Instead of saying, “Vata is my body type,”
you can substitute, “I have Vata prakruti”—the two are interchangeable.Having introduc ed this term a few chapters back, I now want to show how
respecting your prakruti is the best way to tailor your plan for complete
balance. RESPECT  YOUR BODY  TYPE
By the time we are adults, most of us know our basic tendencies , but that
does not mean we can do anything about them. Far from it. The same
complaints often bother people for life. Once the seeds of depression,
obesity , insomni a, or other chronic problems are sown, they seem to grow
regardless of our desire not to be depressed, overweight, or sleepless. These
problems grow out of our prakruti, and unless they are uprooted at that
fundamental level they will continue to expand their influence, like noxious
weeds choking out flowers in a garden. Let’s not think in terms of symptoms, however . Everyone needs to
respect his prakruti in order to make life better , to rise to a higher state of
health. This is one of the first lessons in learning how to be a balanced
person. If you never learn it, higher realities are attainable only in glimpses. Bobby Thomas  was diagnosed as a pure Vata type, which certainly
matches his naturally thin frame and his bright, outgoing personality . Bobby
is the kind of person who flashes a smile at everyone he meets. Being quick
and responsive, he decided that it would be easy for him to work his way
through college waiting on tables, but the incessant demands of working in
a crowded restaurant threw his Vata badly out of balance, making him feel
restless and unhappy . Bobby looked around at the other waiters, who seemed to be thriving in
the environment, or at least treating it as no more stressful than any other
work situation. “What’ s wrong with me?” Bobby wondered. He decided to
work even harder . But this tactic  failed utterly . He began to sleep badly . He
lost his appetite and started losing weight. Within a few months, he was
complaining of various aches and pains that seemed to have no physical
cause.Bobby came to the Chopra Center thinking he needed tranquilizers, and
no doubt he would have gotten them fairly easily from most doctors, since
he certainly looked anxious and unable to settle down. Howe ver, after a
close examination, his Ayurvedi c doctor told him, “From everyt hing you’ve
told me, it doesn’ t seem that you are actually sick.” Bobby looked
surprised, even offended. Weren’t his symptoms as real as anybody else’s? It was explained that what he was experiencing was a classic case of
aggravated Vata. In Western medicine, each of his complaints would be
neatly classified under textbook headings of “insomnia,” “anxiety ,” “lower
back pain,” and so on. But if you traced these signals of distress back to
their origin, only one thing was at fault—fundamental imbalanc e that cried
out in dif ferent ways. Fortunately , treating Vata is a lot simpler than trying to treat five or six
symptoms. In Bobby’ s case, we didn’ t need to resort to medicine, because
the diagnosis itself was enough. Rather than prescribing medications, which
tend to mask the underlying problem, we suggested that he simply listen to
his body. It was suggested that his body type wasn’ t suited for the work he
was in. He was encouraged to find a job that would make his Vata happy
instead of driving it crazy . Wha tever he did, Bobby was not going to adapt
well to noise, overcrowding, and constant activity because his Vata couldn’ t
tolerate it. What does Vata actually like? A little more peace and quiet, for one thing. Bobby might be happier as a prep chef working when the restaurant kitchen
is relatively quiet. Creativity is another thing that imaginative Vata types
thrive on. A job that satisfies this deeper part of their nature will be much
more satisfying in the long run. Once again, cooking might be good for
Bobby , but so might performi ng, designing, or other work where self-
expression is valued. Bobby took our advice. As soon as he quit the
restaurant and got a little rest, his major symptoms disappeared. Within a
few months he moved on to a job in graphic design and has not returned
with any problems. Making your doshas happy will make you happy . That is the secret to
balancing the whole mind body system. To respect your body type, youhave to trust that its needs are good for you. Telling Bobby to look for a
new job was in line with what his body was already saying. No one can be
happy or healthy in an unbalanced state, because it is just not natural. AS NA TURE MADE YOU
Like the doshas, your prakruti is double-edged. You can see yourself as
trapped by it, or you can learn from it and benefit from what your system is
trying to tell you. A Pitta nature may predispose you to hostility and a Vata
nature to irritable bowels, but nothing forces you to embrace the stressful
lifestyle that fans Pitta to a flame or drives Vata to exhaustion, bringing out
such problems. Living with your doshas is a perfect example of how to find
freedom within your nature’ s limits. Because you were born with it, your body type does not change. On the
other hand, the doshas are constantly in flux. Every time you look at a
mountain, eat a potato chip, listen to Mozart, or carry out any thought or
action, your doshas shift. A person whose heart is pounding is having a
strong Vata reaction, no matter  what his basic nature is. Whatever your
prakruti happens to be, try to live all three doshas fully. To be completely
healthy , everyone needs to experience and express the best that can be
derived from each of the doshas—that is what it means to become a
complete person. The positive psychological traits of each dosha include the following:
Vata— imaginative, sensitive, spontaneous, r esilient, exhilarated
Pitta— intellectual, confident, enterprising, joyous
Kapha— calm, sympathetic, courageous, for giving, loving
Whenever you meet someone  who lives up to all of these qualities,
naturally you are impressed. Such a person has accepted the greatest gift ofnature—perfect balance. Rare as it is, perfect balance is not abnormal; it is
possible for everyone to achieve. Every body type contains a wide  range of possibilities. Unfortunately , we
all have  a tendency to compa re ourselves to a norm, which generates
feelings of inadequacy when we cannot live up to the standards we feel
everyone must meet. Such conformity is not in nature’ s plan. Take the
following example:
Body weight is a sensitive subject. Everyone wants to maintain an ideal
weight, but millions of people struggle in vain. Critics point out that our
society is obsessed with thinness at any price; women in particular feel
anxious and unworthy if they don’t look as if they just stepped out of the
pages of Vogue . (The current fad for weight training has added a little more
muscle to the desirable female frame, but it has also stripped acceptable
body fat down to near zero.) Ayurveda would say that the trouble does not lie in our fixation on the
perfect figure but in ignorance about nature’ s underlying design. By nature,
a Vata woman will be thin and a Kapha solid, if not actually heavy . What
gives both types their undeniable attractiveness lies deeper . Vatas are
charming, vivacious, and vibrant—they communicate a natural sense of
exhilaration. Kaphas may not be blessed with light, agile bodies, but they
have their own beauty—they are serene, with large, soft eyes, a graceful
manner , and a full, gently contoured figure. In the eyes of an Ayurvedic
doctor , this is the ideal type, as healthy as it is beautiful. Pittas , who come
closest to our current Western notions of the ideal type physi cally , being
medium in build and well proportioned, also have a quality of self-control
that makes them attractive to others. Each dosha, then, provid es an ideal
that is of equal worth in nature’ s eyes; it should be equal in our eyes, too. People sometimes think that “balancing the doshas” means trying to get
equal amounts of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. That is mistaken; you cannot
change the ratio of doshas you were born with. What you can do is find the
balance that is right for each dosha in you. The doshas function on a slidingscale, with too much or too little at either end of the scale and a point of
balance in the middle:
Ayurveda tells you to keep as close to the balance point as you can. This
is not something you have to concentrate on. Your body keeps in balance by
following its normal processes. But since the doshas are so responsive to
your habits, you do need to learn how to stop pulling them out of balance. It is customary to think mainly in terms of aggravating a dosha rather
than depleting it, because being a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha type indicates that
you already have a good amount of that one dosha. Your aim is not to add
more (aggravate  the dosha), which would lead to imbalance. A Vata person
who has developed weak digestion could be diagnosed as having depleted
Pitta, but for all practical purposes he is treated as having aggravated Vata,
the most likely cause of the problem. If a dosh a goes out of balance, you would typically notice the following
physical symptoms:
Vata is unbalanced when there is pain, spasms, cramps, chills, or
shakiness. Pitta is unbalanced when there is inflammation, fever , excessive hunger and
thirst, heartburn, or hot flashes. Kapha is unbalanced when there is congestion, mucus dischar ge,
heaviness, fluid r etention, lethar gy, or oversleeping. These simple guidelines can help you when you have unexplained
symptoms of illness (a more detailed description of how to spot imbalances
is given at the end of this chapte r). We should emphasize that guidelines arenot a substitute for medical school; an Ayurvedic physician, like his Western
counterpart, spends a lifetime learning to diagnose disorders of all kinds. Any dosha can give rise to any symptom. Constipation, a textb ook sign of
Vata imbalance,  can be due to Pitta or Kapha in some cases; this holds true
for every other typical sympto m. If you are seriously ill, you need a
professional opinion about your condition. When symptoms turn into chronic conditions, diagnoses based  on body
types continue to be useful. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha people tend to be
susceptible to dif ferent disorders, both physical and mental. Vata types are prone to insomnia, chronic constipation, nervous stomach ,
anxiety and depression, muscle spasms or cramps, PMS (premenstrual
syndr ome), irritable bowel, chr onic pain, high blood pr essur e, and arthritis. Pitta types are prone to rashes, acne, heartburn, peptic ulcers, early
balding and prematur e gray hair, poor eyesight, hostility , self-criticism, and
heart attacks r elated to str ess (T ype A behavior). Kapha types are prone to obesity, congested sinuses, chest colds, painful
joints, asthma and/or allergies, depression, diabetes, high cholester ol, and
chronic sluggishness in the morning. This simply outlines the broad shape of things. There is no simple one-to-
one relationship between a disease and a body type. Being a Vata does not
mean that nature has doomed you to get arthritis, nor does being  a Pitta or a
Kapha automatically protect you from it. Illness is individual and depends
on the overall pattern of your life, with body type serving as an important
influence, not a cause. Also, major disorders such as heart disease and cancer are the result of
more than one dosha becoming unbalanced. Once one dosha is disturbed,
the others will follow suit unless balance is restored. Although different in
severity , colds and asthma are linked in Ayurveda, because they often
involve Vata going out of balance first, followed by Kapha aggravation. Knowing the dosha that usually leads the pack (it is usually Vata) helps you
to correct the imbalance as soon  as possible. When you see someone who isangry and anxious at the same  time, a typical combination in high-stress
situations, you quickly recognize that Vata has gone out of balance and led
Pitta after it. You will notice that some of the symptoms of dosha imba lance are
mental. This is an important fact. Your mind first detects imbalances in the
body . Since a balanced body makes the mind alert, clear , sensitive, and
happy , its absence causes these qualities to decline. When they do,
something has gone wrong with a dosha. By standards accepted in our
society , you can be normal without being happy . Ayurveda argues that this
is not nature’ s standard of health, however; unhappiness indicates that
action is needed now to avoid disease in the future. THE SUBTLE SOURCE OF  DISEASE
Recently we saw a woman who had under gone a mastectomy for breast
cancer; the surgery had been successful, and she was considered out of
danger . A complication arose, however . She returned to her surgeon
repeatedly , complaining of pain. “I can’ t find anything wrong,” he said. “But I really am feeling this pain all the time,” she insisted. “As far as medicine is concerned,” he replied, “your pain doesn’ t exist.”
