Ayurvedic Self-Care Tips for Transitioning from Summer to Fall
Ayurveda is a spiritual medicine based on nature - in the observation of the environment around us and the nature within us.
In action, Ayurveda is the practice of self-love in the form of rituals of self-care performed throughout the day to take good care of yourself. These practices create a foundation of wellness, help you feel centered and tap into more awareness of yourself as you move through life.
One of Ayurveda’s guiding principles is the five elements: air, ether, fire, water, and earth, and their presence in everything, including us. These 5 elements have specific qualities and together, they form three doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. The doshas tell us how nature is represented in us and therefore dictate what our self-care practices should be like in order to remain in harmony with our natural tendencies and our external environment. Furthermore, Ayurveda teaches us that to remain in good health, we must include practices that honor our nature as well as those that oppose our nature so that we continue to achieve harmony within us.
The five elements are expressed differently in each season. The elements of winter are air and ether, the elements of spring are water and earth, the elements of summer are fire and water, and the element of fall is air. Ayurveda utilizes nature as its medicine and therefore dictates as nature’s seasons change, so should our rituals.
This is the last full week of summer and in many areas of the world, the atmosphere has already started to change. Here in the northeastern region of the US, there are cooler temperatures in the morning and the evenings, a lighter feeling in the air, more wind in the days, leaves are changing color (starting to dry and fall), the summer harvest is nearly done, and the days are getting shorter.
And you may already be feeling some shifts within yourself, such as:
Heightened irritability
Increased need to get things done
An inability to focus or complete a task in one sitting
Difficulty sleeping or waking in the middle of the night
Needing to sleep later in the morning
A flare up of digestive issues
Higher stress levels
Longer bouts of feeling stressed before you can calm yourself down
A need for comfort food
As we transition between seasons, you can expect to have a shift in behavior mentally, emotionally, and physically.
The Universe is signaling to us that our practices must shift just as those of Mother Nature have.
I know that’s hard to wrap your mind around since all you’ve been doing in 2020 is adjusting, pivoting, and trudging forward amidst all of the change. Keep in mind though that self-care practices are incredibly powerful in seeing us through challenging times. These good habits we create over time show up even when life is hard (and can be created during hard times!), lovingly reminding us to take care, and showing us that we CAN take care, even when we feel like we just can’t. As I always say, your self-care is your well-being savings account. Luckily for us, we don’t have to go to the bank or anywhere special to make a withdrawal. When the habits are in place, they just happen.
And what I love about Ayurveda is it takes self-care to a whole other level. The practices of self-love like intentionally choosing what you eat based on the season and your season of life to nourish yourself, practicing mindfulness throughout the day to heighten your connection to yourself and others, utilizing meditating and breathing exercises to remain calm and centered, etc. all become more than just honoring what you want to do or deserve.
Through the lens of Ayurveda, self-love is all about what you NEED on a cellular level for your emotional, mental, physiological, and physical wellness.
These practices are essential to your health & wellbeing and will ensure:
Your body and all its systems function optimally
You mind is clear and focused
Your heart is full of self-love as well as love for others (or in the very least grace even when you don’t feel very nice or loving).
Here are my 5 Ayurvedic tips for transitioning from summer to fall to support your health and well-being.
As with any other recommendations, these are not to make you feel overwhelmed or as though you need to completely turn your life upside down today. Start slow, do one that is manageable and continue adding at a pace that feels good to you.
1) Set your alarm for somewhere between 6am and 6:30am and stick to it. (No snoozing!)
As the sun begins to rise later, it’s easy to stay in bed until 7am or later snoozing all the way, especially if you have had trouble sleeping. Just as Ayurveda’s practices are governed by the elements and change with the season, the practices also change throughout the day based on the Ayurvedic clock. From 2am to 6am is a mobile time with a lighter feel, causing your dreams and mind to be active. It is beneficial to wake during this period, with the sun, to tap into the period’s mobile qualities.
I know this may seem impossible, especially if stress has been keeping you up at night. While it may seem like a good idea in the moment to get some more shut eye, the extra sleep while snoozing actually isn’t very restful. The next period of time in the Ayurvedic clock is from 6am-10am. This time frame taps into more grounding energy, which is why you feel sluggish when you sleep or hit snooze late into the morning.
When you wake early, you can spend your time quietly breathing, meditating or doing a body scan, doing some light stretching, working out, journaling to get your mind set for the day, or even doing a hobby that brings you joy. The key is to spend time connecting to yourself. This grounding time will set the tone for ensuring you have a clear head to start the day. It will also give you time to get your day started calmly rather than in a rush.
2) Begin including Fall produce in your menu as you finish up enjoying the last of the summer harvest.
Seasonal changes impact how our body and its systems function. Eating in-season foods and using spices that pair well helps to keep digestion strong. Root vegetables like brussel sprouts, carrots, fall squash, sweet potatoes, beets and turnips, fruits like oranges, figs, dates, persimmons and tangerines are great go-to’s this season. Additionally, begin reaching for spices like: nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cardamom, garlic, sage, turmeric, rosemary, garlic, anise, and cumin to create warmth in your dishes and assist your digestion.
