HOW TO FIND BALANCE, ALL YEAR ROUND
This chapter is at the heart of the book for a reason – it is designed to nurture and support you and give you information that you can draw on for the rest of your life. Ayurveda is the foundation upon which I have built my life – the way I eat and the way in which I seek to balance my frenetic modern lifestyle – but I also have other tools in my wellbeing toolbox which I call upon year after year. Seasonality is a crucial part of understanding and maintaining body balance. It is a key tenet of Ayurveda too, one which we have grown further away from as our lives become increasingly urbanized and we become removed from the subtle shifts within, and between, the seasons.
In this chapter, I explore the crucial importance of seasonality. I’ve already touched on this topic several times, but here I’ll be providing a comprehensive look at how adopting a seasonal diet can naturally and simply transform your health. I’ve consulted a friend, acupuncturist Annee de Mamiel, who is the creator of de Mamiel skincare. Seasonality defines much of her work – from her Seasonal Attunement treatments to the Seasonal Oils she produces every year. Her knowledge of how to balance our lives is truly insightful, and this chapter owes much to her informed advice.
The Seasonal Secret of a Balanced Body
Ayurveda extols the virtues of eating close to nature, and following its rhythm, as much as possible. Of course, eating seasonally was a way of life 5,000 years ago – you ate what nature produced for you as you had no means to survive otherwise. Yet Ayurveda understood that we feel differently from season to season, that our bodies and minds react one way to summer’s heat and brightness, and react another way to winter’s bitter frost and bite. We are more prone to certain illnesses or discomforts at different times of the year; we crave different foods; we may sleep or dream differently. These seasonal changes are profound and it is no surprise that they affect our bodies, and our doshic balance, too. Not living in tune with the seasons can unbalance us, just as not eating seasonally can. Because Ayurveda is the science of life, its principles adapt and react to life’s seasonal cycles, always. We have an inherent doshic constitution, as mentioned before (see Chapter 2, page 19) – our prakriti – but quite naturally and predictably, our bodies also change throughout the 12 months of the year in response to the changing world around us. I am Pitta, but in winter, my minority dosha, Kapha, always increases. The wet, damp, cold qualities of winter cause Kapha to rise, and so I begin to eat more foods to reduce Kapha, to keep my body warm, my digestion fired up and my self vital.
Considering our own dosha and the foods that help our constitution thrive is the foundation of balance. But considering how our dosha is affected by each season is the bricks and mortar that rest upon that foundation. This allows us to take a truly responsive approach to our daily diet, based upon what we need from season to season. This is as intuitive as wellbeing gets, yet it is also incredibly natural – second nature, if you will. Nature produces what we need, when we most need it: satiating root vegetables in winter when we require extra sweet sustenance; water-rich melons in summer when we’re susceptible to dehydration.
The more I researched Ayurveda, and the more nutritionists I talked to, the more I realized that optimal health is just not possible if you do not eat in a seasonal way. Everything that Ayurveda is built on is about nature – our own natural unchanging dosha type, our constitution, our true self – and so it follows that if we want to nourish ourselves in the most natural way we can, direct from nature, mucking around with our food as little as possible, we have to honour the seasonal rules.
We must also respect these rules because seasonality defines the way in which we live Ayurvedically. Ayurveda believes that the seasons are characterized by the three doshas.
WHICH DOSHA FOR WHICH SEASON?
Summer, being hot and bright, is naturally Pitta.
Autumn, being cold, blustery and often dry, is Vata.
Winter, with its inherent heaviness – dark, cold, wet – is Kapha.
Spring is primarily Kapha (but it’s more complex than that – see below).
Ayurveda understands that the season is not simply the date. A cold, blustery October day possesses the qualities of autumn, not the end of summer.
If you’re living somewhere with little fluctuation in the weather, you should live according to whatever season predominates (for example, all those sunshine days in parts of California make it perpetually Pitta).
