Herbal magic - the benefits of triphala

I discovered the magic herb called #triphala a few years back while digging my nose into a book by Kartha Singh Purkh called Herbal Defence. It was said to have amazing healing properties by cleaning the colon and improving the overall health of the gut as well as the rest of the body. 

I mean who doesn’t want clear glowing skin and long flowing hair… a healthy body and mind? 

I thought as much....

When I told my (incidentally Indian) mom I wanted #triphala from India she made a wry face and said why? It tastes horrible…apparently she had to have it as a child and grew such immense distaste for it that she never gave it another thought as an adult. 

Funny how the very things we try and escape from have a crazy way of coming back to us — mostly to teach us what we need to learn.

My grandmother used to make her own triphala at her home back in India. Nowadays you are lucky enough to find it in nearly ever #MeenaBazaar outlet - available in the powdered form. You can start by mixing a teaspoon in half a glass of water and leave it to steep overnight. Drink it first thing on an empty stomach in the morning. 

What good will that do? Well, simply put it makes you poop out all the bad shit literally. In addition to about a thousand different benefits.

This herb, a combination of three potent fruits known as #amlaki, #bibhitaki and #haritaki is a grand mixture that sweeps your #colon clean of all leftover undigested matter that may have accumulated there for YEARS. 

In short it causes the body to start to detox. It’s removes dead and leftover tissues and other residual toxins from the body, brings down cholesterol and high blood pressure, improves circulation, balances hormones, improves glandular health (and of courses helps you poop better — much much better). Don’t worry also if the poop is very weird poop at first. This too bowls over. 

Triphala contains tons of vitamin c thanks to the amlaki and this fruit enables the body to cool down i.e. lowers pitta dosha — bad temper and anxiety anyone? It helps balance all the three doshas intact and if you don’t know what they are keep reading this blog I shall soon blog about them too.

Triphala is highly nutritious and reduces inflammatory conditions of the stomach and intestines and no, it will not give you acidity if you have it first thing in the morning.

As a strong laxative #bibhitaki cleans the stomach as well as tones it. It cleans and heals the lungs, urinary system as well and gets rid of parasites, mucous and destroys kidney stones. #Haritaki is referred to as the king of medicines in #Tibetan medicine. It brings vitality to the heart, improves stomach health - rectifying constipation, diarreah or indigestion. It lowers high blood pressure and cures asthma. 

You might fall sick the first few days of consuming triphala so it is best to increase the dosage slowly. Start with a teaspoon in the morning and build this upto one tablespoon. You can keep using it, there are no side effects. If you do fall sick remember that these are just detox symptoms and will blow over in the next few days leaving you healthier, much more vibrant and did i say beautiful glowing skin? Yeah that too.

Try it! Let me know how it goes…

Namaste

How does one recover from lots of yoga?

The other day someone asked me how many hours of yoga I do in a day....

I never really think about it but now that I do, I think it would be about 3-4 hours a day, most weeks it is seven days a week. I have my daily self practice as an #ashtanga yoga practitioner. We wake up early morning and do our practice six days a week. Once a week we take a day off. On that day we rest and usually take a castor oil bath. Aside from self practice, I teach about ten classes a week. 

Talk about being yoga-ed out (read sore)! I am stating all this to get to the point where I tell you that I got a #castor #oil bath today. 

The castor oil once applied on the skin (just like any other oil massage, including the entire scalp area...which is the part of the body where maximum heat builds up according to Sharath Jois) needs to sit for about 15 minutes to an hour. This is followed by a shower. The rest of that day is to be taken easy, with as little activity as possible and lots and lots of self care. If you leave it on too long, you could end up with a bad case of the sniffles....so remember to take it easy.

In short, castor oil baths are great during this summer heat, which incidentally reminds me so much of South #India where I studied yoga and learned about this sort of #ayurvedic treatment. In addition to removing #pain from the muscles, tissues and joints, castor oil also removes residual toxins or ama as they say in ayurveda from the body and above all deals with pent up heat. I had busted my knee in India and my yoga buddy, also a #bharat #natayam dancer told me nonchalantly to rub castor oil over the pain. 

Your knee pain is no biggie her face had appeared to say. It was from then on that I understood the healing properties of this oil. Now I recommend it to people like my mom who suffers from arthritis of the knee, or those who have sciatica or back pain. Castor oil contains #ricinoleic acid (any #BreakingBad fans reading this?) which has potent anti-inflammatory qualities. 

Castor oil is available at any pharmacy in Dhaka at about 150 taka per bottle. 

So that's it...spread the word, spread healing and love -- wherever you go.