Tri-Doshas
In continuation with my previous blog on “What is Prakruti?” (https://medium.com/@sanhitanegi/what-is-prakruti), I now thought of talking about the Tri-Doshas.
As you must have read in my previous blog, that Tri-doshas are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. These all are essential to life. But, they can cause great harm if they are allowed to fall out of harmony with one another. Hence, they are called DOSHAS.
For making things easy and practically understandable, I would like to explain it to you through a pictorial representation.
There’s a boy X. At birth, the relative level of the Vata, Pitta and Kapha defines his PRAKRUTI (or body constitution). Here, the prakruti is say, V(1)P(1)K(3). This makes him a boy with Kapha Prominant Prakruti.
As long as his doshas were balanced according to his Prakruti, he was healthy.
Due to sedentary lifestyle, poor food habits and irregular sleep cycles, Boy X developed imbalances in his basic Prakruti. These imbalances (represented below in brown) are called as DOSHAS. Due to these imbalances, he is now more prone to diseases.
The idea I explained above is summarized as :-
If we lived in accordance with our constitution(Prakruti); ate, drank, lived with these in mind, avoided exacerbating factors, we’d have these levels of doshas all the time and be happy and healthy. Sadly, most of us don’t live like this, through choice or circumstance, and our doshas get pushed out of balance.
If “like increases like”, then “opposites must decrease”
The ‘qualities’ or characteristics of Vata are as mentioned above in the table. Therefore, choosing more of the qualities or characteristics in food and lifestyle choices which have the opposite effect such as heavy, moist, smooth, sticky, slow, warm, stable, salty, sour and sweet helps to maintain balance or bring excess Vata back into equilibrium. The same idea works for other doshas as well.
MYTHS and FACTS
- I have heard this statement from most of my patients; “Ma’am, how did I get this disease? I usually don’t have street food, I have chapatis in all 3 meals and I take a lot of dry fruits as well. So, how did this happen?”
MYTH — Household food is equivalent to Healthy food.
FACT — A meal of chapatis, pulses and sabzi, will take atleast 5–6 hours to digest and the time gap between subsequent meals is definitely not enough for the body to digest the previous meal fully. So, this will definitely lead to diseases. (This is a very important topic of discussion and for more knowledge regarding digestion and health, do wait for my upcoming blog :)).
Same is the case with dry fruits. They are definitely good for health, but again the amount is what matters. Moreover, a lot of other factors like, your age, digestive power, season, time of the day and ofcourse your Prakruti needs to be kept in mind.
2) Another common query which I come across is, “Ma,am, in-spite of taking healthy food, which you suggested, my health related issues still persists. Why?”
MYTH — Improper diet is the only cause of diseases.
FACT — Merely taking healthy food will not guarantee a healthy life. A proper routine and lifestyle is very important. The gaps between your meals should be fixed. Any other interval which is more or less than this fixed time will definitely lead to Dosha imbalance.
Physical activities (unlike only household work, but like proper walk and yoga) are equally important as healthy food.
MAJOR TAKEAWAYS
- Changing your lifestyle depending on your Prakruti, so as to keep the Doshas balanced and happy :)
- How to check your doshas are balanced?
- You should actually feel hungry before every meal.
- You should have a sound sleep.
- Every morning, your bowels should be cleared properly.
All images have been assembled by Dr.Sanhita Negi, founder of Yogada Clinic.