Springtime routine
Living in alignment with the seasons is the best way, according to Ayurveda, to support your overall wellbeing, balance your immune system & digestion and nurse your mental health.
While Winter was all about getting cosy and filling up on comfort foods, we may enter into Spring feeling heavy and sluggish... experiencing congestion, nausea, a loss of appetite, allergies, feeling mentally dull and/or weight gain.
So it’s time to lighten things up and shed the ‘Winter coat’ to allow new growth and abundance during the coming month!
Here are 5 easy Ayurvedic routines to make you feel your best this Spring 🌼
1. DIET TIPS
Avoid dairy products, iced or cold food or drinks, and fried or oily food, especially in the morning and at dinner.
Veggies: move away from the heavy, grounding, nourishing stews & sweet root vegetables you have been favoring all winter long. Instead, lightly sauté spinach, chard, mustard greens, kale with a small amount of ghee. These greens contain the bitter and astringent tastes which will help cleanse the body and counterbalance any congestion and heaviness within the digestive tract. Add to your sauté pungent vegetables like onions, parsnips and garlic.
Seeds are more balancing in Spring compared to nuts. For example, a macadamia or cashew nut have heavier qualities compared to sesame, pumpkin or sunflower seeds. In short, when you are preparing a snack, opt for seeds over nuts to keep yourself feeling light and energized.
In between meals: wait at least three to four hours between meals.
Meat: if you experiencing a few of the Spring symptoms mentioned above, you might consider going meat-free this spring.
Eat Kitchari, a curried mung bean lentil and rice dish (with complete plant-protein) that will improve your digestion, rebalance your gut and keep you light & energized.
Spices: here are the most ideal spices to add to your spice rack this spring: turmeric, ginger, black pepper, asafoetida, cayenne pepper and mustard seeds. These are the most pungent and heating spices that will help stimulate digestion and ease any feelings of sluggish digestion you may be experiencing.
Drink cinnamon and ginger teas during the day and chamomile tea in the evening; it’s beneficial to your digestive and circulatory systems and helps expectorate excess mucus.
2. WAKE UP WITH THE SUN
Aim to rise with the sun because from 6-10am, we have heavy, dense, dull qualities that settle into the body and mind and it becomes more difficult to motivate and get up. Waking up before or around 6am is a great way to relieve feelings of sluggishness, to boost energy levels and reset your body clock.
3. DRY BRUSH DAILY
Daily dry brush & self oil massage in the morning as a way to increase blood flow and boost your energy in the morning. It takes 3min! Skip during your period.
4. TURN UP THE HEAT
Exercise vigorously, preferrably in the morning. If you practice yoga, try Sun Salutations that build up heat in the body and which were traditionally practiced as a prayer to the sun. And focus on postures that expand and open the chest like fish pose, camel pose, full wheel pose that can help relieve any congestion in the respiratory system and help stifled emotions get unstuck.
5. TUNE INTO NATURE
To create harmony with the season, all you have to do is look around to be inspired at this time of year; renewal and transformation are literally bursting from the ground. The natural world is going through a rebirth, so be creative and forge a connection to this awesome process. For some of you, it might mean heading outdoors to a place of beauty and slowing down to examine the buds poking out in your neighborhood. Or creating a candle-lighting ritual as a reminder of the increasing light of Spring. Anything that gives you time and space to appreciate the beautiful transformation that’s happening around you will inspire personal transformation and fill you with inspiration, energy and light 🌞
