Grounding and Nourishing Ourselves During Winter’s Vata Days

I’m sorry it has been so long since my last post. Life has been a bit hectic lately with lots of travel (including a great vacation) and then there were the holidays. But, now I’m back and as often is the case during this time of year, I am thinking about how to warm, nourish, and ground myself during these winter months.

According to Avurveda (the ancient Indian healing system that focuses on the natural rhythms of the day and seasons of your life and the calendar to optimize health and vitality), late fall and winter is a Vata dominant time of year. Vata qualities are movement, dryness, cold, irregularity and lightness. All my fall/winter travel just added to the Vata qualities, so I really feel the need to bring some stability and groundedness to my day-to-day.

• Those of us who tend towards Vata predominance (like me) really feel the effects of winter’s Vata focus as our skin gets even drier, the winter chill is persistent, digestive ailments abound, and mentally, we often feel anxious and ungrounded.

  
  

• To pacify Vata, we want to focus on the qualities of stability, heaviness, warming, and nourishing in our daily routines. These opposite tendences from the season’s characteristics will truly help us feel more grounded, happy, cozy, and healthy.

  
  

So, what does that look like in practice exactly?

• Bringing more predictability to your schedule. Regularity is Important after often varied holidays, where we ate more heavy and sweet foods and drinks, stayed up late, and did not exercise as much as normal. Try to get back to your routine with regular sleep/wake times, mealtimes, exercise times etc.

• Nourish the skin with warm baths and oil massage. During the winter many find that spending more time on nourishing skin care routines will naturally moisten, calm, and ground both body and mind.

• Eat warm nourishing foods and hot drinks. Think of warm soups and stews with root vegetables and warming spices like basil, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, and turmeric. Oiliness from dairy products and fats will also help us feel more grounded.

  Favor hot coffee over iced, hot tea over iced and avoid raw foods like vegetable and fruit salads, opting instead for cooked vegetables and fruits. Elevated Vata weakens Agni, your body’s digestive fire, so food is hard to digest, often leading to diarrhea or constipation.

• Change up your exercise. Maybe opt for more grounding strength building rather than running. Weightlifting is particularly good because it counteracts Vata’s lightness and mobility. Practice Yin yoga (a more contemplative form where you hold poses for multiple minutes) rather than your usual power or hot yoga.

  
  

• Ground yourself through Yoga and Meditation. Not only does your body need to take it down a notch, but your mind needs some calming this time of year as well, particularly if you tend toward Vata dominance. Yoga and meditation will bring calm to the mind so that everyday stresses seem more manageable and sleep comes more easily.