Spring is fascinating – Ayurveda calls it the “king of the seasons”. This damp, bright, blooming time brings us out of winter, so Ayurveda applies much of the same rules to the two seasons. It is primarily Kapha – we are coming out of a heavier, darker time of hibernation and must do so gently. It is time for rebirth, to energize, to revive and start afresh. This is why I advise those buying this book to wait until spring before embarking upon the immersion diet. You can undertake it at any time of year due to its gentle nature, but in spring we’re more likely to have the mental resolve to support our bodily changes, and our bodies will be at their most receptive to gentle cleansing as it’s what they instinctively seek to do at spring’s advent.
Ayurveda believes that if we adapt our lives to the seasons, we will avoid the inevitable illnesses that come when we’re out of sync with the world around us. Therefore, we should try to anticipate what the weather will do. For example, when it shifts from early to late spring – going from brisk to warm – we can start to reduce the amount of heat-producing foods in our diet. This gets our Pitta in balance, which will give us a head start when summer rolls around.
Likewise, trying to stop the body drying out at the end of summer (so, taking the Vata-reducing route) will give you the advantage in autumn when your lungs and skin might become dry (skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis and dry coughs are common autumnal complaints). For many of us, this is an entirely new way of looking at the world, but one rooted in our intuition – something we would have relied upon above all else when we lived far closer to nature.
What If Seasonal Eating Is at Odds with My Dosha?
Ayurveda can at times seem to contradict itself. There’s a clear way of seasonal eating that is recommended by all Ayurvedic practitioners, but that can sometimes appear to fight your own doshic preferences. You’re often told to reduce Kapha in winter by focusing on eating Bitter and Astringent foods, but if you are naturally of a Vata constitution, you stand to raise Vata greatly by eating these foods alone.
The reality of life, and the balance of our doshas season by season, is subtle. We are all made up of all three doshas and this balance is always in flux – affected by diet, of course, but also by the seasons. So our approach to balancing our body must take both seasonality and our own prakriti and vikriti (see Chapter 2, page 19) into account.
We must respond to the season’s changes within our bodies and look to prevent their effects before they produce an imbalance, which is far harder to treat. We can only do this by eating differently in each and every season, but in a way that is still honouring our own dosha. We do this by feeling our way into the day, one day at a time, and noting the way our body responds. Do we feel heavy, sluggish, cold, or low on energy (Kapha)? Do we feel impatient, explosive, adrenalized or overly thirsty (Pitta)? Or do we feel untethered, lost, nervous, forgetful and fractious (Vata)? Get used to feeling your feelings and understanding the root cause for any potential imbalance. Attempt to embrace the subtle seasonal shifts from one day to the next.
At Annee de Mamiel’s perpetually booked-up London clinic, she performs a wonderfully intuitive Seasonal Attunement treatment. The focus is on clearing the body’s energetic channels – the meridians – and balancing our energy as a result. For this reason, her seasonal wisdom – which draws upon nutrition, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, breath work and aromatherapy – is truly integrative and a wonderful complement to the holistic science of Ayurveda. Below, Annee shares her top three secrets that bring you closer to optimal health no matter the season.
My Three Seasonal Health Secrets
Annee de Mamiel
1. Always Choose Seasonal Nutrition
Plants get their nourishment from the sun and soil. Seasonal, fresh produce has been allowed to ripen in the environment for which it has evolved and so it has optimal flavour and appeal – it’s crispy, fragrant, juicy and colourful. The fruit or vegetable has also had the sun exposure it needs, which means it will have higher levels of antioxidants. The natural cycle supports seasonal produce and is perfectly designed to support our health too. Apples grow in the autumn and they are the perfect transitional food, helping the body get rid of excess heat and waste before winter.
In the spring, the abundance of leafy greens helps us alkalize our systems and detox after a long winter of heavier foods. Our Western guts – fuelled by sugar, wheat and dairy (all acidic foods) – are often acidic themselves. In the summer, we need to cool down and stay hydrated by eating more fruit, berries, cucumber and watermelon. Building a lifestyle around seasonal food facilitates the body’s natural healing process, and embracing the natural rhythm of things also helps simplify our lives by reducing our options. While you may be able to buy melons all year round now, it doesn’t mean you should! As far as possible, stick to what has just been grown and harvested in the climate you are in, and gather the healing energy of nature every time you do so.
