Overview: Pitta Dosha
Hello everyone!
I hope you are doing wonderfully this fine December day. It has been ages since my last Ayurvedic post, however since the posting of the last Vata Dosha Overview, numerous people have reached out to me expressing their desire to learn more about Ayurveda. Coupled with my deep passion for Ayurveda, we are here today writing the next post of the Ayurvedic series: and overview of PITTA DOSHA. If you have just come to the Ayurvedic series, I highly recommend perusing the previous posts in order to deepen the understanding of this ancient healing system before delving deeper in this extension of the work.
Pitta dosha is an intense, fire-y one. Pitta is comprised of fire and water and the literal translation of Pitta is, “that which cooks”. Pitta governs metabolism and transformation. In the body, Pitta is manifest in all forms of liquid that break things down (digestive acids) or catalyse a change (think hormones and enzymes). This quality of change and conversion is present in the physical body, but also the mind. Like Vata, a quality of Pitta is movement. However, where Vata is light and dynamic movement, Pitta is strong, sharp and charged movement. Movement with direction and purpose.
Each dosha has a main “home” in the physical body, and the “home” of Pitta dosha is the small intestine, stomach, liver, pancreas, eyes, sweat and blood.
Pitta provides the body with heat and energy via the transformative quality of heat that is responsible for breaking down food molecules. Pitta is also associated with the solar plexus chakra, relating to self empowerment, inner and outer strength and will power. The Pitta qualities of sharpness, heat, acidity, movement and intensity are emphasised both when the Pitta dosha is in balance and when it is imbalanced.
When in balance, Pitta is exuberant, joyful, passionate, charged with desire and life force energy. When out of balance, Pitta is competitive, ambitious, sharp and domineering.
Physical Characteristics:
Pitta types are typically of medium build, proportional body/musculature, little problem losing or gaining weight, skin that is prone to being oily, or spurts of rashes and acne. Pitta types often have penetrating eyes, a strong appetite and are often irritable when meals are skipped. Strong metabolism and digestion, regular menstruation cycles and may bleed heavily, determined stride/walk, are attracted to vigorous exercise and competitive sports, have a strong sexual appetite, easily aroused (particularly when in balance), often speak in a very direct & concise way, low tolerance for the heat or for anything that increases heat in the body/mind but is often also drawn to these things (example: drawn to coffee but coffee easily aggravates the Pitta fire energy).
Psychological Characteristics of Balanced Pitta:
Highly intelligent with very sharp, rational and inspired ideas, confident, can grasp new information easily and retain it better than Vata types, good memory, courageous, brave, confident, fearless and clear. Articulate speech and engagement with others, strong and engaging eye contact, Pitta types perform very well under pressure and are often drawn to high stress/high pressure environments. Pitta dosha dominant people tend to be organised, highly self-disciplined and potent natural leaders. Pitta types have a lot of rigour and are able to focus one one object or task at hand with intent and dedication. They are strong willed, discerning, ambitious and very determined. When a Pitta dominant person says that they want to do something, best believe they will do it.
Psychological Characteristics of Imbalanced Pitta:
Overly intense/overbearing, high energy, extremely stubborn and obnoxious, controlling of others and self, hot-headed, quick tempered, emotionally volatile (can burst into anger quickly), loud, aggressive, domineering, perfectionist, egotistical, critical & highly judgmental, overly extroverted, jealous, impulsive and manipulative. Mental disorders associated with Pitta imbalance are obsessive type behaviours such as OCD, anxiety, anger issues, eating disorders and addictions in general. They tend to also be less tolerant of other doshic types – becoming easily impatient with Vata and Kapha dominant people.
Ways that Pitta Become Imbalanced:
Eating Pitta aggravating foods, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol as these both exacerbate the already fire-y and intense nature of Pitta, being overly engaged in competitive sports and activities, smoking cigarettes, overheating through physical activity or too much mental activity (over thinking or mental dominance – forgetting about the body), over-working (this is common with Pitta types due to their ambitious, determined and competitive nature), too much loud sensory input and failing to make seasonal changes to lifestyle & diet (i.e. eating heating foods in Summer instead of cooling foods or doing too much vigorous exercise in Summer that increases mental & physical heat). Pitta can also become imbalanced if they eat while angry or if they are exposed to too much loud sensory inputs.
