Ayurveda Mini-Series Part 3 - How Your Dosha Contribute to Your Success: Vata, Pitta, Kapha

Welcome to my podcast. I'm Dr. Nicole Cain, a naturopathic doctor with a Master's in clinical psychology and a former anxiety sufferer turned anxiety freedom rebel. Hi everyone. If you you are feeling overwhelmed, burned out, and if you are looking for a solution that helps you to heal in a way that is also energizing and confidence building, you are in the right place. This series is all about achieving optimal wellness by merging your self fulfillment with your career. You know there is something more. You are curious, motivated, driven.

You are.

You are seeking momentum in your personal life and in your career. Our last conversation we talked about exploring the importance of being in integrity and authenticity with our minds, values and community. I'm a metaphor person, so I thought of a metaphor for you for this. Just like a pianist, a piano player, right, must possess the mental skill, the functional piano instrument and the heart of the music in order to play a beautiful concerto. All three have to be in total alignment or integrity in these areas to allow your visions and your passions to manifest. Today we're going to continue exploring Ayurveda's tried and true solutions to help you achieve optimal wellness and fulfillment in your personal and professional life. Today you are going to learn four key things. They are Number one, what does balance mean according to Ayurveda? Number two is what is a dosha and how are each of the three doshas different? By the way, you are going to get a quiz on this, so stay tuned. You are going to have to figure out some characters and what their doshas are. It's really fun. Number three is how to assess your own dosha. And hint. By the way, we have a self assessment quiz that is by far the best and most accurate one I've ever seen, especially as it pertains to career oriented people. So take that and the last thing you're going to learn is you're going to get a sneak peek into a few pro tips for balancing your doshas. But of course we have so much of that in detail in the mini course and the link for the mini course is in the bio. So welcome. I'm Dr. Nicole Kane. I'm the host of the get your life back podcast and Dr. Nicolecane.com and my mission is to help you to demystify the messages from your mind and body so that you can learn to identify and implement solutions that catapult you into such a state state that it obliges wonderment. And my particular passion is helping people around the world conquer anxiety. And I am so lucky. Today again, I Am being joined by Hadley of Happy Healthy Hadley. And Hadley is a health and lifestyle coach. She helps people feel better in their bodies, have more energy, cultivate a thousand better relationship with food, become less stressed and more joyful in their day to day lives. And she has an online program called Healthy Happy Healthy Habits where she combines the concepts of behavioral science, habits for optimal health and group dynamics to help you, her client, make lasting, influential changes in their lives. Oh, and by the way, if you didn't know, we actually created a mini course together, Hadley and I, which will help you to create clarity around what success is for you and how to achieve success with your doshas, your mind, body constitution and that is called your Ayurvedic dosha. The key to your success. The key to your success. And if you haven't checked it out already, please do. And so Hadley, I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you for being here. I've been looking forward to this conversation in particular.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. I have been too. I've been like, secretly. This might be my favorite one, talking about all the doshas and getting into balance with them and, and also talking about them in a slightly different way. If you, if you've ever heard of the doshas, heard about Ayurveda, you might have learned about them in a slightly different way than what we're going to talk about here. So get excited for that and yeah, let's get started. I'm super pumped.

So I was wondering if you could start us out. We talked in a previous conversation about what Ayurveda is, but in case this is the first episode someone's jumped in on, do you mind just refreshing our memories?

Absolutely. So Ayurveda is an ancient Indian health science essentially. And a lot of times people will describe it as the sister science to yoga essentially in Sanskrit, which is the language that ancient Ayurvedic practitioners used. It's been around for 5,000 years. Actually over 5,000 years. That's when it was written down. It's been around for very, very long time. Ayurveda in their language means the science of life, or it could also mean the sacred knowledge of life or longevity. So IU means life or longevity. Veda means science or sacred knowledge. So it's really this beautiful, really beautiful thing. A lot of Sanskrit words are not easily translated into English. There's a lot more behind them. And so it's kind of like how Latin kind of encompasses more than a lot of the languages that come from Latin. Anyways, I just get really geeked out about, about the etymology and about all of the things to do with Ayurveda. But essentially it's a holistic tradition and a way of living that teaches us how to have a human body really is what it's about. And so, you know, it's all about getting into rhythm with our nature and what our bodies really need us to do, want us to do. You know, it's not about quick fixes. It's not about diets. It's not about herbs, though we do love herbs, and we have. We have a module on herbs in our mini course. But it's not a quick fix thing. It's really about being an active participant in your health. And, you know, it's really. It's a huge system, but essentially the. The purpose of Ayurveda is to become healthy. And the. The definition of health, which we've talked about before, is the state of being in which body, mind, soul, and senses are in blissful equilibrium. So if you want to learn more about, like, that, just that alone, we go into that a lot more on previous podcasts, so you can go back and listen. But I wanted to talk today about. We wanted to talk today about the doshas. So, you know, you may have heard of the Doshas or you may not, and that's totally fine, too. We're gonna. We're gonna kind of break them down today. So essentially, doshas are mind body constitutions. They are the manifestation of five different elements that the ancient Ayurvedic practitioners really identified, those five elements. We're going to start with the elements, and then we're going to talk about how those elements play into the Doshas. I find that that's actually the easiest way to understand them, rather than trying to just memorize like, oh, this is my dosha, and that means this thing about me. If we can think about it in terms of what the elements are, then we can actually think about how those things might show up in our bodies, how they might show up in our minds, our emotions, all of that good stuff. And you'll get what I mean in a minute. So the five elements are ether, which is kind of like. You can think of it as space. So there's ether and air, which you can think of as more wind. So those are slightly different. Space is more like space with the absence of wind, and then there's wind, and then the third one is fire, and the fourth one is water. The fifth one is earth. So also, as I'm explaining these. I've kind of put them in order from the most subtle to the most tangible. So space is essentially nothingness, right? It's like if you think of outer space, it's like there's. It's like nothing. And then air is a little bit more tangible. We can feel air, right? Feel it on our. On our. Our skin. We can feel wind across our body. And then you have fire, can definitely feel that, but it's not as solid. And then there's water that becomes more and more tangible, but it still slips through our fingers. And then there's earth and that. We can pick that up, we can throw it around. That's like the most tangible thing. So that'll be helpful to know going forward. It's the most subtle to the most tangible. So. So the manifestation of these five elements through our doshas kind of gives rise to our differences. And, you know, different substances and different behaviors can include more and less of certain doshas. So are. We have doshas in our own constitutions and our own bodies and our own minds. But there are also, you know, external things that hold these qualities as well. You don't need to know a ton about that, but just know that it's not like just a naming system. It's not just a, like, fun quiz. There's more to it than that. So we've got these five elements, and now we'll explain what the doshas are in terms of the elements. So we've got vata. Vata is ether, space and air. Or wind. So we'll say space and wind. That's vata. You can think of it as well. We'll go into the qualities of it. Just remember that vata is ether and air. Think of people with a lot of air and space in their bodies or in their minds. And we'll go into more of that. Pitta is mostly fire with a little bit of water as well. They have a little bit of oiliness. And so that's pitta. And then you have kapha. And kapha is water and earth. So that's obviously the most dense, right? Water and earth. You put that together, you get mud. So you can kind of think of it that way. So those are the outlines of each thing. And we're going to dive into what the heck that means for all of us.

