The 20 Gunas of Ayurveda
A Simple Guide to Finding Balance
Ever feel too hot, too cold, too heavy, or too restless? According to Ayurveda, everything in life has qualities—known as the 20 Gunas—that affect our body and mind. The secret to feeling great? Balance!
These Gunas come in 10 pairs of opposites, kind of like yin and yang. Understanding them can help us make better choices in food, movement, and daily life. Let’s break them down!
Quinoa-Asparagus Pilaf Recipe
A Kapha-balancing Ayurvedic diet focuses on foods that are light, warm, dry, and stimulating to counterbalance Kapha’s heavy, cold, and damp qualities. The goal is to increase digestion, reduce stagnation, and invigorate energy levels.
Kapha Pacifying Recipe: Quinoa Asparagus Pilaf
The warm quinoa and cooling asparagus balance each other to create a beneficial lunch or dinner for all constitutions. (Serves 4–6)
Sattvic Goodness Bowl
Ayruvedic Cooking for Kapha Season
Dreaming of bowls packed full of Sattvic goodness. Sometimes all you need is a bowl of steamed veggies!
Steamed carrots and spinach on top of quinoa - spiced with mustard seed, fennel, and turmeric. Hidden below is an Avocado dressing!
Ayurvedic Tips for Kapha Season
Rejuvenate your calm, loving, supportive nature this Spring!
The common translation of Kapha is “that which binds things” or “that which holds things together.” Kapha is heavy, cold, dull, oily, smooth, dense, soft, static, liquid, cloudy, hard, and gross (in the sense of dense or thick). According to Ayurveda, this is the dosha responsible for the stability, lubrication, substance, and support of our physical body.
Ayurvedic Cooking
Chapatis with a 4-Bean Hummus
It’s a late winter, snowy day and I was planning on making something tasty to share with some friends at a fun gathering but our plans got canceled due to winter road conditions. My original plan was to make an Avocado Mash to go with the Chapatis but I scratched that idea because I needed a few avocados from the grocery store and I joyfully opted to stay home in my cozy slippers.
Turmeric Facial Mask
This mask goes beyond delivering a radiant glow—it leaves your skin feeling irresistibly soft and luxurious. It even gently removes unwanted facial hair and peach fuzz, creating the ultimate smooth, polished finish. The recipe provides enough to generously cover your face, neck, and décolletage. For best results, use the mask immediately after preparation, as it naturally thickens over time.
The Six Tastes in Ayurveda
The Six Tastes in Ayurveda: A Guide to Balanced Eating
Have you ever noticed how certain foods make you feel energized, grounded, or even a little sluggish? In Ayurveda, an ancient system of holistic health, the flavors on your plate hold the key to more than just your taste buds. They’re also deeply connected to your overall well-being. Enter the six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. These tastes are much more than flavors—they’re tools to bring balance to your mind, body, and spirit.
Let’s dive into the six tastes and explore how they can help you create meals that are as nourishing as they are delicious.
Ayurvedic Tips for Vata Season
Embrace excellent health, creativity, and freedom this fall/winter!
VATA DOSHA | Air + Ether
Season | Late fall to late winter
Time | 2:00 - 6:00 am/pm
TIME OF LIFE | Age 50 - 75+ years
The common translation of vata is “that which moves things.” Vata is often referred to as the vayu (wind) in the body, and it is the primary motivating force of the doshas—without it, the other doshas are unable to move. Vata is dry, light, cold, rough, subtle/pervasive, mobile, and clear.
According to Ayurveda, Vata is responsible for our mental and physical adaptability. It is the energizing force of the body and mind, and it governs our nervous system, our bones, and our senses of touch and hearing. During the early fall and winter, Vata can accumulate in the colon, low spine, hips, thighs, bones, and nerves manifesting within the body as constipation, flatulence, dry skin, insomnia, arthritis or sciatica. The key to pacify Vata is to remain grounded, warm and stable. When out of balance emotionally, the light quality of Vata provokes fear, anxiety, loneliness and insecurity. When Vata is in balance, the Vata person experiences excellent health, stability, creativity, and freedom.

