Tips for balancing your Vata

There are four  areas for everyday life that can be used to promote balance: Diet--Exercise--Daily routine--Seasonal routine. I will talk about each of these later, right now I want to give you a basic understanding of how you can affect your doshas. Balance is very easy. Nature has endowed your body with the proper instincts for it. Ayurveda doesn't dictate that one food is "right" and another "wrong". You discover right and wrong by listening to your doshas. Every day is a conversation between you and your body. The key to balancing Vata dosha is regularity. These are the four most important things to add to your daily routine, in order of importance.
Diet: It is very important for Vatas to eat regularly, since Vata dosha is aggravated by an empty stomach. Make sure you sit down to three meals a day, have a warm nourishing breakfast of substantial foods, like hot cereal. Favor sweet, heavy fruits such as: bananas, avocados, mangoes, apricots, plums, berries, coconut, figs, grapefruit, orange, lemon, melons, papaya, peaches, pineapples, rhubarb, kiwi, dates, nectarines and dried fruits.   Eat fewer dry or light fruits such as apples, cranberries, pears, and pomegranates. To ease digestion, fruits are best eaten lightly cooked or sautéed or eaten alone. Cooked vegetables are best. Raw vegetables should be minimized. Favor Asparagus, beets, and carrots. Other vegetables may be taken in moderation if cooked in ghee or extra virgin olive oil, including peas, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and sweet potatoes. Stay away from dry cereal. crackers, and toast because they dry out the body. Meditation: Sit quietly holding your hands in your lap. close your eyes and breathe slow and controled. Let your attention follow your breathing. Set a timer for five or more minutes so you don't have to watch the clock. Do this before breakfast and before bed.
Oil Massage: Massage your body with sesame oil in the morning before you bathe or shower.
Exercise: Yoga is the best exercise for Vatas. If you are out of balance and illness has already began, you will need some personal training and/or Thai Yoga Therapy for at least six weeks before you start a class, so as to not traumatise your nervous system. I know this is a lot to digest, I will spend more time on meditation and massage next time.
                                 Nancy, Thai Partner Yoga Therapist

Six stages of disease

I am going to tell you how to balance your dosha. First I want to explain how it all happens. I have said this before, all illness's start with a trauma of some sort. A sudden mental, physical or spiritual shock,  the death of  a spouse, can create havoc in the body, crippling the immune system and opening the way for illness. Other things can traumatize the body as well, a fall, car accident, surgery, and so on. According to the ancient texts, the disease process has six stages. The first 3 are invisible and can be tied in to either the body or the mind; the last three are easily detected by the patient and his doctor. Each stage represents a loss of balance, but its appearance changes as the process continues: 1. Accumulation-begins with the buildup of one or more doshas. 2. Aggravation-excess dosha accumulates to the point that it starts to spread outside its normal boundaries. 3. Dissemination-the dosha moves throughout the body. 4. Localization- the wandering dosha settles somewhere it doesn't belong. 5. Manifestation-physical symptoms start at the point where the dosha  has localized. 6. Disruption- a full-blown disease erupts. Because Ayurveda works at such  a subtle level of our bodies, symptoms can be relieved that are often very mysterious by Western standards, including pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and so on. Western medicine tends to say that these illness's originate in the patients head. When really they originate at the early stages of dosha imbalance. It is easy to mange them while they are still in stages 1, 2, or 3. Most often if I can get a traumatized client on my mat, for a Thai Yoga Therapy session with in 3 days of the trauma. I can balance the doshas and the body will return to normal. This does not mean after 3 days you can't be helped. I have had very good success with people who have been out of balance for years. It just takes longer and we have to use diet, exercise and meditation to restore the body to balance. Next blog, how to balance the Vata.
                                       Nancy, Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