Feeling extreme ly frustrated, the woman was advised by a friend to go
for an Ayurvedic consultation. On examination it was determined that she
was a Kapha type, which ordinarily predicts very good health. But the
traumas her body had been subje cted to during her illness had led to a gross
imbalance of Vata dosha. Her medical history showed that since her surgery
she had compla ined repeatedly to her doctors, not just of pain but of not
being able to sleep well. Her profile of Vata symptoms was very clear ,
particularly when you consider that any wound such as major surgery
drastically aggravates Vata dosha.It was explained to her that although doctors tend to look for gross
physical causes behind every pain, there are countless patients like her who
were responding to pain caused by imbalanced Vata. Although linked to the
body , Vata is a separate, subtler part of the whole mind body system. She was put on a program to balance her Vata—something that should be
done for every postoperative patient— including a special diet, rest, and
meditation. In short order her pain was reduced to tolerable  limits, her
insomnia cleared up, and her constant anxiety disappeared. A skeptic might
contend that “phantom pain” was at work here, a mysterious phenomenon
that is often seen in amputees. But the subjective experience of pain is all
that really matters, not its name. Using the doshas to explore a new level of
reality proves extremely helpful in making sense of otherwise inexplicable
illness. A good example is peptic ulcers. There is recent evidence that in the vast
majority of cases, the presence of bacteria called Helicobacter pylori is
associated with stomach ulcers. Eradicating this germ with antib iotics cures
the ulcer in more than 90 percent of cases. Therefore, the current medical
model considers stomach ulcers to be an infectious disease. This would seem simple enough except for the fact that almost half of the
world’ s populati on harbors Helicobacter  pylori in their digestive tract, but
only 10 to 20 percent develop peptic ulcer diseases. Therefore,  we have to
ask why most people with these bacteria do not get an ulcer . From an
Ayurvedic perspective the answer is that individuals have different
responses to challenges from the environment, based upon their doshas. According to Ayurveda, the typical ulcer victim is a textboo k case of
Pitta imbalance. When you look up Pitta aggravation, you find the same
constellation of symptoms that af flicts an ulcer patient. Symptoms of Pitta ImbalanceInflammation of digestive tract
Excess gastric juice
Anger , hostility , tension
Burning sensation in digestive tract
Excess acidity in body
 
This list reads like a guidebook to getting an ulcer , but it is actually a
guide to what happens before the ulcer occurs. Since the doshas can be a
little out of balance or a lot, a Pitta imbalance does not guarantee that a
peptic ulcer is about to appear . However , in people who have strong Pitta
natures, ulcers are a common complaint, possibly because the way Pitta
people deal with stress leads to changes in their stomach acid secretion and
weakness in their immune systems. Preventing Pitta imbalances in the first
place, using Ayurvedic diet, exercise, meditation, and so forth may help
maintain the healthy defenses necessary to avoid an ulcer . Let’s take note of a potentially sensitive point here. To participate in a
disease is not to cause it. If you go out into the cold without your hat and
coat, you may catch a cold. If that happens, your heedless actions played
their part, even though a microb iologist would be right to assert that you did
not cause  your cold—a virus did. In Ayurveda, more responsibility is being
put on your shoulders, on your ability to learn about your own dosha
makeup. I am not saying, “Whe n you get right down to it, you caused your
cancer , your heart attack, your case of AIDS.” But I do feel that you are not
separate from these diseases; in fact, being an active particip ant is what
saves us from being helpless victims. In Ayurveda, we don’t tend to talk much about germs, which are basically
well understood in the West already. What is poorly understood are “host
defenses.” This is where knowi ng your own doshas really pays off. If you
expose yourself  directly to cold viruses, your chance of actually coming
down with a cold is only about 1 in 8. Why? Because your inner state of
balance is the deciding factor . Keeping your doshas healthy makes all the
difference.In the following pages you will find a comprehensive description of
imbalance, dosha by dosha. Then, in chapter 5, we’ll explore the Ayurvedic
techniques for restoring balance in the most natural, comfortable way . HOW  THE DOSHAS GET  UNBALANCED
The dosha that is most likely to go out of balance is the one that
dominates your body type, meaning that Vatas should be careful about
aggravating their Vata, Pittas their Pitta, and so on. If you are a two-dosha
type, both doshas are possible candidates for causing problems. However ,
in everyone the most active dosha is always Vata. It leads to the majority of
short-term probl ems, particularly if they are stress-related. (See chapter 5,
“Restoring the Balance,” for more about the role Vata plays as “king” of the
doshas.) The typical signs of dosha imba lance are given here, along with some of
the most common conditions that cause them. Vata Imbalance
By nature a Vata person is cheer ful, enthusiastic, and resilient in the face
of life’s everyday challenges. If you are a Vata type and have retained these
qualities, you are very likely in balance. It is undeniable, however , that
Vatas do not generally enjoy the best health. In childhood or adolescence
they begin to have various problems: unexplained aches and pains,
occasional sleeplessness, or a pronounced tendency to be worried and
nervous. In time, if these early signs are not heeded, Vatas become the most
common visitors to doctors’  waiting rooms, accounting for the huge number
of prescriptions written for sleeping pills, tranquilizers, and pain relievers. One would be justified in saying that the most common disorder in America
is Vata aggravation. Not that American life is solely to blame; Ayurveda
holds that Vata dosha causes twice the complaints as Pitta, and Pitta twicethe number as Kapha. Typical Vata complaints of headache, backache,
insomnia, menstrual cramps, and low-level anxiety or depression are
considered symptoms of the “worried well” by many doctors. However ,
they are very real, stubborn problems that need to be addressed by bringing
Vata back into balance. Other scenes from life also present a picture of classic Vata imbalance. One is the picture of old age, a time when Vata increases in everyone. Aging
badly can bring out the worst signs of Vata aggravation: the person shrivels
into a bag of skin and bones; he no longer enjoys eating and has trouble
digesting his food; his mind wanders and becomes forgetful; he spends
long, lonely nights without being able to sleep. None of these things is
caused by Vata; they are cause d by Vata imbalance and there fore can be
prevented. Another picture is that of grief. People who have gone into deep
mourning will become listless and apathetic, refuse to eat, and take no
enjoyment from  anything in life. It is as if the shock of death has deadened
them, too. Since Vata controls the nervous system, this is in fact what has
happened. Grief , a sudden shock, battle fatigue, or great fear exhausts Vata
dosha, and it loses its ability to register perception. The first stage of the
process is usually marked by weeping, restless behavior , shakiness, racing
thoughts, and lack of sleep. If the stress is deep enough or protracted
enough, howeve r, the inevitable result is that Vata collapses, leading to total
apathy and lack of response. WHY  DID IT  HAPPEN? If you start to feel sick and the cause is Vata imbalance, there is usually a
precipitating cause that can be pointed out and corrected. Being born a Vata
type or having a strong amount  of Vata in your constitution is certainly a
strong predisposing factor . On the other hand, it takes a pattern of behavior
to actually throw this dosha out of balance. Among the most typical patterns
to look for are:You have been under stress recently and reacted to it with anxiety . You have exhausted yourself physically or under gone a period of
mental strain and overwork. You are in the advanced stages of alcohol or drug addiction, or you
chain-smoke. There has been a sudden change in your life, or the seasons are
changing. Your diet includes a great deal of cold, raw , or dry foods, including
iced beverages; or you eat a great many bitter , spicy , or astringent
foods. (Bitter and astringent tastes show up primarily in salads, beans,
potatoes, and leafy green vegetables.) You have been on a stringent diet or habitually skip meals. Going on
an empty stomach and ignoring the body’ s hunger signals increases
Vata. You have gone without sleep or slept poorly for more than a few days. You have taken a trip recently . You have suf fered emotionally from grief, fear , or unexpected shock. The weather is cold, dry , and windy (autumn/winter). In clinical practice, an Ayurvedi c doctor would diagnose Vata imbalance
if he found strong evidence of the following kind:
MENT AL INDICA TIONSBEHA VIORAL  INDICA TIONS
PHYSICAL  INDICA TIONS
It is important to remember that any dosha can cause any symptom—
these are just the most common  signs of a Vata imbalance. Also, Vata can
mimic the other  two doshas, so it often comes under suspicion  even when
its typical symptoms are not present. Pitta ImbalancePitta people are in balance when their built-in intensity and drive are not
overwhelming; to be sweet-n atured and joyous are also innate Pitta
qualities. If you are a Pitta type and these are still present, you are likely to
be in balance. The physical health of Pitta types is generally good. Its
foundation is strong digestion, which Ayurveda considers the key to
building healthy tissues and preserving a strong immune status. Life’ s middle years, from adolescence until the end of middle age, are the
time when everyone’ s Pitta increases. A teenager suffering from acne or
from feeling too hot at night is exhibiting Pitta imbalance. Another very
common picture  of aggravated Pitta is the man in his thirties or forties who
wakes up to find that his hair is thinning at an alarming rate or turning
prematurely gray, who suddenly needs eyeglasses, or who has developed
heartburn or early heart disease. Some of these are predisposed conditions, but Pittas also tend to go out
of balance by pushing themselves to extremes. On the assumption that they
can eat anything, they abuse their strong digestion by overeating or
