Summer: Keeping Pitta in Check

When I first learned about Ayurveda, it was like the world suddenly made sense. I remember thinking “oh, there is a reason that I am always cold and tend to get constipated!” Ayurveda gives a reason for our unique differences and tendencies. If you just look at the world around you you can easily see these unique qualities everywhere; in the empty spaciousness of the sky, the cool touch of the wind, the fiery heat of the sun, the rain’s soft nourishment, or in the dense earth that keeps us grounded. These elements and their qualities are everywhere and makeup everything. According to Ayurveda, these five elements are:

Space / Air / Fire / Water / Earth

You can even see all these elements within a single item. Take watermelon for example. Just to grow it needs space. It needs oxygen from the air, the light from the sun, the water from the rains, and the earth for nutrients and to sprout from. Even though it is made from all the elements, watermelon is, well, mostly water. But it’s important to remember that it needs and contains all the elements.

Each of these elements has certain qualities that express themselves. For instance, space (also known as either) is cold. Air (also known as wind) is mobile. Fire is hot. Water is heavy, and earth is stable. These elements can further be categorized as three governing biological humors or dosas, which just like the elements that make them up, imbue certain qualities:

Vata (space + air) / Pitta (fire + water) / Kapha (water + earth).

download-6.jpg

All living things have a certain biological blueprint (aka dosa). Birds tend to be light, airy, mobile, and have quick jerky movements with high pitched calls and fly through the spacious sky (space + air elements). Wolverines have a bad temper and liquid-like stealthy movements with sharp teeth and penetrating little eyes (fire + water elements). Cows are large and heavy, stubborn, strong, and have a deep low sound when they moo (water + earth elements). In the same ways, we all have unique differences in our inherent nature due to the different amounts of each element within us.

For me, I tend to run cold, get gassy, talk quickly, be indecisive, and am easily distracted. My husband on the other hand tends to be super grounded, stubborn, and decisive with a deep voice and excellent digestion. One of my best friends is passionate, prone to headaches, is a natural leader, and can be fiery with her personality. These are just examples of how these elements can manifest differently within us. At this point, you might be able to see some of these elements within you or are picturing a loved one in your mind.

In the above scenario, I am vata, my best friend pitta, and my husband kapha. This explains our differences in such a beautiful way. We each have different amounts of each element within us, determining our unique place of balance and individual nature. These govern not only animals and humans, but also the flora, seasons, times of life, times of the day, and even parts of our body. Now, in a perfect world, these elements and dosas remain balanced as our own unique blueprint of health. Unfortunately, life is filled with change, and these changes can cause imbalance. The word dosa in Sanskrit literally translates to “fault” or that which can become faulty. These imbalances tend to occur due to seasonal shifts, relationships in our lives, unforeseen disaster or trauma, the changes of time, or misuse of our own intellect (aka making regrettable decisions like eating that whole tub of ice cream).

We all need these elements within us to function and to create diversity on the planet. For example, the fire element governs digestion and transformation in our bodies and minds, allowing foods to be digested and assimilated, and experiences to be processed. These elements only get out balance when there is too much accumulation. This would be when the passionate force of fire in pitta individuals turns into rage. Or the heat of digestion turns into acid reflux. Too much fire. I have this photo of hot lava below to help illustrate that the fire and water elements of pitta come together like this. For me at least, the idea of fire and water seemed to cancel each other out when I first learned about this, but it’s more the spreading and hot liquid qualities of water for pitta. While the cooling and heavy qualities of water are reserved for kapha dosa.

Bringing in opposite qualities helps to bring the elements back into balance. Sometimes this is intuitive, like how we crave more fresh raw foods like salads and watermelon in the summer and cooked warm stews in winter. The good thing is that you don’t have to memorize all this. Ayurveda keeps it simple. You just have to be aware of the qualities of someone or something. The hot days of summer are the season of pitta (fire and water). The sun is beating down and we are hot and sweaty and things like migraines and heat rashes start to rear their ugly heads. The main qualities (gunas) of pitta dosa are:

Qualities of Pitta (Fire + Water)

  • Oily

  • Sharp

  • Penetrating

  • Hot

  • Light

  • Mobile

  • Liquid

  • Fleshy Smelling

By understanding the qualities of pitta dosa, we can better maintain balance through the pitta season. Ayurveda has an amazingly simple and easy way to come back home to our place of balance when we do end up building up too many of these qualities within us; “like increases like, and opposite decreases/balances". So if we are feeling hot and irritated, choosing to go to a hot yoga class, have a coffee, and eating spicy ramen is probably not the best choice. If we want to re-balance our fire element, a better choice would be to go to restorative yoga, drink coconut water, and eat some fresh fruit. All it takes is a moment to stop, check-in, and ask ourselves how we are feeling? This could be physically, emotionally, or mentally.

