FEELING IRRITABLE? TRY THIS!
It’s gettin’ hot in here
This week has been… well… irritating.
My kids are cranky.
My husband is short tempered.
My neighbors are telling me about their cranky kids and impatient selves.
Even with my morning self care and exercise routine dialed in, I can feel my fuse is short too.
What the heck is going on?
It’s times like this I often hear the word “retrograde” tossed around. That there’s this universal bad juju energy making us all spicy.
Now that could well be true - I don’t know enough to comment.
But in reflecting on our current environment - the Ayurvedic perspective is this:
We’ve all got PITTA AGGRAVATION.
Ayurveda teaches that like increases like. And Pitta is all about fire.
In the last two weeks the temperature shot up. Our external environment is hot, and so our internal environment gets hot too. We’ve added fuel to this fire with increased beers on the patio at night (alcohol is like lighter fluid for pitta), and as a result, an extra cup of coffee in the morning (how bout that, coffee is too).
Heat outside breeds heat inside. Heat in the gut breeds heat in the mind. When it’s hot outside, you’re more likely to be “hot-headed”.
Thankfully, Ayurveda offers us a few tools to stay cool as a cucumber.
Check out today’s 5min video with a few tips for when you’re feeling irritable:
No time to watch?
Here’s the gist:
Pitta is pacified with all things sweet and cooling.
try swapping your coffee out with a matcha this week (a much more grounded form of caffeine), and add some rose petals and shatavari to calm those nerves. Don’t want to make your own? Pop into the latte shop to order some.
add some cucumber or mint (or both) to your room temp water
drop the cardio in favor of some heart opening yoga stretches
try sitali pranayama - a.k.a TACO BREATH (not what it sounds like lol). Stick out your tongue and curl up the sides into a taco shell shape. suck in through the tongue, and then exhale through the nose with a smile on your face.
Often in the face of stress we are advised to “focus only on that which you can control”.
Good advice - except high pitta people are ALWAYS DOING THIS… to the point of being overbearing control monsters (points finger at self).
The mantra for you to embrace, dear pitta?
Today I will focus only on that which I can surrender.
Seek joyful moments.
Put your feet in the cool grass.
Take some deep, cleansing breaths.
You can put out your own fire today, pitta.
These little practices are more powerful than you think.
Want to learn more about the Ayurvedic doshas - Pitta, Vata and Kapha?