I first learnt about Ayurveda and dosha’s through the teachings and practices of yoga. Ayurveda is a holistic approach to one’s health and is unique to each individual depending upon one’s mind and body constitution. Its a guidance method for how to maintain emotional and physical health throughout your day.
Ayurvedic Medicine Reflects On the Individual…
It began thousands of years ago in India and has made its way into our Western culture. When it comes to eating, I feel that modern medicine, groups everyone in a one size fits all category such as Canada’s Food Guide push, which advises how much we should all be consuming from all the food categories without consideration of you as a unique individual. With this being said, Ayurvedic medicine reflects on the individual and his/her lifestyle as well as emotional and psychological daily tendencies.
So What’s A Dosha?
Ayurveda describes the dosha’s, “three energies believed to circulate in the body and govern physiological activity.” The three types are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each comes with its own list of foods you’d be best to stay away from and foods that would line up beautifully with your body as a whole. When you make the decision to eat in alignment with your dosha, you open the doors to feeling at an optimal health in your mind, body and spirit.
How Do I know What Dosha I Am?
There are plenty of websites out there with quizzes ready for you to answer a culmination of questions to find out your dosha. Note, we can typically find ourselves to be a combination of these though one may be your primary. Perhaps you may want to check out Joyful Belly which has a “create your diet” tab along with recipes and a list of ingredients that work for each dosha.
Doing some research in this area is worth a shot especially if you’ve been feeling low energy, lethargic, anxious, fearful and not so hot on the outside as well. It could be that your food consumption is contributing to your ill feelings. As always, wishing you well.