“Yoga for your Dosha”–is that even possible?

I’ve been seeing a lot of ayur-yoga/ yoga for your dosha/other creative names as mainstream yoga culture attempts to incorporate ayurvedic awareness into yoga practice. Hmmm…I have conflicting feelings on this movement.

“Yoga for your dosha” doesn’t make sense to me because you are not just one dosha, or type. A lot of introductory ayurvedic texts make it seem like you can type yourself, or figure out which dosha you are, and live according to some guidelines for Pitta, for example. That’s not really how it works. This is a whole topic in itself and I’ll elaborate in another post. For now, let’s address the question:

How do I adjust my yoga practice according to ayurveda?

Step 1: Listen to your body and mind to see which house you are experiencing imbalance in. Step 2: Adjust the qualities of your yoga experience to balance whatever you are experiencing.

We can take any aspect of the yoga experience, and examine the qualities of the energies we are taking in through that particular aspect. For example, let’s look at temperature; a heated room (e.g. Bikram) will be balancing for thos in a vata or kapha imbalance, but will help to aggravate a pitta imbalance.

The temperature is an obvious quality, but there are several subtle ones as well. Is this a jam-packed class with people clambering for space? Are you practicing at home in the evening when the neighbors are loud?  I’m not suggesting there is a perfect yoga experience. Afterall, as yogis, we are cultivating pratyahara–withdrawal of the senses to the inward space. However, the energies surrounding your yoga experience are how you can begin to balance the doshas during your practice.

The list of features below is a good starting point to adjusting the qualities of your practice. I like these videos as well to learn more on a few of the features listed below.

• Noise. This includes music. Intense tabla could stimulate pitta while serene tambour could ground vata. Silence has it’s own qualities as well.
• Breath. What type of breathwork are you incorporating? Ujjai is very different from kapalabhati in quality.
• Gaze. Keeping your eyes closed (grounding), focused upward (decreasing kapha), looking at a mirror (increases pitta) all affect the quality of energy cultivated through vision.
• Lighting. Bright vs. Dim–well, we can all relate to how lighting makes us feel.
• Pace. Vinyasa flow is very different from restorative…how you space your asana and transitions is a way to change the quality of the practice.
• Temperature
• Asana. Specific postures increase or decrease VPK. For example, forward folds decrease (balance) vata because they help to remove air in the abdomen, and on a subtle level encourage introspection (and withdrawal from external stimuli).
• Aromas. These are fun to play with. For example, citrus and rosemary will help to stimulate agni and motivation for a kapha imbalanced person in the morning.
• Public vs. Private. This one is relative. For some, their yoga community is a family and seeing them on a regular basis in a regular setting is grounding and balancing. For others, practicing yoga in a public class is anxiety provoking. You have to see how this affects you.

Addressing acne with ayurveda

I personally overcame (it’s an ongoing process) my acne with ayurveda. I had years of antibiotics, RetinA, benzoyl peroxide and even accutane–a super frustrating issue because it’s on your face. When I first looked into ayurveda for acne, I was pretty disappointed. All I could find were some recipes for masks and pitta reducing diets…none of these yielded immediate results for me, and so I gave up on them prematurely.

It’s often not a simple issue of pitta reduction.

The type of acne you have will reveal more about the doshas involved. More dry and hard feeling blackheads (vata)? That’s different from those painful lumps deep down that may never even surface (kapha). Also, the acne can be a secondary issue to another root issue.  Reducing pitta in your life (not just your diet) will help with any inflammation and ulceration. Reducing vata will help with reducing scaring. Reducing kapha will help with oiliness and swelling/ pus. So, you can see that all of the doshas may be involved, and figuring out which approach to take will depend on your individual experience.

In any case, reducing acne means cleaning the blood and circulating lymph (rasa dhatu).

If you have “nodulocystic” acne, the doshic imbalances are down into the level of the ayurvedic muscle tissue correlate, the mamsa dhatu. To reduce the level of the imbalance, start first with the digestive system and the blood–clean up your diet, hydrate, and detox. This means:

• no weird chemicals (cigarettes/ skin products/ household products),
• no processed stuff (e.g. diet coke)
• lots and lots of water
• alterative herbs (burdock, neem, dandelion are all cooling alteratives) cool and cleanse the blood.
• herbs that are rejuvinatives to the skin are helpful, as are those which build healthy hormonal flow.
• triphala helps balance all the doshas and clean up the digestive system
• follow the dosha balancing approach to your diet depending on your type of acne
• heavy foods tend to congest/ build ama, and worsen acne.
• alcohol is a big load of toxins and pitta and dehydrates, so it really worsens acne.
• maintain healthy digestive fire to decrease ama–there are herbs to help with this (dipanas, digestive teas).
• I DONT recommend any radical cleanses. Pancha Karma is helpful, but expensive and not necessary.

Reducing doshic imbalances: look at your prakruti AND your vikruti to change your lifestyle and habits

For me this means looking at you and your patterns since before the acne began, and through the experience. Someone with a predominantly kapha constitution is just as likely to have acne just as a predominantly vata constitution, especially in the pitta time of life. In other words, anyone can get acne.  Your constitution is helpful when fine-tuning an ayurvedic treatment, but what has been coming into your life in the time of the acne is more important in my opinion (vikruti).  This means looking at your relationships, routine, climate, etc. Herbs and diet can greatly help and even resolve acne, but ultimately the imbalance came from a lifestyle and habits that are imbalancing for you. If you want long-term acne clearance, likely your lifestyle and habits will have to change.

Your skin is a digestive system. What is it eating?

Switch out chemicals for natural options: shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, drycleaners, etc. Use natural oils instead of lotions…medicinal oils are great tools. Herbal face packs and scrubs help to address the doshic imbalance from the “outside in.” Clean your sheets and towels often. Think of what you hear and feel in your day–toxic words are absorbed too.

Now do all of that for at least a month…not easy! but not impossible either. I did it…you can too:).