When It Feels Like Everything Is Out of Balance

It might be time to look at all three doshas.

- SAHARA ROSE

WE LEARN SO MUCH ABOUT ourselves by asking questions. Eight years ago, I took an online quiz to discern my dosha, or Ayurvedic body type. When I read the results for a vata archetype-anxiety, insomnia, coldness, weak digestion, bloating, gas, constipation, dry skin, amenorrhea-it was like reading my autobiography. This information finally put together pieces of my puzzle that I had previously assumed were unrelated. No longer did I feel like I was broken.

Thanks to the results of that quiz, I started to understand the ways my symptoms were interconnected. That led to my journey of bringing my body back into balance through a traditional Ayurvedic approach.

My results were clear, but they're not always quite so obvious. If you've ever read about doshas and found that you experience a surprising number of traits and tendencies of all three-vata, pitta, and kapha-you might have felt confused about where to even begin. (Learn your unique dosha profile at yogajournal.com/doshaquiz.)

WHAT A DOSHA QUIZ CAN AND CAN'T TELL YOU

Taking an online quiz will typically give you one of not three, but four results in terms of your primary dosha and its corresponding elements and traits:

Vata (ether and air): embodies creativity

Pitta (fire and water): exudes passion

Kapha (water and earth): craves stability

Tridoshic (a combination of all of the above)

What most dosha quizzes fail to explain is that there are actually two ways to look at our constitutions: our innate states and our current states. We are each born with a particular blend of doshas that creates our uniquely balanced constitution. This innate state cannot be ascertained through a few short quiz questions.