2. Enhance Your Wellbeing with Essential Oils
Essential oils are a powerful way to improve our emotions as they act directly on our limbic system, affecting our physiological responses and how we feel. If we choose oils that have an affinity with the current season, their benefits will be greatly heightened.
• Spring – look for oils that link to woody notes to help reduce stress and irritability and ease frustration and anger. Try lavender, bergamot, peppermint, chamomile (Roman and German), grapefruit and ylang ylang.
• Summer – choose light, energizing and cooling herbaceous oils that soothe the heart and promote peace of mind, love and joy within you. Try jasmine, melissa, neroli, palmarosa, rosemary, rose, ylang ylang and lavender.
• Late summer – focus on healing to promote care, support and sympathy within you, helping you to think clearly and feel nurtured and supported, while grounding you and returning you to your centre. Try lemon, grapefruit, thyme, marjoram and vetiver.
• Autumn – use oils to strengthen and support the lungs and boost the immune system, while also encouraging the breath and helping us to release and let go of anything that no longer benefits us. Try eucalyptus, cypress, fragonia and elemi.
• Winter – this is the time to strengthen your inner core, rest and replenish. It’s also the time to release fears and fortify yourself so you have a platform of energy for the new year. Try geranium, juniper, cedarwood, cypress, ginger and vetiver.
3. Breathe Right
Breath is life! It is the flow of energy. Survival without it is measured in minutes. Breathing is so important that you do it without thinking. Your breathing is the voice of your spirit. Its depth, smoothness, sound and rate reflect your mood. If you become aware of your breath and breathe the way you do when you are calm, you will become calm. Practising regular, mindful breathing can be both relaxing and energizing.
Focusing on the breath is one of the most common and fundamental techniques for accessing a meditative state. Breath is a deep rhythm of the body that connects us intimately with the world around us.
SIMPLE BREATHING EXERCISE
Close your eyes, breathe deeply and regularly, and observe your breath as it flows in and out of your body. Give your full attention to the breath as it comes in, and your full attention to the breath as it goes out. Whenever you find your attention wandering away from your breath, gently pull it back to the rising and falling of the breath.
Inhale through your nose slowly and deeply, feeling the lower chest and abdomen inflate like a balloon. Hold for five seconds. Exhale deeply, deflating the lower chest and abdomen. Hold for five seconds. Do this three or four times, then allow your breathing to return to a normal rhythm.
You will begin to feel a change come over your entire body. Gradually, you will become less aware of your breathing, but not captured in your stream of thoughts. Your focus will become more inward. You will just be there.
Keeping Your Balance Through the Seasons
How to Thrive in Spring
We’re coming out of winter, a time when Kapha is at its highest – think of the dampness we carry in our systems if still throwing off chesty coughs and colds, and also the lethargy we’re left with after months of darkness.
Spring naturally supports change, and Ayurveda places a lot of significance on this season as we begin to clear the excess of Kapha that’s built up within our bodies. We hear a lot about “fresh starts”, and perhaps the term has become hackneyed, but I’ll never forget the year when I returned from a ten-day April escape (having left the UK after five solid months of rain, snow and far-lower-than-average temperatures) to find my tiny garden blooming. The little camellia tree was glorious – bursting with fat pink blooms, and all the pretty weeds and wildflowers along the garden path had sprung up, seemingly overnight. I have that picture emblazoned in my mind because it came with a huge accompanying sigh of relief. Feeling the spring sunshine on my face, looking up at that blue sky and taking a first full deep breath of warm air into my lungs, I knew that winter was over, I’d left repeated bouts of illness behind me and now I could start to heal and move forward in both body and mind. Of course, spring is not without its typical ailments: whenever flowers start to bloom, hay fever rears its head too, and Pitta types tend to suffer most as the fire in them makes them most prone to irritation, inflammation and allergies. We’re also in the process of getting rid of all that stagnant Kapha energy within our systems; the token spring cold is a symbol of that – and the body’s own bid to spring clean itself. By eating Ayurvedically and in tune with the seasons, you can really bolster your body against most health complaints, but you need to reset your way of life first. The easiest way to do this is to get your body clock back on track. In spring, we all benefit from waking along with the sunrise – before 7am.
