This weekend in the United States, some of us move our clock 1 hour forward, which also means we lose 1 hour of sleep. This can mess people up energy-wise and yet some people do just fine with it.

Personally, I think a lot of this has to do with the mindset because a) we are pretty resilient beings b) it's only one hour. You've stayed up one extra hour before and it didn't mess you up.

I have 5 easy Ayurvedic tips to keep in mind as the time change approaches!

1. Control your mind and go with the flow. Don't make the spring time change a bigger deal or worry than it needs to be, because the mind affects the body. If you tell yourself it's going to be bad and you're going to be dragging for two weeks, you'll probably fulfill your prophecy  :) However, you've done this before and have done just fine. Remember that you used to rock out on the occasional Saturday night, losing at least an hour, and then you woke up on Sunday and got your stuff done. No...

Today, we are going to answer the question, "Why am I pooping sad little balls?"

Yes, because you ask me these things...Ya'll have mentioned pooping pellets, rabbit poop or pooping little deer poops or whatever you want to call it. In any case, the poop is coming out in hard little balls, and it's making you sad.

Well, let's make sure that you've got some tools to keep you pooping happy.

So, don't be sad, here's 5 things to help your sad poop balls:

1. More oils. These dry, little, pellet ball poops are happening because it points to dryness and lightness in the body. Right now, they're staying all up in there because they are too dry, too light.

If there is dryness and a lightness, Ayurveda uses the opposite qualities to balance, so then you need heaviness and unctuousness (oiliness) to help pull the poops down and out.

To help, begin adding oils to your diet whether drizzling olive oil over pasta, dipping bread in it, or...

It’s the #1 question I get...

Let me guess, you’re trying to be a good Ayurvedic student and make the right choices for your health, but your progress is stuck because now that you have begun learning, you realize you have no idea what dosha to balance! “How do I balance my natural dosha if the imbalanced one is opposite qualities? And what if I’m two doshas? And what about the seasons?” Sound familiar? I’ve totally been in your shoes! And I can help.

So, first. You don’t have to know your dosha, exactly.

When I first started learning Ayurveda in 2007, it took me 1 1/2 years to figure out my prakruti (natural balance of doshas), because my vata was so high, I acted and felt like a true vata. However, after some time, introspection, observation and practice I’m 90% sure I’m vata-pitta even split. See!? I’m still not exactly sure what my prakruti is! But I’m okay with that.

I share with with you because, even by...

*raise your hands if you're a vata*
Or
*raise your hands if you get anxious from time to time*

If you have your hand up, this is lesson is for you! We live in a vata-increasing world and often struggle to calm our racing or anxious mind. If you feel a bit anxious, here are 5 things to avoid (and I've included the fixes too). 

Note: Vata is the energy of movement in our bodies and minds. So when we feel a racing or anxious mind, we want to decrease the energy of vata in our bodies and minds.

So let's dive into these five things that create anxiety, or vata increase. 

1) Overwhelm.

Yes, overwhelm, it means that vata-type people like to accept all the projects from all the people all the time, they love to say yes, they love to be creative, they love to think they can do it all, and they quickly get overwhelmed because...they can't do it all! They pile more on their plate which creates more worry and anxiety.

The fix for overwhelm: Choose...

Below are the best foods for vata dosha and are especially balancing for fall and winter, which is vata season.

It's way easier to make the right food choices once we know what foods balance our dosha.

By the way, in case you were wondering, there is no such thing as "Ayurvedic food." 

Food is food. Certain foods will balance certain doshas better than others, however Ayurveda says that any food can be nectar or poison depending on the person who is having it. 

Below is an excerpt from my Ayurvedic book, In Your Elements. 

Oil is vata's #1 food

Why oil? Because the dry quality of vata is most likely to go out of balance first. And! Dryness causes all kinds of health problems. We don't want the body to dry out, because when it does, we break down, deteriorate and age. Nice right? Oils, people!

“Yes” foods for vata

Moist, grounding, building, nourishing, oily/ fatty, easy-to-digest and warming. Think: warm, goopy, soupy, sticky, comfort foods.

