Keeping Cool
The Virgin Pomegrita and other possibilities
Keeping cool as Pitta rises with the temperatures is a major dance through the sprinklers. Here in New Mexico we don’t have or use sprinklers much; the water evaporates too fast; it’s wasteful. Yet I can remember the feeling of running through the sprinklers as a kid in the burbs. This fresh, open feeling is what I’m holding as a Pitta calmer as we review a few fresh possibilities for keeping cool.
First, a most cooling recipe, pictured here:
THE VIRGIN POMEGRITA
Time: 5 minutes
Makes: 2 cups
2 Tablespoons organic lime juice
½ cup pure pomegranate juice
2 teaspoons organic coconut sugar
¼- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
1 ½ cups pure water
Whip together all the ingredients with an immersion blender or regular blender. Serve cool or at room temperature.
Option: simply shake the ingredients together in a covered Mason jar. Although the result is not as frothy, it’s just as refreshing.
Effects: In summer, calming to all doshas, especially Pitta. In other seasons, calms Pitta, neutral for Vata & Kapha.
This drink supports: plasma, blood cells, female & male reproductive systems.
Shared with permission of Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda.
In memory of Asha, that hot summer day when we made a large pitcher of these and passed them out to overheated passer- byes – was it outside the Coop or Annapurna in Santa Fe? Our conversations invariably sparked much creative reflection for me. Remembering you with love and gratitude, dear friend.
And in celebration of Juneteenth, the Solstice, and the first anniversary of Dorie’s passing. Remembering you with love and gratitude, dear friend.
Recipe: Fresh Sprouted Mung Bean Salad
Like the Virgin Pomegrita, this recipe has a season, and the season is NOW. This dish is cooling, calming, cleansing, building, and a decent source of protein. I pulled out my dried whole green mung beans this week, immersed a cup of them in water, and the sprouting process began. In such hot weather, rinsing daily, they’re usually ready in 3 to 4 days. Here’s the recipe.
Moods and heat
In hot weather with Pitta rising, anger, frustration, loathing can arise in an instant, surprisingly fast and strong. The obstacles can come fast and furious, the supports we need to keep steady and cool can feel few and far between. May we all receive all the help we need.
Culture and mental heat
When I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, maybe we weren’t Anglo-Saxon, yet our family otherwise sure met the criteria for privileged White and Protestant. The assumptions can still pervade my thinking, and for sure they’re still to be found in our culture at large, as far as I can see.
The ones like, if you’re having trouble, it’s your fault. If you’re rich, you must have done something right and are loved by God. (Deeper that is, than wisely planning for the future as best you could.) Having a carefree existence means you must be doing something right. I don’t know if this version of Christian culture exists outside the US, yet it certainly can permeate mental conditioning here.
Self-recrimination can aggravate the doshas, not conducive to keeping cool.
Other perspectives more cooling to the mind and awareness
Mired in one of these moments recently, where the obstacles were arriving fast and furious one hot day, and my ability to respond was shutting down swiftly into aggravated Pitta, I stumbled upon the healing balm of Catherine Weser’s wisdom. In her latest Substack, The Obstruction is the Instruction she invites her readers to consider a different perspective. What if the obstacle is simply there to help us learn? We’ve done no wrong per se, we’re simply learning. The relief to my nervous system was instantaneous. Bless you, sister. Read more about this approach here.
The revered teacher Dilgo Khyentse in The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, The Practice of Guru Yoga According to the Longchen Nyingthig Tradition, makes the same point in a more intensely Tibetan Buddhist flavored way: The circumstances in which we find ourselves should actually clarify our practice, our experiences, and our realization, and we should be able to understand all situations, both favorable and unfavorable, as teachings on the path. (p 75)
How ever it works for you.
Keeping Cool with Ayurveda breathing
Sheetali (Sitali) is a specific breath technique in which you inhale in through your mouth and out through your nose. It’s great for hot days, or to cool out a hot flash. Dr. Vasant Lad demonstrates it here. Not all of us can curl our tongues into an O, as Sitali pranayama invites.
No problem. Instead bring your teeth together, lips slightly parted, and place your tongue against the back of your upper teeth. Same as before, breathe in through your mouth, out through your nose. You’ll make a slight hissing sound as you do this. (I think of it as Darth Vader breath, it sounds like that.) This is Sheetkari (Sitkari), quite clearly demonstrated here by Kanica on YouTube.
A dozen repetitions of either Sitali or Sitkari in a sitting can change one’s mind, mood, and body temperature.
Keeping cool with you
Sometimes simply handing a friend a glass of water is a blessing.
Or putting an ice cube in their palm (with their permission).
For this moment, I’m imagining I’m spraying a rose water spritz in your direction – Can you feel it? Would you want to make a completely ridiculous cooling smile back as you do?
Namaste.
The Virgin Pomegrita image thanks to Renee Lynn
Bio: I’m a writer, Ayurveda health educator and Polarity Therapist practicing in Santa Fe, NM. My most recent seasonal cookbook Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda is on special here. Renee Lynn and I wanted to keep it simple, for moments like these. Enjoy!