Spring Has Sprung!

As we move towards the Spring Equinox on 23 Sept and Full Mala on the 24, the weather is supposed to be getting kinder, the evenings lighter and the days warmer. The cold snap of this week just serves as a reminder to have and open mind that accepts, adjusts and accommodates whatever IS.

With the seasonal change, our body-mind-spirit require different diet and lifestyle to stay balanced. Mind body awareness techniques, such as yoga, help us to naturally want to make such changes - hope you can feel it too!

Spring is a time of increased warmth and wetness. Winter is predominantly a cold, damp season which causes kapha dosha to accumulate (earth and water elements). The coming two months will be the ideal time to reduce this build up of kapha (such as excess weight) to prevent feelings of sluggishness, as well as other kapha-related problems such as spring colds and hay fever.

Tips to stay well this spring:

Set your alarm for 6am at the latest; preferably earlier as sleeping later will further aggravate kapha (heaviness).

Massage your body with warm sesame or sunflower oil, followed by a warm shower.

Dry skin brushing is excellent for stimulating lymph and reducing cellulite. Use firm sweeping strokes towards the heart to aid the elimination of fluid. Saunas can be a useful for drying up excess secretions.

Practise vigorous exercise (our Sun Salutes practice at 05.30 twice a week and at least 12 rounds everyday on your own) to get the lymph moving in the body, preventing congestive problems. It is also one of the best ways to stimulate a sluggish digestion and aid detoxification. Make your yoga practice dynamic and stimulating, sun salutations are ideal as they build up heat, working all the major muscles. Kappalabhati or Bhastrika pranayama (will be included in our practice) are also good for generating internal heat and burning toxins.

A spring ayurvedic diet recommends more bitter tastes (eg: herbs such as dandelion), as well as spicy (eg: fresh ginger herbal tea) and astringent (eg: all pulses). These tastes open the channels of elimination, clearing excess mucus and moisture from the body. Reduce kapha-aggravating sweet, sour and salty foods which could cause water retention at this time. In common with the winter diet, minimise raw and cold foods, favouring warm, lightly cooked meals. Lighter grains such as quinoa, millet and barley are all kapha reducing, but minimise wheat dominant foods. Use a neti pot to give the nose a daily rinse with warm, salt water over a sink. This not only helps ward off colds and hay fever, but will also improve your pranayama. Google Neti or ask me? For a spring cold, help clear mucous by eating light, warm, simple foods as you rest. Soup is ideal. Avoid dairy products, sweets, fried foods and yeasted bread which increase congestion. Fresh ginger tea is excellent, especially with raw honey added once the tea has cooled down. Raw honey clears mucous and kapha due to its heating, drying and channel clearing effect. It is the best sweetener for kapha types and is good for all in spring.

Herbal help: Chywanprash is a delicious ayurvedic herbal jam to boost immunity and strengthening the lungs (you can try it on toast for breakfast - I have located a supplier in JHB, but they are out of stock, will let you know) For persistent colds, try Trikatu (ginger, black pepper and long pepper - also Ayurvedic meds) which dries up mucous and clears channels. It should not be taken in pregnancy or with aggravated pitta (eg: heartburn or hyperacidity). Use copious turmeric and black pepper in your cooking - it has antiviral and antibacterial properties and can be used in medicinal doses for all respiratory tract infections.

Personally, I recommend combining these suggestions with a Traditional Sattvic Diet. Sattvic diet is described as pure foods diet, rich in prana (life-force). Organic foods are recommended for both their purity and vitality, but the important point is that food should be fresh and freshly prepared. Leftovers are a no-no. There are some exceptions, but most people understand that if you make a beautiful meal one day and feel great from it, that is no guarantee that you’ll get the same effect or pleasure the next day.

Sattvic foods are light (as opposed to heavy) in nature, simple, easy to digest, mildly cooling, refreshing and not disturbing to the mind. They are best prepared with love and awareness. On this last point, please note that just as our food affects our mind, our thoughts and emotions also affect our food. You can consume high-quality food, but if it is prepared or eaten in anger, it will have a disturbing effect. On the other hand, you can sometimes take less than pure food and bless it to overcome its impurities. The idea ultimately is to absorb that which is nourishing, eliminate that which is not and to keep our thoughts positive, especially when eating or preparing food. Sattvic foods are grown organically on good rich fertile soil; foods attractive appearance and be harvested at the correct time of year. Foods should be whole foods full of life-force and enzymes and be as close as possible as they are in their natural fresh state. Today, we need to add to these criteria for Sattva several other modern concerns. Sattvic foods should be grown without pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, irradiation or anything unnatural. Modern use of refinement processes and chemical additives, besides actually adding substances to our foods, depletes foods of their prana (life-force) and hence renders them heavy, impotent and lifeless.

Sattvic food needs to be chewed slowly, carefully and eaten in modest portions. Overeating is definitely tamasic (energy draining). Food should be enjoyed for its inherent taste and quality, rather than the spices and seasonings that are added. Too much salt and spice has a rajasic (stimulating) effect, which fuels desire, leads to over-satiation, the loss of taste and the loss of pleasure. “When rajas predominates, a person runs about pursuing selfish and greedy ends, driven by restlessness and desire” (BG 14:12). A refined sense of taste leads to increased pleasure. Most fruits, including apples, apricots, bananas, berries, dates, grapes, melons, lemons, mangoes, oranges, peaches and plums are considered especially sattvic. Sometimes yogis go on fruit fasts, where they avoid all foods except fruit and fruit juices, when doing a special sadhana (advanced spiritual practice) or have undertaken a vow. Fruit is also considered symbolic of generosity and spirituality and is often exchanged as an offering or a gift.

