Cooling Down
This is from a recent post I did for my monthly subscribers on Patreon.com/cjoyyoga where I make Yoga, Breathing, & Meditation videos as well as post Tips on living your best life. Hope you all find your “cool” this summer :-)
Hello Friends,
So I have been remiss on posting more Yoga & Ayurveda Tips. Please, please forgive me. During this strange strange time of the Pandemic, I seem to either be in over-production or no-production mode. LOL! I was focusing on yoga sequences, meditation, and breathing techniques to get us through the crisis. But it would seem that Covid19 is going to be here with us for quite some time. So I will keep addressing that, but I also want to move forward with the knowledge that some things don’t change - like the heat of Summer!
Although I am not an Ayurvedic Practitioner (this is what someone who has studied Ayurvedic Medicine and is considered a doctor in that system is called), I have been researching and implementing these principles into my life and my Yoga teaching for about 9 years now and feel the healthiest in my body/mind/heart/soul when I am following an Ayurvedic lifestyle. I have started to introduce these principles to others and they have been seeing great results as well.
In this post, I have combined information from some of my favorite sources to help us figure out how to stay Cool! (Banyan Botanicals, Dr. Vasant Lad, and Kripalu)
Much of Ayurveda’s wisdom is based on the idea that “like increases like.” For example, if a fiery, temperamental Christel Joy Johnson eats hot, spicy foods when it’s 90˚ outside, she’ll only get hotter and more irritable. That’s why Ayurveda treats imbalances with their opposites. A healer might give me cooling foods like cucumbers to quell my excess fire, tell me to go swimming, and take time to “stop and smell the roses”—literally.
It seems too simple and too good to be true that you can stave off dis-ease this way, but you’ll be amazed how quickly you can rebalance your body and mind if you find the opposite, in this case - the opposite of heat. Of course, some of us run on the cool side and we relish the heat of summer, but if you’ve got a lot of heat/fire/Pitta like me (all fire, most all the time)…Of all the types, we need to be most mindful of staying cool in the summer and of balancing our sharp focus with plenty of play and leisure.
I like this as a quick reference tool to know when I have a Pitta imbalance.
A Pitta imbalance can show up as follows:
Skin irritations: acne, rashes, hives
Burning or itching sensation of the skin
Red burning eyes
Acid indigestion
Nausea
Loose stools
Anger
Frustration
Being overly critical
Irritability
Impatience
Ways To Bring Balance:
Foods to Favor
Your diet will be one of the best ways you can keep your pitta in balance during the summer months. Use lots of cooling spices and garnishes like fennel, coriander, cilantro, lime, and shredded coconut. Foods that will be especially supportive include avocados, coconut, watermelon, asparagus, cucumber, leafy greens, red lentils, and mung beans. And feel free to eat lots of salad!
Acceptable Seasonal Indulgences
You can indulge in some sweet, creamy treats this summer to help you stay cool—ice cream (small amounts) or popsicles, creamy rice or tapioca puddings, and lassis (sweet or spiced yogurt drinks). The best time of day to have these will be mid-day, perhaps an hour or two after lunch. If you are a bread eater: breads made of whole wheat, barley, and/or oats, and the like will calm pitta. Also rice cakes for non-gluten friends.
Foods to Minimize
Your system will be very sensitive to hot, acidic foods like chilies and cayenne peppers as well as sour and fermented foods, so try to stay away from these as much as possible. Even mildly heating fruits such as bananas, cranberries, grapefruit, lemon, or pineapple may be too much for you. The same goes for heating vegetables (like corn, eggplant, olives, radishes, tomatoes, and cooked spinach), sour cheeses, hard liquor and red wines.
Everybody is a little different, so your best strategy is to develop awareness around your eating habits and how you feel after eating. Learn to pay attention to subtle signs of increased heat and minimize any foods that seem to cause acidity, diarrhea, a rash, or a sour taste in your mouth
Lifestyle Adjustments
The most important thing you can do for yourself is to keep cool, physically and emotionally. Plan your time to be out and about—especially if you’ll be in the sun—for the cooler parts of the day, in the early morning or in the evening. Cover up, shade yourself, and drink plenty of cooling fluids like peppermint tea or water with lime and a bit of unrefined cane sugar. Exercise in the early morning and try not to push too hard. Integrate plenty of twists and forward bends into your yoga practice, minimize inversions, and experiment with sheetali pranayama—the cooling breath. (I will post a video with this breath later this week!) In general, cultivate a sense of playfulness and relaxation to soften your sharp edges.
Anyone brand spanking new who wants to look into Ayurveda more, Banyan Botanicals has been one my favorite resource since I started on this journey. Also on their website - you can take 2 quizzes which will help you figure out what your “doshas” are (your constitution) as well as what your current imbalance may be.