Balancing Each of the Doshas

So is true with what we digest outside of our gut. We digest experiences through all our senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. With strong pitta, we can digest movies we see, news reports, the beautiful as well as the unpleasant. Our sense of taste is clear; we take in sounds without being overly disturbed by them. We digest all the world around us.

Pitta in balance is the fire and the heat of productivity and clarity and forcefulness. Pittas are powerful and magnetic people. With enough pitta, we are leaders and we run companies and we keep the world running smoothly.

With too much pitta, though, all of the senses get harsh. We overly-digest. We have hot, sour stomachs and our taste becomes bitter. Our personalities become critical and short. We are quick, just like our digestion, overly so. Our discernment becomes judgment and we get hotter and hotter believing we are righter and righter.

Gentle is my pitta invocation. When pitta is reminded to be gentle, pitta can evoke the power and command that the personality type is most known for. Gentle is not weak, which pitta can sometimes be afraid of—being perceived as weak. Instead, Gentle is empowering. It’s a way of looking at the world that is the opposite of harsh. When pitta is reminded to be gentle, they are reminded to step back from the judgment and step into the discernment that is their superpower.

Kapha is made up of earth and water. Kapha is responsible for coherence, both in our bodies and in our lives. Kapha provides the lubrication for our joints and our digestive tract and all the areas of our body where there is something other than dryness.

In our personalities, kapha is responsible for the nurturing, lubrication of the social sphere. Kapha will be the steady hub of the friendship circle. When a pitta may say something insensitive, even without meaning to, kapha will come in with a laugh so everyone will know it was not meant to be unkind. When a vata gets around a grounded kapha, sometimes vata energy can come down as well. Settle in and relax, be tethered so to speak.

But when kapha is imbalanced, when too much earth is mixed with too much water, kapha gets muddy. In our bodies, the fluids don’t flow as easily as they should. We get sticky and slimy digestion. Imagine having mud in your joints instead of the juicy fluid that keeps you well-oiled. That’s too much kapha. Too much kapha also presents as excess weight. Too much earth, like a mountain or a mudslide, impossible to move.

In our personalities, a kapha imbalance looks like depression, inertia, lethargy. It looks like hording and unwarranted attachment to things and people.

In balance, kapha is loyal and dependable. Out of balance, kapha loyalty turns to stuckness similar to how pitta’s powerful discernment turns to ruthless judgment. Kapha will hold on to relationships that aren’t serving them. They will hold on to physical things in their homes and offices long past the time when effective discernment would have prompted them to let go.

What kapha needs is movement. Not more air–as in, not more vata, but the water needs to be clear and flowing and the earth needs to be firm and holding. Mud is only good for bee stings and facial masks. My hope for my kapha is that movement be part of my every day. Movement of what I eat through my digestive tract, movement of my body with a little sweat involved (squeeze the water out a little), movement of ideas and things in my sphere so that I don’t feel stuck in any area.