I don’t know about you, but when I return home to spend time with family, my brain returns to pre-teen status. Parts of my conscious practice never seem to make it into my luggage, and I struggle to find the tools to relate to family in a healthy way. Thankfully, long ago, Sage Patanjali brought us the Yoga Sutras (in approximately 400 C.E.), which describe practices to calm the waves of the mind.

As a sitting-in-the-front-row-with-my-pencil-sharpened student of the traditional Indian medical science of Ayurveda, I became both enthusiastic and wary when a traditional Ayurvedic recipe was added to my local café’s sandwich board.

How wonderful when ancient practices flow into the contemporary mainstream. However, as with any game of telephone, the facts and founding principles usually get lost in perpetuation. “Oil pulling” is quickly becoming a popular daily practice, but it’s worth a moment to get the prescription right before passing it on.