10 Ways to Balance Kapha Dosha

People with a kapha type have the least amount of psychological problems, or are the least likely to voice them. The way kapha psychological disturbances invade the mind is through the body; kapha energy becomes disturbed and dulls the senses; which leads to unclarity and a foggy mental state.

Kapha does not do well with change and often wants to keep things how they are, even if they are not working for them. Kapha emotional disturbance is related to tamas, excess pleasure, enjoyment, and attachment leads one to wonder who they really are aside from their external reality and material possessions.

They become psychologically heavy people to be around with, and are often taken care of by others because they lack motivation and drive to do it themselves. They become dependent on people that they are attached too; much like a child and a parent.

Kapha types do not initiate change for themselves, they must be confronted and potentially shocked into changing their bad habits. Because of the earth element, they are slow to make the necessary change and will often become stagnant and fall back to their bad habits. They will often seek compassion and consolation from others, but they should not be given that since that will lead to more kapha energy. This creates the parent-child dynamic that kapha types so often seek.

Just as they are deep rooted in their unhealthy flow of life, they can maintain a healthy flow and continue on their own. Kapha type people need to be guided, almost held by the hand to establish a new rhythm. Once this new rhythm becomes their reality, they will continue with it and find it really hard to change it in the future; just as the old lifestyle.

10 PRACTICES TO KEEP

• Consume foods that are opposite in kapha qualities. Foods that are: warm, light, mobile, sharp, hard, bitter, pungent, astringent.
• Avoid all sweets! Including most fresh fruit instead opt for a dry version.
• Foods such as buckwheat, corn flour, quinoa, cabbage, broccoli, most beans, carrots, cauliflower, etc. Avoid heavy grains such as rice and oats, avoid root and grounding vegetable such as squash and potatoes.
• Cook your own food. The smell of food produces the salivary glands to fire up and get ready for digestion. Especially when the mouth is dry due to weak bodhaka kapha.
• Choose pitta types as friends since they will force you to get moving and tell you what you need to hear.
• Exercise! Walk, run, jump, keep moving by doing strengthening yoga that allows the body to feel light and flexible, even when it is not. Just get moving! Create a sequence from pictures within the post.
• Heat therapies such as steam bath and sauna are quite beneficial
• Renounce material things and stop thinking that you need them. Stop identifying yourself by the things that you have, they are not your identity. Instead cultivate and inner-relationship with your highest self by turning inward.
• Not much sleep is needed by the kapha individual since sleep is how we create more tissues. Kapha types do not need more tissue to be produce, they produce enough already.  Going to sleep late and waking up early is ideal for kapha.
• Use corn oil on the soles of the feet when feeling a little too sluggish, or have the sweet tooth.