Tap into Your Strength & Stability with this Yoga Practice for Spring

I don’t know about you, but it has been a slog through low energy and heaviness this Spring. (So much 45 degree rainy weather here!) Getting me going feels like trying to light a fire with a wet piece of wood. . .

So, I turned to this yoga practice designed to call upon the positive qualities of Spring (strength, stability and moving things out), curious about whether leaning more into the energy of the season would make me feel more energized. I share this 10-minute practice with you below. But first, the why of this practice for Spring.

According to Ayurveda, Yoga’s sister science of holistic health, there are three biological energy forces, called Doshas: Vata (or Air), Pitta (or Fire) and Kapha (or Earth). The doshas are patterns, constellations of physical, emotional and mental traits. Everything that is manifest as form expresses as a combination of these three patterns, including you and the seasons.

How your traits interact with the qualities of the season is key to using the creative cycle in your business to increase ease and avoid burnout.

(You can find your dosha here.)

Spring has the qualities of Kapha, or Earth Saturated with Water: heavy, moist and cool. Each season tends to accumulate its qualities as it progresses, both in nature and in our bodies. In Spring, you may experience these qualities of Kapha as sluggishness or congestion.

You can use the practices of yoga to reduce (or avoid) the any excess of seasonal attributes in your body–and their symptoms.

Because Spring has the qualities of heavy, moist and cool, you want to create enough heat in the body, through sustained effort, to burn off sluggishness and congestion. You also want to take advantage of the benefits of Spring: clearing things out, but also
making them structurally stabilizing.

Below is a 10-minute yoga practice video based upon the qualities of kapha.

This video practice was part of my year-long program, The Yoga of Entrepreneurship, and is sequenced and taught by a dear friend and amazing yoga teacher, Alison Mahadevi Hastings. (If you’re in Atlanta, you can find Mahadevi at Kashi Atlanta Ashram. Go practice with her.)

This 10-minute practice will give you an experience of your body’s strength and stability. It is not vigorous and fast-paced. It is
rather a strong and steady practice through holding the poses, which cultivates the structural strength and
endurance of your body. It also opens the heart and chest to support the loosening of congestion and help remedy any sluggishness or mild depression.

Give it a try and see how it feels. Does it help? How do you feel? What shifts?