So to recap, we have. So the doshas are kind of describing this mind, body, constitution, and there are five elements that come into play. And each of the three doshas are. These elements are kind of Manifesting or contributing to the dosha. So as opposed to starting with the dosha and trying to understand it. If we understand these elements, the air, fire, water and earth and what they mean and how they manifest, it can actually explain what's happening in our bodies. More clarity.

Exactly. Yeah. So we can think of it more as like, this is how these elements are showing up in my body, rather than memorizing what the doshas are and what they mean. Yeah. And all of us are. This is an important piece of it. All of us are born with a unique constitution that is made up of all three of the doshas or all five of the elements. We all have all of these things in us, but we have different. You can think of it like a pie. We have different sizes of slices of pie in there. If you have, you might have a lot of kapha in your constitution, and that's the, that's the water and earth one. And so that would be the biggest slice of pie in the. In the pie. And then you might have a secondary dosha of pitta perhaps, and that would be the second biggest slice of pie. And then you'd have. The smallest slice of pie would be vata. And so that's going to, you know, the sizes of pie is going to. They're all going to change for, for everyone. And. And you can get out of balance with any of them too. And that's really what I like to focus on with people is instead of thinking about like, what is my constitution like, you know, and optimizing for that, it is helpful to know how we might get out of balance, like the most easily. And when we have a big piece of the pie, that's the one that's the easiest to get out of balance for us. But it's more helpful to simply know when we are out of balance, which ones we're out of balance in. And so thinking about it more in terms of like, oh, I'm experiencing an imbalance in this dosha, here's how I can actually get it back into balance rather than thinking of it as like, I am a kapha or I am a pitta, that's not necessarily that helpful to think of it in terms of like a personality or like, this is what I am kind of thing.

So interesting to me that there are five elements in Ayurveda and my training is in naturopathic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. And in traditional Chinese medicine, we have five element theory where they break it down into fire, earth, metal, water and wood. And it's Kind of interesting that there are five of them similar to Ayurveda. And it would be kind of cool at some point to have a conversation with somebody who's an expert from both to kind of explore the similarities and the overlap and how these different schools of thought all these years ago came to their conclusions in interesting parallel ways. We have both earth, we have water, we have fire in all of them. So it would be pretty neat to explore that in more detail. But I just love when I see parallels through different regions of the world coming up with similar things.

Yeah. And actually traditional Chinese medicine, there's a lot of influence from Ayurveda with traditional Chinese medicine. And because Ayurveda is so, so old, it has influenced a lot of what we know today in different traditional medicines and stuff. Because sometimes we like to think of ancient times, people being kind of in their own separate bubbles. But really there was more interaction than we sometimes tend to think there was. So, yeah, there's a huge influence from Ayurveda. And I think that that would be such a fun conversation to have to kind of go into the different nuances and stuff because I don't know that much traditional Chinese medicine, I know that they have the metal in the wood and those are the different ones, but I would love to talk about the different similarities. That would be so fun.

So stay tuned, stay tuned. We'll make it happen. I thought it would be really fun to quiz you at the beginning of this conversation. And so we came up with three avatars and they're based on real people. Of course, information has been changed to protect their, their privacy. But what I want you to do as you're listening to this conversation is to think about each of the individuals and hypothesize about maybe what dosha they are imbalance into and why you think that. And then after that, Hadley is going to teach us all about the doshas and then we will come back and we'll tell you at the end who was which dosha. Does that sound good?

Amazing. I'm so excited for this. This was, this was all Dr. Kane's idea. I love this idea.

I love self assessment. So, yes, we're going to start with we're going to call him Phil. And you're going to decide listeners which dosha Phil might represent. And so Phil is energized, creative and scattered. And he craves highly stimulating environments like busy restaurants or concert venues. But the problem is they always make him more frazzled, restless, anxious, scattered, forgetful. And Phil is the CEO of a large company. And one of the ways that he has to stay on track is to cover his office with post it notes. Physically, he complains of gas and bloating and dry skin. So make a note, Make a mental note. Write it down. What dosha imbalance do you think Phil aligns with? So that's the first one.

And if you can't remember the actual dosha names, what. Which elements? Which elements do you think kind of relate to that? So again, the elements are space, wind, fire, water, earth. So think of that.

