Ep 15 - Your Ayurvedic Guide to a Calm, Balanced Summer - the Vata-Pitta Edition

Your Ayurvedic Summer Guide: Cool Pitta, Soothe Vata, Feel Better

Summer can be a beautiful time — but it’s also the season when fiery Pitta energy and light, mobile Vata tend to get stirred up, leaving many of us feeling anxious, irritated, constipated, or just plain exhausted.

In this episode, I’m giving you a practical Ayurvedic guide to help you enjoy Summer — without sacrificing your digestion, your mood, or your sleep.

Tune in to learn:

🌿 The key factors that cause constipation, anxiety, and sleep disruption during the Summer months — and how to prevent them
🌿 How to make smarter, more supportive choices when it comes to Summer drinks and cooling beverages
🌿 My best Ayurvedic tips for dealing with Summer travel constipation
🌿 What Summer FOMO (fear of missing out) has to do with your health — and how to shift that energy to feel grounded and nourished
🌿 The foods that truly support your body, digestion, and mind this season
🌿 Several surprising (and pleasurable!) remedies for releasing anger, frustration, and burnout

✨ Want to go deeper?

🌿 Join my newsletter for free Ayurvedic wisdom and seasonal tools → Sign up here
🌿 Curious about personalised support? Book a free consultation with me → Book your consult
🌿 Learn more about my work → Visit my website

Your Summer can feel cool, calm, and balanced — it starts with understanding your body’s needs. Let’s dive in together.

Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi and welcome to the Lenan Ayurveda Podcast. Here we explore how the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda can help us gain a deeper understanding of our body and open the gateway to finally feeling better.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I am thrilled to welcome you to this episode, which will be especially relevant for those of us living in the northern hemisphere and navigating the summer months right now. So about a week ago, I put up a story on my Instagram page about what it is that you would like to receive more support on through this podcast. And quite a few of you replied that you would love to have an episode on kind of like an emergency kit for mainly Vata and Pitta Balance during the hot summer months. So this is what I'm delivering. I'm hoping that today in this episode you will find um some inspiration for what to do if you are seeking to maintain a little bit more balance in your body mind when it's really hot outside. In fact, this week we were in Brussels, we're navigating a pretty big, pretty intense heat wave, especially for two days. Um and I have definitely taken quite a bit of the advice that I am going to share with you today, um, and it was really helpful and it never fails. So um, without further ado, let's dive into this episode. But also before we begin, I just want to encourage you to take this as inspiration and don't take this as a to-do list, okay? Take what is helpful, what feels inviting, and don't feel like you need to onboard all of these suggestions because doing that on your own can be a whole endeavor of its own. So take what's helpful and leave the rest. Summer is this really, really special time. I feel like it's um it's kind of like this full moon party of the year for many of us because that is the time when we get time off, we get to spend time away from our routine, and so we you know want to make it special, we want to make it extraordinary, and um, it is usually the time of indulgence. So today we'll be looking at how we can maintain that specialty of summer for us, but without overdoing on the indulgence so that we have less mess to clean up when the fall comes. According to Ayurveda, summer is the pitta time of year. Okay, so um as a quick refresher, pitta is the dosha, the energy pattern that is made up of fire and a bit of water. So it is the time of the year when what is expressed in our bodies and in nature is excess heat. Okay, and when we are in a pitta season, pitta is what is being expressed as symptoms, right? And vata is the energy pattern that is being accumulated. Okay, so as we go through the seasons, when we're in a pitta season, pitta is expressed, vata is accumulated. The next season, fall and early winter, is the vata season of the year, which is when most vata symptoms show up. So vata is expressed, and the next one in line, which is kha, is accumulating, right? So whenever we are in any given season, we want to look at both things. We want to look at what is being expressed, and we also want to look at what we are accumulating, right? Because when we um keep those things in balance, then the next season is lighter for us, the next season is less symptomatic. So that's why when we're in the summer, we definitely want to be looking at both. We want to be looking at pitta, but also vata. And these were actually the main requests for this episode: how to deal with excess vata and excess pitta during the summertime. So we'll all we always start with vata in Ayurveda because that is the dosha that moves the quickest, and that is the dosha that uh