Staying Calm, WARM, and Collected During the Winter Months

 

Sandra and I live in Michigan.  We aren’t having blustery weather (at least not yet!) but there is no doubt that winter has arrived. As the song says, it’s time to “button up your overcoat.”

The effect of seasonal changes on the mind-body are beginning to be considered by modern medicine. However, teaching us how to transition from season to season has been an integral aspect of Ayurveda for thousands of years.

Even if you aren’t a student of Ayurveda you know that you instinctively and automatically make some seasonal changes. For instance, in winter you most likely enjoy heavier food than you do during the summer months. But do you make enough alterations in your lifestyle? 

Oftentimes we are not aware of the many interventions easily available (and easy to implement) that we can utilize for our benefit.   Ayurveda can help.  This ancient system of natural medicine provides an instructional manual helping us to more completely understand the importance of seasonal lifestyle changes.  

According to Ayurveda (and modern science) nature and the body exist on single continuum of intelligence.  Natural intelligence (sometimes referred to as “consciousness”) is exhibited differently at different times of the year.  Each of the five elements (air, space, water, fire and ground) has a time to be the “star.” 

During winter the combination of air and space is “starring” and it’s our task to adapt.  If we fail we run the danger of creating a fertile field for all types of physiological problems to occur.  These problems can erupt either now or in the springtime.

In Chapter 3 of Healing Depression the Mind-Body Way: creating happiness with meditation, yoga, and Ayurveda we discuss the mechanics of how natural intelligence is imparted into our physiology.  Gaining insight into these mechanics is immensely helpful in our quest to maintain balance during seasonal transitions. 

Winter

 

Do you notice an increase in appetite during the winter months?  Many people do.  The digestive fire burns at its brightest during the winter months.  Increased energy, vitality, and liveliness can also be side benefits during the winter months. 

Problems occur during the colder months if our elemental balance becomes disrupted.  Common problems are oversensitivity to cold, respiratory infections, insomnia, dry skin, indecisiveness, hyperactivity, and anxiety. 

Ayurveda identifies three distinct types of depression and a mixed type. Each type is based on particular imbalances.  Depression mixed with anxiety is the result of having the physiological balance of space and air out of whack.  This can easily occur during the winter months.

Ayurveda offers many practical interventions to help us maintain our elemental balance.  If we follow these suggestions we can avoid physical and emotional ups and downs.  Healing Depression the Mind-Body Wayhighlights these suggestions. Today I’ll offer one significant intervention that is exceedingly helpful for the maintenance of physiological balance during the winter months.

The Abhyanga (Sanskrit for “Massage”)

 

Abhyanga is an oil massage with sesame oil.

The abhyanga has, according to Ayurveda, profound health benefits. Ayurvedic tradition maintains that frequent oil massage promotes softness and luster of the skin, lubricates the muscles, tissues, and joints, and increases their flexibility.  Moreover, by stimulating the tissues in the body, oil massage is said to help keep impurities from accumulating in the system.  Daily abhyanga is recommended but if you cannot do the abhyanga on a daily basis even two or three times a week will offer you significant benefits.

Different oils work for different constitutional types.  But, in the cold of winter sesame oil works best for most people because sesame oil has particular properties that nourish and warm the body. 

Although oil massage is considered, in Ayurveda, to be important all year long it is particularly important in winter.  The soothing influence of warmth and touch on the skins’ many nerve endings has a calming effect on the elements which are predominantly expressed during this time of the year.

Abhyanga will benefit everyone at all times of the year, but it is particularly important in the winter.  Apart from the benefits mentioned above abhyanga will keep the skin from becoming dry and cracked, a frequent problem when physiological balance is aggravated in winter.

The oil must be organic and cured.  To buy high quality sesame oil go to Mapi.com or call Mapi at 1-800-345-8332.

If you maintain balance during the winter months you will transition into spring without encountering an excess of the mucus that triggers allergies and springtime colds and flus. Abhyanga is a helpful intervention for the maintenance of balance and the prevention of these springtime problems.  

Albeit with different language, modern quantum physicists echo Ayurvedic knowledge. Modern science and ancient wisdom agree on the nature of the universe.  But, only the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda gives us the practical advice necessary to roll with the seasons and keep our mind-body in balance.  Pick up a copy of Healing Depression the Mind-Body Way.  The information tucked inside its cover will help you to create and maintain perfect health and its by-product—-happiness!

