Root down to Rise up…FarmTrue Spring Newsletter

Welcome to our Farmtrue community! We are so grateful to have you here. Thank you for signing up for our monthly newsletters. Our intention is to share Ayurvedic wisdom for living seasonally in a digestible way and relate it to our modern day lives. As an Ayurvedic lifestyle company, our products, routines and events shift with the seasons.

As we are currently in the thick of Spring, we thought we’d share some seasonal shifts you may be experiencing and what practices can be supportive in creating balance! We are just coming out of eating hearty, root vegetables and heavier foods in the winter time to combat the dry, rough, light, and cold qualities.

The Spring season is a combination of the elements Earth and Water. When we look at the qualities of these elements a little more closely, we can see that together earth and water is heavy, dull, stable, sticky, cold, dense, and slow. These qualities may be present in our bodies and minds as we are also made of the elements earth, water, air, fire and ether.  Just as the trees are releasing sap and rivers are rushing, so too is excess water needing to be released from our bodies. Ayurveda teaches us that like increases like, and opposites create balance. If we have not shifted our diet from heavier foods to light, astringent foods that spring offers us, we may be experiencing lethargy, seasonal allergies, colds, coughs, foggy headedness, a lack of motivation and perhaps a bogged down digestion.

Below are a few simple tips we love to implement this time of year:

-Focus on eating seasonally. The earth is providing us with bitter and astringent vegetables like asparagus, dandelion greens, mustard greens, leeks, artichokes, and broccoli.  Incorporate lighter grains like quinoa, alkalizing greens, beets, and spices to spark the digestive fire and ignite metabolism. Our spring digestive spice blend does just that with a blend of turmeric, cumin fenugreek, coriander, ginger, asafetida, cilantro, and brown mustard seeds.

-Invigorating movement- sun salutations, brisk walks, bike riding, or HIIT (high intensity interval training). Any movement that will get your heart pumping and blood flowing.

-Dry brushing and oil massage. Our garshana gloves are the perfect remedy all year long, but particularly for spring to get the lymphatic system moving. Garshana is a traditional Ayurvedic dry massage that refreshes and stimulates the skin and lymphatic system, enhancing blood circulation and the release of accumulated toxins. It also removes static electricity from the skin and is a much softer option opposed to a dry bristle brush.  Garshana gloves offer a deeper connection to our bodies as we are physically massaging ourselves.

To use: Perform long strokes on the limbs and circles around the joints, and create a large circle up the right and down the left at your belly.  Avoid the heart, face, chest, and any sensitive areas or broken skin.  Start with the feet and make your way up toward your heart. The direction of the stroke should always be toward your heart as this helps drain lymph back to your heart. Massage from your feet upward, continuing up to your torso and onto your neck, and massage from the hands to the shoulders. Continue for at least five minutes.

Afterward perform abhyanga, or self-oil massage, using Farmtrue Cleanse body oil, warmed by placing in hot water. Use about ¼ cup for the whole body. Again, perform long strokes on the limbs and circles around the joints and belly. Be sure to massage the underarms as well. Take 20 minutes to massage or allow the body to soak in the oil before stepping into a warm shower. Allow the water to rinse off any excess oil without using soap to scrub it away. When you exit the shower, simply pat dry with a towel. You can apply a small amount of oil topically as a moisturizer if you wish.

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