Focus on Balancing Vata and Pitta

Updated 2018

Based on your results, we recommend that you focus on balancing vata and pitta by following a vata-pacifying lifestyle and a pitta-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 Pitta

Favor a diet of fresh, whole foods (both cooked and raw) that are cooling, hearty, nourishing, and comparatively dry. This helps to decrease internal heat, prevent inflammation, balance the digestive fire, ground the body, and absorb excess liquid and oil. Pitta does not generally view eating as an especially "productive" activity, so you can also balance pitta by consciously slowing down, and giving your full attention to each meal. Here are some additional tips:

Favor Pitta-Pacifying Tastes. To balance pitta, choose foods that are:

Sweet (think grains, fruit, squashes, root vegetables, and fresh dairy products)
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 Pitta-Aggravating Tastes. To further pacify pitta, moderate foods that are:

Pungent (think spicy foods like chilies, radishes, raw garlic, raw onion, and especially heating spices)
Sour (think vinegar, pineapples, grapefruits, and alcohol)
Salty (think salt)