Asana and Ayurveda
A Balanced Approach to the Practice

By Felicia Tomasko

"Generally.. Ayurveda works at healing and purifying the body and mind while yoga aims at taking us to Self-Realization, which depends upon a purified body and mind. In this way, the foundation of yoga should be Ayurveda and the fruit of Ayurveda should be yoga." David Frawley, Yoga & Ayurveda

Balance is not something that is static, but rather it ebbs and flows, changing with the days, the seasons and the years. Like a graceful vinyasa, we can flow with our asana practice to incorporate principles of Ayurveda, encouraging balance in a world of constant change. The doshas - vata, pitta and kapha - are the means by which Ayurveda categorizes different aspects of our bodies and the world around us.

Vata contains the elements air and ether (or space, the space that contains everything in our bodies and the world around us); Pitta contains fire and water; and Kapha contains water and earth. We are all composed of all of these qualities. Vata gives us movement, expression and creativity; Pitta gives us passion, transformation and intellect; and Kapha provides us with form, stability and memory. What is different in each one of us is the proportion of the doshas in our bodies and minds - our basic constitutional types. Like the concept of balance itself, the doshas are not static energies; in our bodies and the world around us, they fluctuate through the times of the day, the seasons and the phases of our lives.

Fortunately it is possible to put our asana practice to work to both support our body and move with the changes around us. This does not necessarily mean we have to change our entire practice. Merely by adjusting the attitude we bring into an asana, modifying our breath, emphasizing particular postures and sequences, or changing the length of time we hold a pose, we can profoundly affect the body. Bringing Ayurvedic principles into asana practice is simpler than it may seem.

For example, when vata is out of balance in the body (any of our-bodies, physical, mental, breath or subtle bodies) some of the things we may feel are: spacey, fatigued, anxious, forgetful, fearful, overwhelmed, weepy and empty, dry, scattered, cracking joints, and constipation. To balance vata, we can modify our practice to make it slower and more grounded and slow and lengthen the breath. Poses on the floor connecting to the grounding energy of the earth, long holds without straining, and poses such as headstand, lotus, navasana (boat pose), restorative backbends, and spinal twists lying on the ground; moving the joints in slow, gentle circles; and meditating on the sound of the ocean all calm vata.

Pitta is comprised of fire and water and is signified by an excess of fire in the body. When we express this, some of the things we may experience are: too much acidity (ulcers, cold or canker sores, acne, heartburn or indigestion), a feeling of being driven, quick to anger and excess oiliness (fire is hot, acidic and oily). To combat these qualities, we can modify asana practice to cool the fire by relaxing; incorporating slow vinyasa (not fast or overly powerful); holding poses for only a moderate length of time; resisting the urge to be competitive; including legs open standing forward bends, hip opening poses like tree pose and triangle, shoulderstand and sitting forward bends; surrendering into savasana (corpse pose); practicing cooling breath and pranayama such as alternate nostril breathing; and meditating on something soothing like the milky light of the full moon.

When kapha, the water and earth elements in the body, are out of balance, some of the things we may feel are: heaviness, lethargy, an urge to oversleep, a crushing sadness, congestion, constipation, slow digestion, fluid retention and attachment to things, people and the material world. To bring kapha into balance through asana, we can increase heat and movement through all backbending poses (after proper warm-up), sun salutations, full inverted balancing poses like handstand, energizing inversions and strong vinyasas, short savasana, heating pranayama such as ujayi or kapalabhati and meditating on the internal fire.

Even when the doshas are in balance in our bodies, it is helpful for us to choose practices that help to support us and keep us in balance. For example, we can adjust our practice based on how we feel at a particular time of the day or season of the year. If we wake up on a cloudy morning (kapha time and kapha sort of day), feeling slow, congested and sleepy, a vigorous vinyasa, Ashtanga series or kundalini set can be the spark that moves some of the heaviness and incorporates more light, movement or fire. Winter is another good time for more vigorous practice, no matter what a person's natural constitution is. Even here in sunny Southern California, we experience the damp, cold and darkness of winter and a strong and vigorous practice with vinyasa, energetically practiced standing poses, rounds of sun salutations, ujayi breathing and meditation on the light of the sun in the body (not staring at the sun, of course) can help alleviate the gloom and move the excess earth that comes with the dark time of the year. A simple postural adjustment can also have a profound effect; lifting the inner ankles, the torso and the upper chest and broadening the collar bones counteract the effects of too much kapha.

On a sunny day, in the summer, or during a time when we are overworked (pitta times), an excess of fire can be soothed through cooling and calming poses like plow, shoulderstand, seated twists, moon salutations or forward bends with the body's energy focused inward. Keeping the breath smooth and even, releasing strain, goals and competition, pranayama such as lunar breathing through the left nostril and shitali or shitkari (inhaling through the mouth, through pursed lips or a curled tongue, and exhaling through the mouth) which focus on cooling the breath and the mind, and meditating on a feeling of love in the heart can help to cool excess fire. Although we may be sun worshippers, when we feel the effects of excess pitta, shade is soothing. Postural adjustments such as widening the area between the shoulder blades, dropping and releasing the shoulders down the back and taking the gaze inward, balance excess pitta.

On a dry and windy day, in the fall, or during the time the Santa Ana winds blow, vata can predominate in the world around us making us feel exhausted, scattered, irritable and dry. I was camping on the beach during the Santa Ana winds and felt the full effect of the blowing, moving air; I had insomnia and a headache with raw nerves and dry skin. Practices to alleviate this and create calm are restorative poses, standing and floor poses, inversions, calming pranayama like alternate nostril breathing and meditating on the sound of Om. Anchoring our connection to the earth through the feet, slightly tucking the tailbone to release the low back and expanding the breath into the lower abdomen and low back all serve to help balance vata by connecting to the grounding influence of the earth and bringing awareness to the seat of vata, the pelvic area.

Throughout our lives, different doshas predominate. Kapha is the predominant dosha of children and teenagers, a time of growth and building substance. Adulthood is a time of pitta; it is the fiery time of our lives when we are focused on accomplishment. The later years are the time of vata when we pay more attention to family and spiritual life, and our bodies can become dry. So as would be expected, different asanas and practices tend to be more appropriate in different phases of our lives.

We may notice that the young can practice almost anything and usually need a vigorous practice to develop the body's natural strength. As adults, a practice with a mix of asana and meditation to develop body and mind is important. As we grow older, especially into old age, no matter what our initial constitution, the more the influence of vata affects us. Older people are subject to ailments like dry, cracking joints, arthritis, dry skin and lapses of memory. According to David Frawley in Yoga & Ayurveda, "asana is one of the best remedies for countering the effects of the aging process and for preventing vata from accumulating." But it is helpful if this type of practice is one that actually supports vata, not one that provokes vata.

Ayurveda asks the same thing that yoga asks of us - to be aware, to pay attention to how we feel in body, mind and spirit. By looking at where we are out of balance, our constitution, the season and the time in our life, or how we feel on a particular day, we can use the principles of Ayurveda coupled with our asana practice to support ourselves and create balance.

Resources: David Frawley and Sandra Summerfield Kozak, Yoga for
Your Type, an Ayurvedic Approach to your Asana Practice, Lotus Press, 2001. David Frawley, Yoga & Ayurveda, Lotus Press, 1999.