Ways that Pitta Types Find Balance:
Recall that in Ayurveda, opposites create balance. Therefore, in the case of Pitta which is a heated doshic type, the use of cooling and soothing foods, activities and interactions is key to wellbeing. However, due to the energetic nature of Pitta, there does need to be a degree of engagement with things that provide release for this intense fire-y energy otherwise a bottleneck or “traffic jam” of fire energy occurs and can combust. Similarly, overdoing the engagement with fire-y things can over stimulate the Pitta dosha and result in burning out of this dosha. Therefore, the key to living a healthy life with a strong Pitta dosha is striking a harmonious balance between entertaining the basic nature of Pitta (in order to keep the Pitta type stimulated enough to live in alignment with their true nature) without exacerbating and imbalancing the strong qualities of this dosha. This requires fine tuning of intuition and an in-depth understanding of the states of balance and imbalance in oneself in order to know when to pull back and slow down and when to charge forward with intensity and passion of Pitta.
Key words to remember when trying to restore Pitta balance are: cooling & moderation. Pitta types tend to veer towards extremism, this is why Pitta types often have addictive personalities. Often, the movement towards addiction for Pitta types is fuelled by the search for a means of channelling the intense fire energy within, addiction becomes a way of channelling or subduing the intense energy of Pitta types by taking the person into a state of “oblivion” or taking them out of their mind and body. Pitta types tend to be inclined to be “sensation junkies” i.e. being overly drawn to stimulation in order to feel exhilarated. In my own case, I developed a severe eating disorder which physically & mentally drained ALL of my energy and as a result, I literally didn’t have the energy to feel the fire-y nature of my Pitta energy. Now that I have recognised this, I have found that it isn’t about repressing my energy or distracting me from it, it is about finding healthy ways of balancing and channelling it appropriately through various forms of movement, creativity & mindfulness as these create a nurturing “container” in which the fire energy can be held lovingly without “burning oneself” in extremism.
Other ways to balance Pitta: anything that slows Pitta down both physically & mentally: time in nature, activities like yoga, chi gong, tai chi, resting, walks instead of runs, swimming, cold immersions, breath work and writing, taking time to contemplate and reflect, cold showers, doing volunteer work, listening to calming music and massaging the body daily with cooling oils (like coconut oil and cooling essential oils like peppermint, cilantro, sandalwood or lemon). It is also very important for Pitta types to get in touch with emotions. They tend to busy themselves with their fire energy to the point of emotional avoidance. Creating peaceful environments is vital for Pitta types, this will help to encourage a receptive, nurturing energy instead of the more forceful, outward moving energy that is typical of Pitta. It is important for Pitta types to do pleasurable things to counter their competitive, compulsive tendencies – but again, in moderation in order to avoid extremism that may then lead to hedonism. Think along the lines of dancing (for the pleasure of it)!
Common diseases/illnesses/disorders:
As with each dosha, when the dosha is in an imbalanced state, disease more easily develops (pending on the degree and length of the time of imbalance). The home seat of Pitta is the stomach & small intestine; therefore, disorders of Pitta nature are often found there (think gastrointestinal disorders such as SIBO). Other common dis-eases of Pitta are: hot flushes, hyperacidity, ulcers, infections, inflammation related disorders, skin disorders like Psoriasis, liver disorders, excessive hunger or thirst, eye disorders, infections, food allergies, heart burn and diarrhoea.
Eating seasonal diets higher in fresh foods is important for Pitta types. They can eat diets much higher in raw foods than Vata types (raw foods are more cooling in nature). It is important for Pitta types to eat in calm environments and in a calm and receptive state of mind.
Fruits:
Most fruits are good for Pitta types but especially the sweet, sour and astringent fruits like pears, mangoes, apples, coconut, cranberries, granny smith apples and pomegranates. Pineapple and most citrus are slightly too acidic/heating for Pitta types so these are the fruits least recommended among the fruit family. Fruits that are innately cooling and are balancing for Pitta types are things like watermelon, cucumber, apples, blueberries, green melon and the like.
Veggies:
Pitta types do well with most vegetables as Pitta types have strong digestion and assimilation processes – making them proficient at breaking down high fibre foods. Vegetables that are green and fibrous are great for Pitta types as they are cooling and require more energy than lower fibre foods to break down, thus slowing the Pitta energy down some (in a healthy way). Think along the lines of: kale, spinach, cabbage, zucchini, peas, cucumber, green beans & brussel sprouts. Pitta types are well equipped and benefit greatly from both cooked & raw vegetables. If someone is a Pitta type with high Vata I would recommend making sure to eat an appropriate amount of cooked vegetables so as to avoid imbalancing Vata with too much raw food. Vegetables that are heating or acidic like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, garlic and mustard greens are less recommended as they increase the heat in the body & mind of Pitta types.
