Lean on Ayurveda

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In this episode, I'm joined by Osi Mizrahi, founder of Osi Oils - for a deep conversation on abhyanga (self-oil massage), slow beauty, and aging with vitality and grace.
Together, we explore how ancient Ayurvedic rituals can become a powerful antidote to modern stress, hormonal transitions, and the pressure to “fix” our bodies — inviting us instead into practices of self-love, sensuality, and nervous system regulation.
This episode is a beautiful entry point for anyone curious about Ayurvedic self-care, especially women navigating perimenopause, menopause, burnout, or a longing to reconnect with ritual in everyday life.
In this episode, we explore:
What abhyanga really is — and why oiling the body is considered an act of love (sneha) in Ayurveda
How beauty rituals can support the nervous system, hormones, and emotional healing
The connection between vata dosha, aging, dryness, and stress
Why slow beauty is inseparable from slow aging
How small, realistic rituals (even 10 seconds!) can make a profound difference
The role of pleasure (kama) as a legitimate and healing aim of life
How oiling the skin supports ojas, radiance, and inner vitality
Why aging is not the problem — urgency is
Practical ways to begin Ayurvedic rituals without overwhelm
👉 Learn more about Osi and her oils here: https://osioils.com
🎁 Listener discount: Use code LEANON20 for 20% off your order

Spring Cleanse with Vytaute
If you’re feeling the call to reset, rebalance your doshas, and gently support digestion, hormones, and energy levels, I will be hosting the next Community Ayurvedic Spring Cleanse on:
🗓 March 20–22, 2026 (more info will follow!)
A beautiful way to support vata and kapha as we transition into spring.
Key Ayurvedic concepts mentioned:
Abhyanga — daily self-oil massage
Sneha — oil, love, affection
Vata dosha — movement, dryness, aging, nervous system
Ojas — vitality, immunity, inner glow
Panchakarma — deep Ayurvedic cleansing and rejuvenation
Slow beauty / slow aging — ritual over urgency
Resources & links
Osi Oils website: https://osioils.com
Discount code: LEANON20 (20% off)
Spring Cleanse dates: March 20–22
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and share the Lean on Ayurveda Podcast — and consider passing it on to a woman who could benefit from more softness, ritual, and nourishment in her life.
Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: receive seasonal reflections, ayurvedic practices, recipes and free resources to bring balance into your daily life.
Book a 1:1 ayurvedic consultation: learn how to use food, rhythm and ritual to support your unique constitution.
If this episode resonates, please share it and rate the podcast - it helps more people discover the art of ayurveda as a support system for modern living!

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In this deep conversation, I’m joined by my beloved teacher Angela Perger, founder of Simple Ayurveda, to explore how ancient Ayurvedic wisdom can meet modern trauma awareness - and why, for many of us, healing requires more than food, herbs, and routines alone.
Together, we dive into trauma-informed Ayurveda, emotional digestion, and the role of community in healing chronic conditions. Angela shares her own powerful health journey, how she integrates German New Medicine (GNM) with Ayurveda, and why learning to live with paradox may be one of the most important skills on a healing path.
In this episode, we explore:
What trauma-informed Ayurveda really means - and why it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach
How unresolved emotional experiences can show up as physical symptoms
Angela’s personal journey with autoimmune conditions and long-term healing
An introduction to German New Medicine (GNM) and how it complements Ayurveda
Why “doing everything right” still isn’t always enough - especially for Western nervous systems
Emotional digestion and how the body processes unresolved experiences
Working with health-related fear, medical anxiety, and chronic illness
Ritualizing medication and medical appointments as a form of nervous system support
The power of healing in community (and why it’s often missing today)
Why sharing our stories in safe groups can be profoundly transformative
Living in paradox: the wisdom of “yes, and” instead of “either/or”
Creativity, improv, and joy as unexpected healing tools
What it means to find - or create - a modern village for healing
About Angela Perger
Angela Perger is an Ayurvedic practitioner, educator, and the founder of Simple Ayurveda. With a background in education and decades of lived experience navigating chronic illness, Angela brings a deeply compassionate, nuanced lens to healing.
Her work integrates classical Ayurveda with trauma awareness, emotional digestion, ancestral inquiry, and German New Medicine - supporting people who feel they’ve “done all the right things” but are still searching for deeper resolution.
Angela is also the host of the Simple Ayurveda Podcast, where she shares grounded, practical wisdom for living in rhythm with nature and the body.
Explore Angela’s work:
🌿 Website: https://simpleayurveda.com
🎧 Podcast: Simple Ayurveda (available on all podcast platforms)
Her Programme Ayurveda Encompassed starts in February 2026!
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Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: receive seasonal reflections, ayurvedic practices, recipes and free resources to bring balance into your daily life.
Book a 1:1 ayurvedic consultation: learn how to use food, rhythm and ritual to support your unique constitution.
If this episode resonates, please share it and rate the podcast - it helps more people discover the art of ayurveda as a support system for modern living!

