Keep Your Cool This Summer 

During each year, our bodies go through seasonal changes. If Ayurvedic recommendations are followed for our current doshic state, we can prevent some of the seasonal aggravations. Summer is full on Pitta season, with plenty of heat, heat, heat.

• Cool your body from the inside out with the foods you eat and fluids you drink. Eating sweet, cooling, bitter and astringent foods will help keep your temperature down from the inside out.
  
• Avoid missing a single meal, particularly if your constitution is predominantly Pitta.
• Drink hot cumin, coriander, fennel and rose tea.
• Add cilantro, mint, and cucumber to your water for a refreshing beverage that will cool you down.
  
• Eat cooling, sweet, bitter and astringent foods. Plenty of coconut, cilantro, mint, cucumber, watermelon, seasonal fresh fruits, blueberries, aloe vera, steamed greens, multicolored salads, watercress, endives, mung beans, basmati rice, and lime in your diet will really cool you down.
  
• Avoid fried, spicy foods and alcohol. If you have to have a drink, make it a mojito!
• Reduce the amount of meat and dairy you eat, as they are heating. Have more fish, and help sustain our ecological system by choosing fish that are in season, not farmed, and caught with integrity!
  
• Practice your regular exercise and plan activities when it is cool outside or integrate cooling practices into your day if you must be in the heat. Find shade! For example, if you are a runner, run during the cooler hours of the day, such as in the morning or evening. If the only time you can practice yoga is at noon on a hot day, slather on the sunscreen or find some shade, and use the cooling breath, shitali, while practicing poses slowly.
  
• Wear plenty of blue, green, white colors and cottons, linen, bamboo fabrics, and bring a wide brimmed hat to the beach!o
• Got to bed earlier and get up earlier, this gets you more light, can help alleviate depression, and put you closer to a natural rhythm with nature.

Enjoy your summer, connect with nature, and follow the recommendations above to keep your cool this season.
 

Copyright © 2010 Rebecca Robbins