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Health & Fitness

Have you Abyhanga Lately?

This Ayurvedic Massage Warmed Me Up on a Cool Fall Day.

As the weather starts to cool and we celebrate fall, I adjust some of my Ayurvedic practices.

In the kitchen, I add sweet honey to my hot tea.  I roast root vegetables sprinkled with cumin, ginger, cardamom, salt and sugar.  Adding ghee to general cooking helps stoke the digestive fire.

In my yoga practice, I keep grounded with 5 rounds of inhales & exhales with cat/cow stretches, hip circles, Sun Salutation B and chair (Utkantasana) with a twist.  Hip openers are very rooting during fall.  You can add standing wide-legged forward bends with hands in a Mudra behind your back or sitted hip openers, especially splits or Hanumanasana.

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I wanted to add some bodywork to help balance my Doshas. Ayurvedically the fall is Vata season. With the dry wind and cool temperature, it is easy for me to become overwhelmed and unbalanced quickly.

I reached out to one of my friends at The Karuna Shala, known for Ayurvedic body work.  My therapist Debbie suggested an Abyhanga Garshana massage.   This is an ancient Ayurvedic treatment, featuring a dry lymphatic skin brushing with a silk glove, followed by an individualized herbal oil massage.  The brushing increases circulation, induces lymphatic detoxicification and exfoliates the skin so warm herbal oils can penetrate deeply.

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Yes you read correctly, warm herbal oils.

The warm herbal oil massage is a combination of rapid choreographic strokes and an integration of acupressure points that are design to bring nourishment to the tissues, deep relaxation to the muscles and calmness to the mind.


After my massage, completely blissed out and drinking tea my mind was flooded with how much an abyhanga would benefit sore joints, chronic cardio and pulmonary health concerns.  My skin glistened from the perfectly balanced blend of warm herbal oils.  I felt warm, peaceful and healthy.

Some other benefits of an Abyhanga Garshana massage include: rejuvenation of the mind, slowing down of the aging process through diseases prevention such as arthritis, calming of the mind and nervous system, promoting better focus and balanced emotions and deep restful sleep especially if done before bed.

There are massages to loosen stress knots in your shoulders and massages to make you feel human again.  But an Abyhanga Garshana massage makes you feel balance, grounded and whole.

Have you Abyhanga lately?

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