Staying Calm, WARM, and Collected During the Winter Months

Sandra and I live in Michigan.  Until a few days ago I wondered if we had shifted into a more temperate weather zone.  I wondered this because only one week ago the temperature here registered at 45 degrees.  In January 45 degrees is pretty much unheard of in this northern state.

Of course our honeymoon didn’t last and now we are experiencing winter weather.  Although not yet blustery it is chilly outside.  As the song says, it’s time to “button up that overcoat.”  This rapid change in weather has caused me to reflect on how seasonal changes affect the mind-body.

Although modern medicine is only beginning to consider the effects of annual biorhythms on the mind-body, teaching us how to transition from season to season has been an integral aspect of Ayurveda for thousands of years.

From the ancient medical system of Ayurveda we learn that nature and the body are part of a single continuum of intelligence.  This theme is the essence of how Ayurveda handles the change of the seasons.  Balancing the three doshas is the key for our adaptation to the effects of the seasons since each season exhibits the predominance of one dosha.

 

As you know, the doshas are the homeostatic or governing principles of the mind-body. The word “dosha” denotes the combinations of the elements of air, space, ground, fire, and water that make up the underlying intelligence of the universe.  Everything in nature, including the human physiology, is a manifestation of these elements.  Teaching us how to keep our unique elemental constitution in balance is the task of Ayurveda. Balance equates with health and the by-product of perfect health—happiness.

 

Albeit with different language, modern quantum physicists echo Vedic knowledge.  They tell us that five spin types (elements) form the most basic concepts in particle physics.  Physicists assert that everything in creation is derived from the combination of these five fundamental spin types into three superfields:  gravity, gauge, and matter.  Modern science and ancient wisdom agree on the nature of the universe.  But, only the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda gives us the practical advice necessary to roll with the seasons and keep our mind-body in balance.

 

Winter is Vata Time

Winter is the Vata (combination of space and air) time of year and the Vata qualities of dryness and coldness which exist in our physiology can easily become aggravated by the environment.  If Vata dosha becomes aggravated this can produce oversensitivity to colds, respiratory infections, insomnia, dry skin, indecisiveness, hyperactivity and worry.

Ayurveda offers many practical interventions to keep Vata dosha in balance.  If we follow these interventions we will avoid the physical and emotional ups and downs that can be triggered by an imbalance in Vata dosha.  In our book Healing Depression the Mind-Body Way, Sandra and I give in-depth suggestions for keeping Vata dosha in balance.  Today I want to highlight just one significant intervention that we can use to stay warm and calm during these cold Vata aggravating months.  This intervention is an oil massage with sesame oil.  The Sanskrit word for massage is abhyanga.

 

The abhyanga has, according to Ayurveda, profound health benefits.  Vedic tradition maintains that frequent oil massage promotes softness and luster of the skin, lubricates the muscles, tissues, and joints, and increases their flexibility.  Moreover, by stimulating the tissues in the body, oil massage is said to help keep impurities from accumulating in the system.  Daily abhyanga is recommended but if you cannot do the abhyanga on a daily basis even two or three times a week will offer you significant benefits.

 

Different oils work for different constitutional types.  But, in the cold of winter sesame oil works best for most people because sesame oil has particular properties that nourish and warm the body.

 

Massaging the skin with warm sesame oil pacifies all three doshas, but the soothing influence of warmth and touch on the skin’s many nerve endings calms Vata dosha especially.  This affects the whole system, because Vata leads the other doshas, and when it becomes aggravated, the other two will often follow suit. Abhyanga will benefit everyone at all times of the year, but it is particularly important in the winter.  Apart from the benefits mentioned above abhyanga will keep the skin from becoming dry and cracked, a frequent problem when Vata is aggravated in winter.

 

The oil must be organic and cured.  To buy high quality sesame oil go to Mapi.com or call Mapi at 1-800-345-8332.

 

Sandra and I want to remind you that if you keep Vata dosha in balance during the winter months you will transition into spring without encountering an excess of mucus that triggers allergies and springtime colds and flus.  As always we wish you perfect health and its by-product, happiness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image from http://www.care2.com/greenliving/ayurvedic-oil-massage.html