What's your dosha? FIND your dosha, LEARN your dosha, LOVE your dosha!

Dosha® Bar Cherry Chakra will balance your wind and space-inspired vata dosha so you can feel anchored, focused, and relaxed. Buy at http://doshabar.com/products/cherry-chakra-vata and use the discount code QUIZ15OFF to get 15% off your first purchase.

Vata people are represented by air and space. Balanced vata-dominant people are bright, energetic, anchored, focused, relaxed, and social. But out of balance, vatas tend to take on too much, be anxious or fearful, may not finish every project they start, may have trouble sleeping, have dry skin, or be bloated. The following guidance can help balance vata!

Vata-Balancing Lifestyle Tips: Learn to prioritize better, create routine, do one thing at a time (stop multi-tasking!), say 'no' more often, create peaceful daily breaks from a chaotic life (maybe walking in the park or meditating), go to bed early (before 10pm), and be sure to finish what you start. Also, stay warm and around modest humidity, no matter the weather.

Vata-Balancing Activities: Early morning is the best time to exercise. Careful not to exercise too vigorously, too often. While you can keep going on nervous energy, you will pay for it later. Rather than dive into intense running, spinning, and CrossFit exercises, focus more on less strenuous exercises like yoga (especially gentler forms or be more deliberate and take a longer savasana if doing vinyasa or Bikram yoga), recreational biking, tai chi, hiking, tennis, walking, swimming, golf, or dance. In the winter, you might find working out indoors more natural than outdoors. You naturally need less exercise than the other dosha—only 20-30 minutes daily.

Vata-Balancing Food: Eat more slowly, stay routine with meal times, and eat in a serene location. You are balanced by sweet, sour, and salty tastes. Warm, moist, nourishing (even oily), and smooth food is balancing. Warm food and warm water are preferable to cold. Eat a generous amount of healthy fats found in warm stews, avocado, healthy oils (clarified butter or ghee is great). Steer away from or moderate your intake of cold, dry, spicy, bitter, and astringent (mouth drying) foods such as salads, blended fruit drinks, popcorn, chips, or crackers. Eat more cooked vegetables than raw ones. Mild spices that are warming (but not spicy) are best: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove, Cumin, Coriander, Fennel, Garlic, and (fresh) Ginger, Nutmeg, Turmeric. Limit coffee consumption.

Vata-Balancing Massage: "Abhayanga" is a daily, Ayurvedic oil massage, which you can administer yourself (!) to help relax and rejuvenate. For vata, we recommend sesame or almond oil and try to do self-massage daily. You can also find “vata blends” at select retailers or online. Morning is the best time though self-massage before bedtime can also be nourishing. http://kripalu.org/blog/thrive/2015/09/09/the-benefits-of-abhyanga-the-loving-practice-of-self-massage/

Vata-Balancing Breathing Tips: “Pranayama” is the yogic practice of regulating breath and different kinds of pranayama produce different special effects on our bodies such as enhancing mental clarity, finding emotional balance, and more. To pacify vata dosha, we recommend Nadi Shodhana, the channel-purifying breath, which is grounding, soothing, fluid, and softening. Here is a short, helpful video on Nadi Shodhana led by one of our favorite people: Larissa Hall Carlson from Kripalu, the #1 yoga retreat in America! https://player.vimeo.com/video/113516673

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Dosha® Bar Blueberry Balance will balance your fiery pitta dosha nature so you can feel calm, generous, and refreshed. Buy at http://doshabar.com/products/blueberry-balance-pitta and use the discount code QUIZ15OFF to get 15% off your first purchase.

Pitta people are represented by fire and water. Balanced pitta-dominant people are ambitious, highly intelligent, organized and efficient, decisive, generous, and passionate. But out of balance, pittas tend to be quick tempered, impatient and frustrated, judgmental, jealous, or may have stomach or skin inflammation. The following guidance can help balance pitta!

Pitta-Balancing Lifestyle Tips: Seek to be more patient and compassionate. Rather than control and judge every situation, even consider surrendering at times. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself or burn the candle on both ends; remember that even if it’s not perfect, you’ll still do an amazing job. Keep a regular routine to balance work, play, and time to relax. Reconnect with nature as often as possible. Try to laugh at a situation when possible. Avoid stressful people and situations whenever possible. It’s easy for you to stay up late but try hard to decompress and go to bed by 10pm. Stay cool and dry.

Pitta-Balancing Activities: Early morning through 10am is the best time to exercise; if you must exercise later, do so in the early evening dusk hours and before dinner (stay out of the hot afternoon sun). You are competitive and naturally warm so focus on challenging, cooling, and even gentle exercise. Especially if intense, focus on the process of the activity, not winning or competition. Good exercises for pitta are swimming, yoga (try mixing up your practices, staying cool, calm, and receptive while in poses), tennis, soccer, karate, (longer distance) biking, hiking, climbing, hockey, golf.