creates the most symptoms and pushes around other doshas when it is out of balance. So we always want to look at vata first. Okay, so as a reminder, vata is an energy pattern, an energy force that governs movement in our bodies and in nature. So vata is like the energy of air, it is light, it is dry, it is quick in nature, right, and it is also cold and rough. So in our bodies, vata is responsible for transportation of things from one place to another, right? The movement of blood, the movement of air, the movement of lymph, the movement of our limbs, right? So um that is at the at the level of the body, but then also there is vata in the mind, and vata in the mind is responsible for the movement of our thoughts, whether it's like a more harmonious flow, or when it becomes elevated, it's responsible for erratic flow of thoughts, which is which can be um seen as anxiety in modern medical terms, right? So when we're thinking of vata in the context of summer, the first two things that come to my mind are the disruption in routine and the dryness of the heat, which is what um many of us are dealing with um, you know, when it comes to like heat waves. So um the first one to look at um is the disruption of routine. So vata always gets disrupted when our rhythm is disrupted. In practical terms, um you can see it as, for example, when you travel, uh you might get symptoms of constipation, right? That is a vata imbalance because vata is um the dryness in your body, right? And erratic movement. So you can see how um not being able to eliminate properly and regularly is a symptom of disruption, right, of that force that governs movement and dryness. Okay, so this is an illustration of how the energy pattern that governs movement in our bodies, transportation of things from one place to another, and dryness, how it can be disrupted when there is a change in rhythm, right? So literally you changing your routine, your habits, the way you eat, what you eat, the times that you eat, all of these little disruptions that we have plenty of during our vacation time, right? Um, and that we don't necessarily view as problematic. And it's not to say that they are problematic, but simply uh witnessing that during the summer months there is a change in the way we go about our day, okay, and that qualifies as the change in rhythm. Another um external factor that could drastically change our habits is um being in the presence of really hot weather, right? And naturally, what happens when the temperatures outside um become very elevated, our digestive fire is weakened, and you will not only notice this in your digestion, but you will also notice this at your like mental level as well, right? Because um Agni is responsible for it all, it's responsible for us digesting food, but also our emotions and also our um processes of mental digestion, and the way you will see it expressed in your body when your digestifier is low, you will feel fatigued, unmotivated. Um, you might be more prone to jumpy emotions. We have definitely seen this in our family and um during this week when the temperatures were high, it's very easy to become more irritable, right? That is a natural reaction of the body when our acne is lower, we have less capacity to um to process what is happening, right? So when our acne becomes compromised, when our digestive fire becomes compromised, one thing that I see happen very often is that our motivation to do the right thing, which we know to be the right thing for us, that will decline in a monumental manner. So that means we're so much more likely to go for absolute convenience, right? So, for example, the way this expresses for me when the temperatures are really high, I lose my motivation for cooking. Absolutely. I of course am much less hungry as we all are when when you know it's hot outside. Um, that is also a manifestation of low acne. But you will also notice that you will want to do all the, and I'm not doing air quotes, all the wrong things, all the naughty things. You'll want to just like sit on your sofa and binge watch something, you'll want to, you know, eat the stuff that you know will not make you feel good. Um, and whenever there's any effort involved in you making um yourself feel better, you'll find that you want to avoid that effort. So you can recognize this as a weakened digestive fire. So let's look at how we can work with this, okay? How we can work with um vata dosha that is in access during the summer months. So the first line of medicine for stabilizing vata and for harmonizing vata is keeping a daily rhythm, and as I mentioned, that's kind of out of the window for you know many of us. Um, but we do want to find moments in the day where we can anchor ourselves, even if we're traveling, even if we're visiting family that has a completely different rhythm, right? What we do want to do is we do want to maintain some degree of regularity, some degree of rhythm. So allowing ourselves some margin to indulge and to and disrupt and um do the thing that we don't usually do, right? To have that variety in our life that is important. But what are the little