Spring Has Sprung!
As we move towards the Spring Equinox on 23 Sept and Full Mala on the 24, the
weather is supposed to be getting kinder, the evenings lighter and the days warmer.
The cold snap of this week just serves as a reminder to have and open mind that
accepts, adjusts and accommodates whatever IS.
With the seasonal change, our body-mind-spirit require different diet and lifestyle to
stay balanced. Mind body awareness techniques, such as yoga, help us to naturally
want to make such changes - hope you can feel it too!
Spring is a time of increased warmth and wetness. Winter is predominantly a cold,
damp season which causes kapha dosha to accumulate (earth and water elements).
The coming two months will be the ideal time to reduce this build up of kapha (such
as excess weight) to prevent feelings of sluggishness, as well as other kapha-related
problems such as spring colds and hay fever.
Tips to stay well this spring:
Set your alarm for 6am at the latest; preferably earlier as sleeping later will further
aggravate kapha (heaviness).
Massage your body with warm sesame or sunflower oil, followed by a warm shower.
Dry skin brushing is excellent for stimulating lymph and reducing cellulite. Use firm
sweeping strokes towards the heart to aid the elimination of fluid. Saunas can be a
useful for drying up excess secretions.
Practise vigorous exercise (our Sun Salutes practice at 05.30 twice a week and at
least 12 rounds everyday on your own) to get the lymph moving in the body,
preventing congestive problems. It is also one of the best ways to stimulate a
sluggish digestion and aid detoxification. Make your yoga practice dynamic and
stimulating, sun salutations are ideal as they build up heat, working all the major
muscles. Kappalabhati or Bhastrika pranayama (will be included in our practice) are
also good for generating internal heat and burning toxins.
A spring ayurvedic diet recommends more bitter tastes (eg: herbs such as
dandelion), as well as spicy (eg: fresh ginger herbal tea) and astringent (eg: all
pulses). These tastes open the channels of elimination, clearing excess mucus and
moisture from the body. Reduce kapha-aggravating sweet, sour and salty foods
which could cause water retention at this time. In common with the winter diet,
minimise raw and cold foods, favouring warm, lightly cooked meals. Lighter grains
such as quinoa, millet and barley are all kapha reducing, but minimise wheat
dominant foods.
Use a neti pot to give the nose a daily rinse with warm, salt water over a sink. This
not only helps ward off colds and hay fever, but will also improve your pranayama.
Google Neti or ask me?
For a spring cold, help clear mucous by eating light, warm, simple foods as you rest.
Soup is ideal. Avoid dairy products, sweets, fried foods and yeasted bread which
increase congestion. Fresh ginger tea is excellent, especially with raw honey added
once the tea has cooled down. Raw honey clears mucous and kapha due to its
heating, drying and channel clearing effect. It is the best sweetener for kapha types
and is good for all in spring.
Herbal help: Chywanprash is a delicious ayurvedic herbal jam to boost immunity and
strengthening the lungs (you can try it on toast for breakfast - I have located a
supplier in JHB, but they are out of stock, will let you know)
For persistent colds, try Trikatu (ginger, black pepper and long pepper - also
Ayurvedic meds) which dries up mucous and clears channels. It should not be taken
in pregnancy or with aggravated pitta (eg: heartburn or hyperacidity).
Use copious turmeric and black pepper in your cooking - it has antiviral and
antibacterial properties and can be used in medicinal doses for all respiratory tract
infections.
Personally, I recommend combining these suggestions with a Traditional Sattvic
Diet. Sattvic diet is described as pure foods diet, rich in prana (life-force). Organic
foods are recommended for both their purity and vitality, but the important point is
that food should be fresh and freshly prepared. Leftovers are a no-no. There are
some exceptions, but most people understand that if you make a beautiful meal one
day and feel great from it, that is no guarantee that you’ll get the same effect or
pleasure the next day.
Sattvic foods are light (as opposed to heavy) in nature, simple, easy to digest, mildly
cooling, refreshing and not disturbing to the mind. They are best prepared with love
and awareness. On this last point, please note that just as our food affects our mind,
our thoughts and emotions also affect our food. You can consume high-quality food,
but if it is prepared or eaten in anger, it will have a disturbing effect. On the other
hand, you can sometimes take less than pure food and bless it to overcome its
impurities. The idea ultimately is to absorb that which is nourishing, eliminate that
which is not and to keep our thoughts positive, especially when eating or preparing
food.
Sattvic foods are grown organically on good rich fertile soil; foods attractive
appearance and be harvested at the correct time of year. Foods should be whole
foods full of life-force and enzymes and be as close as possible as they are in their
natural fresh state. Today, we need to add to these criteria for Sattva several other
modern concerns. Sattvic foods should be grown without pesticides, herbicides,
chemical fertilizers, hormones, irradiation or anything unnatural. Modern use of
refinement processes and chemical additives, besides actually adding substances to
our foods, depletes foods of their prana (life-force) and hence renders them heavy,
impotent and lifeless.
Sattvic food needs to be chewed slowly, carefully and eaten in modest portions.
Overeating is definitely tamasic (energy draining). Food should be enjoyed for its
inherent taste and quality, rather than the spices and seasonings that are added.
Too much salt and spice has a rajasic (stimulating) effect, which fuels desire, leads
to over-satiation, the loss of taste and the loss of pleasure. “When rajas
predominates, a person runs about pursuing selfish and greedy ends, driven by
restlessness and desire” (BG 14:12). A refined sense of taste leads to increased
pleasure.
