111: Ayurvedic Facial Analysis to Assess Your Dosha with John Immel

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast. A place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. I am so excited for this episode because it is part of part three of having John Immel on this podcast. But this time we go deep in a topic that we have never discussed on Highest Self podcasts or is actually on any podcast out there. I have looked at this up. This is the only podcast that's giving you this level of Ayurvedic information. And this is all about facial reading, guys. So before we dive in, let me just tell you a little bit about who John Emmel is. John Imill is the founder of Joyful Belly School of Ayurvedic digestion and Nutrition. He is a Harvard graduate mathematician who discovered Ayurveda and it healed his life. It helped him just make sense of how interconnected the mind and body are and how our body is constantly telling us cues about what is really going on internally. So he deep dived into Ayurveda, created a school, an online school, Joyful Belly School. And it is the most amazing Ayurvedic educational program out there. Seriously, when I was writing both of my books, the number one website that I would go on, oh, what are the gunas, the qualities of this food, that food. So much information. If you just go on joyfulbelly.com like, wow, the wealth of information on that website, if you're interested in Ayurveda is amazing. But I want to share this with you because he has a program, an online certification program to become an Ayurvedic practitioner, just like I am. And it is a two year program, but it's totally online. Including the clinical portion is also online. So you'll be able to still work full time or go to college full time, whatever it is you're doing in part time, study Ayurveda online part. But there are three weekly live calls, tons of just opportunities for you to ask him questions. He is so accessible, so relatable, and also very scientific, which to me is really important because sometimes teachers don't explain things. That was the trouble. I've done so many Ayurveda programs and a lot of them, the teachers didn't explain the reason why behind things. They just said, oh well, this is how it is. This is just what it says in Ayurveda. And I always had a hard time with that because I'm someone who's really analytical and I want to make sense of things. And that's what John does. He tells you. And in this episode you'll hear he really explains the why. And he has his own amazing hypotheses about Ayurvedic topics because he just looks at them from such a like unique mathematician perspective. But also he's like a deeply spiritual being. And it's amazing. Like he talked about how he believes that Pittas have a heart shaped face and the reason is because there's excess heat in their digestive system. So the heat rises and that's why we know that people experience acne. That's the heat ris. But he says that's probably why Pittas have heart shaped faces, which makes total sense. But it's a perspective that I have never heard an Ayurvedic practitioner share before. So Joyful Belly is beginning in just two weeks time, the end of August. So I really want to pop this episode out there so you would get a chance to listen and you can make your decision right now. If you want to sign up for that program, it only starts at the end of August, once a year. This is their two year program to become a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Ayurvedic Health Counselor, and I so highly recommend it. And as a special gift for Highest Self podcast listeners, I've teamed up with John to provide $1,000 off scholarship so you will be able to join the program for $1,000 off as well as receiving a private only for Highest Self podcast members that join Joyful Belly webinar with me where I'm going to be deep diving into how to create a thriving Ayurvedic business. So how do you get clients? How do you explain Ayurveda to people who don't know what it is? What are the ways that you can use Ayurveda? Do you want to start your own practice, which you'll actually be able to do at the end of graduating from this two year program? Do you want to open up a retreat center? That's something else you can do after. Do you want to open up your own Ayurvedic products? Skincare product, essential oil product, natural beauty products? Do you want to work with people dealing with addiction? Do you want to work with children? Do you want to be an Ayurvedic doula? How do you want to integrate Ayurveda in your life? Because I'm telling you right now, I've said this on the episode why Ayurveda is the Next Big thing, But Ayurveda is the next Yoga not that it's going to replace yoga, but that it is going to have such a large boom the way that yoga has had in the past few years. I mean, if you think about 15 years ago, very few people were practicing yoga. Many people didn't even know what yoga is. And today, nine out of 10Americans knows what yoga is. Six out of 10 are regular practical practitioners. So it is the biggest quote unquote fitness phenomenon that has ever happened in the US Even though it's not just a workout. And I'm telling you guys right now, like, I wish Ayurveda had a stock so I would buy it. Ayurveda is the next big thing. And there's such a huge call for people who want and crave Ayurvedic practitioners, Ayurvedic home care products, foods, supplements, beauty products, all of these things. So this is the time to dive in. If you're on the fence, if you are maybe in a career that's not fulfilling you, if maybe you're a health coach but you feel like you need more specialization, or maybe you're a doctor or you're a nurse, or you are a hairstylist, or you are an esthetician and you want to bring another level to your practice. This is where Ayurveda comes in. You can be an Ayurveda care stylist and give people hair and do hair dye for their doshas. That would be really cool. You can be a nurse that brings Ayurveda into your practice and start your own business because you're a nurse and there's a lot of things you can do with that nursing degree. You can be a doctor and then switch and become a more holistic doctor and include Ayurveda and look at the whole practitioner. A lot of doctors are now including these alternative type therapies into their practice and people are responding so well. Or even if you don't have any degree, even if you've never gone to college, this can be your path. So there's no kind of pre education that you need for this experience. All you really need is an open mind because it's new information for everyone. And if you've read my books and if you've listened to this podcast, you know, if you're interested in Ayurveda, you know that if this is your kind of language and if you haven't and this is the first episode you've ever listened, then if this stuff relates to you, I mean, we're gonna be telling you secrets about how People's faces tell you everything that's going on with their you. I call this my Ayurvedic party trick. I walk around and I know exactly what someone's main dosha is, or I have a pretty good idea based off of their face. And we talk about how you can see from the shape of someone's face, from their facial features, from all of these different things, you can tell what their dosha is. And it's not the 100% their DOSHA. It's going to give you an idea, it's going to give you an idea of their prakriti, their natural born constitution. Now again, we're not just one dosha, we are a combination of all three. But you're able to see kind of characteristics. So for example, like if you see someone with a caved in face, you know, caved in cheeks, you know, right there, vata, there's vata going on. If you see someone with a strong jawline, you know, they look like they have a very sculpted face, you know, there's pitta going on. If you see someone with a really round face, you know, there's some kapha going on. So we talk about the facial features, we talk about all of that and it's an amazing tool