forgetting about  nutrition. Instead of being natural high achievers, they can
become driving, impatient, demanding, and tense. Pitta dosha controls the
intellect and endows Pitta types with a sense of orderliness. Out of balance,
they become fixated on order and annoyingly perfectionist. Pittas don’t
display such traits until they go seriously out of balance, and then it is not
surprising that they also becom e prey to heartburn, ulcers, heart disease,
and other stress-related problems. Pitta dosha is slower to go out of balance than Vata and is said to cause
about half the problems that Vata does. When it does go out, Pitta is
frequently being  dragged along by an earlier imbalance of Vata. This one-
two combination  accounts for undercurrents of anxiety that angry , critical
people are trying desperately to hide; aggravated Vata also promotes the
high blood pressure that doctors often see among their Type A heart
patients. WHY  DID IT  HAPPEN?If you start to feel sick and the cause is Pitta imbalance, the fault is not
that you were born a Pitta type or with strong Pitta in your makeup. By
nature Pitta is inclined to moderation, and you have to build up a history of
excessive stress, overwork, or sheer thoughtlessness to break  down this
instinct. If you think aggravate d Pitta is at work, look for the following
causes and try to correct them:
You have been under stress and have reacted to it with suppressed
anger , frustration, and resentment. You place excessive demands on yourself and others, live under
constant pressure from deadlines, and cannot bear to waste time. You have eaten too much hot, spicy food, oily food, or fried food
recently; you use a great deal of salt. Your diet contains a lar ge amount
of sour or fermented foods: cheese, vinegar , sour cream, or alcoholic
beverages. You have been exposed to impure food and water . The weather is hot and humid (typical summer weather). You have been heat-fatigued or badly sunburned. In his medical practice, an Ayurvedic doctor identifies Pitta imbalance
with the following patterns of symptoms:
MENT AL INDICA TIONS
BEHA VIORAL  INDICA TIONSPHYSICAL  INDICA TIONS
It is important to remember that any dosha can cause any symptom—
these are just the most common signs of a Pitta imbalance. Kapha Imbalance
Kapha is the slowest and steadiest of the doshas, which makes it reluctant
to go out of balance. From childhood on, Kapha types are serene, calm,
affectionate, and forgiving. If you are a Kapha type and these qualities are
still intact, you are very likely in balance. Disorders related to Kapha
generally take a long time to develop. Without much effort, therefore,
Kapha people can expect to remain strong, healthy , and content to a ripe old
age. Infancy and childhood are Kapha times of life, when this dosha increases
in everyone. Kapha is identified  with growth and the production  of a strong,healthy body . To imagine what Kapha is like out of balance, think of a 6-
year-old with a chronic sore throat and runny nose who catches one cold
after another . Otherwise healthy Kaphas may retain this weakness for life,
frequently suffering from blocked sinuses or a pronounced susceptibility to
colds and flu when the weather turns chilly and damp. Aller gies might also be present, along with a strong desire to oversleep. Kapha types generally like to stay in bed and are slow starters, but when
they are out of balance, they become so sluggish in the morning that they
worry about serious illness when the real problem in most cases is too much
Kapha. In later years, the picture of Kapha imbalance becomes the jolly fat man,
an insecure person who cannot control his overweight or his distress about
it. Being clinging and possessiv e is also a mark of disturbed Kapha, where
the natural tendency to mother and care for others has been pushed to an
extreme. If this dosha becom es seriously imbalanced, the person can
become very quiet, withdrawn, and hopeless; the Kapha tendency to value
the status quo then turns into a rigid inability to accept change. Physically ,
the jolly fat man can come to a pathetic end, suffering from gross
hypertension, labored breathing, bloating from excess bodily fluids, and
congestive heart failure. Kaphas do not go to the doctor very often, because they are able to
tolerate high levels of pain and are also used to being extrem ely healthy . When they do seek medical attention, it is either for overweight, which can
set in as early as childhood and continue for life, or various lung and sinus
problems— sinus headaches, chronic sinusitis, hay fever , asthma, chest
congestion. Doctors have found that only a tiny percentage of people who think they
have food allergies test positive  when given patch tests; what is generally
wrong is a digestive imbalance, with Kapha a prime suspect. Excess mucus
is being produced by wheat bread or pasta, milk, butter , cheese, or sugar , all
of which aggravate this dosha. Diabetes, perhaps the most dangerous Kapha
disorder , is among the most unlikely to be cured. However , diabetics canlead much more comfortable and stable lives if they follow  the proper
body-type program. WHY  DID IT  HAPPEN? If you start to feel sick and the cause is Kapha imbalance, usually you
will either have a passing cold or flu, or else there is a pattern of illness you
detected early on in your life— allergies, asthma, obesity , and so on. In
either case, the following influences are likely to be present, either causing
or aggravating your condition:
A serious Kapha problem, such as diabetes, aller gies, or obesity , runs
in your family . You have gained a lot of weight and feel depressed about it. Your diet contains lar ge amounts of sugar , salt, fatty or fried foods,
heavy foods, dairy products (especially cheese, milk, and ice cream). You have been under stress and react to it by withdrawing, feeling
insecure and unwanted. You place excessive emphasis on possessing, storing, and saving
things. You act dependent or overprotective in relationships. You have been sleeping late more than a few days in a row . The weather is cold and damp or snowy (typical winter and spring
weather). In medical practice, an Ayurvedic physician diagnoses Kapha imbalance
by looking for the following symptoms:
MENT AL INDICA TIONSBEHA VIORAL  INDICA TIONS
PHYSICAL  INDICA TIONS
It is important to remember that any dosha can cause any symptom—
these are just the most common signs of a Kapha imbalance. OceanofPDF .comCHAPTER 5
REST ORING THE BALANCE
Michelangelo’ s genius as a sculptor lay in his ability to see a finished statue
inside a rough block of marble. His challenge was not to make a sculpture
but to release the one that was already there, imprisoned in the stone. Essentially that is what you do when you bring yourself back into balance. You are not creating a new you; you are releasing a hidden you. The process
is one of self-discovery . The hidden you that wants to emer ge is in perfect balance. Finding it is
not a rote affair— every person achieves balance in his or her personal way. Most people have no idea who they really are—or at best a very limited
idea—because they have no way to see their true nature. It is hidden from
them by their imbalances, like a lake bottom hidden by muddy water . Like
hunger and thirst, the instinct for balance is built into the human body . In
the practice of Ayurveda we try to bring people back into balance and at the
same time let their true nature shine through. The two processes are really
the same, as the following case study will show . By his own estim ate, Norman, a writer in his early sixties, has not had a
good night’ s sleep in thirty years. Norman’ s insomnia is the classic Vata
kind: as soon as he gets into bed, his mind finds a dozen things to worry
about, and a hundred impression s from the day whirl in his head. He cannot
keep his attentio n off them, or off the ticking clock, the dripping faucet, and
the noises coming in from the street. He tosses restlessly all night without
feeling that he has slept for more than a half-hour at a stretch. By the time he comes to see us, he is very discouraged, having tried a
long string of sleep remedies, from whiskey night-caps to barbiturates, none
of which worked for long. Over time, he has resigned himself  to his fate,
but only superficially—actually , Norman dreads bedtime and delays itevery night as long as he can. He keeps magazines piled by his side to read
whenever he wakes up. If he is too restless to read, he paces the floor , goes
to the bathroom, eats a midnight snack, or calls his insomniac friends for
long night-owl chats. “It’s all because I’m Vata, isn’t it?” he mourns, having learned about the
prakruti system through reading about Ayurveda and taking a prakruti test. “There’ s certainly Vata imbala nce here,” he is told, “but that doesn’ t
make you a Vata type.” He looks surprised. A thorough examination
discloses that he is mainly Pitta, with a strong Vata component. Even so, it
is not his Vata that made him insomniac but a history of throwing Vata
dosha out of balance, largely by the constant use of his mind: Norman
worked on his writing at all hours of the day and night and had never
seriously considered being completely regular in his habits. If he had, his
Vata aggravation might not have grown so bad over the years. To make him see the healthier person inside himself, we began to explain
how balance works and how temporary imbalances become permanent. A HUNDRED THERMOST ATS
Every function in the body has a home base it wants to return to, just as a
thermostat has its fixed set point. In fact, body temperature operates very
much like a thermostat. You can raise it by running half a mile or sitting
inside a sauna, but after you stop, your temperature will return to 98.6
degrees F. That is home base for your body’ s thermostat, established by
natural laws over the course of evolution. These laws are flexible, so you
can temp orarily depart from the normal setting of 98.6, but if you depart too
far or too long, there will be unpleasant repercussions. One of the main reasons why human physiology is so complex is that
hundreds of thermostats have been installed inside us, each obeying its own
special set of natural laws—we  have not just one single balance point but
many . Their coordination is quite miraculous. You would think that thebloodstream, for example, would be a stew of biochemicals, considering the
bewildering number of hormones, nutrients, and diverse messenger
molecules that float through it. In fact, the bloodstream is so exactly
balanced that all these molecules go where they are needed with exquisitely
precise timing and in exact measure. Similarly , the brain is capable of keeping track of all our overlapping
thermostats without confusion. One tiny portion of gray matter  in the fore-
brain, called the hypothalamus, weighing roughly one-sixth of an ounce, is
responsible for balancing an amazing number of diverse functions,
including fat and carbohydrate metabolism, sleeping and waking, appetite,
thirst, digestive secretions, levels of fluids, growth, body temperature—in
short, everything  that goes on automatically inside the body . Whatever you
do not have to think about is being looked after by your hypothalamus
(sometimes called “the brain’ s brain”). What this shows is that balance  is a function of intelligence. We are not
really a collection of thermostats, because a thermostat cannot set itself: we
can. The original setting that you were born with is your prakruti, or given
nature. It serves as a guide, but you can manipulate it. Let’s say that
someone was born with a Pitta-V ata setting, as Norman was. We can
illustrate this prakruti with a simple diagram:PRAKRUTI
At birth, this set point determines the ideal balance for the three doshas
during the perso n’s whole lifetime. All of the hundreds of thermostats in the
body obey this master setting, just as they obey your hypothalamus. But
you can talk to your doshas much more easily than you can to your
hypothalamus. Vata predictably goes up when any aggravating influence,
such as cold weather , dry or moving air, fear, the taste of spicy food, and
staying up too late at night, touches it. These influences are the words that
say “more Vata” to the body . (Pitta and Kapha have their own catalysts.) The baby who came into this world as a Pitta-V ata may grow up to look
like a very dif ferent adult:VIKRUTI
Now it appears that he is a Vata-Pitta, because the doshas have been
moved to new positions by the everyday influences of life, including food,
exercise, sleep, and emotions. Everything you think, say, do, see, feel,
smell, or taste moves your doshas, either a little or a lot. They are meant to
bounce back after traveling to a new position, following their instinct for
balance. In this case, as in Norman’ s, something went wrong. The shaded zone is now topped by a blank area, standing for the
imbalances that have accumulated over time. They are called vikruti inAyurveda, a word that means “deviating from nature.” The two terms
prakruti and vikruti are thus opposites, one referring to what is natural for a
person, the other to what is not. You cannot push your doshas into a
configuration that is better than the one you were born with; you will only
create distance between yourself and nature. Skip a meal and you add a
little to your vikruti; go without sleep for a night and you add a little more. Wrong food, bad sleeping habits , negative emotions, and physical or mental
strain all make life a little bit more unnatural, until eventually you find
yourself in the most unnatural of all conditions, a full-blown disease. At the same time, your self-ima ge will also change—in place of positive
reactions, you will start to display more negative ones. Vikruti makes you
more sensitive to stresses of all kinds. It tarnishes the finer emotions. How
many of us still feel the innocent capacity to love and trust that a baby is
born with? We crowd our cells with all the experiences of rejection,
disappointment, and doubt that litter everyone’ s past. You may now think of
yourself as a born worrier or a lifelong insomniac, pessimist, or a grouch,
forgetting that it took years to become that way . In Norman’ s vikruti, Vata dosha is the one that is most severely
aggravated. This is not surprisin g, since Vata is the easiest dosha to perturb. Vata dislikes such things as loud noise, crowds, and physical discomfort, so
when you get on a packed commuter train, your body will register the
experience as stress. The more you ride, the more Vata will be aggravated. In time, the very idea of commuting to work arouses unpleasan t reactions:
you will adapt to them, but you will never thrive. In this way, the doshas
guide us toward right habits and away from wrong ones. “Right” simply means close to nature. It is right to give Vata a period of
absolute peace and quiet every day; this allows it to find its balance point. It
is wrong to abuse Vata with loud noise and overcrowding, because that
throws it further out of balance. “Everyone has to earn a living,” you may
think, getting on the same comm uter train tomorrow and again the day after. Nothing will make Vata enjoy the experience, though. This is one of the
most fortunate things in the world, for your only hope of returning toperfect balance is the instinct every dosha has to resist wrong treatment and
return to home base. Norman found it very easy to recognize his situation in all of this. “Turning into an unnatural Vata-Pitta is very common in our society ,” he
was informed, “given how much aggravation surrounds us in the
environment.”
“But vikruti is a mask, an illusion built out of stress. Underneath is that
original ideal setting, the unique  combination of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha that
is the real you. If it can be recovered, your Vata symptoms will disappear . The beauty of Ayurveda is that it makes people healthy by returning them to
their best selves.”
The next step was to give Norman a new routine to follow , one that
would soothe his disturbed doshas. We gave him a list of thing s that bring
aggravated Vata back into balance— the process called “pacifying a dosha.”
(At the end of this chapter you will find general recommendations for
pacifying the three doshas; details will be elaborated as we go deeper into
the practice of Ayurveda.) First on the list was faithful regularity to the
same daily habits. In Norman’ s case, he quickly formulated a nighttime
ritual. “An hour before bedtime I take a warm bath—a little cooler in the
summer . Then I lightly massage my forehead, temples, and feet with sesame
oil for five minutes and drink a glass of warm milk with a rasayana mixed
in.” (Rasayanas are herbal compounds, of which Ayurveda has hundreds;
Norman finds that the most general rasayana, Biochavan, is very effective,
but there are specific Ayurvedic herbs that can also be substituted.) “Next I sit quietly and read for twenty minutes. For me, the most relaxing
reading is poetry or inspirationa l literature. Finally , I turn off the light and
listen to soothing music until I feel drowsy , and then I immediately get into
bed. “I have followed this routine faithfully for four months, and without fail I
fall asleep witho ut difficulty and sleep at least six hours straight, which isenough for me to feel refreshed the next day .”
All in all, a very happy outcome for a problem that millions of people
suffer from without relief, despite the fact that an estimated one out of five
Americans takes sleeping pills on a regular basis. This is not just an
insomnia cure, either , since Norman enjoys the other benefits of getting into
balance. He no longer complains of frequent colds or minor aches and
pains. He has lost the worry and dissatisfaction that had become part of his
makeup. He looks fresher overall, and life looks fresher through his eyes. SIX ST AGES OF  DISEASE
Putting patients back in touch with their own nature has been the aim of
medicine for thousands of years —it is not unique to Ayurveda. In the West,
however , we have been spellbound by scientific medicine, with its strictly
physical explanation for disease. Now Western medicine is conceding that
illness can originate in either the body or the mind. With the advent of mind
body medicine, it is no longer clear that these two can even be separated. A
sudden mental shock, such as the death of a spouse, can create havoc in the
body , crippling the immune system and opening the way for illness, which
helps account for a much higher death rate among recent widows than
among the general population. It suggests a rationale for why lonely women
who lack the opportunity to give emotional support to others tend to have
higher rates of breast cancer . This shift towar d mind body explanations has had both its good  and bad
sides. For example, we used to say that pneumonia begins when
pneumococcus bacteria invade the lungs and start to multiply there
uncontrollably . In mind body medicine, any explanation has its roots in an
earlier stage, in the moment when the immune system was weakened by a
negative mental  influence. This is a broader explanation than the purely
physical one, but, unfortunately , it is also quite vague. The intera ction of the
mind and the immune system is so fluid that doctors cannot actually
pinpoint the critical moment when negative thoughts compromise the
body’ s white cells.In Ayurveda, we are able to be much more precise. Accordi ng to the
ancient texts, the disease proces s has six distinct phases or steps. The first
three are invisible and can be tied in to either the body or the mind; the last
three carry overt symptoms that can be detected by both the patient and his
doctor . Each stage represents a loss of balance, but its appearance changes
as the process continues:
Accumulation—the process begins with the buildup of one or more
doshas. Aggravation—the excess dosha accumulates to the point that it starts
to spread outside its normal boundaries. Dissemination—the dosha moves throughout the body . Localization—the wandering dosha settles somewhere it does not
belong. Manifestation—physical symptoms arise at the point where the dosha
has localized. Disruption—a full-blown disease erupts. To illustrate these steps, let’s say that excess Pitta has accumulated,
perhaps because  you are a Pitta type who finds himself under heavy stress
or just suffering  through the discomfort of a very hot summer . Once there is
enough excess Pitta accumulated, it starts to move around the body , leaving
the places where it is supposed to remain. In short order it finds a place
where ama (toxic residue) is present; it now gets “stuck” to the ama. This event conc ludes the first three stages of disease. At this point, a
Western doctor would not yet have a diagnosis, because no textbook
disorder is present, but it is certain from the Ayurvedic standpoint that the
body is no longer perfectly healthy . If you are very aware of your body , you
can sense the initial onset of a dosha imbalance. Everyone recognizes the
subtle changes that indicate a cold or flu is on the way. For many other
diseases, feeling  “out of sorts” registers as a vague discomfort that cannotbe local ized or identified. It usually baffles the doctor , who tries to find
overt symptoms  but runs up against a fuzzy constellation of aches, pains,
muscle weakness, low-grade fever, or simply lingering fatigue. This sort of
vague premonition in the body holds true even for a sudden heart attack or
