Our mood impacts the quality of our lives significantly. If you are in a bad mood and can’t control your emotions, you attract more and more reasons to be unsatisfied and miserable. But if you are in a good mood and have control over your reactions to negative events you can always turn a negative situation into a positive, see the positive sides of any problem, and take life challenges as life lessons that are designed to make us a better version of ourselves. Most of us know how important it is to see the positive side, however, sometimes we allow our mood to go from positive to a negative degree and it seems like we lose control not just over our emotions but also over our lives. In order to control your response to life events, you need to learn how to manage your mood. Knowing your Ayurvedic dosha can help you with it!
If you find yourself chronically unable to control your emotional response to situations, then this article is for you!
In this article, we will share with you 7 simple yet effective tips for each Ayurvedic dosha on how to become a master of your mood.
7 Tips For Each Ayurvedic Dosha On How To Improve Your Mood
Any person is endowed with great potential and is able to move their life into a balance in which their mental and physical state will feel best. This is the feeling when you go to bed at night, looking forward to waking up and life tomorrow.
Here are 7 tips on how to calm the mind and bring us to a state of balance or Sattva Guna.
Tip #1: Balance Your Diet
It is important to understand which foods and their combinations suit a particular dosha. As well as how to balance food depending on the seasons and climate. You need to determine your own dosha type and to begin to learn about nutrition, food, herbs, and ayurvedic medicine that is suitable for your dosha type.
To find out your dosha, take our Ayurvedic Body Type Quiz!
Vata Dosha Diet
Be sure to adhere to a nutritious and strengthening diet. Food should be warm, heavy, and moist, such as thick soups and stews.
When cooking, add spices to your meals, such as:
- Asafoetida – helps in reducing bloating, flatulence, irritable bowel syndrome; the antioxidant properties can help in overcoming indigestion problems; helps in preventing constipation.
- Ginger – stokes the digestive fire, whets the appetite, improves assimilation, and transportation of nutrients to targeted body tissues, and clears the microcirculatory channels of the body.
- Fennel – acts as a general toner for the digestive system, and is particularly good for enhancing Agni, the digestive fire.
- Coriander – eases gastrointestinal discomfort.
- Cardamom – increases appetite, helps to reduce bloating, borborygmus, flatulence, and indigestion; stimulates the digestive fire while helping to clear excess mucous from the stomach.
Diet Tips For Vata Dosha:
- Make sure you eat regularly and do not skip meals;
- Exclude dry snacks, coffee, and iced drinks.
Pitta Dosha Diet
Pittas, on the contrary, should not eat too many hot meals. Your food should be cool, heavy, and dry. Make sure you don’t use too much seasoning and spices when preparing your meals.
When making your food, you can use such spices as:
- Turmeric – strengthens the overall energy of the body, relieves gas, dispels parasites, improves digestion.
- Mint – improves digestion.
- Cumin – reduces bloating, vomiting, diarrhea, dysentery, and malabsorption syndrome.
- Fennel – acts as a general toner for the digestive system, and is particularly good for enhancing Agni, the digestive fire.
Diet Tips For Pitta Dosha:
Exclude alcohol and coffee and other hot and stimulating beverages.
Kapha Dosha Diet
Kaphas should stick to a light diet with the addition of hot spices. Your food should be light, warm, and dry.
When preparing your meal, use the following spices:
- Black pepper – promotes the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which improves digestion, helps ease flatulence, eliminates toxins from the body through increased urination and sweating.
- Mustard seeds – improve digestion and are good for alleviating stomach discomforts such as gas or cramps.
- Cloves – improve digestion, prevent the formation of gas in the gastrointestinal tract, and help with expulsion.
- Pippali – increases digestion and helps to burn toxins.
- Dry ginger – improves digestion, enhances appetite, pacifies stomach disorders.
Diet Tips For Kapha Dosha:
Do not drink ice water, replace it with herbal or regular tea.
Tip #2: Practice Yoga
Yoga Practice For Vata Dosha:
- “Grounding” calming asanas;
- Backbends;
- Inverted poses;
- Alternate nostril breathing (Anuloma Viloma Pranayama).
Yoga Practice For Pitta Dosha:
- Sitting or lying asanas;
- Shoulder stand;
- Sheetkari pranayama.
Yoga Practice For Kapha Dosha:
- Intensive exercises with a minimum number of sitting asanas;
- Bhastrika pranayama;
- Surya bhedana pranayama.
Tip #3: Practice Yoga Nidra
This deep relaxation technique is useful for all three doshas. 20 minutes during the day or before going to bed will help clear the mind of mental tension, stop the negative internal dialogue, and let go of toxic thoughts.
Tip #4: Meditate
Meditation is a sedative for the psyche and nervous system and is beneficial for all three doshas.
Meditation is not an attempt to control your thoughts or try to get rid of them, but rather to observe and contemplate everything around you, including your thoughts.
Sit in silence for at least a few minutes and watch what happens. You don’t need to focus on anything. Just relax and be in the moment, accepting all the thoughts and feelings.
In order for meditation to work for you, make sure you practice it regularly.
Tip #5: Oil Massage
Regular massage and external application of oils are necessary for everyone! Oil massage nourishes the heart and calms the mind, gives elasticity to the muscles and ligaments, strengthens the bones.
Massage Oils For Each Ayurvedic Dosha:
- Vata dosha: sesame oil.
- Pitta dosha: coconut oil.
- Kapha dosha: mustard oil, flaxseed oil.
Tip #6: Use Essential Oils
Essential oils have a very beneficial effect on our mood and health. They help open the mind and heart, purify the air and aura, and improve energy levels.
Essential Oils For Each Ayurvedic Dosha:
- For Vata dosha, warm and soothing oils are suitable: sandalwood, camphor, cinnamon, musk.
- For Pitta dosha, cooling oils are recommended: vetiver, rose, lotus, jasmine, iris, henna, honeysuckle.
- For Kapha dosha, it is recommended to use stimulating and cleansing oils: musk, clove, cedar, frankincense, myrrh.
Tip #7: Use Color Therapy
Did you know that your mind and emotions can be harmonized with colors? Visual impressions nourish the mind and balance the doshas.
Color Therapy For Vata Dosha
Vata Dosha type people are sensitive and prone to depression. Therefore, if you are a Vata Dosha type, make sure to exclude dark colors, especially black, gray, and brown. To lift your mood, the use of orange, yellow, and red colors are recommended.
Color Therapy For Pitta Dosha
Pitta Dosha type people, for balancing their “hotness” need more cooling colors, such as blue, white, and green. Try to avoid bright colors, especially fiery red. Dark colors are not critical, but black is best excluded.
Color Therapy For Kapha Dosha
Hesitant Kaphas are not recommended to wear pastel and pale colors, especially shades of pink, blue, and green. It is best to choose warm colors, such as bright orange, yellow, and red. Brown, grey, and black are better used in moderation.
The Bottom Line
Life uncertainty can bring imbalance into our daily routine and cause mood swings. However, knowing your ayurvedic dosha can help you understand your body better and prevent imbalance. We hope our tips for each ayurvedic dosha will help you to calm the mind and bring you into a state of balance, peace, and harmony.