to really have in your toolkit whether you want to be an Ayurvedic practitioner or not. So if Joyful Belly is calling to you, if you want to start a career doing this kind of stuff, facial reading, tongue reading, which we did in the Last episode, episode 104 with John, be sure to listen to that too. So good. Oh my gosh, such mind blowing information about how your tongue, the cracks, the coloring, the surface texture will tell you what your doshik imbalance is. And if you don't know what dosha means, it actually means your mind, body type. And we're able to tell what someone's symptoms are from these characteristics. Their face, their tongue, their pulse, et cetera. And these are all things that I talk about in my book, we talk about on this podcast. And you will be able to really become a teacher. And if you do, Joyful Belly. So if you're interested in getting the $1,000 off discount, my bonus webinar. I also have private Facebook group for you guys. If you sign up, please head over to my website. I am Sahara Rose. You'll see it says become an Ayurvedic practitioner. Click over there and click on the links and you will see there's two programs they have. One is to become an Ayurvedic practitioner and one is to become a Master's in Ayurvedic digestion, which is a one year online program. So that's perfect if you really want to deep dive into digestion, bloating, ibs, constipation, Crohn's disease, Sibo, all of those types of things. And lot of people who are trained doctors even gained so much value from doing this. So he has both options, both thousand dollar off scholarships. So head over to my website. The direct link to the page is actually just in this podcast little info section. If you're listening to this on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, you can click right over there and head over to that. And the Master's in Ayurvedic Digestion starts in October, but the two year Ayurvedic Health counselor program begins end of August. So beginning. So be sure to sign up and say Sahara Rose sent you to get those bonuses. I also want to share with you that my new book Eat Feel Fresh is now available for pre order. And this is a plant based contemporary Ayurvedic cookbook. So I've taken the ancient science of Ayurveda and I've made it modern. I looked at what do today's people need? What has differed from today versus 5000 years ago when Ayurveda was created or even 100 years ago when the food system was so different, we didn't have the same level of GMOs and toxins and the soil wasn't stripped from the minerals and there wasn't all this pollution, which in Ayurveda they call it garvica everywhere. So what needs to change? What are the things that make sense for today's world and what are the things that don't? So it's really a lens of looking at Ayurveda for today's people. And I take the Ayurvedic guidelines and I include ingredients from blue zones, areas that people live for over 100 years from around the world. So we have recipes that are Japanese, Argentinian, Italian, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, everything in between consumed with Ayurvedic guidelines. And I've gone past this just the doshas, because you'll see the doshas are just one small part of Ayurveda. But when you go to India, most people eat tridoshically, so they eat meals that work for all three doshas. So a lot of us, we think, oh my God, I'm a vata, I only have to eat foods for vata. But then what am I going to do? My husband's a pitta, my kid's a kapha, how are we going to eat together? So I've answered that question for you very, very thoroughly and provided you with over 100 plant based, gluten free, dairy free Ayurvedic recipes that are able to become tri doshic. And I've taken out the things that will imbalance a certain dosha. So for example the vatas, they can't do raw foods. Pittas, they can't do spicy foods, lots of nightshades, kaphas, they can't dairy, excess carbs. So we've taken those out and created tridosic recipes with further customization that you can do to really balance one dosha. So there's never been a book like this before. I'm very excited. Dr. Deepak Chopra wrote the forward of this book as well. This is the second book of mine he's written the forward of. I was just with him two days ago. I did an amazing interview with him for High Self podcast which wow, what an awesome honor. He was straight up channeling some source on that episode and I'm very excited to share it with you. I also have the support of Dr. Mark Hyman on this book. He's called it the much needed plant based solution to Ayurvedic nutrition that the world has been waiting for. I also have Kino McGregor, she's an amazing Ashtanga yogi and author who's called it the perfect combination of intelligence and accessibility. Also have Dr. Suhask Shearsagar who is a very well known Ayurvedic physician that Deepak actually put me in touch with that Deepak's worked with. And well, he called me a shining light who will inspire you to live a healthier and happier life. I also visited Dr. Suhas on Friday too and he did my Jyotish which is a Vedic astrological reading and told me some great days to get married. So I'm very excited for that and I feel very divinely blessed to have these incredible mentors in my life. And you know, it's interesting because the people who really know about Ayurveda, people like Deepak chopra, people like Dr. Suhas, Kashir Sartre, people like John Immel on this podcast, they are the ones who are the most progressive with it because they see that the world is changing and that Ayurveda is a living science and Ayurveda is always changing as the world does. So we can't hold onto One definition of Ayurveda, because that one definition is only a glimpse, a moment in time. And what I talk about in Eat Feel Fresh as well is a lot of the things that we think are Ayurvedic were actually put in from outside forces. For example, in Ayurveda they say, eat any mushrooms. Well, I really dived into that because I used to live in India in Delhi, and I saw that, you know, in Kashmir we would get Kashmiri food and there were tons of mushrooms in there. And in Delhi there's a lot of mushrooms as delicacy. So I said, why does Ayurveda say no mushrooms when we're eating mushrooms all the time and they're growing here? So I deep dived into that. Why, why, why? And I found out that that was actually something the British rule put in. Because in the 19th century, the British seized India and they kind of infiltrated Indian culture and they did a lot of messed up things. But one of the messed up things was they told everyone to not eat mushrooms because there were a lot of psychedelic mushrooms growing in India. You know, it's a very hot environment. So some of the mushrooms were psychedelic and some were actually poisonous. So they would say, just don't eat mushrooms. Mushrooms are poisonous. You'll die if you eat mushrooms. And that became part of Indian culture, which then infused with Ayurveda, because Ayurveda is always just reflecting the culture and the population and the time. So it became a thing. Don't eat mushrooms, they're tamasic. They're gonna make you dull and tired and sleepy. But really it came from that British rules dictation. So it doesn't mean that mushrooms are unhealthy. We've got so many medicinal mushrooms around the world. Reishi, chaga, cordyceps. Mushrooms are superfoods. So that's why I felt that Ayurveda needs to be dove into and looked at from a practical sense. And that is the way that Ayurveda can live on. And the people who know the most about it are the ones who agree with that. And the people who are traditionalists and are stuck and they want to live in a box and say, oh, this is the only way and you can't leave this box. They're the ones that may have a problem with it, but you know, they have problems with like everything in life. So you can't live your life trying to please a group of people. All you can do is add and add and add. And for me, I want Ayurveda to be accessible to every person. I want every