|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
These tips were provided by The Raj, Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center.
Summer--a time for cool drinks, picnics in the shade, and leisurely moonlight walks. According to the Maharishi Ayur-Veda program, the heat of summer aggravates pitta dosha, the metabolic principle responsible for energy production, metabolism, and digestion. Heat rashes, heartburn, ulcers, acne, irritability, and anger are just a few of the problems that too much pitta can cause. Even the most easy-going people can become overly tired and grumpy.
In addition, vata, the metabolic principle responsible for movement, also becomes aggravated as the increasing power of the sun's rays takes away the earth's cooling qualities and allows dryness to predominate. The increased heat also causes an increase in wind, which further increases vata and decreases the qualities of kapha, the principle of structure and stability.
Pita Season
Pita season starts in mid-June and lasts until mid-October. During this time, you may find that your appetite is not as strong as during the cold months of the year. In the winter, the body has to provide its own heat, so the digestive fire burns at its brightest. As the outside heat increases, however, our inner fire diminishes. If you find your appetite is less in pitta season, listen to what your body is telling you!
You'll want to drink more liquids during the hot months of summer. Room temperature to cool is acceptable, but never ice-cold! Iced food and drinks act to further diminish your digestive abilities, which have already been compromised by the increased heat.
It is also important not to douse the digestive fires by drinking liquids at the end of a meal. Take liquids before meals or in moderate quantities during a meal, but take care not to dilute the digestive enzymes after you have finished your meal.
Favored Foods
To keep the digestive fire at a steady burn, take cooling, soothing foods and liquids that are sweet, bitter, or astringent. Sweet pacifies pitta and creates a cooling influence. Sweet foods include sugar, rice, milk, cream, butter, ghee (clarified butter), and wheat products. Coconut and juicy fruits such as watermelon or grapes are also highly recommended.
Bitter foods include bitter greens (endive, chicory, parsley, sprouts), leafy greens, and cucumbers.
Astringent foods include beans, lentils, pomegranate, spinach, leafy greens, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.
How much to adopt a pitta-pacifying diet depends on your constitution and on the particular imbalances in your physiology. A physician trained in the Maharishi Ayur-Veda program can prescribe the right regimen for you.
Remember, also, that differences among Ayurvedic diets are a matter of degree. Whatever the season, include all six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, astringent, and bitter) in every meal in order to nourish each of the dhatus, or body tissues. Missing even one of the tastes can lead to cravings and binge-eating, which can result in weight-gain, poor digestion, and further imbalance.
More Tips for Staying Cool
Here are some other ways to keep pitta in balance.
• A cooling atmosphere: Soothing aroma oils and fragrant flowers have a cooling influence on the mind and decrease the tendency toward anger as well as other out-of-balance pitta symptoms. Small indoor water fountains soothe pitta and cool down the atmosphere.
• Exercise: Even though those with a predominance of pitta dosha love to compete, summer exercise should be moderate because heavy or excessive exercise increases heat in the body. Exercise early in the morning, not in the noonday sun.
• Although swimming is a good summer exercise, don't sunbathe for long periods and especially avoid the harsh noonday sun. According to modern medicine, sunbathing increases the risk of skin cancer--and that risk is greater among pitta types or those with pitta aggravation. If you must be in direct sunlight, wear a hat and sunglasses. The eyes are one of the five main seats of pitta dosha and excess heat can accumulate there during the summer.
• Walking in the moonlight or next to water helps soothe pitta.
• Avoid staying up late. This increases the quality of dryness in the body, which is already aggravated by the hot weather.
• Seasonal Maharishi Rejuvenation Treatments (Panchakarma) are recommended to keep the doshas from unhealthy levels of imbalance. The Maharishi Ayur-Veda program states that imbalance of the doshas arises in six successive stages: accumulation, aggravation, dissemination, localization, manifestation, and disruption. As long as the doshas don't get past the accumulation or aggravation stage, we can avoid ill-health. Maharishi Rejuvenation Treatments help remove imbalanced doshas, loosening them from localized areas and eliminating them from the body.
