Exclusive: Ayurvedic Insights on Adjusting Diet and Lifestyle for a Healthy Winter Balance
As winter approaches, a gradual coldness envelops the world, inducing a state of dormant slumber. The landscape is covered in a comforting blanket of snow, and all activities and energies diminish to a gentle lull. It’s a time to conserve energy for the upcoming season.
When winter arrives, there is an inward shift of energy, leading to a state of contemplation, rest, and hibernation. The cold season allows for the replenishment of spent energy, preparing for the year ahead.
Also Read: Winter Grocery List for Balancing Vata
Discover the Link Between Ayurveda and Seasons (Ritu)
Sustaining a healthy and balanced life involves staying in sync with nature. Adjusting your diet and lifestyle can help align with the natural cycle of seasons. Understanding your inherent nature and qualities, and how they change with each season, helps in making healthy lifestyle and dietary choices to optimize your immune system, digestion, and energy.
According to Ayurveda, aligning with nature aids in comprehending your constitution, or Prakriti, consisting of three energies, or doshas – Vata, the energy for movement, Pitta, the energy for digestion, and Kapha, the energy for stability. These energies are a fusion of elements found in nature – Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Ether, each with distinct qualities present in both body and mind.
Ayurveda has established a system of seasonal living, known as Ritucharya, to ensure the body and mind adjust to different seasons, maintaining balance. The year is divided into two periods or Ayanas based on the sun’s movement, each containing three seasons. Shishira (winter), Vasanta (spring), and Grishma (summer) fall in Uttarayana (north), while Varsha (monsoon), Sharata (autumn), and Hemanta (late autumn) fall in Dakshinayana (south). An imbalance in the elements and energies during each season can lead to diseases and illnesses.
Related: Discover Your Unique Dosha and Achieve Balance with Ayurveda
Why Winter is Hard on Us?
According to Ayurveda, winter brings vata, the most challenging season to stay in balance for many. Heavier, harder-to-digest foods and a test to the immune system with cold and flu season, along with emotional stress and prevalent insomnia, challenge our nervous systems and adrenals as vata energy accumulates.
Winter is Coming – Vata is on The Rise
As days shorten and sub-zero temperatures approach, vata increases, leading to physical and mental discomfort.
Nature’s (Pakriti) Effect
Nature’s rhythm has a profound impact on humans, particularly influencing mental well-being, especially during wintertime.
Doshas Effect on You?
Doshas are weather-dependent, and maintaining balance, particularly during transition phases, is crucial to prevent problems. Adjusting nutrition and habits accordingly is essential.
Vata Characteristics
Vata is characterized by its cold, dry, and movable qualities, often causing problems with slight imbalances in the constitution, particularly triggered by cold, wet, and dry weather.
Signs of Excess Vata During Winter
- Excess vata may lead to dry skin (especially on the lips and mucous membranes)
- Cold extremities
- Joint pain
- Sleep disorders
- Bloating or constipation
- A roundabout of thoughts that can lead to long-term stress
If you’re experiencing any of these signs, consult your Ayushakti expert for a customized vata balanced winter plan is recommended. Book Your Appointment Now!
How to Balance Vata Dosha This Winter Season?
To balance the seasonal impact of vata, it’s important to provide support to the body in the areas most affected by vata, namely digestion, immunity, sleep, adrenal fatigue, and emotional stress.
Initiate these fundamental vata-balancing lifestyle techniques:
- Engage in daily Ayurvedic self-massage (abhyanga)
- Access our vata-balancing winter grocery list. Identify the foods you enjoy and consume more of them during this winter season. Click here to read Vata Balancing Food List For the Winter Season
- Maintain a healthy intake of vitamin D through your diet. Click here to read 8 Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms You Might Be Suffering From
A balanced Vata constitution results in an improved sense of well-being. It leads to better health and happiness, a calmer state of mind, improved sleep, reduced pain, and a more stable and focused mental state throughout the winter. While there are various steps to balance vata, try these three approaches during the winter months:
1. Establish a Daily Schedule
Create a balanced routine that aids in managing your workload and personal responsibilities by breaking them down into smaller tasks and allocating sufficient time. This helps in reducing stress while maintaining productivity. Plan ahead for personal care and meditation. Make an effort to go to bed earlier by incorporating a calming nighttime routine. Find motivation in the noticeable mental and physical differences when getting sufficient sleep.
2. Reduce Stimulants
Achieve a calmer state by minimizing stimulants. This involves cutting down on caffeinated beverages like coffee and processed sugar, which leads to quick energy highs and crashes. Instead, opt for stable sources of energy through complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and proteins. Practice meditation and utilize other calming methods rather than resorting to stimulants.
