Summer’s right around the corner. It’s pitta season (fire/water elements). We can feel the heat accumulating outside, and it’s accumulating in your body too. When the doshas accumulate too much, eventually they aggravate, and this can cause symptoms. 🔥That can eventually look like inflammation, skin issues, burning indigestion, diarrhea, hot flashes, intense periods, anger, irritability and more.
The ancients understood these energetics, and that Mother Nature is always trying to nourish us. And she does this by providing exactly what we need to stay in balance each season.
If you’re a woman, your body is especially rhythmic. Learning how to support those natural rhythms is crucial for helping your nervous system feel safety rather than stress. Seasonal eating is one of the best ways to do this, and also learn in a practical way how the doshas feel, how they impact your body and what the balancing energetics feel like.
Here are a few summer tips to help you stay balanced:
Summer/Pitta Season:
Elements: fire + water
Foods to favor: cooling, calming, slightly dry foods
Qualities to reduce: heating, sharp, acidic, intense, oily
Tastes to favor: bitter, astringent, sweet
Foods to favor:
✅Bitter and astringent veggies
✅Sweet dairy products (milk, ghee) rather than sour dairy (yogurt, hard cheese)
✅Light grains
✅Sweet fruits
✅Cool and light proteins
✅Coconut and coconut products
✅Cooling spices and herbs
Foods to reduce:
🔻Spicy food
🔻Coffee
🔻Vinegar and other fermented foods
🔻Alcohol (spirits and red wine most aggravating)
🔻Raw tomatoes
🔻Raw onion
🔻Red meat and egg yolks
🔻Orange juice
🔻Fried, very oily foods
Now I get it. You may read that and think I’m a buzzkill. But I’m not a purist. Notice I wrote “reduce” rather than “avoid.” I’m just sharing the energetics of these so you can make your own choices and notice how they impact your body, especially if you’re someone with a lot of pitta in your constitution or pitta symptoms. The trick in Ayurveda is to focus on incorporating what’s balancing first. Your body will likely start to naturally crave the not-so-supportive stuff less if you’re feeling nourished in other ways.
Habits to Favor:
☀️Go green: One of my very favorite summertime habits is growing greens in my garden, and picking them for juicing, green smoothies, salads or simple cooked greens. Greens are high in chlorophyll. They cool the blood, reduce inflammation, and easily convert to quick energy.
☀️Move early, rest later: Favor gentle to moderate morning exercise, before the heat of the day accumulates. Once it does, chill out. Limit intense physical exercise, especially after noon. Stay cool and protected during the peak sun hours.
☀️Connect with nature: Spend time outside when the day is cooler. Try moonbathing at night. Enjoy a plunge in nearby bodies of water as often as possible.
☀️Coconut oil massage: Before or after bathing, morning or evening, take some time to massage coconut oil onto your skin (including scalp and soles of your feet). Here are instructions and a video on how to do abhyanga (Ayurvedic oil massage)
Can you see how all of these recommendations have a cooling energetic, to balance the heat of the season?
If you want a detailed shopping list and info for all seasons, you can download my Seasonal Eating Guide with Shopping Lists.
Happy Summer Solstice (soon)!
Much love,
Courtney
(P.S.) I’ll be launching a *new* self-guided course soon called The Feminine Code: Hormones, The Nervous System & Your Female Body Rhythms. So many of the modern wellness trends are overwhelming and confusing for women, and still don’t address the root cause of their issues. TFC gives you a new paradigm and simple practices for supporting the foundations of your nervous system and hormonal health. Stay tuned!