YOGA FOR winter
Winter is the time to appreciate the darkness and cold and to snuggle up, nourish your body and mind by going deep within, allowing time for rest, introspection, selfreflection, meditation and quietude. It’s the season to stay grounded, recuperate, restore and replenish your energy in preparation for spring.
Holistic disciplines such as Chinese medicine and Ayurveda suggest that our lifestyle, exercise, yoga practice and diet need to be aligned with the current season. Harmonising yourself and your routines with the cycles of nature is believed by these traditions to keep you nurtured and disease free.
Make this winter a time to pause and treat your body and soul with the following easy-to-implement holistic practices, which will keep you warm, nourished and filled with joy and vitality.
HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVES ON WINTER
Ayurveda
Ayurveda, India’s ancient medical system, differentiates the seasons of the year by the cycles of three doshas: vata, pitta and kapha. These doshas describe the qualities of the body’s constitution and are governed by air, ether (space), fire, water and earth elements, which influence our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Charaka Samhitas, a comprehensive textbook on Ayurvedic healing, states: “Vata, pitta and kapha move in the whole body producing good or ill effects upon the entire system, according to their normal or aggravated states. Their normal state is balance and their aggravated state is illness.”
As winter is typically colder and wetter than other seasons, it has a sense of slowness, groundedness and heaviness. These are the qualities attributed to the
