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This is an 8-day journey, designed for you to drip feed these rituals into your morning routine. Each day you'll add another practice until you accumulate all 6 rituals. If you find it challenging to incorporate them all over the week, take it slow and wait until each practice becomes naturally absorbed into your routine until adding another. It can take up to 40 days to really make this your own.

All over the world, our ancestors participated in ritual and ceremony. Pre-religion, this is how communities would gather and celebrate the ups and downs of life. These ceremonies are how individuals would care for themselves, each-other and their connection to the divine. Coming together to honour the change in seasons, moon cycles, conception of children, births, deaths and sacred union were how we cared for each other, and the planet. As we move into a new paradigm and way of relating to ourselves as spiritual beings, recognising that divinity in one other and realising our connection to nature these daily rituals return us to our natural rhythm and give our lives meaning and purpose.

This is how we make the daily, divine.

This is how we embrace our body and our human-ness as divine. To dissolve the idea that spirituality is “up there” and beyond the body. No, spirit is in every cell of your toe nails, your intestines and your lungs.

This fundamental understanding will serve as a base for all the work (and play) that we are about to embark on with daily rituals. This 8-day module is intended to integrate into your morning, ideally sometime between sunrise and 10am. You can move through the entire ceremony of all 6 rituals at a swift pace (about 30 minutes total) or luxuriate in the bhav of self love all morning. You can start by adding just one ritual into your morning and build up as the week progresses so that by day 8 you have all the rituals integrated. Or you might go full power and commence all the rituals at once.

Let’s take the first step.

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The focus of ayurveda (and this course) is to sustain a feeling of vibrancy and this comes through the understanding that the potential for human health is infinite; unending if we prioritise caring for our body and mind on a daily basis.

Ayurveda does not promise a ‘one size fits all’ for curing dis-ease that has manifested in the system but instead honours our individuality and teaches us to trust our inner intelligence, listen to the feedback our body is offering us so that we can nip imbalances in the bud before it manifests as disease.

AGNI + AMA

There are 2 sanskrit words that you might like to understand in the context of achieving infinite health. Agni and Ama

Agni: the 13 fires of Life

• the fire in the belly jatharagni

• The 5 elemental fires Residing in the liver, digested food materials are transformed into the 5 elements for the various body tissues and systems to utilise, also connected to the 5 senses.

• the 7 tissue fires / chatu agni Residing throughout the body, the vitality of these fires governs the health of the various tissues that make up the body

Ideally this inner fire burns steady - not too dim, not raging - just like the sun sustains all of life on our planet, this internal sun sustains our vitality and vibrancy.

4 Sates of Digestive Fire

1. High (tikshna)
2. Low (manda)
3. Variable (vishama)
4. Balanced (sama)

Ama

This is a substance that builds up in the body and mind when our agni is out of balance and is the causative factor in almost all disease. You can think of it as anything ‘undigested’ Nutrients, minerals and toxins from pesticides and processed foods, as well as unprocessed stress, thoughts and emotions.

7 signs of accumulating ama

• Clogging of the channels, like sinus congestion, puffiness around eyes and jawline, body odour
• Fatigue and poor sleep
• Indigestion, constipation or diarrhea
• Muted taste or poor appetite
• Low libido
• Brain fog or poor concentration
• Feeling ‘off’ jaded or out of flow

Consistently doing these 6 simple practises will ensure that ama doesn’t build up in your body or mind and will support the various processes of natural detoxification that the body undergoes each day and night.

The practises detailed in this course require from you a balance of commitment and compassion. Make this dedication to yourself as an act of self love and do not be hard on yourself on the days when it doesn't all happen - any guilt, shame, disappointment or judgement will only manifest as more toxic ama to eliminate.

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Whether you need to go or not, will depend on your dosha and you can observe imbalances in in real time, in the toilet bowl. In terms of urine, you want to see a pale yellow colour. Not cloudy or completely clear, this can be a sign of infection in the kidneys or urinary tract (or drinking too much water) Definitely not dark yellow or orange (or any other colour) this is usually a sign of dehydration and an unhappy liver.

How to have "the happy poo"

The perfect poo will float, be long (you’re aiming for 10cm) and curved in shape, think of it as your colon smiling at you! Poo is another way the body is giving you feedback of what is working and not working for you. A happy poo, like the one described above, tells you the digestive system is functioning well, your stress levels are steady and you’re not holding on to excess emotions or thoughts.

Some classic signs of imbalance are dry, pebble poop or constipation, gas and bloating which tells you there is excess Vata. If there is excess Pitta, you might have loose bowels, an urgent need to go or even diarrhea. Or if there is too much Kalpha, your poo will be heavy, sticky or sloppy.

