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How to Enjoy a Healthy Winter Season
Winter season, with its low temperatures, snow and cold winds, can be challenging for our health. The good news is that it is possible to keep our body strong and healthy even in the winter season by following some time-tested Ayurvedic guidelines.
Where it All Begins: Understanding the Three Doshas
Ayurveda describes winter as the Vata season. Vata is one of the three doshas—Vata, Pitta, and Kapha—the operating principles found everywhere in the Universe, including the human physiology. You can think of three different types of inner intelligence functioning silently behind the scenes to maintain all the functions and structures of your body.
There is a type of intelligence that governs all movement in the body: blood circulation, movement of food down the digestive tract, movement of electrical impulses through the neurons (mental activity), movement in the joints, etc. This type of body’s inner intelligence is called Vata.
Similarly, there is a type of intelligence that governs chemical reactions, digestion of food, heat production, and all sorts of intra- and extra-cellular transformations. This is Pitta dosha. And lastly, Kapha dosha gives solidity to the tissues, holds together different parts of the body and balances the bodily fluids.
When a particular dosha increases in the environment, it will tend to increase in our body as well. For example, spending prolonged time in a very dry and cold environment tends to make our skin and body dry and cold. This is precisely what happens in the winter.
Problems occur if Vata becomes aggravated or overly active, which is especially likely in people of Vata body type. This can produce oversensitivity to cold, respiratory infections, insomnia, dry skin, indecisiveness, hyperactivity, and worry.
How to Maintain Balance and Avoid Disease
Some of the main qualities of the Vata dosha are: cold, dry, rough, and quick moving. To control it, Maharishi Ayurveda recommends increasing the opposite qualities: warm, moist, and oily. Regarding warmth, for example, one should favor warm, well-cooked foods. Soups are particularly good and warm drinks in general. The Vata-pacifying diet, which is one of the main approaches to controlling Vata, emphasizes warm, unctuous foods, and sweet, sour, and salty tastes, and suggests minimizing cold, dry, rough, pungent, or astringent foods.
Additional ways to keep Vata in balance are wearing warm clothing, especially when outdoors (keep head, ears and neck covered), avoiding drafts, using a humidifier indoors to counteract dryness, and doing a daily warm oil massage—abhyanga. Massaging the skin with warm sesame oil before you take a shower has a very powerful effect on calming the Vata dosha. Daily abhyanga is beneficial for anyone, but especially so for the Vata body types. Dosha-specific massage oils can be used for best results.
Five Subdoshas of Vata and Your Symptoms
According to Ayurveda, each dosha has five subdivisions, which operate in specific areas of the body. This means that symptoms of Vata imbalance will vary depending on which subdosha of Vata is out of balance at that particular time.
The five subdoshas of Vata are Prana Vata, Udana Vata, Samana Vata, Apana Vata, and Vyana Vata.
A Prana Vata imbalance may result in respiratory disorders, cognitive problems, tension headaches, worry, anxiety, neurological disorders, insomnia, etc. Just as Vata is known to lead the other doshas, Prana Vata is said to lead the other subdoshas of Vata. This makes it the most important subdosha to keep balanced.
An Udana Vata imbalance may create speech disorders, diseases of the throat, and fatigue.
Imbalance in Samana Vata may result in weak or irregular digestion, anorexia, and bloating.
If Apana Vata is out of balance you may experience constipation, diarrhea, gas, lower back pain, PMS, or genitourinary diseases.
Conditions that result from Vyana Vata imbalance are circulatory and heart disorders, such as high blood pressure and heart arrhytmia (irregular heartbeat), as well as nervous disorders. This dosha may be involved in other disease processes.
The Royal Road to Balance
A Maharishi Ayurveda health evaluation with an expert in Vedic pulse diagnosis (vaidya) is the best way to determine your overall state of balance. The expert will be able to determine which subdoshas need to be balanced and will recommend specific foods, herbal supplements and lifestyle guidelines useful for restoring balance. If you would like to schedule an evaluation with our Vaidya, call us at 877-890-8600, ext. 1111.
The most powerful way of restoring balance and vitality in the mind and body consists of seasonal Panchakarma treatments. These rejuvenating treatments are done in-residence at Maharishi Vedic Health Centers around the world. For more information about in-residence programs at Maharishi Vedic Health Center in Lancaster please call us at 877-890-8600, ext. 1111 or visit us at www.lancasterhealth.org.
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Recipe From Our Kitchen
Creamy Winter Squash Soup
This tasty soup is ideal as part of a light evening meal. Serve it with a light grain dish or chapattis (unleavened flat breads).
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 5 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
- 2 cups diced celery
- 4 cups water
- 1 large bay leaf
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½-1 tsp rosemary, fresh leaves (or ¼ tsp ground dry leaves))
- Pinch of turmeric
- ½ cup diced leeks
- ½ diced yellow bell pepper
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 2 - 3 tablespoons ghee or olive oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions:
- Boil squash with celery and salt to taste until well cooked.
- Puree in a blender and set aside.
- In a separate pot sauté bay leaf and cumin seeds in olive oil for about one minute, or until the seeds start popping. Then add rosemary and turmeric and stir for a few seconds.
- Add leeks and yellow bell peppers and sauté on low heat for a few minutes, until the vegetables are soft.
- Add the pureed squash and a pinch of cinnamon. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.
- Serve warm.
Contact Us:
For more information on our programs please call (toll free) 877-890-8600. You can also email us at info@lancasterhealth.com.
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Our purpose at Maharishi Vedic Health Center is to avert the danger that has not yet come—Heyam Dukham Anagatam*.
With Maharishi Ayurveda, we now have the knowledge how to live a long healthy, happy, and problem-free life.
* Sanskrit saying from Yoga Sutras, 2.16.