How the 5 Elements Affect Your Body
The 5 Elements
Through the lens of Ayurveda
The Habit Ayurveda
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In Ayurveda, we look at everything through the lens of the 5 elements 👉 earth, air, fire, water, and ether.
I know right? Witchy af. But before you start ‘calling the corners’ (#shoutout to a cult classic that if you watch today you see the super problematic storyline), let's take a look at how different elements actually pretty clearly show up in the human body.
Wanna see what it’s like taking my classes & courses IRL? Hop into the Practical Ayurveda membership for just $27 (no commitment, cancel any time 🙂)
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Wanna see what it’s like taking my classes & courses IRL? Hop into the Practical Ayurveda membership for just $27 (no commitment, cancel any time 🙂) ~
The elements often appear in 3 specific combinations, which make up the three Ayurvedic Doshas.
VATA dosha is made up of air and ether (space or nothingness). When looking at the many discomforts we humans deal with, there’s a handful that stand out as signs of increased Vata:
🌬️ Lacking a routine
🌬️ Trouble making decisions & following through
🌬️ Unfocused / overwhelmed mind
🌬️ Anxiety / spiraling thoughts
🌬️ Insomnia, restlessness or frequent night waking
🌬️ Feeling exhausted, yet the nervous system can’t relax
🌬️ Sensitivity to sound & touch
🌬️ Dry skin
🌬️ Bloating/gas after eating
🌬️ Constipation
🌬️ Weakness
🌬️ Brittle hair
🌬️ Cracking joints
See how these symptoms are all related to too much air & ether? Dry. Weak. Ungrounded. Spacey. This is the type of person who is stuck in their head, with lots of thoughts and ideas, and little grounding into action/completion.
Let’s compare this to Pitta Dosha. A person with increased Pitta fire shows up like:
🔥 Short tempered, irritable, angry
🔥 “Snapping" at kids/spouse
🔥 Excessively judgmental toward others and themselves
🔥 Competitive or argumentative
🔥 Controlling, manipulative, guilt-tripping
🔥 In a rush, over-scheduled, burnt out/adrenal fatigue
🔥 Resentful, blaming
🔥 Heartburn/acid reflux after eating
🔥 Sour smelling sweat
🔥 Acne, redness, rashes
🔥 Inflammation
🔥 Diarrhea
🔥 Migraines
Pitta imbalanced folks are HOT (and not in a good way, more in like a dumpster fire kind of way).
Then there’s Kapha, our earth & water folks. Earth & water elements in the body help you stay grounded and go with the flow. But too much leaves you stuck in the mud. Excess kapha looks like this:
🍂 Depression. Feeling “heavy” in the mind
🍂 Unmotivated
🍂 Unable to get out of bed in the morning
🍂 Lethargic & sluggish through the days
🍂 Stubbornness
🍂 Greed. possessiveness
🍂 Neediness, jealousy
🍂 Easily gaining or holding weight, feeling heavy in the body
🍂 Mucous/congestion
🍂 Edema or feeling ‘swollen’
🍂 Allergies
🍂 Slow digestion
🍂 Greasy, sticky stool
See how these symptoms all have a heavy, sticky quality to them?
See how much heavier the qualities of Kapha symptoms are than Vata?
IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE RIGHT?!! 🤯 << that’s your mind being blown just like mine was.
This is how Ayurvedic medicine uses a whole-body approach to healing.
We don’t spot-treat or treat any diagnosis like a stand-alone issue in your body. We look at you as a whole person and observe the qualities of your mind and body as a whole.
From there, it becomes soooo much easier to heal the root cause of all your symptoms of discomfort, (not just the one that’s currently yelling the loudest).
Imbalance looks different for different people. So the path to feeling better has to look different too.
There are endless health trends on the market that will not work for you. But when you find the things that do?
Better sleep,
More energy,
A happy gut,
A clear, calm, and focused mind,
...these things come so much easier.
If you’re like “Yes I’d like life to feel a bit easier pls”,
You’re invited to join my brand-new membership, Practical Ayurveda.
🧘You’ll get access to all the goods I teach inside Everyday Ayurveda, the program over 1,000 students have taken to find their unique version of a well-balanced life (because yours doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s),
🗓️ Monthly guides and workshops going deeper into the right foods for you, how to approach your gut health, what’s going on for your hormones,
📿 Short and effective ‘mini-classes’ that help you move your energy, get in a good headspace, loosen up tension (think Instagram reels but a couple minutes longer and customized to your specific needs),
It’s 27 bucks a month, and there’s no minimum commitment. You’ll be reminded monthly upon invoicing and can cancel at any time.
P.S > Want specific tips for balancing your dosha? QUICK ASSESSMENT:
Grab a pen and scrap paper
Scroll up and go through the list of vata, pitta, and kapha symptoms, making a mark on the paper for any symptom you’ve experienced recently
Add em’ up. Where do you have the most checks? Vata, Pitta, or Kapha?
We all have some level of imbalance in all categories. But the one with the most? Is the one we heal first.
Click below to tell me what you got, and you'll get more detail on your imbalance, and some simple things to try today. 🥰
I’m pretty ungrounded, mostly Vata checks For me
🔥Yep I’m overheated, mostly Pitta checks
I’m stuck, too much Kapha here
or better yet, join the Practical Ayurveda Membership, and we can work through it together :)