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In the final episode of 2025, we’re closing the year with a special Q&A, featuring questions submitted by my current clients. We explore everything from the truth about ghee and inflammation, to navigating the emotional weight of the world, to finding your way out of procrastination patterns.
In this episode, we cover:
• Is ghee inflammatory?
We look at what modern sources say, where confusion often arises, how ghee behaves in the body according to Ayurveda, the role of butyrate in gut health, and what the classical texts tell us about using ghee therapeutically.
• How to feel harmony in a world that feels harsh.
We explore the lens of Kali Yuga, the deeper perspective of yogic philosophy, how to hold both agency and surrender, and the two practices that can keep you rooted when the world feels overwhelming: rhythm and prayer.
• “I keep procrastinating. What do I do?”
A practical Ayurvedic take on procrastination. We differentiate between tamasic (inert) procrastination and rajasic (busy but avoidant) procrastination — and how to shift each one using sattva, rajas, or both.
End-of-Year Offering: Ayurvedic Holiday Support Sessions
For the month of December, I’m opening up something I rarely offer — single one-on-one sessions to support you through the holiday season.
These 60-minute focused sessions can support you with:
digestion and food rhythm while traveling or hosting
stress, sensory load, and overwhelm
emotional tenderness that often arises this time of year
We choose 1–2 priorities and build a simple, personalized support system so you can enter the new year feeling grounded, nourished, and clear.
→ Book your session here.
Resources Mentioned in this episode:
WebMD nutritional overview of ghee
Research on the anti-inflammatory effects of butyrate: Canani RB, Costanzo MD, Leone L, Pedata M, Meli R, Calignano A. Potential beneficial effects of butyrate in intestinal and extraintestinal diseases. World J Gastroenterol. 2011 Mar 28;17(12):1519-28. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v17.i12.1519. PMID: 21472114; PMCID: PMC3070119.
Charaka Samhita passages on ghee (ghṛta)
Simple Ayurveda Podcast ep 169: Time from a Vedic Perspective: A Deep Dive into the Yugas.
Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: receive seasonal reflections, ayurvedic practices, recipes and free resources to bring balance into your daily life.
Book a 1:1 ayurvedic consultation: learn how to use food, rhythm and ritual to support your unique constitution.
If this episode resonates, please share it and rate the podcast - it helps more people discover the art of ayurveda as a support system for modern living!

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Episode 24 — Winter Foods: How to Nourish Your Body and Build Strength This Season
In today’s episode, we explore how to nourish yourself during winter (Hemanta) using the principles of Ayurveda.
This is the season of strong digestive fire, deeper nourishment, and building the tissues that carry you through the colder months. Think: sweet, sour, salty, warm, grounding, and deeply supportive foods.
Before we dive in, I’m also sharing a special offering available only in November and December — my 1:1 Ayurvedic Holiday Support Sessions, a single 60-minute session designed to help you create a simple system of support for the very real challenges of this season. If you’ve been curious about what Ayurvedic coaching feels like, this is the perfect taster.
What We Explore in This Episode
🌬️ Early Winter & Your Body’s Intelligence
Why your digestive fire naturally strengthens when the weather turns cold
How Ayurveda understands this season as a time of containment, nourishment, and steadying the system
What happens if you don’t feed your digestive fire properly during winter (hint: depletion)
🥣 The Ayurvedic Tastes That Support You Most Now
You’ll learn which of the six tastes build strength and stability in winter and how to naturally bring them into your meals.
We discuss the sweet taste present in grains, dairy products and the use of meat as medicine. 
We also cover sour and salty tastes and their roles in supporting digestion of heavier winter foods.
We talk about warm hydration rituals and their role in strengthening agni - our digestive fire.
🌱 What Winter Is Really About in Ayurveda
Winter is the season of building kapha on purpose.
Build wisely now → feel strong in spring.
Under-nourish now → deplete deeply later.

Book your Winter Holiday Support Session with Lean on Ayurveda here.
Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: receive seasonal reflections, ayurvedic practices, recipes and free resources to bring balance into your daily life.
Book a 1:1 ayurvedic consultation: learn how to use food, rhythm and ritual to support your unique constitution.
If this episode resonates, please share it and rate the podcast - it helps more people discover the art of ayurveda as a support system for modern living!

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Feeling the pull to slow down while the world speeds up? 
In this episode, I share how introverts and sensitive souls can navigate the end-of-year season with more peace, groundedness, and intention — using Ayurveda’s timeless tools for nourishment & rest.
As the year begins to wind down, the world around us tends to speed up — parties, deadlines, and a swirl of activity pulling us outward. Yet, nature — and often our inner world — call for stillness, reflection, and warmth.
In this episode, we explore the paradox of being an introvert (or simply a sensitive soul) in an extroverted season, and how Ayurveda invites us to meet this threshold with grace, nourishment, and truthfulness.
You’ll learn:
🌙 Why this time of year naturally calls for inward reflection — and how to honor that pull
🔥 What Ayurveda recommends for the winter season (nourishment, coziness, intimacy, and truthfulness)
🪞How to work with Vata energy and reverse the momentum of anxiety or overactivity
💬 The importance of saying truthful “yeses” — and peaceful “nos”
💗 How to create sacred pauses and design a more harmonious, heart-led season
💌 Why solitude and depth might be your greatest sources of connection
Whether you identify as an introvert, an empath, or simply someone craving more peace at the end of the year — this episode will help you soften into the wisdom of the season.

Work with me this Season:
I’m offering two ways to receive Ayurvedic support this winter:
🌿 Holiday Support Sessions — Single 1:1 sessions to help you feel grounded, clear, and centered through the holiday season. Available only through November and December.
👉 Book your Holiday Support Session

✨ Awaken Your Health (12-Week Journey) — My signature Ayurvedic mentorship program designed to help you understand your body, align your daily rhythm, and finally feel better.
👉 Book a Free Consult for Awaken Your Health
Follow along on Instagram: @leanonayurveda
Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: receive seasonal reflections, ayurvedic practices, recipes and free resources to bring balance into your daily life.
Book a 1:1 ayurvedic consultation: learn how to use food, rhythm and ritual to support your unique constitution.
If this episode resonates, please share it and rate the podcast - it helps more people discover the art of ayurveda as a support system for modern living!