Loving. Serene.
Loyal and kind, kapha types bring the most to the potluck. She always has extra napkins. She will grab up your kids and squeeze ’em and rough ’em around a little in loving delight. He gives practical advice and keeps his vata friends calm. They love animals. She likes sports – and is good at them – but needs the motivation of being on a team. A kapha person loves to sit and visit; he has a nice listening ear. He likes to tell stories and laugh at happy memories. He is an absolute gentleman. She is the “mother” of the group, and takes care of the drunk ones.
You? -Ish?
People call you “down to earth”.
You’re the composed, rational one. You are nurturing and compassionate. Grounded. Everybody loves you (or depends on you. Or both).
The kapha dosha gives us that inner sense of security; stability. Our calm center within the storm of the other elements. The steadiness that kapha dosha provides is an excellent reason to keep it in balance.
When kapha dosha is out of whack, a kapha type will be more prone to gaining weight or getting depressed. We can get all “mucous-y” when kapha is imbalanced, and have a chronic stuffy nose. One can also become possessive or develop hoarder tendencies. To counteract these types of imbalances, we need to think “light and mobile” in order to balance kapha.
Kapha Self Care List
- Get up early
- Go outside for vigorous exercise early in the morning
- Spend time outside each day
- Have a morning routine, but otherwise work on varying your routine
- Limit screen time
- Eat warm food
- Eat your biggest meal at lunch
- Avoid high fat food
- Don’t take regular naps (unless particularly needing it-I’m not a monster)
- Unclutter your home – practice letting go
- Consider gardening
- Watch out for inertia in your life – keep moving forward
- Do not hold on to the past
We can work on incorporating these habits into our lives, but they don’t all have to happen at once. Go easy, mama.
Kapha types are the ones who keep us together, who plan the gatherings and make us feel cozy and welcomed. This gentle dosha makes me think of the simple, foundational things in life. Like getting that turkey on the table for Thanksgiving, even if this year, it’s just you.
Our households and how we run them is a bedrock for us, be there one or six people in our space. A loving and accepting home front is especially crucial for kids’ souls. Children love cyclical activities, like carving the pumpkins at Halloween and going to the apple orchard. These are memories made.
We can mark time passing by observing the seasonal changes and celebrating things like Winter Solstice; having a special meal or lighting a candle. We haul out the same decorations; we laugh at our old ornaments. We set up the train.
Year after year.
So we make that turkey and we observe those traditions, just because. Or, we do exactly what our heart desires on Thanksgiving (Lord of the Rings marathon?), and have immense gratitude for the freedom to choose. Feed our souls.
When we create a rhythm to life, our kapha is singing.
A Note
It has been necessary to simplify the doshas and their significance. Ayruveda is a complex science, vast in breadth, most easily digested in small bouts. I have started with going over the somewhat sweeping “stereotypes” for each dosha. As we delve into each dosha and ayurvedic topics more deeply, we will begin to understand the doshas on a new level. We will see the subtleties.
Coming up: Are you a strong mix of two of the doshas? A look at what it might look like when a person has two dominant doshas, like vatta-pitta, or vata-kapha.
