Issues Stored in the Tissues: Majja Dhatu
Issues Stored in the Tissues: Majja Dhatu
In Ayurveda, the term Dhatu refers to the tissues of the body. The seven tissues are as follows:
Rasa- Plasma
Rakta- Red Blood Cells
Mamsa- Muscle
Meda- Fat
Asthi- Bone
Majja- Nervous System
Shukra- Reproductive
Our focus today is on Majja Dhatu a spinal and cerebral fluid- that is located throughout the nervous system and bone marrow. Its function is to fill the bones and nourishes Shukra dhatu (the reproductive tissue). Its Mala or byproduct is seen as the unctuousness of eyes, skin, and feces.
Majja dhatu gives the feeling of fulfillment and wholeness. When Majja is deficient, it may be expressed as nervousness, anxiety, vacant eyes, tremors, and emptiness of mind. If it is in excess, it may even lead to sluggishness, cloudy eyes, and depression.
Discover your Dosha to learn what routines and foods work best for to get you back into balance.
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Majja dhatu gives the feeling of fulfillment and wholeness. When Majja is deficient, it may be expressed as nervousness, anxiety, vacant eyes, tremors, and emptiness of mind. If it is in excess, it may even lead to sluggishness, cloudy eyes, and depression.
According to Ayurveda, the body is made up of 7 tissues or dhatus which are nurtured and nutrified one dhatu at a time, passing on the remaining subsequent nutrients to the next tissue. Just like we learned in the blog The Fire of Your Life in Ayurveda, Agni.
Most interesting is the foods we eat are either building these seven tissues, depleting them, or keeping them in a state of “sama” or balance. If you are a practicing yogi, you should be aware of foods to help nurture Majja dhatu over your lifetime.
One that satiates or nourishes the brain, nourishes the entire nervous system. It is like a shock absorber to the brain. Mental afflictions stem from two behaviors of the intellect known as Rajas and Tamas. Rajas are the more explosive of the two, this is the reactive or low-road intellect (think Tigger from Winnie the Pooh). Tamas is the heavy, depressive part of the low road that is dulling to the intellect and individual as a whole, (think Eyore from Winnie the Pooh). Both of these behaviors stem from a vata vitiation in Pitta, specifically the Sadaka sub dosha and Kapha’s Tarpaka sub dosha. When Tarpaka and Sadaka are imbalanced, the mind is no longer flexible, strong, and resilient. It becomes easily aggravated and weakened, which invites the Rajas or Tamas's state of mind and being.
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Another contributing factor is the foods and substances we take in that contribute to the intellectual and physical decline creating AMA or build-up of the toxins leading to Pragya Aparadh, the mistake of the intellect.
Dis-eases that stem from such imbalances of Majja Dhatu in relation to Rajas and Tamas are Bipolar, Depression and Anxiety Neurosis to name a few.
“Ayurveda teaches us to cherish our innate nature- “to love and honor who we are; as we are.” Prana Gogia
How to Establish Balance in Majja Dhatu
Since the beginning of time, culture after culture has used food as medicine. From medicinal plants to cure diseases of the intellect, stomach upset, and wounds, to cautionary measures to prevent poisons and toxin accumulation, food has been used to heal a vicissitude of ailments.
In reference to Majja dhatu, depending on the extent and severity of the vitiated dosha, will depend on the foods needed to restore balance and allow for one to come back to their wholeness and fulfillment in the Self.
Jaklyn Keller, one of our contributing editors shares her findings through one of the great Vedic texts used in Ayurveda known as the Charaka Samhita. She discovers that “not all sugars are created equally. Jaggery, a cane syrup from India aids in the building of majja dhatu in the central nervous system. Jaggery is sweet and sweet is a rasa or taste which is nourishing for the body (happyguy77 et al., 2019). This is important for anyone working on repairing bones, ligaments, and mental constructs this season. I had a ligament tear last winter because of overdoing a pigeon pose. The injury did not hit immediately after the stretch but a few days after and then the swelling. As a child, I broke my left ankle so it is no surprise that as an adult I would have some stagnation and injury later. I’ve been working on repairing ligaments in my left ankle by drinking moon milk at night with ghee, herbs, and jaggery. After six months of moon milk with jaggery, my ankle is much stronger and no longer becomes swollen after physical exercise—no swelling when a strong winter storm passes through our mountainous state. I strongly encourage all yogis to switch their sugar of choice to jaggery.”
What is Jaggery?
Jaggery is an unrefined sugar product made in Asia and Africa but is mostly found in India and known as “Gur.” It’s sometimes referred to as a “non-centrifugal sugar,” because it’s not spun during processing to remove the nutritious molasses.
Similar non-centrifugal sugar products exist all over Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, although they all have different names such as:
Gur: India.
Panela: Colombia.
Piloncillo: Mexico.
Tapa dulce: Costa Rica.
Namtan tanode: Thailand.
Gula Melaka: Malaysia.
Kokuto: Japan.
In Ayurveda, a popular evening Ritucharya or evening routine is to integrate Moon Milk into your diet before bed. This will be a sweet way to calm the mind, and nervous system, and reduce anxiety. Taken consistently, it will be a supportive and natural way to have a good night’s sleep and restore the unctuousness in Majja Dhatu.
You can integrate Moon Milk into your diet in the evenings before bed, using the recipe below.
There are many foods that can support the re-alignment of Majja Dhatu related to a Kapha Pacifying Diet, to nourish the intellect which you can learn more about in our resource library here and get a FREE Ayurvedic Diet E-Workbook.
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Moon Milk is a Wonderful Way to Begin
“Among the herbs in moon milk is ashwagandha, known to have positive effects on the endocrine, cardiopulmonary, and central nervous systems, with powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Studies have found ashwagandha to reduce stress and anxiety in adults, inducing sleep” (2020).
