PRAMA BLOGS
CCF Tea: Ayurvedic Tea for Gut Health
Ayurveda has many complicated herbal formulas. One of its most useful remedies is also one of the simplest: CCF tea, made from equal parts cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds. These are ordinary kitchen spices. Brewed together, they make a mild, slightly sweet, earthy...
Water Fasting vs. Juice Fasting: What 1,422 People Taught Us
Occasionally, a guest arrives at the Prama Institute and Wellness Center, convinced that "real" fasting means water only. Nothing but water, for a week or more, and the deeper the deprivation, the deeper the healing. It is an appealing story. The research, however,...
Food and Fasting for Healing and Health
If the body naturally detoxes every day, even while we sleep, why is it still important to detox with a juice cleanse or alkaline superfoods? Because the food we eat is not always healthy or alkaline; it may contain too much acid-producing processed flour, sugar,...
What’s Really Behind Your Toxic Load?
The goal of a detox is to remove harmful toxins from the body — but where do these toxins actually come from? Sources vary and are sometimes unavoidable, but they often trace back to your habits, choices, and lifestyle. Everyday exposure, from the foods you eat to the...
The Dirt on Immunity: How Soil, Sauerkraut, and Whole Foods Feed Your Gut
The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters, distinguishing them...
How healthy is your mental diet?
Our consumption never stops. Emails, phone calls, text messages, podcasts, social media, television, conversations, and the constant stream of information flowing through our screens continually fill our minds with new ideas and impressions. Sometimes the steady...
Connecting with Ourselves and Others in Silence
Many people search for a silent meditation retreat because they want peace, clarity, or a break from the constant noise of everyday life. What often surprises them is that one of the greatest gifts of a meditation retreat isn't only finding quiet within...
The Prama Wellness Method: An Integrative Path to Lasting Health
At Prama Wellness, we believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. By thoughtfully integrating diverse natural health systems—while preserving the integrity of each—a more powerful and effective therapeutic approach emerges. This integrative synergy is...
Fasting and Immunity: Fasting Can Help Your Body Defend Itself
By Ramesh Bjonnes In an age of global travel, chronic stress, ultra-processed foods, and recurring viral outbreaks, one question matters more than ever: how do we strengthen our immune system in a natural and sustainable way? To answer that, we need to start in,...
From Awareness to Action: Navigating Mental Health with Meditation
As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month this May, the conversation surrounding our internal well-being has never been louder. While the stigma is finally fading, the sheer scale of the challenges we face remains significant. Understanding the scope of the issue is...
PREVIOUS BLOGS
CCF Tea: Ayurvedic Tea for Gut Health
Ayurveda has many complicated herbal formulas. One of its most useful remedies is also one of the simplest: CCF tea, made from equal parts cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds. These are ordinary kitchen spices. Brewed together, they make a mild, slightly sweet, earthy...
Water Fasting vs. Juice Fasting: What 1,422 People Taught Us
Occasionally, a guest arrives at the Prama Institute and Wellness Center, convinced that "real" fasting means water only. Nothing but water, for a week or more, and the deeper the deprivation, the deeper the healing. It is an appealing story. The research, however,...
Food and Fasting for Healing and Health
If the body naturally detoxes every day, even while we sleep, why is it still important to detox with a juice cleanse or alkaline superfoods? Because the food we eat is not always healthy or alkaline; it may contain too much acid-producing processed flour, sugar,...
What’s Really Behind Your Toxic Load?
The goal of a detox is to remove harmful toxins from the body — but where do these toxins actually come from? Sources vary and are sometimes unavoidable, but they often trace back to your habits, choices, and lifestyle. Everyday exposure, from the foods you eat to the...
The Dirt on Immunity: How Soil, Sauerkraut, and Whole Foods Feed Your Gut
The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters, distinguishing them...
How healthy is your mental diet?
Our consumption never stops. Emails, phone calls, text messages, podcasts, social media, television, conversations, and the constant stream of information flowing through our screens continually fill our minds with new ideas and impressions. Sometimes the steady...
Connecting with Ourselves and Others in Silence
Many people search for a silent meditation retreat because they want peace, clarity, or a break from the constant noise of everyday life. What often surprises them is that one of the greatest gifts of a meditation retreat isn't only finding quiet within...