Using seasonal foods and spices in our diet allows us to utilize nature as one of the power players in our immunity. This is so important going into a season that often brings allergy issues, colds, and unsettled feelings. Yes, that’s right, the foods we eat and the spices we use have a great ability to keep us healthy on a level so much deeper than just in terms of bodyweight or properly fueling our body to stay energized. The earthly foods listed above help to anchor us in this airy season and the spices listed help calm the nervous system. Cooking soups, stews, and foods with a soft, creamy texture is ideal for infusing some moisture back into this dry season.
3) Include a longer strength training session (or two) to your weekly regimen. And be sure to stretch afterward, especially while seated or lying on the ground.
Strength training is naturally grounding due to its slower, controlled movements and perfect for building that much-needed energy in the Fall. If you don’t already strength train, it’s a good idea to include this type of exercise 2-3 times per week for the entire body throughout the year. For those of you who already strength train, consider extending your workout time by a few minutes or even start using heavier weights. At times when you’re feeling sluggish or stressed, your inclination might be to turn to cardio to wake up or “sweat the crazies out,” which is fine. Just be sure that you have a pretty good balance between cardio and strength training. Due to its fast-paced action, cardio can be aggravating for the heightened airy energy of the fall.
Stretching on the ground or against a wall is also a great option for this time of year. The more we can be in contact with the ground, the better. Try holding the stretches a little longer while breathing deeply into them. Physically grounding ourselves helps to lower feelings of anxiousness and increase a feeling of connectedness, especially to ourselves. Whether you choose to strength train or stretch, or both, engaging in these practices between 6am and 10am or 6pm and 10pm is the ideal time for exercise.
4) Meditate daily, ideally for a longer time than you were during the summer, and/or incorporate some slower, deeper breathing practices.
Due to its typical posturing (seated with the glutes, legs, and feet firmly planted) and its single-pointed focus, meditation helps to calm frantic feelings and so we can anchor into a deeper breath and our self-awareness. When we are more self-aware, we are more in tune with our feelings, our responses versus our reactions, and how stress affects us. As a result, we are less likely to find ourselves having a stress reaction or at least can delay the onset and soften its intensity.
Increasing our time turned inward bolsters the effects of meditation. We begin to regulate blood pressure more, allow our bodily systems to function properly, soothe digestion, reduce feelings of anxiety and depression, increase our feeling of connectedness, improve our ability to concentrate (especially amidst incredible challenges), and enhance the quality of our sleep, to name a few.
Practicing breathing more fully - especially ensuring you are exhaling completely - allows for a proper energy exchange. Deep breaths increase our oxygen intake and release of tension. It acts like a tether to the goodness that resides in us, like peace, calm, understanding, and resolve, and uncovers those gems to us every time we practice. The steadiness is necessary to help balance our energy during the Fall season.
5) Fall bounty reflection and mindset training daily.
Sometime this week, take some time to sit quietly and list your blessings so far this year. Everything counts no matter the size. Given how challenging 2020 has turned out to be, you may soon realize your list looks a lot different than it normally does when you write down your accomplishments and feelings of gratitude. That’s just fine! Life is a lot different than it was in 2019. This unprecedented time has forced us to change so many of our behaviors in order to adapt to the ever-changing new normal and do some deep reflecting to understand our part in the racial and social justice movements. It’s been a doozy of a year, but there have been moments of joy and blessings for sure in between. Small wins are indeed significant and should be celebrated! I want you to list them all; gather them together into one bounty. Feel proud.
Then, create a mindset for the rest of the year. Something that will hone in on your deepest wants and needs so you can live with purpose, for example: patience, gratitude, calm, clarity, concentration, learning to just be, having the confidence to to step forward and reach for your dream, learning to let things be - something for YOU! Maybe create an “I am” statement with it. This mindset will focus your thoughts and regulate your emotions when times get hard. Time spent quietly each day will help bolster the strength and efficacy of your mindset. Some days, you can even meditate while repeating the phrase aloud or in your mind.
Finally, every day, be sure to spend time in a quiet space reflecting on the blessings that happened. For sure focus on the small ones. Add them to your bounty list. And, begin to release yourself from the attachment to the hurts or things that didn’t happen the way you wanted. What’s the best way to do that? Increase your focus on your connection to your blessings and the attachment to the other stuff will begin to decrease, which will make more space for additional goodness. You’ll also gain perspective, maybe beginning to find clarity on why things happened the way they did, ideas for growth from the loss or disappointment, and for sure how to move forward. Perhaps you’ll forge a new path or maybe you’ll pivot altogether and decide you want to do something else. In the case of unexpected and traumatic loss or change, this practice will help you come to terms with the events, heal, and have the strength to put one foot in front of the other.
The daily objective here is two-fold:
Take time to reflect on your blessings, especially the small ones (keeping my cool throughout the day is something small to most but HUGE to me!) and focus on them often - both the ones from earlier in the year and more recent ones.
Use your mindset to protect and amplify your energy.
Use this fall bounty reflection as a way to connect more deeply to yourself and train your mindset for your days ahead.
I hope you’ll find these tips to be helpful as you move into the Fall season. Putting yourself at the top of your list is not easy and it seems like there is not enough time in the day to get everything done. But, I assure you that once you get started, you’ll find moments for yourself. Start small and you’ll feel better (and function better!) in no time for sure. Keep doing the important work of taking good care of yourself, my friends. And stay connected.
Be well,
