I Love A Good Cheese Plate
I’ve been fighting off some random cold virus all week. I’ve been pounding ginger tea, chewing osha root, and putting a clove in my cheek at night.
My sister came into town on Tuesday night, and a special thing we like to do together is drink a glass of wine with an amazing cheese plate. My sister is a master cheese-plate builder.
Now, we’re moving into late winter and towards spring, which means a transition into kapha season. This means kapha is accumulating in our bodies. What’s that kapha again?
Kapha= earth and water
⛰️Qualities are heavy, stable, smooth, slow, cool, oily, damp
This accumulation might make you feel heavy, groggy, dull in the mind, or show up as sluggish digestion or elimination. It may also present as mucous in the upper respiratory system. It’s why you might have spring allergies or spring colds.
So yeah… I went into the cheese knowing full well that it was a bad idea. Ayurveda-wise, it’s the worst time of year for cheese.
WHY? Well, cheese is heavy, dense, smooth and oily.
Sound familiar?
There’s a term in Ayurveda for what I did when I ate that cheese (another one of those nerdy terms I love): it’s Prajnaparadha, or “crimes against wisdom.”
My sister Mariangel's beautiful creation
Oh, my ego, my mind, really wanted that cheese (plus the other non-compatible foods alongside it). And, as I advise all of you to do when you eat something as a treat: I ate it with all my attention and love, and enjoyed the shit out of it.
Not long after, however, I felt the mucus build up. I felt my throat become a bit sore and hoarse.
I’ve got the full-on cold now.
Sometimes, we need to learn by experience. OR, we need to do the thing that is less beneficial for us and reap the consequences to remember WHY we're choosing the nourishing ones.
This is why it’s important to continuously bring AWARENESS into our lives. I know I say this a lot, but it’s because we can’t shift anything without it.
Next week, I’ll talk more about what you can do during this kapha accumulation time to offset it. Until then, I hope you’re all healthy and well!