Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or a beginner, tailoring your yoga routine to your unique needs can help you achieve balance, joy, and contentment. One way to do this is through understanding your personal energetic makeup. Let’s dive into how you can create a personalized yoga practice that aligns with your unique energetics and supports your overall well-being.
Understanding Your Unique Energetic Constitution
What is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda, often referred to as the “science of life,” is a sister science to yoga. It teaches that everything in the universe is composed of five basic elements: ether, air, fire, water, and earth. These elements combine in various ways to form three primary doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.
The Three Doshas
- Vata (Ether and Air): People with a dominant Vata dosha are typically energetic, creative, and enthusiastic. However, they can also be prone to anxiety, restlessness, and irregular habits.
- Pitta (Fire and Water): Pitta-dominant individuals are often ambitious, intelligent, and driven. They may struggle with anger, impatience, and digestive issues.
- Kapha (Water and Earth): Those with a dominant Kapha dosha tend to be calm, steady, and nurturing. They might face challenges such as lethargy, stubbornness, and weight gain.
Each of us is a blend of these doshas, but usually, one is dominant. By understanding your dominant dosha, you gain insights into your natural tendencies and potential health challenges. This awareness can guide you in creating a yoga practice that balances your energy.
Building a Personalized Practice
Why Personalize Your Practice?
- Energetic Balance: A personalized yoga practice helps bring you into energetic balance. When your doshas are in harmony, you can handle life’s challenges with more ease and live authentically.
- Living Your Truest Self: Your truest self is who you were before societal norms and past experiences influenced you. Personalized yoga helps you reconnect with this authentic self.
- Awareness and Evolution: As Brett Larkin says in “Yoga Life,” “The Yoga of Awareness gifts you the ability to choose.” This means you can evolve beyond ingrained patterns and beliefs that no longer serve you, creating new ones that support your true nature.
- Microcosm and Macrocosm: Your yoga mat is a microcosm for your life. The awareness you cultivate on the mat translates to your daily life. By practicing personalized yoga, you can learn what feels pleasurable to you and, also, what your mind, body, and spirit need (which maybe different than what feels pleasurable). And with more self-awareness, you can handle everyday situations with more grace and clarity.
How to Personalize Your Practice
Ask Yourself: “How Do I Feel? What Do I Want?”
It’s essential to tune into your current state before starting your practice. Remember, like attracts like, so you might be drawn to practices that reinforce your dominant dosha, even if it’s out of balance.
- Vata Dominant: You may prefer dynamic, creative practices but need grounding and stabilizing routines.
- Pitta Dominant: You might gravitate towards challenging practices but need cooling and calming routines.
- Kapha Dominant: You might enjoy slower, restorative practices but need energizing and stimulating routines.
Be Flexible
Life is constantly changing, and so should your yoga practice. Factors like weather, work, family situations, stress levels, sleep, and nutrition all influence your energy. Adapt your practice to meet these changing needs.
The Pose is Not the Goal
Yoga is a tool for living a joyful, contented life. It’s not about achieving specific poses or looking good on social media. Be curious and take the time to develop a secret stash of personal yoga postures, meditations, and breathing techniques that work for you.
Steps to Personalize Your Practice
- Start with a pranayama (breathing technique) as you tune in.
- Begin with gentle spinal movements to prepare your body.
- Select poses that build heat and strength.
- Gradually transition to slower, deeper stretches.
- End with a meditation to center your mind and honor yourself for making time for your health and wellness.
For a detailed guide, Brett Larkin’s “Practice Builder” in her book “Yoga Life” is an excellent resource.
Poses for Each Dosha
Balancing Vata
- Pranayama: Alternate nostril breathing done gently to ground yourself.
- Warm-Up: Rhythmic movements like slow cat/cows or sun salutations.
- Postures: Focus on grounding poses like standing balances, and hold poses longer or move slowly. Use props like sandbags to feel more grounded.
- Stretch: Seated poses that connect with the earth. Avoid overstretching, as Vatas are often very flexible.
Balancing Pitta
- Pranayama: Cooling pranayamas like sitali or sitkari to calm the mind.
- Warm-Up: Gentle cat/cow or sufi grind to turn inward.
- Postures: Choose cooling and relaxing poses, hold them longer, and move consciously. Poses like seated forward folds, corpse pose, downdog, and bound angle pose are beneficial. Avoid rushing and aim for relaxation.
- Stretch: Prioritize this section, focusing on connecting with your heart and spirit. Use props to help release and relax.
Balancing Kapha
- Pranayama: Energizing breaths like breath of fire or ujjayi.
- Warm-Up: Sun salutations, spinal flexes, and downdog to plank transitions to build heat.
- Postures: Opt for warming and flowing practices. Include backbends to stimulate circulation and energize the mind. Balancing poses like warrior 2, side angle, chaturanga, and inversions are great. Flow rather than hold poses for long periods.
- Stretch: Keep the body active in the stretch. Lengthen the spine to deepen the stretch, then release and relax.
Pranayama for All Doshas
- Three-Part Breath (Dirga Pranayama): This soothing breath technique brings your attention inward.
- Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana): Balances the right and left hemispheres of the brain, promoting overall balance.
Conclusion
Personalizing your yoga practice is a journey of self-discovery and balance. By understanding your doshas and tuning into your unique needs, you can create a practice that supports your highest self. Remember, yoga is not about perfection; it’s about finding joy and contentment in every moment. Embrace your practice with curiosity and compassion, and let it be a reflection of your true self.
Much love & health,
Carrie
Resources:
Larkin, B. (2023). Yoga Life: Habits, Poses, and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst the Chaos. Balance.
Stephens, M. (2012). Yoga Sequencing: Designing Transformative Yoga Classes. North Atlantic Books.