Discover Your Dosha

I would like to suggest to all who complete the "Discover Your Dosha" form, that a follow-up read of "Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide" by Deepak Chopra would provide a casual but direct understanding of Ayurveda.

thank you Melinda

I did not write the article, and while I understand that the system may not be understandable who does not practice ayurveda (even if they do yoga) I believe that with a little thinking and perusing around you can find your answers a lot more clearly.

When I read this article last night I went through, as most would, and filled out the form, marking tallies by the appropriate dosha. One thing I did not do was to choose 2 rather than one. I find when it comes to these sorts of things that you should mark the Best answer, or the one that you would first choose, using your intuition. It is only logical to consider that you would at an earlier or later time answer differently - after all we are always changing, as is the world around us. The thoughts you have at 17 are not the thoughts you necessarily have at 27, and regardless of the simple differences in thought patterns and choices, you know more at 27 because you have been alive longer and the human condition is a convoluted process and merely simplifying it into just this or that will leave something to be desired for description. It is true that many find fault with certain systems that are rather "black and white" but I believe that they are not understanding the real reasoning and purpose behind those systems and are presuming that everything should always be detailed and complicated, just beccause people are.

Moving on...I continued to search through the section on YJ that I found the dosha quiz and found a handful of articles that mentioned a bit more about the doshas (including "Know your stress type" and some others that are currently slipping my mind) and gave some descriptions for them. Now my first thought was that these descriptions (all of them together) should have been included within the quiz at the end so that you could have a so called answer. Yet as I am not the author I have no idea What their motivation for creating this quiz was. But I notice that it is stated in these other articles several things that one must take into account to really have a better understanding of the system and not feel that it is completely lacking: for one, you are born with a certain dosha. This is according to the birth time and date in Vedic Astrology (a fairly good book IMO for someone beginning Vedic Astrology that goes over this is "Indian Astrology" by Komilla Sutton). It gives quite a hefty little description for each of the signs, and so on and so forth. However if you just want to ask some spot questions, please feel free to contact me with your birth date and time (in GMT) and I can try to help you. Another thing is that your doshas are not static things, throughout your life they may and will change...if you were to look at your doshas at a time when you were having trouble eating or sleeping, or were very stressed you'll likely answer differently than at a time when you are calm and relaxed. Obviously...so just because your doshas are mostly Vata now, with almost not Pitta, doesn't mean in several days/weeks/months/years etc that it will be exactly the same. And truly, aside from you being balanced and in "perfect" health and one with all of your bodies (spiritual, emotional, physical, mental, etc) you're not likely to answer the same, nor should you be inclined to... So to me, these two factors are very important in considering "what your dosha is" as a Westerner might so quaintly put it which bespeaks one not understanding quite what the process is or why.

Another thing to note, I am somewhat familiar with the philosophy of the 4 humors, and if you look at the 3 doshas they exhibit some of the same concepts. That when your body is more phlegmatic (kaphra) you will have different strengths and weaknesses than if it is more vata. Also, dosha means weakness, but at the positive end of it there are strengths to each dosha, as well as preferences, tendencies, and a whole list of associations. Ideally you would want your doshas in a fairly balanced state - which allows for give and take in your body, mind, and spirit. However, true balance is an ever flowing thing, it is not something you go and pick up from the store and then have, rather something you must strive for...and you can think of it like this...there are times of more "perfection" and times of less "perfection" and until you stop being consisely measuring it is a moot point.

nexus.of.souls@gmail.com for anyone who has any questions, I will answer to the best of my abilities. Namaste!