Understanding the Vata dosha can feel like trying to catch a breeze with a butterfly net—tricky but oh-so-rewarding! Zoa and Christine Gordon, Clinical Herbalist at Bloom Herbal Clinic, dive deep into the whimsical world of Vata, exploring its essence as the dosha linked with air and ether. They break down what being Vata means in real life, from the physical characteristics like long, slender limbs to the personality traits that can make a Vata person the life of the party or a creative whirlwind. Christine shares her wisdom as a clinical herbalist, explaining how Vata's airy nature can lead to creativity and spontaneity, but also to anxiety and restlessness if not balanced. Together, they discuss how Vata folks might struggle with dry skin and irregular digestion, likening their energy to the unpredictable wind—sometimes a gentle breeze and other times a full-blown tornado. They sprinkle in practical tips for balancing Vata, like nurturing meals and self-care routines that ground the spirit and calm the mind.

The conversation doesn’t shy away from the challenges Vata individuals face. Zoa and Christine emphasize that understanding one’s dosha is key to unlocking a happier, more vibrant life. They share how Vata imbalances can manifest as insecurity or fear, urging listeners to tune into their bodies and recognize when they need to create a little peace and stillness in their lives. The duo also has a blast discussing the importance of creativity for Vata types, encouraging listeners to pick up that guitar or paintbrush if they feel the urge! By the end of their chat, it's clear that embracing Vata doesn't just mean understanding its quirks; it’s about celebrating its magic and finding balance, making it a delightful journey of self-discovery.

Zoa and Christine wrap up the episode with a friendly reminder that everyone has a little Vata in them, and recognizing this can lead to greater awareness and harmony in life. They invite listeners to share their experiences and connect through the wonderful world of Ayurveda. So, grab a comfy seat and maybe a cup of herbal tea as you dive into this enlightening discussion about the Vata dosha—it's a rollercoaster ride of knowledge, laughter, and friendly banter, perfect for anyone looking to explore their inner winds!

Takeaways:

• The Vata dosha is all about movement and creativity, but it can lead to restlessness if not balanced.
• People with a Vata constitution may struggle with dry skin and variable digestion, which can be tricky.
• Balancing Vata involves nurturing activities like getting outside and eating grounding foods.
• When Vata is out of whack, it can cause anxiety and insecurity, so creating calm is key.
• Vata types are typically the idea generators, but they need help to see projects through to completion.
• Eating heavier foods and waking early can help ground Vata energy for those who feel unbalanced.

Share this episode : https://sustain-your-vitality.captivate.fm/listen

Find Christine Gordon:

Bloom Herbal Clinic (bloomherbalclinic.com)

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/christineinbloom/

Find Zoa:

Zen and Vitality with Zoa (zenandvitality.com)

Intentional Vitality Retreats (intentional-vitality.com)

Music Credit goes to Lemon Music Studio at: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4XWZhZ32YrVV5lvpF7cr1E?si=tnbSklR7SJyPNKiHP4MbHA

Welcome to Sustain youn Vitality, the podcast that gives you a nurturing kick in the ass so you can take action every day to feel better, not older.

Your lifestyle holds the power to change how you feel.

And no matter your age or health issues, you are in the driver's seat.

I'm your host, Zoa Connor, Functional wellness guide at Zen and Vitality with Zoa and retreat leader at Intentional Vitality Retreats.

I'm here to help you figure out how to lower your stress, increase your energy, put yourself into a healing state, boost your drive and pleasure in life, prevent disease, and feel the best that you ever have with no regrets later.

Let's go.

And I'm delighted to share Christine Gordon with you for these conversations.

Christine, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hello and thank you SOA for having me today.

I am a clinical herbalist by training with a focus on Ayurvedic medicine and traditional wise woman and Western herbalism.

I have a clinical practice here in La Plate in Maryland, and I've been practicing herbalism for about professionally on my own, in my own business for a couple of years, but in general for about 20 years.

Fabulous.

Well, let's get to our conversation then.

So Christine and I are gonna have this little chit chat now about one of the doshas and we're gonna choose vata first.