You're going to learn more about balancing your dosha in the DOSHA module, head there next if you’re not getting a smile from your colon each morning.

ACTION STEP Pay attention to your Poo

Have a look and make a note in your journal or Notes app of the shape, time and quality of your poo and observe the daily changes.

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Washing hands & feet

Rinse your hands and feet with warm water. Soap is optional and of course only using natural products - fragrances and foaming agents used in conventional soaps are major endocrine disruptors (Meaning they interrupt hormonal balance and immune system, and causing cancerous tumors, fertility issues and autoimmune disorders) These compounds register in the bloodstream as toxic and thus another thing for the body to eliminate. The palms of the hands and soles of the feet are the primary places where ama is excreted, you might not see it but trust me, once you begin doing this daily ritual you will feel the difference.

Rinse your face with warm water, whether you use a cleanser or not is up to you. Depending on your dosha/skin type and where you are in your menstrual cycle (including post-pardum, peri-menopause and post-menopausal) you may feel your skin being on the dry or oily side. This is also good feedback from the body to know what is out of balance and how different foods stress or support you.

See the bonus recipes for ayurvedic facial cleansers below.

Depending on your dosha, you might need to also wash the eyes and nose. Eyes can be cleansed simply with warm water or you can use an eye cup. If you have sinus congestion or if you live in a city where the air pollution is real, I suggest getting a neti pot to use until the nasal passage is clear.

Scrape your tongue

The mouth is big place for ama to exit the body so there are a few rituals I’d love you to experiment with here.

The mouth is the origin for digestive processes and ama is essentially undigested food, you don't want to swallow and reabsorb the ama that your body is trying to excrete so this area of the body-temple is of supreme importance.

First, brush your teeth. In comes the tongue scraper! You might notice the white substance, or any other discolouration of the tongue. Glide the tool down your tongue a couple of times to remove the ama. You want to do this within 5 minutes of waking before the ama begin to be reabsorbed by the body.

Oil pulling

Next step, take a swig of oil (coconut, sesame and sunflower are best) and begin to vigorously swish, push and pull the oil into every crevice of your teeth and gums. This oil is going to pull out all the toxins from the mouth tissues and remove plaque and stains from the teeth. Spend at least 2 minutes doing this and work your way up to 10 minutes through the week (You can multitask while you do this, boil some water and get ready for rituals 3 and 4)

The oil will turn a milky colour and consistency, dispose of it, brush your teeth. I’m going to assume you’re already brushing your teeth with natural toothpaste, but if not, get your act together!

The final step is mouthwash, again no alcohol or nasty chemicals required. You can make your own at home very easily.

In a glass bottle combine: filtered water, salt and your favourite essential oils. Peppermint, tea tree, clove, spearmint, sage & rosemary are all great for mouthwash. Be a bathroom alchemist and add 3-5 drops of each essential oil according to your taste.

Last step. SMILE at yourself.

ACTION STEP Get into the rhythm of washing your hands, feet, face and mouth as described above.

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It probably goes without saying but being hydrated is the key to looking and feeling your best. If you were to chug a big glass of cold water first thing in the morning, it's like freezing all that ama that is trying to escape through your digestive tract, keeping that 2-3kg of gunk stuck to the inner walls of your intestines. In order to absorb that hydration from the water you are drinking through the day you want those channels to be crystal clear, then you get the beauty-fying effects of your H20: glowing skin, bright eyes and a sparkly aura.

Side note: Overall hydration is not about how much water you drink through the day, but how often you sip. Go for small and frequeny sips over guzzling

Warm water is suitable and beneficial for all dosha types, all the time. When we start adding other ingredients to the water we are targeting specific organs and places in the body that require more support so let's bring a little more awareness to what each dosha needs and how to restore balance when needed.

Vata

Vata dominant? Use your warm water to stimulate the agni AND cultivate the earth within you. You are going for roots with your water. Add some ginger which supports the stomach or turmeric (fresh or powdered) they have grounding properties and will bring some fire to the belly too. A big serve (500ml) or more will support you immensely.

Pitta

If you are Pitta dominant, adding lemon (or anything acidic like apple cider vinegar) is like adding more fuel to a wildfire. Adding some high quality salt, fennel seeds or even rose buds will help to sustain your agni and ensure it doesn’t burn out of control.

Kalpha

If you are Kalpha dominant, having help in the fire department is welcome! Bring on the fresh lemon, apple cider vinegar or kombucha, adding some to your cup of warm water. This is going to stoke that inner fire, lemon goes directly to the liver, the ferments will aid digestion and amp up your metabolism.

ACTION STEP Get in the rhythm of warm water before anything else goes in your tummy!

Try sipping on warm water through the day. I love an infusion of CCFT: Cumin, Coriander & Fennel seeds tea.