Pitta pushing Kapha Imbalance
Summer craziness coming to a close…back to school means back to a schedule. I’m thankful! Hopefuly you all are also revisiting your schedules and planning a rhythm for the end of the year (imagine a bass drum sound of heartbeat here)…
At this point in the summer, many of us have run a bit on the pitta side for several weeks and may now be feeling some secondary kaphic signs in our bodies and lives. A primary pitta imbalance (and for most of us combined with some vata imbalance from summer travel), encouraging a secondary kaphic imbalance (“pitta pushing kapha”) may look like:
- waking up between midnight and 3am and feeling tired when waking in the morning
- being easily irritated, but keeping it to yourself
- yeast yeast yeast
- swollen inflamed joints
- sinusitis
- acne (especially along areas of sweat)
- a coated tongue with red margins and white in center/posterior tongue
- to do lists accumulating
As Dr. Lad would say, “What to do? What to do? (in Indian accent)” Well, personally, I load on the bitter herbs (guduchi, musta, neem) this time of year. I have to check my time in the hot sun and overworking tendencies. Diet wise, I favor light food that is well spiced (with non-spicey spices like coriander, cumin, etc.). Kitchardi cleanses are great now, as are green foods (which are mostly bitter in taste anyways). Basically, focus on pitta reduction but less through sweet than through bitter in your life. I’m neti-ing a good deal this time of year, and forcing myself to move (but moderating the intensity). Oh, and of course, triphala to keep it all flowing in the right direction…
What do you do to keep your P–>K imbalance in check? Feel free to share!
Being an optimizer
Lately, I’ve been exploring with friends the topic of being an “optimizer.” That may be some coined term for some field of study, but I just mean it the way it sounds–someone who is deeply concerned with optimizing her life experience. I feel like this life is short and I want to make the most of it (even though I know I don’t matter in the grand scheme of anything and “most” is a relative term). I can’t help it; It’s in my genes. Or rather, it’s a part of my pitta predominant constitution.
Are you an optimizer? Well, are words like EFFICIENT, COST-EFFECTIVE, PRODUCTIVE, SUMMARY and THOROUGH some of your favorite? Hmmmm….you love bullet points, don’t you? (So do I 
) You must have a good degree of pitta energy in your life right now.
So what this looks like on a daily basis is someone who tries to figure out the best way to approach everything from grocery shopping to raising kids (=planner). On a broader pattern level, we may easily get
- too focused on what needs improvement (and spend less time appreciating what is good as it is)
- so lost in the intricacies of analysis that we miss the big picture
- to a point where we accept situations that aren’t really the best for us because we feel super comfortable fixing things (optimizing them).
- to forget that we don’t really control anything but our intention
- all of the above are signs of pitta imbalance
But I like being efficient…
Well, I don’t see any need to change who we are. Rather, we need to accept our nature and learn to work with it. I simply create healthy boundaries for pitta coming into my life (diet, work stays at the office, can’t be productive at certain times, etc.) We can also implement certain checks for our pitta tendencies in the mind (talking things over with someone, daily affirmations, pranayam). What you do to keep pitta in balance can be completely individualized, and this will be natural when you are in touch with your pitta nature and what it feels like when it is imbalanced (excess) or not.
For me, I’m learning that if a situation has some reason for hesitation within me, it likely is not the best situation for me. Instead of trying to make it work, I’m choosing to have faith that the universe has a more optimal situation than I can design. This practice in itself reduces the amount of work (pitta) in my life. I do less fixing, less determining, less optimizing.
Lessons from my garden…
Each of my plants is like a facet of myself or my interaction with the universe:
some are heartier, some are more sensitive
all that is nurtured blooms
all that is neglected eventually withers.