Amazing. And then we have the next story. And so we have Tina. And Tina is feeling really stuck. And other people are worried because Tina has been unmotivated to do things that she loves to do. She's been more lethargic. Her focus is around resting and doing nothing because she feels so tired and exhausted. She's just sleeping in and napping, and she unwinds by drinking alcohol, smoking weed, and she's craving sweet, salty snacks late at night. So make a mental note. What dosha might Tina be in? If you can't remember the name of the doshas, don't worry. Hadley just reminded us of those elements. And so what sticks out for you? For Tina? And then the last one is Megan. And Megan tends to work really hard. She describes herself as type A and will push herself towards burnout in order to achieve a goal she set for herself. And she puts rest on the back burner. She craves things that are stimulating and keep her going, like caffeine, vinegary foods, spicy foods. And she struggles with acne, eczema, and heartburn. So what do you think? What imbalance do you think Megan might be in? And what elements really stick out for you when you hear her story? And so once you've written that down, made a mental note, let's dive in. Hadley is going to teach us all about these imbalances.

Amazing. So do you want me to. We'll tell it at the end. We'll tell them what? Okay, great. Sounds good.

Let's make them wait. Yeah.

I love it. I love it. So you have to stay tuned until the end to know which ones they are. Amazing. Okay, so which one should we start with? You can choose.

I would like to learn about the successful Kapha for 200, please.

Amazing. Okay, so. And the descriptions that we gave you guys are the ways that these doshas are out of balance. So we're now going to talk about how we can get these ones in balance and what the actual superpowers are, how these things actually can Be. Can be a really great thing for us to have in our lives. And so, so let's talk a little bit about the superpowers of kapha first. Remember, kapha is water and earth. So again, you put those two things together, you get mud. Yes. So this can be. This can be imbalancing. Absolutely can. You know, we can feel stuck in the mud. Right. But we can also feel really great. Have you ever had a mud mask? Like, that's awesome. It's so nourishing and feels so good. And so kapha. Kapha tends to be more laid back, relaxed, thoughtful and actually, I'll ask you, what do you think? And this goes for all of you as well as you, Dr. Kane. What kinds of things might come up for someone who has a lot of water and earth in their personality? We'll talk about personality, more mental and emotional, and then we'll talk about physical as well. But what would come up? How do you feel like someone would present with, you know, a lot of water and earth in their constitution?

I'm not sure if this is what you're going for, but I'm kind of imagining like they're a little bit more slow and thoughtful.

Yes. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm imagining kind of throwing a glob of mud at the wall and watching it just slowly slide down the wall.

I love that. Yeah. So. So they're really, really thoughtful and they tend to be like, kind of like the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise, where they. Yes, it's a lot. It's a slower pace, but they have a lot of follow through. So I like to think of it as endurance. You know, if you think about, if you think about like long distance swimmers, those are kapha. Like they have a lot of kapha in their constitution or really long. Any long distance athlete tends to have more kapha in their constitution because they have that endurance piece. Sometimes it's harder for kaphas to get going, but once they do, then they can keep going. So I have a lot of kapha in my constitution and I always like to give the example that it's hard for me to get going on a hike. But then once we're nearing the top, my husband, who doesn't really have a lot of kapha, he like, loves to hike and he's like always like rearing to go right at the start. And then by the time we get to the top, I'm like, this is awesome. I have so much energy now from moving my body. And he's like, oh my gosh, I'm so depleted. And so a lot of times kapha will get more energy from moving more. So it's a really interesting thing for kapha constitutions. And then also for if you have an imbalance of kapha, moving is a huge thing for that. So.

I was thinking about creating your dream team is you want to have a kapha on your dream team because they're going to help you carry a project through to the end.

Exactly. Yes. Yeah. So like, if you have someone who tends to be like the idea person, they tend to be more vata. And we'll talk about that later. But they don't have as much of the follow through. Right. And you know, and that's overgeneralizing. Sometimes people have the ideas and the follow through, but. But the kapha piece of it is the follow through piece. And so, so that's a, that's a really great quality of kapha. And. And so then I want to ask you what you think might show up physically for kapha. So when you think about the water and earth piece, what would a kapha who's in balance. So not thinking about like an imbalance quite yet, but someone who has a lot of kapha in their constitution will think about that first.

I'm thinking of solid, steady. Their body constitution. Their body frame is. They probably tend to be like a more solid build.