3. Follow a Vata Diet
Include winter comfort foods. Opt for cooked, warm, and soft foods such as vegetable stews. Incorporate healthy fats such as ghee and ample moisture through foods and herbal beverages. Ideal vata-balancing foods include olives, dairy products (vegan substitute for dairy products), avocados, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Choose salty, natural sweet, and sour tastes like fruit, pungent, and astringent ones like radishes, kale, and legumes. Avoid fried dishes and overeating, while opting for rich yet nourishing meals to balance Vata’s lightness.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Vata Dosha Diet
Foods to Minimize
- Avoid astringent fruits like pears, pomegranates, or dried fruits. Cooked apples with ghee are acceptable.
- Reduce intake of barley, corn, millet, oat bran, dry oats, popcorn, rice cakes or crackers, rye, non-veg, venison, and leftovers.
- Most beans (except those mentioned above) should also be minimized.
If possible, avoid white sugar, raw vegetables, iced drinks, and frozen foods like ice cream altogether during the winter months.
Vata-Balancing Ayurvedic Herbs for Stronger Digestion
Research indicates that the digestive system becomes more robust in the winter months, allowing for the consumption of denser foods such as nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, and tubers.
During winter, the body’s natural processes enhance parasympathetic (rest and digest) activity and increase amylase production to better break down the starch in grains.
Despite the stronger digestion, stress, processed foods, snacking, late eating, and hurried eating can impede the natural strengthening of digestive power during winter.
In Ayurveda, five herbs and spices—ginger, cumin, cardamom, coriander, and fennel—are well-researched for their ability to balance vata and enhance digestive strength, particularly in winter. Email us for a Secret Ayushakti Ayurved special CCF tea recipe at info@ayushakti.com
Ayushakti’s Gulkacid formula incorporates special digestion-boosting herbs. When combined, the synergy of these herbs creates a digestive formula that is more potent and effective than the sum of its parts.
Gulkacid by Ayushakti is free from side effects, carefully formulated Gulkacid (Natural Antacid) is truly effective in neutralizing acid generated in the stomach. The special ingredients of this antacid counteract acid reflux which causes heartburn. Moreover, it eliminates the chance of stomach ulcers. This herbal medicine is extremely beneficial for those who are experiencing painful conditions caused by frequent pain in the abdomen area, sourness, tendency to vomit and nausea. It is also useful for treating gastritis.
Gulkacid aids in strengthening the coordinated effort of the upper digestive organs, supporting the stomach’s acid production, the liver’s bile delivery, and the timely addition of the duodenum’s and pancreas’s digestive enzymes.
Take 1-2 tablets before every meal to get the best result. We take immense pride in introducing ourselves as one of the leading, growth-oriented Ayurveda centres and Ayurvedic medicines manufacturers, exporters and suppliers of standard quality Gulkacid ( Natural Antacid). It is recommended to consult your Ayushakti Ayurved experts before consuming any herbal medicines.
Panchakarma for Detox Therapy to Balance Vata Dosha:
This comprehensive Ayurveda package aims to purify both the body and mind. It includes various cleansing procedures (Panchakarma), applications of oils (Snehana), herbal steam baths (Swedanam), the pouring of warm oils onto the forehead (Shirodhara), and, as a culmination, the luxurious oil bath treatment (Pizhichil). In this therapy, therapists harness the potency of traditional remedies such as Ayurvedic oils, herbs, and ghee.
Ayushakti’s detoxification Panchkarma treatments are highly focused on relieving the root cause of any chronic problem by cleansing, repairing and rejuvenating the deeper tissues and cells in your body. Click here to check out our Panchkarma Detoxification Plan
How to Adjust Your Lifestyle for Winter?
One of the most effective ways to support vata during winter is to establish a consistent daily routine.
- Maintain a regular waking and sleeping schedule, and eat meals at consistent intervals. Develop consistent patterns for work, exercise, and other responsibilities.
- If possible, engage in daily self-massage with warm Vata Massage Oil or Sesame Oil.
The winter months provide an opportunity to push yourself physically more than you might at other times of the year, but be mindful not to overexert yourself.
If you practice yoga, move with mindfulness and grace, incorporate a few restorative postures, and conclude your practice with an extended Savasana (Corpse Pose).
Winter is a crucially restorative time of year, so resist the urge to overcommit yourself. Instead, embrace the slow, quiet nature of winter. It’s an ideal time to replenish lost energy and embrace a sense of stillness in your life.
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Blog Author: Dr Rajeshree Mehta
Expert Review: Dr Smita Pankaj Naram
Co-Founder, Ayushakti Ayurved Pvt Ltd
Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only. Please consult an Ayurvedic practitioner before trying or consuming any medicines, home remedies or treatments mentioned in this blog. The information provided is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.