stroke, which is rarely sudden at all. The victim is usually given warnings in
advance by his doshas but doesn’ t heed them. Once a dosha gets stuck some where, it generally ushers in the fourth
stage, when the first distinct symptoms of sickness begin to appear. If the
Pitta has lodged in the skin, you may feel a little itching or inflammation. If
it is in the stomach, you may feel heartburn or upset stomach. (We are not
blaming just Pitta for disease symptoms. Any dosha can lodge anywhere. If
excess Vata has lodged in a joint, one of the most likely places for it since
joints readily pick up ama, you might feel a twinge of arthritis.) Except for
such vague signs, there is still no indication that a serious disease might be
in the of fing. Because Ayurve da works at such a subtle level of our bodies, symptoms
can be relieved that are often quite mysterious by Western standards,
including unexplainable pain, anxiety , depression, fatigue, and so on. Western medicin e tends to say that these are psychosomatic problems, that
is, that they originate in the patient’ s head. In truth, they originate at the
early stages of dosha imbalance . It is easy to manage them while they are
still in stages 1, 2, or 3, when  diet, herbs, exercise, daily routine, and a
special purifica tion technique for the body called panchakarma (to be
discussed shortly) can all be ef fectively employed. Once we are dealing with full-bl own illness, the damage to bodily tissues
often goes far beyond what these treatments alone can undo. Then we must
progress to more advanced Ayurvedic therapies, or call in Western
medicine, which has been formulated to deal with acute cond itions of all
sorts. How do you know when stage 4—the first onset of symptoms—is about
to comm ence? For most adults over 40, there is no need to look too far,
since we experience vague aches and pains with distressing frequency .Bodies subjected to dietary , behavioral, and emotional imbalance over the
years will always collect ama, and ama by its nature will catch a wandering
dosha. There is no cause for alarm, however . What your body is telling you
at stage 4 is not that you are in grave danger but that you need to purify
your tissues of excess doshas. Once you do, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha will
regain their natural balance. The basic approach of “talking” to the doshas
via simple changes in diet and daily routine can bring dramatic results, even
in cases of serious illness. HOW  TO BALANCE YOUR DOSHAS
In the following pages, I give the general guidelines for bring ing Vata,
Pitta, and Kapha  back into balan ce. There are four broad areas of everyday
life that can be used to promote balance:
Diet Exer cise Daily r outine Seasonal r outine
I devote separate sections to each of these later, in part III; for now, they
will be discusse d in more gener al terms to give you a basic understanding
of how you can affect your doshas—a primer on living from your quantum
mechanical body . One important caution: The points given here are intended for prevention
only. They are not suitable for treating diseases or as a substitut e for a
doctor ’s care. If you have any symptoms of illness, restoring your dosha
balance is vital, but it is not the whole story . You need a complete
examination by a trained physician, who will guide you in a complete
medical regime suited to your specific situation. For all of us in good health, however , the following information is
invaluable and unique. The points were collected over five years of
consulting the ancient Ayurvedic texts, collecting the wisdom  of living
Ayurvedic authorities in India, and using our own experience with
thousands of patients in the United States at the Chopra Center .Please be flexibl e about the advice being offered here. These are not rigid
rules to be agon ized over. You can waste a lifetime running after the goal of
balance and never attain it, because the doshas shift by the hour, by the day,
by the minute. And yet balance is the easiest thing of all. Nature has already
endowed your body with the proper instincts for it; our principles only help
to uncover and sharpen those instincts. For most people , the worst temptation is diet. Each of us is probably a
little fanatical about foods we think must be good or bad for us. Because
Ayurveda has so much to say about food, it can be easily used to support an
obsession with diet. But if you see it in the proper light, all this new
information is just a way to wake up your body . Ayurveda doesn’ t dictate
that one food is “right” and another “wrong.” Instead, you discover right
and wrong by listening to your doshas. So don’t get caught up in the details of whether your food is too hot or
too cold, too heavy or too light, too oily or too dry. Every time a dosha
moves, some specific food could be called upon to keep the body from
losing balance. But if we appro ach balance this way, the process rapidly
degenerates into fanaticism. This is not the way of self-knowl edge. Every
day is a conv ersation betwe en you and your body; the following
suggestions indicate the kind of talk your body type generally likes to hear . THE BALANCED LIFE—GENERAL  POINTS
Balancing Vata
Regular habits
Quiet
Attention to fluids
Decreased sensitivity to stressAmple rest
Warmth
Steady supply of nourishment
Sesame oil massage ( abhyanga )
Because Vata is “king” of the doshas, balancing it is a prime requirement
for everyone; when Vata is brought into line, it will bring Pitta and Kapha
with it. The key to balancing Vata dosha is regularity . 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 exhau stion. That is why so many Vatas feel frazzled and nervous. 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-o f-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. If you show signs of Vata imbalance , these pointers will help you reshape
your daily routine to make it more congenial to Vata dosha:
Get plenty of rest—this is all-important for any Vata problem. When
you feel that you are pushing yourself or overdoing any activity
(including mental activity), stop and rest for five minutes. Getting
adequate sleep every night is also of utmost importance; you shouldn’ t
resign yourself to insomnia, even though you may have had it for
years. The best rest, aside from sleep, is the deep relaxation provided
by meditation. At the Chopra Center we of fer every patient theopportunity to learn Primordial Sound Meditation (PSM) in order to
experience profound relaxation. The dosha to benefit most is Vata,
which emer ges thoroughly settled and refreshed after only a few
minutes of meditation. There is a much deeper benefit to be gained as
well. Meditation helps to integrate the mind body link. This in turn
allows every natural cycle in the body to come full circle, to progress
smoothly through a beginning, middle, and end. When Vatas find that
fulfillment is a permanent state within themselves, not a rare flower to
be chased after , they take a huge step forward in finding out who they
really are. Stay warm—being a cold dosha, Vata benefits from heat; Vata is also
dry, so be sure that the air in your room has enough humidity . It is
advisable to avoid drafts, too, since Vata is extremely sensitive to
moving air . Eat a Vata-pacifying diet (see page 262). It is also important for you to
eat regularly , since Vata dosha is aggravated by an empty stomach. Vata types waste away quickly when they feel sick or stop eating
regularly . They need to be nourished throughout the day , even though
their appetites will ordinarily be variable. Make sure you sit down to
three meals a day , including a warm, nourishing breakfast of
substantial foods, such as hot cereal. Taking a little fresh ginger helps
to stimulate the appetite before the meal and aids digestion. Drink lots of warm fluids during the day to prevent dehydration. Vata
herb tea, available by mail order , is the best choice; you can drink up
to four cups a day . Fresh gingerroot tea, prepared by placing a
teaspoon of fresh grated ginger into a pint thermos bottle and filling it
with hot water , is also Vata pacifying. Avoid very cold food and drinks. Massage your body with sesame oil in the morning. This Ayurvedic
routine is called abhyanga (see page 250 for details). Take a long, warm bath or shower in the morning before you meditate. Moist heat is good for Vata aches and pains.Avoid mental strain and overstimulating yourself. Loud music, violent
movies, and long hours of TV, particularly in the evening, are all
potent aggravators of Vata. Make your surroundings light and bright. Vata responds well to
sunlight and cheerful colors. If you are sick, sitting before a closed
window in the sun is a good idea. Resist the ur ge to go outdoors for
any length of time until you are well, however . See people who make
you cheerful, read humorous books, watch light, humorous
entertainment. Anything that brings out Vata’s natural enthusiasm and
reduces worry will be very helpful. Do not drink alcohol while you are trying to balance Vata, which
resents stimulants of any kind, including cof fee, tea, and nicotine. All
of these have to be handled with care by anyone sensitive to Vata
imbalances. The ideal is to give them up altogether . Vatas often have dry nasal passages in winter , which contributes to the
frequency of catching colds. To offset this, place a drop of sesame oil
on the tip of your finger and rub it gently inside one nostril; repeat
with the other nostril. Now pinch your nose and start to inhale, then
rapidly release and pinch again to draw sesame oil into the nasal
cavities—do not strain, however , or try to unblock the sinuses. This
treatment is particularly soothing in dry , cold weather—many Vata
types notice that their resistance to colds and flu is helped considerably
—but it also tones the sinuses in general and can be used by everyone,
not just Vatas. The treatment can be repeated up to twelve times a day . (If your sinuses are blocked, however , you should not overdo this
treatment; oil aggravates Kapha dosha, which is often behind chronic
sinusitis.) Balancing PittaThe key to balancing Pitta is moderation, making sure that you do not
push yourself too hard. Of all the body types, Pitta is gifted with the most
innate drive, aggression, and energy. Pittas are people who attack life head-
on and relish challenges, 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. Pitta types have to consciousl y pull themselves back when they see
certain danger signs, the most obvious being loss of sweetness in their
emotions and loss of moderatio n in their appetites. There is also a built-in
love of beauty that is important in the Pitta nature. In all the points listed
below , the main theme for Pitta is “the good life is the one that follows a
golden mean.”
