This beautiful women from Wisconsin told us she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since her children were born – 25 years ago! After a five-day series of shirovasti therapy, she slept perfectly throughout the night. She slept like the babies who’d triggered her shift to insomnia so long ago. I talked to her recently –months after her treatment– and she was still enjoying great sleep every night…without drugs!

Shirovasti is known to balance the factors the cause insomnia, and is effective in neutralizing anxiety, depression, travel stress and brain-related or hormonal imbalances.

Some kinds of headaches are well-treated with shirovasti therapy, as well as Bells palsy, some sinus conditions and certain neurological disorders that affect the senses.

Sirovasti even softens facial wrinkles.

The performance of shirovasti is an art, as well as a healing action. The first step is to sculpt a custom-fit crown, moulded to the head with a paste of dahl flour and soft cotton gauze. It’s important to craft a cap that won’t leak, so the process has several steps, involving the creation of a gasket pressed into place with a soft probe. At Rasa Ayurveda, we usually use a candle.

The scalp is left exposed, encircled by cone-shaped vessel. Next, warm, medicated oil is poured in, its flow softened by a ripe jackfruit leaf placed on the head.

Here at Rasa Ayurveda, we hand-make several traditional Ayurvedic and Siddha shirovasti oils from freshly-harvested medicinal botanicals for our patients’ needs. For my last series of shirovasti treatments, I was treated to Dhanvantharam thailam.

Nearly a litre of oil is poured into the cone-shaped vessel around the head, then the leaf is removed and the head and neck are steadied by the therapist’s warm hands. The oil is held for several minutes and the therapy takes effect.

I can attest to a calm that washes thru the system, from head to toes. It’s delicious to drink in such neurological quiet and a deeper relief than I anticipated was possible and unmistakably healing.

After a few long moments in a state of natural meditation, Sudha and Manju– two of Rasa’s therapists– helped me to bend forward. The gentle pressure on my scalp lightened as the fragrant warm oil was released into a catch basin.

Then we repeated the process twice more as I sunk further into a full-bodied relaxation. Incredibly rejuvenating.

Shirovasti relieves many kinds of vata-related ailments of the head. It can be performed either as part of Purvakarma therapy or independently.

My own experience confirmed the wonders of shirovasti therapy for alleviating eye strain, overall stress and heated emotions.

I’m grateful to receive shirovasti! All the good people I work with at Rasa Ayurveda are grateful that I receive it too, no doubt!

We invite you to come soon to know the benefits of shirovasti also, at Rasa Ayurveda.

Blessings of Balance–

Niika Quistgard

Director, Rasa Ayurveda Traditional Healing Centre for Women

P.S.

Don’t hesitate to offer your comments or questions. Just click “Comments” under this post, and you’re in! No sign-in required.

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If you want to receive blog updates by email, go to: http://www.feedblitz.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter the url for this blog:
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–NQ

Niika Quistgard :: Aug.28.2008 :: Ayurvedic Healing - Svastha, Therapies, Women & Other People :: No Comments »

Rasa Ayurveda is situated in a quiet neighborhood, just outside the ancient, small city of Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. In many good ways, life is still very local and slow.

Consider trash, for instance. No big trucks come ’round weekly to collect garbage. No–– it pretty much stays where one leaves it, at least until a hungry critter comes along to relocate it, helping with Mother Nature’s nutrient and waste distribution system.

At Rasa Ayurveda, we’ve decided to help Mother Nature’s process out a bit. Not only do we shy away from both random and regular critter visits, we are also very interested in conserving natural resources. Properly managed with an attitude of living in harmony with our Big Mamma, most kinds of waste are a valuable resource.
See that big pit? It’s been dug below the kitchen window at Rasa Ayurveda. Just inside the window is a marble countertop upon which sits a gas cooker. This is where all the good cookin’ happens at Rasa Ayurveda. No–not only the morning tea–but the briyanis, the curries, the kanyees and torans. The dry pappadam. The idlis, muringella dosas and aval uppama. Granted, some delicious meals are cooked outside over coconut-husk embers, but almost every Dr. Geetha-approved, body nourishing, tongue tickling, Ayurvedic, Kerala cuisine delight is stirred up by Jalaja–Rasa’s fabulous cook–over a hot cooker right inside the window there.

