Yoga for Your Dosha

Does your yoga class not feel quite right? It could be because it's not a good match with your Ayurvedic dosha.

By Stacie Stukin

I am doing my umpteenth Chaturanga Dandasana at the Dancing Shiva Studio in Los Angeles and I am sweating—a lot. The room has beautiful, dark beechwood floors, the natural light is seductive, and soothing chants play in the background. However, I don't like any of it. The aggravation of saltwater running down my face is precisely why I never follow my friends, who enthusiastically tout spinning to nowhere on a stationary bike. This is also why I generally don't take vinyasa yoga classes. They leave me feeling agitated and surly. I used to think my aversion to heat-inducing exercise was a personal failure. But right now, the thermostat is turned up and as I continue to swelter this August afternoon, the clichéd lightbulb turns on in my head. I realize that not only am I susceptible to vata imbalances but that I'm also having a very pitta day. This means I am completely ruined because I'm in a kapha-stimulating yoga class.

 

If the words "vata, pitta, and kapha" mean absolutely nothing to you, then I completely understand where you are coming from. As I, too, was once ignorant that these Ayurvedic terms—which describe archetypal body characteristics as well as their tendency toward specific strengths, weaknesses, and imbalances—had direct links to my yoga practice.

Certainly, thanks to Deepak Chopra and my interest in complementary medicine, I was somewhat familiar with the basic tenets of Ayurvedic medicine, but I never knew it had deep ties to yoga. In fact, most Ayurvedic scholars agree that you really cannot practice one without the other.

"They have been sister sciences since the beginning in ancient India," explains David Frawley, Ayurvedic expert and an author of several books on the subject, who directs the New Mexico-based American Institute for Vedic Studies as well. "They comprise a whole system of human development where yoga is the more spiritually-oriented practice and Ayurveda deals with therapy and treatment for the physical body as well as the mind."

In his latest book, Yoga for Your Body Type: An Ayurvedic Approach to Your Asana Practice (Lotus Press, 2001), Frawley and his coauthor, Sandra Summerfield Kozak, take this point further: "The interface between self-healing and self-realization is the union between yoga and Ayurveda."

Understanding Doshas
Ayurveda means "the wisdom of life" in Sanskrit, and the science links the rhythms of the universal elements—earth, fire, air, water, and space—to individual constitutions called doshas. The three dosha types are vata, pitta, and kapha, and while people all have some of each, generally, a person tends to have an abundance of one or a predominant combination of two.

Vata types are connected to the air and space, so they are similar to the wind—dry, cool, and capable of fast, unpredictable movement and thought. Pittas are aligned with fire, influenced by air, and act with intense determination. Finally, kaphas are a combination of earth and water, move slowly and gracefully, and tend to be both stable and loyal.

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