If you show signs of Pitta imbalance , the following pointers will help
balance your daily routine and make it more congenial to Pitta dosha:
Take time to wind down from activity—alternating rest and activity is
the basic rhythm of life. Because they have so much capacity for
activity , Pittas tend to ignore the other side of the cycle. You need to
find an island of calm at the end of your workday . Eat a quiet dinner ,
turn of f your telephone in the evening, and resolutely avoid the
temptation to bring your work home. For all of us, the island of calm is
really inside ourselves. Out-of-balance Pittas frequently lose sight of
this. Meditation is very useful for regaining inner calm and equilibrium. It
also allows you to remember that rest is the source of dynamic activity .The secret of great runners is not after all in their stride; it lies in the
power they gather inside themselves on the starting block, before they
take the first step. When Pittas discover that the greatest personal
power is achieved without aggression, they take a huge step toward
finding out who they really are. Coolness in any form helps to counteract overactive Pitta. Keep your
bedroom just below 70 degrees when you sleep and don’ t linger in a
hot bath too long; too much moist heat can make you feel dizzy or
nauseated when Pitta is out of balance. If you feel overheated at any
time, put a cool compress on your forehead and the back of your neck
instead of drinking too much cold water . (Ice water , which puts out the
digestive fire, is frowned on in Ayurveda.) Cool, sweet beverages that
are not too sour are also good (apple juice, grape juice, club soda). Be
sure to drink plenty of fluids in hot weather or if you feel sick; Pittas
tend to perspire more and lose a lot of water under these conditions. A
special Pitta-pacifying herb tea can be mail-ordered; you can drink up
to four cups a day . Eat a Pitta-pacifying diet. It’ s important not to overeat, which Pittas
tend to do if they push their excellent digestion too hard. At the same
time, you don’ t want to feel uncomfortably hungry—Pittas suf fer if
they have to skip meals. Rather than going to extremes, eat moderate
meals at regular hours three times a day . If your digestion is rocky ,
warm milk flavored with sugar and cardamom will help bring Pitta
back into balance. If you always find yourself with a roaring appetite
and excessive thirst, you need to moderate your digestion, which a
Pitta-pacifying diet will help do (see page 270). If you find that you have a runaway appetite, do not try to force
yourself to eat less. Instead, take gradually smaller meals, starting with
about three-quarters of what you normally eat. Consume this amount
for a day or two, then cut back to half of your normal consumption. Now you should be at a comfortable level of intake. Continue with this
amount unless you feel uncomfortably hungry , in which case you
should go back to the first reduction. If you are eating approximatelytwo handfuls of food at each meal, you have reached the Ayurvedic
ideal. (This regime originally comes from Charaka, the greatest ancient
authority on Ayurveda.) The taste of bitter food curbs the appetite more
than any other , so try drinking tonic water before a meal or eating a
salad of bitter greens, such as chicory , endive, radicchio, and romaine
lettuce. Avoid artificial stimulants, all of which raise Pitta. Alcohol in any form
is like throwing kerosene on the Pitta fire (even fermented yeast in
bread is not considered good for balancing Pitta). You do not need to
stoke your digestive furnace with the empty calories in alcohol. The
drawback of the caf feine in cof fee and tea is that it puts an edge on
your ener gy, while you need to smooth your edges. Traditionally , Ayurveda considers laxative treatment (  virechana ) the
best way to reduce excess Pitta. This is because emptying the intestines
for a brief time cools the “digestive fire.” You can try taking one
tablespoon of castor oil before bedtime once every four to six weeks
(but not more often). Typically , the laxative will wake you up to go to
the bathroom two or three times during the night; drink a glass of
warm water after each elimination to avoid dehydration. The next day ,
when the body will feel lazy and relaxed, eat very little, taking perhaps
a few glasses of fruit juice. If you eat solid food, avoid anything heavy ,
fatty, cold, or oily . Get plenty of rest. However , do not take any
laxatives if you have intestinal pain, bleeding, or a  history of digestive
complaints. Be attentive to taking in only pure food, water , and air , since Pitta is
especially sensitive to impurities of any kind. Food additives, even if
judged harmless on the lar ge scale, can create metabolic imbalances,
however small, that interfere with your goal of achieving perfect
balance. Avoid strenuous physical exertion or overheating yourself outdoors. Pittas are easily heat fatigued. Their pale skins, being intolerant of too
much sun, will usually tell them when to go inside. Ayurvedarecommends taking it very easy in the summer . Start with ten minutes
in the direct sun and gradually work up to a half-hour , making sure to
wear a protective sunscreen lotion. Morning and late afternoon are
better times for you to be outside than high noon. Enjoy nature’ s beauty as often as possible—traditionally , Ayurveda
recommends that Pitta types look at a sunset, watch the full moon, and
walk beside lakes and running water . These are all appreciated by Pitta
dosha. In general, Pitta people find a beautiful setting very conducive
to winding down; it occupies their attention as sitting on the porch
never could. Avoid reading books or watching shows that are violent,
shocking, or controversial—all three influences strongly aggravate
Pitta. Set aside some time every day for leisure that is uplifting,
humorous, and entertaining—such influences help soften Pitta’ s edge. They also divert your tendency to become too wrapped up in your
well-defined goals. Pittas already know how to be serious; they need
the tonic of laughter more than any other type. In many ways, it is the
best medicine for aggravated Pitta that nature has devised. Balancing Kapha
The key to balancing Kapha is stimulation. By nature, Kapha  dosha is
steady and slow; this leads to dependability and strength. But out-of-
balance Kaphas cling to the status quo too tightly; they need the stimulation
of new sights and sounds, new people and events. The same is true
physically . Without activity , Kaphas can become lethar gic and dull. This is
directly linked to their slow digestion. As we’ve seen, when food is not
digested comple tely (or if it is too heavy , oily, or indigestible to begin with),
toxic residues called ama can clog up the system and eventually lead todisease. Kapha types are particularly prone to this problem and need to
make sure they keep their inner fire going through regular exercise and a
varied diet. Kapha people move in and out of balance slowly , so it is good to be
steady about keeping this dosha  in balance. Aggravate Vata today and you
will likely feel the effects tomo rrow. But you can eat Kapha-aggravating
foods all winter and not realize your mistake until spring comes and the
accumulated dosha “melts down ,” giving you a typical spring cold or sinus
congestion. If you look at the list of the twenty-five gunas (see page 69),
you will notice that Vata and Kapha do not share any qualities except
coldness. As a result, Kapha people tend to need exactly the opposite of
what Vatas need. This is why the Kapha strategy of stimulation is the
opposite of the Vata rule of rest. Vatas are like rabbits, Kaphas like
elephants. If you show signs of Kapha imbalance , the following pointers will help
make your daily routine more congenial to your dominant dosha. Seek variety in life. Kaphas need to make a conscious ef fort to seek
new experiences. They cherish hearth and home, which averts the
danger of running themselves ragged. But there is a definite tendency
to stagnate, leading to depression, the bane of many unbalanced
Kaphas. As with the other doshas, meditation is very useful here; it
allows Kaphas to discover the underlying alertness in their nature. What makes life truly stimulating is not external variety but the spark
of alertness inside us. Nature designed us to take a lively interest in
fresh ideas, new faces, and productive innovation.
