Mar 31 - You have Vata hair

We all hobbled in Sunday morning sore from the sun salutation marathon.  We made our ways through a morning class (I skipped most of the vinyasas) and then joyfully welcomed a lecture in the afternoon!  Since we were focusing on the digestive system, we were introduced to the "healing branch of yoga science" - ayurveda.

Ayruveda stresses the balance of the five elements in the form of three energies called doshas - vata (air and space), pittha (fire and water), and and kapha (earth and water).  What you are in your natural, balanced state is called "prakrutti" and what you are in your current state is "vikruti." Ideally you want to take steps to get close to your natural state through diet, sleep, and exercise.

The gunas are attributes of the 5 elements and the doshas and are thought to be the building blocks of nature - they are:

• Sattva - brightness, preservation
• Raja - activity, creation
• Tamas - inertia, destruction

It is believed that all creation is made up by a balance of these three forces. 

There are various attributes associated with each of the doshas - see below.   For example, one attribute of the pittha dosa is being hot, so a pittha would drink more cold drinks and avoid hot foods and drinks.  We had all taken a quiz before coming in so I knew I was mostly pittha and partly kapha.  Sumit had explored ayurveda in the past and knew that he was most pittha too.  The woman presenting said that pitthas should wake up at 5:30 am every day - yikes!  She also suggested that everyone should drink a glass of room temperature water first thing in the morning to flush the system and use a tongue scraper (which I now use and can't imagine I went this long without one!).   There are many quizzes online if you are curious about what your prakurtti is.

She showed us a photograph of her son's teacher as an example of "kapha hair."  It was long, dark, thick, and shiny.  "You have vata hair"quickly became a new dig and we all had some fun with that.

Later we were introduced to the fourth chakra - Anahata - the heart chakra.  The poses are heart openers such as camel pose (ustrasana), bow pose (danurasana), and wheel (backbend, chakrasana).    

This is the symbol for Anahata: