Introduction to Ayurveda

Introduction to Constitution
Every system has variations, like light and darkness, yin and yang.

Constitutions have broad similarities and individual variations.

The three doshas—vata, pitta, and kapha—are principles. They can't be seen with the naked eye, but
their effects in the body can't be missed. Thought to be condensed from different combinations of the
primal elements earth, water, fire, air, and ether, the doshas are the life energies behind all of our bodily
functions. Each of them commands a specific force in the body, and each is associated with certain
sensory qualities.

Dosha is a Sanskrit word that means "fault," "defect," or "that which darkens." It comes from the root
dush, meaning "to become corrupt or bad; to sin." A classical text of Ayurveda, the Charaka Samhita,
employs it mainly to indicate excess that is capable of causing disease.

Our prakriti is our own permanent biological blueprint, a snapshot of our combined doshas at our first
moment of existence. Our prakriti is the template for our original, and therefore personally ideal, state
of balance.

Whatever your prakriti, though, the influence of the doshas fluctuates, affected by any stimulus that
engages our senses. As the Charaka Samhita states, "The attributes of the doshas resemble those of the
factors that vitiate [aggravate] them." When the qualities of our sensory experience cause any of the
doshas to accumulate in us, the result is our vikriti, which means our "current state" or "manifest
imbalance." Doshic imbalance can lead to a myriad of diseases, the seriousness of which is determined
by which doshas are in excess, which bodily tissues are affected, and for how long they're affected

Individual Constitution = One’s Nature / Prakriti

Constitution is an individual’s signature from conception.

3 Principles that govern functions/ Dosha:

VATA (Air and Ether): principle of movement, dynamism | Qualities: dry, light, cold, rough, subtle,
mobile | restless people, because the mind is constantly moving; inconsistent in their decision making;
say “I don’t know”, don’t understand movement of their emotions.

PITTA (Fire and Water): principle of transformation, heat | Qualities: oily, sharp, hot, light, acidic,
spreading, liquid | Principle of transformation, manifestation of fire within the system | tend to get
irritable, sharp, want everything in correct order and correct time, want things done their way | Fast
metabolic system | spicy and acidic food give them hyperacidity, acne. Fire is already high and you
intensify fire. Need more hydration, cooling and soothing items opposite to Pitta, to dilute acids.
KAPHA (Water and Earth): principle of cohesion, binding; structure and stability that keeps everything
together | unctuous, cool, heavy, slow, smooth, soft, static | tend to have stout body; the binding
property in their body is more, materials stick to body | more calm and quiet, can take things more
because stability is better.

Types of constitution:

Single constitution: V, P, K

Dual Constitution: VP, VK, KP

Balanced Tridoshic Constitution VPK

*different constitutions impact an individual’s functions, structure and mental/emotional responses

Ayurveda says: like increases like qualities. Opposites reduce one another. Everything in moderation,
harmony, and balance.

Constitution in Relation to Stress, Weight Gain and Diabetes

Constitution influences health problems or healing them.

VATA: prone to more degenerative and hyper disorders; movement disorders, because principle of
dynamism is more in them |

PITTA: more acidic, inflammatory disorders

KAPHA: more obstructive, tumors, weight gain, edema disorders | Constitution tends to accumulate and
bind, cohesion. Fat sticks to system. | more prone to diabetes – low fire, cold, heaviness, naturally slow
metabolism

*No constitution creates disorders. Increasing their qualities can aggravate dosha and lead to disorders.

does not mean they will get these diseases but they are dominant in qualities and prone to them by
aggravation.

*In ayurvedic balancing program, understand their constitution to see what the imbalance in them is.

Knowledge of constitution helps to prevent, control and manage one’s imbalance.

VIKRITI: Temporary Imbalance

PRAKRITI: Constitution/Nature

STRESS: Energy surges, needs air & fire = VATA + PITTA together | Fire is raised because you need to
release more energy, Vata is always required to enhance the fire, make system more activated = causes
over-stimulation and degeneration OR system of interbalance shuts down , trying to escape | ends up
with autoimmune disorders (system is getting mad at us, body is trying to escape from problem and
stimulation is continuing, body under constant stress), metabolic disorders, digestive problems,
inflammations in system.

