A Winter Workshop
for Ayurvedic Self-Care
PLUS: How to make a delicious Winter Ayurvedic Beverage!
​᯽
​Saturday February 15, 2025 1-3pm
709 Main Road West Chesterfield
Weather Cancelation Date: Saturday February 22, 1-3pm

PLEASE PRE REGISTER!

Champi is a wonderful form of traditional Indian Ayurvedic self-massage of the hair, skin, ears, face, head, scalp and neck - all with warm, luscious organic oil!

Many South Asian folks have luxuriant, gorgeous hair and skin - and one likely reason might be because of champi, an ancient and traditional lifelong practice that is often learned in childhood from Indian mothers and grandmothers.

I was taught this nourishing practice - which is sometimes called shiro abhyanga - many years ago by a friend who practiced Ashtanga and Ayurveda. ​I've been doing champi as part of my regular Ayurvedic self-care methods consistently since then - to great benefit!

Champi is great any time, but it's especially good for us to do this for ourselves in the Winter: the driest, coldest, roughest time of the year. 

Before we begin our champi practice, I'll show you how to make a delicious AYURVEDIC Winter Warming Beverage, too!

Why is self-massage of the head, etc. with warm oil so effective and beneficial?
Yoga vidya teaches that one of the seats of prana, lifeforce is in the head. Why? Because our sense organs are housed there! Thus, the beneficial effects of massaging your head and hair with warm oil not include the cosmetic, but also mental/emotional and spiritual benefits, too, including:

• increasing mental clarity and alertness
• stimulating, nourishing and supporting the sense organs
• energizing and rejuvenating the entire body and mind
• cultivating a sense of deep peace and wellbeing
• helping sleep troubles
• alleviating hair loss
• stimulating hair growth
• creating thicker, stronger and more resilient hair
• eradicating dandruff and dryness
• reducing the liklihood of prematurely greying hair
• reducing blood pressure
• easing headaches, migraines, TMJ
• alleviating anxiety, anger and grief/sadness
• and more!

While champi only addresses the head, neck and shoulders, it's also part of a longer and more comprehensive Ayurvedic massage of the entire body, called abhyanga, or sometimes snehana (sneha refers to oil, and snehana means applying oil to the body - but also means self-loving!)

In the Ashtanga vinyasa yoga tradition I've studied for over 25 years, it's recommended to take an oil bath on Saturdays to ease overworked soft-tissues, alleviate inflammation, remove excess heat from the body, help keep joints and connective tissue well lubricated, move toxins stuck deep in the tissues, help with getting good sleep, ease general irritation and frustration, and overall to help remove heat from the body and cultivate a more cooling sattva - clarity, wisdom, lightness - so that one's yoga practices accrue even more benefits for body, mind and soul.

While we won't have time or the facilities to do a fullabhyanga for the whole body, we can experience great benefits by focusing our massage on the head, hands and feet.​

• You'll learn how to best warm up the oil, which kinds of oil are best depending upon the time of year, and be given a worksheet of the whole process of head massage
• We'll finish our mini-workshop with a short guided yoga nidra practice, or yoga sleep, to help integrate and compound the benefits of this amazing traditional self-care and healing method. ​

When:
SATURDAY
FEBRUARY 15th
1-3PM

Where:
709 MAIN ROAD WEST CHESTERFIELD, MA

Cost: 
All of my offerings are donation based, whatever you can afford to help offset the costs of running and hosting the workshop and sharing this vital, transformative knowledge. So, for those who can afford to make a donation for this workshop,  please consider paying between $15-35, based on your own financial wellbeing. Cash, check, Paypal or Venmo @michelle-ryan-57. 

What to bring/wear:

• Please bring an old knit cap to put on your head after the champi to keep your head warm on your ride home and wear layers, especially socks & a top layer to stay warm
• Because the benefits accrue the longer you allow the oil to soak into your hair and scalp, you'll not wash out the oil right away, but let it sit for at least an hour and wash it out when you get home! (I'll tell you the best way to get it out!)
• Wear an old long sleeve, crew neck tee shirt, and comfortable pants or old yoga tights that you don't mind getting oil on!
• If you don't want to wear a hat, bring an old hand towel to wrap up and/or put your hair in, after we're done with the champi 
• A comb or brush, and a hair tie if your hair is long
• Your own sweetener for the chai if you do not use maple syrup.

PRE-REGISTER HERE!

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When you learn how to balance your body - the microcosm -
you create more balance - and LOVE - in the macrocosm!

LOVING YOURSELF  = LOVING THE EARTH

Part of my dharma is to help folks learn how to create more self-resilience and nurturance for themselves in an easy, affordable and accessible way.   

​You don't need to go to a spa or on a special retreat or spend a lot of money to gain the benefits of self-care, but can experience it whenever you wish, in your own home.


I look forward to teaching you this wonderful, fun, beneficial, beautiful, economical, safe and environmentally-sound traditional self-care practice in community together!