The 5 Elements And The 3 Doshas

In this short chat, we'll cover two important fundamental Ayurvedic concepts: The 5 Elements (Pancha Maha Bhutas) and The 3 Doshas (Tridosha). With these two concepts, you can start to learn about your inner and outer environments and how they relate to each other to create harmony or dis-ease.

Transcript

Hello,

Welcome.

Today we are going to be talking about the five elements and the three doshes.

And before I get into those five elements and three doshes,

I want to clarify a little concept in Ayurveda that will help us relate these other two concepts of the elements and doshes to ourselves and why they are so important and why Ayurveda even uses them in the first place.

So Ayurveda says that everything that is within the macrocosm,

Which is the universe,

Is also within the microcosm,

And we are the microcosm.

So in essence,

We are miniature versions of the universe.

Now,

This is important because when we start to talk about the elements and the doshes,

You will start to see how our outer environment affects our inner environment.

And this is the key concept in Ayurveda,

That everything that happens in the outside world will affect our inner worlds as well.

So we learn how to balance that,

We learn how to recognize those things,

But you have to first understand the elements and the doshes.

So let's jump right in.

So the five elements,

I'll list them and explain a little bit about them.

So element one is ether or space.

And ether or space can literally be the space,

Right?

The outer space or the space around us,

The space that our body is taking up within the room that we're sitting in,

That is the ether,

But also within our bodies,

The space that the organs are taking up and the bones are taking up within our skin,

In our shell and body.

Then we have element two,

Which is air.

So air is a pretty understandable one,

Right?

We have the air around us.

And what about in our bodies?

We have air all inside of us.

So we have the porousness of our bones and our stomachs and our guts,

Our colon,

Especially our large intestine holds a lot of air.

And that's why you get bloated,

Right?

Cause you have excess air in there.

Our lungs,

All kinds of different areas of our bodies hold different amounts of air.

Then we have element number three,

Which is fire.

So fire,

As we know,

Can be literal fire,

Like a wildfire,

A bonfire,

The fire that we cook with,

That's in our macrocosm,

That's in our outer environment.

What about our inner environment,

Our microcosm?

The fire that Ayurveda talks about most is your digestive fire.

And it's not a literal fire within our bellies,

As we most likely know,

But it can be related to in what Western theories would consider digestive juices.

All of those enzyme and acidic juices that have not literal fire,

But heat and acidity,

Right?

So that is a form of heat within our body,

As well as being able to have the light of the sunshine,

Sunlight hitting our eyes and our skin and transforming that,

Being able to see because of the light.

That is another way that our body uses fire or light energy.

So then we have element number four,

Which is water.

This is another pretty obvious one.

We have so much water on the earth and we have so much water within our bodies as well.

So the earth being made up of,

What is it about 70% water,

As well as our bodies being made up of about 70% water,

Should go to show you how our outer environment is so closely related to our outer environment.

So it's so much more connected to our inner environments.

And last but not least,

We have element number five,

Which is earth.

So of course we have the physical earth that we all live on,

But we also relate earth to anything that gives stability,

Strength,

Structure.

So within our bodies,

We have our bones and our muscles and even the fat substances of our body,

Structure and stability and sort of the mass that we are.

So those are the five elements.

And Ayurveda then takes those five elements and combines them in specific combinations to create the doshas.

So the doshas were really kind of made or thought up to help teach and relate this elemental theory in a more simplified form that we can all kind of understand because you will find in nature that these specific combinations just tend to happen together more regularly.

So we'll start with vata dosha is made up of the lighter two elements,

Ether and air.

So vata dosha is definitely on the dry,

Light and cold side.

So if you think about ether and air,

There's no fire,

There's no water there.

It's gonna be very light,

Mobile,

Subtle.

You don't have a lot of mass as well as very drying,

Lightening or anything that is light or gives lightness.

And then as well as being cold and rough.

So if you think about maybe if you're a vata person,

Meaning you have a majority of vata within your body,

And let me just clarify before I go on,

We all have the three doshas within us in unique combinations.

So we're not all affected by,

For example,

The weather in the same way,

Because we have different combinations.

