While I primarily write about vata dosha and ADHD, vata does not dance alone. Its siblings, pitta dosha and kapha dosha, are also on the dosha dancefloor. To be healthy, we need to have balance in all three doshas.
Vata dances with the other two doshas to the tune of the mahagunas (also called gunas.) Both the gunas and the doshas are determined by the choices you make, your karmas and what happens to you.
What are the gunas?
There are three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas, and they describe the essential qualities of nature that exist in all beings and things. Each of the gunas is associated with certain characteristics:
Sattva is light, pure and harmonious. Luminosity and balance.
Rajas is activity, stimulation and excitement. There is more of this in the hyperactive and combined types of ADHD.
Tamas is inertia, slothfulness, and destruction. This is abundant in the inattentive type of ADHD.
We have and need all three gunas, just like we have and need all three doshas. But we need them to be balanced. If we hang out on the couch for a week eating junk food, we become tamasic. If we work, play, and party hard, we embody rajas. If we meditate, do Yoga, eat well, and choose calm and uplifting activities, we can bask in sattva's soothing warmth and luminosity.
Sattva is the desired state most of the time, but we need a little of the other two as well. Too much rajas or tamas, and you’ll be off-kilter.
To decrease rajas, avoid highly flavoured, fried, and spicy foods, as well as stimulants like caffeine and other drugs.
To decrease the Tamas guna in your mind and body, leave out junk food, leftovers, beige food, numbing out and alcohol.
The gunas determine your doshas and how they dance with one another.
The Dance of the Doshas
The doshas all impact each other. They constantly dance together, and what happens with one dosha impacts the others. So, while I talk mostly about calming vata down, we must keep all three doshas in balance. Here are some of the ways that they impact one another.
High vata can push on and intensify pitta. Things get hot when the air and space of vata fan the flames of pitta. Then, when pitta increases, so does the body's heat and dryness. The fire of pitta becomes all-consuming, and we can feel burned out. This cycle increases vata.
Vata can block pitta. When vata goes too high, pitta burns itself out. Pitta gets exhausted and becomes weak.
Vata can block kapha. When vata gets too high and burns pitta out, people tend to consume excess kapha food and do less exercise. The heavy, sticky energy of kapha gets stuck inside and can’t get out. Physically, trapped kapha can manifest as stagnation or obesity. Mentally, it might present like OCD, where highly anxious vata thoughts get stuck on a continual loop. There could also be a freeze or shut-down response here.
Vata can push kapha. When vata is high, we can experience a desire to eat and eat; when we eat more than we need, kapha increases in the body and mind. As anxiety increases, so does the urge to eat. The excess weight then causes further stress, and vata rises even further. It becomes a vicious cycle and causes addictions, habits and dependencies.
Kapha can block pitta and kapha. If kapha gets too high, it clogs everything up. It stops pitta from doing its work and can even block vata from moving around the system.
Lastly, please do not rely on the dosha quizzes! They are (largely inaccurate) snapshots of what your doshas are doing at any point. A good Ayurvedic practitioner or counsellor will give you a more accurate assessment of what is happening.