cancer patient, every diabetic, everyone with Hashimoto's and heart disease and anxiety and depression and stress and leaky gut, every sort of issue, to have Ayurveda in their toolkit so they are able to look holistically and see what is this disease telling me about my deeper health. And before that disease even manifests, I want them to see where is my body out of balance so they can bring it back into balance so the disease never comes into fruition. That is my greatest aspiration, my greatest hope. So I bring Ayurveda to you, to the masses. These ancient wisdoms that are passed along through oral tradition and secrets. I want to give them a microphone and center stage because this is the only way that this wisdom can live on. What good is wisdom that no one knows about? What good is it if the enlightened people keep only talking to the other enlightened people and they don't enlighten, shed the light to the others? Isn't the point of enlightenment to bring light to darkness? And this is why people need to get off their spiritual high horses. And this is why the smart people need to stop only congregating with other smart people. But we need to spread the knowledge. So the best thing you can do as a teacher, as a leader, as a human being, is to share this. Share this with your mom, who, you know, maybe still drinks diet soda every day. Share this with your brother, who finishes off a six pack of beer every Friday night. Share this with your dad, who is popping statin and all these other pharmaceutical medications and not taking a look at his diet. Share it with those people. The people who you think are not interested in it, they don't want to have it. Just the littlest thing, even one thing you learned from this episode today, like, hey, I noticed, mom, that your face looks like really like a vata face. So are you noticing that you're having bloating, gas, constipation, menopausal symptoms? She might get mad if you actually mention the menopause, but ask her and maybe that will actually be the entry point to her. Like, wow, you were able to tell all of that from the shape of my face? And you know, we even talk about what your eyes like, the bags under your eyes and the colors of that and what that means. If you're able to tell her what you're able to tell that from looking at me, I want to do that for myself. And then maybe she starts to look at her tongue and say, oh, wow, I have a lot of cracks on my tongues too. And then maybe she starts to look at her diet, say, wow, I am eating a lot of crackers and chips and dried foods and that could be leading to the vata imbalance. And oh yeah, I haven't been telling anyone when my hair has been falling out, actually, and my nails have been really brittle and I'm not menstruating and I do feel really constipated and I am really anxious and I have trouble sleeping and I didn't know that these things were connected. So the littlest thing, the littlest bite of knowledge can open up a buffet of information and change the livelihood of the people that you care about the most. So I know that this is a longer introduction, but I do feel like it was divinely orchestrated because it's really easy for us to acquire information. It's really easy for us to listen to a shit ton of podcasts and then do nothing about it. Anyone? No, just me. Okay. But it's really easy to just be like, next, next, next. Info, info, info, book, book, book, audio, audio, audio, and do nothing, not apply it to your life and not share it with other people. I'd rather have you listen to just one episode and apply every single lesson in that in your life than to listen to 100 episodes and remain standing at square A. So with this episode, take it to heart. Really let your mind open to this reality that we've never been taught before. No doctor has ever told us, like, wow, the puffiness of your cheeks actually going to indicate your internal health to me. Oh, wow, you were actually born with a predetermined constitution that's going to make you more likely to have certain symptoms in your life. And there are people who are actually more likely to be diabetic and there are people to have more likely symptoms to have Alzheimer's and there are more people to have more likely to have heart disease. This is true. And we're able to see this from the face, this is in the DNA. But 95% of that can be prevented through diet and lifestyle. You know, on Friday I was with Deepak as he was speaking and he said 95% of chronic illness they have found now in in main research labs can be preventable. Most of it is through low grade inflammation. How is that caused the foods we eat? Lack of movement. So I hope that this opens up the Pandora's box and your face, that thing you look at every day just after this episode, I hope you just start to look at it a little bit differently. Instead of just, you know, just looking at the mirror, like, oh, God, I look tired and just looking away and just say, wow, I'm noticing the puffiness is yellow, it's blue, it's purple. The lines are closer to my eyes. They're further from my eyes. Oh, my cheeks look kind of pale today. Oh, they look red. Oh, they look puffy, huh? The shape of my eyes, are they almond? Are they beady? Are they this start to really look at your face and not in a judgmental way, like a scientist analyzing something way, because that is really what it is. You are the scientist and your face is the object of research. And if we can look at our faces and look at our tongues and look at our pulses and look at these indicators that we have accessible to us every day just to go a little deeper into them, then we don't need all these doctors anymore. We don't need all these medications and this and that, that we're able to heal ourselves. How freeing is that? I mean, are you ready to be done with the hamster wheel of medication and disease and illness and chronic illnesses and all these things that are plaguing our society? Are you ready to be done with this? I know I am. I mean, I talked about this in the podcast. I could got super sick when I was in Mexico. And wow, was it a reminder to me that health is everything. There's nothing more important than health because when you don't have your health, nothing else matters. Everything goes on the back burner. You know, I was in Mexico at the wedding venue that I had planned for months and gotten this whole catering dinner and tried all. With all these things I was supposed to try. And I was so sick that I1 threw up there and for the rest of the day had to sit down and watch my mom and fiance eat the entire meal and drink all the margaritas and have all the fun while I just sat eating toast, which I normally don't eat because of gluten, but there was literally nothing else. And just tried to not vomit again. Just in my mind thinking like, please just don't vomit, please don't vomit here. Oh my God, please just don't vomit. And then I realized that nausea and I ended up being nauseous and sick for about 10 days. And wow, what a wake up call to me that a lot of people live like this. Chronic nausea is a thing, Chronic pain is a thing. Chronic illness, chronic digestive issues, hormonal imbalances, which I used to have, which brought Me to Ayurveda is very real. And maybe you deal with it. Maybe your friend does, maybe your parent does. Chances are you or someone very close to you has some sort of chronic health issue. You. So we have tools available to us. It's literally on the tip of our nose, like it is our nose, the shape of our nose. And there is no greater service that you can do than to share this wisdom, whether it is just sharing this podcast or reading my book, sharing my book, or actually becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner or digestive counselor yourself. But please, please, please at least apply this wisdom to your life, because this is too good to go to waste. Now. Without further ado, let's welcome John Immel to the Highest Self Podcast. Welcome John to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you back.

