Spring It On

This Ayurvedic prescription for springtime health will help you leap from winter to spring with grace and ease.

By Scott Blossom

Eat Lighter
If you truly aspire to be a butterfly—and not a sluggish bear—you'll want to complement your asana and breathing practices with more awareness about your diet. The most important way to ensure a healthy agni is to eat—and not eat—at regular intervals during the day; having routine meals with adequate time between them strengthens mind and body.

Eat light, easy-to-digest foods during spring and wait at least three to four hours between meals. Try eating less of or eliminating foods that increase kapha —dairy products, iced or cold food or drinks, and fried or oily food—especially in the morning and at dinner.

If you're snacking all day as you did during the holiday season, you'll disrupt the elimination of kapha or even add to your body's quota. Instead of a snack, do a short pranayama practice and see what happens. If you're truly hungry, have something nourishing like miso soup or a few ounces of carrot juice. And remember that strengthening your willpower is an excellent exercise for taming an unruly mind and stoking your digestive fire.

To take your ama-flushing a step further, consider a dietary cleanse. As an alternative to strict fasting, spend five to 10 days eating only fresh (ideally local) fruits and vegetables and kitchari, a curried mung bean and rice dish (see the basic cleansing recipe). This will improve your digestive fire and eliminate ama.

During your cleanse, you can also drink tea made with cinnamon, black pepper, and ginger one hour after breakfast and lunch. Drink chamomile tea in the evening; it's beneficial to your digestive and circulatory systems and helps expectorate excess mucus.

Tune into Nature
Now it's time for the fun part—to create harmony with the seasons through acts of mindfulness and devotion. All you have to do is look around to be inspired at this time of year; renewal and transformation are literally welling up from the ground. The natural world is going through a rebirth, so be creative and forge a connection to this awesome process. For some of you, this may mean turning to prayer or silently devoting your daily yoga practice to nature. An easy starting place is with Sun Salutations, which were traditionally practiced while silently repeating a prayer to the sun.

Your efforts to connect to nature can go beyond the edges of your yoga mat. Head outdoors to a place of beauty and observe a period of silence. Slow down to examine the buds and shoots poking out in your neighborhood—if you visit them over several days and see them bloom, you may discover a deeper appreciation for this fresh, new season. Or create a candle-lighting ritual as a reminder of the increasing light of spring. Anything that gives you time and space to appreciate the beautiful transformation that's happening around you will fill you with inspiration, energy, and light.

Ease into the Groove
So, there it is: your Ayurvedic prescription for a groovy springtime. But there's still one more thing to keep in mind: Slow down and keep it simple. Don't let the approach outlined here be one more item on your never-ending to-do list. Savor springtime by simplifying your life to include only those things that truly revitalize your body and soul.

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