Spring Cleaning for the Body, Ayurvedic Knowledge
March 14, 2016
Embracing the cold, Kapha Season
January 10, 2017
Autumn is a time when children go back to school, life gets busy for all, and we start to feel the first rough brush of cold weather on the skin. Though we are racing around, we can feel that something is changing as we look up at the leaves beginning to brown, the trees thinning, and sky more apparently vast and expansive. The weather is suddenly warm then cool; there is sun and storms; the irregularity of it all teases out our summer nostalgia and nervous anticipation of winter. Dry, light, cold, clear, subtle, mobile, and rough begin to predominate our outer experience. In ayurveda, these are the qualities of Vāta dosha, combination of space and air elements, which distinguish Fall.
These qualities have a strong impact on our body and mind. After all, ayurveda (and yoga) point out that what’s outside is inside. We are living beings in a state of constant change in interaction with the environment and so we feel what’s on the outside, internally. We may feel a little hypersensitive, even anxious, scattered, as our nervous systems take in the qualities of this season. There are many possible manifestations for high Vāta dosha in our various tissues.
To name a few:
- dry skin
- dry eyes
- constipation
- bas and bloating
- anxiety in the mind
- insomnia
- aching joints
- brittle nails and bones
- dry sinuses and dry cough (which sometimes leads to congestion)
- cold hands and feet
- tingling and numbness
- exhaustion, a running low of energetic reserves
- sciatic pain, low back ache
- pain in general
Abhyanga
1. Soak dates and almonds overnight. You will use about 20 almonds and 6 dates.
2. Wake up excited to begin! The skin of the almonds peel off easily
3. Boil 6 dates and 20 almonds in 1.5 cups whole milk for about 5 minutes.* Optional add a pinch of cardamom powder and cinnamon powder.
4. Add about 1/2 cup of the water from the soaked dates and blend all together, the milk with almonds and dates and water.
*** Optional addition. If you have a sweet tooth and really want to nourish well. You can add about 1/2 tsp of chyavanprash to the blend. I get this one from Banyon Botanicals because that company has organic herbs. Chyoanprash is full of nourishing herbs for energy and metabolism. It includes cane sugar, honey, ghee, amalaki fruit, cardamom seed, ashwagandha root, pipali fruit, vassaka leaf, haritaki fruit, purnarnava root, kantakari herb, gokshura fruit, vidari kanda root, guduchi stem, sati herb, shatavari root, musta root, and bilva fruit.
5. Drink warm. mm mm good!
If those teeny tiny squirrels can make it through the fall and winter, so can we! May we take from their examples and give our bodies and minds what is required.
