Ayurveda (from ayur meaning “life,” and veda meaning
“knowledge” or “science of”) is a system of healing from India that uses nature
as medicine, in a preventive and curative sense. It uses food, spices, herbal
therapies, bodywork, and lifestyle changes to create the conditions of optimal
health. It’s all-encompassing, in that it aims to use your personal story to
create a specialized path for healing. It’s quite possible that the most
comforting thing Ayurveda has to offer is its ability to understand you as you
are, not some hypothetical “you”. It appreciates your
uniqueness and knows how to treat you as an individual. It offers explanations
for things you’ve always known about yourself but haven’t been able to
articulate, implement, or accept.
This adeptness in knowing and interpreting what makes you
tick isn’t a magical or psychic phenomenon. Living by Ayurveda doesn’t require
converting to a religion, practicing any mystical ceremonies, or even
practicing yoga. It is science and arises from nature—both the observation of
our external environment and the understanding that we are not separate from
it. This is also the most foundational principle in Ayurveda, known as the
macrocosm microcosm continuum theory. Simply put, the theory states that we
(the microcosm) reflect the universe (the macrocosm), and as such everything
that exists outside of us also exists within us. This means that any shift in
nature causes us to change, and that our actions can also strongly impact
nature.
With our universe being as vast as it is, the continuum
theory can be tough to grasp at first, even a bit scary. It’s one thing to know
your actions affect you alone, but to have them affect other people—even the
planet—is something else entirely. Yet as we divide nature into smaller
components, things seem more manageable. When we accept nature’s elements and
understand the roles they play, we can lessen our desire to be in control of
how we feel. We become responsive to our surroundings rather than resistant.
Elements, or Bhutas
When you attempt to live in harmony with nature, you aren’t
connecting with only one large entity, but rather something made up of several
smaller parts. Ayurveda defines nature as being comprised of five elements, or
bhutas: ether (or space), air, fire, water, and earth. They are present in
everything, including us, and we need all of these things to survive. We need
space to expand, air to breathe, the sun to transform or grow, water to
hydrate, and the earth to nourish. And while the concept of everything being
made of the same elements could be suggestive of everyone looking, thinking,
and acting the same, the opposite is true. The elements are expressed
differently and in varying degrees in each of us, making each thing and being
unique. You can easily see this in Earth’s weather, as we have sunny days with
more fire, windy days with more air, and rainy or humid days that are full of
water.
This is observed in our food, too: Root vegetables that grow
in the ground carry a greater expression of earth, whereas you can feel the
fire in spicy foods like peppers. And in ourselves and other human beings, the
rule of elements is just as present. You’ve certainly encountered people you’d
describe as “spacey,” others who are “hot-headed,” and some who are “grounded.”
There are those whose mind will change with the wind and others who are more
like rocks and unwilling to budge. When someone has more earth expressed in
their physical body, they will be taller or have bigger muscles or bones,
compared to the presence of air, which produces a more delicate frame and
features. Stop to look and you’ll see—the five elements are found in everyone
and everywhere.
Qualities, or Gunas
Now that you have a grasp on the concept of elements, let’s
explore another principle that makes the system of Ayurveda more relatable: the
gunas. The gunas are attributes or qualities that are used to describe the
elements and are paired in opposites. There are ten pairs, with each descriptor
in the pair being at one end of a continuum: dry/oily, light/heavy,
mobile/static, rough/smooth, cold/hot, clear/cloudy, hard/soft, liquid/dense,
sharp/dull, subtle/gross. Each element carries its own combination of
properties—for example; air is dry, light, and mobile, but earth is oily,
heavy, and static.
Since the elements are found everywhere and in everyone,
these words are used to describe all things, ranging from the foods we eat and
the experiences we have to the symptoms we feel. Did you have a heavy or a
light lunch today? Was it a rough day at work, or did things go smoothly? Are
you thinking clearly or are your thoughts clouded? Is your skin as dry as your
humor? Are you sharp-minded or do you have a sharp tongue? There are so many
ways that we use these qualifiers in daily life, but we rarely pause to
consider that they are more than just semantics.
The concept of gunas is as important as it is basic, and
quite possibly the most empowering concept in Ayurveda. When you can understand
where you inherently lie on each of these continuums and what descriptors your
imbalances have in common, you hold the key to your own healing. As you’ll
learn later, qualities can accumulate and too much of one thing will leave you
feeling unwell. Though it almost sounds too simplistic or easy to be true, you
feel better by incorporating the opposite quality on the continuum into your
life.
The Three Constitutions, or Doshas
Nature, the elements, and their descriptors are all neatly
packaged into Ayurvedic constitutions called doshas. The doshas give a concise
picture of how nature is represented in us, while simultaneously giving an
explanation of how our physiology works, and providing meaning to why each of
us has our own specific strengths, weaknesses, and needs. There are three
doshas —vata, pitta, and kapha—and each is composed of two of the five
elements. But just as all of the elements exist within us, all of the doshas
are within us, too. Each is responsible for governing different tissues,
organs, and functions of the body; so, like how we couldn’t live without air or
water, we couldn’t live without having each constitution present. Your unique
expression of your constitution explains everything about you, from your bone
structure to the color of your eyes to the texture of your hair. It tells about
the ways your physical characteristics and personal interests are related, and
the way you react to stress, or the illnesses you most frequently experience.
As you read on to learn about each dosha, begin to think of the aspects of each
you see in yourself and which resonates with you most, keeping in mind all are
a part of you.
Vata
The vata dosha is made of ether and air, and has the
qualities of light, subtle, dry, rough, hard, clear, cold, and mobile. Vata
governs our nervous system, hearing, elimination, and all movement in the body,
including the movement at our joints and the circulation of blood and lymph
(fluid that’s a part of your immune system and contains white blood cells and
lymphocytes). In our physical traits, vata appears as coarse or curly hair, a
small or petite frame, lean or sinewy muscles, and delicate facial features,
like thin lips, small eyes, or small teeth. Those with a higher proportion of
vata tend to get cold easily and frequently experience dryness, such as in
their skin or eyes. In psychological traits, the combination of ether and air
enables creative and spontaneous sides, but this blend can also heighten
emotions like fear, indecisiveness, or worry. Vatas will gravitate toward such
career paths as artists, creators, or jobs that require more movement than
sitting. They can love to travel, be known as social butterflies, or generally
enjoy change.
Pitta
Fire and water make up the pitta dosha, which is described
as light, sharp, hot, liquid, and dry or oily. It keeps watch over our ability
to transform and governs our hormones, enzymes, digestion, blood, skin, and
eyes. Physically this constitution has an average-size stature and a sharpness
in their facial features, such as a well-defined jawline, pointy nose, or
piercing blue or green eyes. Their hair is commonly fine or thin, and is often
blond, red, or early to go gray. As for the mind, pittas are known to be the
thinkers, problem solvers, goal setters, and leaders. Those with this dosha
have a passion that makes them want to do their best, and even the
competitiveness to do better than others. But this intensity can also cause
them to become frustrated, angry, or irritable more easily that the other
doshas. Their focus on achievement means they seek out influential roles in
society or careers that require higher education, which is why doctors,
lawyers, politicians, and CEOs are often pitta predominant.
Kapha
The kapha dosha is a combination of water and earth, giving
it adequate properties for protection and growth within the body. It’s
described as heavy, dense, static, dull, gross, smooth, soft, cloudy, and warm
or cool. In our physiology, it’s in charge of our respiratory system, heart,
brain, immunity, mucous membranes, cartilage, and synovial fluid. You’d be
right to guess this supportive nature means kaphas will have the sturdiest
structure, with bigger bones and bulkier muscles.
These qualities also provide them with thick and lustrous
hair, milky skin, big, compassionate eyes, and full lips. They appreciate
stability more than change, and are non- confrontational people who are like
peacemakers, interested in everyone around them being happy. While these stable
qualities are desirable, they can also create a heaviness that leads toward
depression, sluggishness, or feeling stuck. As such steadfast beings, kaphas
are usually in nurturing and supportive roles in our society. Many with a lot
of kapha in their constitution choose to become caregivers, teachers, nurses,
or social workers.