Early waking dispels sluggishness, which is a sign of Kapha. Kick-start your digestion and sharpen your mind. In lieu of hot water, you can also try a cup of fresh, stimulating tea – grate ginger into boiling water, allow it to cool and add a small drizzle of raw honey to taste.
Food-wise, you should focus on Bitter, Pungent and Astringent flavours. These foods are naturally cleansing and that’s what spring is all about. Focus on light and fresh meals that are easy to digest – we don’t want to overburden a stomach that’s in the process of shifting winter’s excess. However, food should be warm and well-cooked. Add more spice – Kapha responds quickly to the clearing and heating effects of spice, such as ginger, allspice, cayenne, chilli and pepper. It’s common sense to shift the damp and the cold with the hot, dry and the spicy.
How to Thrive in Summer
Early summer takes us from spring’s end up to the summer solstice. Late summer leads up to the onset of autumn, and is when the scorching, driest days fall – it begins at a point when Pitta is at its highest. During this time, Vata is also increased (the dry heat, as opposed to monsoon-like, humid weather, can also spark Vata within us). Ayurvedic advice focuses on cooling Pitta down to prevent ourselves from getting irritable, aggravated and unwell. Though many of us feel naturally healthier and more vital in summer, Pitta types are especially prone to overheating and suffering the consequent irritation, inflammation, skin rashes and stomach upsets (reflux and heartburn are also more common in Pittas in summer).
Listen to your body and try to wake yourself at a time when you feel most energized, which should be between 6.30 and 7.30am.
In summer, and if Pitta is high and agni is strong, we can eat more salads than at any other time without it taxing our digestive system. It’s best to eat them at lunchtime, though, and to make them with the vegetables that best support your dosha. Avoid raw food at night.
Look for Sweet, Bitter and Astringent flavours, which are naturally lighter and easier to digest. Naturally water-rich, sweet and cooling foods like coconut are wonderful at cooling the internal fire of the body. (Mild coconut-laced curries with basmati rice are excellent.) Consuming your water via your food will help hydrate you on a far deeper cellular level than simply drinking lots of water from a bottle (when it will often pass through your system without being adequately processed). Likewise, hydrating nut and grain milks such as almond and rice balance Pitta well. Adding a squeeze of lime to your water is another great way of cooling Pitta in the summer, and it helps the body rehydrate faster.
In terms of alcohol, moderation prevails – but a light organic beer is fine, as are natural or biodynamic wine and cider. But rum, brandy, whisky and red wine are all notoriously heating, and best forgone until autumn comes around again. In general, eating light and easily digestible foods is most important. Fruits and vegetables are at their greatest nutritional peak now, giving us an abundance of choices that support healthy eating. It is particularly important to avoid overeating, especially as the summer progresses.
Foods that are cooling in nature are what the body craves, but avoid cold drinks. Although the initial relief is pleasant, your system will get a shock – eating too much cold or raw food and drink causes stress to the entire digestive system (including the spleen) and hinders digestion. Stick to room temperature if you can.
Omnivores should look for lighter flesh – in both colour and flavour – so chicken and both white and oily fish are best in summer. Red meat quickly unbalances Pitta further. It’s also best to avoid too much tomato, chilli, onion and garlic, all of which raise Pitta.
Aloe vera, as a morning drink before food, is recommended in summer as it both calms the stomach and helps cool the entire system. Similarly, teas made with rose, fennel and peppermint help soothe you and reduce Pitta.
How to Thrive in Autumn
With Vata on the up at the end of summer as the days become drier and cooler, the focus this season is on reducing Vata and keeping the system warm, moist and hydrated, and one’s mind calm and peaceful.
Tastes that support this are Sweet, Sour and Salty. Comfort is key at this time of year.
Avoid eating cold and raw foods, particularly bitter and astringent raw green vegetables, as these raise Vata quite dramatically.
