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

People with different doshic constitutions take class together all of the time, but according to Frawley, students with Ayurvedic knowledge can adapt a class to their personal needs through attitude and intention. "If everyone did their asana the exact same way, it would be like everyone taking the same medicine," he explains. "Vatas should practice slowly and deliberately. Kaphas need to challenge themselves more, and pittas need to relax and to avoid overheating," he also explains. "What you do in your yoga practice is basically just a preparation for the work that you do on your life force. According to Ayurvedic principle, the connection between our state of mind and our physical posture is the ultimate expression of our psychological energy."

Teaching Aid
This raises an intriguing challenge for yoga teachers. As more teachers become well versed in Ayurveda's ties to yoga, they are beginning to look at their students in a different way. Patricia Hansen has been teaching yoga for some 35 years and studying Ayurveda with Vasant Lad since 1983. Alhough she doesn't teach dosha-specific classes like Vidal, she does incorporate this knowledge into her teaching style. "It is just an extra awareness I have developed," Hansen comments. "I look at the way the students hold their bodies as well as the way they approach asana." And just as teachers might make seasonal adjustments by not teaching the same way in summer as they do in winter, classes take on doshic personalities and require different treatment.

"Sometimes I will walk into the room and find that everyone is very animated; they're climbing the walls," she explains. "That could be vata or pitta agitation. So right off the bat, I might try chanting and some mudra work."

Many yoga teachers will agree a well-rounded practice is tridoshic by nature and can accommodate any constitution or imbalance. "If you incorporate forward bends and backbends, twisting and standing poses, pranayama, chanting, as well as inversion, that's the key," says Hansen. "However the real high point of the class should be Savasana. That's where the real doshic integration takes place. Also, the essence of any practice is the attitude of the student."

With all this in mind, I've come back to Dancing Shiva—this time for a vata-balancing class. As I lie on my mat in a long, deep Savasana, I feel quite divine. But don't get me wrong: There are times when I crave a really sweaty, intense flow class. Those are generally days when my kapha flares. So the time, like my dosha, has to be right. But at this moment Vidal has just sprayed me with rose water, and the worries of the day evaporate like the aromatic mist that surrounds me.

Stacie Stukin is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal. She works at balancing her doshas from her home in Los Angeles, California.

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