Website

Ayurzona is excited to have their beautiful new website completed. You can visit it at: www.ayurzona.com.

This website encompasses our vision and our philosophy.  Here you can see information about our physicians, Purnima Mehta and Meghana Thanki and you can view our menu of services. It’s a wonderful way for you to get to know us and we hope that you will stop by our center in order to experience Ayurzona ~Where Eastern Meets Western Medicine~ for yourself!

Ayurzona – Dr. Purnima Mehta, M.D., – What it means to heal

 

This is the General Overlay, written by Dr. Prunima Mehta, M.D. for Ayurzona. It gives you an insight into what it takes to have emotional healing. These words are recited from her heart, as a healer, and they really capture the essence of Dr. Purnima Mehta.   

Any present emotional difficulty or concern you might have is a manifestation of emotional pain. Pain is a natural response to hurt. Psychological or emotional pain is the mind and body’s way of signaling to us that there are wounds or hurts in our mind stored at a cellular level that need identification, clarification and understanding. It is a natural human tendency to build walls around these wounds to protect ourselves. These walls disconnect us from others, but most of all from ourselves and our essence and spirit. The spirit, our unwounded self, aligns us with our purpose in life. Purpose provides us with joy, energy, zest and meaning. It connects us to ourselves at the deepest level and empowers us to experience love, for ourselves, an essential ingredient for the recipe of life. Walls can be flexible or rigid. They become habit patterns and largely out of our immediate awareness, guarding those old buried, open wounds with a sentinel eye. My work involves helping identify walls, understanding their function, respecting & honoring their protective need value, simultaneously, those old buried hurts and wounds surface gently and gradually, reliving them in the context of a safe relationship and exploring it once again only to be let go. This can be somewhat uncomfortable but this allows the walls to diminish and be replaced with new and empowering protective skills. Letting go promotes further healing and makes us feel whole and connected, experiencing ourselves in new ways. Healing involves understanding, awareness and letting go.

KITCHARI – A traditional delicious Indian meal

Kitchari is a seasoned mixture of rice and mung dal.  It is a meal which is capable of nourishing all tissues of the body.  Kitchari is rich in protein yet easy to digest giving tremendous vitality to any individual. Ayurvedically, it is a tridoshic meal which means that it is suitable for all 3 constitutions or doshas- vata, pitta, and kapha.   It is also excellent for detoxification and de-aging of cells as well as any time an individual wants to give their system a rest. 
Serves 6  

Ingredients

1cup Mung Dal (split yellow)

2 cups  Basmati Rice, white

8 cups  Water

1 inch   Ginger root, fresh, chopped or grated

2 tsp.    Ghee

½ tsp.   Turmeric

½ tsp.   Coriander Powder

½ tsp.   Cumin Powder

½ tsp.   Whole Cumin Seeds

½ tsp.   Mustard Seeds

¼ tsp.   Mineral Salt

1 pinch  Asafoetida (Hing)Handful Fresh Cilantro Leaves 

1 ½ cups Assorted Vegetables – zucchini, asparagus, or sweet potato, corn, peas, or edamame can be used as well. If using can sauté them along with the ghee in the beginning or can add later.  

Preparation

Carefully pick over rice and dal to remove any stones.  Wash in at least 2 changes of water.  If time allows let the mung dal soak for a few hours before cooking, as it helps with digestibility.  If you have a particularly difficult time digesting beans, you may want to precook the beans for 20-30 minutes using 4 cups of water.   In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the ghee and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and hing. Stir a moment until the seeds pop. Add the rice, mung dal, turmeric, fresh ginger root, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt and stir.
 
Add water and vegetables. Enough water to cover all contents in saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.Turn down the heat to low and cover, leaving the lid slightly ajar. Cook until tender, about 20-25 minutes. Add fresh cilantro as a garnish and serve. Can also eat with fresh yogurt on the side.  

GETTING BACK INTO ROUTINE USING AYURVEDA!

Summer is a time when many individuals especially kids are on a break from school. This may result in falling out of routine, traveling/vacationing abroad with family, eating out,  and possibly many late nights.  As one moves from the summer season, also known as pitta season, into fall, the vata season, one starts to notice changes.  Not only climactic/ external environmental changes but also internal shifts in mind, body, and spirit.  Ayurvedically vata is made up of space and air elements and governs movement of all kinds while pitta is made up of water and fire elements and governs digestion and transportation. As this vata season comes into effect kids have already built up their vata during the vacation by traveling and irregular schedules therefore having to balance it even more.  It is a blessing that school starts up and gets kids back into routine which is great for grounding them.  In addition to school following are some tips for parents to keep in mind while kids begin to slip back into the groove and balance their increased vata dosha.  

Signs that vata is out of balance:

• Mind- inability to stay focused
• Body- trouble falling asleep
• Spirit-emotions such as fear, worry, anxiety

TIPS to balance Vata:

·        Eating warm cooked meals and staying away from raw cold foods

·        Getting to bed on time, starting to wind down around 8:30-turning the computer and TV off

·        Getting into a regular routine involving after school activities and homework

·        Lot of hugs- sense of touch balances vata

·        A warm glass of milk before bedtime with nutmeg and cardamom

 

Meghana Thanki ND (Naturopathic Physician)

480-229-8047 is the co-founder of Ayurzona coming soon to Old Scottsdale.

doctormeghanand@gmail.com

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN MOVING LATELY?

 We can all agree that exercising is a very important part of our daily lives.  It gives us a chance to move energy, to release stored up tension, to process and digest our experiences and slip into a meditative space. The only problem is that we fall into patterns of exercising without taking a step back to see the impact of different types of exercise on our bodies.   Ayurveda teaches us to think and feel in terms of the elements in nature–fire, earth, water, space, and air. For example when we get angry the fire element plays a role in our emotions which correlates to pitta dosha or when we feel heavy or tired the earth element is predominant and relates to the kapha dosha.  If you are someone with a predominant vata constitution, those of you who just can’t sit still or stay focused you should try and participate in more grounding forms of exercise-gentle yoga or an early morning walk. For pitta individuals, those who are highly strung and get heated easily, swimming would be beneficial since it is cooling and meditative at the same time.  Kapha’s tend to be more sluggish and push off the gym each day and therefore regular aerobic exercise forms are best-hiking, bicycling and other invigorating types of exercises.  We can all relate to one of the scenario’s above, its just a matter of starting to think in these terms and beginning to keep an open mind and change our engrained habits. Try it out. Take your exercise routine and give it a makeover. See how you feel! Take it to the next level and see how each form of exercise serves us differently just through understanding these elements and their energetics.  

Meghana Thanki ND, is a Naturopathic Doctor with a primary focus on ayurvedic assessments, nutritional supplementation, and counseling with an aim to increase individuals consciousness in order to make better choices in their lives. 480-229-8047doctormeghanand@gmail.com