Yes, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, kaphas are like the cuddly, soft. You know, they have a bigger frame like their, their bone structure is. Tends to be bigger. And you know, when they're in balance, they tend to have more mass. Right. Than the other constitutions. So you know when they are. And that is when they're imbalanced, obviously. Of course, when they are out of balance, they can tend to have more mass than is appropriate for their bodies also. And the tendency is to gain weight. Right when we're out of balance. With kapha, the tendency is more to gain weight physically, but also emotionally and mentally and all that kind of thing. The imbalance part of it is to feel kind of stuck. Stuck is to feel more heavy. And that doesn't have to be physically. You can also feel heavy in like mind and emotions. Right. Depression is a kapha. Imbalance is a kapha symptom. And you know, motivation, lack of motivation is another one. Another one that is interesting is being stubborn. So if you think about mud, really like being stuck in your ways is a big thing with kapha too. So, you know, not being able to kind of change direction and go with the flow as much. And so those are all, those are all kapha things when you're, when kapha tends to be out of balance. And so we can talk a little bit about, well, let's talk, let's talk a little bit about, you know, what kinds of, we'll do a little bite sized piece of what kinds of solutions we might have for kapha for getting kapha back into balance. We go way deeper, like, way, way deeper into this in the mini course. So definitely check that out. But making some small dietary changes can make a big impact for kapha imbalances as well as exercise. Movement is huge, huge. And movement is really, really helpful for getting back into balance. I want to say that I work with people on their relationship with food and usually that makes a bigger impact on kaphas than just giving them a list of like, here, eat this, not that. Right. You know, working on their relationship with food and with their own emotions can be really helpful. Emotional eating is a really big thing for kaphas and using food as comfort. And so when we can get to more of the root of that, that's going to be helpful. Because a lot of times kaphas know what foods are kind of their kryptonite, but that doesn't mean that they're just like, oh, I'm just not going to eat those things. Right. And so that, that's a big piece of what I do with people is their actual relationship with food. So I just want to make a, make a note of that, that we're not just saying just, just eat these things, like there's a lot of emotion involved. But eating more vegetables, you know, lean proteins and not eating right before bed are all really helpful. And Kaphas really love their sleep. They tend to not have a ton of issue with falling asleep or staying asleep, which is an amazing quality because if you've ever had a vata imbalance or even a pittsa imbalance, you know that like, not having your sleep is just the worst thing ever. And so the issue with kapha is not necessarily getting to sleep or falling asleep, but sometimes oversleeping. And what that can look like is sleeping in really late or taking long naps in the middle of the day. And so while I never want to tell someone sleep less, getting to sleep at an earlier time can be really helpful. And having a consistent sleep and then wake time is really helpful for getting that routine established. And then like I said, daily exercise is, is so, so, so huge for kapha. And if you are like, oh, my gosh, I totally resonate with kapha. And I don't want to move every day. That's totally. That's totally fair that it 10. The craving tends to be for when we're out of balance. We tend to crave things that are going to get us more out of balance. Unfortunately, it is the reality of being out of balance. And so just know that building up to toward more exercise is really helpful. Not like trying to run, you know, 10 miles or even one mile if you don't run at all. But building up to more and more exercise can be really helpful. And walking is huge for this too. So that's kind of the gist on kapha.

So I'm going to recap some of the four we're going to do. I'm going to do this because this is fun. So superpower slip fall solution. And so we'll call this the S's. So Kapha superpower. You're laid back, relaxed and thoughtful, and you take your time, but you're a real good finisher. Slip balls is that you may be a little slow, stubborn, you may be fatigued, it may be harder for you to motivate yourself to get going, and you may rather snack and rest and recuperate than to seek activity. And so solution is to make small changes, especially including momentum and moving, whether it's like resisting the urge to sleep and have a nap and to go for a walk instead of a nap, and then just get your nighttime sleep schedule in. And again, self assessment. If you don't know what your imbalance is, take the quiz.

I will also say sometimes people think that they have a kapha imbalance when really they are just overworking themselves and that's why they're tired. And so if that's the case for you, don't keep pushing yourself. This was the case for me. So I have a lot of kapha in my constitution, but my primary dosha is pitta, and that is more where I tend to have my imbalances. And so I had such a bad pitta imbalance that I was had like this dysmorphia, essentially of body dysmorphia. And also just thinking, oh, I just need to push myself harder. And so we'll talk about how pitta does that. But if you are, you know, there's a difference between feeling really exhausted and depleted and feeling lethargic because we're not moving enough. What I would say for that is looking at your past, you know, the past few weeks or the past Period of time and seeing, like, what has that looked like? And that can a lot of times inform us on, you know, am I just, like, working, working way too hard. And that's why I'm feeling really depleted. Am I not getting enough sleep, all of that kind of thing, or is it really, like, I'm resting a ton and that's why I feel fatigued. So that can be helpful, for sure.

Another thing that you've said in the past that I think is really valuable is that these states of imbalance are shiftable. And so maybe you're in a season of your life right now where you are burned out and you're exhausted and you need to rest and rebuild, but maybe in your past you were. You just didn't have the momentum. And so you're an object that's not in motion, will not achieve motion. And so, you know, it's. I think that your wisdom in. Okay, you may be tired right now, but let's gather more data to really be sure. That's one of the things that I love the most about the work that you do, is that you're very holistic in your approach. Instead of just saying, looks like a nail, so I'm going to whack it with a hammer, is like, let's get the whole picture. And actually, all y', all, we've been talking about this quiz, and Hadley actually made the quiz. She has many years of experience, and when she and I were talking about this, I asked if she had a self assessment quiz that she recommended. And she's like, you know what? I can do better. And she made one. And so just to brag on you just a little bit, it's absolutely incredible. And I think that that quiz, you know, working with someone one on one like you is the best. But that quiz, I think, is also a great starting point to look just beyond the fatigue of CAFA to see, like, do you have any of those other symptoms that might lean towards kapha or actually not, babe, it looks like you're in a total pita vata burnout. And it looks like. But you're actually burned out.

Totally. And. And I will say that actually kapha is the least likely to be out of balance. It's also the hardest one to get back into balance. It's the hardest one to get out of balance, and that's the hardest one to get back into balance. And that's because it's so tangible. Right. These water and earth are harder to move than fire and air and space. Right? So because they Are like a heavier quality. It's harder to get them out of balance and then it's harder to once you're out of balance, to get them back into balance. But it's definitely possible, it's for sure possible to get them back into balance and a lot of times when we have an imbalance or like when we get burnt out then, and it will show up like kapha, but it's not. We need to first balance the pitta and the vata. And so then, yeah, definitely working with people with a practitioner or a coach or someone who can kind of talk to you or ask you more questions about what you're experiencing can be really helpful or doing some self assessment work as well and learning more about this and you can do that in our mini course too. You can learn more about it there. So yeah. Awesome. All right, so next, what's, what's next? Which one, Vata or pitta?

I'm feeling the vata because I feel like these two often get mistaken because they're the more chilly ones.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

Let's clear up some vata. So the successful Vata for 400. I love that I'm. I'm just like pulling out jeopardy for no real reason today.

I don't know why.

It's fun.

