If you’ve noticed the chill in the air, the dryness on your skin and the irregular flow of energy all around, you have arrived in vata season! Autumn is the time of year when the increase in air element becomes especially pronounced: cold, light, dry and mobile qualities abound!
This can translate to a drying out of the skin, eyes, and even the colon. If you’re struggling to ground and center, you can thank the excess mobility inherent in vata dosha that can cause the nervous system to feel like it’s always “on”. In extreme cases, those with a lot of vata in their constitution or with a high vata imbalance can feel totally out of sorts, chronically constipated, sleepless and potentially paranoid.
No matter where you might fall on this spectrum of vata imbalances, one thing is for sure: your immunity will suffer, resulting in mild-severe allergies, colds, and infections.
The good news? Ayurveda takes a preventative approach to health and wellness by balancing the doshas in rhythm with nature before imbalances occur. If imbalances are already present, the same principles can be implemented for a curative approach. Therefore, Ayurveda offers solutions to help you not just to endure but to thrive during vata season. Let’s take a closer look at how:
Vata and Autumn
Air, or vata dosha, is the energy that governs movement. In our bodies, it is responsible for all movement at microcellular and macroscopic levels from blinking eyelids and moving muscles to circulation, respiration and nervous system communications. In Autumn, vata-type energy releases leaves from trees, composts annual vegetation, increases wind and decreases temperatures.
Autumn is an interesting transition season because it has two phases that carry slightly different qualities:
- Early Autumn: In the beginning of Autumn the change from Summer is gradual. The mornings and evenings will start to become cooler but the days can still be hot. The beginning of Autumn is truly a mixed element season of fire and air or pitta and vata as part of a slow transition into a truly air or vata season. In early Autumn, deep cleansing is recommended so that we can alleviate excess heat that has accumulated over the summer months and prevent vata imbalances from occurring before the season has arrived.
- Late Autumn: As the heat of summer dissipates, sunlight diminishes and the weather gets colder, pitta/vata season transitions into vata dominant season. If you have not cleansed during early Autumn and wish to cleanse in late Autumn, a gentle cleanse can be implemented to prevent depletion and protect immunity. Either way, balancing vata dosha becomes essential to counter the effects of dark, cold and windy environments.
Ayurveda understands that we are a part of nature and that is why external factors, such as the seasons, have such a strong impact on our health and wellbeing. When we are in vata season the qualities of vata increase both around us and within us. These qualities include cold, light, rough, dry, mobile and erratic. If vata is imbalanced, symptoms such as dry skin and hair, brittle nails, constipation, bloating, anxiety, nervousness, insomnia or sensory overload can manifest.
Vata Dosha, Ojas and Immunity
Vata is the most important dosha to balance. As the energy responsible for motion and movement, it is the only dosha that can push other doshas out of balance, which also means that it drives approximately 80% of all illnesses.
In Ayurveda, our state of immunity is the direct result of our state of ojas. Ojas is the most refined form of kapha dosha. It is what gives the body strength, vitality, vigor and immunity. It is the essence of all bodily tissues and the end result of good digestion. It is no coincidence that cold and flu season occurs during vata season – a time when our immune system becomes more vulnerable simply due to changes in the environment.
What is especially interesting about vata dosha and ojas is that balancing excess vata and increasing ojas requires incorporating the same qualities through each of our five senses. The golden rule in Ayurveda is like increases like and opposites decrease. Therefore, to balance vata dosha we need to bring in the opposite qualities, which include warm, moist, unctuous, heavy, smooth, dense, regular, and slow or stillness.
In Ayurveda, sensory therapies have a direct impact on our physiology and holistic health. Grounding, cultivating stillness, cellular hydration, structure and routine, and properly digesting nourishing and warm foods decrease vata and increase immunity.
Ayurveda offers the nutrition and lifestyle practices that we need in order to balance the doshas and enhance immunity:
Nutrition
Ojas is influenced by agni, our digestive fire, which determines the quality of absorption and assimilation of nutrients. Ojas build when proper digestion has occurred through all tissue layers. Balancing vata dosha through nutrition prioritizes eating easily digestible meals that carry grounding and moist qualities.
- Favor sweet, salty and sour tastes
- Enjoy high protein meals
- Cook with healthy fats such as ghee, olive oil and avocado oil
- Use warm stimulating spices such as ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and fennel
- Ensure your vegetables are well-cooked
- Incorporate Chyawanprash into your routine as part of your “daily vitamins”.
- Steamed vegetables, stews and soups are very grounding and internally moisturizing. Try these vata-balancing and ojas-increasing recipes:
Lifestyle
The best way to balance vata dosha is to establish a daily routine. Ayurveda refers to the science and art of cultivating a daily routine as Dinacharya. Routine creates the structure for air energy to flow in a balanced way. Without structure or a container, air becomes volatile, resulting in worry, anxiety, and overwhelm.
- Keep consistent sleep/wake times
- Create routine around meal times
- Ground self-care practices in routine through consistent sequencing of activities and/or times of day
Self-Care Practices to Ground Vata Dosha
- Abhyanga (self-oil massage) with warm organic sesame seed oil, followed by a warm relaxing shower.
- Cultivating Stillness Meditation
- Yoga Nidra
- Restorative yoga, Tai Chi or Qi Gong
- Gentle walks in nature
- Karna Purana (ear oiling) – protecting the ears in vata season is important as the ear is dominated by vata dosha. Cold and dry winds, excessive sounds, and harsh noises all have an effect on the ears which has an affect on vata dosha. Ear oiling offers moisture, warmth, and nourishment to the ears and vata dosha.
- Cover your ears when you are outdoors to prevent air from accumulating in the ears.
- Nasya (nasal oiling) is a wonderful practice to balance vata and increase immunity. It cleanses the sinuses, expels mucous buildup, releases toxins, mitigates headaches and is internally hydrating.
- Vata Color Therapy – clothing colors that balance vata include deep oranges, reds, yellows, greens and browns.
- Vata Aromatherapy – favor aromas that are earthy, grounding, calming, warming and sweet
- Earthy aromas: cinnamon, fennel, ginger, vetiver
- Bright and warming aromas: orange, lemon, grapefruit
- Calming aromas: lavender, ylang ylang, vanilla
- Journaling can have a calming effect on the brain. When there is excess air in the mind it can feel as though thoughts are spinning out of control. Try grounding your thoughts onto paper through one of these prompts or one of your own.
- As the trees are shedding their leaves, what can I shed that I do not need to bring forth into this next season?
- Which small lifestyle change would have the biggest impact on my health?
Balance vata dosha and increase immunity by increasing the qualities of warm, moist, unctuous, heavy, smooth, dense, regular, and slow or stillness through each of your senses. Need help balancing your vata? Book a 15-minute free consultation with Chloe Chaput, Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, to get started on your Path to Wellbeing today.
Article authored by Chloe Chaput, who is dedicated to her role as a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist to work with women’s health, male and female fertility challenges, parents/caregivers, and children to address a variety of clinical health concerns at the root of their cause.
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 professional healthcare provider when considering a new health regime.
