Winter, both from an Ayurvedic perspective and Traditional Chinese Medicine lens, is a time that requires extra time of stillness, rest, and inwardness. This can be quite the opposite of what many of us are accustomed to, as the amount of social gatherings increases during the festive season and what ‘comes in’ in the form of food and sensory./social stimulation can be quite a lot.  So, to counter-balance the energies, we can really benefit from  having some quiet, restful time to down-regulate our nervous system and build the sustenance that will hold us throughout this season.  

Winter brings colder, windy, damper days. In Ayurveda, these qualities can accumulate kapha and aggravate Vata dosha. When Kapha builds up, you may feel heaviness, sluggishness and a tendency toward congestion or lethargy. On the other hand, when Vata increases, we can feel it as dry skin or joints, restlessness, scattered thoughts, irregular…