I'm excited to be here.

So today we are going to talk all about Ayurvedic facial analysis. In the last episode we did together, episode one, we dove deep into tongue analysis, but this is a whole other area of Ayurveda to dive into. So I'm really excited to learn from an expert like yourself.

Yeah, it is a great topic and a topic that I was really excited to learn when I first learned it. And of course, you know, you grow every year in your practice of Ayurveda, but it was just so amazing to really open up, in a way, open up the client like a book to see what's going on by analyzing the face. It's fascinating.

So interesting. So I'd love to know, what can you really learn from analyzing a face?

Yeah, well, there's a lot that you can learn from analyzing the face. Everything that happens inside of our bodies happens on the outside of our bodies too. Right. That if things are imbalanced on the interior, that's reflected on the exterior. And so. So, you know, if a person's liver is weak or their kidney is weak or they're struggling in some way, we can readily perceive that by examining the body on the outside. Right. What happens, it affects your skin. So learning to read a client's face or the art of face assessment and analysis tells about current imbalance. But it doesn't only tell about current imbalance. It also tells us a lot about constitution. You know, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the person. And so it really shows a lot. It shows level of toxicity. You can really see if you make a science of it, if you spend a lot of time really thinking about this, considering it, reading it, or studying it, there's no end to what you can learn through the rich amount of information that you can see in a person's face emotionally. I mean, let's not even discount psychological expression. We look at people's faces all the time to learn about their personality and what emotions they're experiencing at the moment.

So when you're doing face reading, you're not reading facial expressions, you're actually reading, like, the shape of their face, eyes, nose, lips, et cetera. Correct?

Absolutely. I'm looking at a whole array of things. I'm looking at the shape of their face, I'm looking at the structure, at their bones, because you can see how the bones influence the face. I'm looking at all of the features, everything from, from hair to ears to eyebrow to the eye itself. Nose, mouth, cheek, cheekbones, chin, jawline. The skin. What's happening on the skin also, what's happening in the skin. Right. The thickness of the skin, the color of the skin, all of those things. And really, and this is true for any part of the body we examine, you could be looking at a square inch of skin anywhere in your body, and if you sit with it for a little bit bit, you'll realize that there's just an amazing number of features that you can examine even from a very small part of the body, no less such a complex and, you know, and rich part of the body as examining the face.

So true. Yeah. I consider it like my little Ayurvedic party trick, because I, like, go around and I like, look at people's faces. I'm like, vata. Vata Kafa. People are like, what?

How?

So I'm excited to teach listeners today. So let's start with vata. What does a vata face tend to look like?

Okay. All right. So what I always do, and this is what I'll do in describing it right now, is whenever I analyze a face, I always start from the outside in and top to bottom. And this regular way, this regular sequence of examining always makes sure that I'm really comprehensive and that I don't forget anything else. I'm going to use that right now as I describe a vata face. So we got to start with the hair, right? That's on the outside. Vata hair is going to be thin, it's going to be a little drier, maybe a little frizzy. Then ears. The vata ear, it's going to be a little bit cooler than a pitta ear or a coffee. Vata is characterized by deficiency and a little bit of coldness. And so as I look at the ear, I'm going to see that the ear is a little more pale instead of being a little more red. Right. Pale is a cold sign. And maybe even if the person is circulation is compromised, I might even see a little bluish tint to the skin. Very subtle, but nonetheless it'll be there in a vata ear. Then I'm going to look at the face shape, right? The whole face shape. And so a vata face is going to be a long, longer, thinner face. And vata tends to have long limbs. And that's true for the. The face isn't really a limb. But that is also true for the faces that the face is just a bit longer. Moving from top to bottom of the features, the forehead of a vata person and the chin will be roughly the same width. The forehead itself will be long. Eyebrows will be a little sparse. Eyes will be deep set. Deep. Why would a vata person have deep set eyes? Because there's less fat content behind the eyeball. It causes the eye to be deep set. That makes the eye appear a little smaller. We're going to see that a vata eye will usually be brown or a bit of a dull color. Even the whites of the eyes might be a little gray. The whites of the eyes are going to be less bright. Not in all vatas, but certainly as vata it becomes more and more imbalanced. Nose also, it's going to be a little thin. Why? Because vata being deficient tends to have longer, thinner bones and longer, thinner cartilage as well. So the nose will be a little long and thin lips will be lacking in volume. So lips will be smaller. There'll be less juice in the lips, less fluid in the lips. And so that will make the lips appear smaller. Lips will appear a little cooler as well. And we'll see that the chin is long and a little thinner. In avata person, skin will be a little pale. I mean, I'm giving you lots of information here about avata skin. But even as we go through, you know, all these different features, the backdrop here and what I'd love for everyone to be thinking about is is what really the causes of all that, right? That in a vata person there is deficiency, there's a little bit of coolness and that's why we're seeing all these signs. So a paler face for a vata person as well, maybe with some liver spots or brown spots on the face showing some liver stress.

So how much of this is indicating vikruti and how much prakriti which is guys who don't know. Prakriti is the combination you were born with. And Vikirti is an imbalance that you have. So you may have a vata imbalance, because some of the things you say, pale skin, I would see that as more of a vicriti thing than a prakriti thing.

