What’s your Dosha : Part 1
Ayurveda is the world’s most sophisticated mind-body health system developed thousands of years prior to modern medicine by the sages of India. Ayurveda is the science of life and instead of just treating symptoms of any illness, it addresses the root cause of the illness. It focuses on improving the health of mind, body, spirit, and environment so that we can experience our fullest potential by achieving a state of optimal well-being.
We are starting a series of blogs on Dosha or unique mind-body constitution. In the first blog, you will get more understanding about what are Dosha and what happens when your Dosha is out of balance.
Dosha or your unique mind-body constitution is the foundation of Ayurveda. It is very important to learn about your unique mind-body constitution so that you can understand yourself, your personality, your strengths, and your weaknesses. Also, it helps us to understand others. Most importantly we can figure out what type of diet, exercise is good for our wellbeing and what is not so good. It helps us make daily choices for our optimal wellbeing and it’s fun learning about your Dosha ( your unique mind-body constitution).
So to understand the Dosha we must first understand 5 elements which are also called Panch Mahabhutas in Sanskrit where Panch means 5 and Mahabhutas mean elements. These are the building blocks of the universe and everything in our physical universe including our body is made up of these 5 elements.
Space
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
These five elements combine into three primary patterns called Doshas:
Vata dosha: Space + Air
Pitta dosha: Fire + Water
Kapha dosha: Water + Earth
We all have all the three Dosha’s in our individual mind-body constitution but at the same time, the proportion of these Dosha’s will vary from person to person. Your unique balance of Vata Dosha, Pitta Dosha, and Kapha Dosha will determine your unique mind-body constitution or your basic Prakruti. Prakruti is a Sanskrit word for Nature.
Most of the people have one predominant Dosha which will be their Primary Dosha and other secondary Dosha. For example for Individual A, Pitta can be their primary Dosha and Kapha can be their secondary Dosha. Hence Individual A can be referred to as Pitta Kapha Type. Our dosha or Prakruti is determined at the time of conception and it remains the same throughout our life. When these Dosha’s are in balance or in harmony our mind and body are in a state of optimal wellbeing but at the same time during our life, due to the choices, we make our Dosha’s can become imbalanced or out of balance. This is when we experience illness or disease. The disease is nothing but an absence of ease. The state in which our Dosha’s are out of balance is also called Vikruti which means we are not in harmony to achieve optimal wellbeing.
When your Dosha’s are in balance, you are at an optimal state of wellbeing. Whatever you intake through your five senses including food, water, fluids, and experiences gets metabolized efficiently and converted into Ojas which is the Sanskrit word for Vitality. When your Dosha’s are not in balance, whatever you intake through your five senses gets converted into Ama which is the Sanskrit word for Toxins. When these toxins build up in your body at the cellular level, you experience chronic inflammation.
Under normal conditions, our body has a miraculous ability to stay in the state of optimal wellbeing by flushing out toxins and repairing itself on daily basis but we come in its way by making poor lifestyle choices. When your Dosha’s are totally out of balance the quantity of toxins generated is high compared to your body’s ability to flush them out and hence they start building up and get stored at a cellular level causing chronic inflammation at the cellular level. Also, these toxins find a weak spot in your body and start accumulating there to cause localized chronic inflammation resulting in lifestyle related illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, autoimmune disorders, arthritis, obesity, insomnia, Allergies, and many more.
Hence it is super important to understand your Dosha so that you can make daily choices that will keep your Dosha in balance and you in a state of optimal wellbeing. In our next blogs, we shall discuss each Dosha in detail including the qualities of the Dosha as well as what happens when the Dosha is out of balance. We shall also discuss in brief on Do’s and Don’ts to stay in balance. If you want to learn more about your unique mind-body constitution (Dosha) click here to schedule a consultation.