...

"What are common vata imbalances, anyway? And how do I know if I have one?"

In Ayurveda, vata is the energy of movement, responsible for all movement in the body. Vata is one of the three doshas. Vata is fast, irregular, cold, dry, light, and mobile.

When vata increases in us, in our body we might feel digestive problems like constipation, bloating, cramping, distention, gassy. In the mind, we can feel anxiety, we can feel like a racing mind, worry, panic, fear, insecurity, lack of confidence.

Anybody feel those things? Totally, and I've certainly been there too! Vata dosha is quick-moving so we have to be consistent with our practices because it can easily and quickly go out of balance. The good news is, it can come back into balance just as quick — so let's talk about how to do that!

Here are five simple fixes to balance vata!

Grab this Vata quick guide with even more vata-balancing tips!

#1) Three meals a day. Vata...

 What does Ayurvedic say about Restless Sleep?

Ayurveda says that restless sleep is usually a vata-pitta disturbance.

Vata is the energy of movement and if vata is increased, that zippy energy can keep us awake and amped when we should be sleeping.

Pitta energy is the energy of transformation and that also has a mobile quality in it because when something transforms, it changes from one to the other.

Between these two energies the root cause of the sleep problem could be weighing more on a vata side, or a pitta side or a combination of both. Because of this interplay between vata and pitta, we can get insomnia, and there's actually two different kinds of insomnia.

#1 Vata-Type insomnia. This type of insomnia is when we can easily fall asleep but around 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM, we *wake up!* and we're not able to fall back to sleep (until the sun is about to come up...and then we get drowsy). If hat happens to you, that points...

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This question is stemming from several of you!

"What balances vatas and pittas in kapha season?"

Overall, vatas and pittas are going to be balanced by kapha season. Happy day!

I quickly made this crude little chart (it shows up reversed in the video), but in very simple terms, these are how the qualities shake out in kapha season.

In general vatas and pittas will be balanced by kapha season. In Ayurveda we talk a lot about the qualities — we use the opposite qualities to bring balance.

Kapha qualities are: cold, wet, heavy, static (non-moving) and dull.
Vata qualities are: cold, dry, light, mobile, and rough.

Vata qualities: all except COLD are opposite of kapha which means, kapha will balance vata for the most part. However, vatas need to stay warm in their environment, body and diet in spring.

Pitta qualities are: hot, slightly-oily...

Oh man, our clocks changed! Just as we got used to the glow of the sun waking us, it's pitch black again when the alarm goes off. The reward is a longer day, which, "Hooray for extra daylight!" but the time change can still throw us off

Time change in Ayurveda affects vata because, well, we've made a fast change. *Poof* just like that, we "lost" an hour. It can take some of us weeks to adjust but hopefully the tips below will help you slide back nicely into nature's rhythm quickly.

6 Ayurvedic tips to balance the time change

1. Wake up before sunrise. Ha! Easy enough to do now, 'cause you kind of have no choice. My point is, just because it's dark at 6:00 a.m., don't go hittin' the snooze until the sun comes up. We already know waking up during vata time (before sunrise) gives us a daily boost because as we rise in the energy of movement. So keep doing that! Yes it's dark, but you'll have more energy than if you pull the covers over your head until...

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Food is the basic building blocks for our physical bodies. Depending on who we are as a unique person, or, our balance of doshas, we might need different types of foods.

Vatas are very light and airy. They will need foods that are grounding, stabilizing and warm. Since vatas don't have a lot of structure, their food needs to have more structure or they will get weak and their tissues will break down. They need to eat what I call "building" foods.

Pittas are slightly oily, hot and sharp. They will also need foods that are cooling, fresh, and mild. They will also need grounding foods but for a different reason — pittas will burn through food quickly, so if it's not substantial enough, they will be hungry (and cranky!) often. Pittas have medium structure and also need "building" foods so their naturally strong digestive fire stays strong, without burning up the tissues.

Kaphas are already quite built! They need light,...