Spring Blues & Spices
These will clean your blood, open up sinuses and give you a pick me up...
“These slow, whooshing noises are the sounds of non-threats, which is why they work to calm people. It’s like they are saying dont worry, don’t worry, don’t worry.”
Said Orfeu Buxton professor of bio behavioural health at Penn State University. He was talking about how the sound of rain or the ocean affects our brain. I love the simplicity and the poetry behind the words he chose to open a live science report. I thought this was worth sharing…
This year Spring showers are on steroids - last week felt like a monsoon in Paris!
Rainfed and restless we are in anticipation of sunnier, shinier and more predictable days.
Spring is the time of the year when the winter heaviness is melting away but we might still feel a tug of war between showers and sunshine, warm and cold, dry and humid, energy and lethargy. Ayurveda (ancient preventive medicine and a sister science of Yoga) calls it a dense Kapha energy.
This might play out as Spring Blues — fluctuations in energy levels, loss of appetite, a sense of bloating, mood swings, melancholy...
To loosen the grip of Kapha, Ayurveda invites you to tease your palette a little. Think… black pepper, cayenne pepper, chilli, dry ginger…
Your meals will be more flavourful and these spices will naturally warm up your body, boost your metabolism (thus helping with weight loss), clean your blood, open up sinuses and give you a pick me up. The Kama Sutra mentions them as natural aphrodisiacs.
Easy ways to bring some spring spices into your meals…
Generously garnish your meals with freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, chilli oil or radish.
Sip on warm ginger or fenugreek tea before and with your meals.
Trade the mid morning or the late afternoon coffee for Haldi Doodh, aka Golden Latte.
If you’d like to make your own :Warm a cup of milk. I blend half a cup of milk with 5 cashews and some water. This gives the milk more taste and more nutrition.
Add 1/4 tea spoon turmeric powder + a large pinch of ground pepper + a large pinch of cardamom powder + 1/2 tea spoon of coconut oil. Allow it to simmer for 3-5 minutes and keep stirring.
Add a sweetener if you like. There is a chance you won’t need one. The cardamom will do the trick!
I like to throw in some saffron.
…Enjoy !
This cant be said enough — Stay active after meals! Even 10 minutes of gardening, a short walk or chores around the house will go a long way in keeping your energy levels up!
Wellbeing is a balancing act between how we eat, play, work and rest. Adapting our lifestyle to the season is a big part of it. If you missed my note on how to liven up your exercise routine for the spring season, catch up here.
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I am a Yoga teacher, Ayurvedic Nutrition and Holistic Health Coach. Healthy Hedonism is me making the ancestral wisdom relevant to your busy lives.
More about me and my work here https://www.gayatridevi.co/