moments in the day where you can maintain some degree of routine, some degree of rhythm that will signal safety for your body, right? So that can be done in really little ways. Um, for example, could you commit to having a regular lunchtime, right? That could be one very important thing that you maintain, right? Could it be that when you travel, you always find space for a regular afternoon nap, right? Which is naturally what you'll want to do when the heat is high. Could it be um like daily time in nature, like in the morning? Could you go for a morning walk every day when you're traveling? I did this when we're traveling in Thailand earlier this year. Um there was a huge disruption in in my rhythm, you know, starting with with um a time zone that was that like completely threw my body of whack. And you know, different foods, different cuisine, different culture, different um uh eating rhythm because we're like doing stuff during the day. So one thing that was really helpful for me was when I would wake up, I would go for a walk on the beach every morning, and I would like put my feet in into the water, I would walk on the sand barefoot, and um, that was a practice that allowed me to have some level of grounding, even though my activities during the day were very much um, you know, disruptive to the rhythm that I had at home, right? So there is space to allow some level of disruption, but there can be also space created to maintain some elements of your routine, and so that is something that you can reflect on in what little ways can you maintain perhaps you know the the elements of your routine that you enjoy the most? Like if you have a morning practice of some sort, um like um prayer or chanting or a breath practice, whatever it may be, or a yoga practice, uh could this be something that you continue doing, right? It could also very well be that you want to take a break from your morning practice during the time when you're on vacation. But which elements do you want to keep? Because they can serve as these points in the day to keep you anchored, and this helps with grounding and this helps with stabilizing that force in your body that is responsible for movement and for transportation of all matter in your body from point A to point B. Last year I started personally working with flower essences, and I have found um this tool to be really helpful because it's a tool that has a very high degree of personalization, right? So um, depending on what it is that you want to be working on, this is a remedy that works on the subtle level, and um you know there are many options out there of what you can be addressing with flower essences, um, but you can pick a very specific thing. So, for example, if you are um looking for grounding in an environment where you don't feel grounded, either because you know you traveled a long way and uh it's like uh an unfamiliar place, unfamiliar rhythm, like all these things that can make your vata go high, um then you can look for a specific flower essences remedy that works with grounding. And even if like it's difficult for you to maintain some of your um, you know, like eating schedule, bedtime schedule, all these, you know, cornerstone things, um, having a bottle of flower essences that you know particularly address that aspect of grounding um can be a good subtle remedy to have on the go as you go through your day and in a very ritualistic way taking out your bottle and you know having some of that flower essence that will remind you to uh drop back into your body, right? That itself is a very grounding ritual, like feeling your feet on the ground. What would be a beautiful way to remind yourself to drop back into your body? Right? That is a form of grounding, which is very balancing for vata. So the more times during the day you can do that, the better you will feel. Another thing that I think we really need to talk about when we're talking about balancing vata is definitely caffeine intake. Okay, so um during the summer months, what tends to happen, especially in those of us who have naturally more vata in us, we'll want to see more people, you know, sit on sunny terraces more, indulge more. Uh, there's a little, you know, fear of missing out, and um, you know, it's as I as I always say, it's good to indulge a little and also witness yourself, okay? Witness how you feel. If your sleep is disrupted, if your digestion is disrupted, if you've been traveling, um skip your coffee, okay. Um you don't need to go completely coffee less all summer, but if you check these boxes, sleep, anxiety, constipation, those are the symptoms that consumption of coffee will continue to worsen. If you really must, although I can't imagine a situation where we would absolutely like be obliged to do this, but if you must um choose decaf, um if you can't. Choose decaf, make sure it's more like early in the morning. Do coffee with some milk and sugar or some cardamom powder in it, or even just putting a couple of cardamom pods into your coffee. Um, and definitely drink water afterwards. It's very important to hydrate yourself afterwards because