So going back to vata,

If you have an excess amount of vata or maybe you're having a vata imbalance,

So you might be having some symptoms like dry skin,

Flaky,

Dry dermatitis,

Eczema type of skin issues,

Dry hair,

Dry nails,

Dry digestion.

So you're prone to constipation or maybe there's too much air in there.

So you're really prone to gas and bloating.

Those are all vata symptoms.

So then let's move on to pitta.

So pitta is made up of the two elements,

Fire and water.

So a lot of the sort of qualities that you're going to see when relating to pitta are going to be heat,

Fire,

Everything hot.

So pitta qualities are sharp,

Hot,

Light.

So if you think of a fire,

It's also very spreadable,

A little bit liquidy.

So sometimes you might wanna think of pitta can be kind of like a acidic oil type of feeling.

And then it's slightly unctuous and like I said,

Spreadable.

So pitta,

Let's talk about maybe pitta imbalances or qualities that you might recognize within your own life or within your own body.

So physically pitta causes heat.

So let's think about when you're eating and afterwards you get heartburn or any kind of burning digestion,

Or maybe you're prone to loose stools,

Even burning stools.

Those are all pitta qualities.

And then you can also have a pitta personality.

You can have the personality of all of these if you have more pitta within you.

You're going to be more prone to irritation and anger,

Kind of those hot headed qualities,

If that makes sense.

And let's move on to the third and last dosha,

Which is kapha.

And kapha is made out of water and earth.

So as you might be able to assume,

This is the more sturdy and stable of the three dosha's,

Meaning earth and water.

What does that make?

It makes mud.

So you're kind of more prone to congestion,

To weight gain,

To things that are more on that heavy,

Thick side.

So the qualities of kapha are cold,

Heavy,

Dull,

Meaning it's not really hot and alive and vivacious.

You're more towards,

Even dullness of the mind is a kapha quality.

Unxious,

So again,

Like something,

You know,

Melting ice cream.

I always like to say that kapha is like ice cream.

That unctuous kind of gooey,

Sticky,

Sweet quality is that's all kapha.

Kapha provides stability,

Which is so important,

Right,

For so many things,

For literally everything in our body,

We need stability.

So as you can see,

You need each one of these dosha's and we have each one of these dosha's.

We have all five elements,

Right,

Within us,

But our combination makes us unique.

So again,

Speaking for each of the dosha's vata,

If you are more prominently vata,

You might have a tendency to have cold hands and feet,

Dry hair,

Skin and nails.

Your energy comes in spurts because you kind of have that wild,

Mobile quality about you,

But you don't have much stability.

You don't have much to keep you going.

So energy will come in spurts and prone to things like constipation and gas.

And then emotionally,

You're probably imaginative and creative and intuitive,

But a little more prone to forgetfulness or anxiety,

But those sort of airy qualities.

And then you have pitta,

Which is kind of the middle ground in a lot of ways when it comes to physical qualities.

Usually you have warmer body temperature because you have more of that heat within you,

Medium kind of build and frame.

And then you usually have strong digestion and appetite as well because you have a strong digestive fire.

Your fire element is just a little bit stronger than most,

But you could be prone to looser stools because of that.

It sort of burns your food out of you if that makes sense.

And as well as emotional features and qualities,

You're a little more ambitious and maybe very intelligent and driven and organized,

But you might be prone to anger and irritation and be argumentative because of those fiery kind of hot-headed qualities like I mentioned.

And lastly,

Kapha.

If you are a kapha dominant person,

You're most likely gonna have a larger build or it might be easier for you to gain weight and harder for you to lose it.

A lot of kapha dominant people have thick hair and thick skin and moist skin,

But as far as digestion,

It's a little slower.

So maybe you don't go every day or it's on the slower side.

And a lot of things about kapha are slow.

So kapha people might be kind of slower to get things done.

They're just very patient and kind of almost in their own world.

They just take,

Not that they're dismissive,

But they just kind of take their time to get things done.

And then they're just very loving and dependable,

Usually and kind,

But they can be prone to attachment and laziness.

And that's that stability quality that they have.

They want to hold on to things and not necessarily jump to get things done.

So I hope that this clarified the elements and the dosha theories of Ayurveda.

I love sharing these things with you guys and I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Thanks for this super helpful breakdown Drew! 🤍