Ayurvedic wisdom for Autumn
Living Ayurvedically - My journey tuning into the seasons.
Over the last 18 months I have been immersing myself in the study of Ayurveda with The Ayurveda Academy. I have completed their 3 courses over this time and I am delighted to have just qualified as an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Advisor. During this time I have been slowly weaving in my learnings into my own lifestyle. Making changes to what I eat, my daily rhythms, and actually being a lot kinder to myself.
Ayurveda is the Indian science of life and is actually the sister science to Yoga. Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term, Ayu means life or daily living and veda means knowing. This healing system has been practiced in daily life in India for more than 5,000 years. It is a holistic approach to balancing the body using nutritional advice and lifestyle practices to suit your constitution and treat imbalances in the body using food as medicine. This is a personalised approach in rebalancing the body to support healing. To guide you to tune in and recognise the source of imbalance and learn the ways to re-centre and ground the body, so it can nourish the tissues to support health resilience and build vitality (Ojas).
What drew me to this ancient wisdom is that it has been tried and tested with millions of people and over years and years. It’s connection with nature, energy, the emotions, the elements, the qualities and the progression of how a body heals or goes into dis-ease really resonated with me and this course had been the calling I needed to come inward more, connect with my own balance and needs as well. I feel like I had become very unsettled and recognising my constitutional balance needed support has been a revelation.
I am feeling a calling to become more connected with the seasonal rhythms of nature and love the idea of supporting that through nutrition. Not just eating seasonally but using the particular types of meals and spices to help restore balance to the body when it is affected by the changing seasons. Changing my yoga practice to suit the season, finding balance in the types of breathwork that suit the season, resting when I need it and embracing the sunlight and its energy when the time comes.
Ayurveda believes we each have a personal constitution, or Dosha which consists of varying amounts of Vata, Pitta or Kapha. It is completely personal to us but can tell us a lot about how we can support our health and bring more balance. We usually have a balance of 2 doshas and one being more dominant than the other. Certain health issues are more likely to affect each dosha, so when we eat particular foods and support our lifestyle in a particular way, we can support our dosha, and this can help us to feel more vital, resilient, calmer and more energised. By bringing balance to your dosha you can bring balance to the mind and body.
The foundations of Ayurveda are that everything is made up of the 5 elements; air, space, water, fire and earth. The greatest principle of Ayurveda is “like increases like”. So too much fire element will increase heat in the body, too much air will increase dryness, too much earth can make us feel heavy, sticky with too much mucous. But we need fire to give us drive and direction to cut through and to fuel our metabolism and absorption. We need earth to ground us and air and space to create movement, to shift us forward, to give us space to spread our wings.
The Doshas are influenced by certain elements. The seasons can also increase these elements, so to bring more balance we need to do the opposite of what is in our environment. As Vata is made up of air and space, we know that during the autumn, when there is more dryness in the air and more qualities of cold, light, movement, subtle, irregular and rough then these elements can increase in our own bodies. If you are a constitution that already is dominated by Vata then the increase of these elements can take your Vata out of balance and you may notice particular symptoms like:
Dry itchy skin
Constipation
Low mood and fatigue
Anxiety and nervousness
Scattered thoughts, overwhelm, heightened emotions
Restless sleep
Feeling cold
Issues with the skin, bladder, ears and bones
Irregular appetite
The seat of Vata is in the colon so if your digestion is not functioning well then you notice more symptoms as toxicity (ama) builds up. Even if you are not dominated by Vata then you would still benefit from supporting your Vata during this season to prevent an imbalance and these tips are helpful for everyone, but for Vata doshas particularly:
Increase warm, well cooked foods like, soups, stews, one pot dishes, risottos, casseroles, kicharee/ kichardi etc.
Avoid too many beans as these can increase wind and disturb the digestive function.
Increase healthy fats: ghee, olive oil, hemp oil, avocado oil, sesame and flax oils.
Use warming spices particularly: cardamom, cumin, coriander, ginger, fennel, dill, cinnamon, cloves, mustard seed, and black pepper.
Soak your nuts and seeds for 20 mins before eating.
Keep warm, grab the cosy scarves, hats and gloves when going outside to avoid the chill wind affecting you.
Rub coconut oil or ghee into your nostrils to protect your nasal membranes.
Enjoy hot baths with essential oils and epsom salts.
Make time for rest, relaxation, read a book, yoga and meditation to calm the nervous system.
Ensure a good bedtime routine to support sleep.
Embrace warming teas like turmeric chai, vanilla chai, ginger and chamomile.
Avoid cold, raw vegetables, cold drinks, etc.
Self massage with warm sesame oil, followed by a hot bath or shower.
Alternate nostril breathing helps to eliminate Vata build up and calms the nervous system.
During the Autumn it is a good time to do a seasonal reset or cleanse, consider a mono-fast such as a day of kicharee or soups. If you’d like support with a deeper cleanse with the addition of cleansing herbal medicine and digestive aids then do get in touch and book in a seasonal review appointment.