September Wellness Map
The berrrrr months are here! …
It always seems to happen so quickly, the transition from summer to autumn. While the days are still 80-90 degrees, I now awake in the morning light to a chill and the need to burrow under the blankets before finally arising. While summers can seem like a long slog, the autumn skips in hurriedly with some much needed heat relief, even if it’s just in the darkness.
Even though my mind-body constitution (or prakriti) is Vata (cold and airy) with some Pitta (hot and sharp), autumn, the season of Vata, has always been my favorite time of year. While it can tend to elevate my Vata, making me somewhat anxious and very dry (my nails have already started breaking one by one), I love the vibrant colors, the cooler air and the promise of cozy evenings wrapped up in a blanket by the fire.
How have you been feeling? If you are still fighting with some lingering pitta issues (skin inflammation, shortness of temper), you may want to go to the August map to get some tips to reduce your internal heat during these last few hot days that are coming before we dive into the colder months.
While the season is changing, you may feel your Vata increase, possibly making you anxious, dry, constipated, and scattered. To balance out Vata, we need to focus on grounding and rehydrating. Pranayama, or breath work, is our most immediately available resource for balancing when we feel off kilter. Here is a quick one minute box breathing video to help guide you through this impactful breathing technique.
Other tips to balance the scattered feeling of Vata:
Sit on the ground, close your eyes and imagine a cord growing from your spine, down deep into the earth. This is your grounding cord and is always with you. Feel it holding you securely to the earth.
Do some yoga. Gentle, yet active, yoga postures, or asanas, will help get the wiggles out and move the food through you if you’re constipated. Postures like Goddess, Mountain, and Chair help activate the thighs and femurs which are a secondary site of Vata, increasing blood flow. While in the postures, focus on whatever part of your body is touching the earth and feel the roots go from that part of your body into the ground, holding you securely.
Drink room temperature water throughout the day. Excess Vata can create dryness and constipation. Be sure to stay hydrated to help avoid these issues. Add in a squeeze of lime, a few drops of maple syrup and a pinch of Himalayan sea salt while you’re at it.
A morning warm sesame oil self-massage, or Abhyanga, is a wonderful thing to incorporate daily to moisturize and nourish your body from the outside in.
Nourish
Moving into autumn shifts our tastes profiles once again. We will keep the nourishing sweet taste, but now highlight salty and sour tastes as well.
Here are a few recipes to try that are delicious and perfect for this time of year
Apples - okay, this isn’t a recipe, but they are natures answer for Vata. Eaten right off the tree, they are fibrous and help with constipation and are sweet with just the right amount of cooling for those final hot days of summer. Spiced and cooked, they are the perfect warming morning breakfast.
My favorite Split Pea Soup. Split peas are cooling and can be hard to digest, but made in the Instant Pot with warming onion, thyme and bay they are a welcome menu item for the Pitta-Vata transition. The mushroom “bacon” adds a hint of sour and a deep flavor that is delightful.
Another Instant Pot recipe, this is my favorite Khichdi/Kitchari recipe that is a go-to when I’m a little off and need something super nourishing but easy to digest. It’s so very delicious. Here’s my IG video of making it.
One of my go-to breakfasts in summer and autumn is Spiced Cottage Cheese. It literally takes 90 seconds. Take a teacup of cottage cheese, sprinkle on the seasonal spice blend, a few pepitas, a pinch of mineral salt, a tiny pour of maple syrup and a few peels of lime zest and voila, breakfast!
Next month we will start celebrating recipes with the hardier squashes, my favorite!
As always, every meal should have all six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent, but the first three below should be the stars of your plate this month:
Sweet foods: berries, bananas, dates, figs, mangos, melons, beets, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, rice, wheat, tofu, red lentils, almonds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, coconut, aloe, avocado, lime, cilantro, mint, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel. These foods are cooling and strengthening.
Salty foods: composed of fire and water, salt helps aid the body in digestion, and increases saliva and absorption of nutrients. Celery, seaweed, tuna, Himalayan mineral salt, and soy sauce and good examples of salty foods.
Sour foods: citrus juice, raisins, tamarind, fermented foods, sour cream, yogurt, pickles, tomatoes. Composed of earth and fire, sour foods increase appetite, saliva, metabolism and digestive enzymes and promote healthy liver function by moving bile.
As I always mention, in Ayurveda there are some foods NOT to combine. Here’s a quick list.
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💛, Stephanie
Important note: The information provided is general guidance in accordance with Ayurvedic seasonal living. Every human is different; yoga and Ayurveda treat the individual and work best when tailored to your unique constitution. Contact me to learn more.