DETERMINE YOUR DOSHA TYPE (AND WHY YOU ARE THE WAY THAT YOU ARE)
Ayurveda is based on small, intuitive adjustments that bring about balance in the body, mind and spirit. However, I do realize that modern life is not always conducive to a balanced sense of being. I can vouch for it on a personal level, with two young children and several strings to the working bow. I’m often pulled in so many different directions I literally lose my balance – clumsiness, for me, is always because of having too little time, not enough care. It’s a sign to stop, whatever you’re doing: just STOP. Breathe in. Breathe out. In again. Then, pick up where you left off, calmer, more carefully. Identifying those moments of short-breath-inducing panic – I’m late! I’m tired! I’m stressed! – is key – you have to recognize them as early as you can, and respond.
Therefore, Ayurveda is in many ways, the perfect tonic for our incredibly hectic modern lives. Even if you’re busy, stressed and overwhelmed, the simple act of eating Ayurvedically will help to keep your body in balance in a way that will strengthen it against the day’s challenges. While Ayurveda is a deeply rich, intuitive, detailed and complex science, all of us must begin somewhere. And beginning where we are is something that Ayurveda heartily condones. For this reason, I have found Ayurveda to be the best starting point for busy people because it gently brings the body into line without shocking the system. You can still go about your business, still be productive and driven, but feeling far better, calmer, happier and healthier than you did before. You’ll be stronger, you’ll sleep better, you’ll feel lighter and more energized, and you’ll feel yourself again.
This chapter is about discovering your individual body “personality” – now, your Ayurvedic journey can really begin. Ayurveda is based on the theory that all living and non-living things are made up of five elements. We cannot see the five elements in terms of our own physical constitutions, but we can understand them because of what they do within our own bodies.
THE FIVE ELEMENTS
ETHER, AIR, FIRE, WATER and EARTH
To explain the way these elements function within us, Ayurveda divides them into three entities, called doshas.
THE THREE DOSHAS
VATA – predominantly Ether and Air
PITTA – predominantly Fire (and some Water)
KAPHA – predominantly Water and Earth
Everyone possesses all three doshas – we need to in order to carry out all the different essential functions of our body. But the doshas make up different proportions within each of us – and this proportion allows us to understand our specific dosha type. This is your prakriti – a Sanskrit word for our constitution that also means “first creation”. Essentially, this is the body type you were born with, it is your inherent nature and it does not change. Eating according to your prakriti – which the chart below (pages 19–21) will help you do – will ensure that you stay balanced. We can lose or gain weight, run marathons or sit still, learn everything or nothing, be old, young or in between . . . but this fundamental constitution will not change. Poetic, isn’t it?
If you would like to learn more about vikriti, which is the way an imbalance shows up within our bodies when we are not living according to our nature (common in modern life), visit thisconsciouslife.co for further reading.
Determine Your Dosha Type
Look at the chart below and choose the statement in each row that most applies to you.
Add up the number of statements you’ve marked in each column: Vata, Pitta or Kapha.
The column that has the largest number of statements that apply to you is your majority dosha, which tends to work alongside your second largest number, your minority dosha.
Most people are bi-doshic. For example, I scored one Vata, eight Pitta and four Kapha. I am predominantly Pitta, but Kapha is significant. This makes me Pitta–Kapha.
Predominantly Vata Types Are . . .
. . . naturally slender – Vata people find it hard to gain weight and can lose weight easily through stress, illness and worry. You’re drawn to creative and spiritual pursuits – many yoga teachers, singers and dancers are Vata types. You’re naturally generous, kind and sensitive, and can also be intuitive, but when imbalanced, you’re nervy and fidgety; you often find it hard to sit still and must always keep yourself occupied.