Up until recently, we’ve been buying lots of cooking gas to keep the kitchen fires burning. With 12 staff members and up to 10 patient guests taking meals from Rasa’s kitchen, we cook a lot of food and burn a lot of gas!

The gas comes in a heavy metal cylinder. It takes fuel to transport the full cylinder to our kitchen at Rasa Ayurveda. Once the cylinder is empty, it takes fuel–again–to move it back to where it came from, to be filled and moved yet again.

A few months ago, I’d been after Sanju aniyan–my adopted brother and Rasa Ayurveda’s manager–to come up with a good system for managing and recycling all our waste. Honestly, we don’t create much at Rasa Ayurveda. But whatever we do create should be dealt with to leave us in the zero-impact zone. Eco-minded Nature lovers than we are here at Rasa Ayurveda, we’d also been talking about trying to make biodiesel for Rasa’s vehicle, the Scorpio.

Sanju is so great at creative problem solving–at ‘thinking outside the box,’ you might say–he sort of slushed these topics together in his mind, I think, and came up with the info needed to introduce me to the possibility of cooking with the waste from food scraps! How could I say no?

Enter: the biogas plant. One of the metal tub contraptions you see pictured on the right is about to fill that hole in front of the kitchen window.

Once the plant is in the pit, we’ll toss our kitchen scraps into the biogas unit every day. Jalaja will reign over a special cooker, connected by a hose to the unit. Methane and other gases which are a by-product of the composting process will travel thru the tube to the cooker. Light a match and you’re cookin’ with waste!

Of course, when Mother Nature’s process has completed itself inside that big metal tub, we’ll have lovely, nutrient-rich compost to spread around on all the medicinal and edible botanicals we’ve got everywhere at Rasa Ayurveda.

The biogas plant won’t completely eliminate our use of the usual cooking gas, but it will cut down on our need tremendously, and turn trash into treasure, for us and our plants.

There can be no health for any of us without clean, sustainable, affordable basic resources for living. So, while we definitely remain Rasa Ayurveda Traditional Healing Centre for Women, we’re not afraid to adapt in ways that serve our patient-guests, our fuel bill, and mostly, our good Mother Earth.

Blessings of Balance to us All–

Niika Quistgard

Director, Rasa Ayurveda Traditional Healing Centre for Women

P.S.

Don’t hesitate to offer your comments or questions. Just click “Comments” under this post, and you’re in! No sign-in required.

If you want to subscribe to this blog, click on the RSS button up top to add it to your Google Home Page or Google Reader.

If you want to receive blog updates by email, go to: http://www.feedblitz.com.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter the url for this blog:
http://blog.rasaayurveda.com/

–N

Niika Quistgard :: Aug.18.2008 :: Ecology - Prakriti :: 1 Comment »

Remember the last time someone was really generous with you? What a great feeling, to be blessed by someone’s loving motivation to improve your world…

Grace flowed sweetly into Rasa Ayurveda and into the lives of eight women today through the generosity of a kind and inspired benefactor.

This summer, a generous and anonymous donor granted Rasa Ayurveda the funds for a small group of women to come experience traditional Ayurvedic therapies, meet the plants of the Ayurvedic pharmacopeia, and taste a bit of South Indian traditional life in Kerala. Taking place from September 25th thru October 11th, this trip will offer both healing and learning, as well as chances to share connection, knowledge and insight with local women and with each other.

Our scholarship selection committee has faced the grueling challenge of selecting just eight women from a daunting number of applications, completing the selection process today. Our main award criteria were financial need, a potential for healing benefit from taking retreat & Ayurvedic therapies at Rasa Ayurveda, and dedication to exploring the power of applied Ayurveda to heal people and restore the healing connection between people and Mother Nature.