I'm here for it. I love it. Amazing. So let's talk about superpowers first. So vata, when vata is in balance, the properties, the tendencies of vata, of having vata in our constitutions are more energy. We tend to be a lot more energetic, vivacious, enthusiastic, really good at coming up with ideas. You know, it's kind of like, I think of it as like the energy of just kind of like, like we're here, we're there, we're everywhere. You know, space is just super vast. Space and air, space and wind are the vata elements. And so like space is vast and then wind is just blowing it all around. And so that's what I think of when I think of vata and there are some amazing qualities of this, that creativity. A lot of times people who have a lot of vata in their constitution have a lot of. Are super artistic, are really, really good at that creativity aspect. Very imaginative and also just infectiously happ. Adventurous. You know, they tend to just like love doing stuff. They tend to, they tend to, yeah, just want to do new things all the time. However, wanting to do new things all the time can also get them out of balance. Right. And so the slip falls. So we've got our superpowers our slipfalls and our solutions, slip falls are that vatas tend to when they try to do too many things, which they usually try to do, especially when we've got a vata imbalance. It's. They might get really, really excited about starting this new thing. But then like I said, they don't have the follow through as much. Sometimes people have, you know, have similar follow through. They have like a secondary kapha constitution. But if you have a vata imbalance, you might find that you tend to start a lot of things and not follow through with them. When vata is really high, you might find it difficult to concentrate. You might feel kind of jumbled. Another thing is that you might also learn things really quickly but then forget things really quickly. Whereas like kapha, it takes a little longer for kapha to learn things but then they're like, they're, you know how like an elephant never forgets. It's kind of like that they've got the, that wherewithal that they're going to, they're going to remember for a long time. And vatas might forget things if they, if they have that tendency. So they might. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like, oh, that just like gone out of the mind. So, so yeah, so things might feel really scattered. You know, you might be in a nervous system, a sympathetic nervous system response most of the time. You know, you might be easily distracted, you might struggle to stay on task. You might add ADHD are vata imbalances as well as anxiety. So those are huge for anxiety is kind of the hallmark of vata in the mind and then in the body. How do you feel like that might show up in the body.

We were talking about? The elements for vata are especially air and space.

Yes.

And so I imagine that if I pump myself full of air that I would be, I would be gassy and loaded and burpee. And I also imagine that things would come into my mind and then I would just lose them and they would float away. So maybe feeling like physically, like I can't grab. I guess maybe this is logic psychologically. But you know, the brain, I struggle with controlling my brain and making it focus. Totally.

Yeah. And so like physically the we've got the gas, the bloating, constipation also. So yeah, vata there's a lot of things going on in our digestion and so if you have a lot of of those things, gas, bloating, constipation, then that's likely a vata imbalance. The other thing about vata is that this is the easiest one to go out of balance. So you might not have a lot of vata in your constitution, but you might like. It's likely actually that you have a vata imbalance. And that is just because the nature of the world that we're living in and the Internet is a vata thing. It's like, you know, we're talking, but we're thousands of miles away right now. And so we're talking through space, through the ethers, right? And so. And everything moves really fast on the Internet and, you know, even on our, our phones of social media, on. In movies. Movies, like, things are moving faster and faster in movies and in TV shows than they ever have before because we have less and less of an attention span because we have more and more of a vata imbalance. Right? So, so, and that's okay. Vata is the easiest one to get out of balance, and it's also the easiest one to get back into balance. So that's the good news. However, a lot of times we have to keep getting it back into balance because it tends to get out of balance so easily. So doing things for grounding is really the biggest thing for vata. So that's physically doing things that are going to be more. While eating foods that are going to be more grounding, having more oily foods. This is another thing that we didn't really talk about is the dryness of vata when you think of air and especially wind, when there's a lot of wind that dries things out, right? And so our skin can get really dry if you tend to have, like, really, really dry skin. Also, like, you can tend to be really cold. And so that's where the. That's where the confusion with vata and kapha can come in. Kapha tends to be really cold, but more cold and wet, whereas vata tends to be cold, but cold and dry. So, and then pitta, we'll talk about in a second. That's the one that has the fire in the constitution. So that's warm. But the other two, these two are cold. So with kapha, you might have more. You might have, like, cold and clammy hands, whereas, like vata, you might have cold and like, really dry hands. And that's, you know, just an indication of the, of the imbalance. The other thing with kapha is you might have a lot of mucus in your body, in your physiology. You might have, you know, be blowing your nose all the time or you might get bronchitis a lot I used to get bronchitis, like, all the time. And that's a. That's a kapha thing. So anything that's, like, kind of going on in your lungs and in your sinuses usually has. Has a bit of kapha, you know, in. Involved in there. So. And then vata is going to be more dry. So you might have dry sinuses. You might feel like your nose is all stuffed up because it's so dry, actually. And then your body is overcompensating with some mucus to try to protect your sinuses. All of these things interact together, but those are kind of the vata imbalances. And the way that we can get vata back into balance is thinking of the opposite qualities. So if we've got dryness, if we've got coldness. Coldness. Is that a word? If we've got. If we've got restlessness, all of these things, we want to think of the opposite qualities. So we want to think of adding more oiliness, hydration, things that are going to be more the opposite of dry, which is wet or oily or unctuous. I like to think of it as kind of like an unctuousness. So, you know, eating things that have more oil in them that are more like soupy Stewie, that kind of thing is great. And lifestyle is really the biggest thing here. So for having a lot of restlessness, if we're going around to all of these different things, having a set structure is really, really helpful. And a lot of times vajas will be very, very resistant to wanting to put in structure because they're like, but I love doing all of the things, and that's what they crave. However, I always say that structure creates freedom because when we have some structure, we can kind of think of it as, okay, I have some time to do the things that I really want to do. And I have these bookends. So if you've ever had a day, you literally have nothing to do the whole day, and you're like, I'm going to get all of this stuff done. It's going to be amazing. And then at the end of the day, you're like, I literally didn't get anything done. What just happened? That's what happens when we don't have any structure. And so getting on that getting on like a habit routine is so help. It's helpful for everyone. But it's especially helpful when you've got a vata imbalance going on. So having a consistent bedtime routine, having consistent eating times, having Consistent, you know, work times, that's all really helpful. And you don't have to make it so, like rigid. But just having some, like, checkpoints throughout your day can be really, really helpful for keeping that all consistent. Awesome. All right, so.

