What do two normal “Ayurveda people” talk about during the summer? Join me in a conversation with Kate O’Donnell and get a glimpse into our conversation as two pals hanging out. We talk about Ayurveda, summer, and the shift to how a Yogic path brings us closer into the Sattvic experience of deeper alignment, clarity, and peace. Learn some summertime tips about staying and feeling light in the hottest months of the year and some light, bright recipes you can make with plants from your local ecosystem.

I rap with Kate O’Donnell about beating summer burnout with Ayurveda:

• Why just because a drink has ice in it doesn’t mean it cools your body!
• How you can feel what you’re eating and why you should listen to those immediate signals, especially with acidic foods
• How excess nerve activity and vibrations can spur summer burnout and overheating
• What a “walk to the mailbox” can do for your stress and enjoyment levels

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• Learn which foods aggravate heat and how to eat for summer
• See how increases in fire in your body impact everything from your mood to your scalp
• Understand what occurs in your body when you’re experiencing summer burnout
• Find out how to chill out your internal fire with Ayurveda for summer

Links:

• Kate’s Website
• The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook
• Living Ayurveda Preview Training
• Living Ayurveda

Related podcasts:

• Ayurveda for Summer with Dr. Mary Jo Cravatta
• Ayurveda for Summer Menu with Ashley Pitman

Show Highlights:

• 3:30 — When we increase the water and fire elements in our bodies, we can feel them immediately on a cellular level and even in our appearance. This is especially true when we consume things like caffeine, cigarettes, and alcohol.
• 9:40 — If we pack on too much body weight or muscle mass, dehydrate, or get too salty or acidic, this is when we start to feel imprisoned in our bodies. We get irritated, reactionary, and edgy and start to create problems for ourselves — and it spreads from person to person.
• 17:40 — Shakti speaks to us with a voice of pure enjoyment when we let our senses engage with her and with her watery flow. Taking a moment to let her guide us — even if it means doing nothing — helps us back off of the stress that comes along with overheating.
• 24:25 — When we’re in rajas fire, like increases like. The energy with which something is done perpetuates that energy into the world in the same way a wildfire spreads.
• 26:30 — When we look at summer burnout, we have to look at ourselves internally and how we’re orienting to the moment. External influences like diet play a part, but are we perpetuating heat energy within ourselves too? We need to examine relationships and projects and how we’re responding to them.
• 32:00 — Summer menus don’t need complexity. That isn’t what Ayurvedic wisdom is about. We thrive when we eat from our ecosystems — and when we eat simple foods. Complexity isn’t a truth of our appetites.
• 43:15 — Kate notes that our attitudes around food are what need to be modified, and the foods we eat will follow those changes. We can enjoy the sattvic experience — more mental clarity — with simple eating and attitude shifts.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Diet comes in as a very close second to stress for heating the body.” – Kate O’Donnell

• “Your nerves start vibrating like a high-tension bridge.” – Kate O’Donnell

• “You’re going to start to get inflamed, to get overheated, and to burn out from doing too much.” – Kate O’Donnell

• “Humans do not know the feminine, the receptive, the watery, the not-knowingness.” – Cate Stillman

• “Can we receive that desire and then allow it to happen?” – Cate Stillman

• “How shakti sounds when she speaks to us is different from how rajas sounds.” – Kate O’Donnell

• “Shakti doesn’t have an agenda” – Kate O’Donnell

• “The number-one summer tool is outdoor recreation…taking that time to enjoy.” – Kate O’Donnell

BIO:

Kate O’Donnell is the author of The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook: A Seasonal Guide to Eating and Living Well. She’s a nationally certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and Ashtanga Yoga teacher based in Boston, and she travels to India annually for study.
Kate began Yoga by accident in South India at age 20. More than a dozen extended trips to India and nearly 20 years spent studying the wisdom traditions of the subcontinent support Kate’s understanding of Ayurveda and Yoga.
After years of dedication to the Ashtanga system, Kate has experienced great benefit from this practice and was authorized by her teacher Sharath Jois to teach the Primary and Intermediate series of Ashtanga Yoga. She currently stewards a morning Yoga program in Boston.
Kate also specializes in Ayurvedic education, cooking skills, and cleansing programs, offering online programs, residential immersions and trainings, and individual consultations. Her Ayurveda and Yoga offerings aim to help others come closer to their true nature.