7 Winter Wellness Rituals to make the most out of the cold months, to combat winter blues and lethargy

The exciting Christmas season is over and for some of us January and February may seem like the most challenging months of the year to endure. The cold and damp days, the lack of sunlight, the shorter days, plus getting back to work routine often bring feelings of lethargy, mental overwhelm, physical tiredness and sadness. 

Winter time is particularly challenging for our physical and mental strength. Most of the people I talk to can’t wait for the winter months to end and the spring to come. Even if you love winter sports and cold plunges are part of your winter wellness routine to burn calories and rejuvenate. 

Whether or not you are a fan of this season, winter in fact presents a special opportunity for everyone to indulge in some much-needed self-care. The winter months can be an opportunity to connect with yourself, to find some quiet moments and recharge your mental batteries, to start a new routine or infuse your life with heartwarming rituals.

Below we are sharing some of our most favourite recipes and ideas how to make the most out of winter for yourself: 

1. Adjust your sleep routine to the winter modus. The winter season is the best time to sync with the sunrise (unless you are depleted and need to rest) and to honor going to bed after sunset (when possible). Make sure you take minimum of seven hours of sleep as your body needs a little longer to recover and endure the coldness. Try to go to bed at least 2 hours before midnight and stop eating three to four hours before sleep time. The old wives’ tale goes that ‘sleep before midnight counts double’, or ‘an hour’s sleep before midnight is worth two after. The pre-midnight sleep seems to bring about the most powerful repair to the brain and body. Another tip to get the most of your sleep is to take a cold shower and cool your body for the night. A not so well-known fact is that when your circadian rhythm prepares your body for sleep, your body temperature begins to cool down. Experts agree the ideal sleeping temperature is between 15 °C and 19 °C. A cooler temperature room will not only help you lower your core body temperature for better deep sleep and help you stay asleep, but it will also help you initiate sleep. Did you also know that melatonin levels increase in cooler temperatures?   

A well-proven winter wellness ritual before sleep is taking a warm bath with activated bath crystals, such as Shemana with rose quartz and flower petals and right after taking a two minute cold shower to cool down the body. Use a bedroom spray to settle in a harmonious space, drink a cup of Anima Mundi Blue Lotus tea to enhance intuition and dreams. One of our favoured room sprays is Mauli Sleep Dharma Pillow Mist.

Subscribe to our newsletter, the Private Experience, to get our Winter Wellness special: Lavender Cashew Milk Recipe, a list of our favourite Authentic Beauty Brands, an Apple Cinnamon Ginger homemade tea and Digestive Bitters for controlling appetite!

2. Dry Brushing is an Ayurvedic tradition that lately has made a come back into the wellness world. It is a ritual we do daily, especially in winter when the skin is constantly covered with layers of clothes. We recommend dry brushing in the morning to invigorate the tissues and move stagnant lymph and blood, which also supports a good immune system function. Other benefits include opening the pores removing dead cells and reducing stress. There is a release of energy and a feeling of lightness afterwards. 

3. Aromatherapy is another way to bring a good mood in your home on daily bases. You can either use diffuser or a room spray. The room sprays we love these days are infused mists handmade in Mallorca with added crystal quartz for Power, amethyst for protection and Black tourmaline for healing, from Love & Stones.

Another winter wellness ritual with several benefits is spraying your face gently with a facial mist in which we add a drop of essential oil. We love creating our own face mists using organic teas or mixing cucumber and aloe vera juice with clean water. In those blends we add a few drops of Jasmin, Lavender or Lemon Grass essential oil. It is a wonderful way to awaken and lift the mood. If you have no time to prepare your own mists or body nourishing oil, we have a tip for two very potent Ayurveda products we can’t get enough of this winter. We’ll share those two products in our upcoming newsletter on Friday!

Winter Wellness Tip: Find your natural rhythm

4. Stretching. We women tend to worry a lot about wrinkles, sagging skin and greying hair, but the real concern should be our strength, balance and flexibility. That’s where real confidence and grace come from! As someone who’s been quite active all my life, I can say that once I entered my 40s, I began to notice that my muscles were becoming more rigid, my joints more stiff and the range of my movements limited. That feeling increased even more in winter when there is more dryness and less movement outside.

