Why the Summer Heat Is Making You Hate Everything Right Now—And How to Fix It
It’s a typical summer weekend day. You’re sipping an iced chai latte and strolling the farmer’s market, but soon the temperature is pushing 90 degrees, your clothes are clinging to you, and you’re seeking shade. Then your partner breathes a little too loudly and, seemingly out of nowhere, you’re consumed by rage.
Sound familiar? If you’ve been feeling unusually irritated, impatient, and outraged by the smallest of things this summer, it’s not you. It’s what contemporary science dubs “heat hypothesis” and what the ancient science of Ayurveda considers pitta aggravation. And it can feel as though you’re powerless against it.
“As things are heating up on the outside, our physiology also ‘heats up,’” says Sheila Patel, MD, an Ayurvedic consultant. “This can show up as heat in the body or in the mind as irritability.”
Patel explains that summer is the pitta time of the year, according to Ayurveda. Because it is associated with fire and transformation, we naturally emulate more of its qualities, including heat and intensity, when it is prevalent. As a result, summer temperatures can feel like they’re sneakily blowing the fuse on your ordinarily sweet disposition.
Why Does Heat Make You Angry?
Research shows a direct connection between heat and human hostility. Studies show that hot weather triggers physiological arousal, in which your heart rate and cortisol levels rise. When your body is working hard to keep you cool, brain functioning takes a backseat. Your emotional strength is compromised, your threat response heightens, and suddenly you have zero tolerance for even the most minor inconveniences in life. One study shows that as ice cream sales skyrocket, so do crime rates.
According to Ayurvedic tradition, when pitta energy becomes excessive, it doesn’t just affect the body. It also manifests as irritability, judgment, and a quick temper.
But making a few simple lifestyle changes can help you minimize the irritability that’s taxing your calm.
6 Ways to Balance Pitta in Summer
Keeping yourself cool and collected means more than staying indoors with your AC blasting.
1. Opt for Less-Intense Workouts
Love a sweaty workout? You don’t need to give up your routine in the summer, but high-intensity workouts can quickly spike your internal temperature and your cortisol levels, even if you’re exercising in a gym.
Ayurveda encourages working with your body, not against it, throughout the warmest season. Ideally, you’d focus on doing less and resting more. That means avoiding intense exercise almost entirely this time of year, maybe by opting for a walk instead of a run or swapping your heated vinyasa class for a slower yoga class. If that just isn’t satisfying, you can do those heart-pumping workouts, but do them indoors during the cooler hours of the day, such as early morning or late evening.
2. Hydrate Wisely
Downing ice water might seem to quench your thirst, but it doesn’t hydrate you as efficiently as you’d expect. Research supports what Ayurveda teaches, which is that cold water slows digestion due to your body needing to expend extra energy to warm the water before absorbing it. This (ironically) creates more internal heat.
Instead, take a tip from Ayurveda and infuse cool room-temperature water with mint, which modern science suggests can have a cooling effect on the mind.
3. Respect “Pitta Hours”
The hours when the sun is almost directly overhead, from 10 am to 2 pm, are governed by pitta. It’s best to avoid overly strenuous, high-stress tasks, including strenuously working out, during this time. Relegate these to the cooler hours of the day.
4. Take an Afternoon Nap
Ayurvedic tradition recommends that you take a brief afternoon nap in the summer. According to Nidhi Bhansali Pandya, an Ayurvedic practitioner, short naps this time of year are helpful because “the body gets depleted midday,” from the heat. According to Pandya, rest helps support the system.
Additionally, contemporary science shows that getting shut-eye for 10 to 30 minutes in the afternoon can help your brain rest and recover, which is likely to make you less susceptible to heat-induced frustration.
5. Try a 5-Minute Savasana
You can always try Savasana, the “cool down” pose at the end of yoga classes, during especially heated moments. Lying still for even five minutes in the pose can lower your heart rate and core temperature. Additionally, it’s a chance to help your mind, not only your body, fully surrender.
6. Breathe Yourself Cool
When the blazing heat starts to test your patience, you can use your breath as a thermostat to control your internal temperature. In Ayurveda, the cooling breathwork exercise sitali pranayama is considered to be like air conditioning for your nervous system. Scientific research seems to support this. A study shows that cooling breathwork can lower stress and irritability-inducing beta waves and increase alpha waves that promote relaxation.
Although you can’t control the temperatures outside, you can turn to science-backed Ayurvedic wisdom as you try to keep your reactions in check and aligned with the most patient version of yourself.
