5 Top Tips to Feel Better in Winter

It’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere and if you struggle to feel vital, happy and energised then here are our five top tips for the yogic lifestyle way of getting through winter with great energy.

Winter can be a hard season, the days get shorter, the nights are longer and they get really cold and it can be really stressful and hard on the body physically and also on the mind.

You can get quite depressed when there's not so much sun. It’s the season of Vata which is dry and windy and there's a lot of movement plus the season of Kapha which is cold, wet, still and earthy. Those two energies can be quite oppressive when they are together. They’re missing the Pita of summer.

To keep healthy and well in winter you can add some of that fire back into your life.

Tip 1: spice up your life

Ayurveda, an ancient um practice of well-being and keeping your body and mind healthy, suggests that you spice up your life.  Things like cinnamon and paprika and ginger black pepper, turmeric and chilli, adding cayenne and some nutmeg. These foods give your digestion a bit of a lift. Trying to get that fire going and keep it going because everything slows down in Winter.

Tip 2: rest, restore and renew

This is the season of hibernation. With the internet and power and TV most of us are staying up well into the night because we can. It's not so good when it comes to our body's natural cycle of needing to go into the  darkness and needing to go into that time to restore.  The annual cycle of winter helps us to slow down and give our bodies some time to rejuvenate. So if you feel the urge to go home,  put your jammies on and sit on the couch, always do a bit of yoga first! Honour yourself, go to bed earlier yeah look after yourself.

Tip 3: eat well

In Ayurveda the idea is to have some quite dense protein but without it feeling too stodgy. Include sesame oil, coconut oil, having ghee which is the clarified butter, grazing on some nuts maybe almonds walnuts cashew nuts so you're getting some densely packed protein but in something that's quite light to eat.  Add some seeds, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds. Eat some bananas, some dates and avocado.  Add some more green things to your diet, adding green vegetables lightly cooked or steamed so that they're not over overdone.  The nutrients are still in there. Have some easily digestible grains and also adding a little bit of sweetness with honey or molasses.

Tip 4: add some colour, add some warmth into your day

When the days are grey and you feel a little low fire up your mood with colourful clothing and add splashes of colour to your home decor.  Have candles burning and uplifting fragrant oils in the oil burner. Maybe you have a salt lamp going all day so that there's a warmth in the room.

Tip 5:  keep the extremities of your body warm

You can often feel a bit scattered and out of sorts in winter time. So a good way of doing of of making a change is to wear a woolly head or something some kind of head or scarf around your neck or over your ears. Keeping your hands and feet warm brings you back into yourself. It helps you feel centred and at ease with your life.

So five simple tips for keeping your yourself well and well nourished during winter time.

And a bonus tip: do some yoga.

Keep moving. It doesn't have to be hard.  We're going to encourage you to come home and do some yoga at home. We have 20-minute yoga classes on our Yoga to Transform YouTube channel.  Yoga keeps the body vital, improves breathing and flexibility. 

We'd love to hear about the ones that you choose, leave us a comment or write to us [email protected] sharing your top tips for staying healthy in winter!