Week 4: Tridoshic
The ancient science of Ayurveda is the oldest known form of health care in the world. Often called the mother of all healing, it originated in India some 5000 or more years ago. Ayurveda is a science of Self-understanding. By understanding your own unique nature or constitution, you can begin to understand how you interact with your environment and thus make choices that will lead you toward greater health.
Ayurveda defines disease as the natural result of living out of harmony with one’s constitution. Our constitution is the inherent balance of energy within our bodies and our minds. It describes who you are on the most fundamental level. This unique balance of energy determines everything from our bone structure to our predisposition toward certain health challenges.
Our constitution defines what we are naturally attracted to as well as what repels us. It defines what is in harmony with our nature and what will cause us to move out of balance and experience sickness and disease. Because we all have a different balance of energy, Ayurveda shows that the path to optimal health is different for each person depending upon their constitution.
It uses the three doshas of vata, pitta, and kapha to help us understand our individual needs. While some people have just one predominant dosha, it’s helpful to remember that everyone is made up of all three. In fact, some people experience two or even three primary doshas within themselves.
Tridoshic:
Having a tri-doshic constitution is quite rare. Being a vata-pitta-kapha type means that all three doshas are strong forces in your prakriti, or constitution. As a tridoshic type, your constitutional forces will tend to balance each other to maintain a healthy equilibrium. You tend to get sick less than others and can tolerate a wide variety of seasons and environmental conditions.
Whether your doshas are quantitatively equal or one or two are a bit more dominant, the strategy for managing them is the same. You want to manage them primarily according to the season. In general, follow a vata-balancing routine during the fall and early winter, during the change of seasons and especially when the weather is cool, dry and windy.
Focus on balancing pitta during the late spring and summer seasons and especially when the weather is hot. Work to balance kapha during the late winter and spring and especially when the weather is cool and damp.
Tri-doshic constitution is very stable and beneficial. To understand this further let us consult here for a moment one of the key authorities on Ayurvedic Medicine, the Ashtanga Hrydayam, a text written around 550-600 AC by Vagbhata.
This is what the text tells us about the qualities of the three doshas:
The qualities of Vata are:
“dry, light, cool, rough, subtle and mobile”
The qualities of Pitta are:
“Pitta is slightly oily, sharp, hot, light, fleshy smelling, spreading and liquid”
The qualities of Kapha are:
“Kapha is unctuous, cool, heavy, slow, smooth, soft and static”
Qualities of one dosha oppose or balance qualities of another dosha. Once again, take for instance Vata’s dry, light and mobile qualities. These are opposed by Kapha’s unctuous, heavy and static qualities. Pitta’s hot and sharp qualities are balanced by Kapha’s cool, smooth and soft qualities and so on.
This explains, why having a tri-doshic constitution is very beneficial. Opposing qualities have the potential and ability to balance each other out and a tri-doshic constitution is genetically equipped with the whole range of different qualities.
In the tridoshic person there are simply more qualities at play or represented than in mono or dual-doshic constitutions and because of this, the likelihood of a natural balancing process occurring is simply much higher. In this sense, a tri-doshic constitution is not only the most balanced constitution to start off with, it is also the most stable and most difficult one to bring out of balance.
But when a tri-doshic constitution is out of balance, it becomes the most difficult one to work with and re-balance. Let’s just assume that one of your doshas is out of balance. When we talk about a dosha “being out of balance”, it always means that there is an increase of some (rarely all) of the qualities that are characteristic of that dosha. If, for instance, your Vata is increased, it might manifest as nervousness, restlessness or constipation.
To bring this dosha back into balance, we must not only avoid adding more of Vata’s qualities to the body but actively must strengthen those qualities that directly oppose Vata’s qualities.
On a practical level, this is difficult because an increase in the qualities that oppose and rebalance Vata’s qualities will negatively affect one or both other doshas, Pitta and Kapha. In other words, by trying to balance one dosha through diet, lifestyle changes and medicines, we might bring other doshas out of balance.
Tridoshic Balancing Tips:
Keep your diet balanced. Sticking to a balanced diet means that you cover all 6 tastes (bitter, salty, astringent, sweet, pungent, sour) in your diet without giving preference to any particular one.
Eat only when hungry. Hunger is a natural urge that should be always respected and satisfied by all Ayurvedic constitutional types.
Exercise 4-5 times per week. Exercising is a good way to remove mental and emotional stress and reduce body heat. It will satisfy Pitta’s natural tendency for competition, counter Kapha’s tendency for stagnancy and allow Vata to express its natural desire for movement. So go out and exercise and alter the intensity from moderately to sometimes high intensity!
Adjust your diet and daily routine to the seasons. Since our physiology is influenced by the climate we live in and since food likewise affects our body and mind, we should always choose food items and ingredients that neutralize or counterbalance the negative influences the climate has on us.
Wake up at sunrise and go to bed before 11 pm. While the tri-doshic nature protects somewhat from the destructive processes that get triggered when you go to bed late, a tridoshic person should avoid it as much as possible.
Fasting once a month. Fasting once a month will give your digestive system a temporary rest and will allow your body to complete unfinished digestive processes. Depending on your body type and strength, we recommend either dry-fasting or fasting just on water, vegetable broth, or clear vegetable soups. Ayurveda recommends fasting particularly on the 11th day of the Hindu calendar (Ekadashi).
Tridoshic Diet Tips:
- -Eat all food (snacks included) before 6 to 7 pm
- -Make lunch your largest, most nourishing meal; make dinner your lightest meal
- -Wait 3 to 6 hours to ensure full digestion before taking in more food; remember, the larger (and heavier) the meal, the -longer you will need to wait to eat again
- -Eat a wide variety of colors in your diet, this will ensure a wide variety of nutrients for you!
- -Eat at least 30 different plant foods (including spices) in your diet each week, this ensures a variety of nutrients, but also promotes a healthy, rich, and diverse microbiome
- -Eat sitting down, in a peaceful, comfortable environment
- -Chew each bite of food thoroughly
- -Spice up your meals with tridoshic spices such as turmeric, fresh ginger, fennel, coriander, cumin, and cardamom
- -Favor meals rich in lean protein and fiber to keep your appetite, energy, and blood sugar sustained between meals
- -Favor whole foods, fresh foods, and home-cooked meals
- -Favor whole foods sources over supplements
- -Eat with the season; favor local, fresh foods when possible
- -Begin each morning with a warm-hot cup of water
- -Drink fresh ginger tea between meals to aid in digestion
- -Take Triphala Churna before bed each night
In order to make sure the tridoshic or any constitution stays balanced, Ayurveda recommends a procedure (or rather procedures) called Panchakarma. The 5 techniques that are collectively called “Panchakarma”, remove excess dosha (Vata, Pitta or Kapha) and restore a physiological balance.
Once you have restored a new equilibrium you should ensure that you do not again progressively accumulate any of the three doshas in your body.
Take our Dosha test and see what your constitution is!