Eat your vegetables warm and soft – steam for best results – and start enjoying seasonal soups and warming, silken stews again. Focus on foods that ground you, dispelling that extra Vata and making you feel toasty and happy inside. Porridge is a great morning meal; when I was pregnant for the second time (and feeling both poorly and nauseous), my comfort was a cockle-warming Cardamom Chia Spice Porridge (see recipe on pages 141–142). Flavoured with maple syrup – another wonderful natural Vata-reducing ingredient – this porridge is sweet, creamy, dreamy stuff and chock-full of immunity-boosting antioxidants too.
Learn to enjoy and accept autumn’s beauty. We’re often sad to see the end of summer, but the stillness we can experience in autumn is unparalleled. It’s the ideal time to add an evening walk to your routine: wrap yourself and the family up warmly in layers of cotton and wool and head out to a quiet spot, taking in the changes around you – red, yellow and orange are all Vata-pacifying colours, so you’ll be surrounded by a dosha-balancing canopy on every stroll. Return to a cup of warm milk, spiced with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom (or mix them to taste), and then off to bed before 10pm, as we need more sleep to earth our flyaway Vata energy – and to keep us balanced and healthy once the sun starts setting earlier.
How to Thrive in Winter
For most of us, winter is cold, damp and cloudy – consequently, things can feel sluggish. We move more slowly, we wake less eagerly, and many of us wander around harbouring a cough or cold and don’t have that same “zip” in our step. This is all attributable to Kapha. Look for ingredients with delicate natural spice, sweetness and also a satisfying, nourishing quality, without being too sticky, heavy or wet. Think of healthy, filling foods that are not processed “stodge”. Filling foods can be well digested when you focus on wheat-free grains such as spelt, barley or quinoa – eaten with stews and soups. But also add more grain-rich meals in general to your diet – porridge, polenta and risotto (experiment with different grains and pseudocereals, such as amaranth, pearl barley, spelt and quinoa) – and seasonal root vegetables. Nut milks spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla or nutmeg – or just traditional chai – are the perfect things to drink before bed.
Coming at the end of the year’s cycle, winter is a normal time for us to slow down, and this is no bad thing. Our minds can be worn out, our bodies ready to hibernate – think of that urge we feel to snuggle under the covers, or dig into a hearty satiating supper – this is all natural. What we don’t want to do is succumb to complete lethargy and overeating, as that does not do the mood, or body, any favours. Though Ayurveda believes napping in both summer and autumn can be beneficial for Vata and Pitta types, it’s not recommended in winter as it’s far harder to shake off that sleepy malaise on darker days and you’ll end up carrying that heaviness around with you all day, raising Kapha significantly.
In winter, we must focus on fuelling our digestive fire. A rise in Kapha can cause our metabolism and appetite to slow down – but we want to keep our appetites strong so that we can ensure we fuel our bodies with all the warming goodness they need to stay vital and well in winter. Boosting metabolism with pungent spice, and with bitter and astringent foods that get the saliva flowing and the appetite building, is the way forward in winter.
This is also the time of year to use more ghee – a clarified butter used in Ayurvedic cooking. One would imagine that clarified butter is not particularly healthy, but ghee is the perfect transporter for both herbs and spices, ensuring that they are optimally absorbed and digested by the body. Ayurvedic doctors praise ghee’s ability to nourish and “oil” the body’s connective tissues, muscles and joints, while also stoking your agni. Therefore, it is a great thing to keep in your store cupboard in winter (due to its purity, it does not require refrigeration).
The Western world tends to wait until January to “detox” and attempt to lose weight (often via spartan and restrictive crash diets) – but Ayurveda believes in a gentle, constant process of purification, supported by the seasons and the body’s own internal functions. To boost this natural process, here are five simple but effective ways to boost inner cleansing and aid the loss of excess weight. These principles work wonderfully all year round.
1. Satiate Hunger with a Glass of Warm Water, Honey and Lime Juice
A simple balancing hydrator, this is helpful if you do not want to eat again before a meal. Mix a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of lime juice in a large mug of warm (but not hot!) water, then enjoy.