Sustainable Solutions and Preventative Practices: Introduction

“Ayurveda” translates to the “science of life,” and its entire philosophy is based on alignment with the
natural world. One of the ways in which the Ayurvedic system accomplishes this is through an intuitive
understanding of natural rhythms and cycles

Balancing your life by making use of optimal rhythms that are around you in your environment. If you
are familiar with doshas of environment, it’s like surfer catching a big wave, using the current will take
you much further, rather than swimming against it. Rhythms of day and night, of climate, seasons, and
season of your life.

Live in rhythm with these cycles:

- Life cycles
- Climate cycles
- Seasonal cycles
- Daily cycles

*important to eat according to cycle. Not eating heavy meals in night when digestion is low.

Seasons of Life:

KAPHA: birth to Puberty. Energy goes into Building and growing body structure. Childhood diseases are
often mucus oriented because Kapha creates cohesion, mucus as one of its wastes.

PITTA: Puberty to menopause/ andropause. Metabolizing Life. You have formed your vessel/body, and
you are ready to engage in life, digesting experiences and building on them.

VATA: Menopause / andropause to transition/death. Glean wisdom from life experiences | There are
people in VATA period who still want to be teenagers, and they don’t have the vitality. VATA is a time for
dematerializing, going from taking form and actively walking out in world to going back into retirement
space, being rhythmical, contemplating, more head and wisdom, grandparents impart wisdom which
parents lack.

*no matter what your prakriti, you always have all 3 doshas but this is even more prominent during
PITTA period where PITTA will come to fore. Kapha will come to fore during Kapha period. If you are
Kapha person during Kapha period, you will be more susceptible to kapha problems. If you are Vatta
person in Vatta period, you will tend to be more prone to Vatta problems (dryness, skin and bones dry
up, osteoporosis).

Climate Cycles:

VATA: Dry, cold, desert

PITTA: Hot, moist, tropical

KAPHA: Cold, moist, snow (During kapha period, elders move to Pitta climate; getting lubrication that
their body is not supplying)

*dietary changes important.

Seasonal Cycles:

VATA: Fall and Transitions

PITTA: Summer

KAPHA: Winter and Early Spring

*Anytime there is a micro-seasonal change, Vata is predominant. It’s usually in seasonal changes that
you’re more susceptible to viruses and bacteria.

*A Vata balancing diet and oiling/lubricating oneself is important to prevent dryness. (Put warm sesame
oil in ears because ears are vata organ and susceptible to cold).

Daily Cycles:

10-2 am = PITTA | regenerative time, instead of digestion active, it is liver time being active,
rejuvenating, sugar metabolism happens. If you are awake during this time, clean up doesn’t happen,
energy is occupied, you need to pick up dirty dishes from previous night

2-6 am = VATA (night goes into day) – best time to wake up

6-10 am = KAPHA (place of building) –. If you wake up during Kapha time you will be sluggish. Best time
to excercise

10-2 pm (sun is at its height) = PITTA dominance| generative, active Pitta

2-6 pm = VATA (day goes into night) - good to do exercise, do breathing exercises, where you tend to be
static, energize and wake up

6-10 pm = KAPHA

*not stuck on clock, because of time and seasonal differences, but based on patterns of sun, guidelines,
when sun is at zenith or nadir and when it’s transition . i.e. in winter nights are longer and pitta is
extended, and in summer pitta is shorter.

Cyclic Rhythms and their Importance

In any natural flow, cosmic function there is a cyclic rhythm. It is the secret of sustenance, continuity,
and sustainability. Because we are synchronizing and resonating ourselves with nature’s flow and
rhythm.
Cyclic rhythm is inevitable for balance. Our body and mental systems are always moving and dynamic, in
constant flow. Only way to bring balance is to keep dynamic rhythm.