Absolutely, absolutely. So this is always a little tricky, and it's a question that I get often, is how do you differentiate between constitution and current imbalance? And you're right, a pale skin, although it could reflect either. I'm gonna see that as more of a current imbalance type situation than a constitution. You know, they're. They may be a little anemic at the moment, or it could be a sign of coldness. But what signs don't lie? Right. What signs? You know, if you see them, you know, it's a vata person. Bones, really, the bones are formed early in. Earlier in our childhood or earlier in our life. And so when we're looking at bones, we see something that's not subject to the moment. We see something that is more permanent in the person's body. So in a vata person, I'm going to be looking at the length of the bones, the sturdiness of the bones. The vata bones, because they're not as large, not as rounded, the bones will be thinner, but also you'll just see the features, more of their bones. The chin won't be as rounded. There'll be a little bit more of, like, an edge there. And that's also reflected in the less fat in the skin. Right. If there's less fat in the skin or the skin is thinner, you see the. Really all the nooks and crannies of the bone instead of it looking like a more blunt, rounded kind of edge. So definitely the bones, also the size of the lips, I think that's something that doesn't quite change too easily. Of course, as we age, lips get a little thicker, thinner. But in general, the volume of your lips is not subject to whatever sickness or imbalance you're having in the moment. It's permanent to semi permanent.

Yes. Because I think it's like I've definitely had a period in my life that I looked very vata, but I wouldn't say my main vicar tea is vata. And I do want to talk about that because I see some. You know, it's so interesting because I go to so many different Ayurveda practitioners because I'm so interested in this and different People will tell you different. So that's what I'd love to dive into after we get through all three is how accurate is the facial analysis to what your actual prakriti is? Because that's something that I'm like, I'm just very confused about still. Yeah, yeah, let's talk about pitta and kapha and then like dive in there. But I want people to have that on the back of their minds because when they're looking at their face and they're like, I don't know, I may be vata, I may be pitta and they're confused. Let's talk about that confusion after.

Great, great, that sounds good.

So what does a pitta face look like?

All right, so a pitta face. Again, we'll go through that same sequence, right? We'll start with the hair. Pitta hair is going to be a little fine. It's going to be fine and straight. Vata hair tends to be a little more frizzy pitha a little bit straight. It may be a lighter color. Pitha hair may be a little more reddish or brown instead of dark brown. And you'll see that it's very fine hair. And pitta ear, as mentioned before, it's going to be warm and I have a lot of pitta. So I experience this directly, especially after a meal. I eat a meal, 10 minutes later, my ears are hot and I could see that they're a little red. I'm like, oh, maybe there's a little too much spice in that food tonight. And so pitta people will notice that their ears will heat up, especially after a meal. And then I'll say to myself, okay, next meal a little less spice. I gotta keep my pitta in balance, right? So then when we look at face shape, we're going to see a bit more of a heart shaped face. And what is a heart shaped face? It means the forehead is generally wider than the chin. And this reflects, I think a very interesting phenomena about pitta is that pitta tends to have upward moving blood. All their blood's in the upper part of their body. And so all they're really, the energy is upward. Their mind is going 100 miles a minute, but they can't feel their feet. Right? Classic pitta sign. And, and so pitta people are hot headed. And with all that energy moving upward to the head, you see that the forehead grows more prominently than the chin. Now is that a scientific explanation? I don't know. I've been contemplating that for quite some time in my clinical Practice. And really that's the best answer that I can come up with. I do know that heat is always moving upward in a pitta. But is that the real reason why the forehead tends to be wider than the chin in a pitta person? Person? I'm guessing yes. But you know, but I'd love to get the math and the data behind that to prove it.

Yeah, that makes total sense. That makes total sense because the heat rises, which is what causes acne in pittas. So why wouldn't it also Cause, you know, eventually with all this blood rising, your face would look different.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's been happening your whole life. And so, you know, it's just, it creates that tendency as we move towards the eyebrows, we'll see it's similar to the hair, they're a little finer, a little lighter colored. The eyes of a pitta person will be more almond shaped, not quite as small as a vata eye, not quite as large as a kapha eye. Again, pitta is characterized by heat. And so pittas have a piercing gaze. And again, I'm pitta. So like when I'm looking at somebody, I'm not just like, you know, I'm not just sitting there looking, I'm like, you know, really thinking, analyzing, you know, wondering what's going on, what is the person thinking? You know, my mind is engaged when I look at a person. And when a pita person looks at you, you see that penetrating gaze that they have. And so also you may notice a pitta eye takes really two, a few forms actually. The first is because of all that heat. The pitta eye may be glowing, right? Almost like a sparkling, charming eye with a bright, bright blue color in it. Or really any pita eye can be brown as well, depending upon genetics. But their eye tends to be a little sparkly and a little charming. There's almost like a light there. And sometimes the heat can turn the eye color a bit towards the greenish side of things. And that's going to reflect heat in the liver, really. It's going to maybe even associate it with more passionate emotions or, or stronger emotions. And then on the other side, sometimes you get that more analytical pitta, that steel blue gaze, you know, kind of look. And in that eye you'll see the iris is very light colored. Instead of it being a darker blue, it may be a really light blue or a lighter brown or even gray. Right. We can talk about someone's eyes as being gray and that's more reflects pitta's analyticalness or fastidiousness again, not science, but an art here. So we're going to be looking for other things to, to confirm these signs. What about a pitta nose? You'll see the heat in a pitta's nose and in general, the skin on a pitta's face, you're going to see a lot of color there because of all the blood flow. And pitta's blood flows close to the surface of the skin. When the body's hot, it tries to radiate heat and it does that by dilating blood vessels on the surface of the skin. So you see a very colorful, vibrant look to pitta's skin that's going to be reflected in the nose as well. Pitted nose may be a little sharp or have more angular features. It'll be a medium width, not too thin pitta lips. Best thing about or the thing that I always appreciate when you're looking at the lips is you can really just directly see the red part of the blood. Right? You can see the health of their blood. If they're anemic, the lips are pale, but pit to people aren't anemic. So their lips tend to have a bright red color to them. And again, the pit to chin is going to be a little bit narrow. Forehead's gonna be wider than the chin. And that's what gives that heart shaped face so interesting.

I wanna, I'll say all my thoughts after, but a lot of the things that you say about pitta are my face, but I've always thought that I had a kapha face. So let's talk about the kapha face now. Okay? All right.

