For those looking to keep healthy, it is of the utmost importance to
follow Ritucharya, the Ayurvedic seasonal protocol.
According to Ayurveda, there are six seasons which are broken up into
two groups. The first groupwhich can be seen in northern
solstice consists of shishir/ late winter (Jan 14- March 14), vasant
/ spring ( March 14- May 14) and grishma/ summer ( May 14- July 14).
The second group which resides in the southern solstice is varsha/
rainy season ( July 14- Sept 14), sharad / autumn ( Sept 14-
Nov 14) and hemant / early winter ( Nov 14- Jan 14). Importance is
given to this breakdown because in the northern solstice months it is
noticed that the sun takes away the strength of the people more and
more each day and in the southern solstice there is the opposite
occurring with the sun and moon giving strength and nourishing
respectively. This means that by the time hemant / early winter comes
around, we are in our strongest period to build health and immunity
for the whole year.
Each of the six seasons has a unique natural ebb and flow with
respect to the doshas. There is no such mention in Ayurveda of
there being only three seasons known as “vata season”, “kapha
season” or “pitta season”. That is just flat out misinformation
most likely stemming from an attempt at simplification for the west.
The way it works is that throughout the year each dosha will go into
an accumulation stage, an excitation stage and a baseline, calmed
stage. For example, vata accumulates in summer, excites in fall
/ Varsha and is brought back to a calmed state in autumn. Pitta dosha
accumulates in fall / Varsha, excites in autumn and calms down in
early winter. Kapha accumulates in late winter, excites in
spring and calms down in summer.
If you noticed, I didn’t mention that anything accumulates or
excites in early winter. This period which is November 14th through
January 14th is the only one where this occurs. Along with the doshas
all in a calmed state, a person in good health will
experience strong digestive power in this time. This phenomenon is
due to the cold air outside blocking the body heat from coming out.
Prevented from exiting the body, the heat is then reserved for the
digestive fire to become intensely active and strong. When you
don’t feed this fire appropriately, the fire starts to
consume the bodily tissues and vata can get aggravated. There is no
natural accumulation or aggravation of vata during this period
though. That only occurs when one doesn’t follow what the body
needs, for example by fasting ( raw, juice, not eating all included),
cleanses, eating too light foods and spices or too much exposure to
the cold.
The food and drink during this time of year should consist
of sweet, sour, salty, unctuous qualities. A few examples of this
which are mentioned in the texts are meat soup mixed with fats, meat
of fattened animals, nuts, wheat flour, urad dal / black gram, sugar
cane products, milk and milk products such as yogurt or
paneer/cottage cheese, new rice and warm water. Also advised is to
keep warm by wearing proper clothing, by the embrace of another or by
sitting near a fire. This would also be the ideal time of year to be
in the habit of doing oil massage on the entire body with sesame oil
before your bath or shower. You can exercise in accordance with what
is healthy such as with no discomfort, no breathing through
mouth and not with a full stomach.
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