Perfect_Health_-_The_Complete_Mind_Body_Guide_by_Deepak_Chopra.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Instead of saying, “Vata is my body type,”
you can substitute, “I have Vata prakruti”—the two are interchangeable. Having introduc ed this term a few chapters back, I now want to show how
respecting your prakruti is the best way to tailor your plan for complete
balance. RESPECT  YOUR BODY  TYPE
By the time we are adults, most of us know our basic tendencies, but that
does not mean we can do anything about them. Far from it. The same
complaints often bother people for life. Once the seeds of depression,
obesity, insomni a, or other chronic problems are sown, they seem to grow
regardless of our desire not to be depressed, overweight, or sleepless. These
problems grow out of our prakruti, and unless they are uprooted at that
fundamental level they will continue to expand their influence, like noxious
weeds choking out flowers in a garden. Let’s not think in terms of symptoms, however. Everyone needs to
respect his prakruti in order to make life better, to rise to a higher state of
health. This is one of the first lessons in learning how to be a balanced
person. If you never learn it, higher realities are attainable only in glimpses. Bobby Thomas  was diagnosed as a pure Vata type, which certainly
matches his naturally thin frame and his bright, outgoing personality. Bobby
is the kind of person who flashes a smile at everyone he meets. Being quick
and responsive, he decided that it would be easy for him to work his way
through college waiting on tables, but the incessant demands of working in
a crowded restaurant threw his Vata badly out of balance, making him feel
restless and unhappy. Bobby looked around at the other waiters, who seemed to be thriving in
the environment, or at least treating it as no more stressful than any other
work situation. “What’ s wrong with me. ” Bobby wondered. He decided to
work even harder. But this tactic  failed utterly. He began to sleep badly. He
lost his appetite and started losing weight. Within a few months, he was
complaining of various aches and pains that seemed to have no physical
cause. Bobby came to the Chopra Center thinking he needed tranquilizers, and
no doubt he would have gotten them fairly easily from most doctors, since
he certainly looked anxious and unable to settle down. Howe ver, after a
close examination, his Ayurvedi c doctor told him, “From everyt hing you’ve
told me, it doesn’ t seem that you are actually sick. ” Bobby looked
surprised, even offended. Weren’t his symptoms as real as anybody else’s. It was explained that what he was experiencing was a classic case of
aggravated Vata. In Western medicine, each of his complaints would be
neatly classified under textbook headings of “insomnia,” “anxiety,” “lower
back pain,” and so on. But if you traced these signals of distress back to
their origin, only one thing was at fault—fundamental imbalanc e that cried
out in dif ferent ways. Fortunately, treating Vata is a lot simpler than trying to treat five or six
symptoms. In Bobby’ s case, we didn’ t need to resort to medicine, because
the diagnosis itself was enough. Rather than prescribing medications, which
tend to mask the underlying problem, we suggested that he simply listen to
his body. It was suggested that his body type wasn’ t suited for the work he
was in. He was encouraged to find a job that would make his Vata happy
instead of driving it crazy. Wha tever he did, Bobby was not going to adapt
well to noise, overcrowding, and constant activity because his Vata couldn’ t
tolerate it. What does Vata actually like. A little more peace and quiet, for one thing. Bobby might be happier as a prep chef working when the restaurant kitchen
is relatively quiet. Creativity is another thing that imaginative Vata types
thrive on. A job that satisfies this deeper part of their nature will be much
more satisfying in the long run. Once again, cooking might be good for
Bobby, but so might performi ng, designing, or other work where self-
expression is valued. Bobby took our advice. As soon as he quit the
restaurant and got a little rest, his major symptoms disappeared. Within a
few months he moved on to a job in graphic design and has not returned
with any problems. Making your doshas happy will make you happy. That is the secret to
balancing the whole mind body system. To respect your body type, youhave to trust that its needs are good for you. Telling Bobby to look for a
new job was in line with what his body was already saying. No one can be
happy or healthy in an unbalanced state, because it is just not natural. AS NA TURE MADE YOU
Like the doshas, your prakruti is double-edged. You can see yourself as
trapped by it, or you can learn from it and benefit from what your system is
trying to tell you. A Pitta nature may predispose you to hostility and a Vata
nature to irritable bowels, but nothing forces you to embrace the stressful
lifestyle that fans Pitta to a flame or drives Vata to exhaustion, bringing out
such problems. Living with your doshas is a perfect example of how to find
freedom within your nature’ s limits. Because you were born with it, your body type does not change. On the
other hand, the doshas are constantly in flux. Every time you look at a
mountain, eat a potato chip, listen to Mozart, or carry out any thought or
action, your doshas shift. A person whose heart is pounding is having a
strong Vata reaction, no matter  what his basic nature is. Whatever your
prakruti happens to be, try to live all three doshas fully. To be completely
healthy, everyone needs to experience and express the best that can be
derived from each of the doshas—that is what it means to become a
complete person. The positive psychological traits of each dosha include the following:
Vata— imaginative, sensitive, spontaneous, r esilient, exhilarated
Pitta— intellectual, confident, enterprising, joyous
Kapha— calm, sympathetic, courageous, for giving, loving
Whenever you meet someone  who lives up to all of these qualities,
naturally you are impressed. Such a person has accepted the greatest gift ofnature—perfect balance. Rare as it is, perfect balance is not abnormal; it is
possible for everyone to achieve. Every body type contains a wide  range of possibilities. Unfortunately, we
all have  a tendency to compa re ourselves to a norm, which generates
feelings of inadequacy when we cannot live up to the standards we feel
everyone must meet. Such conformity is not in nature’ s plan. Take the
following example:
Body weight is a sensitive subject. Everyone wants to maintain an ideal
weight, but millions of people struggle in vain. Critics point out that our
society is obsessed with thinness at any price; women in particular feel
anxious and unworthy if they don’t look as if they just stepped out of the
pages of Vogue. (The current fad for weight training has added a little more
muscle to the desirable female frame, but it has also stripped acceptable
body fat down to near zero. ) Ayurveda would say that the trouble does not lie in our fixation on the
perfect figure but in ignorance about nature’ s underlying design. By nature,
a Vata woman will be thin and a Kapha solid, if not actually heavy. What
gives both types their undeniable attractiveness lies deeper. Vatas are
charming, vivacious, and vibrant—they communicate a natural sense of
exhilaration. Kaphas may not be blessed with light, agile bodies, but they
have their own beauty—they are serene, with large, soft eyes, a graceful
manner, and a full, gently contoured figure. In the eyes of an Ayurvedic
doctor, this is the ideal type, as healthy as it is beautiful. Pittas, who come
closest to our current Western notions of the ideal type physi cally, being
medium in build and well proportioned, also have a quality of self-control
that makes them attractive to others. Each dosha, then, provid es an ideal
that is of equal worth in nature’ s eyes; it should be equal in our eyes, too. People sometimes think that “balancing the doshas” means trying to get
equal amounts of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. That is mistaken; you cannot
change the ratio of doshas you were born with. What you can do is find the
balance that is right for each dosha in you. The doshas function on a slidingscale, with too much or too little at either end of the scale and a point of
balance in the middle:
Ayurveda tells you to keep as close to the balance point as you can. This
is not something you have to concentrate on. Your body keeps in balance by
following its normal processes. But since the doshas are so responsive to
your habits, you do need to learn how to stop pulling them out of balance. It is customary to think mainly in terms of aggravating a dosha rather
than depleting it, because being a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha type indicates that
you already have a good amount of that one dosha. Your aim is not to add
more (aggravate  the dosha), which would lead to imbalance. A Vata person
who has developed weak digestion could be diagnosed as having depleted
Pitta, but for all practical purposes he is treated as having aggravated Vata,
the most likely cause of the problem. If a dosh a goes out of balance, you would typically notice the following
physical symptoms:
Vata is unbalanced when there is pain, spasms, cramps, chills, or
shakiness. Pitta is unbalanced when there is inflammation, fever, excessive hunger and
thirst, heartburn, or hot flashes. Kapha is unbalanced when there is congestion, mucus dischar ge,
heaviness, fluid r etention, lethar gy, or oversleeping. These simple guidelines can help you when you have unexplained
symptoms of illness (a more detailed description of how to spot imbalances
is given at the end of this chapte r). We should emphasize that guidelines arenot a substitute for medical school; an Ayurvedic physician, like his Western
counterpart, spends a lifetime learning to diagnose disorders of all kinds. Any dosha can give rise to any symptom. Constipation, a textb ook sign of
Vata imbalance,  can be due to Pitta or Kapha in some cases; this holds true
for every other typical sympto m. If you are seriously ill, you need a
professional opinion about your condition. When symptoms turn into chronic conditions, diagnoses based  on body
types continue to be useful. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha people tend to be
susceptible to dif ferent disorders, both physical and mental. Vata types are prone to insomnia, chronic constipation, nervous stomach,
anxiety and depression, muscle spasms or cramps, PMS (premenstrual
syndr ome), irritable bowel, chr onic pain, high blood pr essur e, and arthritis. Pitta types are prone to rashes, acne, heartburn, peptic ulcers, early
balding and prematur e gray hair, poor eyesight, hostility, self-criticism, and
heart attacks r elated to str ess (T ype A behavior). Kapha types are prone to obesity, congested sinuses, chest colds, painful
joints, asthma and/or allergies, depression, diabetes, high cholester ol, and
chronic sluggishness in the morning. This simply outlines the broad shape of things. There is no simple one-to-
one relationship between a disease and a body type. Being a Vata does not
mean that nature has doomed you to get arthritis, nor does being  a Pitta or a
Kapha automatically protect you from it. Illness is individual and depends
on the overall pattern of your life, with body type serving as an important
influence, not a cause. Also, major disorders such as heart disease and cancer are the result of
more than one dosha becoming unbalanced. Once one dosha is disturbed,
the others will follow suit unless balance is restored. Although different in
severity, colds and asthma are linked in Ayurveda, because they often
involve Vata going out of balance first, followed by Kapha aggravation. Knowing the dosha that usually leads the pack (it is usually Vata) helps you
to correct the imbalance as soon  as possible. When you see someone who isangry and anxious at the same  time, a typical combination in high-stress
situations, you quickly recognize that Vata has gone out of balance and led
Pitta after it. You will notice that some of the symptoms of dosha imba lance are
mental. This is an important fact. Your mind first detects imbalances in the
body. Since a balanced body makes the mind alert, clear, sensitive, and
happy, its absence causes these qualities to decline. When they do,
something has gone wrong with a dosha. By standards accepted in our
society, you can be normal without being happy. Ayurveda argues that this
is not nature’ s standard of health, however; unhappiness indicates that
action is needed now to avoid disease in the future. THE SUBTLE SOURCE OF  DISEASE