All right. Yeah. So a kapha face. We'll start with the hair. Thick, luxurious, wavy hair. In general, the kapha features are going to be a little bit more fleshed out because kapha is really able to nourish itself. Well, you know, if each of the three doshas eats the same quantity of food, vata will absorb much less of the food. Pitta will burn up the energy they get from the food. And kapha is both gonna absorb it and retain it. That ends up because of their really excellent ability to nourish themselves. The hair is gonna be nice and thick and the ears and other features are just gonna be a little bit more fleshed out. In fact, if the kapha person has high triglycerides or high cholesterol, you'll see the earlobe will even be almost a little puffy with a little crease that there. When we get to the kapha forehead and general Kapha shape of the face. We're going to be seeing a pear shaped face or a triangle shaped face. Now this is just the opposite of pitta with the heart shaped face. In a pear shaped face, the chin tends to be more broad and the forehead tends to be a little bit more narrow, reflecting that fluids tend to collect in the lower part of the body and the lower part of any extremity. Whereas pitta remember that heat was moving upward in kapha. The gravity and the coolness of kapha and the fluids of kapha sort of settled downwards. You may even see that a more of a double chin in a kapha person or that the chin is more so fleshed out that it's that you can't really even see the bone structure underneath. Depending upon the constitution, depending upon the level of imbalance there as well, you'll see that. And the brow of a kapha face is going to be heavier, sort of heavier, heartier brow. The eyebrows will be thicker, more bushier, and there can even be more of a unibrow. In a kapha person, the eyes will be larger and oval shaped and a very loving eye. Kapha people nurture themselves well, but they also tend to have a more gentler, nurturing disposition. And so, so rather than the anxious look of a vata eye or the penetrating gaze of a pitta eye, here we're going to see a more gentle eye, a larger eye as well, that kind of doe eyed appearance. The eyes will be more watery in a kapha person, the nose will be broader and you'll see in a vata person that the cheeks will be well fleshed out. Pitta people will have those higher cheekbones. Vata people may have gaunt cheeks. In kapha people have fleshed out cheeks.

So by fleshed out cheeks, what do you mean by that? Is there like a celebrity you can give an example of? Like I think of when I think of the kapha face, I think of Oprah, I think of Robin Williams and I think of Deepak Chopra.

Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah. Paula Deen, for a male Marlon Brando is one of my favorite. I mean you have to look them up to see. But like in his young days he had that like real robust pitta kapha face. Deepak Chopra, definitely more on the kapha side. The cheeks don't appear sunken at all.

And they end up aging very well because they have this extra like, you know, like juice and like fat in their face. But that prevents wrinkles.

Yeah, exactly, exactly, yes. And the face of a kapha Person is more rounded too. If it's not a pear shape, it'll be more of a rounded shape, almost like a moon face. Because kapha has. Tends to have lighter skin. And so kapha face has been compared to a moon face as well. And so that rounded face and the cheeks being a little more fleshed out contributes to that.

So I'm curious, based off of just pictures of me that you've seen, which would you say my face is?

Well, I would say that you have a combination. And in fact, working off of memory here, I would say you have a combination. I'm gonna jump on your site right now and kind of.

Because I always thought, yeah, I always thought I had a kapha face because I have bigger cheeks, like round cheeks, but I definitely have a chin. I have, like, big eyes. I don't have, like, thicker legs and thighs. I have probably really, actually scrawny arms and legs. So I was like, that doesn't fit with kapha. But I definitely have the big lips and big eyes and thick hair. So I'm curious to see what your take on it is.

Yeah, I definitely see that the roundness of the face which you see in kapha and your cheeks are fleshed out, and so you see that great ability to nourish yourself there. But as you look towards the nose and towards the chin, you see the fine features, right? There's a sense. It's almost like your nose has a delicateness to it. And so. So that's reflective that this isn't just a straight up kapha, that your constitution isn't just straight up kapha or even straight up pitta. In fact, I would even like venture to say that you have a good mix of the three doshas in your face. The lips are medium volume, and coloring is great. When you look, you don't see any sense of anemia anywhere or anything like that, but the skin seems vibrant. And I think a lot of. I think it's always hardest, I'll say, to analyze an ayurvedic practitioner. Why? Because they don't have any strong imbalances. Right. When you look at the face, you see that maybe if you had the standard American diet, right, we would look at your face and we would see some more obvious signs of a. Well, this is clearly imbalanced here, imbalance there. But you don't see that you have the vibrancy of. Of a pitta person with those nice kapha cheeks that show that your body nourishes itself well. So, yeah, I think your read on Your that you gave on your face is probably substantially similar to the one that I would give.

Okay, interesting. Yeah. I recently went on a panchakarma and from my pulse, she actually told me my prakriti is pitta, secondarily, vata, lastly kapha, which I was like, I, I never thought that my main prakriti would be pitta, but she said, that's just why I'm very driven and, you know, move fast and do a lot of things. But it was interesting because I always imagined a pitta face to be like the strong jawline and they're super like athletic looking. So it's interesting how your face is not like 100% one of the doshas. You're actually. So that's why I want to know so how accurate it is, this facial analysis towards what your prakriti actually is.

Really, I like to call it the art of face assessment and the art of face diagnosis. Because the first temptation people have is to look at it like a math equation. They try to do like the mathematics of Ayurveda or something, right? And that's just not the way it works. And so just as you said about your face and how that, you know, it sometimes can be, you know, you're thinking, okay, well, this isn't a straight answer here. What am I going to do, right? Any sign that I see, any one sign that I see on a client's body, I'm going to be looking to confirm that sign in numerous ways. I'm going to look to look at their tongue, I'm going to be looking at the teeth, I'm going to be looking at the whole form of the, of the person's body. And then finally I'm going to be looking at their intake forms and seeing what they're reporting. And all of that is going to inform my final decision. However, having said that, on the face itself, we do get to see numerous different pointers to prakruti and we get to often confirm those things directly on the face. And so, you know, when I see that chin in your photos, that more thinner chin, I know that this is not just a straight Pitakapha individual, that it's, you know, which pita kapha are the ones where you said have that like strong jawbone and that chiseled muscles, right? But we're not seeing that in your face. And so, you know, it's gonna, we're looking at one that you've done a lot of work to balance your, your doshas that's gonna Be reflected. But two, I think that, you know, I would. I would, you know, be so bold almost to say that that practitioner was probably right. Maybe, maybe Pitta is your primary dosha, even if kapha is the one that, that you may have struggled with earlier on in your life. And so what do we, in the end, trying to figure out your dosha is far less interesting to me as a practitioner than trying to figure out what do you need right now. So really what I want to know when I'm seeing a client is how can I help you right at this very moment? So I'm going to correlate. Lips, nose, eyes, tongue, pulse. Right. You can really see things with the pulse, too. It's that correlation and confirmation and checking on your work. That's what creates the accuracy.

