Stay healthy this winter with Ayurveda

Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour.

The winter season holds the perfect antidote to the fast-paced mobility of the summer and fall. This is a time to rest, reflect, hold space, vision, hibernate, withdraw some of our outwardly-focused energy and redirect it inward.

Winter season also brings low temperatures, freezing rain and snow, a significant drop in humidity and dry cold winds in most parts of the country. All media news and health warnings make winter a season of flu, colds and coughs, contagious diseases.

There is a overall sense of heaviness, increased moisture due to rain or snow and a slow feeling that sends many animals into hibernation.

These are all qualities shared by Kapha dosha, which is why winter could be considered a Kapha season in our beautiful British Columbia but in the rest of the Canada where the climate is exceptionally cold and dry, Vata will also be a strong component to take into account.

According to Ayurveda winter is the best season to strengthen and improve immunity. Infections and colds are the results of a weak immune system. Viruses are seeds that look for fertile land, such as a weakened body, to take root.

This season, let us adopt a routine that allows you to relish rather than resent the darkness and the quiet.

5 Tips to improve Immunity and stay healthy this winter

1. One reason that winter is a good season for building immunity is that the digestion is strongest in cold weather. The body requires more fuel to stay warm and healthy in the winter months and the cold weather ignites digestive fires deep into the core of the body. Our bodies therefore crave a more substantial, nutritive diet at this time of year. May be that is the reason crave for carb containing comfort foods loaded with fats and sugars ! The cold weather can decrease digestive Agni (fires) so we need to use spices to improve the digestion. Some of the immune boosting spices are: cumin, fennel, coriander, turmeric, ginger, and black pepper.

4. Immune boosting lifestyle with yoga and exercise:

An invigorating and expansive yoga practice this winter can be surprisingly supportive of your overall wellbeing.
Taking up a winter-specific activity might help replace the feelings of winter blues. We’re often less active in wintertime. Yet exercise is a known mood enhancer, raising the brain’s levels of serotonin and endorphin. Sports such as skiing, snowboarding and ice skating provide that much-needed adrenaline rush that we can't get from couch surfing, with the added bonus of two of the greatest natural mood elevators: exercise and the great outdoors.

News from Neelam

I've just returned from a most interesting trip to Quebec and Ontario. It was my first trip to Quebec after we introduced Sewanti and Padmashri products to Quebec stores.
Our energetic Holizen sales force have placed our products on the shelves of major stores in Quebec like Rachelle-Béry Marchés Tau and La Maison. Extensive work has been done to translate and provide information in French language.
I saw that people in Quebec have really embraced Ayurveda and Ayurvedic lifestyle. At the CHFA Montreal there was a steady lineup to experience therapeutic magic of hand massage with Padmshri Massage oils.

I had equally warm response at Big Carrot and Nature's Emporium store trainings.
I'm looking forward to next fall, as we have planned an educational program to teach Introduction to Ayurveda in Fall 2013 for Ontario and Quebec stores. Here are a few photos from the events.