If you are a Kapha

     The basic theme of the Kapha type is "relaxed." Kaphas are considered fortunate in Ayurveda because as a rule they enjoy sound health; moreover, their personalities express a serene, happy, tranquil view or the world.
     Physically, Kapha dosha gives strength and natural resistance to disease. Besides being well built, Kapha types tend to be thickest, with wide hips and / or shoulders. There is a strong tendency to gain weight
easily. Since extra weight is not easily lost, Kaphas often become obese when they are out of balance.
     Kapha are cool, smooth, thick, pale skin that is often oily. Large, soft, doelike eyes are very typical.
     Kaphas are slow. Slow eaters, with slow digestion. Slow speakers, slow making a decision,  slow in action, slow waking up and slow to get moving.slow to anger and want to maintain peace around themselves.
     Kaphas have steady energy. Their stamina exceeds that of other types, as does their willingness to perform physical labor.
     Kaphas are affectionate, tolerant, and forgiving; to be motherly is very Kapha. They can be very complacent, and even the most balanced Kapha will procrastinate if he feels stressed. out of balance  Kaphas cannot bear to throw old things away. and become stubborn, dull, lethargic, and lazy.
     Kaphas do not like cold, damp weather and respond to it mentally by becoming slower or outright depressed. Their common sleep disorder is not insomnia but oversleep.
     

If you are a Pitta

Pitta type is "intense." they are ambitious, sharp-witted, outspoken, bold, argumentative, or jealous. The combative side of Pitta is a natural tendency, but it does not have to be expressed. When in balance, Pittas are warm and ardent in their emotions, loving, and content. They have a strong sex drive. A face glowing with happiness is very Pitta. They sleep soundly for short periods of time waking up during the night feeling overheated. They sleep a moderate length of time and come closest to the "normal" eight hours a night. If out of balance, Pittas suffer from insomnia, particularly if they are wrapped up in their work, which tends to all-consuming for them.  Pittas are medium in size and well proportioned.
     Pittas have sharp, penetrating intellects and good powers of concentration. Their innate tendency is to be orderly and to manage their energies, money, and actions efficiently. Pittas are people who attack live head-on and relish challenge, the more difficult the better. But this inner drive is often the source of their undoing. Pitta gives you a fiery energy; if you abuse it, it will burn you up. The workaholics of this world are generally out-of-balance Pittas, especially if their emotional undertone is angry and compulsive.
      Pittas incline toward anger as their characteristic negative emotion, and stress easily brings this out. They can be irritable and impatient, demanding and perfectionistic, particularly if out of balance. They can be cutting and abrasive in manner, which alienates others. Pittas have two sides: in balance, they are sweet, joyous, confident, and brave.
      Pittas are least able to skip a meal or even eat late--it makes them feel ravenous and/or irritable.
                     Nancy Adams Thai Partner Yoga Therapist

If you are a Vata

Most Vatas are thin with narrow shoulders and or hips. They may find it hard or impossible to gain weight and remain chronically underweight; Or, they could be pleasingly slender and supple. Though Vata people have quite variable appetites, they can eat anything without gaining weight. If you are a Vata, type you could be hungry at any time of the day or night. love excitement and constant change. Go to sleep at different times every night, skip meals, and keep irregular habits in general. Digest food well one day and poorly the next, display bursts of emotion that are shot-lived and quickly forgotten, walk quickly. For a Vata person, mental and physical energy comes in bursts, without steadiness. you probably start things and not finish them (if you are out of balance) such people shop compulsively without buying anything. talk without coming to a conclusion, and become chronically unsatisfied. Vata people are sometimes said to spend themselves to freely, wasting money, energy, and words, but this is not true if they are in balance. Vata people are prone to worry and at times suffer from insomnia, the result of runaway thinking. Normal sleep time for Vatas is six hours or less. A Vatas typical negative emotion brought out by stress is anxiety (fear) the typical digestive complaint is chronic constipation and /or gas, nervous stomachs and unreliable digestion cramp, premenstrual pain are generally attributed to the Vata dosha.
If you are a balanced Vata person you are probably infectiously happy, enthusiastic, and energetic. your mind is clear and alert; Vata is so sensitive and quick to change that it easily falls prey to overstimulation. Vata people thrive on variety, but when things change too much, their excitement turns to exhaustion. That is why so many Vatas feel frazzled and nervous.  they have quick, acute responses to sound and touch and dislike loud noise. They have dry skin, dry hair, cold hands and feet.

