Winter and Spring are Kapha dominant seasons. In winter Kapha accumulates and in spring it liquifies or becomes more fluid. Kapha is dominant in the earth and water elements. As spring arrives we naturally feel the need to move, experience sunshine, nature and eat refreshing vital foods. This reveals our innate attunement to the natural forces. We can refine this attunement and as we do our health and wellbeing amplifies as does our intuitive intelligence.
We need to respond by shaking off the winter. Removing the qualities of cold, heavy, damp, and inertia from our bodies and psyches. Spring is the perfect time for cleansing. It is always best to cleanse according to our dosha, whatever balance of Kapha, Pitta and Vata we may be. Each dosha has cleansing recommendations which are further refined according to season. In general spring leads us away from heavy, dense, damp foods toward fresh (yet cooked), light, warming, cleansing, prana rich foods. It is a time to bring fragrance, aroma, colour and beauty to our plate and awaken the appetite and the powerful digestive rasas.
Yoga practice in early spring is best applied to balance kapha and vata. Kapha can be heavy and stagnant, Vata is changeable and volatile as seasons move. We have certainly experienced the Vata action in the winds of the last week or so. The winds when constant can be very disturbing. Change of season is a time when we are more susceptible to imbalance or illness particularly if cleansing of our body/mind is called for.
Our practice can help. We can focus on ground in asanas, feeling strength in our feet, legs and seat while feeling that ground generates a counterforce of expansive lightness throughout the rest of the body. We can generate warmth through practices that warm tissue, and raise digestive fire. We know this is working when we raise a warmth in the belly, a light sweat on the brow and a feeling of energy moving. We have gone too far if our sweating is excessive, our breath and heart rate are too raised and our muscles or body are trembling. Going too far can aggravate too much Vata and Pitta and rob us of the benefit of our practice. Taking pause before, during and after an asana will enhance conscious breathing, our most powerful agent to heal and renew.
Yoga practice seeks the sweet zone where transformation is generated without pushing us into stress or aggravation. If we are patient and build capacity over time, growing endurance that is a steady expression of increased strength, capacity, vital energy and focus, we take our body and mind through a powerful process of refinement. If we push, and force and burn holes in our mats we do the opposite, our gains are short lived and lead to degeneration. Yoga practice is a subtle science that incorporates reclaiming the deep transformative power within the body, the power of the breath and its subtle component (prana), and a powerful presence that amplifies the benefits and potentials of our intelligent effort.
Practices such as pranayama that emphasise cleansing and energizing are perfect at this stage of season. Mudras that awaken the sleeping forces in the body and balance prana vayus are equally so beneficial and lead us to deep internal connection and stillness.
Spring can be a time for planting creative seeds. Spending time in contemplation that lends light to our way forward, reveals what to give our energy to, what creative forces are speaking within us and how to guide them into fruition. A time to nourish the soil of our hearts most loving expression and preparing ourselves and our lives to make space for a new creative growth phase. Creating a personal retreat or attending one that is reflective and regenerating can be a meaningful way to awaken the forces of an internal spring.
Spring is beautiful, it is moist and fecund, it is full of the energy of renewal and fragrance. Our being can express this nourishing seasonal life force if we also tend to ourselves as we would anything in early growth phase, clearing away the old and making space for the new.
If you would like to explore and study the nuances of yogic and ayurvedic wisdom in beautiful depth take a look at our Yoga Teacher Trainings. We offer three levels of training |Level 1 200-hour | Level 2 300-hour | and a combined 500-hour full immersion. A Post Graduate extra curriculum in the Foundations of Yoga Chikitsa takes all the study toward a therapeutic application.
Students train within these courses for many reasons. Students either have a very specific intention to train to teach, while others train to deepen their own understanding, practice and self growth. Yet others join us who have trained elsewhere to enhance their skill and depth. Whatever the reason all are welcome - our aim is always to nourish self inquiry and the love of the yogic path of learning and transformation. It is also possible to join us for particular curriculum subjects that attract you as stand alone workshops.