Hello,
I'm Zo.
I'm a Yoga Ayurveda therapist and I run three online yoga classes to help people learn to integrate yoga and Ayurveda into their life on a daily basis.
And today I'm going to talk to you about Ayurveda and how useful it is to know Ayurveda and to understand the individual doshes and the traits that certain people have.
So for instance,
In a yoga class,
If there is a person who signs up to yoga,
Who's predominantly a kaffir,
They will have tendencies to initially be motivated,
But they will lose their motivation fairly quickly unless they have some pitta.
If they have pitta with the kaffir,
They're more likely to stay at the yoga class.
Otherwise,
The kaffir person is prone to buying a lot of things online and not using them,
Not doing them and not following through.
And that keeps them in their heavy,
Sticky state where they spend time looking at screens or lying in bed and feeling sorry for themselves.
That's if their kaffir is unbalanced.
Then there's the pitta person.
The pitta person will sign up to a yoga class.
Maybe they have a very strong self-will.
They have confidence in their own abilities and they'll often question and they find it difficult to take direction.
Also in a yoga class,
They will find the class doesn't go fast enough.
They'll want something stronger.
Remember in the last,
In our very first recording,
I talked about how like increases like.
The pitta person will want to do something strong to stoke their fire.
Their fire is called the agni,
But it has a detrimental effect on them because the fire becomes stronger,
The food then goes through the body quicker.
They then have the gall going into the stomach,
Which burns the stomach,
Which makes them angry and short and intolerant.
And so therefore they want to control everything.
They'll have problems staying in a yoga class as well,
Unless it is strong.
And this will become a problem for them as they get older.
Because as we age,
Which is why I run yoga works for the forties,
We can't keep pushing the body.
Eventually it will break down either the lower back,
The shoulder,
The neck,
Some situation will happen.
Usually with a pitta person,
It will happen in their guts.
So they might have some digestive problem,
Gallbladder problem,
Liver problem,
Or maybe around their back in that area.
For the kapha person of course,
They've signed up for the class,
But they've talked themselves out of attending.
And so they then become more sedentary and that's more of an excuse to eat more.
And they are very attracted to the sweet foods because they're sweet people and they will then,
Like will increase light,
They'll become heavier and stickier and more stuck.
And then there's the vata person.
So the vata person is the one who will jump around from one thing to the next.
A vata person finds it difficult to be still in a yoga class.
And it's the best thing for them is to get that earthing and that groundedness and to be still and calm and calm the vibration that they're feeling inside.
A vata person we could look at as being neurotic.
So they internalise.
I like to call Ayurveda the science of life as well as the science of behaviour.
So a vata person will internalise what's going on.
They're more likely to look at themselves and blame themselves in a neurotic type of way.
I think if we have a good casting person in a movie,
A vata person will be cast as this skinny,
Wiry,
Nervous type person.
And a pitta person in a movie will be cast as the fiery kind of fighting redheaded type person.
And you wouldn't cast a kapha person in a pitta role.
And then a kapha person that's usually heavier.
So they've got the heavy set body.
The pitta's got the middle set body.
And the vata's got the lower set.
So their wrists are thinner.
Their bones are smaller.
Their hair is wiry.
Their nose is a little bent at the end.
And their teeth are kind of grey coloured.
Whereas a pitta person will have the yellowy teeth.
And they'll be more freckly and more middle size.
You'll see they have a pointy nose.
There's a lot of other characteristics.
But usually it's pretty easy to spot people.
And the kapha person,
Well they've got the big eyes and the big teeth.
And they'll be cast as more of a nurturing,
Cuddly,
Soft type person.
Who,
Yeah,
God bless them.
God bless us all for our differences.
And how lucky are we to have Ayurveda,
The science of life,
To point out that people are different.
And of course they have a combination of their traits as well.
And depending which trait is the highest at the moment will be the behaviour that will be exhibited.
So from a yoga teacher's perspective,
It's good to know what your students are.
Vata,
Pitta,
Kapha.
For me,
Running my classes,
Yoga for over 40s,
Really they say after the age of 60,
People naturally become more vata.
Whether they're kapha or pitta,
Their vata will start to be more predominant.
As you notice,
People when they age,
Their skin becomes dry,
Their body becomes dry and wrinkled,
And they become frail,
Which is some of the characteristics of a vata.
Yeah,
It's good to know these traits.
It's good to know your students and understand their temperaments.
And yeah,
Don't beat yourself up if the kapha person doesn't stay,
Or if the pitta person finds it not strong enough,
Or they found something better,
Or the vata person's having an absolute meltdown and they can't get to class.
All right,
I hope you enjoyed our little session.
All the best.
Signing off from ZO here in Bondi Beach,
Sydney,
Australia.