So vata is something that is associated with ether and air.

What the heck are those?

I know, ether.

What is that?

It's spiritual space.

Right?

It's space.

An example of that would be how does that, how does this ether space thing impact you on a day to day basis?

It could be a vata person and we'll get into this, you know, in just a second.

But I don't like people in my physical space.

Right.

So having any people in my physical space is going to create some imbalance for me.

So that's just, just that brings it kind of down to the, to the real level around what is this ether space thing around?

Vata dosha, but it also has to do with the internal space.

So you have spaces inside of you, like your lungs.

Right.

We think of them as an organ, but it's just a shell.

And inside of it is space.

Yes, exactly.

Intestines too.

Right.

Bata Dosha governs the small intestine.

So that's a space that we can talk about in vata terms if you want to when we get there.

Yep.

So when you look at someone, you can typically, if you have a trained eye, you can see what is their physical presentation.

In terms of their dosha, so vata people, if you shake their hand, what do you see?

Long, right?

Long, thin, Sometimes dry.

Rough.

Yeah.

So dry skin, long fingers, long necks, long legs, long bones.

Yes.

Or it doesn't mean thin and skinny necessarily.

Not always.

Not always.

Sometimes.

That is a clue, though.

But also the smaller person who's really, what we would say in layman's terms, small boned, Right, Right.

A tiny.

And who's small boned.

Yes.

So and even if they're short versus tall.

Right.

They're short and narrow.

Yes.

Narrow is key there.

Yes.

Right.

And dry.

They have a lot of trouble with dry skin and dry.

Other things.

Dry hair, right?

Yes.

Dry mouth a lot.

Yes, yes.

A hard time staying hydrated everywhere.

Yes.

And digestion and appetite are variable, Right.

Sometimes digestion is off.

If their vata dosha is imbalanced.

Variable is a great word for vata because all kinds of things are con.

Are quite adjustable, shall we say?

Yes.

Sometimes they're hungry and they can eat everything and sometimes they have no appetite at all, you know?

Yes, sometimes.

And it's kind of on a whim.

It's not like it's predictable.

It's like the wind, right?

It's like the wind.

Yep.

Their hair.

Their hair tends to have a meaning, a mind of its own.

Yes, yes, it does.

Yeah.

And then, let's see, what else can we say?

So you hear this a lot in vata people.

Their sleep, they're not good sleepers.

They have.

They sleep lightly.

Their sleep is disturbed by the slightest thing.

They can't have any sounds, they can't have any light.

Their hands and feet are often cold.

And vatan, in terms of personality, generally speaking, are typically the creatives.

Right.

If you think about that wind, their mind is all over the place.

And sometimes in a good way.

It can be a good way.

If you're creative.

Right.

You have lots of ideas.

Lots of ideas.

You're active, you're alert, but on the downside of that is you're restless.

Right.

Because your mind is spinning.

If you're imbalanced in vaat, if there's too much air, you.

You might talk too fast, you might move too quickly, and then you might be easily fatigued or tired.

So you can get a lot of things done if you can go with the wind.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Right.

And so they tend to be very busy, not sitting still a lot.

Not sitting still.

Doing busy things, not always productive things.

Right.

So they're doing something.

But, you know, and if you go with the Wind concept.

Like, is it a little bit more of a tornado or is it more of a productive, gentle breeze that pushes on a windmill?

It just depends.

Right.

It depends on lots of things the season.

Is it a windy day that has an impact on vata dosha?

Is it a windy day?

Is there a lot of noise?

Lots of noise going on is super imbalancing for vata dosha.

So when your vata is imbalanced, then you do have a nervous system dysregulation.

Oh, most definitely.

Right.

Because the lack of the sleep and the.

The easily stimulated.

Right.

It's like you.

Your threshold is high.

Like you're running around at a lot of stimulation and so then you're very sensitive to any extra added on.

Exactly.

And then we run into problems like chronic fatigue, autoimmune or low immune system.

Right.

And just in general getting sick easily, you know, catching that cold when someone seizes those kinds of things.

