that:  Mind-Body Connection: The mind and body are connected. And – one of the most powerful ways to transform the body is through the power of the conscious mind. We are each unique: Every individual is unique and there is no diet or lifestyle routine that works for everyone. Prevention is key: Prevent the disease (don’t just treat the symptoms). Fix the root of the condition. We are connected to nature:&nbsp;We thrive when we align with the rhythms of Nature.  This understanding that we are each unique – in body, personality, lifestyle, environment and other factors – is one of the things I appreciate most about Ayurveda. There’s no one-size-fits-all diet or one healing treatment in Ayurveda. Instead, Ayurveda promotes personalized treatment, based on the unique constitution of each individual and the unique nature of the illness. Treatment plans in Ayurveda are tailored to each person so that balance can be restored. When it comes to treatment, another difference between modern, western medicine and Ayurveda is that Western medicine often relies on surgery or prescription medication. Treatments in Ayurveda, on the other hand, focus on restoring balance by engaging all five senses. An Ayurvedic treatment approach may include diet and...

002: What Is Ayurveda? (& how can it help you optimize your health?)

Welcome to The Ayurveda Glow Podcast, a show dedicated to helping you live your healthiest, happiest life, stay balanced in mind, body and spirit, and glow from the inside out by applying the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda to your everyday, modern life. I’m your host, Katrina, an Ayurvedic Health Counselor &amp; plant-based nutrition advocate based in Santa Monica, California. Through this podcast, I’ll be sharing with you what I’m learning in the areas of plant-based nutrition, sleep, yoga, meditation and a variety of holistic mind-body approaches to optimal health. I aim to explore each of these areas through the lens of Ayurveda. If you are new to Ayurveda and wondering what it’s all about, be sure to check out episode 002, “What is Ayurveda?” where I shared the origins and core concepts of Ayurveda, one of the world’s oldest holistic health systems that originated in India and has been practiced for over 5000 years.&nbsp; One of the things I appreciate most about Ayurveda is that it’s all about personalized wellbeing. It’s for this reason that in Ayurveda, there’s no one-size-fits-all diet, fitness plan, nutrition plan, lifestyle plan or health or healing plan. Everything must be personalized because no two people are exactly the same.&nbsp; In this episode, I want to share three core concepts that support Ayurveda’s personalized approach to well-being. These concepts can help us to keep our mind and body in balance, stay healthy and achieve our highest potential. Specifically, I want to talk about the doshas, the five elements, and the Ayurvedic principle of “like attracts like”, which teaches that we can restore balance in the mind and body by applying opposing qualities to a condition. Let’s dive in! First, let’s talk about the doshas. You may have heard the word dosha. Dosha is a Sanskrit word that means energy. In Ayurveda, there are 3 doshas or energies within the body called Vata, Pitta and Kapha.&nbsp; The doshas also represent unique mind-body types and we can use our understaning of the doshas to better understand ourselves. This understanding gives us the insight we need to keep our mind and body in balance so that we can stay healthy and thrive. Speaking of the doshas, Vata dosha is known as the Wind Energy. Pitta dosha is known as the Fire Energy. And, Kapha dosha is known as the Earth Energy. I’ll circle back on each of these doshas in more depth in a moment.&nbsp; For now, I just want to share that you can think of the doshas as being a mind-body type that is unique to you, determined at conception and provides a blueprint for optimal health that stays constant throughout your life.&nbsp; The more you understand your dosha or mind-body type, the more you’ll understand how to take care of your mind and body so that you stay in balance and thrive. Okay, so there are three doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Again, I’ll circle back on each of these in a moment. Next up is the concept of the five elements. Ayurveda teaches that everything that exists is made up of the five elements that we experience all around us. The elements are: earth, water, air, fire, and ether (or space). Like everything, the doshas are also made up of the five elements.&nbsp; It’s important to note that the five elements refer to more than just the tangible elements in their physical form. The five elements also represent ideas –&nbsp;they are symbolic metaphors that help us to understand the building blocks of everything that exists.&nbsp; EARTH: Earth, for example, is dense, heavy and grounding. It’s the idea of stability and solidity. A rock, a piece of wood or metal is infused with earth energy. In the body, earth represents our physical structure. In the mind, earth represents mental stability. WATER: Water is fluid and cool. It represents the idea of flow, liquidity and cohesion. In the body, water represents fluids. In the mind, water represents gentle, loving and compassionate emotions. FIRE:...

003: Ayurveda 101 – What Are The Doshas & The 5 Elements?