You are a fast talker and lively conversationalist. The restlessness within you drives your creative endeavours; you want to try to experience as much as you can, and are very enthusiastic about life. Vata can also make you prone to constipation, or the opposite, loose bowels. You are not a deep sleeper and tend to have vivid dreams, but slip in and out of sleep, and feel just fine on as little as five or six hours a night. You can be drawn to fast, dynamic sport, but will find that soothing meditative sports are better for you – yoga is ideal, though not the more active power forms. You really do feel the cold and can struggle with poor circulation. You always dream of being on a hot beach somewhere, and are continually craving warmth, which nurtures and balances your body. You can suffer from weak nails, dry skin and coarse, brittle hair. You don’t sweat a lot. Bone and back problems also plague this dosha type. You’re a fast learner but can also forget just as quickly, and though you’re driven toward new adventures and experiences, you can have weak willpower. The focus for balancing Vata types must be on foods that warm, stoke, nourish, enrich and comfort.
Predominantly Pitta Types Are . . .
… the driven ones who can stand up in front of others and speak assertively and charismatically, getting to the point quickly. You have a real fire in your belly, which, on the positive side, makes you a high achiever, a strong leader and successful in business. When imbalanced, though, you can be angry, aggressive, intolerant and insensitive to others. Pitta types can think the world revolves around them and need reminding that others have feelings too. Your appetite for everything – food, sex and sleep – is high. You live a full life, but also need to recoup that energy at night, with a solid seven hours (more and you’ll feel sluggish and “off”). Heat aggravates Pitta – you need cooling down, not heating up – so you can get very irritable and flustered in summer, are prone to sweating copiously and to producing a strong, sharp body odour.
Pitta types do better in cooler climes. You’ve got good strong digestion but, if imbalanced, you are prone to diarrhoea (you also produce more urine and sweat than other dosha types). When digestion is out of sync, heartburn, reflux and painful indigestion are all common. Pitta types are balanced by foods that cool and calm.
Predominantly Kapha Types Are . . .
. . . compassionate and filled with quiet confidence, which makes them do well. You have great stamina and, when you push yourself, you are often surprised by what you can achieve. Naturally, you tend toward low-impact exercise, like walking, but can benefit from dynamic and higher-energy pursuits. You are often well built and strong – “big boned” often describes the Kapha type. Your body is beautifully nourished and this also shows in your skin, hair and nails, which tend to be smooth, shiny and glossy. Your appetite is steady – you like to enjoy larger meals, but your metabolism can be slow.
You enjoy sleep. Like a cat curled up by the fire, you like to take your time, and often feel you need time to be still, rest and do nothing (the opposite of Vata types, who feel they must always be busy, occupied and mobile). You like your creature comforts and you are a wonderfully loyal, trustworthy, calm and steady individual – Kaphas are most often our earth mamas. Food-wise, Kapha types have incredibly strong cravings for sweet and fatty foods, which hinders their metabolism further and can make weight gain inevitable.
Kapha types are most likely to suffer diet-related disorders such as diabetes and obesity, but are also prone to allergies and asthma. Kapha types need foods with spice, to help energize, boost and clear.
From this point onward, you’ll discover which foods work best for your dosha and why, and how eating according to your dosha can transform your life, affecting everything from your mood to your sleeping patterns.
As I have already said, the foods that we eat are just one small part of the Ayurvedic big picture. In this book, I seek to make this part of the picture as clear as possible, but I would also encourage you to read around the subject as much as you would like to, as well. Wonderful books I heartily recommend to help you see that bigger picture include Ayurveda by Geeta Vara, Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom by Acharya Shunya, and my and Paul’s own book on Ayurveda in a wider lifestyle context, Sattva: The Ayurvedic Way to Live Well.
By eating more of the tastes that reduce your dominant dosha, you’ll be balancing your body.
Your dosha – Vata, Pitta or Kapha – can be managed by the foods that you eat. Being balanced is always your goal – and in Ayurveda, that means achieving as equal a balance of the three doshas as possible. So if you are mostly Vata, you do not want to increase Vata any more, meaning that you’ll need to eat foods that increase Pitta and Kapha. If you are mostly Pitta, you want to eat foods that raise Vata and Kapha, reducing Pitta. And so it goes on. It’s a slightly unusual way to think of things – one might assume if you are Vata you should eat Vata-boosting foods – but, again, just keep taking your mind back to the idea of balance, and your body as a set of weighing scales. Every meal you eat is about bringing the needle of the scales to the optimal middle – where every element is equal and constant.