Come Alive and Thrive this Year.
How many times have we all made heartfelt New Year’s resolutions for more health and wellness, only to fall short and spin back into our old ways?
Don’t despair; you are not alone. Research shows that a whopping 80% of New Year resolutions fail.* I invite you to access the simple secrets of Ayurveda, a profound ancient science that offers simple yet powerful keys to creating a more vibrant, balanced, healthy, and resilient you.
Ayurveda seeks to strengthen our innate, natural healing capacity, dissolve underlying causes of suffering, reestablish our fundamental state of well-being, and help us really come alive and thrive.
In an innately dynamic and ceaselessly cyclical world, Ayurveda recognizes that the best way to maintain health is to go with the flow, align with the earth’s cycle that gives us day and night, and live by the seasons.
Winter is the season to rest and digest
So many people try to lose weight in January when winter needs us to insulate, keep warm, and re-up our immune systems to protect us from winter viruses and colds.
In this coldest and darkest time of the year, we need to strengthen our inner res, what Ayurveda refers to as Agni – our inner fire of digestion and metabolism. Agni is the key to maintaining warmth, digesting and metabolizing optimally, and boosting our immune system.
Here are three top recommendations from Ayurveda designed to boost your agni and recharge your health in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
1. Make your meals at home
When you cook your own meals, you control the quality of ingredients, prepare the meals in the way that best supports your unique physical needs and digestion, and have time to unwind, get creative, and add some love. When cooking is joyful, it’s a stress reducer, and the autonomic power of “rest and digest” kicks in.
2. Sip warm water throughout the day, especially with meals
\Downing water floods the tissues. Sipping throughout the day makes it more bioabsorbable. Cold water restricts blood flow. Warm water enhances it. Just as frozen water condenses, our tissues contract with cold. So warm your body and ignite your inner re, especially at mealtime when healthy digestion is essential.
3. Add your favorite spice
To stoke your digestive fire, sip ginger tea with your meals and add zesty, warming spices that help break down foods, assimilate nutrients, and eliminate waste. Spices such as ginger, garlic, cinnamon, clove, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, black pepper, turmeric, cumin, and fenugreek offer flavor, aroma, healing, and, most of all, fire to your belly.
A strong and balanced Agni will boost your immune system and increase your energy. This sets the stage for you to release excess weight come Spring, the season that supports us in melting winter’s freeze, lightening up, and owing into our natural vibrance. Again, ancient, time-tested wisdom is simple to apply, amazingly logical, and profoundly powerful. Give it a try, and please let me know how it goes!
Join us for Wisdom Keeper Week, March 1–8, 2025, as we honor ancient traditions’ teachings and nature’s wisdom. This special week invites you to explore healing stories and practices with guest presenter Laura Plumb, Rancho La Puerta President Sarah Livia Brightwood Szekely, Maggie Wheeler, Arnaé Batson, Abuela Tupina and more. Together, we’ll celebrate the beauty of connection, gratitude, and purpose through storytelling, foraging, and practices that nurture the land, our bodies, and our spirits.
- Norcross, J. C., & Vangarelli, D. J. (1988). The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year’s change attempts. Journal of Substance Abuse, 1(2), 127–134.
- Haden, J. (n.d.). A study of 800 million activities predicts most New Year’s resolutions will be abandoned on January 19: How you can create new habits that actually stick. Inc.