Welcome back to The Ayurveda Glow Podcast, a place to discuss how the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda can be applied to your modern, everyday life to help you feel vibrant in mind, body and spirit, enjoy optimal health, and glow from the inside out. I’m your host, Katrina, an Ayurvedic Health Counselor &amp; plant-based nutrition advocate based in Santa Monica, California. Through this podcast, I’ll be sharing with you what I’m learning in the areas of plant-based nutrition, sleep, yoga, meditation and a variety of holistic mind-body approaches to optimal health. I aim to explore each of these areas through the lens of Ayurveda. In this episode, you’ll learn how the 6 tastes of Ayurveda can balance your nutrition and help you to curb food cravings. Specifically, you’ll learn how each of these 6 tastes impacts your mind and body. And, I’ll also share with you two genius food hacks to ensure you’re getting all 6 tastes in every meal. Let’s dive in! First up, let’s start with the basics. Did you know?&nbsp; A well-balanced meal includes all 6 tastes –&nbsp;sweet, sour, salty, astringent, bitter, and pungent. The reason for this is because taste is more than just a sensation of flavor that you experience when you eat or drink something. Different tastes activate chemicals in the mouth, triggering a series of messages to nerve cells and stimulating organs. Everything you eat has a specific taste and that taste has specific actions on the mind and body. In addition, if you don’t have all  represented in a meal, your body responds to this lack with cravings, usually for the most satisfying taste – the sweet taste. So, to stay healthy, a well-balanced meal which includes the full spectrum of the 6 tastes is essential. And, if you’re trying to curb your cravings, especially cravings for sweet or salty foods, it’s even more important to make sure that the 6 tastes are represented in your everyday meals so that you feel nourished and fully satisfied. Let’s take a look at how each taste impacts your mind and body. Sweet: First up is the Sweet taste, which Ayurveda teaches is made up of the earth and water elements. For many of us, the sweet taste is considered to be the most pleasant taste. In our modern culture, we love our sweets, whether they come in the form of a juicy watermelon, a breakfast scone, an artisan gelato, dark chocolate, baked goods or just about any other sweet variation under the sun. There’s absolutely no shortage of options to choose from when it comes to enjoying something sweet. Many of us associate the sweet taste with sugar. However, it’s important to note that the sweet taste of sugar has an unusual intensity of sweet flavor that is not usually found in nature. So, I want to be clear that when I share this foundational principle that Ayurveda teaches – which is that a well-balanced diet includes all 6 tastes, I’m not suggesting to go out and load up on foods that have a sweet taste resulting from refined sugars. Sorry friends, Ayurveda does not give a green light to devour a pint of gelato or a bag of Girl Scout Cookies to satisfy the need for including the sweet taste in your diet! On the contrary – the sweet taste that makes up a well-balanced meal needs to be from real food or herbs provided directly from Mother Nature – not from refined, processed sugar. Specifically, Ayurveda advocates a diet made up of whole foods that are abundant in prana or life force energy. In Ayurveda, we call food that’s abundant in life force energy Sattvic Food. Processed food in packages, boxes, cans or jars, often has sugar and a bunch of other additives and the prana or life force of the food has been lost. Modern science is now revealing that these processed foods, especially processed foods with refined sugar added, are contributing big time to our global epidemic of chronic illness.&nbsp; We now know that sugar is at the root of many chronic illnesses and I’ll go into this in more...

