Self-care wheel balance is heck-yeah! needed in the colder months when our unleashed Kaphas are in full-force…
Wheels in motion take you to where you want to go. A wheel can go slowly or fast, but no matter what speed its default is to move forward (unless you purposefully choose to reverse). And, this article is about moving you forward and bettering your life this season. 🎡
If you understand the nature of Ayurveda as our natural healthy design, then you’ll be able to use that insight for better self-care and restore natural seasonal imbalances.
Like on the exterior, if you have super dry skin every winter along with a skinny frame, then you’re likely a natural Vata body (and not a Kapha body). If you tend to hold extra body weight and metabolize slowly, then Kapha is your natural way. Both feel the cold extremities as traits.
And as natural as having a Kapha body, some of us are more Kapha minded. Or we get imbalanced with tired Kapha moods.
That’s sometimes how I feel in the mornings (when Delta sleep is more like it!).
We can have a Vata body and a Kapha mind (and vice versa) as a simple example. And, there are 9 organized combinations if we want to keep it simple. Because you may be one born dominant in two body or mind ways (doshas). And mind and body connect in the daily mind-body connection to how you think, act, and feel.
The good news is you can positively impact and gradually change what you don’t like by your lifestyle choices. It’s nature vs. nurture where nurture is what you’re living today.
…You don’t have to settle for what you’re born with as lesser personality and traits you want to change.
Genetics is a tougher one to influence and turn the rudder on, but not impossible… and lifestyle tweaks and choice prevention can completely change a lesser situation or a higher probability likelihood.
And so, this article is meant to help you connect-the-dots and live your best life you can today with better lifestyle choices!
I’m focusing on Kapha here because all of us have a little of Kapha going on and that can be heavy in this seasonal time of year (where we hear more cough-as life). 😷
But here I share what I learned circa 2008 that has stuck with me, and what’s newer that I applied starting in 2023 to support healthy daily living intentions and prevention.
…And we know a healthy body translates to a better happy day where we get to do more and make more choices on our terms!
Letting in self-care influences give us more daily joy and balance. When you add better sleep, energy, spiritual, and love self-care into the equation, those move the needle forward. 🧭
A self-care wheel just like that can be the practical guide toward priorities tipping away from the heavy Kapha mind that makes it hard-to-get-going in the morning… or that makes you feel more depressed during colder seasons.
…Where growing up, we called this the SAD season (seasonal affective disorder). I went through this every February in my teens and early 20 years (when one that age should have had more energy). Lack of supplemental Vitamin D and sunshine affected the happy hormones we didn’t know much about back then. Winters were colder in the mid-Atlantic region where I grew up.
But, today we have more self-care knowledge and winters are warmer, and sometimes 70 degrees in some regions. So you can use the better products and circadian rhythm advice out there to your self-care wheel advantage.
…Plus, my healthy lessons learned (that btw get better with age 😉). Below is the skinny on what could help you get the self-care wheel balance you’re needing today.
✨ And these are some obvious Kapha Signs to look out for 👀that may be affecting you (and your self-care wheel):
Kapha Sign #1 (Sleep/energy):
Sleep and energy together because they are so closely knit together. 🧶
Do you find yourself needing more sleep in the cold weather seasons? Or maybe you’re consistently tired?
And that’s a bummer because less sleep means less time enjoying the day or being productive. Not enough sleep, you also lose free time and can lack energy as downsides.
Number of sleep hours are important, but better quality sleep is the better biohack way. And I share the best biohack routine I know and practice below. ⬇️
But for most days, when you get enough sleep, your body wakes up feeling energized. (Sleep + energy = 🤸🏻♂️)
You get better connected, cohesive thoughts. Because your body was able to fully recharge its batteries the night before.
Your daily energy ⚡️ is directly affected by how well you sleep. We all know that… and that’s why alarm clocks and caffeine are so popular in the morning.
…And getting less blue light in our eyes at night is up there too as newer healthy artificial habits.
We can also affect the energy systems inside us with better lifestyle choices, like: healthy food and drink choices, when we consume, and exercise.
Energy is not just physical and movement. Or calories.
…It’s also energy in the mind. Our minds can be slow and lethargic and that can be part of a Kapha imbalanced mind.
But there are other signs too… like, we’re not connecting energetically with others (who are energy).
We can have an invisible positive magnetic or negative repelling energy. That’s something visible in your life to consider that often gets missed in relationships and the community around us.
