How to Navigate the Spring Seasonal Transition 

By: Kimber Jones

Is spring time a mixture of emotions for you? Do you welcome the beautiful budding trees and promise of new life? Does the singing bird in the morning stir something ancient and omnipotent in you? But can you also feel heavy, lethargic, and seem to have lost your motivation and “get up and go”?

For some folks, spring can bring lethargy, resistance to exercise, sinus congestion, seasonal allergies, excessive sleep, slow/sluggish digestion, or water retention.

Have no fear, from the Ayurvedic perspective, this makes total sense! Ayurveda can be summarized as reattuning to nature’s rhythms. This means that each season of the year is associated with a certain ayurvedic dosha- or energetic pattern. 

In spring we all feel a little more of kapha dosha. What’s kapha dosha? The energetic pattern based in earth and water elements. It’s the force of nourishment and lubrication in the body. But as with anything, too much of a good thing can be problematic.

Spring can feel:

Heavy, damp, cold, stagnant, and gross

The most basic Ayurvedic principle is to balance with the opposite quality. So if Spring brings an excess of the above qualities, to balance with the opposite, our mantra can become  Light, Bright, and Moving

How do we implement light and bright into our yoga practice?

• Use a lifted gaze in your yoga asana. Let your drishti be the place where the wall meets the ceiling in asanas like tadasana (mountain), bhujangasana (cobra), and anjaneyasana (low lunge)

• Let your inhale be alive. The most common breathing taught in yoga is a calm, slow, peaceful breath, perhaps with the exhale longer than the inhale. This will relax your nervous system and help bring your body and mind into a rest and digest response. But if you are plagued by a lethargic, heavy feeling in spring time, let your inhale have some UMPH behind it. A little bit more force and awareness than normal- where attention goes energy flows!

• Practice more quickly than other times of year. If you hang around VBY, you know we aren’t into hot power vinyasa flows to hip playlists, we are into yoga that dives deep and harnesses energy. So if you normally practice more of a slow, restorative, or long-held poses style of asana, perhaps through a few sun salutations into the mix. Kapha benefits from increased circulation, heat, and a little bit more vigorous exercise. Practicing in this way is to harness fresh new prana and invite it into your form.

How to we implement light and bright into our diet?

• Lean heavily on dark, leafy greens this time of year. The bitter taste will serve you well, and our bodies can benefit from the deep nutrients these plants provide. Think kale, dandelion greens, arugula, and even mustard greens. The ones with a little bit of pungency are best for pacifying kapha dosha.

• If your digestion feels strong, and it is starting to warm up outside where you live, it can be the season to consider juices, smoothies, and salads. Always always have these foods at room temperature or slightly cool, but never excessively cold or frozen. Go for fresh, local, and in-season as much as possible.

• Consider pungent and heating spices such as ginger, black pepper, cayenne, lemon, mustard seed, and turmeric. Of course if you have a lot of pitta in your constitution, (curious about your constitution? Check out Module 1 of the Integrating Ayurveda Course!) use in moderation. 

How do we implement light and bright into our lifestyle?

• Wake up with the sun! I know, I know, if you’re experiencing a lot of kapha in your life right now, that is going to feel like the most awful recommendation on the face of the earth. But wait, it gets better-

• Move and sweat first thing in the morning. I didn’t say you were going to like it, but I will say that it is going to work! If your kapha bucket is overflowing with too much of a good thing, my most simple advice is to move more and sleep less. Even though it’s going to feel dreadful! Remember, like increases like and we balance with the opposite. So bring on the opposite!

• Consider the use of sauna (dry + warm is great medicine for kapha) and dry brushing the skin to improve circulation and combat the lethargic, heavy feeling of kapha. 

As with anything in Ayurveda, you don’t have to do it all! Take the things that resonate with you and give them a try. Find out how everything feels in your body and get really well acquainted with how the doshas feel when they are in balance and when they are out of whack. And if you are ready to dive deep on this healing path, there’s still time to join the Integrating Ayurveda Course.