When the Heat Feels Like Overwhelm

How I listen to my body when the temperature rises, and why cooling foods are only half the solution.

It’s been hot here in Chicago. The kind of heat that steams your patience. The feels-like temp has been hovering above 90°F (32.2°C) with a thick humidity that clings.

And the pitta in me? Not having it.

When I stayed out too long, it wasn’t just my hair sticking to my neck, my patience was evaporating too. I turned into a full-on pitta brat.

Pitta, by the way, is Ayurveda for a constitution that runs hot — in mind and body. Under stress, Vata gets anxious, Kapha gets tired, and Pitta? Pitta gets pissed.

My nervous system felt like it was melting. What made this year’s heat different was that it didn’t break. It just stayed, a slow boil.

Yes, I’m blaming the weather.

That’s classic dysregulated pitta; we externalize the heat.

But the deeper practice asks me to pause and wonder:

What if the real meltdown isn’t the outer heat but the inner kind that never got felt, processed, or released?

What if irritability is not a flaw, but a flare, asking us to notice?

Years ago, I would’ve dealt with this by blasting the AC and binge-watching something cold and empty, iced drink in hand, numbing.

Now? I pause. I listen. I soften.

I notice my breath. I meet it with sitali, a cooling breath. As I inhale through the curled tongue, and exhale slowly through my nostrils, I say inwardly:

I soften.

• Sometimes I sit with my eyes closed.

• Other times, I lie down and let my weight melt into savasana.

• If I’m outside, I slow my walk and slow my mind. I become present. I soften.

• If I’m in a conversation, I shift from quick replies to quiet listening.

Cooling foods can help. Absolutely. But they’re not the whole medicine. Because Pitta doesn’t just live in your digestive fire. It lives in the urgency, the perfectionism, the need to control.

You can’t out-smoothie your inner critic. A cucumber won’t cool a mind on fire with deadlines and shame.

So what does help?

1. Recalibrate beyond food:

• Slow your breath. Let yourself drop into parasympathetic ease.

• Remember, urgency isn’t your personality. It’s a pattern. A response to what once felt unsafe.

• Learn what softening feels like in your body.

• Give yourself slow yeses.

• Let presence be your peppermint tea.

2. Here’s a gentle kit. It’s not a checklist, but a nudge.

• Drink plenty of water. Room temp or warm. It helps your digestion cool from the inside out. Add lemon, lime, cucumber, or even a pinch of salt. FYI: Drinking cold may feel good in the moment, but it makes your digestion sluggish and causes your body to respond to the shock of ice-cold by creating heat.

• Eat lightly: white basmati rice, quinoa, and water-rich veggies like cucumber, celery, zucchini.

• Practice sitali breath. Curl the tongue, inhale through it, exhale slowly through the nostrils. Or try sitkari: teeth lightly pressed, lips slightly apart, breath flowing in. Again, exhale through the nose.

• Pause for a minute. Stillness clears. It clarifies. It cools. It lets time take part in the healing.

3. And if your plate can be a part of your prayer, here are two offerings:

• Coconut Rose Chia Pudding
  Soak 3 tablespoons of chia seeds in 1 cup of full fat, canned coconut milk (rich and grounding for digestion) with a splash of rose water. Let sit for 4 hours or overnight. Top with shredded coconut and a few slices of cooling pear.

• Cilantro Mint Rice
  Blend a handful of cilantro and mint with lime juice and a pinch of salt. Stir into warm, cooked white basmati rice. Serve with cucumber slices on the side.

Heat is a portal. A revealer. It strips away what no longer serves.

So I ask gently:

What is your fire trying to purify?

• Maybe it’s the compulsion to rush.

• Maybe it’s the grip of proving.

• Maybe it’s just the belief that presence isn’t enough.

So I breathe again. I soften again.

And I remind myself, again and again that

Even my overwhelm is sacred. It doesn’t need to be erased. Just alchemized.

Love, Savitree