Though all doshas are present within all of us, and you will
relate to each one to some extent, we are each likely to have one or two that
are more prevalent. This is called your prakruti, or your inherent
constitution, which is said to be determined upon conception. The time, place,
and context under which you were conceived, along with your parents’ health at
the time, were all crucial in creating your makeup.
Your dosha or constitution never changes. Your tendencies
and vulnerabilities as a child are the same ones you deal with now. What does
change is whether you are living within a balance of your true self, surfing
life’s waves and managing small fluctuations. In this case, balance doesn’t
mean equal amounts of each dosha, but rather the maintenance of your personal
dosha recipe. So when you set out to achieve “perfect health” according to Ayurveda,
you are really aiming to keep the proportion of doshas determining your
constitution intact, as your nature made them.
There is great value in knowing your dosha or constitution.
However, what is most useful is being able to recognize how a dosha can either
support you, or accumulate and block you. While there is an abundance of dosha
quizzes online and in books to help you determine your constitution, I have
intentionally omitted one from this book. It’s too easy to take a quiz, which
may not be reliable, and even easier to allow it to become your identity in a
rigid and limiting way. Instead of using your budding knowledge of how you feel
to label or categorize yourself, use it to understand more about you in each
moment: about your physiology, the reasons you excel at certain things, and how
you make decisions each day. Then, in time, you can meet with an Ayurvedic
practitioner, who can help you more accurately assess your constitution.
Like Increases Like: How We Experience Imbalance
It’s important that we appease our constitution, to feed the
things that we love and to foster our strengths and talents, but when we take
things to the extreme or fail to counter with the opposing qualities, we can
experience imbalance. Imbalance comes from an influx—either slow and steady, or
sudden and abrupt—of a quality, element, or dosha, and is called vikruti.
Though this can occur from a dosha being subdued or
depleted, it is most often discussed as an accumulation or increase. For
example, if on one of the coldest days of winter you decided to eat your lunch
of a raw salad outside and wash it down with an iced beverage, the excessive
cold would start to make you feel uncomfortable. You might be able to mentally
override this or eventually feel better after spending time in the air of your
artificially heated home, but if you had to sustain this for many hours or for
many days, the level of discomfort would begin to increase and be more
challenging to resolve, no matter how much you enjoy salads or the winter. Without
opposing heating qualities to level things out, the cold will continue to rise
and to manifest as symptoms, increasing their severity in time. This is the
principle of accumulation, or “like increases like,” which is at the heart of
every ailment we have, physical, emotional, and psychological.
No matter what your overall constitution is, you can have an
imbalance in any dosha (or quality or element); however, you are more
susceptible to the dosha that is already highest in you. Picture it like this:
If you have three buckets of water and two of them are only one-third full
while the other is filled to the brim, any of them could overflow if you were
to add enough water, but the one that is nearest full would overflow the
quickest. The doshas are exactly the same. Someone who typically has oily skin
(kapha) can still experience dry skin (vata) if they eat an excessive amount of
drying foods or are exposed to dry air and wind, but it would take more for
them to get to that point than someone who naturally has dry skin in the first
place.
Similarly, our dosha also gives insight as to where in our
body we might have these imbalances. Remember how each dosha governs certain
tissues? You are more likely to have imbalances manifest in the organs that
your primary constitution governs. For example, given the right scenario, a
vata person could certainly experience a hormonal imbalance, but because pitta
governs hormones, the pitta person is typically more readily affected in this
way, whereas a vata-predominant person is more likely to first experience
problems with their nervous system, joints, or colon.
These principles of imbalance are part of what makes
Ayurveda an accessible system, but understandably, it can be difficult to
comprehend at first. Use the above as a guide for getting to know more about
how each dosha relates to you and the symptoms you experience. And above all,
become an observer of how different foods, activities, and even people make you
feel.