Every application reflected earnest desire and worthiness, and oh–how we wish ALL the applicants could come! Two things especially impressed us as we pored over applications: Several applicants wrote of their gratitude for this opportunity–not only for themselves, but for all applicants. Such kind hearts! And it was evident in many essays, that a significant numbers of applicants have made altruistic sacrifices to pursue personal knowledge of Ayurveda and to help others to heal, to know themselves and to understand their relationship to nature thru Ayurvedic wisdom. We are very impressed with the integrity, passion and compassion we’ve seen reflected in the applications.

Note to Applicants: If you happened to apply for the 2008 scholarship and were awarded a spot, we sincerely hope you are feeling blessed. And if you applied for the 2008 scholarship and were not awarded a spot this time around, we truly hope you are feeling blessed, also, with your ability to connect with nature, and the potential you possess to bestow your own blessings on others thru your knowledge of Ayurveda.

We have not received funding for a future scholarship, but, the way Grace flows, beautiful things can happen anytime.

Subscribe to this blog thru the RSS feed or send us an email if you’d like to be notified of future opportunities… info@RasaAyurveda.com

Yours in the Spirit,

Niika Quistgard

Director, Rasa Ayurveda Traditional Healing Centre for Women

Niika Quistgard :: Jul.21.2008 :: Ayurvedic Healing - Svastha, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Women & Other People :: No Comments »

It’s been pouring rain steady since yesterday afternoon here in Kerala, as, in this season of monsoon, it should every few days or so. Now it’s 9 am, and in my house we have been “current illa”– without electricity–since about 5 am.

The rain–whether drizzling or pelting–forms a blanket of soft vibration over the landscape, softening the sounds of regular life, turning down the dial on the intensity of normal activity. This sensory insulation makes monsoon the season traditionally considered best for internal focus, a naturally supported time to turn inside for meditation and spiritual study, as well as for taking Ayurvedic treatments.

Of course, with no current, there is no chance of TV. No mixies, no refrigerators, no motors are running. The roads are nearly flooded, so only those who must press on are out on their motorbikes. The streets are quiet. And the usual banter among the ladies of the neighborhood dies down.

There’s no point in doing the wash today. Nothing will dry. Without electricity, eventually cell phones lose their charge. My laptop will too, and I’ll be forced to cease pushing my mental agenda until the Almighty sees fit to amp the wiring–and me–back up.

In Kerala, blessedly, there are times when there is just no way to keep on keeping on.

Every year, the hot weather of March, April and May cools when, around June 1st, the southwest monsoon winds bring mazha – rain! When it finally arrives to quench the parched soil, monsoon makes the world perfect for taking Ayurvedic treatments. The softened environment renders mind and body more receptive to the qualities of the therapies. As the outer world blurs and recedes from the senses a bit, one’s attention shifts from the usual outward flow of energy, to an inward, more personal awareness. Quite naturally, one discovers less preoccupation with mental constructions about the future, and more experience of a gentle and present physicality. This state of awareness and receptivity promotes deep cellular and energetic integration of the benefits of Ayurvedic treatments.

The moist qualities of monsoon also help soften and “ripen” the seven tissues of the body – the dhatus – during poorva karma, the preparatory phase of pancha karma involving snehana (oil application) and svedhana (steam treatments). When the tissues are well prepared–soft, moist and pliable–the Ayurvedic techniques used for eliminating toxins and excess doshic energies from the body and mind are accomplished easily, effortlessly, and completely.

Monsoon is nice for yoga practice, too. The body becomes more supple, more flexible, and the cool temps invite a vigorous practice. Not everyone is doing yoga here, though. There’s a lull over the village. Hari–my friend in the back house–is napping, no doubt. Lots of locals find themselves sleeping off the really rainy days during monsoon season. It’s as if an order has been issued by the queen: “No one’s allowed to do much!”

