Ritual of 6 Tastes of Ayurveda for Wild Pleasure
Your sense of taste is a wild tool of powerful pleasure. It guides you to the pleasure of life and away from harm. When awakened it can serve to guide you to the foods that will nourish and enliven you. Taste throughout nature guides you to what is edible and away from poison.
Wild Woman invites you to develop and honor your sense of taste as a sacred gift of communication, discernment and pleasure with rituals of taste. Through your sense of taste you can come into balance with nature, feel satisfied and stop craving.
Understanding your sense of taste and how it works is as essential as experiencing it fully. When you understand how it works you can discern what foods will support you, which ones to eat in moderation, not at all or plenty of. When you take the time to explore and experience your sense of taste fully, you begin to trust your own knowing. In order to trust yourself and your bodies wisdom you have to immerse in it.
Slowing down to taste and satisfy your palate is essential to your health. When was the last time you took time to eat a meal and fully notice what you are aware of tasting? If you do so regularly, congratulations. Eating on the run, reading while you eat or are engaged in conversation, listening to the chatter in your head are far more common in our modern culture. Often people are still hungry afterwards because they haven’t fully tasted the food they ate and their bodies didn’t get to fully register that food was eaten. This can result in overeating, cravings, indegestion, gas, constipation, bloating and eventually digestive diseases. 63 million people in the US alone suffer from chronic constipation.
Ayurveda, an ancient Indian science of healing ( sister science to Yoga) tells us that there are 6 tastes or Rasas essential to our health. Ayurveda which literally means the science of life is a mind-body health system that offers you a path to living in balance with nature and reclaiming yourself as nature—wild, free and good. A simple way to harness your sense of taste, and bring your body, mind and spirit into balance is to include the six Ayurvedic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent) in each meal. When introduced in this order, your taste works with your digestive system and your whole body to optimally deliver the nourishment you need to feel great.
You might not be used to eating the full range of tastes and flavors with a meal. I invite you to try it and consider that doing so will help to enliven your body, your senses and introduce you to a rich full palate that allows you to more fully experience your pleasure. Yes tasting a little bit of bitter will make the sweet, sweeter.
Ayurveda invites you to ingest natural flavorful goodness into your body. Here is a 6 taste ritual for you to explore and below there is a chart of the different rasas and foods.
Rituals of Rasas for Pleasure
Rasa Tasting:
Gather a little of each Rasa. Choose foods you like. ( See chart below)
Place them on a tray in this order: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Pungent, Astringent
Set the mood to engage all of your senses:
Light a candle, put some relaxing music on, wear something that feels good and is pleasing to your eye. Set your table with beauty.
Then take each, one by one and allow all of your senses to support you in exploring taste. Remember to breath.
First take a full breath and hear the music your playing.
Then take a full breath and look at it,
Then inhale and smell it
Take a breath in as you touch it
Take a breath in and then touch your tongue to it to taste.
Now invite it in with the Invitations below–I invite sweetness into my life to soothe...
Put it into your mouth and feel it in your mouth.
Close your eyes and notice the taste. Take a moment to breath before you chew it.
Allow the taste, rasa, to have your full attention. Notice what you are aware of experiencing in your body. Digest the taste with your whole body. Jot down notes in your journal here about what you notice. After you have tried each take a few minutes to notice all of these tastes lingering on your palate and notice what you’re aware of experiencing on the inside.
Then end with the Rasa Blessing below
***use small quantity for less familiar tastes, i.e. bitter, astringent. These potent tastes are meant to be consumed in small amounts.
Sweet -I invite sweetness into my life to soothe, delight and satisfy me
Sour – I invite sourness into my life to make my mouth water, build appetite and cleanse me.
Salty -I invite saltiness into my life to add flavor, reduce anxiety and calm my nerves.
Bitterness -I invite bitterness into my life to clear my palate and my emotions
Pungent-I invite pungency into my life to open my mind and senses
Astringent-I invite astringency into my life to cool my mind and tone me.
Place them on a tray in order.
Set the mood to engage all of your senses:
Light a candle, put some relaxing music on, wear something that feels good and is pleasing to your eye. Set your table with beauty.
Wild Woman Rasa Blessing: ( you can substitute Nature or Universe for Wild Woman)
Wild Woman, Bless me with Rasa, with the gifts of taste, to discern, discover and experience the pleasure of life. Awaken my senses that I may feel the blessing and sheer delight of living in my body. Bless me with your wisdom, healing and joy through the nature of my being. I ask that you guide me to the freedom and joy of life that is my birthright. I thank you for the miraculous gift of taste and all the bounty of nourishment that you offer me in your gardens, forests, waters and sky
Rasa Meal:
Make a whole meal incorporating the 6 Rasas ( tastes). Share with a loved one and bless yourself with pleasure. Invite them to take time with this journey and savor the pleasure of taste with you. Introduce them to the 6 Rasas, invite them to take their time and enjoy a sensual journey of taste with you. Incorporate elements from the Rasa Tasting Ritual and make it your own. Enjoy
Feel free to comment and share about your experience and of course let me know if you have any questions or would like to know more.
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