So true. And some people really do fit the category, like Steve Jobs, for example. So Vata or Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley, Johnny Depp. These people have, like, very, like, sunken in lean bodies. So Vata and the personalities to match. Ascendant, eccentric, vivacious, maybe really in their heads, going fast. We know that about Steve Jobs.

Yeah.

And then for Pittas, some, like Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, like, so Jennifer Lopez, like, you can tell, they're just. They have strong bodies and their faces are so defined. And then, as we mentioned, some of the kapha examples, like Oprah and Deepak. And it's interesting because I've noticed a lot of spiritual teachers, like Amma, the hugging saint, et cetera, are all kapha. Have you ever noticed that?

Yeah, I have noticed that. I've contemplated that as well. I suspect that these individuals, because they're free of stress or not that they're free of stress. Actually, I never preach that. I never tell my clients, you should be free of stress because everybody has stress. Right. But these spiritual people, they know how to deal with tons of stress and still be very calm and. And not get their metabolism out of whack. You know, they remain balanced. And because of that, I think their bodies are just very well nourished. You know, they're nourished by the spirit itself, by God. Right. And so, you know, that grace that they have, I think that really all comes together with, you know, they're remaining balanced and they're spiritually fed. You know, I think that's. I think that's why. But I have noticed that, you know, they. Even if they didn't start out that way, they end up that way.

I think because you're also taking in so much energy that the body becomes you know, has to be able to hold that all in somatically, and that can make you gain weight, especially if you also. Sometimes it happens. Like the mothers and the grandmothers who give and give so much, they end up gaining weight because they're really holding that space for so many people.

Yeah. It is a fascinating thing to contemplate that, how that happens. And as I'm thinking about, I'm just noticing in so many spiritual traditions around the world, there are. Are people who survive on very little food or no food at all. I know there's certainly a tradition of that in India. These people who live without eating somehow.

Yes, the Breatharians.

Yeah. And that's not, you know, that's not just limited to India. I mean, there's like, you know, I've read like, Catholic saints who've like, live on that Holy Communion that, like, way for the Eucharist, you know, or, you know, it's just, how do we explain this phenomena that these people are able to nourish themselves and even appear plump despite their practice of eating very little? It's a fascinating thing to contemplate.

Yeah, I've always wondered that about Amma because Amma is traveling the world just hugging people. And people see, she sits in this chair for two days and doesn't even go to the bathroom, doesn't eat full time, is just hugging people. So I don't understand how is she, like, plump, like when we see that she's not eating and it just is something energetic that we can't explain.

Yeah, yeah. That is a great mystery. But it appears that we can indeed, like, you know, live on God's grace. And we should trust in that. I mean, those examples should basically lead us to trusting that we can be secure in, you know, in that relationship with God. And not to doubt. Not to doubt that because. Because it's probably that doubt that leads us to not handling stress well or to becoming emaciated, really, in the first place. And I think these spiritual individuals has shown us that we really don't have to worry that we will be fed, we will be nourished.

So true. So I think a lot of people right now are confused because they're not sure. Okay, I'm a cross between two. So what should they be looking out for in their face for the imbalances? So they know exactly what it is they should be addressing?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So when I'm looking at a client and I see that underneath their eyes is puffy, for example, I know that's an imbalance that's not constitution either. If the puffiness is really close to the bottom of the eyeball, I know they didn't get a good night's sleep. That's adrenal fatigue. It's like the lower lid of the eye appears puff, puffy. That's a person who hasn't slept well. If their eyes are bloodshot, that's an imbalance. They may be pitta puckruti, they may have a pitta constitution, but that's an imbalance of pitta. If they have bloodshot eyes, if they have that adrenal fatigue puffiness right beneath the lid, that's definitely a vata imbalance. If I see that the eyes are baggy, this is swelling a little bit lower. That's always a kapha imbalance. And so there in the eyes, I can see vata pitta or kapha imbalance. If I look at the white part of the eyes and I see that it's discolored in any way. Remember before we talked about the lips? With the lips, you can see the red part of the blood when you're looking at these, the white part of the eye or the teeth, or really the teeth and the white part of the eye are just so valuable diagnostically because you can look and see the quality of the blood plate. Now, if your blood plasma is clear, that white part of the eye is going to be bright and shiny and glowing. If there's ama, there's toxins in the body, these white parts, they're going to show. It's going to show right there. If I see that the eye is gray, the sclera, If I see the sclera, that white part of the eye is a little bit yellowish right away. It is a definite imbalance. Gray is imbalance in the colon, gas bloating, constipation, something along those lines. Yellow in the eye, liver stress to the point where bilirubin is leaking into the blood and it's discoloring the blood, giving it a slightly yellowish tint. Classic pitta sign. And yeah, so really the eyes are such a great window into the current imbalance. And then the next biggest area is the skin. The skin. You know, the quality of the skin can change within 24 hours. If you don't sleep the night before, your face may be a little puffy the next day, reflecting low acne, low metabolic fire, low digestive fire. Your skin may have a duller appearance because of ama, because of that low metabolism. If your pitta is raging, you're going to person may even break out into hives, or they're going to. You'll see the rash will be aggravated, acne may be aggravated, etc. So the skin and the eyes, I think, are the clearest signs. And then it's not exactly the face, but when the person's talking, you can tell also. I mean, the voice reveals everything about their emotional state. And emotions are so easily, you know, go out of balance that looking at the eye, hearing the sound of the voice, we're going to know their imbalances just by being observant of those two qualities.

So very true. And yeah, that's amazing to see that where the puffiness is located, because most of us just say, oh, I have bags under my eyes. So if it's a little bit bluish, can you tell us about, like, maybe the tints of the color of what part of the body, maybe bags under your eyes? Because sometimes it's more like blue. Purple can be yellow, sometimes it's just a mark, but there's no color. So can you differentiate between that?