But if you are spiritually inclined, and not sleepy, a rainy day is a gift from the Gods, a chance to fall fully into internal surrender. Monsoon’s gray skies transform everyday bright-and-punchy-Kodachrome India into a more muted, watercolor world where layers of mystery loosen and separate, floating apart to be more clearly revealed. I notice on these quiet, saturated days, that my breathing comes to the fore of my awareness. If I let myself, I could easily be lulled to sleep by the mystical softness enveloping me, and by the gentle rhythm of Ham (inhalation) and Sa (exhalation). But after years of japa practice and no small measure of grace, the syllables of my mantra arise automatically with every breath, and meditation meditates me, the only interruption the occasional subtle crackling of the oil lamp on the altar table.

It’s a respectable 78 degrees out, but local people consider this cold weather, a time to protect oneself and one’s family from the affects of the climate. Letting rain drops hit one’s head is be strictly avoided. (“Mara, mara, jwara, jwara” Rain, rain, fever, fever!) Stepping outside at all requires a head covering of some sort. (Any sort! Come on over here during monsoon, if only to admire the inventive variety of head coverings people devise. Umbrellas? OK. And amusing hats are one thing. But look also for dish towels, shopping bags, hankies, the husk of a coconut, the corner of a sari… Even interlocked fingers make a popular shield from the rain. Anything goes!)

Yesterday, as I sat talking with Sanju and Bindhu thru the soggy afternoon, Amma brought out steel cups of “coppy tea.” Amma’s always mixing and offering traditional medicinal treats to meet the moment thru Ayurvedic principles, bringing balance to all. Coffee tea is pungent and heating, the perfect antidote to the cool, soft qualities of the climate. She has boiled together dry ginger, fresh tulasi (Ocimum sanctum; holy basil), cumin, black pepper, palm sugar (all in photo above), and a dash of coffee powder. Coffee tea alleviates dampness and any tendency toward congestion.

If you happen to show signs of a cold coming on, Amma is sure to sit you down in front of a big pot of herbal steam, too, tied off with a banana leaf lid. To clear your sinuses and kill the virus, sit close to the steam pot, allow yourself to be covered over with a few layers of blankets to keep the steam in, then slit the banana leaf to fill your healing cave with a warm dispersion of the essential oils of tulasi, fresh leaves of black pepper vine, ginger, cloves and maybe a few other secret ingredients. After a few minutes you’ll not only feel your sinuses open, but your breathing will be a sensual enjoyment, and your mind will be stable and clear.

Rain, rain – no need to go away. When we live in harmony with the qualities of the season–accepting her benefits, and balancing any excesses–monsoon time is the right time for so many good things.

Note: This blog post was written last year - June 22, 2007. But monsoon’s qualities are just as valid this year!

Niika Quistgard :: Jun.29.2008 :: Ayurvedic Healing - Svastha, Ecology - Prakriti, Healing Foods, Medicinal Plants - Dravyaguna, Medicines of Ayurveda, Siddha and local people :: No Comments »

Mm… Mm… Amla: It’s a fruit. It’s a medicine.

When I’m shopping for produce here in Kerala and point to this round green fruit, if the shopkeeper speaks English, he will say, “Gooseberry?”

The amla fruit –also known as amalaki, or “nellikka” here in Kerala’s Malayalam– has many names and many uses. It’s used as a food, but also as an important Ayurvedic medicine.

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Niika Quistgard :: Jan.17.2008 :: Healing Foods, Medicinal Plants - Dravyaguna :: No Comments »

A Blessed Beginning:
Wise and wonderful Ganapati clears the path ahead.

Have you seen the chubby elephant-faced god, Ganesh? Here in India where Hindu culture thrives, there is a deity–a particular manifestation of the One Faceless, Divine Cosmic Energy for every purpose. Perhaps the most worshipped of all is Ganesha. Also called Vigneshwara or Ganapati, Ganesh destroys obstacles and ensures success. Like a pregnant woman ready to pop with potential, every beginning moment is full of energy and a readiness to give birth to something new.

It’s an important and vulnerable slip of time when the quality of our vision, concentration and motivation set the tone for how we experience what will unfold.

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Niika Quistgard :: Dec.17.2007 :: Spirituality :: No Comments »