coffee is heating and drying, right? So it really adds to this like stimulation of the nervous system, which doesn't help with if we're struggling from disrupted sleep already, but it also dries out our body, right? So definitely for your um digestive health, if you have constipation tendencies, and for your skin health, right? We really want to make sure that um you hydrate yourself properly and that you don't overdo on this practice that is drying in nature. If you do suffer from travel-related constipation, like especially when you know you can notice how your digestion reacts when air travel is involved. I feel like that is probably the most illustrative, like the easiest way to see high vata in action. Like you're literally, you know, uh lifting your body up uh into like crazy heights, you're exposed to a lot of um air and ether elements out there as you're traveling at this high speed in the ethers, you know. Um, so that this is actually a very physically vata-elevating experience for our bodies, and that is why um air travel very often results in constipation if we look at it from the Ayurveda lens and from the lens of the elements of what is actually happening. So, if that is you, the first thing I would advise to look at is snacking. Okay, so we definitely want to be looking at the health of your acne, your digestifier, and strengthening that. Um, snacking um really can compromise our digestive capacity, right? So if you are feeling bloated and constipated, wait until you are hungry, like when you have this physical sensation of hunger to actually eat. Okay, that will help you as you navigate these symptoms, right? So, really looking for the physical sensation of hunger for your next meal. Um, there are definitely some herbs that um can help with that. Uh, there's quite a few of them in Ayurveda. And in Western herbalism, uh, too. I am, of course, not going to be recommending herbs uh through a podcast because that is, you know, that doesn't allow for a personalized approach, but I can share that when I travel I always take some trifola with me. Uh trifola is um a herb formulation that is traditionally used as a very gentle laxative. So for times like travel and when we know that there is a disruption of routine, or we know that there is like a disruption in the kind of foods that we will be eating. Um, I personally um use this remedy, I make it as tea and have it in the evening, and it kind of helps um our digestion get back on track, but there are definitely other options out there um that um can also help like with the lubrication of um the lining of the gut lining and reducing the dryness uh in the gut. So there is definitely um, you know, herbal options out there, but for that I really recommend that you seek uh professional advice so that it is um well tailored to what your body needs. Another thing that we want to look at if if you are suffering from travel constipation is to make sure that you are consuming foods that are more uncuous in nature, okay? So we want to include um um an adequate amount of good quality fats, and we definitely want to um make sure that you go easy on the raw foods, which um are very abundant in the summer, and it's definitely often foods that we might be drawn to, like raw salads, and sometimes it's totally fine. But if you are constipated, that is something you want to watch out for, okay. Another piece of advice that um I would give for anyone who is dealing with travel-induced constipation, is making sure that their drinks are at least room temperature or better warm. So I know there is a lot of temptation to have cold or iced drinks during the summer, but that is precisely what really dampens our digestifier. It really like if you um can visualize um like a fire in in a fire pit, and then you throwing like a handful of uh ice on it. That is exactly what happens to our digestifier when we consume iced drinks with food. So, again, if you must consume um your iced tea or whatever it is that you're drinking, um better to do it outside your eating hours. So make sure you're not consuming food and definitely not your like main meal where you're eating heavier foods and maybe like fried, you know, whatever seafood or or whatever it may be. Um, so definitely we want to separate anything iced and food, right? Because when there's a combination of the two, when we consume food and there is ice in the mix, it's not good news for our agni. So if you have a strong agni, you might be able to take more of these um what we call insults in Ayurveda, right? So, you know, you might have more margin of for doing the you know the wrong thing, so to speak. Um and your digestion might be able to take that, right? But but if you are having digestive symptoms, um then you definitely don't want to do that. And then, you know, since vata, we saw that it is a force that governs movement, that is quick, it is cold, and it is dry, right? So dryness, when we're working with vata, we definitely want to pay attention to how um we're lubricating our body, right? And we usually do this internally and externally, right? So internally we can lubricate