Ayurveda mama box
Month 4: A mother has two hearts
Welcome to your 4th month of pregnancy.
What’s in my box?
Nourish: Abhyanga Oil
Organic sesame and sunflower oil Ayurvedically infused with rose and brahmi over a gentle four day process.
Brahmi, known as the “herb of grace,” is a beautiful adaptogenic herb used in Ayurveda as a nerve tonic, rejuvenator, and stress reducer. It also reduces anxiety, improves memory, and lowers blood pressure. Rose is a beautiful healer of the heart. Her gentle medicine invokes more beauty in ones life, as well as an experience of protection, ease and grace.
Use this oil daily for your self-massages. You will find the abhyanga self-massage instructional video below!
Ingredients: Organic sesame oil, organic sunflower oil, pink rose (Rosa damascena) powder, red rose (Rosa centifolia) petals, brahmi/gotu kola (Centella asiatica) leaf, bacopa (Bacopa monnieri) herb
100% Organic Ingredients.
Shatavari Kalpa
Shatavari Kalpa is an ancient Ayurvedic concoction that not only nourishes the reproductive organs, balances the hormones and enhances the production of breast milk but also reduces pain, fatigue and general weakness in the pregnant mama. It bestows energy and overall nourishment and balances the pitta and vata doshas.
To Use: 1 teaspoon preferably in warm milk, twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening).
Ingredients: Shatavari Rose ghee (organic clarified butter, shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)*, red rose (Rosa centifolia) petals*), organic cane sugar.
100% organic ingredients.
Daisy Flower Essence
Daisy balances conditions of the female reproductive system. Emotions which have not been dealt with fall to the pelvis, which provides a convenient place to bury them. Here they create imbalances in the female reproductive functions. Daisy gently awakened these emotions, resulting in greater balance.
To Use: Take 3-5 drops under the tongue up to 6 times per day. Be sure to take daily for 30 days to receive greatest benefits.
Ayurvedic Rose Jam
Rose Petal Jam soothes the emotional heart & uplifts the mood. Due to the presence of a high amount of antioxidant properties, it acts as a powerful rejuvenator by inhibiting oxidation. It also reduces acidity, improves appetite and digestion and is a great energy booster for a pregnant mama. Rose petal jam has antibacterial and antiviral properties and provides a calming effect on the nervous system, helping pregnant mamas with anxiety, insomnia, or a restless mind.
To use: Store it in the refrigerator & use it as a spread the way you would use any jam or eat spoonfuls of it on its own. Another delicious way to use it is to mix two teaspoons with milk or water and drink it daily - a couple of hours post-meal.
*Products are subject to change depending on personalization.
According to Ayurveda, the baby’s five senses develop one month at a time over five consecutive months of pregnancy. It is a tradition that there is a celebration during each one of these months, bringing extra attention to nourish the specific sense that is developing as the focus of the party. As mama’s senses are engaged, baby develops a keen sense and the ability to perceive through it clearly.
Fourth Month: Sense of Taste
During this celebration, we want to have foods that are pleasing to mama’s palate.
Ideas for celebration: Create a list of your favorite foods and host a pot-luck, with each guest bringing one. Make sure all six tastes are available in the potluck (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent). Have different tables with different types of items so that it feels super abundant! Perhaps a table with cut up fruits and fruit drinks, a table with all of the desserts, another table with savories, and so on! This could also be a good time to start talking about a postpartum meal train and educating guests about what will be needed postpartum for mama (and start a sign-up list!)
Prasada: the power of spiritual food.
You eat food with the purpose to nourish your body. How can that same food nourish your Soul? Yoga and Ayurveda teach us that the energy and the mood of the chef, as well as the atmosphere that the food is prepared in, is cooked into the elements (the matter) of the food. When you eat food, the elements that the food is made up of feed the elemental components of your body, whereas the consciousness and environment that the food was made in feeds your mind and conscience.
You therefore want to be very mindful of not only what you are eating, but also who prepared it and what their consciousness was during that time. If you eat a very healthy meal prepared by someone who is frustrated, the healthy food nourishes your tissues, but the frustration colors your consciousness, making you feel frustrated. In the same way, you may eat some greasy comfort food that was made with a lot of love and feel very satisfied, nourished, and uplifted from it.
So how does the food become spiritual? When it is prepared as a meditation, in the mood of loving service, to satisfy and please the Divine. In India, millions of people keep altars in their homes. They cook with the thought that they are preparing food for the Supreme as an act of love.
Everything in this world comes from the Divine. When you prepare your food in gratitude, as an offering to the Divine, that mood and intention infuses the food with spiritual energy. The prayerful offering, accepted by the Beloved, transforms food into prasadam, or spiritual food, that nourishes not only the five elements that make up your material form, but also serves to awaken the Soul.
Prasadam is made with sattvic foods which heal and energize your body so that your body becomes an ideal home for the Soul to reside in. Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita discusses that the foods that best help to develop your consciousness are juicy, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart. This type of food purifies your existence and gives strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. In this way, preparing, cooking, and eating food becomes a meditation and a spiritual practice that will connect you deeply to yourself, to all of nature, and to the Source of all that is.
”Of course the Supreme Beloved does not need our food. Mothers and fathers provide for their children. If the children take the ingredients provided by the parents and cook a meal for the parents, it's natural that the parents will be pleased. Similarly, the Supreme is pleased by our devotion when we cook and make our heartfelt offerings."
-Radhanath Swami, The Journey Within
TO MAKE PRASADAM:
First, take a shower and put on clean clothes. Assure that the kitchen you are using is very clean. When your body and environment are purified, your mind naturally becomes more clear.
Put on kirtan or a spiritual lecture that attunes your mind toward Truth. This assures that your mind is absorbed in hearing spiritual sound vibration rather than wandering into the past or future.
Say a prayer that your preparations become infused with Divine love.
While cooking, it is important not to snack or sample a dish before it is finished and offered. Remember, this meal is a loving gift that you first want to offer to the Divine before enjoying yourself.
Once complete, make a small plate and place it on your altar or personal sacred space. Traditionally, you would use a plate that was only meant for this purpose. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and offer the meal with love and gratitude to whatever form of Divinity you connect with. After the offering, take the prasadam off of the altar and transfer it to another plate.
Share it with others and enjoy!
