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 Keeping your doshas in balance is a very important part of Ayurveda. Your body has its own state of harmony and equilibrium, and it is different for every individual. What I find hard sometimes is to identify when this harmony has been disrupted and my doshas are off balance. Fortunately, Ayurvedic practitioners use a measure termed “Vikriti” which can help compare your current state with your optimum state of balance.
It involves analyzing certain characteristics of your body’s functioning. These characteristics can provide you with a useful insight into your body’s behavior and what your body requires to get back into balance. Such analysis can be very beneficial for both your physical and emotional well being. There are four major areas which you can look at to help determine your imbalance:
Mood
- Feeling annoyed and frustrated? – You may have a Pitta Imbalance.
- Are you anxious or feeling nervous? – Vata Imbalance.
- Feeling lethargic or sluggish? – Kapha Imbalance.
Appetite
- Eating too much and hungry all the time – You may have a Pitta Imbalance.
- Forgetting to eat and passing on meals, with a fluctuating appetite – Vata Imbalance.
- Feeling dull and losing your appetite – Kapha Imbalance.
Energy Levels
- Feeling intensely driven or have very intense levels of energy? You may have a Pitta Imbalance.
- Having variations in energy, with a tendency to start many projects but not finish? – Vata Imbalance.
- Feeling lazy, heavy and sluggish? – Kapha Imbalance.
Pain
- Heartburn and upper abdomen discomfort – Pitta Imbalance.
- Joint and back pain – May suggest Vata Imbalance
- Sinus and chest problems? Look into a Kapha imbalance.
These are just some of the ways in which your body can tell you about potential issues to consider. Even something as seemingly insignificant as the taste in your month can suggest a Dosha imbalance of some kind. This goes all the way back to how you digest food and how your body reacts. Having a sour taste may suggest a Pitta issue and that you should adjust your diet accordingly. The same goes for Kapha, where sweet and salty tastes may be prevalent, and Vata where you may experience a bitter taste.
Vikriti is an invaluable way for both you and I to keep our health in check. It not only makes sure that we are at our best physically, but also mentally and emotionally. For, in Ayurveda, all of these aspects are interlinked together. A better understanding of your body’s constitution will lead you to be more conscious of how you live your life. This will in turn help keep your body in its natural state of balance, so you can really feel both physically and mentally strong throughout the year when you are faced with a whole host of different challenges. It is a great way to help manage your health and you can use the checklist at any time to quickly assess what imbalances you may have.
If you’d like to take a more complete questionnaire to get a feel for your vikriti, take our Current Condition test.
 Summer is a difficult time of year for all the pitta people out there, so here are some tips and insights to help you enjoy the season. Â As any Ayurvedic practitioner will tell you, the lead up to the summer months can be a particularly tricky one if you are pitta dominant.
If you have plenty of Pitta in your constitution, you will also have to cope with all the high summer temperatures. This can present a number of challenges, not all physical. Skin rashes, infection, fevers and acid reflux can all be physical manifestations of your body’s pitta imbalance, but you also should remember that Ayurveda includes many emotional factors. Anger and impatience within pitta individuals is common. So you will really benefit from reducing your stress during this difficult time.
For those of you who are Pitta predominant, what normally happens is that too much heat is stored within your body’s system leading to an imbalance in how your body digests food and deals with toxins. If you are already suffering from physical health problems related to Pitta imbalance, detoxification can help reset your system and make the rest of the summer season more pleasant and enjoyable.
Excess toxins such as chemicals, pollutants, heavy metals, drugs, toxins and the Ayurvedic property known as Ama (which is an undigested sticky residue) all play their part in disturbing how your body digests food, converts it into energy and forms body tissue. All these things can manifest in the pitta imbalances highlighted above.
To support your body’s natural detoxification process, and to help maintain Pitta balance, I have found some excellent Ayurvedic herbs which can really help out, especially in summer when this imbalance has the potential to be at its peak. The herb Amalaki is excellent at removing toxins from the GI tract and the colon. As well as aiding detoxification, it is high in antioxidants which reinforce the immune system.
Additionally, Neem is especially good for you. Any Pitta individual should consider taking a look at this wonderful herb for, in Ayurveda, it is believed to help regulate body temperature, cool and soothe the skin and support the body’s ability to flush toxins in the blood. The combined immune supportive and detoxifying effect it engenders is really helpful for you when dealing with a pitta imbalance. There are many other remedies to try, but these two are particularly effective ones you can consider.
I hope that gives you a better idea of what is meant by Pitta imbalance and Pitta individuals. Summer is particularly difficult for those who are Pitta predominant, and what you have to keep in mind is that your goal is always to keep in balance with nature and your body. Finding the right foods and herbs, as well as calming your emotional side through meditation and exercise can all play a big part in giving you an enjoyable summer free of any health issues!
