Easy Winter Self Care Tips

Winter in the New England  this year had a slow start, but it is here.  Post Holiday season it is easy to feel slow and boggy.    Boy I can feel the need to lighten things up in my body.  I study and practice Ayurveda in my life to support my health. Ayurveda recommends easy winter self care tips to move back into balance.  Ayurveda is an ancient wellness based health care system.

Ama an Ayurvedic term for waste that  accumulates in the body, like gifts under the tree the week before Christmas.   Ama though is not a gift from Santa for being good.  You need to help your body move ama out.

Your body and immune system is working hard to keep you well and warm during the cold weather.  Lymph the transport fluid for your immune system is struggling to move the  ama or wastes generated from the combined toxicity of emotional upheaval and over indulgence of all the holidays.

If you don’t watch out you can loose a whole month or more to post holiday blues or a deep winter cold. Yuck! The sooner you take steps to lighten up the better you will feel. We had a late Christmas, so I am running really behind. Clear out the clutter and confusion of the stuff of the holidays. Simple things like putting away all the presents and wrapping paper, taking down the tree and packing the decorations will help start the clearing.  Just finished this last weekend….

Next take  some simple steps to help you warm up and move your lymph to carry ama out of our body.   The common sense approach of Ayurveda will help balance the seasonal extremes.   Some winter wellness strategies can be overwhelming.  Basic Easy Winter Self Care Tips like these deliver lot of bang for your buck.  So worth the effort. Step away from that multiple week post holiday cold many people experience in January with these simple actions.

4 Easy Winter Self Care Tips (my simple hack on Ayurveda’s approach to Winter)

• Go to a warm liquid or veggie only diet for 1 or 2 days for a couple of weeks to lighten the load on your digestive tract. Why does this help?  70% plus of our immune system lives in the gut.   Help your digestive tract and  at a basic level you help immune response and generate less ama.
• Add hot water to your morning and your day. Hot water is one of the small miracles when dealing with the cold of winter. Bring a travel mug out with you to the car each morning and sip it to help stay warm as the car warms up.  Hot water has a very different effect in the body than hot coffee or hot tea.  Give hot water a try. Hot water balances the cold dryness of winter as well as moving lymph and melting ama.
• Break a sweat each morning. Circulation is enhanced by movement. Lymph moves ama out & your lymph loves a morning kick start.
• Protect your extremities your head, neck, hands and feet from the cold and dryness. Seems like common sense, but it is kind of surprising to see so many people out in the cold red nose dripping but no hat. Ayurveda would say stay warm in the cold, to  create less stress and ama.  Add a
  • Hat
  • Scarf
  • Gloves
  • Warm Footwear

when its really cold.  I actually keep back ups for hat, scarf, gloves, and extra socks in the car, so I know I will have them. If you forget your travel mug no worries.  Many a coffee drive- thru will happily give or sell you hot water or hot water with lemon, once you convince them that you really just want hot water.

Check out my blog Foot care after a cold winter walk for some more good ideas to stay warm and more easy winter self care tips.  Simple self care can really help us to stay well moving out of the holidays back into the day to day rhythms of winter.