Dairy is considered controversial these days, but the yoga tradition insists on the value of a wholesome food freely given by the symbol of motherhood, the cow. We need to use the highest quality organic fresh dairy to benefit from its sattvic qualities. Milk, butter, clarified butter (ghee), fresh home-made cheese (paneer), whey and fresh yogurt (especially lassi) are all recommended. They benefit from careful preparation and the extra effort to learn the recipes is well worthwhile. For example, milk can be diluted and warmed with mild spices (i.e. fresh ginger, cinnamon and cardamom) and served with raw honey to overcome any mucus-forming tendencies. Traditionally, if a yogi is doing advanced practices, dairy provides needed lubrication, grounding and nourishment. In fact, dairy along with fruit have been described as the epitome of the sattvic or yogic diet.

Fresh nuts and seeds that haven’t been overly roasted and salted are good additions to the sattvic diet in small portions. Good choices are almonds (especially when peeled and soaked in water overnight), coconut, pine nuts, walnuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds.

Oils should be of highest quality and cold-pressed. Good choices are olive, sesame, flax and canola oil.

Most mild vegetables are considered sattvic, including beets, carrots, celery, cucumbers, green leafy veggies, sweet potatoes and squash. Pungent veggies like hot peppers, garlic and onion are excluded, as are gas-forming veggies such as mushrooms and potatoes. They are considered rajasic and tamasic respectively. Sometimes the shortcomings of these foods can be overcome by careful preparation. An excellent practice is to drink freshly made vegetable juices for their prana, live enzymes and easy absorption.

Whole grains provide excellent nourishment when well cooked. Consider organic rice, spelt, oatmeal and barley. Sometimes the grains are lightly roasted before cooking to remove some of their heavy quality. Yeasted breads are not recommended unless toasted. Grains can be sprouted before cooking as well. Favorite preparations are kicharee (basmati rice cooked with split mung beans, ghee and mild spices), kheer (rice cooked with milk and sweetened), chapathis (non- leavened whole wheat flat bread), porridge (sometimes made very watery and cooked with herbs) and “Essene" bread (sprouted grain bread). Sometimes yogis will fast from grains during special practices.

Legumes like split mung beans, yellow split peas, organic tofu, bean sprouts and perhaps lentils and aduki beans are considered sattvic if well prepared. In general, the smaller the bean, the easier to digest. Strategies include splitting, peeling, grinding, soaking, sprouting, cooking and spicing. Legumes combined with whole grains offer a complete protein combination. Sweeteners: Yogis use raw honey (especially in combination with dairy) and raw sugar (not refined) in very limited quantities.

Sattvic spices are the mild spices including basil, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, fresh ginger and turmeric. Rajasic spices like black pepper, red pepper and garlic are normally excluded, but are sometimes used in small amounts to keep the channels open, especially now in Spring. But beware, taking rajasic spices with tamasic food does not equal sattwa = so use these with sattvic foods only.

Most Yogis do not to indulge in eating flesh. It is said that the fear and anger of the animal being killed is transferred to the person eating the flesh. Fresh meat is considered rajasic and old meat is considered tamasic. Another approach is to avoid the flesh of mammals, especially if one is using dairy products. This approach allows for some high-quality fish, poultry or eggs. Even then it is recommended to abstain from flesh foods a minimum of three days a week with at least two prolonged periods of abstention from all animal foods every year. Purists rely on dairy and plants for supplemental protein as it is given freely and is considered non-harming.

One problem of the purely vegetarian diet is that it can become too cooling. For this reason, yogis of the Tibetan plateau sometimes include meat for warmth. One can also learn to promote bodily warmth through yoga practices centered on the navel region. An ayurvedic approach is to include warming and strengthening herbs in the diet like ashwagandha, astragalus or ginseng. Special combinations include masalas (based on cumin seed, coriander seed and turmeric root), hingashtak, draksha and chyavanprash. There are also mineral and ash preparations used called bhasmas. One that is favored in the Himalayas to keep the body warm in cold weather is a preparation of deer antler called sring bhasma. But I do not think that we will have need of this in Aug/Sept in the Lowveld!

Other herbs are used to directly support sattva in the mind and in meditation. These include ashwagandha, bacopa, calamus, gotu kola, gingko, jatamansi, purnarnava, shatavari, saffron, shankhapushpi, tulsi and rose. (Mostly specialist Ayurvedic herbs)

Remember that these suggestions are just a starting point. Undoubtedly there are many other foods that will qualify and some of the suggestions may not be suitable for everyone. So put them to the test until you are full of “the sattvic essence.” In the words of the Charak Samhita, one of the classic textbooks of Ayurveda, “The persons having the sattvic essence are endowed with memory, devotion, are grateful, learned, pure, courageous, skillful, resolute, free from anxiety, having well- directed and serious intellect and activities and are engaged in virtuous acts” (CS III- 8:110).

When our minds become sattvic and peaceful like a clear pool of pure water, we may bypass the disturbances of change in season altogether.