✅ Tips for daily sleep/energy ⚡️self-care wheel balance:
Give yourself more energy. You can listen to music that puts you in an energetic mood, get blood pumping through your veins doing your exercises, and doing a new activity that stimulates your mind. And give yourself daily healthy mind-body energy food.
Kapha Sign #2 (Spiritual):
When our Kaphas are off balance, there’s a domino effect, affecting: feelings, thoughts, and how much of our lit spiritual selves we let in. And these impact our daily actions.
The actions (or inactions) that accumulate pounds, things, emotions, and piles of things as examples are obvious exterior signs. They’re processed deeper in mind-thoughts that change our feelings and moods.
To change, it’s easier to look at the exterior signs (as mirrors and clues) to our inner going-ons that creates our world, so we can get more grounded and tap into our inner power.
If you find the clue that you’re accumulating in some way, the deeper source could be because you’re wanting to be alone and building up a wall from others. Or you’re just plain tired from picking up toys and piles, and cleaning up.
…The source isn’t as important as knowing that those are classic Kapha awareness imbalanced signs. And since we don’t want to exude growing unhealthy behavior that accumulates, we can change choices…
So, look around… have you accumulated things or have you stopped putting things away as much? Do you have unintentional messy piles, clothes, or toys left out for another day?
“Disorganized” and “clutter” (descriptions that can harshly rub like an abrasive scrubber as the elephant in the room) — usually go hand-in-hand because it’s the same mind feeding the non-serving abrasive message.
…And this can leave feelings of shame that can gradually turn into self-loathing if allowed. That’s sobering, but helpful because then we can be aware and fix what isn’t healthy.
✅ Tips for daily spiritual 🌟 self-care wheel balance:
Practice letting go. Ignore your heavy Kapha thoughts as this derails you from your this season’s purpose. This can sound challenging if you’ve never exercised this right to ignore any of your thoughts, but it’s so liberating!
Rewrite not-so-great thoughts if you never have (and do it over and over again if you have). Nip it in the bud when the thoughts arrive.
You can save time, money, and effort that your brain would otherwise send you to go spend on… like I’d be happier if I had ___ shopping item, ___ life, or ___ relationship.
Feeling content can do wonders for you if you can do that step.
Many years ago, I discovered that I didn’t have to accept my random thoughts that entered my mind. I could decisively ignore and even peacefully disagree. How was that the first time?… very weird.
…But when I practiced that habit, my life changed and I didn’t let the beaten down tracks play over and over again. The better track connect-the-dots and stops fictitious endings from forming.
With those positive step actions, I could walk away and then my better moods came back.
I could change my moody feelings and re-direct my perspectives. And you can too if that’s what you want…
Where and how are you on your mind and thought journey?
Here are the simple steps 👣
Recognize the thought: negative, unproductive thought (alert!)
The action: walk away
The walk away feeling: freedom vs. ego smothering protection and feeling bad about something, people, or myself
Repeat.
Kapha Sign #3 (Love):
Getting back or having healthy self-love is most important in matters of love and relationships. That’s how we also attract healthy relationships.
But, heavy imbalanced Kapha minds can have extremes: acting prickly toward people or relationships. Or acting needy and dependent to those who don’t reciprocate. These do the opposite of attracting (and sometimes wrongly attract opposites).
Smothering (or semi-mothering) can make others feel like a boundary is crossed, and can easily destroy a relationship.
When we expect others to make us happy, we set ourselves up for disappointment. So focusing on loving ourselves first allows us to energetically have an authentic overflow of love that pours out to others.
In self-care, we used to call this Me-Time that has become Me-Too as a form of love and healing.
✅ Tips for daily love ❤️ self-care wheel balance:
Be kind to yourself and your body, and tell your mind: “I am enough.”
Repeat saying to yourself: “I am loved” as a daily mantra.
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🧡 And FINALLY, from my newer lessons learned on the self-care wheel:
In 2023, I started intermittent fasting in my life for healthy gut reasons. But I found in my self-experiment (that I journaled about)… it also improved daily sleep, energy, and gave lighter mind-thoughts.
On those IF nights, sleep is better because the body doesn’t need to go to extra work to process food ontop of all its miracle daily resetting functions (…and why we need sleep in the first place!). And the liver doesn’t have to work hard to process beverages other than the mostly water clear kind. I like herbal teas.
So building in a weekly routine practice, I experienced not needing as much sleep and improved sleep quality.
👣 If you want to know how to optimize IF and Kapha metabolism for all the daily healthy benefits (and biohacking your body’s health), you can learn and read more about my journey.