Sunday, March 30, 2014

Oil pulling

When I first started practicing yoga in 1987, my teacher was basically a dirty hippie. She was in her z40's,had spent time on an ashram in India and was very much promoting a natural life agenda. I started doing neti treatments because of her, and it changed my life. 


One thing she taught us about was oil pulling. Basically, you put oil (coconut, sesame, etc) in your mouth and swish it around, then spit it out. It's supposed to have all sorts of magical properties and cure everything.

I thought she was nuts.

Fast forward a bunch of years. I was reading a magazine (I think it was yoga journal) and it had an article about oil pulling. I decided to give it another try. After a few times, I was hooked

Within a matter of days I saw a huge difference in terms of my dental health. I've always had sensitive teeth, and by the oil pulling my teeth became less sensitive. I know longer had pink meeting my gums were no longer bleeding. I've also noticed that my tea has become never have become whiter and my smile prayer.

It's very easy to do and it's recommended that you do your oil pulling first thing in the morning. Start out by taking a teaspoon parentheses I use coconut). Coconut oil is solid at room temperature. Put it in your mouth and she wanted until it becomes liquefied. Then you start swishing around. It's recommended that you do it for 20 minutes, but it's hard to start off that way. You can start up by doing it for about five minutes. And then you can work your way up from there. While I'm oil pulling, I use that time to clean up my bathroom. As I'm swishing around I'm swishing and swiping the kick the bathroom counters. When you're done oil pulling, it's recommended not to spend it down your sink. Either spit it in the trash, or down the toilet.

I'm very pleased with the results, and it's something I'm definitely  going to continue.

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