Your entire being attunes to seasonal cycles. You feel the dryness or moisture in the air, the cold or heat on your skin, and the energetic response in your cells as a number of physiological patterns shift, including sweat, sleep, digestion, emotions, inflammation, water retention, respiration, circulation and so on.
As Winter comes to a close, your body emerges from a time of nesting, nourishment, and nodding off on a cold winter day. Perhaps you’ve been feeling heavy, sluggish, unmotivated or unengaged. Maybe your brain feels cloudy, slow or uninterested in anything new.
At the end of Winter and in early Spring, we enter a cycle known in Ayurveda as Kapha season, when the elements of earth and water become more predominant in all natural things, including your body, mind and spirit. The elemental nature of earth and water is heavy, cool, moist, stable, sluggish and slow.
Spring is also considered a transitional season, when the body can go out of imbalance simply due to the transitory nature of the elements. Aligning your body, mind and spirit during this time is paramount.
Aligning Your Rhythms
Environmental rhythms show us that earth and water naturally start to flow this time of year, beginning the process of carrying toxins out of the body and mind. We can enhance this process through a seasonal Ayurvedic cleanse, uprooting deep tissue layer toxins and renewing vital energy in the body.
In additional to clearing toxins that contribute to imbalances, seasonal cleansing also helps reset your body’s appetite and metabolism and attunes you to a personal lifestyle rhythm that works best for you.
Many people who cleanse seasonally discover great weight-balancing benefits, new insight that helps them to break old habits and enjoy a healthier gut microbiome as well as better digestion, hormone production, energy and overall wellbeing.
Regular cleansing also renders you less susceptible to long-term imbalance or chronic disease. Modern research has shown that clinically-supported cleanses – such as those offered by Ayurveda – “can be life-changing for afflicted individuals.”
Growth in Kapha Season
All living things begin with the elemental forces of earth and water (Kapha dosha). This applies to the time of day – sunrise and sunset; seasonal changes – the “growing” season of Spring; and life stages – birth through puberty.
Kapha season, therefore, represents an opportunity for growth and change. As the northern hemisphere enters a new “growth cycle” of late Winter and early Spring, begin to examine where you wish to seek growth in life so you can come into natural alignment with that change.
Modern rhythms and conveniences make it easy to keep doing the same thing over and over again all year long even when it isn’t working for us (all while expecting a different result!). Living in Rhythm, however, allows for seasonal changes and adaptive mindsets that keep us healthy, strong and stable.
An Ayurvedic practitioner can provide you with a personalized assessment of your constitution and a treatment plan that will allow you to live in rhythm during a seasonal cleanse and beyond!
For more information on Ayurvedic cleansing, check out our latest article on the Ayurvedic Approach to Cleansing. And for additional information about accumulated toxins and systemic chronic inflammation that can impact your health and wellbeing over the long term check out our article on Chronic Disease & You.
At Path Wellbeing, our commitment is to the unique nature of our clients – to help them live in rhythm in a way that works for their unique constitution and lifestyle.
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The information contained within this article is for educational purposes only and should not replace the direct advice of a qualified healthcare professional. Always consult a medical or other professional healthcare provider when considering a new health regime.
