Beauty's Spa: Panchakarma Body Purification with the Chopra Center

It's Friday and I need some serious Panchakarma. This three step ancient Indian purification technique promises complete emotional and physical catharsis. The Chopra Center recommends engaging in the ritualistic healing process at the beginning of every season. Seeing as how fall is on its way and my entire life is changing, um yes I'll have some of that please. Check out the full low down here.

Mother's Day at the Chopra Center

The Chopra Center, in addition to providing enlightenment and spiritual development, is also one of my best beauty secrets. The package below is available for Mother's Day at their website.

Mother's Day Collection ($68):
Adara Ayurvedic Body Wash
Adara Ayurvedic Body Lotion
Organic Pacific Silk Sea Sponges (pack of 3)
Joyta Invigorating Candle
Relax 2 CD - Sublime Music to help you unwind and de-stress
Pamper mom this Mother's Day with a collection of Chopra Center products designed to permeate the mind, body and soul with feeling of relaxation and peace. Order before May 3rd and receive and additional 10% discount on all online products. Simply enter the code: MOM at checkout before May 11th.

Neti Pot: I never thought 6:30 a.m. could be so much fun.

A few months ago I pried my hands off of $22 and bought a Neti Pot from The Chopra Center's website. (Apparently in addition to be concerned with my syncrodestiny and my ability to grow younger and live longer, Deepak Chopra is also concerned with my nasal cavities.) I had been "Neti Potting" for months with just a juice glass. Now I see that an actual Neti Pot is essential to obtain the full benefits of the practice and saves an inordinate amount of time and dish washing. According to wikipedia, Neti Potting, as I call it, is officially known in western cultures as Nasal Irrigation and is "an ancient Ayurvedic technique known as Jala neti, which literally means nasal cleansing in Sanskrit, where the practitioner uses a neti pot to perform the irrigation. "

This morning I woke up barely able to breathe. I have been stuffier than usual lately, as I have been dedicating my personal time in the morning to more creative endeavors than neti potting. Like so many things that bring me true pleasure in life, Neti Potting is more fruitful as a daily practice. So this morning diverted from my routine by impassable sinuses, I went straight to the mini-day spa otherwise known as my bathroom, poured 1/8th of a teaspoon of sea salt into the Neti Pot and summoned the hottest water my faucet produces. I mixed it up, stuck the spout of my beautiful hand-fired Neti Pot up each nostril and watched the water, snot and mucus pour out of the opposite nostril and voila. With in minutes I could breathe through both nostrils.

The first breathes after Jala Neti are unlike any other breathing I do throughout the day. They are yoga breathes, deep, cleansing, cathartic inhalings of spirit. Inspiration literally translates as the breathing in of spirit. With out full, deep breathes, exactly how creative or productive can I be in the morning?
The first time I did a neti pot I remember thinking, "Oh, now I know the exact location of my sinuses.” As the Neti Pot's elixer fills them I picture my face turning into an anatomy chart with my nasal cavities highlighted by the hot salty solution. The next few minutes are spent in homage to Cameron Diaz's elevator scene in My Best Friend's Wedding where she impersonates the symphonic range of her fiancé’s snoring capabilities with various gargling, snotting, and snorting. In other words, Neti Potting is best done in private. So that the snot, saliva, and salt water that are thrust about in the name of clear nasal passages don’t frighten any small children or potential life long mates. In other words it is a discombobulated unattractive process but it lets me breathe easier than I ever have before.

I didn't realize my Tongue was dirty.

I was walking through Whole Foods the other night with my dear friend and I noticed an odd horse-shoe shaped device hanging in their beauty section. "What's that? What's a tongue scraper?" She looked at me as if I just asked who Britney Spears was. "You have never seen a tongue scraper? Weird. Yeah my boyfriend uses one all the time. That's why he has such great breath." I instantly thought to myself, 'How ridiculous. I brush and floss and I'm so glad I'm not going to have to add that to beauty routine.' My next thought changed the "mouth section" of my daily routine forever. 'Oh god! What if I am like her and I just don't know it?' See there is this woman who I really think would be cool to hang out with but I never get past the breath. It's awful and it often makes me want to vomit. Sad. Because I really do think I'd get along with her, otherwise. Anyhow I suddenly realized that since I didn't use a tongue scraper I had no way of knowing if in fact my breath was good or bad. A week later I returned to one of my best beauty secrets, The Chopra Center's website, to order my trusty new tongue cleaner. It arrived yesterday, with my new Neti Pot, and I love it. My tongue looks cleaner and my mouth feels cleaner and it takes about 10 seconds to do. For dditional encouragement, see what this cute midwestern Dentist has to say about it.