Stay balanced in Summer

If you’re feeling dehydrated, sweaty, or irritable, you probably have excess FIRE qualities in your body & mind. Other telltale signs include skin inflammation, acidic stomach, burning sensations in the body, red eyes, and a flaring temper. But when your FIRE is in balance, life is good: you experience unmatched energy and drive, mental clarity, joyfulness, vitality, and strength.

Here are Ayurvedic tips for balancing your FIRE this Summer and for feeling your best all season long:

DIET TIPS

🌱 Cook with these 5 cooling spices: fennel, coriander seeds, mint, cardamom, turmeric and avoid: heating spices like cayenne and chili peppers. Sprinkling coconut on foods is also a cooling treat.

🌱 Favor light and easy to digest foods: that means lightly steamed or sautéed veggies, grains and root vegetables that satiate you without weighing you down (think quinoa, white vs brown rice, millet, Kitchari, mung dal, sweet potatoes); light proteins like fish, eggs, tofu and tempeh; cooling veggies & fruits like broccoli, asparagus, beets, zucchini, mun grapes, figs, watermelon, coconut, avocado, lime vs. lemon, raspberries.

🌱 Avoid: hot, spicy and salty foods in Summer. Dairy and heating foods like tomatoes, onions, garlic, fermented anything: alcohol, kimchi, kombucha, red meat etc.

🌱 Favor cooked foods vs. raw: cooked foods are easiest to digest. Raw foods, although nutritionally superior, are hard to digest and can cause bloating and gas for those with a weakened digestion. Remember that Summer time is the time when our digestive capacity is at its lowest so you want to nourish your body with foods it can break down and pull nutrients from. Eating salads although they don’t agree with us (aka. they make you bloat, gas-sy, constipated) will do more harm than good! Enjoy salads and raw foods only if you feel undisturbed by them.

LIFESTYLE TIPS

✨ Best time to workout is early morning. Second best time to workout is in the evening, when the temperatures have had time to cool down. Avoid working out in the mid-day sun, favor cooling workouts like gentle yoga, swimming, hiking, avoiding competitive heating workouts like hot yoga, bootcamp classes etc.

✨ Moon bathing: after dinner, go for a walk outside. Wear white clothes so you can absorb the moon’s cooling rays, which are soothing to everyone in Summer.

✨ Daily dry brush & self oil massage in the morning as a way to increase blood flow and boost your energy in the morning. Using cooling coconut oil during the Summer months. It takes 3min! Skip during your period.

✨ Spray essential oils: Essential oils of jasmine are good fragrances for the summer, or you may enjoy a rosewater spritz to calm, cool, and refresh your mind. Here is my favorite Rose Water.

This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.