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

These doshic constitutions, known as prakruti, are determined at the moment of conception, according to Ayurveda. But doshas are like anything in life; they are fluid and affected by circumstance, emotion, or even the seasons. So on that August afternoon when Mas Vidal, the director of Dancing Shiva Studio, led his class through what he calls a "Veda Yoga" class, designed to reduce kapha, I was essentially doing the exact opposite of what I actually needed at that moment.

Let me explain: Since I am primarily a vata person with a dash of pitta, I'm best served by a slow, grounding practice that cools my heat and brings me out of the air and back to the earth. Then there's also a unique external circumstance that further aggravated my vata. The previous day, I had left New York City at 7 a.m. on a flight home to Los Angeles. Already being someone who tends to be a bit flighty, I had literally just been in the air travelling at mind-boggling speeds, and in addition, the heat of the day had aggravated my pitta, which fueled my tendency to push myself too hard. As Vidal encouraged the kapha folks to keep moving to produce the heat that would give them momentum to counterbalance their predisposition toward inertia, I was soaring in the ether like a whirling dervish propelled by a ball of fire.

No wonder I was upset. I felt like the Tasmanian Devil. During Savasana (Corpse Pose), I began cursing Vidal, who is actually charming, kind, and compassionate. But in the moment I could not see that. In fact, after the class, as I drove to meet friends for dinner, I began to experience the stomach cramping that occasionally plagues me. Guess what happens when your vata gets out of balance? There's a tendency toward gas and stomach pain. And when your pitta flares? It will spawn anger and irritability.When the kapha folks get out of whack, inertia rules and lethargy and lack of motivation keep them from moving forward.

It's precisely these connections among the doshas, physiology, and psychology, that inspire teachers like Mas Vidal to be mindful of how asana affects the individual and vice versa. The classes at Dancing Shiva are specifically designed to accommodate doshic tendencies.

"The key to Ayurveda is that it teaches us how to approach our practice in a specific way," Vidal says. "It's different for each individual, so they will reach their doshic balance in different ways." Vidal assists his students by continually educating them and helping them to incorporate other techniques into their yoga practice, such as utilizing aromatherapy for each dosha. At the end of his kapha class, as everyone is resting in final relaxation, he circulates through the room with a spray bottle and sprinkles a mist of eucalyptus-scented water on his students because, he explains, "Eucalyptus energizes and opens the lungs. Kapha types often tend to suffer from asthma and extra mucus." For fiery pittas, a spritz of calming and cooling lavender does the trick, while vatas benefit from jasmine and rose.

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