Macrocosm and microcosm appear stable because they maintain a cyclic rhythm in their dynamic /
repetitive nature. Solar system has various seasons, every year same seasons come as if they’re stable.
In 24 hour sun will rise and set. But none of this is stable, always revolving. Earth is always revolving on
own axis, but feels stable. Atoms are not stable but entire particle keep on moving. Electrons revolve
around nucleus to make them stable. They have cyclic rhythmic which makes them stable.

Our system follows the cyclic rhythm we set for it.

Secret of Health and Longevity lies in cyclic rhythms:

Daily rhythms

Eating rhythms

Activity rhythms

Sleeping rhythm

Response to stress and stimulus in depending on prakriti:

VATA: restlessness

PITTA: angry, sensitive, or emotional

KAPHA: stable, can take more

*some people under stress cannot eat, while others crave food. Some not able to sleep, others always
drowsy. Some back pain, some neck pain, some headache.

Implement simple concepts to improve mental physical health productivity and happiness.

Eat breakfast at 7:30 am, whether or not hungry.

Lunch should be largest meal

It’s about how we tune or system and body will follow the rhythm.

The entire system prepares to:

Receive

Digest

Absorb

Utilize

The Utilization of Food

3 ways body utilizes food:

 Direct conversion of glucose into energy

 7 Tissue nourishment (main one) – blood, muscles, bones, nerves, reproductive fluid
 Surplus stored as fat for crisis management

With rhythmic patterns one experiences:

 Energy
 Good tissues
 And very little surplus for fat deposits

*all enzymes are aware and acting coherently with system. You will not get fat because there is no
excess to deposit as reservation for crisis. Eating at correct time can make difference. Untimely meal
times disrupt system and you do not give message to body.

With irregularity, the functions get irregular = unutilized food. Deposits as fat. Bulk increases. Strength
decreases.

In all health problems, stress, obesity, diabetes. Establishing cyclic rhythms is key

 When you eat

 When you sleep
 When you engage in activity

*Then your system is free from depletion or stagnation and accumulation.

Anything other than disease is health. Setting a pattern your system will be tuned, there will be no
depletion and stagnation.

Digestion, Nutrition, and their Role in Health

First Stage of Digestion

You are what you digest.

Eat only what you can digest.

Pone’s digestion changes with age.

If you don’t you will create AMA, will make you feel sluggish, restless, itchy, feel tired.

In PITTA period you can eat many things, but in VATA you may have to give up some foods.

AHARA: Anything we ingest for body, mind, and soul. Taken through five sense organs. You are eating
sounds or visuals.
Indigestion through 5 senses:

Food

Water

Air

Emotions

Information, Concepts

i.e. sound of someone eating turns you off and gives indigestion; if you’re not in enjoyable state your
juices do not secrete in the same way; taking a moment to breathe your food and remember your food
because of the work of many people. Sense gets heightened with smell, activates saliva. Intelligent
saliva, recognizes what’s coming in

1st Stage of Digestion & Absorption (KAPHA):

 Carbohydrates in mouth and upper stomach. Sweet and salty

 important to chew till is it of even consistency
 Early nausea

2nd and 3rd Stages of Digestion

2nd Stage (PITTA):

Proteins and fat in lower stomach and small intestine. Sour taste. Acids. Amino Acids.

1.5-2 hours Nausea

3rd Stage (VATA):

Absorption of nutrients and fluids in the large intestine. Pungent, bitter, astringent tasting foods. Lighter.

3 hours after flatulence

*The food and nutrition you are taking, is in a day going to turn into your tissue, 5 days later into blood,
then muscle, then fat, bone, marrow, and finally into reproductive system. Takes 30 to 35 days for all of
this to happen. Food you are eating becomes a part of you. When you eat a carrot, forces in you awaken
to accept carrot.

*Ayurveda doesn’t say everyone needs to eat the same thing.

Guidelines for Eating

The best food to have is freshly made food.

Mostly cooked food because over centuries we don’t have powerful enzymes we used to.

Digestive Herbs: cumin, coriander, fennel, ginger, garlic, black pepper

Your system doesn’t have to work as hard if you have weaker enzymes with help of herbs.

