Seasonal Behaviour

Ritucharya

The winds of change are regularly upon us. The seasons consistently roll from one into another. Ayurveda recognises that this has a profound effect on our health and recommends many helpful suggestions for how we can adapt our lifestyle to stay balanced in each season. Ayurveda makes this person specific; ie there is not just one lifestyle or diet that fits everybody. This is because Ayurveda perceives everybody as individuals with a unique constitutional makeup or dosha. There is only one you!

Your constitution (dosha) and the seasons are intimately related. Your health is affected by the qualities of the climate you live in; your inner world is influenced by your outer environment. For example, when the air is damp, cold and wet it increases these qualities in your body. Hence the increase in mucus, catarrh and colds in winter.

The Ayurvedic understanding of the disease process is that certain doshic qualities accumulate in one season and are then aggravated in the next. See the table below for a full explanation. This table is for the seasons in the UK. There are different patterns for different climates. To understand these patterns you have to watch nature and this is at the heart of learning how to live Ayurvedically. Start to observe the different qualities of nature and you will start to understand the principles of Ayurveda.

The trick to staying healthy is to stay one step ahead. Reduce the dosha that will be imbalanced in the following season before it gets aggravated. Hence follow a pitta reducing diet in early spring before it gets aggravated in late spring with symptoms of spring fevers and hayfever. Follow a vata reducing diet the summer before it gets aggravated in the autumn with patterns of dry skin, flare ups of dry eczema, dry coughs and cracked soles of the feet. Follow a kapha redu