Taking Control Of Your Health With Ayurvedic Wellness Coaching
Taking Control of Your Health and Body:
Sometimes it can feel like we don’t have any control over our health and how we feel. Culturally, we tend to be disconnected from our body and inner knowing. The best part is that it doesn’t have to be this way because with small, simple pivots, we can reconnect and maintain this connection!
Establishing Simple, Everyday Routines, to help you feel your best
Ayurvedic Wellness Coaching is a form of preventative health coaching that allows you to get to know yourself on a deeper level, while making lifestyle and dietary changes. Many diseases and conditions start with mild symptoms that we ignore in our busy lives like bloating, gas, headaches or pain. These are some of the ways that our body is telling us it’s time to listen and time to make changes because something isn’t working.
Unfortunately many of us ignore these warning signs or even consider them “normal” due to their increased frequency. The good news is that we shouldn’t have to just accept these symptoms as normal and there are many lifestyle tweaks that can help alleviate them!
Wellness Coaching Tailored to Your Unique Body Type
Ayurvedic Wellness is based on first identifying your unique body type by looking at doshic balance (Vata, Kapha and Pitta) and its imbalances. Knowing this information will give you more control over how you feel and help you to make better decisions when it comes to nourishing your body, mind and spirit. Many programs are based on making the same recommendations for everyone!
This type of coaching customized practices that work best for your body type and the challenges that you are currently dealing with, so we are always finding the best practices for your body type and also to help minimize imbalance. Ayurveda also is all about living seasonally and in tune with nature. This means that the recommendations change over time due to the time of season and time of life.
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Learning About Your Body
Exploration and reflection are integral pieces that are necessary in order to gain a greater awareness of what is going on in your body and how you are truly feeling and why. Through this process you are able to become an expert on your body.
Many times in our society and culture, we value moving fast and working many hours to achieve success, that we forget about connecting with our bodies and really listening to what we truly need. Through coaching we spend time sharpening our awareness, which helps us in tapping into our inner knowing and finding the practices that best serve us during different seasons and periods in our lives.
What Are Ayurvedic Doshas?
You may have heard of the three Ayurvedic doshas before in a yoga class, workshop or maybe just from your own internet research. The three doshas are vata, pitta & kapha. These doshas are energetic forces that are made up of the five life elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Each plays a specific role in the body and each person has a unique amount of these energetic forces in their body and mind constitution. Most people are born with certain doshas having a stronger influence than others, but there are those who have equal parts of each dosha in their original body constitution at birth.
These three energetics are always pushing on each other, as the body makes the most efficient and elegant choice by always choosing a smaller imbalance over a larger one, and most importantly helping the body evolve and maintain balance. Imbalances in the doshas tend to happen when we partake in lifestyle and dietary choices that are not compatible with our overall health. Emotional trauma and stress are other factors that can also cause imbalance within the doshas.
In addition to being present in the body, doshas also are present in our external environment and are highlighted in the changes of the season, (if you are interested in learning more about seasonal dosha shifts and how to navigate these changes, check out my blog). Now that we have gone into what doshas are let’s look at the specifics of each!
Vata Dosha: Ether & Air Elements
The vata dosha is a catabolic force and is all about movement and communication. It is any force that breaks things down due to its mobile, subtle, light, cold, rough and dry qualities. For example, in the body vata dosha allows food to move through the digestive tract and allows for movement necessary to produce thought, communication and perception. It is also responsible for nerve impulses, heartbeat and breath. Vata dosha is also a creative force due to its associated movement since it is always flowing.
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When vata dosha is predominant, these individuals are bubbly, energetic, adaptable, flexible and quick to change course. Some animals that nicely illustrate vata dosha are deer and rabbits due to their quick, subtle nature. Signs of vata imbalance that you may see in your body are fear, anxiety, feeling scattered, hypersensitivity, dryness, skin, vagina, eyes, constipation, gas, cold, pain, osteoporosis, losing substance, dehydration, spastic, tremors, MS, neurological conditions
Pitta Dosha: Fire & Water Elements
The pitta dosha is the force of transformation and metabolism. It’s qualities are those that we think of that would be necessary in order to digest our food; for example the qualities necessary to digest a cracker. These qualities are hot, sharp, light, liquid and spreading. On a spiritual and cellular level it's our own ability to nourish ourselves. This means setting aside time from the constant work grind and honoring yourself by doing activities and hobbies that you love and doing self care activities on a daily basis. This includes being able to digest our food, emotions as well as life experiences.
Those with a higher amount of Pitta dosha have a way of seeing a situation clearly (in other words they can see through the bs). These Individuals are also very intelligent and ambitious. Pitta is very sharp as well as determined and many times hold leadership roles in the workplace or in their personal/family relationships. The signs of imbalance Pitta are fever, loose stools, skin rash or acne, or the heated emotions of anger and frustration. They can be prone to jealousy, resentment and may also become overly critical and compulsive due to imbalance.
Kapha Dosha: Earth & Water
The Kapha Dosha is the force that is responsible for building and augmenting. It is involved in the cohesiveness and lubrication in the body, which includes the lymphatic system and mucus membranes. The qualities of kapha are cool, heavy, slow, oily, smooth, dense, soft, stable, gross and cloudy. Kapha dosha hydrates cells and is responsible for lubricating joints, moisturizing skin as well as protecting the body. As Katie Silcox explained in one of the first Ayurvedic lectures I attended, “ your kaphic tendencies are probably saving your life.” This means that maybe taking that nap or having a lazy day and eating food you don’t normally eat, wasn’t entirely a bad thing.
Great news, right? We do so many activities that are vata and pitta provoking in the sense that we are always breaking down, moving and using energy and we need these kaphic tendencies to help build and restore from constantly breaking things down. It’s a great thing to remember the next time you feel like being lazy! The signs of Kapha imbalance are difficulty losing excess weight, as well as gaining weight easily. It can also be seen as a reluctance to change and codependency.
Interested in Learning More?
Interested in finding out more about your unique doshic make-up and imbalances? Click below to take this short quiz to find out more:
