Personalize Your Yoga Practice
People often ask me for recommendations on what type of yoga practice to start. I typically find it very difficult to answer this without pretty much interrogating the person to find out more about their unique body, mind & soul - sorry in advanced if you ever ask me this! Suggesting that one type of yoga is a solution for all is a bit wonky as yoga was traditionally a practice catered for the individual, passed down from a teacher to a single student. While most people do not have that luxury today, we luckily can still pull from the sister science of yoga, Ayurveda, to personalize our yoga routine based on our unique makeup.
As my mentor Sachi Doctor says,
“The best way to know which style of yoga will help you to feel balanced on any given day is to consider what type of imbalance is present in your constitution...Once you’ve identified what’s going on in your mind-body you simply apply this one principle: Like attracts like and opposites balance. ”
So essential Sachi provides us with a simple guideline, identify what’s imbalanced in your mind-body, and then choose the something that has the opposite qualities to help restore balance. This could look like selecting a slow practice such as restorative yoga with Sama Vritti Pranayama if you are feeling anxious, or selecting a heated vinyasa class with kapalabhati when you are feeling groggy or lazy.
Okay so now we have the framework, but how do we understand our unique constituents? Luckily, Ayurveda helps us with the concept of doshas, which are three energetic archetypes that give insight into your unique physical and mental makeup. To determine what your dominant dosha — take less than 5 minutes to take Sachi’s Dosha quiz now, think of it almost like a personality test!
So which one did you get — Ever flowing Vata? Passionate Pitta? Grounding Kapha?
No matter what you got, I have you covered with a basic chart of Asana & Pranayama techniques that you can add into your practice based on your identified dosha.
Vata Resources: Vata Balancing Yoga Yoga Poses
Pitta Resources: Pitta Balancing Yoga. Yoga Poses
Kapha Resources Kapha Balancing Yoga. Yoga Poses.
Yoga Classes According To Ayurveda by Sachi Doctor