Raw food if you have strong enzymes or sluggish channels. Not cold ever but room temperature. Use
spices to warm raw food.

Raw food dries you out so use cold pressed oils: coconut (medium chain fatty acids close to mothers
milk, has high boiling point, directly becomes ATP), olive, flax, sesame.

Kindle your digestive fire before meal:

 Fresh ginger soaked in lemon juice

 Raw apple cider vinegar and equal honey

*like kindling for fire. Need to start up slow.

Foods have:

 Qualities and tastes

 Potency: Cooling or Heating
 Post Digestive Effect

i.e. yogurt is cooling but fermentation adds heat. Watermelon and cucumbers are refrigerant and
good for PITTA people in summer. Good for eyes which are PITTA organ)

Eat till you are 70-75% full

Purpose for Eating:

 Sensory experience
 Provide nurtients and energy to rebuild tissues

*If you put in more than you can use you will put on weight and overwork body.

Food should always be warm and moist:

Cold foods restrict secretion of digestive juices.

If you eat dry food, chew it in even consistency to moisten it. Too much water will dilute juices.

Digestion shuts down = Ama

Moist. A little oily. Warm.

In the winter your pipes freeze and water stops flowing. When we eat food we warm it and accept it
with our emotions. Cold food causes our pipes to constrict and proper juices don’t get secreted,
digestive system shuts down

*Avoid ice cream or cold drinks after a meal

Eat Organic
  We have a genetic memory so that we don’t have to learn the same lessons repeatedly so that
humanity can move on and evolve. There is a memory that plants have. GMO foods interferes
with the molecular structure of these foods, how our system can accept and digest them.
 Organic food is grown according to its own nature. Artificial chemicals create mutations.
 Organic food has vitality as it passes into metabolic processes, into our different tissues all the
way into reproductive tissue.
 Generates OJAS = endurance; enhances immune system
 Naturally preserved foods (in can) not as nutritious as food off the vine.

3 Forms of Digestion:

 Food travels for 31 says in system. Ingested and nutrients are taken.
 Each Tissue transforms into the next like milk into yogurt into butter. From butter it cannot turn
back into milk. Tissue nourish and support each other.
 Tissues grasping nutrients in an emergency – dehydration

Eat in a harmonious atmosphere to aid absorption.

Repetitive Practices have a cumulative effect in health and building of tissues.

The key to diet is rhythm and moderation.

Relevance of Digestive Fire

Digestive System = Master System

Fire/AGNI is the key. Transformation of the outside material into inside material. Transformation of
inside material outside, in the form of our expression, energy; physical, mental, emotional strength,
immunity. Conversion into vitality, endurance, longevity, productivity and capability of each individual.

OJAS: expression of all tissues in system; the glow of Vitality, Immunity, endurance, aura, strength of all
tissues in body. Anemia can bring down vitality. Strength gives confidence and glow.

Ojas in turn enhances our:

 Digestion
 Physical capability
 Our clarity

Good Fire = Good Ojas = Good Fire = Good Ojas

Causes of Low Digestive Fire:

 Overeating – kills digestion

 Eating cold foods/fluids – goes against heat
 Stress – body tries to cope, depletion of energy/reserve of vitality to balance situation
 Depleted Ojas
Consequences of Low Digestive Fire:

 Improper digestion; partial digestion

 Food not transformed into usable nutrients = crisis; AGNI is not strong enough
 Improper assimilation of food particles; body is expecting proper nutrients
 Ama (improper digestion) & inflammation – body cannot use because it is not in final nutrient
form, body cannot identify it as a nutrient. Causes sluggishness.
 Blockage and sluggishness. When strange people enter our house we resist, just like improperly
digested food is a crisis. Inflammation is the fight happening inside.
 Ama attacks deeper metabolic fire

*Cycle of breakdown ensues, causing disease.

Ayurveda says: first identify digestive strength. If this is not corrected, protocol to balance will not
enter.

Nutrition in Relation to Stress, Weight Gain, and Diabetes

The Gifts of Ayurveda

Stress is a demand on body.

