I keep getting the question “how do I stop getting sick all the time?” or “why do I always get a cold or get sick or ‘rundown’ when the season or the weather changes?” Western medicine doesn’t have a good explanation for this ‘seasonal affect’ on the immune system, but for millennia, the Indian science of life and medicine called Ayurveda, the oldest and most detailed system of health humans invented has some answers. It all has to do with how aspects of weather, like cold, damp vs. hot and dry interact with our natures, or our ‘mind body type’ or our Dosha.
The 3 Doshas To Stop You Getting Sick All The Time
There are 3 Doshas, or Mindbody Types in Ayurveda: Vata, PItta and Kapha. Knowing what combination of these 3 you are can give you keys to avoiding colds, staying happy and free of worrying and anxiety, avoiding weight gain, and ultimately thriving in life. Each ‘dosha’ or mindbody type, has certain characteristics about a person’s body, mind, personality and spirit and gives you clues on how to balance yourself naturally through foods and daily habits that are best for your combination of ‘types’.
We are each a combination of all three of these, but usually 1 or 2 of the 3 doshas will be more dominant in a given person. For example, my dosha is Vata-Kapha or ‘VK’ for short; my fiancé on the other hand, is predominantly Pitta (which is considered a good ‘match’ luckily in Ayurveda;)
Different Doshas and Getting Along with a Partner
Because I have a different dosha than my fiancé, we need to eat slightly different diets, do different kinds of exercise, thrive in different work environments, and process our ‘world’ a bit differently. These differences are good to know if you have a partner, so you can appreciate where the other person is coming from and definitely leads to less conflict because you understand each other way better!
In each season, different doshas can do 1 of 3 things:
1)Accumulate
2)Get Aggravated
3)Be ‘calmed’
Changing of the Seasons and Why We Get Colds
At each change of season, it is said that Vata is ‘aggravated’ and this is why we are more susceptible to colds, etc. when the seasons change. Especially if you have a high amount of Vata within yourself, you are even more susceptible to illness at the season’s change.
So, Now as you move into mid April. Kapha is ‘aggravated in late winter/early spring, so we are just passing this marker now, and near the end of spring/early summer, pitta becomes ‘aggravated’ so this is the next thing to watch out for and protect against, especially if you are a Pitta-dominant person.
What to Do Now to Stay Cold Free!
So, what does all this mean? Well, as we move into late spring, we want to try to avoid things that make Pitta even more aggravated, like really spicy foods, ‘warming spices’ like lots of ginger and basil, and intense exercise in the sun. It’s also a great time to do a detox if you are a Pitta predominant person.
How do we decrease Pitta? Things that decrease Pitta in the body are cooling spices, cooling foods like green veggies, cucumbers, mint, and cardamom, melons, cooling types of yoga postures, holding postures for a long time, cooling pranayama (breath work) like Sheetali breath, where you suck in the breath through your teeth with an open mouth, just to name a few! If you know Your Dosha it can help you Avoid Colds for Your Type!
So, if you always get sick around the change of seasons, and you want to find out your dosha so you can avoid getting another cold, use the ‘Dosha Diagnostic Tool’ Click HERE to download (it’s FREE:) to find out your type, and then I will be blogging more about each dosha soon and how to avoid getting sick, staying balanced, and how to rebalance if things get crazy!
Download the Dosha Diagnosis Tool Now
I developed the Dosha Diagnosis Tool after years of studying MindBody Medicine and learning from Indian Ayurveda Masters about how the system works, and I’ve made the questions more applicable to a modern, western life so it’s easy for you to figure out what your type is so you can start using it to avoid colds and getting sick.
Yours In health,
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