How to Find Balance in Fall

With the Autumnal Equinox, Fall arrives ~ carried on the winds of the air element. Ayurveda recognizes this transition as the vata season.

The Summer harvest has reached full-peak. Mother Earth now offers us her more hearty bounty filled with grounding roots and vegetables that help us prepare for the cooler, longer nights, and to counteract the dry, light, and scattered qualities dominant at this time. Fall is Nature's cue to start drawing inward and focus more on deeply nourishing ourselves.

In our modern culture, Fall kicks off a time where we have a significant holiday each month that takes us into busier social schedules, but Nature is asking us to slow down, to rest more, and start reflecting on the past few months. Celebrate all the seeds you have sown, creations you've brought to fruition, and accomplishments you've made, while at the same time, start cutting back what no longer serves you. Now is the time to 'weed your garden of life'.

Air is a very sensitive element that is easily affected by the surrounding environment. Air is electrical energy, and this makes our nervous system most vulnerable at this time. Just like air, the qualities dry, light, cold, mobile, changeable, and ungrounded will manifest more in our body and mind during the Fall. What presents in Nature, presents in us.

Some ways this could present in you: dry skin and scalp, anxiety, restless sleep, inability to focus, and constipation. Our medicine for this season will be to adjust and attune our diet and lifestyle to accommodate this energetic and physical shift in our environment by bringing in more of the opposing qualities of air, which are moist, oily, heavy, warm/hot, stillness, and routine.

Some key ways to find balance in Fall:

• Eat cooked, warm, moist, spiced foods

• Warm oil massages to nourish dry skin and to protect nerves

• Mental hygiene is critical - meditate, walk in Nature, yoga, consciously breathing

• Strengthen your daily routine - get into a rhythm

• Consistent bed & meal times

• Regular breaks from technology

• Slow down

The turning of the seasons teaches us how to return to balance. By flowing with Nature’s rhythms, we remember the truth that we are Nature, too.