Balancing Your Doshas

In this talk, we'll get a little more in-depth into how each of the doshas shows up in our bodies and minds. We'll also cover what an imbalance of any of the three doshas looks like, and a few tips to bring them back into harmony. I always suggest getting an Ayurvedic consultation with myself or another professional if you are having any imbalances or serious health issues.

Transcript

Hello,

Today we are going to be talking about balancing the doshas.

If you are not fully sure what the doshas are or if you're new to Ayurveda,

I encourage you to go back and listen to my previous talks which clarify a little bit more about those things about Ayurveda and what the doshas are as well as the elements.

And we are going to jump right in.

So as I sort of covered in the dosha and element talk,

The three doshas which are vata,

Pitta and kapha all have their own qualities.

So to review,

You have vata which is dry,

Light,

Cold,

Rough,

Mobile and subtle.

You have pitta which is sharp,

Hot,

Liquid or slightly unctuous,

Light and spreadable.

And then you have kapha which is cold,

Heavy,

Dull,

Also unctuous and provides stability.

So we're going to look a little bit more in depth at these doshas and if you're having an imbalance,

How to balance them.

Of course,

I always recommend first and foremost to get an Ayurvedic consultation either by myself or another Ayurvedic counselor or practitioner.

But these are just some general things that you can do or consider doing.

So let's start with the vata.

Like I said,

Vata dosha causes a lot of dryness and coldness in the body.

And so you're going to want to balance that with heat and oil.

So what I mean by that is if you have,

For example,

Really just chronically dry skin,

You're going to want to do what Ayurveda calls abhyanga or an oil massage,

A full body oil massage.

The best oil for vata is sesame oil.

But if you don't have sesame oil,

You can use any other kind of oil.

I would suggest avoiding coconut oil,

But if that's all you have,

That's okay.

And you're also going to want to do things that cause a little bit more heat in the body.

So whether that be drinking warm teas and warm soups,

Or adding some warming spices to your dishes and your meals.

And then another thing that really helps vata is routine.

So as we know,

Vata is made up of the ether and air elements.

So it just has a tendency to be a little sporadic and erratic and not have any structure.

So what helps balance that?

For example,

If you find that you have insomnia or you're always waking up around 2 a.

M.

,

That's a very big sign that vata might be imbalanced.

So in order to take things into your own hands,

You might want to start doing a nighttime routine where you can rub some sesame oil on the bottom of your feet.

That's a great way to balance vata and drink some warm tea and just maybe do a quiet meditation or a pranayama breathing exercise before bed so that your body starts to understand,

Okay,

This is wind down time and vata starts to relax.

Regular eating times is another really big thing for vata because vata digestion is also just kind of irregular.

Irregularity is a big thing with vata and so your main tool is going to be to make things regular.

So for example,

If your appetite is irregular,

Sometimes you might skip a meal and not even notice or you're just not hungry,

That's a sign of vata imbalance as well or just some elevated vata.

And the importance with having regular meal times is that you're then able to have regular bowel movements.

And that is an important thing with the health of our overall body,

Our entire health.

So some things to look at for vata,

Regular meal times,

Starting a routine,

Particularly a bedtime routine if you're having trouble sleeping and then adding some heat to your meals,

Whether that be temperature or heating spices and oil to your meals as well as your body as well.

So that can be,

Like I mentioned,

The oil massage and then also adding some lubrication,

Some oil,

Some healthy oils and fats to your diet will help balance vata as well.

So next let's look at pitta.

Pitta is the main fiery element dosha.

So it's fire and water elements,

But the fire really comes through.

The water element kind of makes it a little more spreadable and unctuous,

But when we think of pitta and especially pitta imbalances,

It's going to be mostly heat related.

So when we're looking at digestion,

You might have loose stools or gastritis,

Ulcers,

Heartburn,

Any kind of burning in digestion,

That's a sign of elevated or imbalanced pitta.

So what you're going to want to do is avoid all spicy food and even extremely hot temperature foods,

You're going to want to go on the cooler side,

Not ice cold drinks,

But room temperature drinks as well as cooling herbs and spices.

So things like mint,

Coriander,

Cilantro,

Cucumber,

Those sort of foods are going to really help balance the heat of pitta.

And then staying hydrated of course will help,

Water helps dissipate heat,

So that's an important one.

And then trying to just remain cool and calm mentally as well will help lower that heat and aggression of pitta that can also sort of manifest in the mind.

So doing things like cooling pranayama breath,

So there's one called shitali,

Which you breathe through a curled tongue,

That's a very cooling breath and it can kind of cool the mind down so if you start to feel that pitta heat,

You start to get angry or irritated,

These are some things you can do.

Close your eyes,

Take a few deep breaths and really focus on cooling,

Calming things.

Even as simple as finding a nice shady tree to sit under,

The cool calmness of being in nature and then being under a tree which provides natural cooling and shade is a huge help for pitas.

And yeah,

Lastly,

When you're doing any sort of exercise,

I suggest not to exercise if you are exercising or yoga or walks in the middle of the day because that is when pitta is most elevated and you're just gonna kind of add on to that elevated pitta.

Last but not least,

Let's look at kapha.

So kapha imbalances or elevated kapha causes a lot of things like weight gain,

Slow digestion,

Swelling,

Edema,

Water retention,

That sort of thing.

So if you are feeling any sort of slow digestion or maybe you've had some weight gain,

Some things that you can look at doing are removing kapha dominant foods in your diet.

So that would be things like ice cream and chocolate cakes,

Things that are really heavy in your diet are going to cause heaviness in your body.

Definitely gonna want to avoid oils and fats too much but lighter things like popcorn and rice cakes,

Those are on the lighter side and will just help lighten up any sort of heaviness.

Soups are good and all kinds of veggies.

You're gonna want to avoid anything too heavy like meats and processed grains.

And then as well as for if you're feeling that sort of lethargy or laziness that kaphas can be prone to,

Setting regular sleeping and wake times is a big help for kapha because kapha can just tend to laze around all day.

And if you feel that maybe you're not necessarily able to because of work or whatever,

But you feel that just dullness of your mind,

Setting regular wake times as well as adding some heating spices to your foods and drinks.

So try doing like cinnamon teas,

Herbal teas like mint that are kind of more awakening and opening to the mind will help a lot for kapha dosha.

I hope that this helped you guys clarify a little bit about how you can balance the dosha's.

Of course,

Again,

I recommend having an Ayurvedic consultation if you are having any serious imbalances or health issues.

And I wish you all well with much gratitude.

Thank you guys.

Reviews

These breakdowns are so helpful! I’m clearly such a Vata and you’re right — I 100% need more routine as my mind is always all over the place! Excited to learn more from you!

Thank you