And so you're saying maybe like less post its and more structure. Maybe.

Okay, got it. Yes, Y. So creating systems is huge, especially since there's like a tendency to forget things. And so when we try to keep things in our mind all the time, it's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot harder to be able to follow through on anything. Right. Because we forget it. And so if we can have the systems and structure put into place, that's going to be really helpful. But if we're trying to put a dream team together, you know, we want to have the vata because the vata is like, what if we did this? What if we did this and gets out of the box on things? And we need that in basically everything. In, like any business or project or endeavor, we need someone who's coming up with ideas and getting excited about them and all of that good stuff.

So the successful VATA superpower is that enthusiastic vivacity, bursting with ideas. But the slipfall could be that it can look like this typical picture of ADD or ADHD where there's all this wind in this ether and it's hard to focus on ideas or hold onto them or see them through. And it can create this forgetfulness. And so solutions may involve or embody creating structure, creating routine, and almost noticing what you're craving and then shifting to the opposite. And so if you're craving a lot of stimuli is maybe do something that's more quiet and meditative. I was sort of envisioning like a gray vata might be like sitting in a hot tub, drinking a hot tea, where you're just like hanging in like the warm, wet hot tub. So you're moisturizing the dryness, you're heating up the coldness, and you're sitting still in place to slow down that chaos totally.

And then follow the hot tub with a, like, with rubbing oil all over your body because that's super grounding. Like, and sometimes we can get dried out with, with water. And so if we add the oil, then like, baths are amazing for vatas. And then when we can add the oil on top of that, then you're, then you're really set to go.

That sounds amazing.

Yes. Whereas, like, I actually don't like baths that much because I have a lot of Pizza. And I don't like being in a hot, like, submerged in hot water for very long. So, yeah, I always think, like, oh, it'll be so nice. It'll be, like, such a lovely experience. And then I like. I'm like, I'm so high. I need to get out of here.

And I love it while I'm in the water, but the minute I have to get out and I get cool, then I'm like, nope. So it's not even worth getting wet for me. But that's, you know, something you got to work on is transitioning from warm, toasty bathtub to warm, toasty blanket.

It. Yes, yes. And if you. If you do the oil after the bath, it kind of, like, traps the heat in. So that's really nice. Yeah.

And in the mini course, Hadley actually teaches us which oil will work best. And so go check it out, because there are different kinds of oils. And so she gives us a hack on which oil works best.

So, yes.

The last dosha is Pitta. Tell us all about Pitta.

All right, so Pitta, the superpowers of Pitta, is, you know, someone who has a lot of pitts in their constitution, who is in balance, not. Is not. Not imbalanced, but is in balance, is. Tends to be super, super passionate, ambitious, driven, you know, very sharp, like, intellectually. Sharpness kind of comes forth in other areas that tend to not be the superpower. But, you know, when a Pitta is imbalanced, they have, you know, they've achieved this level of. Of success, and it can look different for everyone. Obviously, we're talking about how success can show up differently for all of us. But Pitta personalities really thrive with a lot of organization, routine. They set up systems a lot of the times, and. And so you can kind of think of, like, the classic type A personality. And. Right. We've got some amazing qualities about the type A personality, and we've got some qualities that aren't as helpful for us.

Right.

It's not that they are, you know, necessarily, like, bad or wrong, and we don't feel as good when we're doing it. Right. And so a lot of times, actually, I'll ask you, what. What do you feel like a person who is in balance with Pitta? What might they have in their physical body? What they. What might they, like, appear like, you know, what. What's going on for them if they've got fire?

I'm thinking of someone who seems, like, really athletic and strong in a positive way. You know, somebody who is like, I go to orange theory. And I do hit training. And so I'm thinking of like, I call them all day beast mode. All these humans that are super strong, they're able to do the power days. So there's endurance days, I'm thinking Kapha and then there's these power days where they're just like, I've got this and I could lift the heavy weights. And maybe I'm thinking like CrossFit, like they got the endurance to do something powerful. Medium builds. They have that kind of an energy. They don't have the endurance of Kapha, but they might have more endurance than if they weren't in a pitta.

Totally. Yeah. And so when Pitta is imbalanced, they tend to have more muscle than the other constitutions. Whereas. So if we think of like the muscle to fat to bone ratio and no judgment on any of them, we're breaking out of that paradigm. Pizza just tends to have more muscle in that ratio. Vata tends to have less muscle and less fat, more bone. Right. Just a smaller ratio of the fat and muscle. And so if you think of air and ether, it's the most subtle, it's the least heavy. And then Kapha tends to have the most fat ratio. So fat to muscle and bone ratio. And that's when they're in balance. Like, that's just how they are. And so Pitta tends to have that muscular, medium build. Yeah, it tends to like the stereotype of a Pitta would be like, yeah, like you said, like a classic, like super muscular person in the gym, essentially. Whereas like vata is going to be. And they're either going to be like really tall and thin, kind of like the. And we've fetishized all of these bodies in different points in our history.

Right.

But they tend to be the tall and thin or they can also just be really, really, really tiny, like short and small as well. So either one is. Is Vata and then whereas Kapha again tends to have that more the strong or the more bone like density. So that's kind of how they appear physically. So when you, when you think of pizza, think about fire and what's going to happen when Pitta is out of balance with. Let's think just, let's think physically first and then we'll go into like emotionally and mentally.