Two ways to handle it:

1. Strengthen to handle overload – proper food, routine, thinking, dietary habits.

2. Stabilize yourself – enhance your focus. Meditation, pranayama, yoga for 5-10 minutes a day

Stabilizing with Diet:

Eat according to constitution

Eat digestive spices to enhance bio-availability: ginger, cumin, fennel, cardamom, coriander, black
pepper

Ear warm foods/fluids (warm water) – supports fire

*Not feeling hungry means AGNI, digestive system is going down. Eating more than body craves is
imbalance.

Shift from ice water to warm water makes a huge difference. Avoiding heavy food and going for lighter,
cooked food. Raw food is heavy load on digestive system. With cooked food breaking down has already
happened. But raw food carries many good things.

Drink 8 cups of water a day, no more, for digestion.

Weight Gain and Diabetes

Ama kills the deep metabolic fires in Tissues. Body is not able to nourish tissues. It is an AGNI problem in
the tissues.

No Fire = No Transformation

Simple self-help:

Re-establish fire with goods customized to your digestive strength

Adjust:

Timing – regular rhythm facilitates proper digestion, absorption and utilization

Quantity

Quality of Intake

The Role of Yoga in Stress and Health

Introduction

Qualities of the Mind / GUNAS

SATTVA (sattvic) – Creative aspect of the mind | non-turbulent, clear, harmonized, balanced, conscious.
Directs inwards and upwards to awakening of the Soul, Truth. i.e. inspirational or clear mood.

RAJAS (rajasic) – Continued Activity | Activity, stimulates, turbulence, change, directs outward to fulfill
own desires,, sustains life, illusions | vibratory, too much can create a problem, like hyperactivity (vatta
and pitta are prone | it is integral to life. i.e. Activity is needed to sustain playing a game

TAMAS (tamasic) – when activites stop | inertia, ignorance, darkness, unconscious, repose, death,
directs downwards, to gravity, dissolution, decay, delusions | life is either matter or energy, with Tamas,
whatever form you have taken it’s a time where form needs to rejuvenate i.e. sleep

Mental Doshas = Mental Faults = create disease

The mental doshas are TAMAS and RAJAS

TAMAS creates stagnation, sluggishness, accumulation, breakdown, weight gain

RAJAS creates hyperactivity, emergency, depletion, burn out, no time for replenishment, instead of
taking a deep breath (in bathroom?) taking a coffee, energy drinks.

*You should have a sense of wellbeing and inspiration at the end of the day

All three are important

TAMAS is often misunderstood.
Starts the process of dissolution so decaying matter turns into a nutrient for future growth.

With Repose comes rejuvenation

*Imagine having trees and plants on planet without decay. No decay of leaves on ground. Decay for
everything returns back to being five elements. Soil provides growth for banana.

During TAMAS body goes through regenerative mode, not generative mode. If you end up awake for
long period of time, when sun rises (because human species responds to sunlight you will be too sleepy
and sluggish because you went to sleep late at a rejuvenating time you were in a generative space, and
in the morning when you should be rejuvenated, you are tired.

TYPE OF FOODS

SATTVA – light, easy to digest (salads)

RAJAS – stimulant

TAMAS – Heavy, oily and difficult to digest (pasta with lots of cheese)

The Mind

The human has faculties that compose its personality:

Ego – ahangkar

Buddhi (individual intelligence) – intellect

Manas – Reception and perception | part of mind that associates with sensory perception and connects
to outside world. Relates through 5 senses to external world. 1 st line of entry for sensory perceptions
and thoughts. Acts like a receptionist in an office, decides whether to engage in thought/sense or not.

Chitta – everything you’ve gotten conscious about; memory bank; unconscious realm of experience that
becomes latent and activates.

Qualities of MANAS

Engage in a thought

Analyze

Decide

Set goals

Plan of Action

*Decision making process of whether to take exam or meet George Clooney at party. Ability to make
decision is part of MANAS, faculty of the mind.
Yoga

Yoga and Ayurveda are sister sciences and enhance each other. Yoga uses science of breathing,
oxygenation, the abilities of the mind and soul. Means union of the higher self. In doing posture, you get
more comfortable through breathing.

