Three patterns, described the way a therapist actually uses them — to pick an oil, a pressure and a season, not to tell your fortune.
Table of contents
What a dosha is for
The doshas are a classification system, not a horoscope. Their working purpose in a treatment room is narrow and practical: they decide which oil, which temperature, which pressure and which season suits you.
Almost nobody is one pure type. You have a baseline constitution (prakriti) and a current state of imbalance (vikriti), and it is the second one a therapist treats today.
Vata — air and space
- Shows up as: dry skin, cold hands, light broken sleep, irregular appetite, racing thoughts, constipation.
- Aggravated by: travel, cold wind, irregular routine, too much screen time, skipping meals.
- Needs: warmth, oil, weight, routine, slow rhythm.
- Therapies: Abhyanga with heavy warm oil, Shirodhara, Padabhyanga.
Pitta — fire and water
- Shows up as: strong appetite, sharp digestion, heat, inflammation, acne, irritability, waking at 2am.
- Aggravated by: heat, spicy and sour food, alcohol, deadlines, missing lunch.
- Needs: cooling, sweetness, moderation, shade.
- Therapies: cooling coconut or ghee-based Abhyanga, Mukhalepam facial with sandalwood, Shirodhara with cool oil.
Kapha — earth and water
- Shows up as: heaviness, slow digestion, congestion, oily skin, deep sleep but hard mornings, weight that will not shift.
- Aggravated by: cold damp weather, dairy, sugar, daytime sleep, inactivity.
- Needs: dryness, heat, stimulation, movement.
- Therapies: Podikizhi with herbal powders, dry Udvartana, vigorous massage with light oil.
The Pokhara season overlay
Where you are matters as much as who you are. Pokhara is the wettest city in Nepal, and four months of monsoon humidity aggravate Kapha in almost everyone — heaviness, congestion, sluggish digestion — which is why our summer menu runs drier and lighter, with more powder work and steam and less heavy oil.
The trekking seasons pull the other way. October to November and March to April are dry, dusty and full of people who have just spent two weeks cold, under-slept and irregularly fed at altitude, which is close to a textbook Vata aggravation. Those months are when the heavy oils and the hot stones come out.
This is why we re-assess members each quarter rather than assigning a dosha once and treating it as fixed. Your constitution does not change; your imbalance changes constantly.
Online quizzes
They are a reasonable introduction and a poor diagnosis. They cannot read your pulse, see your skin or notice that you have described symptoms of two doshas while insisting you are a third. Take one for curiosity, then let someone assess you in person before committing to a course of treatment.
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