Getting cold, dry, and restless?

This article includes links, resources, and an invitation to a Fall Equinox check-in.

Fall. The first thing I think of are the changing colors of leaves. I love watching them fall from the trees, sometimes floating horizontally, further away from its source, before they land back on the ground. Eventually, they dry up and get crispy. I’m the one that walks on them to hear them crunch underneath my feet.?

The jackets and sweatshirts come out. Fall and Summer take turns from day to day, sometimes hour by hour; at least in Chicago it does. While many of us don’t want Summer to end, some of us welcome the relief from its sweltering August heat. Whether or not the heat (or the upcoming cold) bothers you depends on your nature, or what we refer to as your mind-body constitution. Here’s what I mean, Ayurvedically speaking:

If you have a tendency to get cold easily (what Ayurveda refers to as a quality of a Vata constitution), you are able to take in more of Summer’s heat and intensity than someone who already runs hot and intense (qualities of a Pitta constitution).

Vatas (those with a lot of Vata qualities: cold, dry, walks and talks fast, creative, tending towards forgetfulness and anxiety) welcome the heat and humidity because they generally run cold and dry, and the heat helps them feel balanced and comfortable. Pittas, on the other hand (hot, driven, methodical, intense, tend towards impatience and irritability), get hot and bothered because the heat creates excess heat to their already hot selves, making them feel out of imbalance. They, therefore, run to the shades and A/C while Vatas let the Sun’s heat envelope them. If you’re Pitta, or have accumulated too much Pitta from Summer, you’d benefit by choosing foods and activities that diminish the excess heat and bring you back into balance before Nature’s Vata qualities get even more intense when we move from Fall to Winter. When we don’t do this - when we don’t clear out the excess (aka imbalance) - we can feel burnt out going into the holiday season. ?

Everything you do, eat, and choose, influences your sense of balance.

As for the Fall season, what happens in nature is what gets increased within. Fall is dry, cool, and windy, so it will create dryness, chills, and restlessness. This is a good time to check in with yourself and see what you can do to find your balance. Falling leaves remind us, too, that we benefit from letting some things go as a part of this balancing.

You aren’t helpless. You have the power to keep your mind and nervous system strong.?

Here are some tips for balancing into Fall (Vata season)

Food

Think warm, moist, grounding foods to counter the dry, cold, and airy season.?If you tend towards anxiety, forgetfulness, and restlessness (all Vata qualities), this is even more essential.

• Choose soups and cooked veggies over raw foods.
• Drop the iced drinks for the warm & cozy ones. Golden Milk , Chai (Yogi Tea ), or Matcha Tea Lattes are good options.
• Choose root vegetables and squashes over the cruciferous ones (like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage). Certainly cook the latter if you must have them, using more oil than you would in Summer.
• Reduce consumption of crackers, cereal, toast - all dry and airy. Instead, have oatmeal and kitchari (see below).?

Here are some healthy, hearty, and delicious food options for Fall:

• Spaghetti Squash: Place it in the oven whole and bake at 400 for 10-15 min to make it easier to cut. Let cool then cut in half. Massage with olive oil and Italian spices and bake upside down on cookie pan until soft for about 30 minutes or to your preference. Use fork to scrape spaghetti like strands onto a plate. Add salt and pepper, your favorite red sauce, top with melted cheese, etc.
• Kitchari: Cook 1:1 or 1:2 ratio white basmati rice (it’s the most digestible rice for those with digestive issues) with split yellow mung beans (aka “dal”, also very digestible) with any veggies you have in the fridge. Add butter or ghee, black mustard, coriander, and cumin seeds. Add much more water to make it like porridge (it’s more cleansing this way). My usual ratio is 1:4, rice and dal to water, sometimes 1:6. Cover and cook until tender (30-40 min). Serve with a drizzle of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and a dash of cayenne.
• Stewed Pears and Apples: Peel, chop, add ginger for digestion, and a little bit of cardamom, cinnamon, or ghee. Cover and cook until soft.

Sometimes the change of seasons, especially this one, can bring on some digestive challenges. Here are some simple tea options to help with digestion. Drink them warm to hot. Cold is not good for digestion.

• Lemon and honey
• Peppermint
• Cumin-coriander-fennel tea (add a quarter teaspoon of each seed to a cup of tea)
• Ginger tea

Body

• Stretch. Not only will it slow you down in a good way, it will open your body and make it more supple, agile, and light.
• Stand in mountain pose: stand tall, feet closer together, chin level, shoulders melting down and back, with your hands in prayer pose at your heart center, eyes slightly open with a soft gaze on the floor ahead of you, as you focus on your breath. This will ground and center you.
• If you can, sit in malasana, or squat pose, also with your hands in prayer mudra. This opens up the hips, which allows for flow to happen more easily in your day. It’s where we carry our deeply rooted emotions and energy, and this posture can release them. If your heels come off the floor when you squat, place a rolled up yoga mat, cushion, or blanket underneath them for support.
• Other postures to support you through this transitional season: forward fold, wide angle seated forward bend, twisted pose, and 3-11 minutes of savasana (lie down straight on your back; place a cushion under the knees if you have lower back issues) .
• Also the spinal flex warm ups . It opens the flow of energy from the base of your entire spine all the way up to release the blocks and increase clarity. Don’t be surprised if your body starts to generate heat during this practice.

Aside from asana (physical yoga poses), here are some AH-MAZING spa practices to ground you, nourish your soul, and keep you moisturized from the inside out:

• Abhyanga , a luxurious, warm oil , self massage. This practice balances you from the inside out, keeps you moisturized (you won’t need lotion if you do this regularly), and helps you cultivate self love.
• Get an Herbal Nasya Oil for dry nasal passages. Place a drop in each nostril and sniff them up into the sinus passages by pinching your nose closed and opening them quickly as you take several quick inhales.?

Mind

• Fall is an excellent time to establish or recommit to a daily routine. Start by scheduling your meal times, wake up time, and bed time. Leverage circadian rhythm by getting to bed by 10 pm, waking up by 6 am, having lunch between 10 and 2 pm when your digestion is strongest, and dinner by 6/6:30 pm for a more restful sleep.??
• A good Fall supplement is Ashwagandha , an adaptogen that helps reduce stress, promotes relaxation, and has a positive effect on the nervous and endocrine systems.?
• Meditation helps you let go of drama, conquer the mind, cultivate sustainable energy, and experience peace ???
• Get sufficient amounts of sleep. Not too little, not too much. Sleep to regenerate yourself, not to hide. If you sleep longer to procrastinate, meditate instead to allow the stress to process through and out in a more conscious and aware state.?You’ll get to know yourself better this way, which empowers you to make more authentic decisions.
• When choosing how to approach things, think warm, generous, and compassionate. This balances out the harshness and coldness of the winds picking up during the Fall season. While warmth and generosity is always a good practice to live by, increasing your mindfulness to this in the Fall is extra helpful.

Fall is an amazing time of year. It’s a transitional season which reminds us to check in, shift, let go where we need to let go, and create a new balance for ourselves. It prepares us for Winter, when the Sun’s touch decreases in intensity. We benefit by being able to tap into our own inner, brilliant light, which is much easier to do when we feel hearty, warm, grounded and nourished. We have the power to get there by finding our balance now.

Love, Savitree

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P.S.S. - INVITATION: Join me and my cohort, (and sister) Anna SachKiret, for a one hour Fall Equinox check-in (via Zoom) on Sunday, September 22, 10 am central time! We will go over meditations, recipes, and a few exercises to help you breeze through the Fall transition. Register here .