Proteins + Fats:
Oils
Due to the already heated, oily nature of Pitta, eating a diet too high in oils or fats from nuts and seeds isn’t highly recommended as these food items mirror closely the heated and oily nature of Pitta which can therefore imbalance it. If using oils, coconut oil (cooling), ghee (tri-doshically balancing) and sesame oil are good options. Things that are more heating like peanut oil, mustard oil or olive oil are too heating and will aggravate Pitta dosha. Same with nuts: eat things like soaked raw almonds over roasted, salted peanuts is more balancing. This is not to say that Pitta dosha should not include fats into their diets (they absolutely should because healthy fats are important for overall health and vitality) however, finding cooling sources thereof like avocado, coconut and almonds are better than more heating fats like peanuts and the heating oils previously mentioned.
Legumes
Pitta types are the best equipped dosha for legume ingestion & digestion due to their strong metabolic capabilities. Still, soaking legumes before cooking & eating is recommended for any doshic type to increase digestibility and the assimilation of nutrients. Legumes that are especially balancing for Pitta types are: chickpeas, split peas, soy beans, lentils and mung beans.
Seasonings, spices & sweeteners:
Pitta types are encouraged to use and ingest more cooling spices such as fennel, dill, cardamom, mint, cilantro and coriander. Spices to use in moderation or reduce entirely if Pitta is imbalanced are things like chili, black pepper, ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper and horseradish.
While Vata dosha benefits from sweeteners such as honey and molasses which have heating properties, Pitta does better with fewer sweeteners. Honey in small amounts is good but molasses is very heating and should therefore be reduced.
Other general tips:
· Pitta types do well with drinking plenty of water due to their hot nature
· Fruits/fruit juices that are astringent do well for Pitta (such as apple, pear, cranberry and pomegranate)
· Alcohol in general should be avoided (particularly hard liquors and wine, beer is good in moderation)
· Meats should be taken in moderation, due to meat’s innate heating and oily nature. White meats like fish and chicken are better suited for Pitta types. Egg yolks, very salty fish and red meats are most Pitta aggravating.
· Pitta types in general should focus on eating fresh foods, dryer foods, cooling foods and slightly heavy foods (as this helps to calm their nervous system down and manage their charged energy).
· Pitta types do well with a healthy, nourishing breakfast that is nutrient dense and fibre-filled and an early lunch.
· Pitta types should eat more sweet, bitter and astringent foods while eating less salty, sour and pungent foods.
In conclusion
As you can see, many of the guidelines for balancing Pitta seem contrary to the guidelines that restore balance for Vata dominance. This is because the innate qualities of Vata and Pitta are contrasting and require quite opposing tools to restore balance. This can make it tricky if you have high Pitta and high Vata. However, this is the beauty of learning about yourself through the Ayurvedic modality: it provides refined clarity and a rich understanding into the different qualities and characteristics of each dosha in order to equip you with the knowledge to continue the journey of dynamic balance. Balance is a continuous, evolving and moment-to-moment process. It requires diligent listening and observation.
Why is balance such a dynamic process? Balance remains dynamic and almost elusive to the ever changing sensory and environmental inputs that come into the bodymind system of us humans, we are required to constantly listen and observe the ways that these inputs change our inner state of balance so that we can take restorative action from that place of understanding. As has been explored in the previous Ayurvedic posts, we have what is called our Prikruti, which is our natural born constitutional balance of doshas which is the combination of doshic ratios of your parents at the time of your conception. These doshic ratios are changed day by day according to what we are exposed to and take in. Our natural state of balance and harmony is when we support and come back to our birth constitution ratios.
It is also important to remember the qualities mentioned in these overviews of the doshas are the broad spectrum of qualities of each dosha, you will likely resonate with some but perhaps not all of the qualities mentioned. This is normal seeing as we all have each doshic type within us but in differing ratios – therefore some of the doshic qualities we will have and others we won’t.
This knowledge is incredibly empowering, because once we can fully understand the ways that we are affected by everyday life events, interactions, food choices, activity choices and the like, we can start to make supportive decisions about what truly encourages and buoys our deepest wellbeing on all levels.