004: The 6 Tastes of Ayurveda – Your Guide To Ultimate Nutrition

Welcome back to The Ayurveda Glow Podcast, a place to discuss how the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda can be applied to your modern, everyday life to help you feel vibrant in mind, body and spirit, enjoy optimal health, and glow from the inside out. I’m your host, Katrina, an Ayurvedic Health Counselor &amp; plant-based nutrition advocate based in Santa Monica, California. Through this podcast, I’ll be sharing with you what I’m learning in the areas of plant-based nutrition, sleep, yoga, meditation and a variety of holistic mind-body approaches to optimal health. I aim to explore each of these areas through the lens of Ayurveda. In this episode, I want to share an Ayurvedic practice that has been a game changer for me. Specifically, the practice of aligning with the rhythms of nature. And, even more specifically, the daily practice of having an earlier, lighter dinner – which means, for me, making lunch the main meal of the day. An earlier, lighter dinner can help you to sleep better at night, feel more energized and lighter when you wake up in the morning, and feel better overall throughout the day. So in this episode, I want to go more in depth on these two areas.&nbsp; Here’s what we’ll cover:  Why staying in sync with the rhythms of nature is important when it comes to optimizing your health. Ayurveda was founded on this principle and an exciting new branch of science called Circadian Medicine now supports this as well. Also, you’ll learn why an earlier, lighter dinner can help you to align with nature’s rhythms and support your overall energy, quality of sleep and ideal weight. Finally, I’ll share a few quick and easy dinner ideas to help you shift to an earlier, lighter dinner.  Let’s dive in! #1: Align with the rhythms of nature to optimize your health and longevity Okay – so as mentioned, one of the fundamental principles of Ayurveda is that we can support our optimal health and longevity by aligning with the rhythms of nature. This is something that Ayurveda has been teaching for thousands of years and the good news is that an exciting new branch of science called Circadian Medicine has emerged that supports Ayurveda’s ancient wisdom.&nbsp; In fact, in 2017 the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to two scientists “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythms", otherwise known as our biological clock. Circadian Medicine reveals how the light and dark cycles of the day affect our digestion, sleep, hormone production, cardiac function, innate immunity, neurophysiology, body temp, activity and rest. All living organisms on Earth have an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm. In humans, this is why we are awake during the day and sleep at night. Our biological clock also helps regulate eating habits, hormone release, blood pressure and body temperature. The biological clock responds to darkness by triggering the brain’s production of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep. When the sun goes down, our brain begins to produce melatonin.&nbsp; In our modern world, we’re no longer limited by the setting of the sun for light. We can simply turn on lights when the sun goes down. Many of us spend time after sunset watching movies, reading books, working or Facetiming via a variety of screens whether it’s a laptop, tablet or phone.&nbsp; It’s important to be aware that the bright light we’re exposing ourselves to suppresses melatonin production and this can disrupt our ability to experience quality sleep. Circadian Medicine also explains that an imbalance between lifestyle and rhythm can lead to increased risk for a number of diseases including metabolic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. Ayurveda and the 6 Periods of the day As mentioned, Ayurveda has long recognized the importance of aligning with daily, monthly and seasonal cycles to create ease and flow in our...

005: The Perfect Meal Timing To Optimize Sleep, Energy & Health

What’s an easy, inexpensive – and natural – way to keep your gums healthy, prevent gum disease and cavities, and freshen your breath? Can this oral self-care practice also whiten your teeth? Tune in to this episode to learn more about the ancient Ayurvedic practice of oil pulling. What you’ll learn from tuning in:  How oil pulling works What kind of oil to use The easy steps to put oil pulling into practice What modern science reveals about this ancient practice  Links mentioned in this episode: My Newsletter:  Instagram:  Facebook:  Subscribe on &nbsp; Resources:  &nbsp;

006: Healthy Gums, Mouth & Teeth (Ayurvedic Oral Care Ritual)

What's the best morning beverage to jumpstart digestion, help lose weight and flush out toxins? What does Ayurveda, one of the world's oldest holistic health systems, recommend that you drink first thing in the morning when you wake up to boost energy and metabolism? How can you enhance the flavor – naturally – to make this beautiful drink tastier and infused with even more health benefits? Tune in to this episode to learn:  Why starting your morning with a tall glass of this drink will support your body's optimal function Why not drinking this beverage will leave you feeling fatigued How this beverage can support your liver's natural detox process to eliminate toxins from your body How to lose unwanted weight by drinking more of this one beverage  Links mentioned in this episode: My Newsletter:  Instagram:  Facebook:  Subscribe on  References, Resources, Links &amp; Transcript:  &nbsp;

007: Better Than Coffee: Ayurveda's #1 Morning Detox Energy Drink

Immunity is top of mind for many of us at this time. Most of us know that our immune system is designed to fight pathogens and infection. Many of us are seeking to strengthen our immune system and protect ourselves, as well as our loved ones from virus, a cold or a nasty flu. In this two-part episode, I'll share practical ways you can boost your immunity, according to the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda. In Part One, I’ll share everyday habits you can take action on right now to boost your immunity and stay healthy. In Part Two, I’ll share proven herbs known to boost the immune system and support your body's powerful natural ability to fight pathogens and infections, according to Ayurveda.&nbsp; Tune in to this episode to learn:  The difference between bacteria and virus and why viruses are more difficult to treat 7 urgent steps you can take today to support your immune system in fighting off a virus An easy way to tell if you are getting a variety of nutrients in your diet Why digestion plays a key role in enhancing your immune system How your thoughts can be wreaking havoc on your body's ability to fight dis-ease Why you must reduce your media consumption or altogether stop watching the media if you want to stay healthy  Links mentioned in this episode: Immunity Boosting Recipes E-Book:  Instagram:  Facebook:  Subscribe on  References, Resources, Link &amp; Transcript:

008: How To Boost Your Immunity, According To Ayurveda

Teaching people everywhere the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda and plant-based nutrition to help create a healthier, happier world.