The transition from summer to fall tends to be the most difficult one for sensitives because we are prone to anxiety. The air starts to get cooler, windier, and drier. Those qualities, called the vata energy, increase in our systems as well. We are not separate from nature.
This change exacerbates things like anxiety, joint pain, dry skin, and digestive issues related to gas and bloating. We can also experience seasonal allergies at this time of year.
We need your body needs to be functioning and as healthy as possible in order to hold the energy and do the Work that is required at this time.
The five tips in this blog can help with all of these things, and the best part is that you don’t need any special equipment! Your sensitivity can be your best asset because simple shifts can create dramatic changes in your life.
Photo by Neal Kharawala on Unsplash
Tip #1: Eat Seasonally. I can't stress this enough. It’s so simple and so life-changing. The things that are growing naturally in the area where you're living are the antidote to everything your body will experience in any season all year.
As we move into this cooler, more anxiety-inducing energy, there are more root vegetables and winter greens. Heavier, more grounding foods have that exact effect on our bodies, and winter greens help to keep our lungs clear.
These, along with warming spices, help our bodies to navigate the drier and more ungrounded energy that comes with the change to the fall season.
This is why pumpkin spice is so popular. Warming spices ground us and help us feel less anxious (maybe even cozy). There's an emotional aspect that the smell of these spices brings about—reminding us of delicious baked goods and maybe even bringing us back to a time when we enjoyed them with someone who made them with a lot of love.
These feelings ground us, open our hearts, and make us feel less anxious.
Tip #2: Hydration! Because the weather isn't as warm as it has been, we tend to trail off in our water consumption. We need to pay attention to this because the environment is getting drier.
Aim to drink half of your ideal body weight in ounces every day. For example, if your ideal body weight is 200 pounds, you're drinking 100 ounces of water. Please realize, ideal body weight is not the number in your head, it’s the one that’s actually attainable.
Then, for every dehydrating beverage you consume, such as coffee or caffeinated teas, drink 16 additional ounces per eight ounces ingested.
Keeping hot, boiled water with you throughout the day and taking a couple of sips every 10 to 15 minutes is a great way to overcome dehydration. This will also have a tremendously detoxifying effect on your body. Do this for two full weeks, and make sure the water stays hot.
If the hot water is too far out of the realm of possibility for you, just let it go. It's more important that you drink your recommended daily ounces to start. You can always add the warm water protocol once you have that down.
Staying well hydrated will improve so many areas of your life, including dry skin, digestion, clarity, and flexibility and suppleness of body, mind, and spirit. This is especially important as we move into a season that increases dryness and rigidity.
Tip #3: Nasal Wash. Oh, boy. You’re in for a treat. You've probably heard of a neti pot, and you might even use one in your daily practice. This is a great way to clear and clean the nasal passages and the sinuses at the level of the nose.
However, as we move into the fall, and as we deal with a global pandemic where there's a virus that multiplies in our nasal passages and sinuses, we want to deepen that cleansing practice. We want to be able to reach the sinus cavities above the eyes—the ones that they're testing, when they go up your nose with a COVID test—the ones that the neti pot can’t reach.
The best way to reach these sinus cavities is to cup your hands and fill them with water. (Video support is located here.) You can use salted water, distilled water, tap water, etc., depending on where you live and which you feel is the safest for you.
When your hands are filled with water, you place them under the nose and suck the water up through the nose. It'll go all the way up to the sinus cavities above the eyes and you'll start to cough it out. It'll come out your nose and mouth along with anything that's been inside of these cavities or blocking them.
For obvious reasons, it's best to do this in the shower where everything will wash down the drain and can be easily cleaned.
If you've never done this before, it will be uncomfortable. It might feel like you are drowning, and you’ll probably release a lot. Over time, it will get easier. I promise you that after a couple of weeks of doing this daily, your body will know what to expect and will relax, experiencing less discomfort. In time, it won’t be uncomfortable at all.
If you're prone to sinus infections or colds, this will cause a dramatic shift in your life. You’ll more than likely experience less of these things, and the duration will be shorter.
Tip #4: Tongue Scraping. We’ve all seen the white coating that's on our tongues in the morning. This is called ama, and these are impurities that your body is releasing—overnight detox.
Everything on your tongue is something that your body is trying to push out and discard, things that your he/she/they couldn't digest or make use of. If we leave this coating where it is, we bring it all back into the system.
Scraping our tongues removes the impurities before we swallow them again. This is why it's so important to do this as soon as you wake up.
There are also points on the tongue that correlate to every organ in the body. As you clean the tongue, you're stimulating each organ to wake up and function. It's like you're giving them wake-up a massage. (Note: For this reason, you are ONLY doing this in the morning.)
This doesn't have to be complicated. There are several tongue scrapers you can buy online. You can also use a metal spoon—just make sure the edge is pretty blunt, and you’ll turn it upside down.
You just hold one in your hand, stick out your tongue, and you go from back to front seven times. You're doing this gently, not pushing and scraping really hard.
You'll see the white coating gathered on the inside of the tongue scraper. When finished, wash it, and it’s ready for tomorrow. (Video support is located here.)
One of the many surprising benefits of scraping our tongue is that we reduce our cravings. When we crave unhealthy things especially, it’s not generally our body asking for them, it's our emotions.
Then the body doesn't know what to do with them, especially if it's junk food or something we wouldn't normally eat. Let's say you don't normally eat cheese and you eat pizza one day. The next morning, chances are that coating on your tongue will taste a lot like cheese.
By taking the ama (impurities) off of our tongue, we're removing the taste of the things that our body couldn’t digest. It’s tasting it over and over on our tongue that makes us want more!
This is a big thing if you're looking to clean up the way you eat for any reason. Scraping your tongue is a great way to make the process easier, and you’ll start to experience the effects immediately.
Tip #5: Conscious Breathing. This seems very simple, but it's something we forget all. the. time. Take moments through your day to take just two to three deep breaths. Deep inhalation followed by long, slow exhalation.
These breaths, taken consciously, can change the way you're feeling immediately. You’ll begin to feel in control again, you'll reset your body and your mind, and most of all, you’ll reset your nervous system. It's magic.
The breath is the tool we have with us from the moment we're born to the moment we leave this body, and it's something we take for granted because it’s so natural.
Over the past year and a half, we've seen how important it is. Reestablishing our connection with our breath helps us to be in gratitude for being able to breathe at all. It also helps us to be calmer so that we can operate from clarity, make choices and decisions, and take actions instead of falling victim to reactions.
Doing this exercise a few times a day will have an incredible impact on your clarity and your performance.
Let me know which of these things is working for you as you transition from summer to fall.
A word of caution: We expect much more of ourselves than we do other people. So we tend to take on much more than we would recommend anyone else do. For that reason, please only choose one or two of these tips to start. Which of them are calling out to you? Those are the ones that are the most resonant right now.
Really focus on them and see the impact that they have on you. Then, if you feel called to add the next layer, or to add another one, do that.
When we try to do too much at once, we're setting ourselves up for failure. It becomes too much so we just give up and do nothing. It works better when we choose one and build on it. In this way, change is most attainable.
I cannot wait to see the successful shift that you have from summer to fall.
Thank you for being here.
XO
Theresa
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