AYURVEDIC WAYS TO STAY WELL IN AUTUMN
Tips for staying cold and flu free this season
I thought I’d share a few ideas for helping you stay free of flu/covid/cold this season from an Ayurvedic perspective..and I'm talking about this because I'm currently lying on the sofa with a hot water bottle and flu-like virus. (I know it's not actually flu as I had that back in 2011 and it was not pretty!)
In my daily life I'm interested in trying to stay well and balanced as much as possible and Ayurvedic principles help with this. These are some specific self-care practices that I find helpful to every day and they are the same practices that I ramp up if, and when, I do get ill.
Here are the things I've done this weekend to get rid of my cold that you might find helpful too:
8 Self-Care Practices to help get rid of a cold/flu/virus
1. Rest - an obvious one but the most important. I had no plans anyway but I've prioritised sleeping and resting as much as possible and I ditched any unnecessary chores. At this point that means everything.
2. Read - I snuggled up in a blanket outside on my sun lounger and re-read the brilliant Invisible Women: Exposing the gender bias women face every day, by Caroline Criado-Perez.Not the obvious choice for convalescing but I thought I’d check in again to remind myself to keep women’s visibility, my visibility, at the heart of my work.
3. Start the day with an Autumn/Winter morning hot tipple.
Into 1 cup of hot (not boiling) water put:
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp organic apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1/2 a fresh lime
In the Spring and Summer I have hot water and lemon which is probably best suited to most constitutions but I love the recipe above for its cleansing and stimulating qualities.
4. Give yourself a relaxing Abayanga full body and head massage with warm Vata oil - I do this after a shower and make sure to include my ears and feet. Abayanga means 'self-massage with oil' and this is one of my favourite rituals and something I have done several times a week since having Covid back in 2020. Traditionally you’d do this before a shower and then wash the oil off after resting for 20 minutes or so, but doing it this way works for me.
The Vata oil is specifically warming, calming and nourishing to the skin, our largest organ, and to the nervous system. I love letting my body know that I'm caring for it in a really hands on way! My favourite oils are from here.
5. Clear your nose with a neti pot and oil your nostrils with herbal oil. I find this stops my nose from getting dry and keeps my airways and sinuses clearer. I use this one.
6. Eat simple, easy to digest food like Kunyi. From an Ayurvedic perspective I’d say that my digestive fire is just smouldering at the moment as my body fights any infection. I’m not that hungry and don’t want to overload an already hard working system. I use a great recipe from here.
7. Drink lots of fresh ginger tea. These are my absolute favourite brand of ginger tea bags - I use fresh grated ginger a lot of the time but these are almost as good and super zingy!
8. Listen to a Yoga Nidra recording and allow your body to deeply relax for 1/2 hour or so. I actually listened to my own yesterday - slightly strange for me;) and not ideal as I was listening out for anything I’d do differently next time I make a new track! My recording is free to listen to here.
Self care as the norm, not the exception
You might not be surprised that my teenager sons think some of these practices are a little strange....but I'm laying the ground work of visible self-care so they see it as the norm and not a luxury.
So, these are the things that I find helpful and they might not suit everyone. Ayurveda is about a balanced lifestyle for the individual and about what works well for you. It is not a prescription.
I’d love to know what you find helpful to stay in balance and what you do to care for yourself when you’re feeling unwell. Let me know!
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Alice x
