SIMPLE 5-SENSES CLEANSE FOR SPRING
Time to press the reset button.
Originating in India, Ayurveda is the 7,000 year-old study of the human body in relation to its surroundings.
Ayurveda teaches that the human mind and body are greatly influenced by our environment. Everything we take in with each of the 5 senses - what we see, hear, taste, smell and touch - alters the state of our health and sense of balanced well-being.
Health isn’t just about diet and exercise. The music you listen to, the feel of your pants on your skin, the view of the room you’re sitting in all set the tone for either healthy function or dysfunction in the mind, which leads to either health or dysfunction of the physical body.
One of the largest environmental influencers observed over the evolution of our culture is the change of seasons. Prolonged exposure to different weather patterns brings about different symptoms in the body and mind.
Ayurveda teaches that like increases like; when there is excess heat, cold, or moist in the environment, heat, cold and moisture accumulate in the body and mind. An example of this is the common experience of seasonal allergies in spring. Accumulation of moisture in the environment leads to congestion in the body. Another common example is the experience of Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD, a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year exhibit depressive symptoms at the same time each year, most commonly in winter. Common symptoms include sleeping too much and having little to no energy, and overeating. The cold and ungrounding nature of winter penetrates the body and mental state, leaving us in a state of depression, anxiety or even grief.
A fundamental tenet of Ayurvedic philosophy is that like increases like and opposites balance. In Ayurvedic tradition, we engage in deep cleansing practices two times a year (in the spring and in the fall), to flush and detoxify the body and mind of built-up mucus, toxins, weight, undigested food and undigested emotions from seasons passed.
In the spring there are many ways to provide a detoxifying and refreshing experience to the senses, flushing away those winter woes and stepping into nature’s New Year with a fresh perspective. If you’re experiencing heaviness, mental fogginess or stagnancy, loneliness, stuck-ness, grief, congestion, aches and pains, an inability to get out of bed in the morning, anxiety or depression, consider starting with a 5-senses cleanse as you move into spring.
Simple Ayurvedic Spring 5-Senses Cleanse
1. Cleanse your vision
In Ben Hardy’s book, Willpower Doesn’t Work, he explains that we are casualties of our environment.
“If you have huge amounts of clothes overflowing from your closet, this costs you tons
of physical space. But it also costs you mental and emotional space to sort
through it all each morning to find an outfit, to move piles from one area to
another, to think about the pieces you know you should get rid of but you're
not quite ready to let go yet… it all takes up more mental space than you think.”
Do you have spaces in your home that cause more distress than ease? This month choose 1-3 areas of the home to cleanse of clutter, and intentionally increase ease and calm through placement of items that inspire you.
2. Cleanse your hearing
Closely tied to your sense of sight, we often are taking in a TON of stimulation via our ears. Do you find yourself working through the morning, taking your break only to scroll on social media watching reels or catching a quick podcast or tv show, coming home to the tv or music playing in the background while you tidy the kitchen; all the while listening to your spouse or children recount their days? It’s all to easy to move through our days without any breaks in stimulation, and this can wreak havoc on the nervous system and leave us feeling overwhelmed and avoidant.
For the month ahead, make space for healthy digestion and processing of your life experience by finding breaks for silence. Try driving your car with no background music, or taking a walk without your phone regularly.
3. Cleanse your taste
Spring is the optimal time for a reset to the taste buds. With the heaviness of late winter comes cravings for heavy, sweet, salty foods. Thankfully the earth provides us the medicine we seek seasonally. Bitter spring greens and young sprouts might be exactly what your body is really craving.
Head to your local health food shop for dandelion root tea, a master liver cleansing herb that serves to stoke healthy digestion and healthy cravings. Try growing some countertop sprouts for a daily energy boost. Studies show sprouts carry up to 300x the energy of the grown plant. Instead of that 2pm sugar binge, chomp a handful of vibrant sprouts.
4. Cleanse your smell
The winter often means closed windows, recirculated air, and less time spent outdoors. Breathing stale air can cause headaches, fatigue, dry skin and irritation of the respiratory and nasal tract, resulting in coughing and nasal and sinus congestion. The opportunity to opens the windows as warm weather approaches is a welcome one, plus with spring comes vibrant floral scents that naturally increase pleasure hormones.
If things have been feeling a little stagnant or even upsetting in your home, introduce a few rose or bergamot essential oils to your diffuser, or better yet, buy yourself some flowers, further increasing visual pleasure in your space as well. Even on cooler days, you might consider sleeping with the window open a crack, ensuring that you have enough cozy blankets to keep your body warm yet well oxygenated.
5. Cleanse your touch
As primates on the earth, it’s natural that we go into a form of hibernation through the winter. Move less. Expend less energy. Which naturally leads to stagnancy in the body, circulation issues, accumulation of weight when paired with comfort eating, and often decreased immunity due to stagnant lymph.
A wonderful Ayurvedic practice for moving stagnant lymph and increasing circulation is the act of garshana or dry brushing. Beyond the benefits of improving circulation and detoxification of the body, dry brushing exfoliates and invigorates the skin, and takes us out of our heads and into our bodies in a lively sensual experience!
Ayurveda provides numerous SIMPLE yet oh so effective practices that bring year-round balance to the human body. No new gimmicks. No equipment. Just simple actions for being well. Learn more about the Ayurvedic approach to living with a free class here.