TONGUE SCRAPING FOR DETOXIFYING & MENTAL CLARITY

So we’re back with our amazing “under 10 minutes ritual series” that will enhance your health like never before! Did you enjoy the last email on oil pulling? And more importantly, did you try it?

Today we’re diving in another super-potent ritual to improve overall oral hygiene in a natural way that’s called: tongue scraping. Now before you squint your eyebrows in displeasure let me reassure you that it’s super easy and after a few times you will LOVE IT, promise….

So why should you scrape your lovely little tongue? 

The tongue is the first major organ in the body to come into contact with food. Undigested food particles that linger upon the tongue—often manifesting as a thick coat—can prevent the tongue from fully tasting flavours, bad breath, unwanted toxicity within the body, and over time, poor oral hygiene. Maybe you even noticed at times a white-coloured coating on your tongue and wondered what the heck it was? Well, now you know…

Tongue scraping, or jihwa prakshalana, is a traditional part of daily Ayurvedic self-care rituals and also a great way to check-in with your body each morning. The colour of the coating as well as the quantity or thickness of it is a good indication as to whether or not your body was able to digest the food you consumed the previous day. 

A little bit of tongue colour-coding…

Indeed, the colour and thickness of the residue that ends up on your tongue in the morning is a good indicator of your body's ability to digest the food you ate the night before. In addition, depending on your dosha, it turns out that the color of these residues tends to change, since our tridoshic constitution plays an important role in our general digestion. Residue on the tongue will turn more white for a predominantly KAPHA person, yellowish for PITTA, and brown or gray for VATA. This is a key clue to the health of your digestive system, which is largely governed by our energy makeup (don't you know your dosha? Take our quiz to find out here.)

How does tongue scraping actually work? 

I suggest you scrape your tongue after the oil pulling. 

Use a stainless steel or copper tongue scraper (our new WILD GRACE copper tongue cleaner is available on our website, click HERE to access the product). There are plastic tongue scrapers out there, but I highly recommend the previous two choices.. There are plastic tongue scrapers out there, but if possible I would recommend getting a good quality stainless steel or copper one. 

1. Hold both ends of the tongue cleaner in both hands.
   
   
2. Stretch your tongue so that it heaves forward. Then place the Ayurvedic tool on the surface of the tongue, as far back as possible.
   
   
3. Gently advance the tongue cleaner to remove unwanted coating, often whitish in color.
   
   
4. Repeat this action 3 to 5 times or until you are no longer removing layers and your tongue is fresh and clean. Rinse the tongue scraper with hot tap water between each pass.
   
   
5. Finish your ritual by flossing and rinsing your mouth with a glass of lukewarm water to remove all impurities.

There you have it, the art of tongue scraping :) I hope I’ve convinced you to try this super-potent yet easy ritual and see for yourself how much better your mouth will feel after a few tries...

If you want to get personal advice and powerful tips on how to keep your doshas balanced this summer, just hop on over our WILD GRACE site here to learn about my Ayurvedic online consultations. 

To your health and inner beauty,

Kim XX