Ayurveda and Yoga for Burnout: A Seasonal Invitation to Reconnect

This is a gentle guide. An invocation. A pause.

When your nervous system is frayed, your digestion off, your sleep broken, your body aching with exhaustion — this is not failure. This is a signal. Burnout is your body’s whisper, long before it screams. Ayurveda and Yoga offer not just relief, but reorientation.

Seasonal Burnout: Why Now Feels Heavy

Burnout often intensifies in the transitional seasons — especially from winter to spring and summer to fall. These junctions (called Ritusandhi in Ayurveda) are times when the elements shift, and so must we. But in modern life, we rarely allow for that shift. We keep pushing. We override. And the body absorbs the cost.

• Spring Burnout: Heavy from accumulated Kapha — think lethargy, brain fog, sluggish digestion
  
  

• Autumn Burnout: Vata dominance — anxiety, insomnia, scattered thinking, adrenal fatigue
  
  

Reconnection Practices

1. Create a Ritual of Slowness
Replace urgency with presence. Choose one anchor: lighting a candle before work, oiling your feet at night, silent tea in the morning.

2. Breathwork to Ground Vata
Try Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) for 5 minutes daily. Recalibrates the nervous system.

3. Movement that Heals, Not Hurts
Burnout is not cured by more intensity. Practice trauma-aware, yin or restorative yoga, slow and breath-led. Allow integration, not performance.

4. Digestive Simplicity
Favor warm, spiced, grounding meals. Think kitchari, root vegetable soups, herbal teas. Avoid cold, raw, dry foods in times of depletion.

5. Say No as Sacred Practice
No is medicine. Make space. Remove stimulation where possible — social media, noise, multitasking.

An Invitation to Rebuild

This is not about doing more, but feeling more. You are allowed to soften. You are allowed to stop striving. You are allowed to realign.

Let the seasons guide you. Let your breath lead you back. Let this moment be your beginning.

image shot at Ara Ha