Be Well: Take the Ayurveda Quiz to find Your Current Mind-Body Type
We’ve covered Ayurveda before—notably here and here—but for those new to it or needing a quick primer, it’s a 5,000-year old healing system that connects our inner health and outer glow to the actual cosmos. Ayurvedic wisdom says everyone is made up of water, earth, fire, space, and air, but in proportions unique to each person. These combinations form three functioning principles: vata, pitta, and kapha doshas. Every single one of us was born with a dominant dosha.
But thanks to changing weather, everyday stressors, and other external changes beyond our control, our dosha can get out of whack, manifesting in a very physical way: sluggishness, spacey thoughts, irritability, and restless sleep are just a sampling of symptoms. Sometimes these effects last for just a couple months; in other cases, it could be much longer—which you’ve probably just come to accept as your “new normal.”
“When a person is in an ‘aggravated state,’ that means they have an aggravated dosha that needs to be addressed in order to bring the body back in balance,” says Amrit Devgun, naturopathic doctor and applied ayurvedic practitioner at Northwestern Health Sciences University.