Yoga and Ayurveda for the Spring Season

Last weekend I presented a workshop with my friend and Ayurveda practitioner Liz Stites, called "Yoga and Ayurveda for the Spring Season." If you don't know what Ayurveda is, check out last week's blog, "What the Heck is Ayurveda?" Much like my view of Yoga, I see one of Ayurveda's great attributes as the focus on cultivating greater awareness of oneself and respect for one's relationships with everything. With increased self-awareness and with respect for our community and environments, we can tip the scales toward the sides of greater vitality, harmony and joy.

Ayurveda suggests shifting our diets and lifestyle choices such as exercise and work habits throughout the seasons and cycles of our lives to keep greater balance and health. Ayurveda uses the "three dosha's" to classify different variations of life energy. Kapha Dosha shares qualities with earth and water. Pitta Dosha is like fire and water and Vata Dosha is linked with air and ether (space). Kapha is prevalent in youth and in the seasons of late winter and early spring.  It is the energy that supports life and love. Liz tells her students and clients that, "Kapha creates a container for life to grow." Kapha is nurturing in nature and is the energy of acceptance, love, and protection. Kapha is cool, calm and collected. Kapha is stable and strong. Liz points out that all we need to do is to look outside to experience Kapha at work. The animals are all a flutter with love, babies are being born, the trees are budding and the plants are blooming. As the rains pour down, water brings life back to the earth. Water penetrates the ground making it receptive to plant life rooting and blossoming. The water and wind help to clear away the debris that has accumulated over the winter months.

Because Kapha dosha does have a tendency to accumulate and because Kapha is so easy going, if we accumulate too much Kapha dosha we can begin to feel heavy, thick and lethargic. Too much Kapha energy can present itself as colds, allergies with excess mucas in the body, sluggishness and unhealthy attachment to relationships or possessions.

While the first few months of the New Year are the perfect time for reflection and germination, the Spring presents us with a perfect opportunity to let go of the old and to look closely for the new life that is just beginning to blossom. It's time to clean up, renew and get growing again. An excellent spring yoga practice includes warming vinyasa, invigorating standing poses, inversions and arm-balances, purifying twists and heart-opening backbends. Feel free to hop on over to my website to print out a copy of the handout from this weekend workshop which includes my "Greet the Day" sun salute. This is a super easy and gentle yoga sequence designed to help you feel the sweet, easy, grounding energy of Kapha. While its a perfect "first thing in the morning or last thing in the day" practice, you will likely benefit from a more vigorous and energizing practice throughout the rest of the day. In the workshop, I encouraged participants to add poses into sun salutes during home practice. If you've never taken a yoga class before, there is no time like now to start something new. Check out my schedule at www.flourishunlimited.com or contact me if you need help finding a class in a location near you. At any rate, I hope you find some ways to get energy flowing so you never stop growing. Happy Spring!