Feel, Do, and Be Your Very Best This Spring with Simple and Easy Lifestyle Tips From The Ancient Practice of Ayurveda!

When Spring is in the air! Read on for Ayurvedic tips for Spring Cleaning the body to feel, do and be your very best. 

As spring unfolds, let your health blossom along with the bulbs you may have planted last fall, and the buds on the trees. Flowing with the seasons is easy when we follow a few basic principles. Right now, the variable weather and damper conditions signal a change from conditions inherent in the Late Fall/Early Winter which, in Ayurveda, is known as the Vata time of year (typically cold, dry and windy). For those of us experiencing "Spring Time in the Rockies" late winter and early spring are considered to be the Kapha time of year - one that is cool and damp.  Modifications to one’s diet, yoga practices and breathing activities that honor this seasonal change are in order and will keep you feeling your very best!  If we  move gently through the spring season and take care to clean out the accumulation from the winter season, our health can flourish all through the summer and into fall!

Recommendations for the Spring Ayurvedic Diet:  
* Begin to add more bitter tastes (ie: herbs such as dandelion), as well as spicy (ie: fresh ginger herbal tea) and astringent (ie: all pulses) tastes. These tastes open the channels of elimination, clearing excess mucus and moisture from  the body. 
* Reduce kapha-aggravating sweet, sour and salty foods which could cause water retention at this time. 
* Minimize raw and cold foods.  It is still a good time to be eating warm, lightly cooked meals, as we do in winter. Exchanging lighter grains such as quinoa, millet and barley for some of the wheat or heavier rices in your diet is appropriate at this time of year, as they are all Kapha reducing.

Recommended practices for Spring:
 • Eat light, easily digestible meals and reduce snacking;

•  Eat a kapha pacifying diet (more alkalizing ~  bitter is best for clearing out winter accumulation.  Adding in more pungent & astringent foods is appropriate now, too.   Nature provides us with perfect foods in every season. Springtime sprouts, greens and berries provide an exceptional natural detoxifying power.);

 • As we do in Winter, continue sipping warm water throughout the day.  Consider drinking warming teas made with ginger, cinnamon, and/or dandelion;
 • Use raw honey as a sweetener - Raw honey clears mucous and kapha due to its heating, drying and channel clearing effect. It is  the best sweetener for kapha types and is good for all in spring.  Never heat honey as it changes into a hard-to-digest toxic substance.
 • Use the Neti Pot - rinse both nostrils with warm, salt water over a  sink to help ward off colds and hay fever, and to keep nasal passages clear, supporting cleansing, seasonal breathing  practices;
 • Do daily yoga, pranayama & meditation and take a walk outside (Change up your yoga practice!  Weave in some deeper breathing practices and some faster paced yoga flows are great while the weather is still cool (Sun Salutations are a great way to  get mucus and lymph flowing now) to support clearing of winter accumulation.  

Questions?  Email me and arrange a time to come in for a consultation.  Feel better, Be Better TODAY!


Interested and want to learn more? Check out this great article by Scott Blossom, Ayurvedic Consultant: http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1721/

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