I'm thinking, okay, fire in the gut. So I'm thinking like heartburn, I'm thinking stomach ulcers. When we think of like fire in the skin, I'm imagining acne and eczema and skin Rashes. When I think about fire in the mood and the mind, I'm thinking like irritability, passion, but frustration, maybe even maybe. And bipolar disorder. And I'm also thinking about insomnia, difficulty sleeping, because everything is just so amplified and burning. Actually, when I was having insomnia, my body was physically. I was having somatic symptoms of being on fire. Which now in retrospect feels very Pitta.

Yeah, absolutely. And so that's a really good point. When we have insomnia for pitta, it tends to be because we're thinking of all of the things that we have have to do. Whereas when we have insomnia for bata and insomnia is an imbalance for both of them. But. But insomnia for vata tends to be. Our mind is just like all over the place. So with Pitta, it's like, I have to do this, this, this and this. Whereas Vata, it's like, oh, there's this going on in my mind and there's also this and there's this and there's this and there's this and like, it's all just like all over the place. So it's slightly different. And also there's a tendency for anxiety, but more tending toward, like, a need to control everything. That's more pitta. Whereas anxiety for vata is like, there's just so much happening all the time that it feels like, you know, I can't get a hold on anything. And for Pitta, it's like they're so hyper focused and they're really anxious about, you know, what's going to happen or what people are thinking or all of those different things, and they're hyper focused. They're so hyper focused that that's causing anxiety. So it looks slightly different for both of them. Another thing that you might think of for a pizza imbalance is things that are like neuroticism, more things that are like ocd, things like that, because it's trying to control our environment and that's all fire. So just intensity, intensity is huge. Also inflammation, any inflammation in the body. You can think of inflammation as just fire, right? It's just fire in the body. It shows up as red on our skin or it shows up in our body as, you know, this like, burning sensation. Right? So that's all pitta stuff. Pitta tends to be the easiest one to kind of think of. Just because it's like, like, yeah, I can imagine fire anywhere, you know, and that's kind of what's going on. So let's Talk about getting pitta back into balance. Burnout is huge for Pitta. Literally, the term burnout is referring to fire. And so moderation is huge for Pitta. And if you have a lot of pittsa, if you're resonating with all of this, which again, take the quiz. But if you're resonating with all this and you're like, oh, my gosh, I don't want moderation. I like to do everything, like, super intensely or just not do it at all. It's like all or nothing is a huge thing for pitta. I used to have that a ton. That's a huge thing that I work on with my clients. It's actually the first thing we work on is like, breaking out of the all or nothing mentality in, like, all areas. And so the tendency is to just like, go really intensely or to not do anything at all. And instead we want to have this more softness, essentially. So a lot of the. You can even tell when I was talking about Pitta, I was like, talking faster and my voice was louder, and I'm like, talking with a calmer voice. I'm hearing this in myself. And so we want the opposite qualities when we think of fire, when we think of that intensity, the sharpness. Pittas also tend to learn things really fast, but they can also forget things not as easily as vata, but more easily than kapha. So we want to have that cooling, soothing qualities in our lives. So we want to physically, if we think about different foods and things like that, things that are literally cool, like colder, are really helpful, especially if it's summer and we've got a lot of heat going on in the season. Whereas, like, if it's like the dead of winter, we maybe don't want to be eating, like, ice cubes, but we might want to eat things that are, like, cooling but not necessarily cold. So what that means is things that are more. Like, there are spices and things like that that are more cooling. We go way deeper into that in the mini course, so definitely check that out. But. But so eating things that are cooling, especially in the summer, you know, having like, cucumbers, watermelon things with a lot of water in them, that's going to be awesome too. Because if you think about fire, what's going to. What's going to quell fire? If you get. If you put a bunch of, like, if you put a bunch of air into fire, it's going to make it bigger, right? It's going to. It's going to like, make it Go, go everywhere. If there's wind and it's going to make it get even bigger. But if you put water on it, that's how it's going to actually calm down. So we need that water. And so what that can look like is more hydration. If you have a pizza imbalance, you need so much water to flush things out. And flushing out of your liver there tends to be like liver issues with pitta. So all of that is kind of the qualities, what that actually looks like in our day to day lives is again the food but also doing things like yin yoga. And that's essentially like you're staying in a pose for a really long time and allowing yourself to rest in it or doing things like restorative yoga. A lot of times when people have a huge pizza imbalance, they tend to think of those kinds of things as pointless. And they're like, why would I do that? That's not productive. I used to have that. It was like Shavasana at the end of a yoga class was like, oh come on, we're really doing this for this long. I actually knew someone who would leave the yoga class before Shavasana started because she was like so in her pizza. And this is all just a recipe for burnout, right? And so doing things that are going to be more soothing, calming, all of that stuff is huge. And environment is also key. So doing things to cool yourself off, especially when it's hot out, taking, you know, doing a cold plunge and pitches can benefit from a cold plunge any time of year. Honestly. Like if you've got a lot of heat going on in your body, cold plunge are great. They're great for a lot of people, not just people with a lot of pitts up. But, but yeah, so, so really just calming the fire is what that looks like.

So our pitta just like quick before S's of successful pitta. You have the superpowers of passion and drive and learning quickly and shifting easily and having that kind of strength. But this could be a recipe for burnout. Easily stressed and patient aggravated digestive symptoms. Skin, we talked about that. And then leaning into the opposite as a solution. So if you're fiery, lean into water, literally taking a plunge if you're really hot. And Bernie, maybe some cooling foods, things aren't that are less spicy, things that are less warming. And then of course the self assessment is if you know what state of imbalance feels like for you, which one it is, it gives you tools right away to make changes that can work to help you be Successful personally and professionally. And so we've talked about the three doshas, we've talked about the elements. And I was wondering if we could go back to our friends from the beginning of our conversation and see who, what they. What's going on with them. And so we started with Phil, right? So you guys remember Phil. Energized, scattered, frazzled, post it notes everywhere, Gas, bloating, dry skin. So I'm hearing a lot of air, Right? So the gas and the bloating, I'm hearing restless, scattered, forgetful. So I'm kind of seeing like a lot of. Of space either things are just like, floating off. And so what do you guys think?