Moon Milk is created in a variety of ways to address specific areas of concern or stress and provide a release for the muscles and the mind to rest. Here we share a Moon Milk recipe from India. Keep in mind that Majja dhatu is directly related to Kapha dosha because it is founded within the structure of the human form. The elements associated with Majja are air, earth, and water. When choosing your balancing diet, consider the texture and qualities of the foods you are eating to see if they align with the elements of dry (airy), juicy (watery), and heavy (earth). This is when we will begin making some adjustments to our diets.
Use the Free Ayurvedic Diet Workbook to determine what foods are best for your dosha.
Moon Milk Ingredients
1 cup – Milk of choice (whole, almond, coconut, etc.)
½ tsp – Ground ashwagandha powder
½ tsp – Ground cinnamon
¼ tsp – Ground ginger
Ground nutmeg (A pinch)
1 tsp – Coconut oil
1 tsp – Honey
Directions:
Heat milk in a pan and bring it to a simmer.
* Whisk ashwagandha, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in the milk. Let it simmer for about five minutes.
* Stir in the coconut milk.
* Now pour the moon milk into a cup and sweeten it with honey and drink it before going to bed.
* Enjoy
Start by doing 1% a day. Change one thing, notice what the changes are, and how it affects your digestion, and give it some time. Maybe it’s reducing the intake of carbonated waters and drinks, added sugars, or processed foods. The more conscious you are with the foods you take in, the more conscious you will be in the choices you make, and in turn reduce the amount of Pragya Aparadh, Rajastic, and Tamastic foods and substances and thus, increasing your Ojas (vibrancy) within the mind-body.
Join us for our 222 Lent 40-Day Challenge to Achieve Your Goals by doing 1% A Day. It’s a Free Challenge and open to everyone. We tend to do this challenge as a 5-Day challenge at the beginning of the year, but sometimes, a little community support is needed to reach our goals. Join the Private Facebook group Goal Getters here, sign up for the challenge here, and be sure to introduce yourself and share with us what you need support with.
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BALI Ayurveda, YOGA, and Cultural Wellness Retreat September 1-7th, 2023
Join us this year in Bali, Indonesia to discover the art of the heart. Learn how to paint Batik, explore the rice fields, snorkeling in Nusa Lembongan, learn the art of making Balinese offerings, and so much more.
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Keep showing up, and doing just 1% each day and you will achieve the results you seek for your mental, emotional, and physical, well-being.
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Now it’s your turn to make a quantum shift in your life and I want to help you achieve your goals this year by sharing how doing 1% each day will get you there.
Join the 222 LENT 40 DAY Challenge
1% A Day to Achieve Your Goals
It all begins with making a choice.
What is it, that you want to focus on right now? (Big or small)
Join our Facebook Group: Goal Getters starting 2/22 and join a community of individuals on a similar journey to achieve their goals. I will be with you each step of the way.
Get your Free Smart Goals and Vision Boards Workbook by clicking the button below and joining the challenge.
1% begins with your Dinacharya or Your Daily Routine.
What does that look like to you?
Maybe, this is a good time to reflect and journal about what your ideal day or week looks like.
What does self-care look like to you?
When was the last time you made healthy food choices or did some yoga, maybe even went to the gym?
Here is something to make part of your daily routine:
Take 5 mins each day to jot down your accomplishments, what inspired you, and what you will work on to enrich an area that needs more growth.
Life is about the allocation of time. Discover how to value your worth and yourSelf. Valuing Your Self-worth in a way that doesn’t stress the body so you can achieve lasting results through a lifestyle you love.
JBYF focuses on integrating a yogic and ayurvedic lifestyle. Ayurveda emphasizes the importance of not stopping anything quickly so the mind has an opportunity to gently transition to new rasayanas (behaviors) while releasing old habits. It’s important to remind ourselves to ease into the activity as well.
Stressing the body in or out of activity to achieve your goal puts the body under stress and is not a state of yoga or union in the body. If you are new to yoga, your one percent a day could look like following along with one of my videos on my Jai Bhakti Yoga YouTube channel. Feel free to subscribe there for free as we share a new video daily for our online community.
Maybe you attempt 5 mins of the video, and then the next day, your one percent could look like following along for 8 minutes and one second, and so on. That one second toward your one percent on the second day is fantastic! I think you're catching my drift… on the third day, 10 minutes and two seconds is perfect.
Your one percent a day could also look like moving away from something slowly… one percent at a time.
The important thing to remember is that time accumulates, and you are worthy of the time you put into yourself.
Ayurveda utilizes the circadian rhythm as a foundation for its routine because Ayurveda is supported by the underlying foundations of nature.
There are certain times of the day, for instance, when we wake up and go to bed. In the morning, there is your morning routine, some have an afternoon ritual, and then there is an evening ritual. In Ayurveda, we call the morning routine, Dinacharya, which we covered in our Creating a Healthy Daily Routine According to the Ayurveda blog, along with its sister Blog Creating Healthy Daily Routines Dinacharya and Ritucharya. You can also listen to the podcasts Episodes 24.
Being in alignment with Self and having balance can take time and effort- but you are so worth it.
Starting Feb.22, I will be sharing a 40-day challenge version of our 5-day challenge that will help you achieve these goals. You will get an email each week that will give you 1% more to do so you can see instant results.
Be sure to join our online community mailing list at jbyfnola.org to join in on the challenge and get your free dosha quiz to discover your dominant dosha.
We will restructure the way we explore our new routines based on how we align with the circadian rhythm.
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Thank you for your support and we look forward to growing with you this year!
This week’s references:
Burgin, T. (2000). Yoga Basics
Keller, J. (January 3, 2023). Giving 1% A Day. Jai Bhakti Yoga Blog.
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