our body by eating uncuous foods that contain um an adequate amount of good quality fat, right? And externally we can do this by oiling our body, right? So um what um I think is very nice to do in the summer in when the weather is hotter is picking an oil that doesn't feel too heavy. So, for example, sesame oil might um I mean it sesame oil is like very universal for all body types, but um, it can feel a little heavy um during the summer months when it's hot. So, what I really love is using sweet almond oil, and um you know you don't need to go through the motions of like oiling all of yourself and your scalp, like that might not be appetizing on a hot day. But what you can do is like every day you can pick a body part that you oil, right? So, for example, if you suffer from constipation when you travel, you can uh use some oil on your hand and just rub your belly in um you know clockwise. Um if you have trouble sleeping during the the summer uh the summertime, you can oil your feet before bed, right? You can oil your face. There are special um oils that you can use, uh, such as the kumkumadi oil, which I really love, uh, which is infused with saffron. You so you could include this element of external oliation during the summertime when it's hot and you perhaps don't want to feel oily. Um you could include it in small portions, right? Oiling a different part of your body uh every day. Um but this way you are um providing your body with this nourishment that comes from a nourishing substance and that gets absorbed into your deeper tissues, and that helps to keep your vata nicely balanced. The final thing when talking about balancing vata during the summer months that I wanted to address today is boundary work, and this is obviously not something that you'll be able to, you know, check off your list very quickly because that's for most of us, um, and especially women, that is I think the work of a lifetime, but we all have to start somewhere, so um, when it comes to summer, you know, where I think that boundary work can become very relevant is um especially when it comes to this fear of missing out. That is what we tend to buy into when we have higher vata because we're more anxious, we're less sure of ourselves, we're less sure of what is actually important, and then everything starts to feel very important, and that is when we engage in you know more activities than we have the energy budget for, that is when we overcommit, that is when we buy it off more than we can chew, and then the first things to go tend to be the practices that are actually important for us to feel well, and that will mainly be the practices that keep us grounded, so you know, our sleep, our rest, um our um, you know, the time that we carve out for solitude to honor that, if that's something that we need. Um so so what could be that gentle boundary that you could start working on this summer? Like, is there a pattern um that you can see in yourself? For example, if you haven't been sleeping well, can you decline an evening gathering, right? And instead focus on some nourishing practices for the evening that will prepare your nervous system for a good night's sleep. That is not easy to do. Those first instances of saying no can be incredibly hard, right? So, so that's why I say that usually it's the work of a lifetime, but summer is a great way to start practicing that. Another example that we kind of discussed at the beginning of this episode when our digestive fire is low and we're feeling really tired and exhausted, and we want to do the naughty thing, right? We want to eat some junk food, we want to sit on the sofa and scroll because it seems like we don't have the energy for it, right? So a boundary around that could be choosing to do what is actually supportive for us in that moment, right? That we deep down know to be true, as opposed to doing what our mind wants to do, of our Agni-impaired mind wants to do, right? And surrendering to that, to that chatter, to that dialogue of like you just keep doing this, right? And instead saying, Okay, I'm feeling really exhausted, I know a nap is in order, or yoga nidra is in order, or um, you know, going out in nature and putting my feet on the ground is in order, right? Um, so boundary work is another uh it's not a quick fix solution for vadas for sure, but we um you know, in order to maintain vata balance sustainably, we definitely need to be doing boundary work. All right, so let's move on to balancing pitta during the summer months. So, as a reminder, pitta is the energy force that governs transformation as vata governs movement in our bodies and in nature, pitta being made up of um the fire element with a bit of water, it governs the processes of turning one thing into another, right? So um in our bodies, this looks like metabolism, right? Digestive enzymes, gastric juices, um, and processes of digestion and absorption of nutrients, right? At the level of our minds, it's our ability to perceive information and digest it, right? We turn one thing into another. We take in through our senses and we transform it into something that