Ayurveda has long recognized that different things are happening inside of us during each season. Ayurveda honors that change within and recognizes – and supports – that the body wants to do something different as the seasons come and go.

Spring is a natural CLEANSING season. Once the weather starts to shift, our fantastically complex human organism is programmed to begin shedding the extra kapha layer that kept us warm in the winter months, which can cause feelings of sluggishness, spring allergies, hay fever, and water retention as we transition into spring. Ayurveda offers simple tools to help us through the wet and heavy Kapha season (winter and early months of spring).

Here are a few tools to support you:

Early bird gets the worm. Wake up early. Rise with the sun. Sleeping in further aggravates stagnant Kapha energy that can stay with you throughout the entire day.

Use a neti pot and feel instant benefits from this age old practice. Add this ritual to your morning routine to fight off colds and hay fever as neti pots flush out your sinuses and assist in better breathing immediately.

Sweat it out. Exercise outdoors. Practice hot yoga. Workout. Run. Dance. Move it or lose it. It’s Kapha season meaning your body is strong and ready for endurance. Find your edge. In addition to cardio exercises, try a steam sauna or a hot epsom salt bath to help release toxins.

Increase your intake of bitter greens (like arugula), spicy foods (like radish), and astringent foods (like grapefruit) to promote cleansing of the liver, digestive organs, and blood. Think spicy, light, and green. Add turmeric, dandelion, goldenseal, gentian, milk thistle, or neem for an added bitter taste.

Stay away from sweet, salty, and sour foods which cause water retention and aggravate Kapha energy.

As the grass grows greener drink plenty of liquids. To stimulate toxin release and clear excess mucus from allergies or sinuses try hot water with a pinch of cayenne, ¼ lemon, 1 tsp agave nectar, and a few drops of apple cider vinegar.

A light and earlier dinner is an essential ingredient to shed extra layers of Kapha since digestive strength weakens tremendously in the evening.

Come shed any extra kapha layers in Heather Metzler’s Detox Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training March 13 – 15!

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