By Karie Wik, BA, LMBT

The Vata Dosha

Of the five natural elements described in ayurvedic science (air, earth, fire, space and earth,) air and space combine to create Vata. Those of us whose primary dosha is Vata have a small or slender body frame, thinner musculature with prominent joints, and dry, cool skin. Like the wind, vata types may also adapt easily to change; they are flexible, quick thinkers and responders. They are generally light-hearted, can be very funny and lively, making friends easily. Vata also controls imagination and creativity lending them a fluid and inspired communication style.

The shadow side of all Vata’s positive aspects is that all of this dosha's movement and quickness can become imbalanced quite easily. Qualities associated with imbalance are dry skin, and joints, brittle hair and nails and cold hands and feet. The internal physiology can be prone to digestive irregularity resulting in constipation, gas or bloating as well as muscle spasms, cramps or chills. Mental imbalance may lead to an inability to ground oneself, insomnia, anxiety and lack of attention or focus.


Vata - Importance of a Daily Routine

Vata is balanced by routine. Some of the best ways to create a vata-balancing routine this fall are as follows:

*Wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day
*Drink warm tea, avoid stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine
*Stay warm by dressing appropriately in layers as the wind kicks up and the temperature drops

During the change in seasons detoxifying the body is essential for good health, and a hot oil massage treatment will warm you up, lubricate the skin and hair, while calming the central nervous system – Some choices for treatments include:

*Abhyanga enhances immunity, increases circulation and creates deep relaxation in body and mind
*Shirodhara calms the central nervous system and integrates the mind and body
*Marma Therapy promotes subtle energy cleansing and rebalancing by stimulating the marmas, dissolving blocks due to stress and improper diet
*Practice Gentle Yoga daily – even for 10-15 minutes each morning, a gentle yoga practice will help you ground and center yourself for a more productive day
*Prepare yourself for bed with soothing music, rather than crime-scene dramas on TV, and warm milk or herbal tea rather than beer or wine – all the excitement of the day can make it difficult to wind down and relax for bedtime

Vata Food Choices

Foods that please the vata dosha are sweet and warm, moist and lubricating. Whether your primary dosha is vata, or you are feeling the effects of an increase in vata in the cool, dry months of October and November, experimenting with a vata-pacifying diet can be helpful and comforting.

To aid in lubricating the gastrointestinal tract:

*Warm vegetable casseroles cooked with high quality oil - olive and sesame are great but for vata-types most oils work just fine - see the directions for making ghee, a clarified butter to cook with or add to many foods
*Light vegetables soups are great for rainy or cooler weather days - vata, being air, benefits when gas-producing vegetables and legumes are omitted from the recipe, so think about leaving out the black beans, chick peas - and avoiding raw cabbage, broccoli and any bitter greens
*Avoid dried fruit, raw veggies and hard to digest raw fruits (like apples) and all bitter greens
*When in doubt, seasonal produce cooked slowly until it is warm, soft and easy to digest usually does little harm, and for true vata types adding oil to foods is always recommended

Ghee Recipe

1 pound of organic unsalted butter

Heat the butter in a saucepan until it starts to boil, and then turn the heat down to medium heat and simmer. Do not stir, heat the butter watching to make sure it does not get hot enough to burn or boil. It will froth up on the top, and eventually be reabsorbed leaving a clear mixture with a deep golden-yellow color. Milk solids will settle at the bottom of the pan and turn brown. Leave on a simmer for about 15 minutes to up to an hour. Pour the liquid into a clean dry glass jar through a strainer lined with cheesecloth to catch any residue at the pot's bottom.

Once the mixture cools, the butter will solidify, does not require refrigeration, and will keep in a tightly covered jar for 2-3 months.


For further reading, references for this month's subject included:

Chopra, Deepak. Perfect Health. Three Rivers Press, 2000.
Frawley, David. Yoga & Ayurveda. Lotus Press, 1999.
Krishan, Shubhra essential ayurveda. New World Library, 2003.

By Eileen Press Normington, MD, CAP
Edited by Gin Brunssen, BS, LMBT


THE KAPHA DOSHA

INTRODUCTION

All of us are a part of nature. In ayurveda nature is composed of five elements. These are ether or space, air or atmosphere, fire or sun, water or moon, and earth. Kaphas are people who naturally have a high content of the earth and water elements. This means their bodies and minds tend towards the qualities that are inherent in these elements. These are qualities such as, cold, heavy, wet, soft, smooth, unctuous, sticky, slimy, gross, cloudy, stable, and immobile. Kapha gives us our structure, stability, growth, and feelings love and sweetness. People who are predominantly kapha are strong, broad and sturdy and are wonderful mates and parents. They tend to have thick pearly skin, luxurious hair, gorgeous moon shaped faces and eyes, long eyelashes and are great sleepers.

Because water is deeply associated with the prana of the moon, kapha increases at the times when the sun's influence is waning and the moon's influence is more keenly felt. This strongly happens during winter. Kapha is also high in childhood because it is associated with the building of our tissues and deep feelings of love. Kapha begins things, and therefore it is strongest at the beginning of the day, 6 - 10 am and the beginning of the night, 6 -10 pm. Because of its smooth and soft qualities, it is important for all people to go to sleep during the kapha time of the night

WHY IS DIGESTION SO IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY TO KAPHA'S?

