Seasonal Habit Change from Autumn to Early Winter According to Ayurveda for Your Table, Your Clock, and Your Yoga

Liminal spaces are spaces and levers of great power. Whether in chemistry, mythology, meditation, or everyday life, the power of paying attention to the joints, or junctures, between things — when conditions are at a tipping point — is undeniable. The juncture — or Rtusandhi — I’m referring to today is that between Autumn and Early Winter, as reckoned in the root texts of Ayurveda. This juncture is roughly November 8–22, and it’s a perfect time to spruce up your morning and evening routines, your yoga practice, and your table with seasonal goodness and joy.

General Habits That Can Help You Feel Great

General Note: no one of these habits is crucial, which is great because some of us have jobs that ask us to get up at the same time every day or sleep til 3 for a night shift. These aren’t judgments of virtue — they’re suggested points of awareness for shifting your health in a positive direction. Choose one or more that’s right for you right now and leave the rest.

Morning Routine:

• Get up with or around the sun.
• Get 10 minutes of sunlight on your eyeballs in that first hour after sunrise.
• Neti (salt water nasal rinse) and Nasya (special oil drops for sinuses) can contribute to well-being by handling allergies, clearing sinuses giving bugs less time to grow, and keeping your nasal passages lubricated.
• Water first thing in the morning — a bolus (24 ounces is a good target to build to). Boluses hydrate differently than sips, and this large amount on an empty stomach can contribute to regularity, among other things.
• Sips of warm water throughout the day will help your body absorb at the tissue level, not simply the gut. You can put fruit, herbs, and herbal “teas” for added phytonutrients, interest and flavor.
• Move early — walks are great, and yoga is excellent. A walk and then yoga can be heaven!
• Pranayam — breath awareness and practices.
• Meditation — time spent in quiet, without engaging the senses outward and watching one’s own mind working. It’s fascinating — you don’t need to “stop” thinking (as if you could!) — but becoming the seer begs the question of… who is seeing? And what is her relationship to the thoughts?

Evening Routine:

• Power down screens up to two hours (or as soon as practical for your life) before bed
• Go to bed before 10. If you want to move your bedtime, move it only 15 minutes each week until you’re where you want to be.
• Dim lights during that time.
• An hour before bed, choose a calming or soothing activity. Yin and Restorative yoga, pranayama, and meditation are all good candidates, as are a good book, music, and cuddling.
• Warm baths — especially with Epsom salt and baking soda — are great wind-down activities, as the evaporation after will help cool you, contributing to better sleep.
• Abhyanga or self-massage with preferably organic, food-grade oils (unrefined sesame, sesame, or some tridoshic oils) can help with your skin’s microbiome as well as dryness and can be soothing, as well.

Yoga Practice:

• 15 minutes of yoga practice a day can change your stress levels tremendously and start a habit you won’t want to quit.
• Yoga practice can be asana (physical postures), pranayama (breath awareness) and/or meditation — or all three.
• Roll out your mat and play — yes, play! — with the postures that fascinate you most in class, as long as you feel safe. If you’re not yet experienced, save the headstands, arm balances, or anything you feel unsure of to practice with your teacher.
• Videos can be fun. However, the practice you do on your own is your own, and that connection to your own experience can be the missing ingredient that many look for in classes for years.

Your Table:

• Strive for half your plate of seasonal vegetables.
• Eat fruit seasonally.
• Eat everything seasonally.
• Fast for 13 hours between your evening meal and your morning meal as a rule. 13 hours fasting overnight is being proven a strong habit for preventing chronic disease.
• Fast seasonally (see a trend?).
• Eat 2–3 discrete meals per day.
• Finish eating 3 hours before bed to improve sleep (nothing to do with weight or fat loss).

Autumn Guidelines (falling away at this juncture):

• Flavors to favor: sweet, bitter, astringent, less unctuous (fatty).
• Postures to emphasize: revolved poses.
• Pranayama to emphasize: cooling breaths.
• Meditation: Tratak, or resting your gaze on an object, symbol or point.

Early Winter Guidelines (adding in at this juncture):

• Flavors: sweet, sour, salty, hot or warm. Meat and roots, nuts and seeds.
• Postures to emphasize: backbends and inversions (to the extent they’re in your practice: remember, Legs up the Wall and Down Dog are both inversions). Maha Mudra. Agni Sara Kriya. Fish, Cow Faced, and Camel Poses. More exertional — consider HIIT. We do Tabata intervals with yoga moves twice in some classes we call “HiYo.”
• Pranayama to emphasize: warming breaths, like surya behdana (right nostril breathing), kapalabhati (skull shining breath), bhastrika (bellows breath).
• Meditation: Metta and Trataka.

Conclusion:

Remember that habits are best individualized to your constitution, but these are general guidelines for all. Take what resonates, leave the rest — then re-evaluate at the Late Winter Rtusandhi and see what a difference you’ve made!