Preparing your mind and body for the heat of summer
How to cool yourself from the inside out
Our thoughts, actions, and experiences collectively shape who we are. What we consume, think about, and absorb all contribute to our personal development and identity. The more you take in certain qualities, the more it becomes your life experience. With this in mind, you have the power to change your quality of life by managing what you take in.
The goal is to establish and maintain internal balance and comfort.
Usually when I talk about comfort, I often refer to pushing beyond its boundaries to grow and unlock your most radiant potential.
The comfort I describe in this article, however, refers to a state of internal regulation and balance that enables you to be strong enough to experience Joy, mental clarity, and enhanced capacity to push beyond your boundaries to grow.
The seasons of the year are not often talked about in this light. This oversight can be the difference between feeling well enough to enjoy your life and wondering why everything always feels so hard.
Let’s focus on Summer, since it’s upcoming.
Seasons and Well-Being: Exploring the Interconnectedness
In the summer, the hot weather and scorching sun can mess with how we feel. Our bodies go into heat-boosting mode, giving us problems like inflammation, irritation, exhaustion, heartburn, ulcers, excessive thirst and sweating, skin rashes, loose stools, acid stomach, and red eye. If you're one of those people who gets cranky and sweaty easily, and you're prone to heartburn, it's extra important to find ways to cool down.
Think: what’s cooling? And I’m not talking about air conditioning and iced lattes.
While I’m not saying don’t have an iced latte, or don’t use a/c, these are in-the-moment solutions that don’t translate beyond that, and depending on your mind-body constitution, can aggravate your sense of well-being. So let’s go beyond that, shall we?
For instance, if you’re already prone to heat, and you love spicy and fried foods, unfortunately these are not cooling foods, so you’ll do better in every sense of the word by reducing spicy and fried foods. On the other hand, if you’re the person that gets cold easily, lucky you, the heat of summer naturally balances your mind-body constitution and you have more wiggle room than your counterpart. What you need to be mindful of, however, is the air conditioning, fans, drafts, and ice-cold drinks; people who get cold easily don’t do well with these. Not only will you feel cold, but you’ll wonder where your energy and focus went.
At the end of the day, it’s all about energy and focus because these translate to feeling good. Paying attention to what you take in, and how they impact your body, directly affects the mind and emotions, therefore your ability to feel good. Which translates to better relationships in every aspect of life.
How to cool yourself from the inside out during the summer months
Food & Drink
Choose cooling foods, like cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, asparagus, greens, zucchini, green beans, almonds, raw honey, buttermilk, and leafy greens. Hummus is a cooling food when paired with hydrating foods like cucumbers (instead of chips). For meat eaters, white fish and white meats are more cooling. Eating what’s in season for summer gives you more energy, strength, focus, good digestion and naturally keeps you cool. Not sure what’s all in season? Go to your local farmer’s market - they sell what they grow, in season. Please note that cold is not the same as cooling. Cold foods, i.e. cold leftovers and iced drinks, weaken digestion, so if your digestion is already challenged, avoid cold foods and lean into cool or room temperature fresh foods if you’re not in the mood for temperature-hot food.
Think room temperature or cool drinks instead of ice cold. Your body is always working to regulate your body temperature. When you put ice in your drink, your body has to work harder to regulate. Ice cold drinks disrupt digestion, slow down metabolism, and constrict the blood vessels, slowing down blood flow and making it harder to absorb nutrients. There are other ways to cool yourself down with ice, like icing the back of your neck. Drink cool water infused with cucumber, lime, or mint. Coconut water, kefir, and goat’s milk are also cooling. Herbal teas are cooling. So are white, green, and the lighter oolong teas. Hot drinks, btw, will make you sweat, which cools the body by getting rid of excess heat. In similar and opposite fashion, I take a cold shower in the winters, and in response, my body heats up to keep me warmer throughout the cold winter days. On that note, caffeine is warming. Hot coffee is more cooling than iced. I understand that’s not how you experience it while you’re drinking it under the scorching sun; but we’re thinking beyond the moment..
Eat juicy and sweet fruits, not dry or sour fruits: i.e. avocados (an amazing superfood), cherries, berries, mangoes, pineapple, melon. And also this depends on your constitution. Check in with yourself. The best way to know is how you feel afterwards rather than during.
Use cooling spices like coriander, dill, fennel, and mint instead of hot spices like cayenne, garlic, and peppers.
Lifestyle
Exercise in the cooler times of the day: morning or evening.
Hatha yoga: Do moon (cooling) instead of sun salutations (heating)
Meditate. It cools the mind and makes you more aware of what your body needs.
Pranayam: The Sitali breath cools the body. Stick the tongue out and roll up both sides of the tongue. If you can’t, fake it, or pucker the lips as if you’re drinking through a straw. Inhale thru the tongue or puckered lips, taking that breath in fully and down past your diaphragm. Close the mouth and exhale slowly and completely through the nostrils. Continue for 1-5 minutes.
How to get sun healthily: early morning sun and 10-15 min during the day w/o sunscreen will provide you with the nourishment of the sun without harm. In fact, it’s good for you. According to Dr. John Douillard, it’s good to expose yourself to 10-15 minutes (longer if you have darker skin) of unprotected sun a day between 10 and 2 pm. To maximize benefits of the sun, do not wash off the sun or jump in the water for an hour after exposure. If you’re staying out longer, then add sunscreen. That said, better to sit in shade rather than sunscreen to avoid the absorption of carcinogenic chemicals in these products whenever possible.
Keeping the body regulated from the inside out gives you the balance, good health, and internal comfort you need to experience clarity of mind and connect with the world in your most authentic power. It makes for a more joyful experience of life.
You can choose to think that listening to your body and honoring the rhythms of the seasons denies you some of life’s momentary pleasures, especially when you’re trying to have as much fun as you can in the summer. Though we aren’t really talking about taking anything away as much as we are making mindful connections to what we take in with the quality of the experiences we’re having.
I choose to think that there is nothing more pleasurable, delicious, and fun than feeling great without the crash.
Love, Savitree
Cooling
Thanks! What are the moon cooking salutations?