A two month vacation really lends itself to showing you your natural tendencies. E.g. If you had extended periods of time with no obligations, nothing on your schedule, what would you do? Would you get in touch with your creative side and knit, paint, play the guitar/piano? Would you spend as much time outdoors as possible? Would you be diligent in getting to those tasks that got left behind like re-grouting the bathroom and painting the dining room?
Apparently, I am not good at any of these things and switch from task to task depending on how I feel motivated that day. Often times, I feel lazy and lethargic and other days quite drawn to a task. To even out my scattered tendencies, I decided to go back and look at my dosha. What is a dosha? According the Ayurveda (Indian health/medical practice), a dosha is your natural constitution. Back in 2010, I was evaluated to share about equal traits in all three doshas: Vata (air), Pitta (fire), and Kapha (water). Taking a second look now at the end of 2012, while I still have characteristics in all three areas, I constitute more strongly as a Vata-Pitta. Balancing for someone who is bi-doshic is more difficult that a person who falls more solidly in one area as there is the danger of unbalancing one dosha while trying to balance the other. For example, for a Vata, it is recommended to keep warm and eat spicy foods while a Pitta would want to avoid anything with heat in order to balance his/her dosha.
Luckily, we can group our constitutions based on characteristic and treat each characteristic separately. Physically, I am mostly Vata, so I should wear warm colors, keep a routine sleep and eating schedule, and stay warm, whereas my disposition shares Vata and Pitta traits thus making it more difficult to make changes in my daily routine in order to balance my dosha in this area.
Yoga poses also lend themselves to keeping you and your dosha in balance. Yoga journal published an article on different Arurvedic actions you can take in reaction to stress including yoga poses and practices. It is also fairly easy to create a balanced yoga practice in order to account for a bi-doshic personality. Students should consider their own dosha when choosing a yoga class or building their own home practice. A Vata dominant would not want to take a vinyasa class three times a week though that is probably what they are drawn to. Rather, they should mix up their practice with something more meditative such as yin to help ground them.
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But how do you know what you are?
ReplyDeleteI dunno what it means but I like to wear cool colors because I feel calm in them (cause my tendency is rush rush rush! go go go!). But I would also rather be warm than cold.
ReplyDeleteNow that I've got my house on the weekends I get excited to do projects around the house. This weekend my plan is to fix the drippy faucets! I'll let you know how that goes! haha.
I was thinking the other day that it would be really cool if us gals could not only skype more but do stretch o' clock over skype, and run through some poses and chat and enjoy each other's awesomeness :)