When kaphas become imbalanced, they can have a tendency towards obesity, lethargy, sluggish digestion, constipation, overeating, food addictions, overly loose joints, decreased motivation, high cholesterol, diabetes, allergies, and congestion. They become imbalanced because of the kapha qualities of cold, wet and heavy. These qualities can affect their digestion and make it sluggish. When your digestion is impaired you do not absorb the nutrients your body needs and you do not eliminate toxins and unwanted food well. These unwanted and undigested food particles are called “ama” in ayurveda and over an extended period of time, they create congestion and disease, damaging vulnerable cells and tissues. You can tell when a meal is too high in kapha for you (either by the type of food, the amount of food, or the time of day you are eating) because right after eating your body and mind will feel heavy, dull, lethargic and sleepy.

KAPHA MORNING ROUTINE

Kaphas need to get up before the kapha time of the day. That means they need to get up before 6am. Right away this will help them to be less sluggish. As soon as they get up, they should open the curtains, turn on the lights and connect with the sun. No staying in bed while the snooze alarm goes off! A nice walk at sunrise is a wonderful way to do this. If you do yoga, it is optimal for a kapha to do it early in the morning. The earlier in the day a kapha gets moving the better.


KAPHA NEED FOR EXERCISE AND YOGA

To stay healthy, kaphas need a lot of exercise. Because kaphas tend to have a nice extra fat layer, sometimes their muscle tone is poor and they can easily injure themselves. In addition they can have loose overly flexible joints. Therefore an intelligent yoga practice that makes them strong and avoids injury is best for them. They have the stamina and endurance to do a long yoga practice five days a week . . . just make sure the yoga is done in a knowledgeable and careful manner. It must be strengthening, moving, and stabilizing. It should be internally warming but not overheating. And it should have a drying quality to it. For instance, the room should be warm, but not disturbingly hot and humid.

This particular type of practice is good for all of us during winter, those that have consistently sluggish digestion, are overweight need help managing kapha congestion problems. For example, the practice could be slowly flowing and interspersed with longer holdings, which takes advantage of the kapha endurance and develops joint stability and stamina. If you can do your main practice in the morning, and then you might do an inversion practice later in the day to help keep your energy moving upwards. Make sure to stay warm during the whole practice and cover up in savasana or corpse pose at the end of your practice.


BALANCING KAPHA: DIET AND SPICES

There is a lot known about managing kapha with diet. Number one, do not eat seconds and limit portion size. If you are a kapha, you do not have the capacity to digest large amounts of food, because your digestion is cold, heavy and slow. Do not skip meals, but do keep them small. Make sure all your food is fresh. Fresh food is intelligent and high in prana. It will help you to develop the natural intelligence of the cells in your body and of your mind. Leftovers, canned, frozen, and stale foods are not intelligent and damage your body. Processed foods are pranically dead and of no value. So consider this in your food choices. Also, your digestion tracks with the sun, so eat your largest meal at noon, when the sun is at its apex. Think of your breakfast and dinner more like snacks than like meals. Stay away from ice, dairy, meat, nuts, oils, sugar, salt, and sour tasting or fermented foods. Eat cooked green leafy vegetables every day along with whole grains that are high in protein and nutrition, like barley, millet, oats, cous cous, buckwheat, oats, quinoa, and amaranth. Lentils, dahls, sautéed tofu, and almonds are also excellent sources of protein. Stay away from processed wheat and sugar, and eat rice only once a week. You may use local, raw, unprocessed honey, but do not cook with it. For oils you may use two teaspoons of olive oil or ghee, which is clarified butter, each day. If you want to have some skim milk, it can be boiled with a pinch of turmeric and dry ginger in it.

Spices are fantastic for helping to build a strong digestion. Great spices for kapha are black pepper, paprika, dry ginger, garlic, cloves, bay leaf, fenugreek, cumin seed, coriander, cilantro, parsley, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, basil, thyme, oregano, cardamom, sage, and mustard seed. Eat fruit daily to help get vitamins, minerals and roughage, but stay away from sweet and sour fruits. It is best for kaphas to cook their fruit, for instance stewed apples or pears with whole cloves in them are great for breakfast along with some oatmeal. The tastes that activate kapha are sweet, sour and salty, so these are the tastes you want to avoid. On the other hand, the tastes that will help you manage kapha are pungent, bitter and astringent. You can go a lifetime without kapha diseases if you embrace exercise and work on cultivating intelligent food habits.

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Author's Biography:
Eileen Press Normington, M.D.,C.A.P is a retired physician. For the last twenty-eight years, she has been practicing yoga, pranayama, ayurveda, and meditation. She received her B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Californa, Santa Barbara and her M.D. degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas in 1992, and was a surgical pathology resident at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. She then worked as a scientist in the biotechnology industry. Eileen is certified in 500 hours of ayurvedic study with David Frawley from the American Institute of Vedic Studies and 200 hours of hatha yoga from Focal Point Yoga. Eileen is successfully married for 22 years. Her husband is a biotechnology executive and student of yoga. Together they have two grown children, who are the ultimate teachers of right action, ahimsa, patience, forgiveness, and living in the now.