 Do you struggle to feel content? Do you find it difficult to balance all the competing demands you face every day? You are not alone! Feeling content and balanced is not simple or straightforward as we try to reconcile all the competing demands we face.
We all could do with some help, and this starts when we acknowledge that contentment is a skill we can learn. We all learn skills when we are younger like how to drive or how to use a PC, yet we are not taught how to be content. We tend to believe that feeling content is a state of mind that arises and disappears, based on the state of our lives at any given time. So, if we enjoy our job or we are in a good relationship, we feel content. On the other hand, if we have financial worries or have health problems, we feel discontent.
The dilemma with this belief is that it places contentment out of our control, like the weather or the stock market. Ayurveda takes a radically different perspective. Ayurvedic healers believe that you can feel content irrespective of what is happening in the rest of your life. Your contentment comes from your inner source, not from outer sources over which you have no control.
So, you do not need to wait for that “perfect” moment when everything comes together and all areas of your life are in complete balance. Such moments are very rare and also mean that you are denying yourself those feelings of happiness and calm that are always available to you. Let go of the need for perfection, and notice how your stress starts to dissolve.
You may also need some tools and support to help access your feelings of contentment. Yoga and Meditation are invaluable, and there are a number of Ayurvedic Oils that can help too. One of the most valuable is Brahmi Oil. Before you take shower, try using this oil. You can warm it up by placing the bottle in a bowl of hot water, and you then rub the oil on your feet and temples. You can also apply it to other areas of your body, including your head and scalp. After a shower, you will feel a warm, calming feeling which the Brahmi oil has engendered. This type of Ayurvedic oil massage is called Abhyanga and can really help to calm and relax you.
Add this simple Ayurvedic massage to your daily routine and you may notice that you start to feel more balanced and content. You can even do this at night before going to bed to support sound sleep. Often, simple methods can have the most profound effects, and many Ayurvedic practitioners recommend Brahmi oil for this purpose. This practice will help you to cultivate a new, more gentle outlook on life that will help you relieve stress and feel more calm.
Above all, you will be taking control of your mood and feelings. Just imagine the power of knowing that you can feel content no matter what is happening to you in your personal life or career. Every day you exercise this new power and savor the feeling of contentment, you will naturally become happier and calmer.
You probably know that your digestive system has a critical part to play in how healthy you are. Â We all have different appetites, and while some seem like they can eat everything under the sun, others suffer with heartburn, indigestion and other issues. In Ayurveda, the nature of how you digest food is defined in terms of three doshas.
1. Vata – You would be classed as a vata type individual if you suffer from constipation, irregular bowel movements and a loss of appetite. Vata is a dosha classed as both variable and delicate.
2. Kapha – If you have slow digestion but have a very good appetite, you would be defined as a Kapha type. Kaphas normally however are prone to eating too much, leading to weight gain. I’m sure a lot of people would be classed in this category but Ayurveda has many ways to help you out if you are!
3. Pitta – Those who would be classed as Pitta generally have the best metabolism out of the three doshas. Although they consume a lot of food, their bodies can digest it very quickly. They will have an excellent appetite but not gain the weight that others do. What lucky people! They can, however, be prone to things like acid reflux and inflammations or ulcers.
In Ayurveda, Pitta is essentially in charge of the GI tract and how well the acids and enzyme digest the food. Ayurvedic medicine therefore tries to help improve metabolism and digestion rate through the cultivation of something called Agni.
Agni, which is also known as digestive fire, is essentially the measure of how well you metabolize food and convert it into energy. The stronger the Agni, the better your health is effectively. Key to understanding Ayurvedic medicine, diet and philosophy is that you must consider what exercise you should be doing, what foods you are eating and what meditations you should practice during different times of year, as the seasons and environment also impact your digestion.
Different seasons can lead to the weakening of Agni.  For example in the fall, which is Vata in nature, cold, dry and windy weather can actually affect issues with digestion. People don’t always see this, but the human body shouldn’t have the same diet all year round. It is obvious that during summer you should have more to drink but is less obvious during the fall. The dryness doesn’t only have an effect on your skin, but also internally within your organs.
Dryness can engender the Vata dosha, which can consequently affect the strength of Agni. If you are vata-dominant already, this can have significant consequences which you may notice; so I would recommend looking at grounding, heavy foods rich in nutrition such as carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, acorns and buttercup squashes. Â Eating such nutritious foods can help to counteract the effects of the season and ensure your digestion and overall health are not damaged in any way.
