Fall & Early Winter Wellness

Balancing vata energy. Here are the most potent and applicable ways to maintain stability, vitality, and clarity during change.

What is fall?

Fall is about receiving & releasing. A brisk and exuberant energy provokes change—the transition from full outward expression (summer) to restorative inner workings (winter magic).

Ayurveda and fall

The energy behind such a drastic transition of seasons is inevitably erratic, light, subtle, mobile, cool, dry, and rough. Ayurveda calls this vata. We love her. She is playful and unpredictable. She’s the party, the screen, the flight to Cabo. And she is the energetic force behind 99.9% of disease, because where there is change there is vata.

How to balance vata

First, I like to honor the excess energy through release. The pure essence of vata is prana (vital life force energy), so breathwork is a lovely practice to ground us into the fall season, or into any time of excess overwhelm and depletion. Beyond grounding, balance is found by bringing in the opposite qualities: warm, wet, stable, soft, consistent, sweet, and oily.

We are nature

To receive, we must have a container—this is our “nesting.” To receive high-quality prana (energy) we can create a high-quality container. This container is our body standing tall with an open heart, our mind clear and intentional, and our spirit nourished and seen. In our day-to-day the container is our schedule. It’s a set of patterns that create a solid structure for shaping how we relate to ourselves and our world, this is dinacharya. As we develop these patterns or set of rituals, we naturally release what isn’t working and in this way we flow with fall to live with stability and clarity.

How we release and “nest” in fall determines our energy reserves for the entire next year, and ultimately the quality of our life and self expression.

These three areas of focus are simply divine for every body, mind, and spiritual warrior out there during fall and anytime of year.

Dinacharya

Morning and nighttime routines are statements of what you want your life to be like. These patterns set the tone. We call this Dinacharya. It’s your “nest”—a series of rituals that support your body, mind, and spirit. Over time these rituals become part of a radical love affair with ourselves, creating feelings of safety, support, and capability. Consistency is the number one way to build and protect Ojas, and these crave-worthy routines are ultra soothing for vata.

Please browse through the following rituals for each time of day and select only a few that feel juicy and approachable. Create a set pattern with your few rituals and practice this for at least one week.

Morning - setting intention for your day; preparing yourself to receive & circulate Prana

morning rituals:
wake at dawn; check your inner dialog at rising to encourage uplifting thoughts; tongue scrape; oil swish; rinse face and eyes; scalp massage; meditate for 5-15 minutes; breath of fire; draw oracle cards; establish daily intention or mantra; journal; drink warm lemon water; drink lots of water; stretch/yoga; walk outside and greet the sun; have an easy-to-digest, protein-rich breakfast like nut-and-seed oatmeal with ghee

The structure of your day, is the sheet music for your symphony!

If you don’t love your schedule, change a few notes … or change your tune.

Midday - come back to your body and the present moment

midday rituals:
take 3 deep breaths; take a post-lunch stroll; yoga nidra; vagal resets; remember your morning intention; remember the present moment is where you are

Evening - down regulation of nervous system, safety, security, comfort, and release

evening rituals:
eat before sundown; take a sunset stroll to release the workday; move by candlelight; release muscles with gratitude; drink warm tea; have sweet conversations; make an Ayurvedic sleep tonic like warm milk with nutmeg, cardamom, and ashwagandha; abhyanga with vata-soothing oil; warm bath or shower with essential oils; use nasya; box breathing; mouth tape for a somatic slumber; adorn your eyes in a silk eye mask; get snuggly

Nourishing diet

We digest EVERYTHING we consume (hopefully), including sound, sight, touch, and smell, so be intentional about exposing yourself to and accepting high-quality energy that is soothing and aligned with your worth. Optimizing your intake is the structured clean-up and release that we are called to do in fall to prepare for winter’s restoration.

For food, stick with one-pot meals and soups that are warm and broth-y. Drink lots of warm water and herbal tea away from meals. And choose steaming, boiling, and covered cooking in oil instead of dry roasting. Please no raw foods, especially if you live in the cold, high, dry desert of Utah.

Invest in sleep

Think of sleep as the most luxurious gift to yourself. It’s when you are most connected to your true essence. It’s pure magic when your body does all the internal processing and repair. Your ideas around sleep and the story you tell yourself about sleep is the MOST potent tool for better sleep. More tips to be found on my sleep cheat sheet >

What’s next?

So now you’re a pro surfer of the mystic fall winds, and you want to know more about the magic elixir they call ojas. Be sure you’re signed up for my newsletter to receive all the juicy ojas-increasing info at the winter solstice. Namaste.