we can use, right? So our ability, for example, to digest an emotion and turning it into something that will hopefully be helpful for us, right, is a sign that we have good digestive capacity. If we're not able to digest an emotion, right, if we are like living in constant sadness about something that happened, right, this is a sign that our digestive capacity is impaired in some way, okay? So we're not able to turn it into something that helps us move forward, right? And rather is blocking us. So again, it's not about negating an emotion or calling an emotion good or bad, but it's about taking what we've been given and turning it into something that we can use, and as everything, we definitely want our fire element in the body to remain balanced, right? Because when it's lacking, our digestive and metabolic capacity at the physical, mental, or emotional levels will be compromised. But when the fire element is excessive, we will become too reactive, right? So our body will can experience things like diarrhea, skin rashes, ulcers, um, and our mind, you know, can feel very quick and impulsive and frustrated and angry, right? Um, we we can become very explosive in nature, right? That is a sign that our digestive capacity has also been impaired, right? Because we're no longer able to digest things going through a process, right? So just like um, you know, when we have um a pitta kind of um pitta-induced diarrhea, right, when we just eat something and then we get diarrhea straight away, uh, that food has not been able to go through a process, right? It's literally an explosive reaction. And so summer, as I mentioned, is this pitta time when naturally there is an abundance of the fire element in nature, right, which is expressed as heat. And so this is also the time, the natural time of year, where we could see some pitta symptoms that are expressed in the body, right? So pitta as um as an energy pattern is hot, mobile, sharp, and light, right? So we want to, in order to keep that in balance when there is an ax of it, um, you know, when there is circumstance circumstantial axis of it, we want to be cooling things down and softening because fire is sharp, right? Um, so as with vata, we saw that we primarily want to ground and lubricate because it is very um like moving and frail and dry, right? With bitta, we want to be cooling down and softening. Okay, so this can be done in um in many ways. For example, um avoiding what is spicy in nature, right? So anything that has very intense tastes, right? Intensely salty, intensely sour, intensely pungent, right? All of these foods that um feel very um very invigorating for the taste buds. So invigorating is good, but when it becomes a bit much, um that can elevate bitta dosha, right? Um when it comes to um again, foods and beverages, right? What we want to look out for is alcohol and coffee, right? So alcohol is very fiery in nature, and summer is the time when um we are um tempted, you know, because that is the time when alcohol is made um in like very enticing forms, right? In like pretty cocktails and and fruity and and delicious, and um, you know, it can be mixed with stuff that doesn't make it feel like alcohol. Um, you know, so it now is the time when drinking alcohol is probably the most attractive, right? And the most tempting. But if you are an Individual who is suffering already from this internal heat, right? Whether it's expressing through physically through your body or through your mind, keep in mind that alcohol is heating to the body, as is coffee. Okay. So the very first thing that we can do when we are working with too much pitta in the summer is to first and foremost avoid the things that um make it go even higher, right? So that is avoiding the very intense taste, especially like the spicy stuff, and then avoiding to the extent that we can alcohol and caffeine. Now, especially if you're experiencing um pita symptoms at the mental level, okay, so if you have a buildup of frustration and anger, irritability during this time of year, what um you want to be observing is um how can you reduce the stimulation of your senses, right? What keeps you stimulated, and are you in a position to put a gentle boundary around that at least temporarily, okay? If you judge that you are overstimulated, okay, but if you um have the symptoms of like explosiveness in your character um during this time of year, that is a sign that there is some level of overstimulation for sure. So um a very good question um for pitta-dominated people is to ask yourself: can I do less than I envisaged? Can I do less than I had planned for? Right? So if your inner heat is high, you're not gonna reduce it by doing more, okay? And you're gonna want to do more because that is where the fiery momentum is taking you. It's taking you every day in that direction of doing more and more, right? But you need to allow and create some space for your downtime so that you can rest your senses, so that you can um make space available to process what is behind your frustration and your anger. Because very often what happens is that deep down, behind a pitta