Seasons Change…
The shift to autumn can have days of beautiful light and colourful fluttering leaves – but also cutting winds that get under the skin and jangle our nerves… often we might mourn the summer, the longer days… and there might be a resistance to the idea of the winter and the lack of light coming… So what can the season change teach us? Like everything, following the seasons can be an invitation to listen to ourselves… and to respect our own seasonal energetic rhythms.
Autumn invites us to go inwards- introspection – interoception (mindfulness in the body) and to tap into our creative selves. While Winter invites us to go deeper still embracing a grounded stillness.
Autumn is dry, windy, changeable and erratic, rough and tempestuous, cool but also clear – it can bring a sense of clarity. The winds are picking up and gathering strength which although can blow out the cobwebs can also exacerbate Vata which is also typified by the autumnal qualities of dry, cool and windy.
The three doshas are mirrored in the changing of the seasons:
Kapha – element of Earth and Water is seen in Spring and Winter (water- mucus/ cold and damp).
Pitta – element of Fire is seen in the Summer. (Heat)
Vata – element of Air and Space is seen in Autumn. (Cold, windy and dry).
Some of us might have a Vata constitution, but also autumn signals a time when Vata is disturbed across the doshas. Vata is the element of Air – and symptoms our Vata is out of balance is dryness, erratic behaviour, maybe mood swings and anxiety.
The change in the winds can make us feel a bit raw, jangle our nerves, and make it hard to keep hold of a thought. I always feel the wind gets under my skin and into my synapses – sometimes blowing a thought clean out of my head.
A drop in temperature and I feel it in my muscles – my shoulders rise closer to my ears as I brace myself and almost hunker down into my own skeleton. And as I tense, I pull myself from any sense of grounding to the earth.
Vata can be as changeable as the gusty winds blowing us in one direction and then the next, enhancing our creativity and then seeing it fall away suddenly – appetite ravenous and then absent, our ideas, emotions and moods fluctuating. Vata is about movement – so we want to find a conscious rhythm within that movement rather than it pulling us this way and that. Vata can be rhythm and fluidity as much as it erratic – we just need to find balance.
So in order to create balance we need to embrace routine – simple rituals to calm our nervous system, soothe our minds and our changeable behaviours.
Seasonal disorders manifest mostly in the nervous system – as well as feeling anxious, you might be more sensitive to pain, to headaches, migraines and joint pain.
How much do you alter your diet as the seasons turn? These days the supermarket is stocked year-round with salads and tropical fruits – and we can tend to be habitual in what we eat rather than listen to our body’s needs let alone the seasons. I have noticed that my stomach cannot tolerate the cool leafy salads that I ate in abundance in the summer and I have traded in my chilled morning smoothie for warm quinoa and coconut milk (I have never been a porridge person – but porridge with soaked dates would be great and nourishing at this time).
Naturally we are living in challenging times only ever one news bulletin away from a slump, triggering an outburst or a sense of despondency. We might be suffering from insomnia and anxiety anyway – but the erratic nature of Autumn can be unsettling creating a greater tendency in us towards instability, irritability and anxiety.
Nourishing at the food level – Autumn
If we choose wisely, food can pacify our nervous systems and our anxious minds – this is not the same as comfort eating or using food to numb out – so listen to your body and your craving. Are you eating out of boredom or worry? Do you grab a quick fix salty snack or a bar of chocolate – and how do you feel once it’s consumed – full and energized or still empty?
We might be in need of heavier, warming hearty foods that create comfort on a different level (not just salt and sweet) – it’s a time for fruit and berry crumbles, slow cooked soups and stews – that make us feel nourished. Again though try and eat seasonally – the foods that grow in late summer and autumn are heavier in nature than lighter spring vegetables – choose root vegetables and autumn fruits and lentils. This week I’ve made a mung bean kichadi with beetroot, an autumn pilau with pumpkin and greens and I am about to make a pan of msala chai from scratch.
I always turn to the holy trinity of onion, garlic and ginger (great for immunity) and I love turmeric. I like to use more cinnamon in my cooking, although I prefer the flavor of coriander it is cooling rather than warming and the seeds are dry in nature. Similarly, although I love spice and have a tendency to overuse chili – it should be used in moderation as it can irritate our nerves. It’s all about finding balance – we want to fire up our personal central heating system but not at the expense of our nervous system.
Avoid raw foods, while dry foods like nuts and fruits should be soaked; use a little more olive or sesame oil, or ghee in your cooking. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi make great side dishes at the moment as they can give both our immune systems and our digestion a boost at this time of seasonal change – but do not overdo it as they can be heavy (tamasic) on our systems.
Conscious Yoga – Rhythn of the Seasons
Pacififying Vata – Key intentions for your yoga practice in Autumn should be to slow down, grounding and connecting to the roots – the extremities – hands and feet touching the earth. Twists and forward folds are good for pacifying vata. I am doing a mix of more restorative sessions with props and an invitation to surrender – to listen, to connect, as well as a livelier flow of movement and expansive postures as I can feel a tendency towards stagnation – As I am going outside less, I feel I need to expand my energy a little more and it’s a different sense of connection– connecting to the rhythm of my breath and getting my heart beating a little faster. As we move deeper into Winter, we will turn our attention towards stimulating Kapha (next blog).
See what you need from your practice as you roll out your mat – listen to your body.
Calm your Nervous System
- Practice alternate nostril breathing – inhale for 4 and exhale for 8 (a longer exhalation soothes your nervous system)
- Set an intention for your yoga practice – Slow down, ground and be present
- Light a candle in the evening to honour the light and the dark
- Switch off your mobile phone an hour before bed – try not to reach for it for the ‘latest’ first thing in the morning
- Look at our Seasons Change 1 blog for a self care routine with Marma therapy…
- You can click here for a video of the self care routine on YouTube – Marma Therapy for Immunity and Mood Balance