The Prama Wellness Method: An Integrative Path to Lasting Health
At Prama Wellness, we believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. By thoughtfully integrating diverse natural health systems—while preserving the integrity of each—a more powerful and effective therapeutic approach emerges. This integrative synergy is...
Fasting and Immunity: Fasting Can Help Your Body Defend Itself
By Ramesh Bjonnes In an age of global travel, chronic stress, ultra-processed foods, and recurring viral outbreaks, one question matters more than ever: how do we strengthen our immune system in a natural and sustainable way? To answer that, we need to start in,...
From Awareness to Action: Navigating Mental Health with Meditation
As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month this May, the conversation surrounding our internal well-being has never been louder. While the stigma is finally fading, the sheer scale of the challenges we face remains significant. Understanding the scope of the issue is...
Health & Wellness
CCF Tea: Ayurvedic Tea for Gut Health
Occasionally, a guest arrives at the Prama Institute and Wellness Center, convinced that “real” fasting means water only. Nothing but water, for a week or more, and the deeper the deprivation, the deeper the healing. It is an appealing story. The research, however, points to a gentler way of fasting—one we have practiced for years.
Water Fasting vs. Juice Fasting: What 1,422 People Taught Us
Occasionally, a guest arrives at the Prama Institute and Wellness Center, convinced that “real” fasting means water only. Nothing but water, for a week or more, and the deeper the deprivation, the deeper the healing. It is an appealing story. The research, however, points to a gentler way of fasting—one we have practiced for years.
Food and Fasting for Healing and Health
If the body naturally detoxes every day, even while we sleep, why is it still important to detox with a juice cleanse or alkaline superfoods? Because the food we eat is not always healthy or alkaline; it may contain too much acid-producing processed flour, sugar, animal fat, and dairy. When we overeat, too many toxins are left in the body. Stress is another reason; too much work and too little sleep will create imbalances in the body’s digestive ecology.
What’s Really Behind Your Toxic Load?
Scientists have found that microbiomes are essential in shaping the development of innate and adaptive immunity and, in turn, the immune system shapes the microbiome.
So how can we improve our microbiome, which is primarily located in the gut, and thus improve our immune system?
The Dirt on Immunity: How Soil, Sauerkraut, and Whole Foods Feed Your Gut
Scientists have found that microbiomes are essential in shaping the development of innate and adaptive immunity and, in turn, the immune system shapes the microbiome.
So how can we improve our microbiome, which is primarily located in the gut, and thus improve our immune system?
The Prama Wellness Method: An Integrative Path to Lasting Health
At Prama Wellness, we believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. By thoughtfully integrating diverse natural health systems—while preserving the integrity of each—a more powerful and effective therapeutic approach emerges.
Fresh Juice and Sugar: Separating Fear from Fact in Juice Cleansing
There is a growing belief among some health professionals that juice cleansing is unhealthy. Two common claims are often repeated: that juices lack fiber and that they contain excessive sugar. These concerns, however, often overlook the purpose and structure of a...
The Benefits of a 10-Day Juice Cleanse and Yoga Retreat
A 10-day yoga, meditation, and juice cleanse retreat offers the time and structure the body and mind need for a genuine reset instead of a quick fix. Why ten days matter A weekend or three-day juice cleanse is a good introduction, but it rarely reaches the deeper...
It’s a New Year and the Perfect Time to Start Fasting!
When the feasting is over, it’s time for fasting. Especially if you feel a bit heavy and sluggish from all the food and drinks you enjoyed during the holidays. People tend to eat heavier food during the cold season. But even if you eat and drink in moderation, fasting...
RFK Jr.’s Food Pyramid: More Meat, Less Sense
The new food pyramid, reflecting a radical policy shift under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., flips the traditional model on its head, prioritizing proteins, dairy, and “healthy” fats. It gets one important thing right, though: it eliminates processed foods...
Meditation & Mindfulness
How healthy is your mental diet?
Our consumption never stops. Emails, phone calls, text messages, podcasts, social media, television, conversations, and the constant stream of information flowing through our screens continually fill our minds with new ideas and impressions. Sometimes the steady barrage of bad news or conflicting opinions becomes overwhelming, and we simply need to stop listening. We need quiet moments to recover our balance.
Connecting with Ourselves and Others in Silence
Many people search for a silent meditation retreat because they want peace, clarity, or a break from the constant noise of everyday life. What often surprises them is that one of the greatest gifts of a meditation retreat isn’t simply finding quiet within themselves—it’s discovering a profound sense of connection with others.