“LIKE INCREASES LIKE, OPPOSITE DECREASES / BALANCES”
— Ayurvedic Proverb

Pitta dosa also naturally lives in certain areas of our body, typically where there is heat and transformation (think of a fire transforming wood to ash). I have personally found so much empowerment from the process of beginning to understand my own body systems, so I wanted to share a bit of empowerment with you as well! Here are areas of our bodies governed by pitta dosa.

  • Eyes - where we take in the world and the spark of life and intelligence can be perceived

  • The grey matter of the brain - regulates muscle control, sensory perception, and emotions

  • Stomach - food begins to break down with the help of acid and enzymes

  • Small intestine - where most nutrients are absorbed and digestive enzymes are released

  • Liver - processes nutrients, digests fats, processes chemicals, and toxins

  • Gallbladder - produces bile which helps to break down fats

  • Spleen - filters our blood

  • Blood - carries oxygen and nutrients throughout our bodies, removes toxins, regulates body temperature

  • Sweat - regulates body temperature and removes toxins

When pitta is in these areas and we are healthy and balanced, it is great. The issue comes when too much fire either accumulates in one of these areas (hello burning red eyes) or moves into other areas of the body (e.g. joint inflammation). We all have some fire in us. It only becomes an issue when the fire goes from a nice controlled campfire into a raging forest fire. Below i’ve outlined some examples of what pitta looks like when in balance, out of balance, and finally how to bring it back into balance.

PITTA IN BALANCE LOOKS LIKE:

  • Strong digestion and sense of hunger

  • Passion for life

  • Being a great leader

  • Medium / muscular build

  • Body temperature runs warm

  • Bright intelligent eyes

  • Lighter shaded hair that may be thin or early to grey

  • Charismatic and enthusiastic

  • Intelligent and a fast learner

PITTA OUT OF BALANCE LOOKS LIKE:

  • Acid indigestion, ulcers, diarrhea

  • Headaches or migraines

  • Controlling and judgmental

  • Rashes or inflammation in the body (any type of “itis”) or acne

  • Overheated and bad body odor

  • Dry, burning, or sensitive eyes

  • Prematurely balding

  • Angry and short-tempered

  • Irritated, annoyed, impatient

HOW TO BRING PITTA BACK INTO BALANCE

FAVOR:

  • Cool, well-ventilated environments

  • Fresh fruits, veggies, and other cooling foods like coconut and avocado

  • Cooling herbs like coriander, fennel, mint, cilantro, and cardamom

  • Sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes

  • Wearing cooling colors such as blue, teal, or green

  • Metta meditation (loving-kindness meditation)

  • Sheetali pranayama (a very cooling breath) - if you cannot curl your tongue like in the video, just pretend you are inhaling through a straw with pursed lips

  • Buy a bottle of rose water and give your face a good spritz when your feeling hot

  • Coconut oil for moisturizer or abhyanga

  • Lights out by 10 pm as this is the time that the liver starts to detox and the mind digests and processes all the experiences from the day

  • Moderation

  • Rose, sandalwood, jasmine, and vetiver essential oils

  • Calming music

AVOID:

  • Fermented, processed, fried foods, alcohol, coffee and red meat

  • Being outside for too long between 10 am-2 pm, which tends to be the sunniest time of the day

  • Spicy, salty, and sour foods

  • Overly competitive environments

  • Intense workouts

  • Overworking or overscheduling yourself

  • Wearing warming bright colors, like red, orange, or yellow.

  • Violent / disturbing music or television

  • Staying up late at night


By using our own intuitive knowledge and by being mindful and aware, we can easily identify that we have moved from a place of balance to imbalance, and from there bring in opposite qualities to regain homeostasis. If you know you tend towards pitta imbalances in general, it is especially important to be diligent during the summer months. For a full food list of what to favor and avoid for pitta dosa, Dr. Vasant Lad has a very thorough list which you can view here.

I’m so excited to be sharing this with you and hope you will find it easy to digest (lol) and useful in your daily life. I plan on sharing more about the other dosas as those seasons arrive. If you want to know more about your unique place of balance, herbs for your dosa, or how to regain lost balance, please contact me for an online consultation.

For my newly posted lemony dill lentil soup and watermelon cooler summer recipes, click here.
Stay cool my friends!

Haripriya :)

Hilary Bent-Mullings