The IBS metabolic and emotional type
What I love about Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India, is it accounts for different body types. Because we are not built the same way, our medical issues should not be treated with a one-size-fits all approach.
Ayurveda takes metabolic type, constitution and personality into account when treating people. It offers different healing diets, herbs and lifestyle changes to balance different types of people. Ayurveda explains why one person can recover from digestive issues on the vegetarian diet, while another swears by the healing power of animal protein.
I also believe in customizing healing programs to fit the individual. It’s the only approach that makes sense.
If you understand your constitution, you know what YOU need to get your body healthy and balanced. It is also explains why the program that healed your friend, is making you feel worse.
Meet Vata
The first step in Ayurveda is to determine a person’s constitution (also called dosha) with a test like this. While most people have a combination of all three constitutions, there is one that is dominant. The dominant constitution must be balanced.
What drew me to Ayurveda in the first place, is the revelation that there’s a constitution prone to IBS. That constitution is Vata.
This doesn’t mean all Vata-dominant constitutions are doomed to develop IBS, it just means that the first place imbalance tends to show up is in the digestive system. It also triggers an emotional response of anxiety.
- A Vata constitution is characterized by wind.
The three constitutions
As you may have guessed, my constitution is Vata dominant. Vata is characterized by the element of air.
The Vata personality type is always in motion (if the body is not in motion, the mind is racing). Vatas have the need for speed and dislike stillness. They tend to spend too much in their head, over thinking everything.
Vatas are highly changeable like the wind, and often change their minds or their plans on a whim. Vata is the least grounded of the three types, and therefore struggles to stay in balance, follow routines or maintain discipline.
The other two types are characterized by fire and earth. Pitta is the hot, fiery type and Kapha is slow, steady and ultra grounded. Because of these qualities, Pittas can get overheated, inflamed and angry when out of balance and Kaphas struggle with stagnancy, laziness and weight gain when are out of whack.
To achieve balance, Vatas need to be grounded, Pittas need to be cooled and Kaphas need to be energized.
What is means to be Vata
Because most of my readers tend to be Vata dominant, I will focus on balancing this constitution. And as a raging Vata myself, I can talk about what helps me stay in balance.
Vatas have a tendency to be sensitive and creative. Their vivid imaginations often fuel their tendency to worry. They can imagine everything that can go wrong, and stress will effect tummy function in Vatas much more than in other types.
A Vata personality is compassionate, moody and active. It is hard for Vatas to relax. Nervous energy makes the mind races and the body vibrate with activity.
Vatas are drawn to variety and change, greatly value freedom and feel trapped by consistent routines. They prefer to do things when the mood strikes and are easily swayed of direction by their impulses, emotions or environment.
Vatas get cold easily and have dry skin. They have trouble meditating, and if they’ve developed a daily practice, it took a tremendous amount of effort and dedication to do so.
Ironically, Vatas are balanced by things that don’t come naturally to them. Vatas need to ground themselves to smooth out and settle their over active systems. Eating grounding foods is one way to do that.
While fiery Pittas are cooled by eating raw, high water foods, this diet will throw Vata off balance. Vatas needs cooked, warm and oily foods to calm them down and bring them back to earth.
Years ago, I experienced the mistake of eating a Pitta-balancing, raw food diet to heal my digestion. I felt even worse, but couldn’t understand why. Ayurveda explains what happened. I was eating the wrong healing diet for my type.
How to heal and balance Vata
1) Vatas should cook most of their food and drown their salads in a healthy oil. Putting lots of ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil on food is excellent for calming. Vatas who have trouble digesting oil should work on restoring stomach acid and bile function, so they can tolerate it again. (I will write a blog post on this topic soon.)
2) Implementing a consistent sleep, meal and exercise schedule is extremely grounding to Vata.
3) Slathering the body with jojoba, sunflower or coconut oil after bathing (or anytime) is very soothing.
4) Get a hot stone massage with lots of massage oil to calm the nervous system or take a hot bath or long hot shower.
5) If you find yourself rushing through your day, pause. Take some deep breaths and slow down. Imagine your feet growing roots into the ground. This visualization will do wonders to ground your body and energy.
6) Starting a physical practice that will focus Vata’s attention on physical sensations, rather than thoughts, is one of the most transforming practices, but also the most difficult to stick with. A physical practice like yoga, tai chi, chi gong, Feldenkrais, walking meditation or biofeedback will bring Vata into balance.
A grounding practice you can do on your own
You can do this practice anytime and anywhere.
The next time you find yourself spinning in anxious thoughts, pause for a moment and notice what you feel in your body. Is your throat tight? Is your heart beating fast? Are your shoulders contracted? Is your breathing shallow? Scan your body and notice what’s happening.
Not only will this practice calm down your stress response and anxiety but it will show you how to use your body to ease your mind. You will understand how relaxing your throat, slowing down your breath or loosening your shoulders, influences your thoughts and emotions. This is the most valuable tool in my stress-fighting tool box because it works so well with practice.
Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time, it gets easier and more powerful each time you do it. It’s not a quick fix (Vatas are addicted to speed and instant results) but this method has changed my life and response to life-crippling anxiety.
If you have trouble doing this on your own, try the support and structure of group classes (choose one of the body-centered practices in the last bullet point above or pick your own body centered practice).
Approach emotions through the body, not the mind
From my experience, psychotherapy is not as helpful for calming Vata types as body-centered (somatic) therapies. Talk therapy keep Vatas in their heads, where the problem is analyzed to death but rarely resolved.
Vatas have the strongest mind body connection of all the types, and get the most benefit from body-focused practices. Our sensitivity lets us feel sensations and emotions that others miss.
The point is to get out of your head and focus on what’s happening in your body. And doing this consistently will heals and balances Vata on many levels.
What calms and balances you? Tell me in the comments below.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease or a disease at all. IBS is a body out of balance. It’s an invitation for change. After solving her own IBS mystery more than a decade ago Angela trained as a health coach to help others.
Angela uses both science and intuition to help people figure out what’s out of balance in their body. She works with lab tests, dietary changes, supplementation and nervous system rebalancing. Get help rebalancing your digestive system and solving your IBS mystery here.
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