Day One--Testing the Waters

Day One (November 13, 2007)
Yesterday was my follow up consultation with Mary-Alice. She sat me down for a “report of findings.” This means that based on the information that I gave her about my emotions, my job, my friends, my eating and sleeping habits and my medical history, she has come up with my body constitution in its balanced state and in its imbalanced state. In ayurvedic terms this means my prakruti and my vikruiti.

Prakruti is my body IN balance. That means that the three doshas (Vata, Pitta and Kapha) are present in my body in the following way: (45% Pitta, 40% Kapha, and %15 Vata). This is what I was born with, and where I’m struggling to get back to.

Vikruiti is my body OUT of balance or imbalanced. This means that the three doshas are present in my body in the following way: (Kapha is primary, Pitta is secondary and Vata is tertiary). So what does all that Indian mumbo jumbo mean? Well I’ll let you look up the qualities of each dosha and what it all means yourself—it might even be fun for you to Google dosha body types and find out which one of the three is present in you. But remember, your results could indicate which dosha is present in your IMBALANCED state, or it might reveal what your true nature is if you’re one of those LA folks who know about Runyon Canyon and what people do there. I myself have never laid eyes on the place.

The SHORT version of what it all means is this: each of the three doshas has certain qualities and they manifest in a person’s body in certain ways. The Kapha dosha is made up of the elements of earth and water. If you think about the qualities of earth and water you’ll find that they are in general cold, wet, and heavy. So these are also the qualities of Kapha. The Pitta dosha has qualities of fire and some water. Fire is hot, it is movement (think of that flickering flame) and it is light (as in weight, not brightness). And water is cold, wet and heavy. So these two elements working together would promote balance. Pitta is the dosha that is most balanced. Vata has qualities of air and ether or space. The primary quality of this dosha is movement.

So we all have some of all of these in our body and this lifestyle will help me reach balance. In order to do this, I have to change my life a LOT. I won’t give you the full list here, but as I progress you’ll eventually (if you stick with me!) read about it all.

Ayurveda teaches that there are several therapies one can engage in including yoga, meditation, breathing techniques, and certain foods one can eat that promote balance in the doshas. The main principle of Ayurveda is “like increases like and opposites reduce.” The best example is that of a campfire. Fire is hot—if you add something flammable like gasoline (which may be cool to the touch but has heating qualities) it will make the fire hotter. But if you add something cool like water to the fire, you reduce its hotness and eventually put the fire out altogether. So like things increase and opposite things reduce. Remember this—it will be very important later.

When you see an Ayurvedic specialist, they listen to you and then identify your vikruiti and prakruti, and then give you a list of therapies and practices to bring you back into balance. Since Kapha and Pitta are the two doshas most prevalent in me, and Kapha is higher right now in my imbalanced state, I need to choose foods and practices that balance or reduce the Kapha in me. For me that means choosing foods that have warm, light qualities (like soups) and dry foods that are cooked but don’t have much water. I can also have foods that are spicy because they have heating qualities. The downside—I have to minimize foods that have butter, oil and sugar, which pretty much means, there goes my cake.

But what about the practices—Ayurveda also teaches that the ‘where, when, how and why’ you eat certain foods are as important if not MORE important than what you are eating. For example, cake may not be the best thing for me to eat, but if I eat it with the state of mind that I am celebrating a milestone and that my friend Cassandra made it FOR me, the qualities or effects it will have on my body are much better than if I were to eat the cake feeling guilty about it, or criticizing myself for failing to stay away from it at all. This was an important concept for me to grasp.

So not only do I have to gradually change to foods that are balancing to my dosha, I have to change where I eat, when, how and why. Since it’s impossible to completely turn your life upside down in one day, Mary-Alice has given me a few new practices to live by until we meet again in two more weeks.

Practice One: Eating in a calm, quiet environment with no television or other harsh stimuli like reading friends’ blogs or checking email. Eating without self-criticizing or criticizing the food is also important. This will be the hardest thing for me, which is why we’re starting with it.

Practice Two: Sipping hot water throughout the day. This one won’t be so difficult for me—just need to grab a thermos, a couple of lemon slices and some honey. This might sound like a remedy for a cold, but it works great all the time when you’re trying to pacify a dosha that has cold heavy slow qualities with something like hot water with lemon, which is opposite.

Practice Three: Reducing left-overs. All food, no matter if it’s a hamburger or fresh cut green beans has a prana or life force. Easily recognized by something that’s freshly cooked, but if you put that hamburger or green beans in the refrigerator, the color is reduced, it becomes colder, the flavor diminishes—it is dying or losing its prana. So when I eat foods with less prana (things that are packaged or full of preservatives to maintain shelf-life) it is less beneficial to my body. Sort of like using wet wood to stoke a fire.

Practice Four: Drinking agni churna or (fire formula) which is a customized mixture of herbs that Mary-Alice made just for me. Remember that digestion is an act of transformation and has qualities of fire or burning? But since Kapha is what is most present in me, I need a little help stoking that fire. So drinking this mixture of herbs taken in hot water (or capsule form) 30 minutes before I eat will help promote successful digestion.

There’s lots more I could write and lots more practices and behaviors, but there are people with a lot more experience and a much better vocabulary that have already written books on the subject, like Deepak Chopra. I suggest reading one of his beginner books into Ayurveda called “Perfect Health.” The first one I read is called “Perfect Weight,” which is another book in the series.

As I write this, I’ve started my day at 6:00 AM (you’ll read more about this later but the doshas are not only present in your body and in foods, but present in the time of day, month and year. So there are times of day where you’ll feel that fire or Pitta constitution coming out!) I need to eat things that have heating qualities so I chose oatmeal. Before I ate it though, I had to try my first taste of the fire formula in hot water. There are lots of Indian herbs in this mixture which looks a lot like brown sugar. It smells a lot like a seasoning blend, so I thought it would taste a lot worse than it does. It’s palatable, not the most delicious thing I ever had, but I’m hopeful that the taste will diminish and my tolerance will increase. Wish me luck.

For the rest of the day I’m working on sipping that hot water, eating in a calm environment, and being ok with my food choices. I hope you’ll come back and read up on how I’m progressing, and that you’ll maybe give Ayurveda a try.