Ayurveda for Anxiety

According to Ayurveda, different levels of 3 dosha’s (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) define your cognitive and physical fingerprint. Everyone has a defined set of levels for each of these dosha’s that form the baseline. A disease occurs whenever there’s an imbalance in that baseline.

Everyone usually has a dominant dosha, a dosha that has the highest levels in your fingerprint. For example, If you’re 20% pitta, 30% Kapha, and 50% Vata, your dominant dosha is Vata.

Now, Anxiety according to ayurveda is an aggravation of Vata. It is usually observed in people who are Vata dominant. So, to reduce anxiety we need to balance Vata and bring it back to the baseline.

Gut

Aggravated Vata starts with the formation of ama (a metabolic toxin of sorts according to ayurveda) in your colon. It’s usually a result of constipation. So, emptying your bowels is the most important first step in managing Vata.

Eat a tablespoon of Fenugreek seeds soaked overnight in water first thing in the morning

Eat a banana on an empty stomach first thing in the morning (before or after eating fenugreek seeds)

These act like an osmotic laxative and bring in lots of water into your lower intestine, softening your stool in the process. It’ll help you with constipation.

Routine

Have routines. Not having routines feed into your windy nature and you end up just flowing everywhere.

Sleep

Wake up early. Vata’s usually come online early and have lower stamina.

Food

Avoid stimulants like caffeine. Caffeine aggravates your Vata.

Eat warm, moist/wet foods, they bring down Vata. Whereas dry, junk foods usually aggravate. So for example prefer soup (warm, moist) over a salad (dry).

Avoid heavy meals, prefer frequent light meals instead. Vata’s usually are not good with digesting heavy meals as they have a weaker digestive system. Heavy meals would just give them a food coma (brain fog).

Technology

Reduce Technology use. Technology is usually bad for Vata’s as they horn in on the windy nature of Vata’s. All these apps with notifications competing for your attention and trying to keep you hooked feed into your windy nature and aggravate your Vata.

Limit technology use at night. You can’t wake up early if you’re on your phone at 2 am reading Reddit posts!

I hope this helps you in some way, I’m going to do another post on ayurveda basics that would give you a basic idea of ayurveda.

Akash