Your Ayurveda Body Type: Vata

You are interested in Ayurveda and you just have gone through our Dosha Questionnaire? Great! And you have received your result and your constitution is Vata. So what does this mean? How is this relevant for you and what practical advice do we have for you?

As you probably know already, your unique Ayurveda body type or individual constitution (Prakriti) is one of the most important concepts of Ayurvedic medicine. According to the Ayurvedic doctrine, we all have a very unique constitution that determines how we “tick” or function metabolically and how we tend to respond to stimuli from the environment. Being someone with a Vata constitution means that you will have different proclivities to certain illnesses than other constitutions. There also will be completely different dietary precautions that apply to you as compared to other constitutional types. You have certain strengths that you can use to your advantage and certain weaknesses that you should control with your diet and lifestyle choices for example.

Let us first look into the symptoms that are often associated with increased Vata. Vata can increase through wrong lifestyle which includes all kinds of daily activities, your diet and your mental or emotional patterns. In general, an erratic and unstructured lifestyle with frequent traveling or commuting increases Vata. So does staying awake till late regularly or the lack of stable sleeping habits. Another aspect is the lack of consistent meal times. Skipping meals and eating on the run is a really bad idea – especially for Vata types.  And while we are at the topic of eating … a raw food diet is in almost all cases a bad choice – maybe not initially, but definitely in the long run. So is drinking cold or carbonated drinks and drinks that contain stimulants (coffee for example). Since your energy levels can get drained quite easily, you should avoid over-scheduling yourself and be careful when engaging in physical activities. Your Vata mind likes to load up more than you can stomach and the price you pay is an increase in Vata and exhaustion. 

Remember, Vata accumulates first in its own ‘house’ or domain – the large intestine. It later moves on to other areas and begins to manifest in the form of symptoms such as:

1. Fixed daily routines

Fixed daily routines help to keep your Vata in check because they directly balance some of Vata’s qualities. The more stable and rhythmic your daily routine is, the more you control Vata’s erratic nature.

2. Drink warm beverages and eat warm, cooked food

Vata is cool by nature. It is also drying and ever changing. Since your constitution is Vata, you have these qualities in you by birth, written deep in your genetic code as it were. This is the reason why your digestion is sensitive and easily disturbed. Imagine you want to cook (digest) something over a  campfire (your digestive power). If there is a lot of wind, the quality of the flame is compromised because it is constantly moving. The same happens in your body. If Vata is high, Pitta, which regulates digestive processes, is disturbed and your digestion compromised. Warm, cooked food is easier to digest than cold or raw food and warm beverages help to keep you warm and support digestion. 

3. Eat more frequently and less in quantity

Due to the erratic nature of Vata and its tendency to disturb digestion, it is much better to eat smaller quantities and compensate this with an increase in frequency. This makes sure you don’t overload and challenge your already sensitive digestion and allow for proper digestion of the food.

4. Add plenty of healthy fats to your diet

Healthy fats from olives, linseeds, fish and various nuts are extremely important for the Vata diet. Since Vata is drying, oils help counterbalance this quality. And the inherent heaviness of the oils will help you to stay grounded.

5. Allow for ample rest

It is easy for you to become overly exited and then get carried away by overthinking or erratic physical actions, even to the point, where you forget or suppress your natural urges to eat, rest and sleep. This, in conjunction with your rather limited supply of energy is a recipe for exhaustion, physical crashes and mental breakdowns. Therefore: make sure you give yourself plenty of rest.

6. Get regular oil massages

Massages, executed professionally and with correct oils, help to stabilize Vata, nourish and moisten your skin and relax your mind.

7. Spend time in nature

Mother nature is amazing. Go for walks in nature, do some Yoga in the park, gently row across a lake and meditate under a tree…the possibilities are endless. As you engage with nature, notice the colours, fragrances and sounds around you. This will help you to get out of your head and into the awareness of the body and ultimately calm your mind – and your Vata!