Explore Ayurvedic principles of Gunas and Doshas to discover how to balance your unique constitution.

English

In Ayurveda, people often talk about the doshas: vata, pitta and kapha. But what do doshas really mean? 
And what they never talk about, but what is the basis of understanding and being able to apply Ayurveda, are the gunas.
Here, I explain what it all is and how you can bring balance to your body and mind by applying the principles of like increases like and opposites reduce.

Understanding Ayurveda: Gunas And Doshas

Balance in your constitution, the Gunas and the Doshas In Ayurveda we are always looking to create balance. We do this by looking at Gunas. But what does that mean? It means that everything in the universe is made up of a combination of different elements and their corresponding energies and qualities. In Ayurveda we work with the elements space, air, fire, water and earth. And everything in and around us is made up of a combination of these elements and thus given certain qualities. Qualities like something is heavy or light, hard and soft, dry and oily, subtle and grand, mobile or stable, sharp or dull and unsharp, clear or cloudy, sticky or liquid, rough or smooth, stuff like that. So you might imagine that a stone, depending on how massive it is, has at least the earth element in it, to some extent air and space. And thus it can be heavy, hard, rough and big, but it can also be soft, light, sharp and maybe smooth. And a stone in itself is quite stable, it doesn't do much. You can also apply this to your thoughts for instance. Your thoughts can be stable and calm or maybe they go in all directions, giving your body a heavy feeling, maybe a cloudiness, or you can feel very light in your brain and very clear with focus and happiness and subtlety. And so this can be applied to everything. Every food has its elemental composition and its qualities, which can also change through preparation and processing. And everything affects each other. You don't feel the same on a sunny day after a good night's sleep and a nourishing meal compared to a cold rainy day after a bad night with hunger. So when we work with these qualities, with these gunas, we do so with the rules opposites reduce and like increases like. So when you're cold and you drink tea and put on an extra jumper, you get warmer. It's the opposites that balance. But when you're cold and you go for an ice cream, take off clothes, then you get colder. So that all sounds very simple, somehow it is. But in Ayurveda we also take into account how we were born, our constitution, your composition of elements that you have at birth, kind of your blueprint, and how you are now, the layers of habits and experience that have created your current situation. And in this we work with something that's called the doshas, vata, pitta and kapha. The doshas also have their elemental compositions. Vata represents space and air, pitta fire and water, and kapha earth and water, all with their corresponding gunas, those qualities. Now it's the case they were all made up of everything. We have all the elements in us, so we also have all the doshas in us, and they can express all the different qualities. But everyone is born with a predominance. And that gives an indication of what someone is prone to. Very broadly speaking, someone with a lot of pitta in them has more focus and sharpness, but will have an easier time getting inflammations or rashes and allergies. Someone with more kapha, earth and water, is a calmer type, more stable, is more prone to gaining weight and lung problems. And someone with more vata, more space and air, tends to be a bit more flexible and light, but is predisposed to have more anxiety and neurological disorders. The doshas, when they are balanced, they have certain qualities, and when they are unbalanced, they get out of control. And when all that mixes up, anything can basically happen. So this makes the intake of Ayurveda very important. What's your history, that of your family, how are you then, how are you now, what are you doing, how are you doing it, how is your agni, what do you like, what don't you like. All this information helps to get a picture of what is your normal, your constitution, your blueprint of doshas that you were born with, and what has happened that created this imbalance that you're experiencing. And so what do we need to do to get back to your normal, which is not the same for everyone. So we work to get your doshas in balance with the rhythms of nature, working with the Ayurvedic clock, the well-functioning agni and minimal ama, so that your health can be optimal, and you learn to understand what brings you balance and what doesn't, so that you can maintain the health that you have, and improve it where it's possible.