Most fruits, including apples, apricots, bananas, berries, dates, grapes, melons,
lemons, mangoes, oranges, peaches and plums are considered especially sattvic.
Sometimes yogis go on fruit fasts, where they avoid all foods except fruit and fruit
juices, when doing a special sadhana (advanced spiritual practice) or have
undertaken a vow. Fruit is also considered symbolic of generosity and spirituality and
is often exchanged as an offering or a gift.
Dairy is considered controversial these days, but the yoga tradition insists on the
value of a wholesome food freely given by the symbol of motherhood, the cow. We
need to use the highest quality organic fresh dairy to benefit from its sattvic qualities.
Milk, butter, clarified butter (ghee), fresh home-made cheese (paneer), whey and
fresh yogurt (especially lassi) are all recommended. They benefit from careful
preparation and the extra effort to learn the recipes is well worthwhile. For example,
milk can be diluted and warmed with mild spices (i.e. fresh ginger, cinnamon and
cardamom) and served with raw honey to overcome any mucus-forming tendencies.
Traditionally, if a yogi is doing advanced practices, dairy provides needed lubrication,
grounding and nourishment. In fact, dairy along with fruit have been described as the
epitome of the sattvic or yogic diet.
Fresh nuts and seeds that haven’t been overly roasted and salted are good additions
to the sattvic diet in small portions. Good choices are almonds (especially when
peeled and soaked in water overnight), coconut, pine nuts, walnuts, sesame seeds,
pumpkin seeds and flax seeds.
Oils should be of highest quality and cold-pressed. Good choices are olive, sesame,
flax and canola oil.
Most mild vegetables are considered sattvic, including beets, carrots, celery,
cucumbers, green leafy veggies, sweet potatoes and squash. Pungent veggies like
hot peppers, garlic and onion are excluded, as are gas-forming veggies such as
mushrooms and potatoes. They are considered rajasic and tamasic respectively.
Sometimes the shortcomings of these foods can be overcome by careful
preparation. An excellent practice is to drink freshly made vegetable juices for their
prana, live enzymes and easy absorption.
Whole grains provide excellent nourishment when well cooked. Consider organic
rice, spelt, oatmeal and barley. Sometimes the grains are lightly roasted before
cooking to remove some of their heavy quality. Yeasted breads are not
recommended unless toasted. Grains can be sprouted before cooking as well.
Favorite preparations are kicharee (basmati rice cooked with split mung beans, ghee
and mild spices), kheer (rice cooked with milk and sweetened), chapathis (nonleavened whole wheat flat bread), porridge (sometimes made very watery and
cooked with herbs) and “Essene" bread (sprouted grain bread). Sometimes yogis will
fast from grains during special practices.
Legumes like split mung beans, yellow split peas, organic tofu, bean sprouts and
perhaps lentils and aduki beans are considered sattvic if well prepared. In general,
the smaller the bean, the easier to digest. Strategies include splitting, peeling,
grinding, soaking, sprouting, cooking and spicing. Legumes combined with whole
grains offer a complete protein combination.
Sweeteners: Yogis use raw honey (especially in combination with dairy) and raw
sugar (not refined) in very limited quantities.
Sattvic spices are the mild spices including basil, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander,
cumin, fennel, fenugreek, fresh ginger and turmeric. Rajasic spices like black
pepper, red pepper and garlic are normally excluded, but are sometimes used in
small amounts to keep the channels open, especially now in Spring. But beware,
taking rajasic spices with tamasic food does not equal sattwa = so use these with
sattvic foods only.
Most Yogis do not to indulge in eating flesh. It is said that the fear and anger of the
animal being killed is transferred to the person eating the flesh. Fresh meat is
considered rajasic and old meat is considered tamasic. Another approach is to avoid
the flesh of mammals, especially if one is using dairy products. This approach allows
for some high-quality fish, poultry or eggs. Even then it is recommended to abstain
from flesh foods a minimum of three days a week with at least two prolonged periods
of abstention from all animal foods every year. Purists rely on dairy and plants for
supplemental protein as it is given freely and is considered non-harming.
One problem of the purely vegetarian diet is that it can become too cooling. For this
reason, yogis of the Tibetan plateau sometimes include meat for warmth. One can
also learn to promote bodily warmth through yoga practices centered on the navel
region. An ayurvedic approach is to include warming and strengthening herbs in the
diet like ashwagandha, astragalus or ginseng. Special combinations include masalas
(based on cumin seed, coriander seed and turmeric root), hingashtak, draksha and
chyavanprash. There are also mineral and ash preparations used called bhasmas.
One that is favored in the Himalayas to keep the body warm in cold weather is a
preparation of deer antler called sring bhasma. But I do not think that we will have
need of this in Aug/Sept in the Lowveld!
Other herbs are used to directly support sattva in the mind and in meditation. These
include ashwagandha, bacopa, calamus, gotu kola, gingko, jatamansi, purnarnava,
shatavari, saffron, shankhapushpi, tulsi and rose. (Mostly specialist Ayurvedic herbs)
Remember that these suggestions are just a starting point. Undoubtedly there are
many other foods that will qualify and some of the suggestions may not be suitable
for everyone. So put them to the test until you are full of “the sattvic essence.” In the
words of the Charak Samhita, one of the classic textbooks of Ayurveda, “The
persons having the sattvic essence are endowed with memory, devotion, are
grateful, learned, pure, courageous, skillful, resolute, free from anxiety, having welldirected and serious intellect and activities and are engaged in virtuous acts” (CS III8:110).
When our minds become sattvic and peaceful like a clear pool of pure water, we may
bypass the disturbances of change in season altogether.