In this way, each of the doshas can impact your digestion. This includes not only the doshas of your own constitution, but the doshas of the seasons. Living in tune with these natural rhythms can leave you feeling healthy, energized, and ready to face everything in your day.
In the practice of Ayurveda, there is great emphasis on finding balance and calm in our lives. So we believe it is important that we are aware of just how we live our lives moment to moment to ensure that we can achieve this wonderful balance. Nowadays, faced by so much change and stress in our everyday lives, it can be very difficult to do so.
Certainly, there are a number of Ayurvedic herbal remedies that can help in times of stress, such as Ashwagandha. Yet we also need to address our daily habits and lifestyle. Let’s face it, life can be made very hard or very simple depending on how we live our lives day to day. Many people try to do too much and have a pace of life that is not beneficial to their own health. Others go at a much slower pace and are able to cope with all things that life throws at them.
Some people just seem to be genetically coded to take things in stride and not let life’s challenges worry them. For everyone else though, you have to manage your life and manage the speed at which you go, coping with everything the world has to offer. Few of us are trained to handle these challenges and many of us do not deal with the challenges very well. With this in mind, one of the crucial tenets of Ayurveda is the ability to manage the stress and tensions in your life through cultivating Prana.
In Ayurveda, Prana is defined as the life force within each human being, animal or living thing. It inhabits all of our living cells, animates our bodies and drives us forward, inspiring us to greater heights. It is essentially the will of the body to find the right foundation for our lives.
Everyone’s Prana manifests differently as each person pursues what they envision as a healthy, settled and fulfilling life. As you seek to be happy, your Prana will support and sustain you, and keeps you on the right footing so to speak. It is said that wherever attention flows, Prana, the life energy follows; this infusion of energy helps us to bring to fruition whatever we put our energy into. Even within the body, when there is stagnation of Prana, pain and disease follow.
To keep you on the right path, in harmony and in “control” of Prana, Ayurveda relies on the limb of yoga which is designed specifically to give you the tools for Prana management, or what is termed Pranayama. Pranayama is best learned from a teacher, as it deals with the life energy itself. It is quite worth the commitment, as it supports health, longevity, and spiritual upliftment.
In the journey of exploring your own Prana, and in discovering the appropriate Pranayama for your body, you have to first learn to become aware of how the life energy flows in you. Notice whether you feel that your energy posture, the energy that drives your body, is an important part of your awareness during your yoga practice. Are you thinking not just how you body reacts but what energies you are utilizing, how they are flowing, and the subtle effects they have on your body? This, in Ayurveda, is key to learning Pranayama, and to mastering the Prana in daily life.
Posted in Exercise, Health
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 Spring is the Allergy season and allergies can be very irritating. I should know, as I have suffered from bad hay fever, or allergic rhinitis to give it its medical name, since I was a child, and the feeling of a blocked up nose and itchy eyes can get most tiresome after a while. There are, however, some more fortunate sufferers who are not affected as badly as I am . The reason behind this, I have discovered, is that each person’s body reacts differently when a foreign substance is inhaled into the body. An allergic reaction is actually a sign that the body can’t cope with that substance.
In my case,  I am allergic to particular types of pollen and my body’s reaction is to sneeze in order to get rid of the unwanted particles. It is quite amazing when you think that the body has this system in place to help protect you in such a surprising way. The problem for me really comes down to the actual strength of the allergic reaction. For me, Hay fever can be very distracting while I am trying to work or do other activities, and the levels of sneezing and coughing, sinus issues and itchy eyes are a sign that I really need to do something about it.
So what are the best ways to treat such a condition? Well, one of critical facts I have discovered is that the allergic reaction is triggered because the immune system is trying to remove what it sees as an excess amount of toxins in the body. My body sees pollen as a toxin, an unwanted substance, and therefore it struggles to remove it, resulting in the symptoms of coughing and sneezing.
So, one of the best remedies is to help our immune systems in any way we can by removing the allergens when possible and improving the body’s ability to tolerate allergens, thereby helping the allergies. Â Fortunately, help is at hand when we turn to Ayurveda, and we can follow the principles of Ayurvedic healing to ensure that we eat the right foods to boost our immune system.
What we eat is critical to our overall health, and recently, I have starting eating foods that are warm, easy to eat and are good for digestion. Soups and meals that include whole grains have been particularly high on the menu while I have removed many dairy products, cold drinks and sugar from my diet. In addition, I have started drinking hot green and ginger teas to aid digestion.
