Discover your Ayurvedic body-type?
Identify your individual health needs
According to Ayurveda, our body, mind, emotions, and even the worlds around us, are governed by a mixture of three fundamental energies or forces that we call Doshas.
These Doshas govern all the activities of your mind and body and are called Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Yet, in every person, they will be found in different proportions. In most of us, one or two Doshas tend to dominate.
- Vata governs movement within the body. It governs the movement of thoughts in our mind, the movement of air when it is windy and every movement imaginable.
- Pitta governs the transformation of food when it is digested and assimilated into the body. The assimilation of new knowledge is governed by Pitta, as is any transformation we see around us.
- Kapha structures our body and gives us our physical strength. It manifests as the relative power of the mind and is the force that holds together each atom and structure we see around us.
When our Doshas are balanced we experience health
Each person has their own mixture of Doshas and the relative proportion of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha we have in our body is what makes us unique. Keeping our unique body-type, or mixture of Doshas, in good balance is the key to good health.
Some people are born with a higher proportion of Vata and, throughout their lives, their bodies will tend to be thinner and lighter. Those with more Kapha, tend to put on weight easily. Those with more Pitta, tend to be hotter and not feel the cold so much.
These differences in the proportions of Vata, Pitta and Kapha are perfectly natural. Ayurveda says that as long as you maintain your own individual body-type balance, you remain healthy.
A Guide to the Doshas
Ayurveda identifies three fundamental principles (called doshas) that function in our mind and body and throughout Nature.
This guide also includes a questionnaire, which will help you determine which Dosha you need to balance most – Vata, Pitta or Kapha.