Balancing Your Life as We Move into Fall

Right now, check in with yourself. How is your stress? anxiety? do you feel like you have everything under control or are you barely holding it together?

Summer is fun, we all enjoy the freedoms that come with it- vacations, time in the water, time with friends, the lack of a schedule, but by the end of the summer, I find that many are beginning to feel a little stressed. The summer heat has left them feeling drier, their nerves are beginning to feel frazzled, and the stress is building.

Now that autumn has settled in and the days are getting cooler, people are feeling this stress even stronger. I have had countless conversations lately with people who are feeling extremely scattered and feel the need to be more settled and grounded.

Explaining this from the Ayurvedic perspective can give some insight on how to prevent strong imbalances from happening and how to more easily become balanced. The fall is the beginning of vata season. We can easily see the characteristics of vata, such as cool, light, dry, and mobile manifest as the season changes. The temperature drops, our skin becomes drier- the most typical representation of fall is of the leaves, changing colors, drying out, falling from the trees and blowing in the wind- a perfect image of vata. But how does this show up in our body? When vata is pushed out of balance, this can manifest as overwhelm and anxiety, frazzled nerves, easily stressed, or digestive difficulties like bloating, gas and constipation. As the fall progresses, these symptoms can often become more serious.

How can one bring balance in to combat these things in their life? Many benefit from guidance with a practitioner at this time. It can really get you into a solid place. That is my first suggestion, of course, as I see a lot of success, and vata types have a more difficult time sticking with new rules :) Also, Ayurvedic therapies are ideal at this time also, as they balance vata. Abhyangas (warm oil body therapy) and shirodaras (in which herbal oil is poured over the forehead) will speed up your balancing process exponentially.

Here are some basic, but necessary rules that you can begin with for balancing vata: