I was speaking with a client yesterday who said it really clearly:
“It feels like I’ve still got a good feeling from summer, but I’m afraid that’s all about to go away”
Does your anxiety, sleep, digestion, stress or pain get worse in autumn? Do more little things tend to crop up out of nowhere?
To understand why Autumn is the most challenging season, you have to understand a little about Vata dosha.
Vata dosha is the one that’s all about movement. Think of it like wind. Does anyone sail? If the wind steady, it becomes easy to harness and go the direction you want.
If the wind is blustery, in other words, it frequently changes directions and whips us in one direction then the next, and you feel like you’re always fighting it. It takes an enormous amount of effort.
The body becomes efficient when everything happens regularly, so if the internal wind we call Vata rebels, the body gets overwhelmend by this unpredictability, and it triggers all kinds of aches, pains and other symptoms.
Ayurveda says that 80% symptoms (and thus disease progressions) are caused by Vata. As a practitioner, you quickly learn this to be true. In fact, you quickly learn to become an expert at managing Vata!
For many people, their symptoms get triggered and exaggerated in autumn. It’s directly because Vata gets stirred up in autumn. Remember, Vata’s qualities are:
- Ruksha- dry
- Laghu- light
- Shita- cold
- Khara- rough
- Sukshma- subtle
- Chala- changing, moving, shifting
These qualities, along with its elements air & space, should paint a picture for you. Vata is not grounding, luscious and stable. It’s exciting, tense, hardening, drying.
So you can imagine everyone will experience some of it’s benefits, like an natural enthusiasm and a feeling like change is in the air, but and for people with a Vata imbalance this can very quickly accelerate a struggle to remain balanced. Anxiety and pressure go into overdrive on the mental level, and physically symptoms, particularly joint pain, digestive problems and things like menstrual cramps or hotflashes can worsen quickly.
So I hope that it makes sense that now is a rather urgent time to manage Vata.
- Grab a tipsheet on the Do’s and Don’ts of eating Ayurvedically, because alot of that is about managing Vata.
- Start to oil your body. Read Ayurvedic Warm Oil Self-Care
- Get into a group for warm fuzzy feelings. Oxytocin is real, people. And it does wonders to get the juciness effect we’re going for.
- Join Vitality Recharge
Not sure if you’re ready for autumn? Schedule a Health Strategy call to find out where you’re at and what it’s going to take.