The right supplements will help too, and  you may want to consider taking the Ayurvedic herbal remedy, Triphala, which can help with digestion and also is excellent for detoxification. It helps the body naturally clear the digestive system of any foreign substances that the body deems to be toxins. A neti pot can also be a great way to keep the nasal passages and sinuses clean by rinsing out dust particles, pollens, etc. Combined with your new diet, you may notice that you feel a lot healthier and energetic, and that you cope much better with your allergies. Then you will not worry about the arrival of Spring and celebrate all its glories instead!
This is a guest post written by David Tully in the UK
 Fatigue can often generally be attributed to lifestyle or dietary problems. The way you live your life and how you eat largely determines the energy levels within your body. Especially important is how you eat, the strength of your digestion, and what sort of foods you are able to digest. Remember that when you consume food, you are trying to build up energy and the type of food that your digest determines how much is absorbed by your body’s cells.
By not eating properly, you are not only opening yourself up to having lower energy levels and being susceptible to fatigue, but you may also have other health problems later in life, such as heart disease, which are related to your poor diet later in life. For your body’s sake and to keep you feeling alive and ready to go, finding the right diet is crucial.
Generally speaking, some of the foods to avoid are fatty foods, those high in refined/processed carbohydrates, sugars and stimulants such as caffeine. This is not purely because they make you gain weight; it is because they can cause havoc on your entire system; excess refined sugars, for example, can stress your endocrine system in addition to your digestion, which can lead you to feeling tired. Unhealthy fatty foods, like those made with processed oils and saturated fats, can coat your intestinal wall and can result in less food being absorbed into your system, so cells are provided with less energy, leaving you feeling fatigued.
This information, though, is nothing new, and you can find more general dietary recommendations on websites such as WebMD. What you may not have heard before is the Ayurvedic perspective. Ayurveda believes strongly that the strength of your digestive fire makes all the difference in how well you are able to convert food into energy and into healthy tissues. To support your digestive fire, eat warm, cooked foods that are natural to the season. Add digestive spices such as cumin, mustard seed, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. And avoid raw, dry foods and iced drinks.
Traditional Ayurvedic herbs can also help support your energy levels if they are on the low side.
Ashwagandha can be particularly good if you are feeling tired. It is said to support your body when you are facing high stress levels, and it can encourage a healthy sleeping pattern. In Ayurveda, it is believed to revitalize the immune system and is regarded as both a rejuvenative and adaptogenic herb which can really assist in the fight against fatigue.
Similarly, taking Chyavanprash is a great way of restoring energy. As a nutritive jam, it can replace the need for a stimulant like caffeine and even sugar to provide you with that extra energy boost. It is said to help rejuvenate the body through helping the body’s immunity and metabolism, supporting digestion, and promoting healthy energy levels.
On their own, these Ayurvedic remedies will support your energy, but you must also address the root issue that is draining your energy. In combination with the right exercise regimen, and most importantly healthy digestion with the right diet, the supplements can really boost the low energy, fatigued state you may find yourself in. The inherent nature of Ayurveda takes into consideration a number of factors. Eating right, dietary supplements and specific exercise techniques in yoga, pranayama, and meditation can really set you up on the path to a more fulfilling lifestyle. Take these tips to heart, consider adding the likes of Ashwagandha and Chyavanprash to your diet, and you will definitely start to see a difference in a very short period of time. Fight fatigue by ensuring your lifestyle and diet are aligned correctly and use Ayurvedic herbs to help you.
 In a recent study at Johns Hopkins University, research has shown that a low fat, low carb diet, designed to remove belly fat, can improve blood flow function and lower the risk of heart conditions. It is not a surprising discovery, but it does emphasize once again the importance of eating properly. Ayurvedic healers, however, believe that the timing of a diet is also critical. They believe that a constant diet isn’t the remedy for long term health, and that diet choices should be based on the time of year.
 Indeed, spring is the season for a lighter, cleansing diet in Ayurvedic practice. This is because the foods that nature provides during these months, just before summer, are all of the lighter variety. The ground is full of moisture and water during these months, and foods such as berries and green vegetables begin to thrive.
They are fat free and mucous free, and Ayurvedic healers believe that this is part of nature’s cycle. These fruits and vegetables are available immediately after winter when heavier foods with greater amounts of fats, such as dairy products, nuts and red meat are consumed.
Spring offers us a wonderful opportunity to apply Nature’s way of cleansing the body after months of increasing fat levels in the cold winter months. Indeed, the Kapha balancing diet, which is adhered to in in spring by Ayurveda, really is about changing your diet according to the season which you are in.
For a long time, people have lived off the land and taken what nature has provided them with, according to the seasonal cycle. Rather than following a strict, low fat diet plan, Ayurveda is more concerned with ensuring you are eating the right food all year round, rather than the same type of food.
