Ayurveda: Life Knowledge for Yogis

The Ancient Wisdom of Ayurveda

If you’ve read this far, you already know that yoga is great for your physical, mental an emotional health. With it’s combination of physical movement, breathing and meditation, yoga supports our minds, bodies and spirits. Many of my students also tell me that yoga helps them to get a great night’s sleep too, and THAT is the foundation stone of all good health.

But what about if you could expand the benefits of yoga to support your whole wellbeing? Ayurveda is yoga’s sister science. It’s ancient, timeless wisdom that believes that we all have the birth right to the gifts that life has to offer. Connected to the rhythms of nature, Ayurveda believes that we all have a unique constitution. When our constitution is in balance, we can experience our best health. And unlike Western medicine, Ayurveda believes that health is not simply an absence of disease but the alignment of our inner self, our constitution, with the natural world to feel at our very best.

Ayurveda asks us to recognise our needs and respond to these with care. we can start by exploring and balancing our innate energy.

The Three Doshas

In Ayurveda, we believe that five elements form all of nature: air, ether (space), earth, fire and water. These combine to create three Doshas , energies that dance within us always, constantly changing and re-establishing themselves as we move through our days, our weeks, our lives. You can think of the Doshas as energies within our body, each with a unique personality. Kapha Dosha: Earth and Water. Pitta Dosha: Fire and Water. Vata Dosha: Air and Ether

The three doshas mix together to form our individual constitutions. Think of them as primary colours, like red, blue and yellow. They can be combined in an infinite number of ways to form each unique human, just as the primary colours can be mixed to create the infinite range of colour that we see around us. Doshas, and primary colours can also vary in intensity from the palest hues to the darkest so there really is no end to the variation we experience.

We need all three doshas and their balance varies throughout our lifes. For example we use more Kapha energy as children when we are growing, and more Pitta energy as adults when we are busy with our working lives.

Dosha energies also fluctuate throughout the day. Vata is prevalent overnight (think dreaming which can often be a creative act), whilst Kapha energy is highest in the evening, calming us for bedtime. It is no coincidence that in Ayurveda, we consume our main meal at lunchtime, when Pitta, our digestive, fire is at it’s highest.

Let’s take a look at the characteristics of each dosha.

Vata Dosha

Vata Dosha comprises air and ether and is associated with movement. It’s characteristics are – cold, light, mobile, dry, changing and rapid. Vata energy is energetic and creative. It suggests a boundless enthusiasm for life and lots of empathy. When Vata energy is unbalanced, you can experience a sense of overwhelm, anxiety or over thinking.

Pitta Dosha

Pitta Dosha is associated with fire and water, that which digests. It’s characteristics are hot, light, oily, intense, sharp and mobile. The pitta personality is warm and loving, intelligent and ambitious. Pitta energy is also highly organised and can make strong leaders. When your pitta energy is out of balance, you can become bossy, jealous, overly competitive and critical.

Kapha Dosha

Kapha Dosha is associated with the elements of Earth and Water, that which holds things together. Kapha energy is warm, compassionate, tolerant and easy going. It is also nurturing, reliable and loyal. When your Kapha energy is out of balance, you may become over attached to people or possessions, tend to put on weight or feel depressed.

We all have an underlying, unique personality comprised of our personal mix of the three Doshas. This is set at conception and even by the time we are born, it has been influenced by the environment of our mother’s womb. We can spend a life time learning about our true nature.

If you want to explore your own doshic balance, here are lots of quizzes online. These provide a snap shot of your Dosha blend but beware! The truth is never quite as simple. So many things affect our dosha balance and if one dosha has been out of balance for a long time, we can start to believe that this is our true nature. I worked in a highly stressful, competitative career for many years and truly believed my primary dosha was Pitta. And perhaps it was for a while. But now I teach yoga instead, I find myself leaning into my inner Kapha. So enjoy your journey but don’t become too attached to your results. They change over time and as we experience better alignment with our underlying nature.

What becomes important as we find out more, is how we use Ayurvedic principles to find our best health.

And that, my friends, will be the subject of my next blog!