Focus on Balancing Vata and Kapha

Updated 2021

Based on your results, we recommend that you focus on balancing vata and kapha by following a vata-pacifying lifestyle and a kapha-pacifying diet, while taking herbs to support a return to balance.

Lifestyle Recommendations

Balance Vata

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

Balance Kapha

Favor a diet of freshly cooked, whole foods that are light, dry, warming, well-spiced, and relatively easy to digest—ideally served warm or hot. These foods calm kapha by balancing mucus production, regulating moisture levels, maintaining adequate heat, and by supporting proper digestion and elimination. Kapha thrives on a fairly minimalistic diet with smaller meals, little to no snacking, fewer sweets, an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, a variety of legumes, little to no alcohol, and lighter fare all around. Here are some additional tips:

Favor Kapha-Pacifying Tastes. To balance kapha, choose 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, or collards, and spices like cumin and turmeric)
Astringent (think legumes, vegetables, apples, cranberries, green bananas, and pomegranates)

Reduce Kapha-Aggravating Tastes. To further pacify kapha, moderate foods that are:

Sweet (think sugary sweets, but also grains, fruits, squashes, root vegetables, and dairy products)
Sour (think vinegar, pineapples, grapefruits, and alcohol)
Salty (think salt)