When you eat a diet in accordance with the principles of nature, you are taking a sensible approach to keeping your weight at a healthy level. So the season of spring, with vegetables, beans and berries, is the ideal time for eating lighter foods to balance out other parts of the year, ensuring a “balanced” diet rather than a “constant” diet, which so many weight loss plans are prone to recommending.
You may also support your “spring diet” with exercise and particular Ayurvedic herbal formulations like the popular Triphala. When you take Triphala as a supplement to your meals, you aid proper digestion and elimination. Triphala also promotes healthy eating habits and cravings as it promotes healthy absorption and assimilation of nutrients. It helps to keep your body feeling properly nourished and balanced, which is an important element of any diet.
 According to recent research featured in the Nutrition Journal eating less meat, poultry and fish can improve your mood. Many Ayurvedic practitioners are also vegetarian and, here at Banyan, we are always interested in the link between diet and our physical and mental state.
 Ayurvedic healers believe that our levels of stress are directly connected to our diet. They hold out the promise that if we improve our diet, we can reduce our stress. At the heart of this conviction is the critical principle of Ayurvedic medicine that many diseases can originate in the digestive system. This means that your diet is of the utmost importance to keeping you healthy. Indeed, you may even find yourself in a double bind. Not only does the wrong diet increase your stress, but when you are stressed you are more likely to choose a poor diet.
 This vicious circle develops in subtle ways that you may not even notice. For example when you are feeling very tired and are overworked, physical stress will leave you lower in energy. The same applies with respect to emotional stress. If you are going through a difficult period in your personal life, it will have an impact on you physically too, leaving you exhausted and having reduced energy. This means you will also have less energy to digest the food you are eating. Poor digestion can lead to a number of problems which can exacerbate physical and emotional stress such as indigestion, heartburn or sluggishness, which can then lead to more serious conditions like gastric ulcers. So it is important that you make the right diet choices. If you are lacking energy, your digestive system will not be able to digest as much, and it is important to eat lighter foods. If you are stressed out and tired, do not eat “heavy” foods such as potatoes and others high in carbohydrates as they will not be digested as well, and will not give you the energy boost you are looking for. Eat fresh vegetables, rice and soup rather than anything more substantial. Your health will benefit greatly from doing so and help you to improve the strength required to prevent you from having more serious health problems. In addition to changing your diet, there are a number of Ayurvedic remedies that will facilitate the relief of stress. Ayurvedic healers often recommend Ashwagandha. When you take Ashwagandha as a supplement to your meals, you help to calm your body and support a healthy nervous system. In addition Ashwagandha offers other benefits such as contributing towards the maintenance of a healthy immune system, fostering healthy sleep patterns and sustaining energy levels. So, maybe you might consider eating more vegetables and fruits, and less meat and poultry in conjunction with Ashwagandha. This versatile herb can be taken in either powder or tablet form. For suggestions about the best way to take it, please visit our page all about Ashwagandha where we offer advice and guidance. Above all, learn more about Ayurveda as there are several thousand years’ worth of invaluable ideas about how to promote calm and well-being!
An online Indian newspaper, the Hindustan Times, reported today about a 300 year old Banyan tree in New Dehli that is dying because of lack of care. The roads around the tree were widened and paved in 2010 for the Commonwealth Games, and the area around the tree was tiled, cutting off need aeration for the roots. Unfortunately, even as the matter is brought to the attention of authorities, the various government agencies are just pointing a finger and playing the blame game. The beauty and majesty of the Banyan tree comes from the sh ade and support that this wise old giant provides generations that come in its shade. It’s many parts hold healing value such that it is a part of many traditional remedies. And it is considered in the Indian culture as the tree of wisdom and the tree of life. It is because of this great heritage that Banyan Botanicals chose the name of the tree to represent the company–providing support and an energetic breath of life through Ayurveda and all it has to offer. And it is the same deep respect that the traditional culture of India had for the Banyan tree that the members of the Banyan team have for the plants that bring you healing in the form of your supplements. This is the reason we continuously work hard to find private farms, where we know that organic methods of farming are being followed, and where we know that the herbs are being harvested in a sustainable way, so as to support Mother Earth as she supports us. We know and respect plants as energetic beings, and we send our love and gratitude to this troubled Banyan tree in New Dehli.
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Keeping your doshas in balance is a very important part of Ayurveda. Your body has its own state of harmony and equilibrium, and it is different for every individual. What I find hard sometimes is to identify when this harmony has been disrupted and my doshas are off balance. Fortunately, Ayurvedic practitioners use a measure termed “Vikriti” which can help compare your current state with your optimum state of balance.