2. Reinvent the Salad
I grew up in a house where we ate salad almost every day – a varied, bright, fresh, beautifully dressed, chopped salad that was always served with hot meals. Since becoming attuned to Ayurveda, and eating in a far more seasonal way, I only ever now crave salad on warm days – at the end of spring and throughout the summer. I choose the freshest seasonal vegetables, and dress them simply with virgin olive oil, lime juice and salt. If I crave a salad in winter, I will choose a warm, roasted variation on a salad (roasted peppers, courgette/zucchini noodles, aubergine, beetroot, parsnip – whatever is seasonal and good – tossed with lentils, olive oil, sea salt and a squeeze of lemon or lime). In salads, I generally try to use lime more often than lemon simply because according to Ayurvedic food principles, lemon doesn’t combine well with cucumbers or tomatoes – and both are mainstays of a regular salad.
3. Warm Up Your Water – and Never Shock the Body with Cold Drinks
Ayurveda is clear about this, realizing that cold food slows the metabolism and hinders the stomach. As a wellbeing journalist, I have often heard “diet experts” recommend only drinking iced drinks because it forces the body to burn off more calories in a bid to warm the water up to body temperature. Please don’t listen to this! The calorie expenditure from this process is tiny and unlikely to result in actual visible weight loss. What it will do, however, is upset your stomach. Far better to stick to drinking warm water, which helps clear the colon, is far more effective in actually hydrating the body and respects the body’s own internal environment, which can only ever be a good thing.
4. Swap Dinner and Lunch
If you can only make one change to your routine, it ought to be this. Eating a filling, healthy meal at lunchtime (with two or more courses) is the way to go. Lunch arrives in your stomach at a time when it’s most receptive; the meal is better digested and boosts metabolism for the rest of the day, and is less likely to be eaten in a blind starving panic, which is what so often happens at dinnertime, when many of us ravenously raid the kitchen. I find that if I have eaten a good, slow-release, highly satiating meal for lunch at around 1pm, I will not be hungry again until dinnertime. In Ayurveda, we’d ideally eat our lunch at noon and dinner by 5pm, but many of us are still sitting at desks at that time. Therefore, if you often leave six to seven hours between lunch and dinner, I always recommend a good snack around 4 or 5pm. This stops hunger spiralling into “grab it and stuff it into my mouth” territory, and will then allow you to eat a lighter dinner because you are no longer ravenous. However, a small dinner really requires a shift in psychology. We’re used to sitting down at the end of a “hard day” with a glass of wine and a big plate of food. It’s a reward for making it through the day, but also our cue to switch off – but this “reward” mentality can lead to us eating more than our body needs, quite mindlessly at times, and in a way that spirals into an everyday habit. If you can get yourself used to a big, lovely lunch instead, and the healthy late-afternoon snack that serves as your “appetizer”, then your main meal once you’re home ought to be nothing more complex than one of the many filling but “lighter” dinners I’ve provided in chapter 11 (see pages 169–185). It takes time to break years and years of habit, but once you get used to not feeling heavy at the end of the day, eating a smaller dinner earlier and going to bed with a comfortable stomach, you’ll come to love it.
5. Feed Yourself (Properly)
The truth is, if you’re eating for myriad reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with hunger, then this entire process will be tricky. You can follow every bit of advice in this book and you’ll feel the benefits, but if you are the sort of person who reaches for food as a means of fixing a feeling, it will take a great deal of self-awareness and commitment to change that pattern once and for all. Food is a gift; eating is a joy. We’re wired to want to eat because we need to eat. But if you’re eating for any other reason, you need to tackle that first. There is no shame in this – emotional eating is incredibly common and is rooted in something entirely natural: a simple seeking out of comfort. What I have found with Ayurveda is that by shifting my mindset and my food choices to a place of intuition – always feeling into what it is I need, what I crave, what my body will feel satisfied by – I have also bypassed any wish to control what I eat. By listening to what my body wants, and understanding why, I have removed myself completely from a lack or binge mentality around food. And by eating well, always, and only ever eating what I enjoy and crave, there is no sense of longing or lack that lingers. There is more on this subject in chapter 9.