Are you loving pumpkin lattes this time of year? Did you know that reaching for that latte is actually medicinal during autumn, the Vata/Air energy season? The spices of cinnamon and nutmeg, mulled ciders, and warm pumpkin treats and drinks welcome us warmly into this season, but they are also excellent for balancing our skin, digestion, reproductive system, and more! These cozy flavors and foods help to balance our Vata/Air energy, which can get off balance this time of year, causing dry skin, indigestion, anxiety, and several other symptoms. By balancing our Vata energy through diet and lifestyle this season, we can ensure more balanced health and help prevent further symptoms and disease.
What is Vata Season?
In Ayurveda, autumn is known as the Vata season, or the season of high Air energy. Vata energy affects everything from our skin to our interactions with others to our digestion and more. Out of the five elements, Vata is closely related to the Air element. Therefore, during autumn, there is more Air energy in the atmosphere. The air is a bit drier, a bit crisper, and there tends to be more wind.
How does Vata Season Affect your Health?
Notice any dryness to your skin lately? How about constipation, anxiety, irregular menstruation, or heart palpitations? These are all symptoms of increased Vata energy, which we can all easily experience this time of the year because of the seasonal changes. If you have a Vata constitution (ie. you have more Vata/Air characteristics in your body than Fire/Earth), then the season can affect you even more.
Air energy is fast-moving and more erratic than Fire and Earth energy. It is responsible for our movement (whether it is easy or difficult), our circulation, and our bowels. In other words, it keeps things flowing. When Air energy gets too high, this erratic energy can cause headaches, anxiety, and a general sense of uneasiness during the fall season. So don’t worry, it’s not just back to school jitters getting to you. The Air energy of the season might be the culprit!
By eating foods and doing activities that upset our Air element, we risk increasing our Air element too much, which leads to poor circulation, constipation, headaches, fatigue, arthritis, insomnia, and anxiety. By ignoring our body’s call for balance, we further aggravate the deeper tissues, eventually causing spasms, loss of sensation of touch, ringing in the ears, osteoporosis, loss of menstruation, anemia, tingling, and other symptoms.
How to Stay Healthy and Balanced in Vata season?
Ayurveda is very much centered around the idea that true health is living in balance and harmony with nature and your surroundings. So during the Vata season when the Air energy in the atmosphere is high, we have to eat foods that will balance our Air element to keep our health in order. The foods we want to focus on are warming, nourishing, and grounding and higher in Earth and Fire energy.
Vata energy is balanced by naturally sweet, salty, and sour flavors. These flavors help to ground and stabilize our Vata energy. A Vata diet is more warm, liquid, and oily, helping to lubricate the colon, skin, nerves, and deeper channels to keep your digestion flowing properly and keep your mind steady. An ideal Vata diet includes foods like:
[ulist icon = “fa-check-circle”]
- Whole Grains high in Earth energy like brown rice and whole wheat
- Sweet Vegetables like pumpkin, zucchini, squash, and sweet potato
- Cooked fruits like apple, pear, cherries, figs, and banana
- Warming digestive spices like cinnamon, cumin, fennel, clove, mustard, and nutmeg
- Warming teas like orange, cinnamon, and chai tea
- Natural salt sources like seaweed, miso, and sea salt
- Healthy fats in nuts, cold-pressed oils, and avocado
[/ulist]
Breakfasts like oatmeal with nut butter, meals with warm soups and stews, roasted root vegetables, and grounding almond milk chai tea (like this Chai Tea Recipe) are incredibly beneficial to our bodies this season. We also want to avoid foods/drinks that upset our Air energy, which would include:
[ulist icon = “fa-check-circle”]
- Caffeinated, carbonated, cold beverages
- Raw or cold foods
- All Beans and cruciferous vegetables (Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts)
- Pungent flavors like chili, garlic, or hot pepper
- Dry foods like crackers, cereal, and packaged snacks
[/ulist]
How to Balance Vata Energy with Lifestyle
Our bodies are not just collections and manifestations of everything we eat, but they are also a reflection of everything we do. So, even the activities we do can upset Vata energy. Because Air energy is mobile, we need to provide stability with more steady exercises. Great exercises for this season are:
[ulist icon = “fa-check-circle”]
- Yoga (Not Hot/Bikram yoga)
- Walking
- Swimming
- Light Weight Training
[/ulist]
Any rigorous exercises like heavy cardio, cycling, hot yoga, running, and long-distance hiking can upset our Air energy and cause constipation, stiffness, pain, and other imbalanced Vata symptoms. If you are a Vata type and feeling pain while exercising this time of the year, listen to your body and switch to lighter exercise! Our body knows exactly what is best for us. We must pay attention to these signs and work with our bodies, and not against them. That is the key to holistic health!
Other suggestions for keeping balanced this season:
Daily Massage
Applying warm sesame or almond oil to the soles of the feet, the temples on the head, and the ears is a very grounding practice for excess Vata energy. This is best done in the morning before breakfast and in the evening before bed.
Stay Warm
Vata energy is not only aggravated by cold foods. It is also upset by cold temperatures! Be sure to bundle up as the weather cools down.
Keep a Journal and/or Meditate
Spending 5 minutes daily (or more if you can) on connecting with yourself and your heart is very helpful to keeping a balanced mind during the autumn. Excess Air/Vata energy can cause anxiety, stress, worry, and instability.
You can begin the day, before breakfast, writing down 1 thing in a journal you are most grateful for today. With eyes closed, spend the next five minutes sending love to that moment/person/thing and pay attention to the joy that it has brought into your life. Sit in that joyous space as long as you like.
Another journal prompt you may like is to give out blessings to those you love AND those who you may not get along with. Pick one person that you love and one blessing you would like to happen for them. Then pick one person you do not click with, and think of a blessing you would like them to have. Spend 5 minutes sending out this blessing with all of your heart, mind, and body to these two people.
Warm Water in the Mornings
After you wake up, instead of going for a coffee or tea, try drinking 2 large glasses of warm-to-hot water. This will hydrate you for the day and ground your excess Vata energy. Caffeine dehydrates the digestive tract and upsets Vata energy.
Connect with Earth Energy with your Feet
Take a moment in your local park or backyard, and walk barefoot on the grass. While Ayurveda has recommended this for thousands of years, modern research is starting to also show that walking barefoot on the Earth has tremendous physiological benefits. All electrical systems are stabilized when they are connected to the Earth, and the human body is flowing with so much electricity! It is what allows us to respond to impulses around our body. Tap into the Earth’s grounding potential with your feet.
I hope you have enjoyed this post! Share with your friends, and give these practices and diet a try. Welcome to Vata season!
Related Works
Nothing found.