imbalance, there's actually a vata imbalance that is pushing the pitta around, right? And vata has to do with fear. So very often when we're like angry and frustrated, it's actually because we have the fear of you know losing control or the fear of surrender to what is, right? So these are things that you can explore, whether it's you know, through journaling or um in your in your support circle, uh, or with with your therapist or whatever it may be. Um but you know, creating that space for that process to happen, right? Of understanding what is behind your frustration, basically digesting your frustration, right? This is what it is. Frustration is a symptom of indigestion of something. I've been really loving my own Ayurveda teachers approach when it comes to uh balancing the doshas, which is rooted in looking at what would be helpful instead of looking at what would not be helpful, and I feel like you know there is merit to both um you know, both ways of looking at the situation, and I think um you know there are times when both of these can be very useful, but especially when we're working with pittas, I feel like you know, since there is this softening that needs to happen, what can be really helpful is instead of looking at what is going wrong, you can look at what it is that you want to call in, right? And what you want to call in with access pitta is all things water, okay, because water is cooling and soothing in nature, it is lubricating, it is calming, right, for that access fire, and it is also soft, right? So being by a water source, uh putting sounds of like running water on on your playlist as you're doing things around the house, um, or listening to sounds of rain, um, hydrating yourself with water, perhaps infused with like you can put in some cucumber slices in it, or some mint mint leaves, or even I did that the other day. I put in some rose petals and left it that left them to infuse over a couple of hours, and it gives like a very very subtle taste, but it's a most definite invitation to soften, right? Um, still speaking of infusions and working with pitta, what I have been making um during this heat wave of hours here this week, um, I have been making quite a few um cold brews. So I take a mix of pitta balancing herbs, right? And that can be hibiscus, it can be anything floral, really, like rose or chamomile, uh, lemon balm is a good one, lemongrass. Um, you can look at what is growing locally where you are, or you can look at um traditional Ayurvedic blends. Um, and I just let them sit overnight in filtered water. Uh, so without boiling the water, I let them brew in cold water, and that during the night allows these herbs to really make this water come alive with all of their you know qualities and properties. Um, because you know when when we uh brew a tea with boiling water, that process is much quicker, it's much more intense because there is that heat, right? So with heat we transform things more quickly, but in return, some some things are lost there, right? But when that process is um you know in cold water and over time, those qualities of those herbs are transferred into the water more slowly, and they give a taste that is much deeper, the taste that is much more alive to the taste buds. So, um, I would definitely encourage you to try that with any herb that you enjoy. Um, and um you can sip that throughout the day at room temperature, and that is going to be so much better for you for your body and for your digestifier than anything iced that you might get your hands on. I again want to bring up flower essences, um, especially during the summer. Like, summer feels like such a gorgeous time to try out flower essences, and I personally have experienced working with um one remedy that is designed to address a very particular side of pitta, uh, which can express itself as rigidity when we want things to go our way, and when they don't, we get mad, right? So, that is definitely something that um can be a pattern in the summer, right? When pitta is high, that is one way uh for pitta to express itself. So I have worked with um rock water um from the Bach Flower Essences, and I really loved it because um it really helped me when I established that um I had an afternoon ritual with this particular flower essence, and it really was a huge tool in my softening journey, um, especially around my parenting, you know, when when we definitely get to experience a lot of things that don't go the way we would like them to, right? So if um you do have like rigidity or sharpness manifesting in your you know communication or your relationships, that is something that um you could explore if you're feeling called to. Um, and I really love even this name rock water because it really illustrates um beautifully how in nature water is able to flow around any rocks that it has in its path, and then it just continues to flow in a harmonious way, and we can also learn to be like that, whatever is in our path, we can find a way to flow around it in a harmonious way, as opposed to like crash into it and make a big deal and um you know and and create more of