I was walking in Pebble Beach with my doctor friend Jo, talking about my ideas for my new business Owning Pink, a website I want to launch that is committed to the education and empowerment of girls and women about their bodies, their sexuality, and their health. While I was prattling on about my exciting idea, Jo piped up, “Lissa, your dosha is so Vata.” Say what? Dosha? Vata? Were we speaking Greek now?

Seeing my obvious confusion, Jo explained. In Ayurvedic medicine, based on the ancient Indian wisdom of living your life in harmony, your dosha is your Ayurveda mind & body type. Apparently, we can learn a lot about ourselves and how to live life in balance by understanding the balance of our doshas. There are three doshas in Ayurveda: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. We each have all three of the doshas in our physiology, but each individual has different proportions of each, so everyone’s dosha is unique. Ayurveda explains that human being are made up of the five elements- air, space, fire, water, and earth. We breathe air to oxygenate our tissues. Space fills up the hollows in our body cavities.



Fire takes place in our digestive tract, as we break down food and burn energy. Water makes up 2/3 of us, and earth makes up our bones. These elements make up the doshas. Vata is air and space, while Pitta is fire and water, and Kapha is earth and water.

A few months ago, I was talking to my mother, who was complaining that water followed her everywhere she went. Hurricanes and floods washed around her. The locals near her farm in North Georgia pray for her to come visit when they’re in the midst of a draught. She’s like there own personal rain dance. I laughed and said that fire seemed to follow me everywhere I went. Big Sur was burning up when I was there, then I went to Yosemite, where another big fire raged. Then only days after Yosemite, I went to Mammoth, where another wildfire burned. I told my Mom I must bring fire with me, the way she brings water. If only we spent more time together, maybe our natures would balance each other out.



So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I took the online quiz at http://www.whatsyourdosha.com/ and discovered that I am Pitta dominant, closely followed by Vata, with Kapha trailing in last. Jo lent me her book, What’s Your Dosha, Baby? by Lisa Coffey. I read the whole thing cover to cover last week. It’s all about understanding relationships- romantic, familial, corporate, or friendly, by understanding how your dosha balance interacts with other doshas. Turns out my husband is almost completely Vata, so we get along just fine. Vata’s are creative, airy, energetic, flitty, lightning-quick, passionate chatterboxes. They tend to be thin, cold-natured, wispy types, so it’s no wonder he’s attracted to a Pitta-Vata, which is what I am. As it turns out, we Pittas put off a lot of heat. We can be sharp, articulate, methodical thinkers, who are ambitious, competitive, and strong-willed. Clearly, my Pitta was in high gear getting me through medical school, and I’ve spent the past eight years trying to give my Vata side more say in life. My ex-husband was surely a Pitta, so it’s no wonder we clashed.

Lately, I might seem a lot more Vata, with all my art and writing and creative juices flowing. But deep down, you are who you are, I guess. Not that I want to put myself in a box or live under a label, but it makes a bit of sense, when you think it through. Really, I guess we all have different personality types, and those types interact in predictable ways that are sometimes harmonious, other times discordant. Not to diminish Ayurvedic medicine or suggest that it’s some sort of MMPI approach to health care. It goes much deeper than that. In Ayurveda, they believe that certain diets promote balance of your doshas. Me, as a Pitta, I’m supposed to avoid salty, fried and spicy foods, favoring raw, cool foods, like salads, to chill me out. My Vata husband is supposed to eat sweet, salty, or sour warm, cooked foods, like soup. Funny, since his favorite thing to eat is chili. And I’m a big salad fan. But I do love tomato soup…Since I’m the one cooking and I’m not making two different meals, I guess our doshas will just have to be a little out of balance.

So what’s your dosha, baby? I don’t know why, but reading the book made me feel understood, as if I’m not the freak I often feel I am. Instead, I’m just a unique dosha blend that someone understands. It made me feel less alone in the world, and helped me consider the people I love in my life and how they might rate on the quiz. My mother is a Kapha, I bet, with a bit of Vata. Kapha’s are dominated by earth and water, and they are sturdy types, homebodies, loyal friends. They are tortoises- slow and steady, winning the race. They engage in long-lasting relationships and need to have a fire lit under them to get them off their butts. (Hear that Mom? Go take that hike through the park!) They are also comfort-eaters, so they’re at risk of being couch potatoes, especially if they hang out with other Kaphas. My dad was a Pitta, but he had a lot of Kapha in him too. They were a perfect match. Between the two of them, all three doshas balanced each other out.

It’s kind of fun to think about it. And maybe there’s something to the ancient Ayurveda that I can take home in my own life. Surely, eating salads will serve me well, but there’s no way I’m giving up my soup and spice. When it comes right down to it, it’s all about finding balance, isn’t it? Certainly, I’ve learned a lot about that this year. My take on the whole thing? Any healing modality that promotes finding balance works for me. Surely, we Western docs don’t promote enough of that. Pills and prescriptions and treatments and surgeries may target the resulting end problem, but they certainly don’t do much for healing the whole person. Finding balance- in your dosha or otherwise- I’m all for it.