DEBORAH ROSE
“Ayurveda reminds me every day what a beautiful gift it is to experience life through my five senses, encapsulated in this sacred body.”
Deborah Rose is a mother, doula and women’s Ayurvedic health guide. Deborah’s entrance to holistic healthcare came via a former job as an international model. Her insight into society’s requirements that the female body be treated as a machine, rather than a friend deserving of care and comfort, led her towards Ayurveda. After directly experiencing its power to heal hormonal imbalance and support the processes of conception, pregnancy, birth and mothering, she trained directly with renowned doctors and lineage holders including Dr Vasant Lad, Dr KP Khalsa and Dr Marc Halpern.
Follow Deborah:
Website: Ayurvedadoula & Ayurvedamamma
Instagram: @deborahroseschoutema
“For those who are expecting, want to be a mama someday and those who already have given birth in the past: to give yourself the gift of deep healing after birth. Time off. Immersion in bonding with your baby (as well as with your postpartum body).”
What does Ayurveda mean to you?
It reminds me every day what a beautiful gift it is to experience life through my five senses, encapsulated in this sacred body. This helps me to stay centred, grounded and in touch with source.
When did you discover it? How long have you been practicing it?
I discovered Ayurveda as an answer to my absent menstrual cycle. Infertility runs in the family and I felt connected to the universal mother energy from a very young age, hence I stressed about my own story long before I was in the right place to try to conceive. Others envied the fact that I never had any period pains, but I just desperately wanted a cycle. I was in Australia when I ordered a drink with the name Ojas Latte. The next person in line asked me if I knew what it meant. I had no clue. He explained to me that Ojas is Sanskrit for a concept that combines fertility, bliss and immune health. That’s where my journey began.
What drew you to Ayurveda?
The way Ayurveda speaks about helping people to remember their divine essence, which goes hand-in-hand with Ojas (fertility, bliss and immune health). Ojas is described as a honey-like nectar that is the end result of our body’s 35-day maintenance cycle. It goes back into our bloodstream to start the next cycle. This nectar is the ultimate reserve of energy and has a lot in common with the Full Moon. It’s so poetic! The fact that my mother tongue needs all these lines to say what Ojas says in one word goes to show how Ayurveda integrates the mind-body-universe connection into its teachings. That in itself feels like coming home to me again and again.
Has it helped you with anything major?
Besides guiding me into a regular menstrual cycle for the past 7 years, it has also played a major part in my wellbeing throughout pregnancy and postpartum healing. Ayurveda doesn’t look at birth as an isolated event. Instead, the physical aspect of birth is like a big release of built-up energy throughout the pregnancy. My Vata dosha typically comes with things like anxiety, forgetting to eat, energy bursts followed up with fatigue and a habit of doing things very last minute. I did not wish for Vata’s intense labour cramps along with a vata-like erratic birth process; and I also hoped for my baby to feel more grounded than the usual me (mama’s prenatal Dosha often rubs off on the baby, too). So I went all the way, adjusting my nutrition, lifestyle and work schedule to get more of Kapha’s sweet, stable and juicy qualities in my mind and body. I also constantly worked with Pitta by using spices to keep my digestive fire warm. And then, after birth, there was Ayurveda’s Postpartum “Kayakalpa” (Sanskrit for “body time”) to help me heal and bond with my baby after birth. The herbalised oils, yoni decoctions and belly wrapping made me feel heavenly in a time that is experienced as stressful and not-so-glorious by many mums. As expected, I also had my portion of anxiety in the early days after birth. The breathing and simple meditation techniques along with the herbal beverages (I worked with lots of nerves) gently guided me from overwhelm and panic to feeling secure and grounded. Not to mention a gradual postpartum diet. I personally believe that the way Ayurveda “closed my bones” and kindled my digestive fire after birth has healed my long history of digestive ailments, aches and pains.
Is Ayurveda part of your everyday life or just for your medicine cabinet or fall-back routine?
It’s part of my everyday life, although some of my rituals have been reduced to smaller bits of routine since the arrival of our baby (who’s now a toddler).
What are your top 3 Ayurvedic tips that have worked for you?
1. Working with culinary spices, thankfulness and silence to adapt the alchemy of my meals.
2. Regular self-massage with herbalised oil.
3. Living in tune with the season and my inner-seasons (a.k.a menstrual cycle).
What surprised you most about Ayurveda?
How playful it is. Ayurveda can come across as a practice that knows many rules. But when it comes to practicing it, it is very fluid and intuitive.
Did you integrate it gradually or overnight for any particular reason?
I think I went a little “cold turkey” when I started exploring it. When I work with my clients I try the opposite approach by gradually introducing Ayurvedic self-care measures to their day-to-day life. This is to prevent from overwhelm and to allow for personalisation and integration to happen. When the steps are small, someone can really nail each step on the way by making it their own. I find this approach to lead to effortlessness - and I’ve learned that our divine essence is in effortless self expression.
