To understand how the doshas affect your life, it’s important to understand the difference between prakruti, the balance of doshas that you were born with, and vikruti, your current state of imbalance.

Your prakruti is the unique balance of energies in your body and mind that were determined at your conception. It determines everything from your bone structure to your predisposition toward certain health challenges. Prakruti is free of symptoms and any signs of imbalance -- it is a perfect state of balance unique to you. Vikruti is what has happened since that point, meaning how far you have moved away from prakruti.

When vikruti is close to prakruti, you’ll experience little to no symptoms. But when vikruti is away from your original state, even a little bit, symptoms, illness and disease are present.  

When you are assessing your constitution, whether through a dosha questionnaire or as part of an Ayurvedic consultation, it’s important to look at how you experience life in the present and what it’s been like over time. From there, you’ll get a more accurate picture of the constitution you were born with and the imbalances that are present right now.

Your constitution, or the amount of each dosha within you, is as unique as your fingerprints. Understanding how the doshas work within you is a lifelong journey of exploring cause and effect. Begin with our dosha questionnaire, and get to know more about how the doshas influence your mind, body and emotions.

The translation for “dosha” means “that which gets messed up.” This tells us a lot about why it is so important to understand the tendencies of the doshas. 

When doshas accumulate in excess, they cause symptoms and illnesses that reflect the qualities of that dosha. Imbalance can occur in any of the three doshas, but it is more likely to show up in the dosha that makes up the main portion of your constitution. For example, if your prakruti is primarily kapha and you are living out of harmony with kapha by eating a lot of heavy food and living a sedentary lifestyle, you are likely to face health issues related to kapha, e.g., weight gain, depression or diabetes. 

The key to regaining balance is in the Ayurvedic principle of “like creates like and the opposite brings balance.” This means if you experience signs of heat from excess pitta, apply cooling and soothing remedies to bring balance. If you experience symptoms of vata imbalance, such as restlessness, eat foods that are grounding and nourishing. And if you experience signs of kapha’s stagnation, lighten up your diet and lifestyle and you’ll see quick improvements.

Once you understand the tendencies of each dosha and have a sense of where you are more likely to go out of balance, it’s easy to identify the remedy. 

What follows is a very brief list of the qualities of the doshas in and out of balance (you can learn much more about the doshas in our online Ayurveda health counselor and health advisor programs). As you read through this, think about your tendencies, both now and in the past.