It’s late, and it’s been a long day of bouncing between the kitchen and my desk downstairs, shuttling books, equipment and more.
I’m parenting solo all week. Leo screamed through his bath. He threw bites of chicken and sweet potato all over the floor with a smile on his face, particularly when I would bend to pick them up and he would take his tiny little candy corn fingers and run them, still coated with sweet potato remnants, through my hair.
My inbox is stacked with emails. I can see a tiny handprint of something orange on the white cabinet doors from where I’m sitting.
My mind is scattered. My body is tired. I made myself a cup of tea, and sat down with a pair of these little Rasayana Truffles, and while I’m sure I still have sweet potato in my hair, I’m starting to feel better. It turns out that there are lots of reasons to incorporate a little rasayana – or revitalization – whether we’ve just given birth, or are hanging on for dear life in our day-to-day lives.
I made a batch of these truffles today for my very sweet friend Emory, who had a beautiful baby boy three weeks ago; I’m cooking for her First 40 Days – the magical + critical window of time after a baby is born where the revitalization of the mother is considered paramount, and sacred in traditional Ayurvedic wisdom. A new mother – from a bioenergetic perspective – straddles the work of BUILDING a child, ushering it into the world by way of her body (a marathon at best,) and preparing for the roller coaster ride that is modern motherhood. If you thought training for Ironman required energy, stamina and endurance, an optional swim-bike-run is nothing in comparison to this athletic, energetic and physical feat. If she doesn’t refuel herself properly, she’s setting herself up for a lifelong depletion that’s challenging to overcome.
But new mothers aren’t the only ones straddling several challenging physical-emotional-psychological efforts and are encouraged to overlook them. We all have plates towering with the life ingredients most important to us, as well as some things we wish we didn’t need to balance up there and – if we’re paying attention – we’re likely gonna notice that sometimes we’re a little low. In Ayurveda, we call this depleted ojas and THAT’S when rasayana comes in.
In Ayurveda, rasayana is both a process and refers to both foods and herbs that possess qualities that make them rasayana (rejuvenating.) Warmth, dense nourishment, sweetness and richness are what rebuild our ojas (vitality) in this medicine. And a little truffle of dense, sweet, nourishment – like these truffles – is a lovely way of dosing yourself.
Restoring ojas is one of the top three “ailments” I work on with my clients. Because we’re all overtraining, undernourishing, under-resting. We’re counting calories and macros, “fueling” with salads, eating foods that have far fewer nutrients than our ancestors and getting most of that food out of packages. We’re overworked, over-stimulated and out of balance — all of us, at some point in time. Everytime we *do* something (breathing air, returning text messages, making dinner, running a marathon, chasing our children etc) we burn a match from our personal matchbox. If we aren’t restoring that matchbox store (ie: with getting plenty of both sleep and downtime, nourishment and joy) then we start to deplete the supply until we’re left with a lot of obligations, and no matches to strike.
Ojas is the matchbox, our ability to be vital, to not just participate in life but thrive in it.
Ok, so we all can use a little rasayana. What do we do about it?
We use the medicine.
Our medicine isn’t taken in pill form in Ayurveda, instead we have foods to do that job. In India, little rolled balls of sugar, flour, nuts, seeds or dried fruit and spices are called laddu (or ladoo.) They’re regional specialties, rooted in the early Ayurvedic texts that used these little super-balls as ways to administer medicine. And so too with this recipe. Each of the ingredients in these little truffles (ladoos) is packed with bioenergetic superpowers that do their good work on depleted beings; dates provide dense nourishment, minerals and anti-inflammatory sweetness, nuts give a healthy drop of proteins and fats to keep energy channels supple, rose cools and reduces heat in the body from overworking, warming spices keep the system warm. and functioning well, and chyawanprash – an Ayurvedic herbal jam made with amalaki and other herbs meant to restore balance to the body – lays a foundation for a Six Flavored treat.
Chyawanprash is one of the most widely used herbal remedies in Ayurveda, seen as an essential daily supplement by many practitioners. This polyherbal jam is an ancient Indian formulation, prepared according to traditional Ayurvedic recipes, and enriched with several herbs, extracts and processed minerals.
You can’t make chyawanprash, and there is no substitute for it. So if you want these little truffles to carry their full potential, I recommend that you buy it. I have a jar in my pantry at all times, and I use it as jam on toast, eat it by the spoonful, and swirl it into these truffles (among other things.)
One of the ways you can start to restore your ojas matchbox is by making – and eating – these Rasayana Truffles. And there are things like eating foods appropriate for your state of being, making sure you get plenty of time to rest, recouperate, noodle and dream. This is particularly helpful and important for the nervous system – the system telling you that you’re topped off or not! We focus on setting down roots, not just aspiring to be the tallest flower in the bed. But eating these truffles is a great place to start.
There are lots of recipes for ladoos (or truffles) out there, and I loosely adapted this one from a recipe I got from Claire Ragozzino. The ingredients are simple enough – save for the chyawanprash which I highly recommend. You’ll need to order it (I share a source below!) And otherwise, these are such a massive treat! For long endurance efforts, airport travel, while nursing your newborn, or just snacking in your jammies at the first occasion you’ve had all day to sit down and do something nice for yourself.
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