Kapha type

If you can, add strength training, especially if you suffer from sluggish depression (shortages of norepinephrine/dopamine), tend to be overweight, or are an Earth/kapha type (see Chapters 7 and 10). 

Gretchen is a kapha type, normally content, loyal, and easygoing. She tends to be a little slow and plodding at times, but usually this comes across as steadiness and stability, and she can muster a great deal of endurance, stamina, and calmness under stress. 

Interestingly, the instability of vata energies in Ayurveda corresponds with the Western scientific notion that a serotonin deficiency is the most common problem associated with depression. Just as vata energies can become unbalanced even in pitta and kapha types, so can serotonin become deficient even in people with other types of brain chemical imbalances, such as norepinephrine/dopamine excess or deficiency. So when people have either vata imbalances or serotonin deficiencies, I usually try to treat those first, no matter what other problems they re experiencing. 

I always suggest to my patients that they begin with the simplest solutions. So if you re a kapha type or a kapha combination and you re feel-... 

Follow the detox suggestions I shared in Chapter 6, with these special suggestions for kapha types ... 

As we saw in Chapter 6, exercise was a major key to Cindy s renewed health and vigor Engaging in exercise that required Cindy to break a sweat, to push herself, and to move quickly really helped wake up her kapha energies, even as it replenished her depleted stores of norepinephrine and dopamine Both kapha types and people suffering from unbalanced kapha energies should follow my suggestions in Chapter 6 for the exercise suited to restore norepi/dopa depletion ... 

The first step, I told Jeff, is to understand what can throw vata energies off balance. There were two ways to look at vata disturbances. One is to remember that all of us possess all three types of energy— vata, pitta, and kapha—and that our vata systems are the most prone to imbalance. Just as air is less stable than fire or earth, so are vata energies more easily disturbed than pitta or kapha energies. 

Your Brain-Healthy Kapha Diet How Earth Types Need to Eat... 

Reduce or avoid sweets. Many of my kapha patients have told me that they seem to gain weight easily even when they don t eat much. They may be getting too many sweets and starchy foods, consuming processed sugar and refined carbohydrates. Earth types seem poorly equipped to handle these substances, which their body easily stores as fat. 

Dry saunas are particularly useful for Earth types. You can take one any time of year, but you ll appreciate them most from winter through early spring, when they can help you lose some of the kapha moisture that weighs on your body and spirit. I also recommend saunas during your detox month at least a few times per week, or up to twenty to thirty minutes once or twice a day if you ve got easy access to a sauna. 

As Cindy had discovered, kapha is aggravated in winter, when the world seems cold and dark. Early spring—cool and damp—can also aggravate Earth types, as can any cool, damp weather. 

Your Brain-Healthy Kapha Routine Daily Life for Earth Types... 

What works best for Earth types is variety within routine. Earth types should also make a point of finding people and activities that interest and stimulate them. Just as the clogged and muddy stream needs fresh water to keep the energy flowing, so do kapha people need friends, teachers, colleagues, and activities to inspire them to keep moving. 

Ayurvedic connection Corresponds in many ways to Earth type, or kapha may be helped by Ayurvedic Mind Body medicine recommendations for Earth types. 

Aytrrvedic transpired as a science thousands of years ago in the Indian subcontinent and forms the basis for traditional Indian medicine that exists to this day. The unique holistic approach of ayurveda advocates customized treatments according to individual constitutions or body types. According to the principles of ayurveda is known to contain three forces vata pitta and kapha. 

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