Recently we saw a woman who had under gone a mastectomy for breast
cancer; the surgery had been successful, and she was considered out of
danger. A complication arose, however. She returned to her surgeon
repeatedly, complaining of pain. “I can’ t find anything wrong,” he said. “But I really am feeling this pain all the time,” she insisted. “As far as medicine is concerned,” he replied, “your pain doesn’ t exist. ”
Feeling extreme ly frustrated, the woman was advised by a friend to go
for an Ayurvedic consultation. On examination it was determined that she
was a Kapha type, which ordinarily predicts very good health. But the
traumas her body had been subje cted to during her illness had led to a gross
imbalance of Vata dosha. Her medical history showed that since her surgery
she had compla ined repeatedly to her doctors, not just of pain but of not
being able to sleep well. Her profile of Vata symptoms was very clear,
particularly when you consider that any wound such as major surgery
drastically aggravates Vata dosha. It was explained to her that although doctors tend to look for gross
physical causes behind every pain, there are countless patients like her who
were responding to pain caused by imbalanced Vata. Although linked to the
body, Vata is a separate, subtler part of the whole mind body system. She was put on a program to balance her Vata—something that should be
done for every postoperative patient— including a special diet, rest, and
meditation. In short order her pain was reduced to tolerable  limits, her
insomnia cleared up, and her constant anxiety disappeared. A skeptic might
contend that “phantom pain” was at work here, a mysterious phenomenon
that is often seen in amputees. But the subjective experience of pain is all
that really matters, not its name. Using the doshas to explore a new level of
reality proves extremely helpful in making sense of otherwise inexplicable
illness. A good example is peptic ulcers. There is recent evidence that in the vast
majority of cases, the presence of bacteria called Helicobacter pylori is
associated with stomach ulcers. Eradicating this germ with antib iotics cures
the ulcer in more than 90 percent of cases. Therefore, the current medical
model considers stomach ulcers to be an infectious disease. This would seem simple enough except for the fact that almost half of the
world’ s populati on harbors Helicobacter  pylori in their digestive tract, but
only 10 to 20 percent develop peptic ulcer diseases. Therefore,  we have to
ask why most people with these bacteria do not get an ulcer. From an
Ayurvedic perspective the answer is that individuals have different
responses to challenges from the environment, based upon their doshas. According to Ayurveda, the typical ulcer victim is a textboo k case of
Pitta imbalance. When you look up Pitta aggravation, you find the same
constellation of symptoms that af flicts an ulcer patient. Symptoms of Pitta ImbalanceInflammation of digestive tract
Excess gastric juice
Anger, hostility, tension
Burning sensation in digestive tract
Excess acidity in body
 
This list reads like a guidebook to getting an ulcer, but it is actually a
guide to what happens before the ulcer occurs. Since the doshas can be a
little out of balance or a lot, a Pitta imbalance does not guarantee that a
peptic ulcer is about to appear. However, in people who have strong Pitta
natures, ulcers are a common complaint, possibly because the way Pitta
people deal with stress leads to changes in their stomach acid secretion and
weakness in their immune systems. Preventing Pitta imbalances in the first
place, using Ayurvedic diet, exercise, meditation, and so forth may help
maintain the healthy defenses necessary to avoid an ulcer. Let’s take note of a potentially sensitive point here. To participate in a
disease is not to cause it. If you go out into the cold without your hat and
coat, you may catch a cold. If that happens, your heedless actions played
their part, even though a microb iologist would be right to assert that you did
not cause  your cold—a virus did. In Ayurveda, more responsibility is being
put on your shoulders, on your ability to learn about your own dosha
makeup. I am not saying, “Whe n you get right down to it, you caused your
cancer, your heart attack, your case of AIDS. ” But I do feel that you are not
separate from these diseases; in fact, being an active particip ant is what
saves us from being helpless victims. In Ayurveda, we don’t tend to talk much about germs, which are basically
well understood in the West already. What is poorly understood are “host
defenses. ” This is where knowi ng your own doshas really pays off. If you
expose yourself  directly to cold viruses, your chance of actually coming
down with a cold is only about 1 in 8. Why. Because your inner state of
balance is the deciding factor. Keeping your doshas healthy makes all the
difference. In the following pages you will find a comprehensive description of
imbalance, dosha by dosha. Then, in chapter 5, we’ll explore the Ayurvedic
techniques for restoring balance in the most natural, comfortable way. HOW  THE DOSHAS GET  UNBALANCED
The dosha that is most likely to go out of balance is the one that
dominates your body type, meaning that Vatas should be careful about
aggravating their Vata, Pittas their Pitta, and so on. If you are a two-dosha
type, both doshas are possible candidates for causing problems. However,
in everyone the most active dosha is always Vata. It leads to the majority of
short-term probl ems, particularly if they are stress-related. (See chapter 5,
“Restoring the Balance,” for more about the role Vata plays as “king” of the
doshas. ) The typical signs of dosha imba lance are given here, along with some of
the most common conditions that cause them. Vata Imbalance
By nature a Vata person is cheer ful, enthusiastic, and resilient in the face
of life’s everyday challenges. If you are a Vata type and have retained these
qualities, you are very likely in balance. It is undeniable, however, that
Vatas do not generally enjoy the best health. In childhood or adolescence
they begin to have various problems: unexplained aches and pains,
occasional sleeplessness, or a pronounced tendency to be worried and
nervous. In time, if these early signs are not heeded, Vatas become the most
common visitors to doctors’  waiting rooms, accounting for the huge number
of prescriptions written for sleeping pills, tranquilizers, and pain relievers. One would be justified in saying that the most common disorder in America
is Vata aggravation. Not that American life is solely to blame; Ayurveda
holds that Vata dosha causes twice the complaints as Pitta, and Pitta twicethe number as Kapha. Typical Vata complaints of headache, backache,
insomnia, menstrual cramps, and low-level anxiety or depression are
considered symptoms of the “worried well” by many doctors. However,
they are very real, stubborn problems that need to be addressed by bringing
Vata back into balance. Other scenes from life also present a picture of classic Vata imbalance. One is the picture of old age, a time when Vata increases in everyone. Aging
badly can bring out the worst signs of Vata aggravation: the person shrivels
into a bag of skin and bones; he no longer enjoys eating and has trouble
digesting his food; his mind wanders and becomes forgetful; he spends
long, lonely nights without being able to sleep. None of these things is
caused by Vata; they are cause d by Vata imbalance and there fore can be
prevented. Another picture is that of grief. People who have gone into deep
mourning will become listless and apathetic, refuse to eat, and take no
enjoyment from  anything in life. It is as if the shock of death has deadened
them, too. Since Vata controls the nervous system, this is in fact what has
happened. Grief, a sudden shock, battle fatigue, or great fear exhausts Vata
dosha, and it loses its ability to register perception. The first stage of the
process is usually marked by weeping, restless behavior, shakiness, racing
thoughts, and lack of sleep. If the stress is deep enough or protracted
enough, howeve r, the inevitable result is that Vata collapses, leading to total
apathy and lack of response. WHY  DID IT  HAPPEN. If you start to feel sick and the cause is Vata imbalance, there is usually a
precipitating cause that can be pointed out and corrected. Being born a Vata
type or having a strong amount  of Vata in your constitution is certainly a
strong predisposing factor. On the other hand, it takes a pattern of behavior
to actually throw this dosha out of balance. Among the most typical patterns
to look for are:You have been under stress recently and reacted to it with anxiety. You have exhausted yourself physically or under gone a period of
mental strain and overwork. You are in the advanced stages of alcohol or drug addiction, or you
chain-smoke. There has been a sudden change in your life, or the seasons are
changing. Your diet includes a great deal of cold, raw, or dry foods, including
iced beverages; or you eat a great many bitter, spicy, or astringent
foods. (Bitter and astringent tastes show up primarily in salads, beans,
potatoes, and leafy green vegetables. ) You have been on a stringent diet or habitually skip meals. Going on
an empty stomach and ignoring the body’ s hunger signals increases
Vata. You have gone without sleep or slept poorly for more than a few days. You have taken a trip recently. You have suf fered emotionally from grief, fear, or unexpected shock. The weather is cold, dry, and windy (autumn/winter). In clinical practice, an Ayurvedi c doctor would diagnose Vata imbalance
if he found strong evidence of the following kind:
MENT AL INDICA TIONSBEHA VIORAL  INDICA TIONS
PHYSICAL  INDICA TIONS
It is important to remember that any dosha can cause any symptom—
these are just the most common  signs of a Vata imbalance. Also, Vata can
mimic the other  two doshas, so it often comes under suspicion  even when
its typical symptoms are not present. Pitta ImbalancePitta people are in balance when their built-in intensity and drive are not
overwhelming; to be sweet-n atured and joyous are also innate Pitta
qualities. If you are a Pitta type and these are still present, you are likely to
be in balance. The physical health of Pitta types is generally good. Its
foundation is strong digestion, which Ayurveda considers the key to
building healthy tissues and preserving a strong immune status. Life’ s middle years, from adolescence until the end of middle age, are the
time when everyone’ s Pitta increases. A teenager suffering from acne or
from feeling too hot at night is exhibiting Pitta imbalance. Another very
common picture  of aggravated Pitta is the man in his thirties or forties who
wakes up to find that his hair is thinning at an alarming rate or turning
prematurely gray, who suddenly needs eyeglasses, or who has developed
heartburn or early heart disease. Some of these are predisposed conditions, but Pittas also tend to go out
of balance by pushing themselves to extremes. On the assumption that they
can eat anything, they abuse their strong digestion by overeating or
forgetting about  nutrition. Instead of being natural high achievers, they can
become driving, impatient, demanding, and tense. Pitta dosha controls the
intellect and endows Pitta types with a sense of orderliness. Out of balance,
they become fixated on order and annoyingly perfectionist. Pittas don’t
display such traits until they go seriously out of balance, and then it is not
surprising that they also becom e prey to heartburn, ulcers, heart disease,
and other stress-related problems. Pitta dosha is slower to go out of balance than Vata and is said to cause
about half the problems that Vata does. When it does go out, Pitta is
frequently being  dragged along by an earlier imbalance of Vata. This one-
two combination  accounts for undercurrents of anxiety that angry, critical
people are trying desperately to hide; aggravated Vata also promotes the
high blood pressure that doctors often see among their Type A heart
patients.
"I have Vata prakruti"
What is the alternative phrase for "Vata is my body type"?
Respecting your prakruti
What is the key to balancing the doshas, according to Ayurveda?
Vata imbalance is the most common in Vata types, and the recommended approach is to identify and address the underlying cause, rather than just treating the symptoms.
What is the most common imbalance in Vata types, and what is the recommended approach?
Stimulation
What is the key to balancing Kapha, according to the text?
Moderation, avoiding overexertion and finding a balance between work and rest.
What is the recommended approach to balancing Pitta, according to the text?