Do You Know Your Prakrati?  By Dr. Gita Gupta BHSc, DC, CAP

Ayurveda has been in practice for more than 3000 years, and it’s success as a medicine is often attributed to its natural application, and whole body approach. I think the most difficult part of understanding it, is realizing that it is about the daily choices that we make, and that the cumulative effect of these choices can enhance our total health or lead to ill-health. So let me start by sharing what Ayurvedic medicine means:

While the definition is specifically known as “the science of life”, it is more a system that incorporates our individual characteristics – physical, emotional, and environmental, that are rooted in the energies of the universe. Ayurveda  practice can allow one to make appropriate personal lifestyle choices to maintain a balance of those energies. It can be anything from what time we wake up and when we eat, to what food combinations we consume and how we exercise.

Every one of us has a specific ‘energetic’ make up, or our constitution, that dictates how we respond to our environment. Once we understand our constitutional make up, or Prakrati, we can then start to apply all of these lifestyle measures. It takes a lot of knowledge and experience to be able to determine our constitutional make up, and then identifying which factors cause the greatest imbalance to our prakrati, but it is this knowledge that will help us all achieve the level of health we desire.

Anyone that has ever followed Traditional Chinese Medicine can probably understand how theses energies mentioned can affect our bodies to create things like excessive heat, wind, dampness or lead to stagnation and other problems in the body’ all creating a qi imbalance.

So, similarly, this is what Ayurveda is all about; seeking to restore and maintain energetic balance. Once you find your Prakrati, you can begin directing your lifestyle choices to best suit it, and you can begin to balance your Vikruti (current state), removing the harmful agents in your life.

Dr. Gupta practices both Chiropractic and Ayurvedic Medicine at the clinic on Thursdays.  Find out more about her services via her website www.drgitagupta.com, and you can also reach her at ggupta@integrativehealthinstitute.ca.