Pitta-Balancing Food: Eat regularly–never skip meals. You are balanced by sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes. Cool, relatively dry, and nourishing food is balancing. Lukewarm to cool foods are best for you and preferable to hot. Balance is key and eat a mix of whole, cooked, and raw foods. Eat more vegetables, beans, and cold salads. Organic, wholesome dairy is balancing for you. When eating fruits, prefer sweet over sour. Try to steer away from or moderate your intake of hot, dry, spicy foods (minimize chile pepper consumption).. Soothing spices that cool are best: Cardamom, Coriander, Dill, Fennel, Mint, and Saffron. In general, don’t overdo spices. Limit consumption of hot, spicy, sour foods and alcohol.

Pitta-Balancing Massage: "Abhayanga" is a daily, Ayurvedic oil massage, which you can administer yourself (!) to help relax and rejuvenate. For pitta, we recommend coconut, sunflower, or olive oil and try to do self-massage daily. You can also find “pitta blends” at select retailers or online. Morning is the best time though self-massage before bedtime can also be nourishing. http://kripalu.org/blog/thrive/2015/09/09/the-benefits-of-abhyanga-the-loving-practice-of-self-massage/

Pitta-Balancing Breathing Tips: “Pranayama” is the yogic practice of regulating breath and different kinds of pranayama produce different special effects on our bodies such as enhancing mental clarity, finding emotional balance, and more. To pacify pitta dosha, we recommend Sheetali breathing, which is known as cooling breath to calm the body and mind. Here is a short, helpful video on sheetali pranayama led by one of our favorite people: Larissa Hall Carlson from Kripalu, the #1 yoga retreat in America! https://vimeo.com/113731618

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Dosha® Bar Apple Cran Awakening will balance your earth and water-inspired kapha dosha so you can feel invigorated, light, and motivated. Buy at http://doshabar.com/products/apple-cran-awakening-kapha and use the discount code QUIZ15OFF to get 15% off your first purchase.

Kapha people are represented by earth and water. Balanced kapha-dominant people are grounded, loving, supportive, calm, physically strong, and non-confrontational people. But out of balance, kaphas tend to have a hard time with change, can be lazy or lethargic, may become overweight, stubborn, or overly attached and possessive to people or things and in denial. The following guidance can help balance kapha!

Kapha-Balancing Lifestyle Tips: Seek to be more open-minded, try new things, and seek out mental and physical stimulation. Consider an outside perspective to make sure you’re viewing reality clearly and not through your own strong bias. If something is wrong, consider confronting it head-on, even if this isn’t your first instinct. You are a good sleeper but do your best to rise early in the morning (around 6am) since it will help you feel more positive about yourself and get you going! Consciously try to energize your routine and stay active. Connect with people, who are lively company to balance you out. Tidy up regularly rather than let clutter build up at home and work. Stay warm and dry whenever possible.

Kapha-Balancing Activities: Early morning through 10am or early evening before dinner are the best times for you to exercise. Your biggest challenge might just be getting to the gym so try to start and stick to a routine. If you haven’t exercised in a while, start with brisk walking and work your way up to faster speeds and other more intense exercises and endurance sports, which will will benefit you. Good exercises for kapha are distance running and jogging, rowing, yoga (try invigorating practice such as vinyasa, power, or Bikram), dance or aerobics classes, soccer, karate, spinning and biking, racquetball, lacrosse, volleyball, or rock climbing. Don’t work yourself to exhaustion but try to build up a decent sweat in your exercise.

Kapha-Balancing Food: You can skip meals easily but that doesn’t make it good for you. Try to eat regular meals and a light diet of mostly warm, relatively dry foods. You are balanced by pungent (think spicy), bitter, and astringent tastes; stay away from sweet, sour, and salty foods. When you reach for water, have warm or hot water rather than cold or ice water. Vegetables, vegetable soups, beans (all except soy/tofu) benefit you. When eating fruit, prefer astringent, lighter fruits (e.g. apples, berries, grapefruits, pears, pomegranates, prunes, apricots) over sweet and sour ones. All spices are great for you, especially black pepper and chile spices, ginger, and mustard; excepting salt, which can aggravate you. Reduce your intake of dairy, red meat, sweets, fried foods, and oily foods such as cheese and nuts. If you must use a sweetener, use honey, which is best for kapha. Limit consumption of alcohol and fatty/oily foods.

Kapha-Balancing Massage: "Abhayanga" is a daily, Ayurvedic oil massage, which you can administer yourself (!) to help relax and rejuvenate. For kapha, we recommend sesame, olive, or almond oil and try to do self-massage daily. Online and at select retailers, you can also find “kapha blends” that have beneficial herbs infused. Morning is the best time though self-massage before bedtime can also be nourishing. http://kripalu.org/blog/thrive/2015/09/09/the-benefits-of-abhyanga-the-loving-practice-of-self-massage/

Kapha-Balancing Breathing Tips: “Pranayama” is the yogic practice of regulating breath and different kinds of pranayama produce different special effects on our bodies such as enhancing mental clarity, finding emotional balance, and more. To pacify kapha dosha, we recommend Kapalabhati breathing, which is known as skull-polishing breath can stimulate, tone abdominal muscles, and improve concentration. Here is a short, helpful video on sheetali pranayama led by one of our favorite people: Larissa Hall Carlson from Kripalu, the #1 yoga retreat in America! https://vimeo.com/113500913

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