They have dense and lustrous hair, milky skin, wide, caring
eyes, and full lips because of these attributes. They value continuity over
transition and are non-confrontational individuals who act as peacemakers,
caring for the happiness of those around them. While these characteristics are
attractive, they may also trigger heaviness, which can contribute to sadness,
sluggishness, or a sense of being trapped. Kaphas are normally used in caring
and loving positions in our culture because they are such steadfast creatures.
Many people with high kapha levels prefer careers as caregivers, teachers,
nurses, or social workers.
While all doshas are present in all of us, and you will be
able to connect to each one to some degree, we are likely to have one or two
who are more dominant. This is referred to as the prakruti, or natural
constitution, and is said to be decided now of conception. Your makeup was
shaped by the time, place, and circumstances in which you were born, as well as
your parents' health at the time.
Your dosha, or constitution, remains constant. Your
childhood tendencies and flaws are the same ones you face today. What does
improve is when you are living in a state of equilibrium with your true self,
riding the tides of life, and handling minor fluctuations. In this situation,
equilibrium refers to maintaining the personal dosha formula rather than
equivalent quantities of each dosha. So, according to Ayurveda, if you want to
attain "perfect fitness," what you have to do is maintain the
proportions of doshas that determine your constitution as they were created by
god.
Knowing the dosha, or constitution, is extremely beneficial.
The ability to understand how a dosha can either help you or accumulate and
obstruct you is the most valuable skill. Although there are several dosha
quizzes available online and in books to help you decide your constitution, I
purposefully left one out of this book. It's all too tempting to take a quiz
that may or may not be accurate, and it's much easier to let it define your
personality in a strict and restricting way. Rather than using your developing
understanding of how you feel to mark or categorize yourself, use it to learn
more about yourself in each moment: about your physiology, why you succeed in
those tasks, and how you make choices on a daily basis. Then, when the time
comes, you can consult with an Ayurvedic practitioner who can help you
determine your constitution more accurately.
How We Do When Things Are Out of Control
It's vital to satisfy our constitution, feed our passions,
and nurture our strengths and abilities, but when we go too far or struggle to
balance out the opposing virtues, we may end up with an imbalance. The term
vikruti refers to an influx of a quality, feature, or dosha that is either slow
and steady or rapid and abrupt.
Though it may happen because of a dosha being subdued or
exhausted, it's more commonly referred to as an accumulation or rise. For eg,
if you were to eat your lunch of a raw salad outside on one of the coldest days
of the winter and wash it down with an iced soda, the extreme cold will start
to make you feel uneasy. You would be able to physically override this or
gradually feel comfortable after spending time in the air of your artificially
heated home, but if you had to do so for several hours or days, the amount of
pain will continue to rise and become more difficult to overcome, regardless of
how much you like salads or the winter. Without the presence of competing
heating qualities to even it out, the cold will begin to escalate and manifest
as symptoms, becoming more severe over time. This is the aggregation principle,
or “like rises like,” which is at the root of any physical, mental, and
psychological ailment.
You can have an imbalance in any dosha (or consistency or
element) regardless of your overall constitution; however, you are more
susceptible to the dosha that is already dominant in you. Consider the
following scenario: If you have three buckets of water, two of them are just
one-third full and the third is overflowing, all of them could overflow if you
added more water, but the one closest to the top would overflow first. The
doshas are indistinguishable. Someone with oily skin (kapha) will develop dry
skin (vata) if they eat too many drying foods or are exposed to dry air and
wind, although it will take them longer than someone with naturally dry skin.
Similarly, our dosha will reveal where these imbalances are
in our bodies. Remember how each dosha oversees different tissues? Unbalances
are most likely to occur in the organs governed by your primary constitution.
For eg, a vata person could certainly develop a hormonal mismatch under the
right circumstances, but since pitta regulates hormones, a pitta person is more
likely to be affected in this way first, while a vata-predominant person is
more likely to have trouble with their nervous system, joints, or colon first.
These concepts of imbalance are part of what makes Ayurveda a user-friendly scheme, but they can be challenging to grasp at first. Use the information above as a starting point for learning more about how each dosha affects you and the symptoms you feel. Above everything, learn to notice how different diets, behaviors, and even people affect your mood.
