Springtime brings a second peak for colds, with erratic temperatures irritating your airwaves and seasonal allergies making many of us more prone to infections. But you don’t have to fall victim to this seasonal assault. Yoga’s holistic sister science, Ayurveda, has long identified spring as a peak time of susceptibility to illness, but it also suggests some simple changes to your lifestyle so that you can bolster your physiology against unwelcome visitors this season.

Sleep is considered to be one of the four pillars of health by yoga’s holistic sister science Ayurveda, alongside diet, meditation and exercise. Getting good quality sleep (meaning that you pass through delta brain waves and REM sleep) at the right time (overnight) ensures that your body has the opportunity to regulate hormone cycles and regenerate energy, while your mind can recover from the day and filter out non-essential information. All of this sets your whole physiology on track for optimal productivity and creativity tomorrow.

Ghee is purified butter and is used commonly in India. While in the West we’ve had a complicated relationship with fat and butter over the past 30 years resulting in that odd stepchild, margarine, that no one likes to mention, its benefits have been extolled by Ayurveda since time immemorial. The Charaka Samhita, a centuries-old Ayurvedic text, says, “Out of all the oils fit for human consumption, ghee is the best to eat.”