Do your children/family eat an Ayurvedic diet? And if they do, do they know it’s Ayurveda or do they just think of it as home cooking?
Although Ayurveda is everywhere in our household: from the Ayurvedic Body Clock to the skincare in our bathroom, countless medicine bottles, culinary spices, chanting in the morning, a daily self-massage and even the art on the walls. However, my partner is a passionate cook, and since he is Nigerian our staples look more like Jollof Rice and Plantain then Kitchari, Dahl or homemade roti. This applies to all seasons. Outside of those staples, the smaller dishes mostly exist of Ayurvedic cooking. Our drinks are Ayurvedic, too. I don’t think Nova thinks of any of this as either Nigerian or Ayurvedic. He is only 2, so he probably just thinks of it as “yummy” or “not yummy”.
What is your favourite Ayurvedic recipe or go-to ingredient?
For new mothers in my practice, I work a lot with Lotus, Rose, digestive spices (like fennel, ginger, tiny bit of nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper) and Hemp Milk. I grind the petals of the Rose and Lotus, add the spices and activated hemp seeds, then add spring water and place all the ingredients in the Nutribullet. It makes for a relaxing milk that both calms the nervous system and supports the digestive fire. Ashwagandha is a valuable addition to these botanicals. I also use Shatavari to support lactation, and Gokshura to help the Kidneys and tone the uterus in the first weeks/months after birth.
My favourite Ayurvedic Food for new mothers is Raab, a warm smoothie that is also referred to as Pearl Millet Drink. I also love my uterus-toning saffron rice recipe cooked with asparagus, a recipe based on Mother Maya’s Saffron Rice.
New mothers who crave coffee are often happy with the energetic outcome of consuming Brahmi.
How does Ayurveda fit into your day-to-day routines?
Along with the Ayurvedic teachings and how they apply to a “kitchen saddhana”, I am also in love with the Mahavidya teachings, which seamlessly blend in with Ayurveda. I currently work a lot with Tripura Sundari, the Divine Mother. The practice happens mainly around the Waxing Moon. Every evening, I park 10-20 minutes for a meditation on the Goddess and chanting. During this meditation, the devotee is believed to “collect” the qualities of the goddess in alignment with the moon. Each notch of the waxing moon, she represents another aspect of the divine mother. The next morning, you release what you’ve collected. A simple yet potent ritual.
I also work with Yoni Steams and hip baths in alignment with the moon along with regular self-massage and journaling.
Lastly, herbal remedies play a big part. I think of herbs as the bridge between the life you are currently living and the way you want to live your life. Their energetics can adapt the way the dosha’s move within you outside-in until you’re ready to fix things inside-out. A good example is taking herbs before bed. They will help you sleep more soundly until, for example, your work situation has changed so much that you will sleep well without herbs. *I currently consume Rose, Lotus, Passionflower and Brahmi every day. I also take Shatavari, Manjistha and Guduchi during the luteal phase of my cycle.
What do you wish was easier in our society to make an Ayurvedic lifestyle more accessible?
I would love it if it would be easier for people to align their meals with their body clock. This means consuming your biggest meals between 10 am and 2 pm, giving yourself enough time to rest and digest. If all employers would introduce an hour-long lunch break, paid rather than unpaid, serving freshly cooked meals, that would be a great step towards this. If a generic day would be from 8 am until 4 pm this would also allow families to enjoy some time together in the evening and consume a home cooked meal well before 7 pm.
Of course, it would also be valuable if the NHS would explore Ayurvedic therapies as part of their complementary medicine offerings. I believe that Acupuncture is offered to some people, and I am waiting for the day that Ayurveda will be added, too.
Do people around you/in your circle of friends know about Ayurveda?
Yes.
What’s the one thing you would encourage everyone to try or you think would benefit the majority of people’s health for the better?
For those who are expecting, want to be a mama someday and those who already have given birth in the past: to give yourself the gift of deep healing after birth. Time off. Immersion in bonding with your baby (as well as with your postpartum body). To allow your body and, more specifically, your womb to receive love, warmth, herbalised oil, touch and wrapping so that she can receive the rejuvenation that the Veda’s believe will benefit you all the way through menopause! Even if birth was a decade ago and you feel like you’ve missed that train: allowing yourself to retreat and receive healing and rejuvenation for your womb now will still shift things in your physical and spiritual health.
And if you’re not personally expecting a baby any time soon, but have loved ones who do, maybe your gift can be towards mum’s wellbeing rather than baby clothes or toys. Baby doesn’t need much just after birth, she will just need her mum. So helping the mum feel calm and nurtured, will ultimately be for the baby's benefit, too. That is no small thing!
Anything else you’d like to add?
So I will just wrap it up with a big thank you for the space you’ve given me to share.