Fall is known as the Vata season. As the temperatures begin to cool, we see the leaves begin to dry and fall off the trees, the winds can pick up leaving us chilled and the weather itself feels erratic from cloudy to sunny within hours. We discuss how to pacify Vata in the fall season.
The properties of Vata dosha are much like the fall, cool, dry, rough, windy and erratic. Vata is governed by the elements of air and ether, which we can see and feel more in fall. Because like increases like, fall can often throw the Vata dosha out of balance.
Out of balance, Vata dosha can show up as dry skin, depression, mood swings, insomnia, anxiety, arthritis or constipation. While it’s most important for predominately Vata types to be mindful of pacifying their Vata in the fall, Vata imbalance can easily affect Pitta and Kapha types too.
Simple changes in your seasonal routine can make all the difference in grounding and balancing Vata in the fall months.
Tips for balancing vata
When you start to notice any of the above symptoms and effects, you can start to adjust your eating. You can make other choices to take on other qualities that will cure your vata imbalance.
Here are 7 tips for reducing your vata to get back in balance:
- Eat naturally sweet, salty, and sour foods. Avoid junk food, excessive salt, and processed sugars.
- Follow a fixed routine and avoid too many different, frenetic activities. Bedtime, waking time, mealtime, and exercise time should be the same every day.
- You should practice yoga postures at a slow, steady pace.
- Stay warm, calm, and relaxed. Indulge in hot baths, warm sesame oil massages, steam and heat treatments, and soothing music.
- Learn how different foods will affect your constitution. Avoid frozen, cooling, and dried foods, but eat warming, rich, oily foods, only in moderation.
- Meditate on a consistent schedule, for stability and calmness of mind.
- Ayurvedic herbs ashwagandha and shatavari will help balance vata, as will turmeric.
Ayurvedic sages recognized that the world and all expressions of consciousness are governed by the dosha system, and paying attention to how your body, mind, and spirit react to the environment produces harmony. When the seasons change, so do you — because we live in one singular movement of consciousness. Awareness of this fact informs us to adjust our diets, exercise, meditation, schedules, and states of mind.
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