Focus on Balancing Vata

Updated 2018

Based on your results, we recommend that you focus on balancing vata through lifestyle practices, dietary choices, and herbal support.

Lifestyle Recommendations

Vata tends to be flighty and ungrounded and often makes a habit of overexertion, so adapting your lifestyle to balance these tendencies can be truly transformative. Favor experiences that are mentally and physically grounding, nourishing, sweet, and stabilizing. Here are a few ideas:

Follow a Vata-Pacifying Daily Routine with choices like getting up, going to bed, and eating your meals at the same times each day. As much as you may resist routine, your nervous system will find it incredibly stabilizing.

Embrace Deep Self-Care by getting adequate rest, taking some quiet time for yourself each morning, and giving yourself a loving oil massage at least once a week.

Practice Pranayama, which can have a profoundly calming effect on the entire system. Just ten to fifteen minutes of simple yogic breathing exercises each day can be life-changing. Full Yogic Breath and Nadi Shodhana are especially good for balancing vata.

Diet Recommendations

Favor a diet of freshly cooked, whole foods that are soft or mushy in texture, rich in protein and fat, seasoned with a variety of warming spices, and served warm or hot. These foods will help to lubricate and nourish the tissues, preserve moisture, and maintain warmth, all while supporting proper digestion and elimination. Vata often forgets to eat, so you can also balance vata by creating a sense of routine around your meals and being careful not to skip breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Here are some additional tips:

Favor Vata-Pacifying Tastes. To balance vata, choose foods that are:

Sweet (think grains, fruits, squashes, root vegetables, and fresh dairy products)
Sour (think pickles, lemon juice, pineapples, and grapefruits)
Salty (think pleasant, savory flavors)

Reduce Vata-Aggravating Tastes. To further pacify vata, moderate foods that are:

Pungent (think spicy foods like chilies, radishes, raw garlic, raw onion, and especially heating spices)
Bitter (think bitter greens like kale, dandelion, and collards, bitter melon, and chocolate)
Astringent (think beans, raw vegetables, green bananas, and pomegranates)