Be well nourished this Autumn As the cooler weather is setting in, have you noticed that your eating choices are changing? As you walk about your local farmers market or food store are the fruit and vegetables choices available also changing?
Autumn Recipe & Eating Tips What to cook that will be both tasty while also helping you to stay in balance? As the days settle into Autumn do you wonder what to cook that will be both tasty while also helping you to stay in balance? I pondered his question while thinking about how I could best help you to enjoy greater balance this Autumn. The answer was to provide [...]
As Autumn gives way to Winter it’s a good time to check how balanced Vata Dosha is within you. This is particularly helpful for ensuring we maintain balance during the colder months of Autumn and Winter. As you read below consider the question... How balanced is Vata Dosha within me right now?
When the weather becomes colder and windy (Autumn), it sets the scene for an increase in respiratory discomfort. Coughs, colds, bronchitis, asthma and in the extreme pneumonia become more prevalent. Other more chronic conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema may become aggravated. This can increase the demand on the national health care services, especially with the elderly.
Temperatures are down, wind is up, trees have changed colour and leaves are being shed and are blowing everywhere. Autumn has its own distinctive weather, colours and qualities. The air element and the vital force called Prana have become abundant in the atmosphere and the dry, rough, windy, erratic, cool, subtle, and clear Gunas or qualities now predominate. As these Gunas are shared by Vata Dosha (the principle of movement), autumn is considered [...]
I’ve recently been helping an Australian friend in her quest to find a decent café latte up here in the North West of England and it’s not been easy. While Sydney seems to be chock full of expert Baristas who can serve up the perfect café lattes at the drop of a hat, many of our British versions don’t seem to quite hit the mark.My friend’s obsession with [...]
On my recent visit to the Aatma Ayurveda Centre in Kerala, run by Vaidya (Dr) Ravi Mooss, the cooks supplied us with what were probably the most delicious grapes I have ever tasted. They were so intensely succulent and tasty that I wanted more and more. Fortunately, for the sake of my belly, they had one flaw – they came with pips, [...]
We measure out each year by its seasonal changes – the cold sleep of nature during winter, it’s re-awakening during spring, its full splendour during summer and the fruits bearing seeds of nature’s renewal during autumn. As summer changes to autumn, the sap of each tree begins to draw inwards. Bright green leaves gradually dry and become yellow, orange, red and brown, then they [...]
The Ayurvedic theory of immunity is called Beej-bhumi, which literally translates as “seed and land”. The body is seen as the fertile land in which infections or harmful “bugs” can grow. If our body is out of balance, and full of Ama – the toxic by-products that result from incomplete digestion – viruses and harmful bacteria will find fertile soil for [...]
Winter is the Kapha season when the weather is cold and wet and the Vata season of when it is cold and windy. At times the Vata moving element can dominate our physiology and at other times the stable and cohesive Kapha can get the better of us. How do we keep in balanced with all the challenges our changeable weather imposes on us? Also, how [...]
The transition from summer to autumn involves a huge change, in the weather and its influence on our body, and can have a significant effect on your health. The internal fire and heat of Pitta Dosha accumulates in your body over the summer and is at its maximum as autumn begins, Pitta dosha (fire/heat), and the cool and windy qualities of Vata dosha also come into play. This is a time when Pitta disorders, particularly skin disorders, [...]
Chai is a warm and soothing beverage, usually made with spices, herbs and milk. In Ayurveda chai is considered a rasayana, a beverage or herbal concoction that strengthens the whole physiology. In present day India chai is made using black tea, which is a useful stimulant if you have a sluggish physiology. Yet, if your Vata has been put out of balance by cold weather, the caffeine contained in black tea [...]
Autumn is the season when dry, cold, and sometimes windy weather predominates. Inside your body, Vata, the Dosha that also has dry, cold and moving qualities, tends to increase. At this time of year Pitta, the Dosha that regulates heat and digestion, and Kapha, the Dosha that is responsible for our strength and structure, tend to play second, and third, fiddles. Vata Dosha is likely to continue dominating the environment until [...]