Avoid Anxiety and Stay Vibrant this Season with a Vata-Balancing Practice
The late fall to early winter is considered ‘vata’ season in ayurveda- a time of year that embodies (and emphasizes) vata attributes like cold, dry, mobile, light, and rough. Depending on where you live, you may feel this shift at different time of year, and different intensity. And while these shifts aren’t bad, if we already tend toward more vata qualities, we may find that those are on overdrive this time of year. At its best, the energy of vata dosha can make us more alert, energized, joyful, and free spirited, and improve digestion and circulation. When out of balance, this dosha can manifest as dry skin, insomnia, constipation or bloating, feeling chilly, arthritis, more headaches, or an increase in worry or anxiety.
If you are noticing qualities attributed to balanced vata dosha, this may be a great time of year for you! However, if you’re noticing symptoms of imbalanced vata, it can be helpful to know that it’s common this time of year, AND there are things you can do to come back to balance.
Imbalanced vata dosha looks like
Balanced Vata Dosha looks like
-insomnia
-fatigue
-dry or rough hair or skin, brittle bones (osteopenia or osteoporosis)
-low or inconsistent appetite, unintended weight loss
-changes in digestion, especially gas, bloating, or constipation
-feeling restless, scattered, or ‘spacey’
-increased anxiety or worry
-tension headaches
-arthritis or joint pain
-feeling cold often, or intolerant of cold temperatures
-Mentally alert and creative
-Full of ideas
-Easy access to intuition and spirituality
-Wake up early with lots of energy
-Light sleeper but sleep is consistent
-Comfortable digestion and elimination
-Strong immune system
-Mobile joints
-Healthy circulation
-Sense of exhilaration and joy in daily life
If you just looked at the list on the right and thought “hey, that’s me!” try adopting some vata-balancing behaviors and see if you notice a shift.
Changes you can make to balance vata dosha
We can use vata’s propensity for change intentionally, by making lifestyle shifts that help to ground and stabilize our energy.
Change your Self-Care
Attend to your body’s basic needs. Vata dosha can cause us to live more in our heads more than our bodies, so to balance vata we need to be more intentional about taking time each day to slow down, check in with what our body is asking for, and respond to those needs.
Daily, or almost daily, oil massage (Abhyanga self-massage can be done at home)
Stay hydrated, but choose lukewarm water instead of cold or iced beverages
Practice setting boundaries on your time and energy, and don’t let FOMO or people pleasing run your life
Change your Routine
Vata dosha thrives on change and variety, so a lack of consistency in our daily lives can throw us out of whack. Having a solid daily routine is essential.
Try to wake, eat, and sleep at the same time each day.
Maintain a consistent work schedule if possible.
Develop short morning and evening routines that you can commit to. Use these as opportunities to check in with your body.
Build rest into your day! Constant activity, travel, and excess sensory stimulation can aggravate vata energy.
Work on your sleep hygiene.
Incorporate pranayama and meditation into your daily routine- both are powerful tools for cultivating calm.
Change your Movement Practice
Daily movement can be very helpful in addressing symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, and restlessness. However, that same restlessness can leave us prone to over-exercising, and as we saw before, too much activity aggravates vata dosha. The solution? Exercise that creates grounding without draining our energy.
Rather than high intensity or prolonged exercise sessions, steer toward practices that are moderate in both intensity and length. Think long walks instead of running and steady strength training instead of HIIT.
Switch your yoga practice to a slower style like Iyengar or yin
Incorporate plenty of time for rest and recovery (stretching after weightlifting, long savasana at the end of yoga practice, taking 2-3 days off every week, etc.)
Exercise outside! Nature has a grounding effect on our body-mind.
Change how you Nourish Yourself
There are no absolute ‘bad’ or ‘good’ foods in ayurveda. Instead, we look at the inherent properties of each food, and determine whether or not they will help bring balance to our current state at this moment in time. Since vata properties lean toward the cold, dry, and rough, add more warm, cooked, whole foods, and warming spices. You can use the lists below as a guideline. As you experiment with making some changes, remember to always pay attention to how your body responds- we are all unique, and not all of these recommendations will work for every body.
Foods to Avoid or Minimize
Foods to Add
Raw vegetables or salads
Minimize canola, corn, and flax seed oil
Avoid artificial sweeteners, reduce white sugar and honey
Popcorn, rice cakes, and dry cereals
Raw apples, green bananas, dried fruits
Coffee, and caffeine in general
Uncooked oats, buckwheat
Cold milk, frozen yogurt
Minimize white meat turkey, pork, and lamb
Avoid chili powder and cayenne pepper (too stimulating)
Root vegetables (cooked) like pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato
Most oils, including coconut, almond, olive, and avocado
Most sweeteners, including maple syrup, molasses, and raw sugar
Avocado and most sweet, soft fruits like mango, peaches, or bananas
Dried fruits should be soaked first
Hot water and herbal teas
Easy to digest grains like wheat, cooked oats, amaranth, and quinoa
Most dairy, including cheese, butter, and ghee
Eggs; fish and seafood; meats like duck, dark meat chicken, and beef
All nuts and seeds
Almost all spices, including garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, mint, cloves, turmeric, and rosemary