From Awareness to Action: Navigating Mental Health with Meditation
As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month this May, the conversation surrounding our internal well-being has never been louder. While the stigma is finally fading, the sheer scale of the challenges we face remains significant. Understanding the scope of the issue is...
Reshape your Mind with Ideation
In any sincere attempt at meditation or personal growth, one quickly encounters a fundamental truth: the mind does not remain empty. It is always moving, always forming ideas, images, and associations. The question, then, is not whether the mind will think—but what it...
Meditating on AI
With all the uproar about AI these days, you may be wondering whether it can help you with your daily meditation. You’ve been trying to sit down once or twice a day to center your mind, withdraw from all the noise around you—and inside your head—and concentrate on...
The Healing Power of Sound, Chanting, and Meditation
At the Prama Meditation and Sound Journey retreat, you’ll discover how deeply sound can touch the mind, body, and spirit. Long before modern science explored the effects of vibration and frequency, ancient traditions recognized sound as a bridge to inner balance and...
Peace comes with Inner Transformation
You may have seen them in the headlines, on social media, or in person passing through your community. About 24 Theravada Buddhist monks from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas are walking 2,300 miles to Washington, D.C. to awaken sentiments...
Balancing Care for Self and Others
Many of us may not have yet fully embraced a program of self-care. Our busy
culture may not support talking care of ourselves and in many instances views self
care as selfishly motivated. Where is the balance between care of self and care of
others?
The Benefits of Silent Meditation
Whether you are an experienced or beginning meditator your can benefit from a more intensive period of silent meditation to quiet the mind and reset your heart felt priorities.
Letting Go of Stress in Our Bodies by Retraining the Brain
Stress accumulates in our bodies in the form of chronic muscle contractions often out of the range of our awareness until we experience chronic soreness and pain. Thomas Hanna in his classic book, Somatics, points out that these chronic muscle contractions in our bodies result in “sensory and motor amnesia (SMA)”.
Other Topics
12 Scientific Reasons Why A Spring Juice Fast Is Good For You!
Spring is here. It’s the time of the year when I tell people it’s good to do a juice cleanse. But then some of them will ask: is there any scientific evidence that a juice cleanse is effective? They may also ask me what actually happens to the body when we practice intermittent fasting.
How COVID Healed My Body
In this program you will gain new ways to think through the facts and the mis- and dis-information about yoga philosophy and its historical roots.
The Body’s Buffer System: The Secret to Health
In this program you will gain new ways to think through the facts and the mis- and dis-information about yoga philosophy and its historical roots.
4 Ways to Get into a Higher Gear
Howard Nemon Last week, I wrote about a different way to think about rationalization. In the summer of 1990, my Teacher explained it as a specific faculty or ability of the mind. It is a mental process that can help the mind become more efficient and effective by...
Let’s get the Mind into high(er) Gear
In one of the last major lectures by my Teacher in 1990, he emphasized the importance of rationalization. He was speaking about developing the mind and how rationalization would help in this effort. Many of us were confused to say the least. We usually think of...
Meditation and the Better Brain
Howard Nemon You sit down to meditate. You close your eyes and try to practice your technique. You have heard of the many benefits attributed to meditation and maybe have experienced some. After you finish the meditation, you feel different—maybe more relaxed,...
Diet for a Healthy Planet
Howard Nemon Over fifty years ago, when Frances Lappé wrote her ground-breaking book, Diet for a Small Planet, the idea that the food we eat was significantly affecting our health and that of the earth was a novel, if not radical, idea. Not only did Lappé’s book...
You Are Worth It! – 5 min Self-Care Routines To Include In Your Day
You are an amazing human being doing amazing things all day. If you are like me, you want to keep doing those amazing things. I know it sounds like a cliche but, to keep moving you have to take care of yourself. I must admit, self-care did not come easy to me, I can give easier to everyone except myself. Although, through burnout and stress, I realized just how important self-care is.
3 Steps for Finding Your “Inner Voter”
It’s voting season again and it’s often a trying experience. Repetitive political ads of questionable validity, additional junk mail, polling phone calls, and more and more of your mental space taken up by politics. Then the decisions – who or what to vote for. For...
The Yogic Path to Truthfulness
There are facts, there are truths, and there is what we believe. And they can vary greatly. For one thing, there are many ways to understand these concepts. Some people consider facts as verifiable pieces of information which are determined by research or some kind of...