that frustration for everyone around us. So um I want to share the stool, even though I'm not like I'm not trained in flower essences, so I'm not giving professional advice, but I'm just sharing what uh has helped me on my path, on my journey, and managing certain symptoms of Pitta. And another huge piece of working with Pitta is practicing surrender because Pitta wants to do the exact opposite, it wants to take control and turn something into something else, right? Um but the medicine for Pitta in this soothing and um softening um process is learning to surrender to what is, right? So there are many practices um that can help us on this journey of learning to surrender because again, um just like boundary work, this isn't a thing that we can just check off our list, this is uh usually a lifelong lesson. Um but today I can share some of the practices that I myself use. Um, so one of them is Yoga Nidra that has been um incredibly useful for me personally and for my clients as well. Um, on their journey of learning to be um at peace with you know with the cards that they've been dealt. Um, and it's great for those with high vata and it's great for those with high pitta alike. So um my personally favorite time to do this is in the afternoons. Uh, during the school year, um, it's you know before my kids get back from school, and during the summer months when the heat is high, that is equally a great time to do it uh in the afternoons because that is when we tend to have a bit less energy. Um so Yoganidra can be a great um tool in learning that lesson of surrender and um also working on your capacity to practice pause, right? So that will come as you implement various Ayurvedic tools, like even if you choose, for example, to work with flower essences, uh, that is also a tool in learning to practice pause, right? Because you have to make space for that ritual of like opening your bottle and putting your drops under your tongue, or you know, putting them in in your glass of water or your tea or whatever. Um, so all of these daily rituals, like the more you ritualize your life, the more you're going to develop this capacity to pause, right? To pause and um think, right, and to evaluate. Um, like before you start your day, um before you sit down to eat, like what checking in with yourself, what is your energy as you sit down to eat. Um just thinking again about like how you greet yourself in the mornings. I um again will bring in the flower essences bit. I uh have a special remedy that has to do with self-acceptance, and so one of my rituals in the morning is looking in the mirror, using that flower essence, um, and you know, reminding myself to be accepting of what I see in that mirror, right? So this is just an illustration of how you can, you know, using very different techniques, you can start weaving in that pause during your day so that you are not functioning on autopilot, right? And developing this capacity for pausing will help you enormously in participating with Access Pitta, and you will see that your um mind will feel more balanced, there will be less of these jumpy reactions, right? Um so your pitta mind will want like a list of solutions, like a to-do list and a list of herbs and products to balance it, like it will want to obtain clear answers of how to deal with what it is that you're dealing with, right? Um, but a lot of the work with the pitta dosha is actually about the opposite, it's about surrendering to the softening and giving yourself the space to look for the answers that you already have, the answers within, and not necessarily seeking answers from the outside world. So, of course, we do need the guidance, we do need um, you know, some external answers when we really don't know, but um the pitter mind will want a to-do list, right? And it can be a challenge, but that is where its medicine lies to create the space for um you know looking for these answers within. Because looking for these answers within requires a tremendous amount of softening. If after hearing this episode you noticed a desire to be supported on your journey, uh I offer a free month tailored program where you'll get to benefit from individualized support from me on your Ayurvedic journey of developing a deeper understanding of your body, of the way it works, of what um keeps it in a balanced state and what can throw it off balance, and just finding the joy of feeling better in your skin. So, my program is called Awaken Your Health and it is open for enrollment, and you can book a free call with me where we will have a chat about what it is that you're currently experiencing and whether this container would be a good fit for you or not. I am wishing you a beautiful start to your summer, stay healthy, stay balanced, take good care of yourself, and I look forward to connecting with you in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you decide to try some tips from this episode, I would love to know how that went. You can reach out to me either via Instagram or via email. I would love to hear your personal stories. All right, have a beautiful day and see you next time.