A simple practice to support you during the early-late winter seasonal transition

The Ayurvedic seasonal calendar gives you seven opportunities throughout the year to reflect, adjust, transform, and strengthen your natural wellbeing

Thank you for reading Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing. If you find the information I’m sharing here helpful, please share this post with a friend!

You are probably familiar with the four major seasonal changes from winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall, and fall to winter, marked by the equinoxes and solstices, respectively. But did you know there are also transitions that mark the midpoints of these larger seasonal shifts? In Ayurveda, there are six seasons and seven seasonal/energetic shifts.

During these shifts, natural energy changes. Consider the shift from winter to spring. From a barren, gray Earth sprouts new, green life. This requires energy. To align your natural rhythms with the rhythms of nature, your own energy patterns reflect what is happening all around you. By aligning your inner rhythms with the natural rhythms of Mother Nature, you can relieve stress, improve your immunity¹, and live a more connected, joyful life. According to Bri. Maya Tiwari,

“By observing the provisions of the seasons, we can achieve our optimal state of health. In this sense, our well-being depends on an intuitive balancing of our being with nature.”

The six seasons

In the Ayurvedic calendar, there are six seasons that occur roughly around the following dates:

• Spring: March 15-May 15

• Summer: May 15-July 15

• Early Fall: July 15-September 15

• Autumn: September 15-November 15

• Early Winter: November 15-January 15

• Late Winter: January 15-March 15

This reminds me of popular memes like this one:

From Instagram account @onlyincbus

There are nuances in each season. The weather and energy of early fall is much different than that of Autumn or early winter. Mother Nature is constantly evolving and our practices and lives need to evolve with these rhythms as well.

The seven seasonal junctions

When the seasons change, our body notices. Whether or not you are aware of these internal shifts is simply a matter of how attuned you are to your personal inner rhythms. Any change can feel unsettling, so it’s not uncommon to feel energetically scattered during the seasonal junctions. In Ayurveda, it is said that the body is more vulnerable and disease more likely to arise during these transitions.

However, if you consciously observe and adjust during these transitions, you can give yourself a fighting chance against the undesirable effects of change. The seasonal junctions can be reminders to reflect, seek inspiration, transform, and evolve. Rather than creating resolutions for an entire year, set personal goals based on the seasons. The junctions become natural checkpoints along your yearly journey when you can assess and make adjustments as needed.

The seven seasonal junctions fall roughly around the following times:

• Late winter to spring: March 21-April 7

• Spring to Summer: May 21-June 7

• Northerly to southerly transit: June 8-June 24

• Summer to early fall: July 21-August 7

• Early fall to Autumn: September 21-October 7

• Autumn to early winter: November 22-December 9

• Southerly to northerly transit: December 8-December 21

• Early winter to late winter: January 21-February 7

General practices for the the seasonal junctions

One of the biggest recommendations for handling the seasonal junctions in Ayurveda is to detox or cleanse during these times. Since I am not a certified Ayurvedic doctor, nutritionist, or qualified to speak about food, I’m not going to address this aspect. I can, however, speak to lifestyle changes and simple practices you can implement as part of your daily routine to help your body and mind make the shift from season to season as smoothly as possible.

During any change or transition, work with the following principles:

• Nourish

• Secure/establish

• Release

What can you provide in your daily life that will help you feel nourished? This can apply to food but it can also apply to mental/emotional health as well. For example, what movement feels most nourishing to you? Add more nourishment into your daily practices and routines.

In any period of change, the feelings of restlessness and aimlessness can become overwhelming. Take extra care to make sure that your practices and choices help you find stability. Select practices that help you feel grounded and set intentions for the coming season that will help you feel safe, secure, and established in the coming months despite whatever life throws at you. Remember to focus only on what you can control.

Finally, release what no longer serves you. This could be relationships, habits, practices, thought patterns or beliefs that are holding you back from living the life you want to live.

A simple practice for the early-late winter junction

We’re approaching the transition from early winter to late winter (January 21-February 7). Bri. Maya Tiwari describes the energy of early winter as “gathering” and the energy of late winter as “reprieve.” The definition of reprieve most fitting for this purpose is:

“a temporary escape from an undesirable fate or unpleasant situation.” (Oxford Languages)

Late winter, the time between mid-January-mid-March, is a time for escape from the world. It’s a time for hibernation, resting, rejuvenating. This transition is moving us from a state of gathering with friends and family for the holidays, of gathering energy for the coming rest, of gathering resources for the coming year. Now it’s time to be. It’s time to move inward. If you’re feeling exhausted or run down, honor that and take on less. Say no more. Stay home and get cozy. Read books, take naps, enjoy a mug of hot chocolate by a crackling fire. Be gentle with yourself. Release the need to make plans, to show up, to create. Tune in to what it is your soul most needs and desires. If you give yourself this gift from mid-January to mid-March you’ll have so much more energy to bloom in the upcoming seasons. Your body and mind needs and deserves this break. Now all you have to do is give it what it wants.

Here’s a very simple practice to help you be in the season of reprieve.

Conversation Starters

1. What is most nourishing to you?

2. What makes you feel stable and secure?

3. What are you ready to let go of?

4. Do you feel energetic shifts between the seasons?

1. https://lifespa.com/diet-detox/seasonal-change-immunity-ayurvedic-cleanse/