Did you read the title of this post and think, what the heck is a dosha? Well, let me explain. In Ayurvedic medicine, a dosha is kind of like a personality type. Everyone has some ratio of all three–Vata, Pitta, and Kapha–but whatever is dominant plays the biggest role in your daily needs. If you want to find out what your dosha is, you can take a quiz here.

I recently took the quiz and found out that I’m predominantly pitta, which is no surprise. Here is a definition of Pitta from the Chopra Center website:

“Pittas have a powerful intellect and a strong ability to concentrate. When they’re in balance, they are good decision makers, teachers, and speakers. They are precise, sharp-witted, direct, and often outspoken. Out-of-balance pittas can be short-tempered and argumentative.”

I think that’s a pretty accurate definition of me. The dosha quiz is largely based on physical characteristics, which I thought was pretty cool! For example, what kind of hair you have or what build your body is. When balancing your dosha, physical imbalances are also addressed. For example acne, indigestion, or a rash. I love that your dosha encompasses your mind, body and soul.

So now that I know what my dosha is, I want to do everything I can to keep it in balance. To learn more about how to do this, I spoke with Sam from Happy Healthy Human. We talked through some things that are going on in my life personally and health wise. She gave me guidance to heal and create balance, by honoring my dosha.

Regardless of what your dosha is, in Ayurvedic medicine, adding more of the same to your body leads to imbalance.

For fiery Pitta, this means that anything heated or spicy is going to lead to an imbalance. The kicker here is that you actually like and crave the things that could cause an imbalance, because it’s already present within you. So for me, I love high intensity workouts, spicy foods, and sour drinks. The thing is, those all increase Pitta. Which would them lead to an imbalance. Instead, I should be eating and doing cooling things. Some examples of cooling foods would be coconut water or a smoothie. And instead of high intensity workouts, Sam suggested I mix in yoga, swimming, or walking outside to feel more balanced.

When Pitta is imbalanced, anxiety rises. Which is 100% me. I always feel like I could or should be doing more, but Sam suggested I learn to focus on what I’m doing right now. I love this idea! Lately I’ve been getting back into reading and journaling in the morning, and this along with meditation has felt great! People who have Pitta as their dominant dosha put their heart and soul into everything that they do and can end up feeling drained because of this. With journaling and meditation, you are connecting to your soul and allowing that recharge to happen.

One of the biggest takeaways from my conversation with Sam was her advice to make it a regular practice to check in with myself. If I am in tune with my body and it’s needs, I can take care of a problem before it becomes a major issue. This is something that I know I need to be better at, but I keep telling myself I’m too busy to just relax.

Well, this weekend, I ended up with a high fever and nasty cold. My body was telling me to slow down, stop multi-tasking all the time, and just breathe. It is really hard for me to sit still all day, but being sick forces that upon you. I took advantage of it and binge-watched Quantico on Netflix, did a little bit of work on my blog, and lots of snuggling with my cats. Going forward, I am going to pick one day each week where I do absolutely zero work on my blog, and just allow myself to chill.

It’s so easy to be watching something on Netflix and then grab my phone or computer and start working on something. Next thing I know two hours have passed and I have to repeat the episode I just watched because I have no idea what happened. Lately time has been flying by because my schedule is jam packed and I have no time to just sit and think. I need that time, and I’m making space for it going forward. I’m going to honor my dosha, and honor my body, and listen to the cues it’s sending me.

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