What Does Ayurveda Say About Mushrooms?

One very often asked question that I have promised to discuss is: what does Ayurveda say about mushrooms?

It may not be what you expect. Now, I am biased. I have HATED mushrooms my entire life. All kinds of them.

In classical texts, mushrooms are said to aggravate all the doshas and are almost never included in medicines and foods.

I once heard my yoga teacher answer this question: “They grow in the dark, on dead things.”

From the yoga viewpoint, mushrooms are Tamasic. This means they can foster heaviness and inertia in their minds. Interestingly, these days, many folks may need and crave this kind of mental slow-down. Mushrooms are heavy in the earth and water elements, slimy, and building. This makes them a better food for light, airy types, stressed-out folks, and for surviving cold climates.

You can imagine in the tropics, in medieval times, how mushrooms could appear rotten, and a little too close to the bugs and such that crawl on decaying vegetation.
It is, however, a circle-of-life situation here! Stay tuned later this week for more on how and when mushrooms might be very useful.

Business Mission and Growth

How is a business like making herbal ghee?  

How do we build a business around what we love where the mission is central to every action? 

Answer to both: self-purification.  

Distilling the mission is the hard part, in my experience, and once this is seated in you, if you stay true to it and keep it in your heart, building an income doing what you love, and making the world a better place go hand-in-hand. 

 Identifying what drives you is BIG inner work, maybe tectonic, and takes some time to distill.  

Getting to the heart of your mission and who you want to serve through Ayurveda is one of the keys in the Business Coaching Kit. Find it in my bio and drop any questions below.   

AMALAKI for Summer

AMALAKI! Herbs are our allies. Think of them like foods but with concentrated qualities. I’ll be posting a series this week on some of Ayurveda’s pharmacopeia favorites, their classifications, and how they work.

You can get the full idea, and recipes, by checking out the section in The Everyday Ayurveda Guide to Self-Care on Anupama and the directory of medicinal substances

Link: https://www.kateodonnell.yoga/ayurveda-book

Amalaki is a powerful rejuvenating pack with Vitamin C. It is the main ingredient in Chywanprash, a Rasayana found in most Indian homes, and in Triphala, a common digestive compound. This powder made of dried amla fruit is said to enhance and preserve life and can be used by all ages. It tastes very sour but has a sweet after-effect, a rare and prized combination.

Botanical name: Emblica officinalis
AKA: Indian Gooseberry, amla
Parts used: fruit
Rasa: sour, bitter, astringent, sweet, salty
Virya: cooling
Vipaka: sweet
Qualities: light
Rtucharya: summer, fall
Actions: nourishes all seven tissues, purifies blood, relieves acid indigestion

Summer Pointers #2

Ferments are such a big topic these days! Many folks do need the “bugs” as our food naturally contains less than it used to.

But it’s easy to overdo it- and good to know fermented foods are heating. Great in cold weather!

Get the whole scoop in my summer self-care workshop, available on-demand.

Link: https://ayurvedicliving.institute/virtual-ayurveda-cooking-events?fbclid=IwAR3WRtDi1XfCegSnH1KgYlBaJoC-VDO9NZ20bhRxLNicokmpwjI1J1A4wm4

Summer Pointers

Heavy stuff clogs the channels in the heat, so go lighter on hotter days. Eat well when its cooler!

Get the whole scoop in my summer self-care workshop, available on-demand. Find it under live events.

Why Marketing Matters

It surprised me when I finished writing my first book, a gargantuan year of a task that worked me over emotionally, that the next part was actually, HARDER. 

Getting the book out there. Because Ayurveda is not exactly top-of-mind out there, I felt a responsibility to get behind my creation. It has taken me years to learn about marketing, self-promotion, the difference between the two, and the inner work that has to happen to do this well.  

Whether you’re cooking up a book, an ebook, a school, a skincare line, or an Ayurveda consulting practice, there are alignments within the self that need your care first. Then there are clear steps to setting up an online platform and presence that will support your work. For as long as you are willing to give it energy. 

Because I have worked so much on this, and see it as such a blocker for so many in the field, I have been creating programs for Ayurveda pros. If you've got something you want to share, to build, join me on the journey. Start with the Business Coaching Kit. It's only 200 bucks. I want you to succeed. 

Making a Proposal

Here is a picture of how it all goes down in the writing room. I have a lot of big and heavy reference texts so I usually work next to their bookcase. 

Once you’ve got your north star, what makes your book special, and why you just have to bring it into existence, look at book proposals. 

Pick a publisher and they will have a “submissions” tab on their site where you can download a proposal template. Going through the steps of filling this out will help you hone in on what you are writing. 

Hint: a good deal of this template is asking about your marketing reach. Unfortunately, it’s much easier to get your book picked up if you have an audience of your own who will buy it.  

This brings us to our next topic, marketing. Tune in day after tomorrow! 

What Problem Does Your Book solve?

Here’s the Bulgarian cover, which my friend actually edited!  

When it comes to writing, the question is: what is the problem this book solves? What does it have/ express that no other book does? 

If you don’t have this answer yet, keep cooking. It will come. Do research online and search for comparable titles (you have to do this for your book proposal anyways). 

For example, when I began working on the Everyday ayurveda Cookbook it was because all my clients were scared of their ayurveda cookbooks. Too much text, too many ingredients, too many complicated diagnostics. 

I set out to make a book that was friendly, and easy on the eye. It worked! 

So you want to write a book?

So you want to write a book???

I get asked a lot about how I got into writing books. Taking some time here to reflect on this over a few posts. With my 3 book babies in seven languages so far, there’s a lot to say.

I do believe everyone has their own process. For me, I start with the table of contents. I let it stew for about 6 months and come into focus. Then I start mapping it out.

I sit down and make up chapter titles. The end product is always a lot different than this map, but the point is to have a jumping off point. After a week or two of messing with this, I move on (which requires some OK KATE TIME TO MOVE ON) and I start by writing the chapter that excites me the most, or feels the easiest to bang out.

What about you? Where are you starting at?

Space for Digestion

To optimize digestion, one needs to create a little space. Think of trying to ignite a wood stove when it is overstuffed with sticks and crumpled newspaper- it just fizzles out.  

This is how the energy of the mind and body can feel when there is a backlog of materials needing to be digested, and the fires necessary to metabolize are low.  

Simplify the diet, and slow down when it’s time to eat. 

Give yourself a pat on the back for any amount of heartfelt effort in developing a health-giving relationship with food. 

You are fantastic. 

Top Three Don’t-Dos to Digest Well 

• Eating while standing up, walking, or driving 

• Eating too much at one time 

• Skipping meals (unless you aren’t hungry!)