From a wellbeing perspective Spring and Summer just feel easier… easier to eat well, easier to get out and exercise, frankly easier to be healthy.
On first thought, the winter months perhaps offers the opposite. Changeable weather, warmer and fuller foods for our bellies, and shorter days, all encourage us to retreat to our cosy homes, so how can we keep our well-being tip-top so we don’t let those easier well-being ways go?
If we look to Ayurveda, the medicine of Yoga, Autumn is Vata Season. When Vata is out of balance it can leave us feeling flighty, blown like the wind from one place to another, our energy feeling perhaps scattered. If we’re not mindful of our well-being then our discipline to take care of ourselves via diet and practice be it yoga, meditation, or other forms, can lose its momentum.
So how can we maximise our wellbeing in the months ahead?
PRACTICE BREATHING PROPERLY
Practice breathing properly to balance any emotions. Start the day with eight full breaths to bring good energy into your system and then practice breathing in through the nose for 3 slow counts and exhaling through the nose for 6. Set your alarm for 10 minutes and every time your mind wanders let go of the thought and bring it back to the breath. This is a great mind clearer!
MUCUS CONTROL
Mucus is overly produced at this time of year aggravated by the weather. Keep as mucus-free as possible by starting your morning with ginger and lime and reduce mucus-forming foods from your diet like meat, eggs, dairy, and sweeteners. Roasting a selection of winter vegetables like butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, parsnip and yellow peppers with a drizzle of oil and a little sea salt can be a healthy, comforting recipe. Add in garlic which helps to clear the lungs of mucus and you’ve got a cosy side dish with added benefits.
TUNE INTO THE SEASON’S ENERGY
The energy of a typical Autumn/Winter day is one where you do less. However do nothing and you’ll start to feel sluggish, possibly depressed. Use your yoga to benefit you. Move more slowly through your yoga flow with the intention to give your body all the nourishment and juiciness it deserves. Open your arms as wide as you can in poses to maximise breath into the lungs. Think Warrior Two with arms open wide, Trikonasana stretching from finger tip to finger tip, and beautiful backbends to increase lung capacity. When the allows wrap up and take your practice outside.
LET GO
There is a sense in Autumn that the Earth’s energy is truly gathering in and preparing to let go for Winter. The beautiful coloured leaves lose their moisture, shrivel and separate from the branches they have hung onto since the Spring. This is a time to get things off your chest, to let go. After meditation offer yourself space to journal asking yourself “What is it that I am carrying that does not serve me?” “What is it that I can let go?”
STRUCTURE & DISCIPLINE
Maximise your well-being by being structured and disciplined. Whatever you decide to do whether it is getting out walking or getting on your yoga mat, keep at it for this season. Discipline yourself to work out regularly. Order and routine will keep you feeling balanced in mind and body and help you to continue making the right decisions about your well-being throughout this beautiful season.
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