Ayurveda looks at nutrition, body, mind, and cleansing practices

If I have a headache, I don’t want to feel emotional. With emotional feel it’s difficult to do physical work

Yoga cleanses the subtle channels. Closing and opening different channels, to force air to permeate
areas that were stagnant. Revives faculties.

You can use Asana (postures) to enhance dosha:

VATA – calming, grounding poses | need to learn to ground – standing poses, feet and legs, mind moves
faster than body, will stop them from tripping over or tripping over words (think too fast). Manas to
slow down and discern about what you’re talking about. Not just chitter chatter all the time.

PITTA – seated, cooling poses | because they are metabolic people, seated poses always fire to work
well.

KAPHA – aerobic, warming poses | because Kapha person tends to be compact, slow-moving and slow
talking people. Kirtan keeps them moving and alive, silent meditation will put them to sleep.

Yoga, the mind, Ayurveda work well to move energy when it is too physical, when it is just matter and
form, and move it into the energetic levels.

More Ayurvedic Tips

Tip No. 1: Stimulate your digestive system before you eat.

According to Bellevue, Washington-based Aadil Palkhivala, founder of Purna Yoga, the digestive system
loves to be stimulated by twists. Poses such as any of the Marichyasanas are ideal, because the twist
happens in the GI tract. “Twisting creates agni—fire or heat—that gets our gastric juices flowing,” says
Palkhivala. “They help the digestive system say, ‘I am ready to eat, I want food.’”

Tip No. 2: Eat foods in the right order.

Combining foods is treated seriously in Ayurveda. There are two basic rules to follow, says Palhkivala:
First, always eat protein before anything else. “The stomach only produces a certain amount of
hydrochloric acid at a time,” says Palkhivala. “And because protein is the only food that requires
hydrochloric to digest, it’s best to eat it first, while you have an abundant supply.” Second, you should
never eat fruit after a meal (except for papaya, mango, and pineapple). Fruits digest faster than other
foods, which means your body will focus on breaking them down first—and not do as complete a job
breaking down other foods that take longer to digest. The exceptions—mango, papaya, and pineapple—
all contain enzymes that can speed the digestion of protein, fat, carbs, and starch, making them an ideal
after-dinner treat.

Tip No. 3: Sip a digestive tea with your meal.

Drinking cold water during a meal is an absolute disaster for your digestive fire, says O’Donnell. It’s
essentially like asking your digestive tract to break down food as you are freezing it, she says. Far kinder
to your stomach is to sip warm water during your meal, which aids digestion. Even better? Sip this
digestive tea as you eat:

Digestive Tea Recipe

Ingredients:

½ teaspoon fennel

½ teaspoon ground coriander

pinch of ground cardamom or one crushed cardamom pod

2 cups water

Directions:

Boil spices in water for 10 minutes, strain, and sip it slowly along with your meal or after your meal.

Tip No. 4: Practice this pose after you eat.

The best—and only—pose to do after a meal is Virasana (Hero Pose) or Supta Virasana (Reclined Hero
Pose). “Virasana stimulates the digestive meridians that run along the front of the legs,” says Palkhivala.
“By doing these poses immediately after a meal, digestion is enhanced.” Spend 2-5 minutes in Hero Pose
to get the benefits.

Tip No. 5: Lie on your left side for 10 minutes to optimize your digestion after a meal.
If you find yourself somewhere where you can’t bust out a yoga pose on the floor post-meal, head to
the nearest couch and lie on your left side for 10 minutes, says O’Donnell. “Prop a cushion under your
left armpit to create more space for your stomach, and allow your stomach to relax and spread out,” she
says. Because the liver and gall bladder are on your right side, lying on your left lets gravity draw the bile
down into the stomach, where it can help digest the food you’ve just eaten, and then slowly empty out
of your stomach, she says. On the flip side, lying down on your right side puts too much pressure on
your stomach, forcing the food to pass more quickly and enter your intestines prematurely.

Daily Routine

https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/day-night