Living by the Rhythms: What Ayurveda Taught Me About Slowing Down in Summer
What Ayurveda taught me about slowing down in summer
I noticed I was answering texts faster than I could feel what I actually felt about them.
That was the tell. Not the exhaustion, not the ache in my legs — the texting. That quick, reflexive, let me clear this so I can move to the next thing energy that meant I wasn't actually present for any of it.
It was the week my husband was home. Instead of easing up, I said yes to subbing every yoga class that came my way. By my ninth class in four days, I stumbled literally and figuratively. I couldn't find my words mid-cue. I felt foggy, stuck in my head, just off. And of course, that was the exact week my period started, so my energy was already running on empty before I even added nine classes on top of it.
Ayurveda has a name for what was happening. Late summer is when pitta really starts to build — heat, intensity, the drive to keep pushing, keep saying yes, keep doing. And that week, I felt it show up in my body in a way I couldn't ignore.
What Ayurveda Changed For Me
I didn't grow up thinking about my energy as something with a rhythm. I thought about it as something to manage a battery to ration, or push past, depending on the day. Ayurveda gave me a different lens: rhythm instead of rigid productivity. Honoring the season instead of overriding it. Noticing my energy instead of forcing consistency onto it no matter what.
Late summer is pitta season fire and water, the energy of transformation and drive. In balance, pitta is what gives you focus and momentum, the ability to actually finish things. Out of balance, it's the edge the irritability, the burnout, the snapping at people you love. My subbing week wasn't a character flaw or a discipline problem. It was pitta doing exactly what pitta does when nothing's there to check it.
The body isn't an obstacle to your goals. It's feedback. That week, mine was telling me something, loudly, and I said yes to one more class anyway.
The Sneaky Ways We Override Ourselves
Here's the part I think a lot of us recognize once we say it out loud: we use productivity to avoid discomfort. We confuse discipline with self-abandonment. We stay mentally "on" long after our bodies have clocked out. We rush through summer instead of experiencing it — treating the season itself like one more thing to optimize. And somewhere along the way, a lot of us started treating exhaustion like a normal, even respectable, part of adulthood.
That was me, that week. Every yes felt generous. Helpful. Like showing up. It didn't feel like avoidance it felt like being needed. That's what makes this kind of override so sneaky: it doesn't look like self-abandonment from the inside. It looks like being a good teacher, a good partner, a good whatever-your-role-is. The override wears a very reasonable disguise.
The Body Whispers Before It Screams
Pitta imbalance doesn't usually announce itself all at once. It whispers first a short fuse, a flare-up on your skin, a night of bad sleep, a sharper edge to your voice than you meant. My whisper was fog and fatigue and a body that stumbled mid-pose. Yours might look different.
I'm not asking you to diagnose yourself. Just to notice. Has anything like that shown up for you this summer? That noticing, on its own, is most of the work.
What Slowing Down Actually Looked Like
Tangibly, for me, it's meant things like: walks without a podcast in my ears. Eating without doing three other things at the same time. Protecting empty space on my calendar instead of filling it the second it opens up. Trying to rest before I hit the wall instead of only after.
I want to be honest — it's been harder than I expected. There's a real discomfort in unscheduled time when you're used to filling it. Slowing down isn't just a logistical shift, it's an emotional one, and some days I've done it well and some days I've white-knuckled my way through a walk still thinking about my to-do list.
The Retreat as Remedy
Which brings me to this weekend. I'm heading into it completely depleted, and I signed up for a 3-day online yoga retreat months ago. On paper, that sounds like more doing, not less. But I've been thinking about it differently this retreat isn't another yes I need to survive. It's the remedy. It's structured rest, permission to receive instead of give, three days where my only job is to show up and be held instead of holding everyone else.
That's the thing nobody tells you about pitta season: slowing down doesn't always look like doing nothing. Sometimes it looks like choosing a different kind of doing one that cools instead of burns. For a teacher, being held instead of holding is its own kind of practice, and an uncomfortable one.
I'll report back on how the retreat actually goes in a few weeks. Next week I've got a guest episode lined up, but after that, I want to circle back and tell you honestly whether it delivered the reset I'm hoping for, or whether I showed up too depleted to receive it.
The Unexpected Benefits
When I actually do slow down even imperfectly it's never just "I felt calmer." Creativity comes back. I hear my own intuition more clearly, instead of it getting drowned out by the noise of doing. I'm more present. There's less resentment simmering under the surface. I feel more connected to my own body, and I make better decisions because I'm not making them from a depleted, reactive place.
If you're someone who measures your worth in output, that matters: slowing down doesn't just remove stress. It creates something. That's worth knowing before you write it off as unproductive.
Two Ways to Move With the Season
Every season asks something different of us. Pitta season asked for less — for cooling, for ease, for fewer yeses. As we move toward fall, the ask changes: the body is ready for grounding, for steady structure instead of stillness.
Seasonal Strength Fall Edition is live now a 12-week Vata-grounding program with two tiers to choose from, including a coaching call option if you want more support built in.
And if what you're craving isn't just a workout program but the deeper rhythm-repair work this whole episode has been about that's exactly what Sacred Seasons is for. It's my flagship seasonal container, and cart opens for the fall round on my birthday, September 17, running through the Fall Equinox on September 22. If this post is resonating, that's where I'd love to have you.
Closing Reflection
Underneath all the noise, your life has a natural rhythm. The hard part isn't finding it it's being quiet enough to hear it.
I'm still learning this too. That's not a caveat, it's the whole point.
