February

Astrology

Historically, February is not my favorite month. It’s cold and dark, and everyone (or almost everyone) has taken down their holiday lights. I honestly wish everyone would just keep the lights on their houses until spring because I need all the joy I can get moving through winter once the holidays are over. Yes, February has Valentine’s Day, and I love LOVE, but most of the reminders I get about Valentine’s Day are on grocery shelves and in targeted ads.
Rather than pour all my romantic energy into a singular holiday, I like to allow the transition from Aquarius season into Pisces season to entice me to romanticize everything! If I’m drinking tea on the couch, it’s with a candle lit and a thick blanket wrapped around me. If I’m making my bed in the morning, it’s with the  sun streaming through the windows and music playing. Everything I do can be a vibe if my hair looks good enough.
Pisces is dreamy, intuitive, empathetic, moody, and thoughtful. It is ruled by water, and using water can be a really lovely way to welcome in the season. Consider the following ritual:
Fill a jar with water. Speak aloud into the water all the things you love about yourself. Set it in a window that gets moonlight or outdoors (don’t overfill the jar so that it freezes and cracks if you have freezing temps) under the moon. In the morning, use that water to make yourself a cup of tea. Remind yourself a second time about the things you love about yourself. Use that tea bag to do a simmer pot. This is where you can use any remaining water if you have it, otherwise the tea bag has also been infused with your good thoughts and self love. If you are using any of the Curiositea loose leaf teas, there is a lot of life left in them after just one cup, and you can simmer the tea on the stovetop over medium heat for several hours if you want to. Just be sure to keep an eye on it so that you don’t let the water completely evaporate (something I have, of course, NEVER done). This will help humidify the house a bit, which is welcome in the cold, dry months. It will also spread those good intentions and self love throughout the rest of your home. 

Pisces season- February 19-March 20

Herbs/Spices - passionflower, mugwort, poppy, lavender, 

Ayurveda
We are moving further into kapha season for most of the Northern Hemisphere, which means cold and wet. This tends to be when decreased appetite is observed and cold and flu symptoms may rear their heads. In Ayurveda, the focus is not on the germs themselves but our bodies as hosts. 

There is an analogy that goes like this: if an intruder walks up to a house that is fully locked, gated, and has an alarm system (much like a strong immune system), the intruder (germs) cannot penetrate. That same intruder can walk over to a home with their doors and windows open with no alarm system (lower immune system), and they can walk right in. If our immune systems are well, our mental state is balanced, and we are getting enough sleep, those “intruder” germs cannot penetrate our bodies even if we are exposed over and over again. 

This is not to judge or shame anyone who does get sick (I was sick FIVE TIMES between September and December- all for a week at a time), as this is just one theory on illness. We could be doing everything “right” and still get knocked down by illness. This, in my opinion, comes down to my body SCREAMING at me to rest. When we don’t listen to our bodies’ whispers “hey, sit down and rest for a breath before moving onto the next thing” or “I really need a nap, an extra hour of sleep, to cancel some of the plans I overpromised on”, we will be forced to hear our bodies scream “HEY I TOLD YOU I WAS TIRED! NOW I HAVE TO GIVE YOU A COLD TO GET BACK INTO THAT BED”. If we tune into our bodies, we will tend to hear way more whispers than we realize: that tight hip, those few extra yawns around 2pm, that eye twitch, they all give us insight into what our bodies are needing to rebalance before we have to completely recalibrate with an illness. I’ll admit that those times I was sick were all after a bout of me running myself thin, overextending, and not resting and listening to those whispers.
Kapha’s “home” is in the lungs so it is no wonder that respiratory illnesses arise during a time that is also wet and cold. Energetically, the lungs are associated with grief. This is also a time where we are stuck inside more, where the holiday season is now a distant memory, and where depression and seasonal affective disorder are building more and more. While you are resting, take time to tend to the grief, both large and small. The big griefs are easy to detect and usually impact our lives more; however, those smaller griefs still have a large impact, especially if they are dismissed. 
Some ideas for processing grief include, but are not limited to:

• Notice what you are feeling. Not the thoughts or narrative, but the actual sensations in your body. This is the physiological signature of that emotion in your body. This is the way your body communicates with you. 
• Sit with this feeling and tend to yourself. What do you feel? Where do you feel it? How can you send compassion to that part of you?
• Move your body. Somatic work, EFT, tremor release, or any movement that you feel drawn to will do. When you have sat with the emotion and fully felt it, you can begin to free it. Moving your body will support the emotion moving through and out of your system as well. 
• Process: journal, record yourself speaking, call someone you trust to hold space, speak to yourself in the mirror, make an appointment with your therapist. Any way that you feel safe to fully process what has come up will support a mind-body connection to accepting and releasing the emotion. 
• Go easy on yourself. Grief is a process and it does not matter what caused the grief, the “size” of grief, or how long it has been. Waves of emotions may come up, especially after you’ve connected back in with your body. Lean on whatever support system you have in place. 
• **Please consult with a professional if you feel that this is a process you cannot do alone. You are never alone and you never have to be alone.

The same herbal suggestions for January apply here, as the nervous system can be hit with many emotions. Other herbs to support grief work include rose, mullein, hawthorn, and motherwort. 
To pacify kapha, pungent herbs and spices are favored to dry and warm the system; however, keep your dosha and current imbalances in mind! Pungent spices tend to overheat pittas and dry out vatas. Following a dosha-specific diet and routine is best for each individual, and placing kapha-based considerations is your best bet. While it is important to consider the season, we ultimately benefit from self-referral and noticing what our individual bodies need in the moment. Listen to those whispers and you’ll be surprised how much you’ll learn about yourself.