Dun, dun, dun. It's vata. Vata.

So if you were thinking vata, you were right. You're right. So Phil is in a state of vata. And oftentimes busy CEOs can enter state of vata. And so Phil needs to take a course so that he knows what to do to get back on track to be more healthy physically, emotionally, and to be more successful in his career. And so then we have the beautiful, brilliant Tina. Remember, Tina was stuck. Tina was exhausted. Tina didn't have the energy to do the things that she loved to do. Her friends came and were expressing concern because she just didn't care. She's just like, in a state of ma. And she's craving sweet, salty cannabis, alcohol. And so what are you guys thinking? What are you thinking with Tina? The elements. And so I'm thinking, okay, she sounds heavy. She's like, literally, like stuck to the ground, right? So she's heavy. So we talked about mud, that combination of earth and water, Right? Totally. So she's kind of mud.

Yeah. So that one is kapha. So she's got. She's got the kapha. And so now she can kind of look at, okay, these are the ways that I'm out of balance. Or maybe her friends can also, like, look at the ways that she's out of balance. A lot of times when we have a kapha imbalance, there's a lack of, like, wanting to do anything about it, which can be really hard. Right. And so sometimes we need to reach out to the support of friends, maybe get some accountability with it too. And of course, course, take responsibility as well. But leaning on support of friends is really, really, really helpful. Or a coach or someone who can help you with it is really helpful for all of them, for sure. But for kapha to kind of get out of the mud, it's like having someone help you get out of like quicksand. Right. So that's kind of kapha.

And then we had Megan. Megan was pushing herself to burnout. She craves stimulants like caffeine, vinegar. She's craving spicy things. And I think that kind of helps lean us towards which imbalance. She's got the hot acne, she's got the hot eczema, she's got the hot heartburn. What is Megan's imbalance?

We've got fire going on, so we've got pitta.

Yes.

Yeah.

So awesome.

And pitta. Pitta tends to. One other thing that I forgot to mention that's really, really helpful for Pitta is play. Not trying to be productive all the time, allowing yourself to indulge in pleasure. We talked about the four aims of life, right. A lot of times that comma, that pleasure or that enjoyment is the one that pittas are like not paying any attention to. And so they can incorporate more of that into their lives as well.

And today you gave us really good glimpses into what can help to correct these imbalances, to help people actually achieve better health, better integrity with their mind, their body, their spirit. It. And in the mini course is as we were doing in all transparency, as we were doing these conversations and recordings, conversations, we're like, oh my gosh, there's just so much more information. And that's why we created the mini courses that Hadley's brain is so jam packed full of such life changing information is that we had to put it in a mini course. And so we recorded it, made it available for you. And so that course will go deeper into diet, it'll go deeper into lifestyle. I mean, we talk about the Kapha diet, we talk about a vata diet, we talk about a Pitta diet, we talk about lifestyles where you can kind of build your own life to help you go back into balance. We teach on herbs. And in Ayurveda, a mainstay is the marriage between the diet, the lifestyle and the herbs. They can all work really synergistically. And we talk about herbs for each, each imbalance, each dominant kind of situation. But we also talk about this thing, they're called tridosic. And so when in doubt, these herbs can actually be really helpful for most people. And we give you recipes, we give you blends, we give you ideas on how to implement it. But I mean, there's so much information, I don't even know how to begin telling you sufficiently how it's been life changing for me. I use this information with my clients. And so if this conversation, if these conversations have been at all interesting or inspiring or helpful for you, let us know. Leave us a comment on the video or send us a message or share the course with a friend and tell them about it so that we can know that this is helpful, valuable information for you and we can keep putting out content that that will help you to live the life you were put here on the earth to live.

Yes, yes. And also included in the mini course is like, behavior strategies as well, for actually implementing these things as well. So it's not just like, here you go, here, do this, but the last module in there is some different behavior change strategies. So definitely, definitely check that out. It is like, like, it's so fun. We just love talking about this stuff together. And so you will find that you will find our joy in there. We loved creating it for you. So definitely, definitely check it out.

It's been such an honor to be on this journey with you and your health and of course, to get to have an excuse to partner with Hadley. And so for everyone who's listening to this, he made it this far. Thank you so much for asking. The question is, how is my ayurvedic dosha the key to my success? How is achieving true health in my mind, body and spirit and getting an integrity as a whole person helping me to show up in the world in a way that is in my highest wonderment? Right. And so just thank you for allowing us to be a part of that. We really honor you and we're grateful for you.

Yes, thank you all so much. And definitely, definitely reach out to us if you ever want to chat about these things, if you ever want help with any of them. It's our life's passion to help people with all of these things. So definitely reach out. Definitely check out the quiz if you haven't already. I hope that you have, but check out the quiz and then check out the mini course as well. Thank you so much everyone.

The recording you just listened to consists of the personal opinions of Dr. Nicole Kane, a naturopathic doctor with a Master's in Clinical psychology. While these opinions are based upon literature, her counseling education, medical training, and clinical experience, this content should not be viewed as the definitive opinion on these subjects. Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for any sort of medical, psychological, or other form of treatment. If you are in a crisis, please call 911-OR call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255. If you're in need of counseling don't hesitate to make an appointment with a counselor in your area. Dr. Nicole Cain is so passionate about people getting their life back. If this resonates with you and you think this podcast would help someone you love, please share it with them. Stay in the conversation with Dr. Nicole Cain about writing the next chapter of your life so that it plays out just the way you want it. Explore your options for working with her at www.that's Dr. D R Nicole N I C O l e Cain C-A-I-N.com when you're there, be sure to take advantage of the Free Anxiety Freedom One week challenge. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the get your life Back podcast. Here's to your next chapter.