Let's face it, summer can bring some of it's own unique health challenges. And, if you live somewhere that it is warm most of the year, like Florida, Texas, or the Tropics, you may experience a flare up of Pitta-type disorders.
In Ayurveda, summer is pitta season. Even if you aren't sure what your primary dosha is you can never go wrong in Ayurveda by following a seasonal approach to your self care routine and diet.
Some conditions that may flare up during hot summer months are skin disorders like psoriasis, inflammations like arthritis, and emotions like anger,or "getting hot under the collar". These are often a result of an imbalanced pitts dosha, and too much heat in the body.
In this ancient healing system you use the law of opposites to bring balance. Heat related disorders are reversed by adding coolness. One of the easiest and simplest approaches for relieving these conditions is to introduce the cooling properties of coconut into your daily routine.
1. Add fresh, raw, shredded coconut to salads, smoothies, fruit, granola or yogurt.
2. Add coconut milk to your favorite recipes....use it in a marinade to counter the warming properties of foods cooked on the grill. (Yes, eating too much grilled meat, chicken, and fish adds heat to your body......"dogs", sausage, and burgers even more so).
3. Add the Ayurvedic self care practice of iAbhyanga to your routine, use Brahmi Coconut oil.
Abhyanga is a self massage that is recommended daily however, you can see benefits from just a few times a week. Brahmi Coconut Oil is a pitta-soothing oil that is beneficial or calming and clearing the mind and enhancing peaceful meditation.
Who doesn't need some of that? Brahmi is said to bestow intelligence upon its user. Coconut oil is naturally cooling.
4. Use coconut oil as a moisturizer after your shower while still damp.
5. Apply Brahmi Coconut oil to your feet at night before bed. Massage it into your feet.
6. Use as an after sun moisturizer., to calm and cool the skin. Sunscreen prevents burning but a day in the sun heats up the internal organs and produces excess heat. Apply generously after a day in the sun and massage into your skin using circular motion. Shower in luke warm water, use as little soap as possible so it doesn't strip away the benefits of the oil.
7. And if you do happen to get a sunburn, this is the best natural treatment to have on hand in your medicine cabinet... add a little lavender oil to it and you'll feel relief quickly.
The benefits of adding coconut to your diet and self care routine are cumulative, the more you do it the better the results.
