Seasonal Guide: Winter Wellness Tips

In any season a natural healer, including from the herbal or Unani-Tibb traditions, will focus on the choices and habits that a person can take to maintain their health and recover it when it declines. This can be approached by bringing the body into balance according to a really quite ancient understanding of the natural world that holds its practical relevance even today. The Unani-Tibb view of that natural world and all it contains looks at the universe and at ourselves and sees an ever-present drive towards external and internal harmony. 

Along with the shifting time, seasons, and ages we experience, there are periods of transition that allow us to ease into and out of new phases of living. These concepts of balance and shift allow us to proactively improve our well-being by building habits and routines that we can turn to for support. What does a preventative daily routine consist of?

Routines To Cultivate Balance

Sacred Morning 

Rising at dawn – for us Muslims that’s the fajr prayer, timed before sunrise. Taking care of our elimination needs as our body has been busily doing reparative and detoxing work during our sleeping hours. Washing ourselves including our mouths, which can be at a minimum the wudu Muslims perform; or we go ahead and bathe. After this sacred cleansing wash, we perform a spiritual cleanse by offering a prescribed prayer, directing our faces to the spiritual center and the Sacred House. To start the day with sacred prayer is to, with intention, humbly organize our day in harmony with the mandates set by our Creator. Being awake at sunrise, according to some experts in current times, is the way to reset our circadian rhythms and our melatonin production so that we can achieve restful sleep at night.

PowerFull Days 

And now, having cleansed our bodies, minds, and souls at the very start of our day, we set about our active pursuits- work, exercise, education, etc.

We eat - what should be a moderate and vibrantly healthy meal. We know-again from ancient traditions and from Islamic medicine-that foods are understood to possess certain energetic and therapeutic qualities. Sacred guidance instructs us to eat the halal wa tayyiban – the permissible and wholesome; and the tayyib aspect should not be overlooked. Food traditionally is consumed according to seasonality, individual need (according to one’s age, temperament, and cultural custom). 

We exercise – we should be exercising to promote immune, cardiovascular, digestive, and mood health. Importance of physical exercise: “effective prophylactic against various diseases, as well as strengthening the body.” Active physical movement improves our breathing, our heart health, our muscles and bones, and, it is the only way to circulate the body’s lymphatic fluids, keeping our immune health strong and supporting fat cell metabolism. Swimming is one of the few kinds of exercise that target all muscle groups in the body.

We connect socially, maintaining positive and constructive relationships throughout the day. Purposeful meaningful interactions centered in joy and love light up our lives. Human connection supports our mental health, our heart health, our immune health, and our emotional well-being. Call your parents, reach out to siblings, have tea with friends, spend time with loved ones.

We connect spiritually, refreshing and reinforcing a strong relationship with the Divine through prescribed prayers throughout the rest of the day at noon, late afternoon, evening, and night. And we capitalize on any and every opportunity to call on the Creator for each and everything, mindfully and full of hope.

Evenings at Rest

We balance periods of activity with moments of rest, especially getting good rest at night. At night, we sleep with one last call to our Creator, mindful of our bodies and our spirits at rest. Sleeping between six and seven hours is advised to give our system ample time to cleanse and repair. But, rest is more than sleeping at night. It’s also about quiet reflection and stillness. Or, it’s even the time of the mid-day nap, so typically occurring near lunchtime in many parts of the world.

These are the daily habits according to long-standing tradition: maintaining a healthy balance in our diet | elimination; activity | rest; and social | spiritual connection. These are the 6 Keys of Wholesome Health distilled from long-standing healing practices and traditions and centered around the sacred principle of mizaan, or balance {As for the earth, We spread it out and placed upon it firm mountains, and caused everything to grow there in perfect balance. (Surah Al-Hijr:19}.

Seasonal Regimen: Cold & Wet Winter

Seasonally, this means a few specific things, seasonal harmonizing routines

In Winter – which is a season transitioning from autumn’s dry air into the dampness of winter, the cold aggravates the skin, joints, respiratory, and immune, and nervous systems, and is worsened by the moisture in the air. In response to a tendency towards cold and wet imbalance, we should be trying to maintain warmth and some dryness – generally.

What does the transition to Winter mean for movement and activity? Continue that autumn transition of late sunrises and early sunsets, what happens from an Unani-Tibb standpoint is the slowing of our energy level and stagnation of the blood. Moderate exercise is warming but be careful not to overdo it with too much vigorous exercise. This is a season of rest and recovery. Taking in the brisk morning air through walks or light jogging; or other forms of aerobic exercise is fine.

What does the transition to Winter mean for emotional and mental shifts? It is especially important to pay attention to our mood health, because it affects our choices in the other areas of our lives and our lifestyles. In Unani-Tibb tradition our health is more susceptible to the influence of negative or excessive mood imbalances in Winter. Bearing this in mind, we should be even more vigilant about our positive and supportive self-care.

What does the transition to Winter mean for dietary shifts? A healthy diet in Winter prioritizes warming foods and drinks like hot teas, soups and stews, and warming spices like ginger, black pepper, cayenne, and cinnamon. 

Vibrantly Healthy in Winter

Warming foods and herbs:

Spices: ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne

HEAT-Supportive Diet (cooked leafy greens; meaty, spicy, curried, savory meals with 30% complex carbs as veg/grains; dried fruit; cooked alliums)

Aerobic exercise &

Stimulant [cayenne]

Alteratives [red clover]

Diuretics [quince]

Diffusive [ginger]

Rubefacent [mustard]

Emmenagogue [black cohosh, shepherd’s herb, giant fennel, chaste tree]

DRY diet (cooked dry vegetable curries with 50% grains, some meat) spicy, sour, sweet, oily sautees, roasting/grilling) & 

Tonics [ginseng, licorice, sage]

Astringents [green tea, white oak, red raspberry]

Alteratives [sage, red clover]

Antipyretics [yarrow]

Carminatives (some) [cumin, ginger, peppermint]

Diaphoretics [bayberry, cayenne, yarrow]

Nervine, pectoral, and antispasmodic herbs, including saffron (Crocus sativus), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), and Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) also help support a balanced system during this season.

Taking inspiration from the wise ways of long-standing healing traditions has enormous potential benefits for your health. Learn how to walk this path and take charge of your health with smart changes to your current diet and lifestyle habits. Try a new recipe, an herbal remedy, or even a cleanse. For more information on how to put this into practice for you, contact Rihla Wellness to discover comprehensive diet, herb, and lifestyle shifts for all natural health.

References

Ibn Sina Institute of Tibb (2014)

Khan, M.S. An Introduction to Islamic Medicine (2016)

Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum in Cummins, P.W. A Critical Edition of Le Regime Tresutile et Tresproufitable pour Conserver et Garder la Santé du Corps Humain (1976)