The source of their restlessness is that Vata dosha is no longer setting the proper rhythms in their bodies. Instead of eating, sleeping, and exercising regularly, out-of-balance Vatas grab food when they can, skip meals, exercise by fits and starts, and go to bed at odd hours.

            Such a life is bad for all the doshas, but it is worse for Vata. Many Vata types cling to it. Sadly, they have conditioned themselves to feel that a haphazard life is the same as a stimulating one. The remedy is to begin to cultivate balanced habits, paying a little more attention to regularity every day. Suround your self with happy people, happy books, happy movies. Open your blinds and let the sun in. Vata goes out of balance  first, causing the early stages of disease. If you are feeling out of sorts Thai Therapy can help balances the doshas. My clients find it very therapeutic for mind, body, and spirit.

What is a Prakruti?

The knowledge of one's "Prakruti", or state of balance, body, mind, and soul, is valuable for living a fulfilled and healthy life. Our Prakruti is maintained by more than just diet. Our "best-self" occurs when we develop the wisdom for proper lifestyle and routine for our individual dosha makeup, the health of our personal relationships and overall satisfaction with life. Our Prakruti, or essential constitution is formed at conception and continues with us through our lives. That being said, at any specific moment during our lifespan, our doshic balance may stray from our individual Prakruti.
Our body's response to external fluctuation in our diet, environment, weather/season; and our emotional responses to relationships, work, short and long-term stressors, disrupt what Ayruveda calls "our baseline doshic equilibrium".
Ayurveda defines health as a person at ease, with all doshas working in good balance within them. It's emportant to understand that balance doesn't necessarily mean equal Vata, Pitta, Kapha; but proportionately at their optimal "Prakruti" for the specific person
for example if I am nearly equal Vata/Pitta with the least Kapha, and this mix is where I am always at my best health and true emotioanal/psychological happiness, then this is my own personl Prakruti. Any one of the doshas that shift to too much or to little, excessive or deficient: Vata, Pitta, Kapha out of that balance for me creates Vikruti (Dr. Vasant D. Lad says: "Vikruti reflects the ever-changing current quality and quantitative balance of the doshas. Vikruti may not be disease, but it can create a potential bed for future disease to appear and develop.") That which raises my Vikruti, decreased my ability to remain feeling good, and eventually makes me susceptible to disease that will finally manifest fully through my body. Vikruti goes through several stages when the doshas are out of balance that end with disease manifesting through the bodily tissues, (all diseases are caused by doshas being out of balance, stress, anxiety, cancer, depression,
arthritis, back pain), and eventually death, if rebalance can not ultimately occur through a variety of treatments.
                       Nancy Adams Thai Yoga Therapist

Meditation, not postures, is the heart of yoga

If you've ever wondered if you're missing something by taking yoga classes in a busy gym setting, you are!. The distracting setting with weights clanking in the background and the fact that these classes are designed to provide the best physical workout, there is something about the way we do yoga in the West that makes some master teachers cringe.

Many worry that something special has been lost in American-style yoga, and that something is meditation. Meditation, not postures, is the heart of yoga, meditation plays only a minor role in many American yoga courses. In others, it is not taught at all.

Some yoga students regard meditation as boring cultural baggage and appreciate learning postures without it. It's OK if you never get into meditation. But if your experience with yoga has inspired you to go deeper into yogic spirituality, meditation is a wonderful place to start. Today, try to sit in the presence for just five minutes to see how it feels. If it feels good, you might consider working it into your daily routine.