We are in "Yucky Season"

You guys know by now that Ayurveda and Yoga go hand in hand, yes?  Without Ayurveda, your yoga would just be a movement practice.  Ayurveda informs so much of what we do in yoga; from the poses we do in a day/throughout the year/throughout our lives to the breath practices that are going to support us and everything in between.  Yoga without Ayurveda is one dimensional and limiting.

If you’ve been to the studio, you also know that we are in Kapha season (or as one student likes to call it, yucky season).  Kapha dosha is characterized as slow, heavy, moist, steady, cool.  We’re not only in Kapha season, we’re in a seasonal shift, moving from winter to spring.  Have you noticed how Mother Nature is having a hard time finding her footing?  One day it is warm and sunny, the next can be downright cool, windy, and wet.  If we are a macrocosm of the microcosm (as Ayurveda suggests), then we, too, are feeling these shifts and having a hard time finding balance.

We counteract Kapha by heating it up and adding more movement to our yoga practice; we counteract the imbalance by leaning deeply into routines.  You all have noticed that my classes are getting a little more intense and the pranayama practices are more heating and stagnation-busting.  In my Inflammation Consults I have been asking people to become more protective of their sleep hygiene and sleep times, eat at consistent times, move more (take walks in nature).  One routine that helps me so much is my morning routine which incorporates tongue scraping, oil pulling, and nasya (so important for all the pollen that is flying around this year!).

Yoga, as I always say, is not a movement practice, it is an energy management system.  And it is more important in Spring to manage your energy than any other time of the year, except Vata season which is Fall.

Xx

Jesi