Okay, yes, I can. Yes, I can. So sometimes what happens underneath the eye is you notice that it's purple. And you mentioned that the bags of the eyes are a little blue. Maybe we're talking about the exact same thing here. But what I notice is that when that eye is underneath the eye is blue like that. It's actually that there's one blood stagnation. Anytime you see blue, you know you're looking at blood stagnation, right? The blood has given up all its oxygen and the area starts to look like a vein. Right. What's the difference in a vein and an artery? Veins look like they're bluish because the blood is deoxygenated. So anytime we see blue color, we know the blood's been sitting there for a while and it's deoxygenated. It's a sign of blood stagnation. But in particular, when that purpleness appears beneath the eye, I notice that it's coupled with dryness and vata. It's actually deflated that there's not a bag there at all, in a way, but, like, it's totally deflated. And again, if you've seen. If you're talking about something different than what I'm talking about, then we can expand on it. So that dryness and that blood stagnation I associate with vata and kidney, when I see that blue sign there, I'm thinking I want to hydrate that person, buck up their electrolytes a little bit. That's typically the case now there's some variants when I say black beneath the eye, when the eye appears slightly puffy and it's almost like almost black or even without the puffiness, if it looks a little greenish or blackish beneath the eye. Gallbladder stagnation. That's what I'm thinking. And you, you see this in cartoons, right? When the person's face turns green from smoking a cigar, like a cartoon character smokes a cigar and then their face turns green. Right? That you're dealing with toxicity with the liver. When you get that sallow complexity anywhere in the body and you see it right beneath the eye like that. I think of that as gallbladder stagnation and associated with deep frustration also.

So, so very fascinating. Wow. So now everyone is running to the mirror not just to look at their tongues, but also their faces. And if you haven't listened to the tongue episode, listen to that too. So you have an incredible Ayurvedic practitioner training that is happening in your own school. Joyful Belly. Can you tell us a little bit about the two programs? I'll share more about them at the the end of, of the episode as well, but just so they can kind of see. Will you be covering this sort of stuff and what else will be covered?

Absolutely, yeah. We are going to cover face assessment and diagnosis in all of its glory as well as, you know, the tongue, et cetera. I mean, all these, all these things are so exciting. I put a lot of emphasis on clinical assessment because, you know, I just find it so fascinating to know a person, right. To try to get to see what's going on. You know, it's a wonderful skill to develop. So yeah, we have two programs, our Fundamentals in Natural Healing two year program to become an Ayurvedic health counselor. That, that program really just covers all the fundamentals of Ayurveda and really the paradigm of natural health too. That's why we call it the Fundamentals of Natural Healing is really where, you know, it's a rich. It's just, it's a rich program and a fascinating program. We go through theory the first year and then second year we start to introduce clinic into that too, so that at the end you'll be seeing clients. You'll have learned a ton through that program, really. The Mastering Ayurvedic Digestion Nutrition program. That is our specialized course in digestive health and Ayurvedic nutrition. Ayurveda has such a strength in digestion, such a great understanding of how to use food to support the whole person that really, we just can't overlook it. I know that 10 years from now the whole world is going to be looking towards Ayurveda for its digestive wisdom, its digestive expertise, and probably going to get just incorporated into every other discipline. I mean, it's that valuable. And it's my specialty too. I specialize in digestive health and, well, wellness. And I suffered from digestive problems and used Ayurveda to heal it. And so we have that one year program to elevate your knowledge in digestive health and Ayurvedic nutrition to the point of mastery. And we get practitioners in that program that have been out practicing for 10 years coming into that program and learn a ton. So both of those programs are fascinating programs.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today, for allowing us to get to know our bodies better through the scope of our faces. And so many listeners I know are excited to launch their own careers in this. And thank you for allowing the opportunity for us to become certified in this wisdom from the comfort of our homes online. And I really just acknowledge the work that you've done in this field.

Well, it's truly a pleasure to do it. It's wonderful to offer it.

Oh, thank you so much. Namaste.

Namaste.

Are you amazed, Enlightened, inspired, shocked, surprised? All of the above? Yes. I know it is a lot to take in and you've done an amazing job being present, listening, opening your mind and receiving. So I acknowledge you for that. And this is just the beginning. So if you loved this episode, please check out my book, Eat Feel free. Fresh, available for pre order on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, wherever books are sold. And as a special gift for all who pre order, that means you order before it comes out on October 2, I will be sending you in the mail, snail mail a signed book plate from me as well as an inspirational card. And I'll be emailing you 10 bonus recipes that are not included in this book. So you're gonna be getting the booklet for cheaper and getting all these bonuses and all you have to do is pre order. So why not? And the reason why I'm asking you to do this is because when you pre order a book, that actually helps get the stores and Amazon to order more copies of it because they see that people are actually interested. So you know when you order a book and it's like this isn't going to be available for four to six weeks, that's because not enough people pre ordered it. And I don't want that to happen to you or anyone. So please pre order the book. You're going to get it for $16.50 on Amazon right now instead of $25 dollars. Almost $10 off and I will be mailing you signed book plate inspirational card and emailing you 10 bonus recipes. And if you are interested in becoming a Joyful Belly certified Ayurvedic Practitioner or Digestive Counselor, please head over to my website iamsaharose.com Sahara like the desert or click over on this podcast little info section. You'll find the link there. Be sure to sign up. The Health Counselor program begins end of August. The Digestive program begins in October. Sign up as soon as possible. Please use my link to receive the $1,000 off bonus. Let me know when you signed up so I can add you to the Facebook group. And I'm so excited to have you on this journey and if you loved this episode I would love to send you a free gift which is the first half of my Eat Right for your mind body type ebook. This is an unreleased book different from my book Eat Feel Fresh which is going to be out October 2nd and big bookstores nationwide. To get the first half free all you gotta do is leave a review on itunes, take a screenshot before you hit send and send that screenshot to me at Sahara S A H A R aatteelfresh.com and I will send you back the first half of my unit released book Eat Right for your mind body type. Namaste.

RA.