I know a lot of people taking all kinds of supplements, exercising and mixing green smoothies daily, but when it comes to your cartilage and mobility, there is no supplement that can help without you doing the work. A pain in the knee or back, or any kind of joint can stop you “just like that” from all the things you enjoy doing. The only cure is stretching, mindful movement and awareness when you are exercising.

We live in times when we try to optimise everything we do. We tend to throw ourselves in extremes trying to get maximum results in short periods of time. Unfortunately that is how we lose focus and compromise our technique, which brings to damaging our joints.

The benefits of stretching are many: releases tension in the joints and muscles which means faster and better recovery; improved blood circulation (especially in winter), improved vessel function and lower blood pressure; stress relief; improved posture and better performance and mobility.

5. Don’t forget to hydrate your hands and whole body. In winter our hands and feet can become very dry and cold. According to Ayurveda this can be a sign of the accumulation of Vata (one of the three doshas) in the body. Too much Vata dries out the skin, makes our hair thinner and drier, and makes our fingernails brittle. What we recommend in such situations is instead of buying some fancy creams, choose natural plant based oils such as coconut, almond and sesame. In Ayurveda there is a treatment for dry skin called Abhyanga. Abhyanga is a wonderful daily winter wellness ritual of body self-massage. It is best to heat the oil a little and then massage it into the skin. Leave it on the skin for half an hour and then take a shower. Applying natural oils to the skin such as sesame, almond or coconut after a warm bath can help to lock in extra moisture as well as promoting lymphatic drainage which is super helpful during cold and flu season. A product that combines all three oils and is designed specifically for such ritual is available already on the market, certified organic and produced in Switzerland. Find out from our Newsletter.

You can also use herbal oils twice a week. Apricot kernel oil can be used two to three times a week, especially at bedtime. It keeps the skin supple, stimulates blood circulation and reduces water retention.

Winter Wellness Tip: Winter reminds me that even nature needs time to rest and retreat to its roots

6. Ayurveda foods for winter. In winter the body needs extra energy for warmth and wellbeing, but we have started looking at food in such a limiting ways that we often follow diet regimes without taking in consideration the environment as well as the fact that eating is a form of ritual. Especially in winter when we need connection and more “soul food” through the conversations we make around the table with our families. I like the way Ayurveda teaches us about the tastes, the coolness, the dryness and moisture in the different foods, the awareness around each season and the effects the climate changes have on us. From Ayurveda I have learned how to use Ghee in cooking. In winter I love dried fruit and honey for extra warmth. A few recipes that I use include Sesame seeds and black Tahini, which are also warming foods. Other recommended foods in winter are broccoli, spinach and beans which will help your body maintain warmth. More warm-up foods are root vegetables such as carrots, radishes and potatoes, as well as fresh fruits such as apples, oranges and mangos. If you’re craving a hot drink and you’re in the mood for something other than coffee or tea, you can try our Lavender Cashew Latte. Recipe in the coming newsletter.

7. Digestive bitters to boost your digestion in winter. Have you tried Digestive bitters as part of your winter wellness rituals? Just like negronis and Aperol spritzes these are known as apéritifs you drink before a meal to rev up your digestive system. Do they work? There aren’t yet enough conclusive studies that prove the benefits of bitters, but one thing is sure: they suppress appetite and ever your sweet tooth cravings. One reason is they don’t taste great, second is that they increase the amount of gastric juices in your stomach, which ultimately helps with digestion and sometimes stimulating hormones that suppress the appetite.

The most commonly used herbs in digestive bitters are:

• Artichoke leaf.
• Bitter melon.
• Burdock root
• Dandelion
• Gentian root
• Licorice root
• Wormwood

It’s also important to remember that bitters are made with alcohol, so you shouldn’t take them if you’re pregnant or nursing, or if you’re in recovery. As they may interfere with some medication, consult your doctor if you are taking prescribed medication.