But it's super easy to complain and look for the things that you don't like.

But as you mentioned already, the Vata constitution gives an amazing creativity and connection to people and ideas.

What other prose would you say vata brings you?

Well, they definitely.

Vata Dosha doesn't really need to develop any kind of endurance because they already have it.

They already have endurance, they have confidence, they have boldness, and they are the ones you want on your team.

If you have a project and you're not sure what direction to go in, the vata person is usually the one to speak up and say, I have this great idea.

Now, typically, that's probably the extent of it.

Right.

But it's important.

It's important.

These vata.

But you know, we talk about project starters and project finishers.

Yes, exactly.

So vata people are project starters.

They're the idea people.

Right.

But then they desperately need someone to pass that on to, otherwise nothing's going to happen.

Yeah, that'll be the next episode.

You got to pass that stuff on to the pitta.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Right, right.

Yeah.

But so if you're finding yourself having like these qualities are really intense for me.

Too intense.

Right.

Then you know that you don't want to do things that support this vata state.

You want to do things that will calm it down a little bit.

But if you're like, I can't remember the last time I was creative, or like, I call myself a musician and I've got like three guitars, but I haven't picked them up in a while, I'm just not motivated.

Maybe you need to do things, to support, create this space, create this airy flow in this energy for yourself.

Right?

Exactly right.

Get outside on a windy day, take a walk, eat or drink things that are nurturing.

Avata dosha.

Those would be the sweet things and not necessarily processed sugar.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about eating dates and oranges.

Fruits and dry things.

Yes.

Crispy things, crackers, pretzels.

Yep.

Yeah.

Nuts, stuff like that.

Yep.

So if you love to have a salad with lots of fresh vegetables and just like me, a tiny little bit of cheese and some like dry, crispy, spicy nuts and you know, you, you like to have maybe like a spruce footsie drink with you and have some pretzels on the side.

That's definitely like a vata kind of meal, right?

That is a vata balancing meal.

If you are vata already imbalanced, that's going to put you over the edge.

But it is something that you could do if for the person who's feeling stagnant, who feels stuck, who needs some energy, who needs some direction, who needs to tap into, like you said, that creativity piece, that musician that you were talking about that hasn't been playing music.

Perfect meal for them.

Absolutely.

But now here's the funny thing that we haven't really talked so much about.

But isn't there different times of the day as well when you might want to eat that meal if you're trying to boost or suppress a little bit of your vata tendencies?

Eating?

Yes, I think there's all kinds of things.

What time of day should you wake up?

If you want to, you know, get your vata balance dosha in balance.

Yeah.

And what time you eat too.

But I would say more importantly, the time of day that you wake up and get your day started.

Vata needs to start early in the morning.

Yeah.

So if you're that 4am Wake up kind of person and you love it, that that's your vata.

That's the vata.

Yes, definitely.

But if you have to drag your ass out of bed at 4am and you hate it, that's not you.

That's not you.

That is not vata.

No doubt.

Right.

But if you wanted to boost your vata, you could get yourself up earlier in the morning.

Yeah, you definitely could.

That, that would be a challenge for some.

Some.

But then you'd have to get up and you'd have to create a lifestyle that was oriented around building your vata.

You'd have to have that morning motion and frequent motion through the day.

And you'd have to have these lighter, airier meals, right?

Yeah.

It would be like a.

A whole sequence of things to do.

And then how do you know if you've overdone it?

Exactly.

Now you're talking.

Yeah.

And that's why this.

This conversation is so valuable to share this knowledge, because once you have it, it's pretty easy to weave in and out of it.

You know, when you know what air and space feels like, and you know what fire and water feels like, and you know what earth and water feels like, then you can start to create some balance in your own life.

Absolutely.

And it's part of your toolbox.

If I feel this way, I know this is what I do to get me back to where I want to be.

Exactly.

What else should we tell listeners about vata for right now?

I think just to be mindful that vata dosha in excess can make one feel insecure, fearful, or anxious.

And so that's.

That's one of the things that you'll notice first when you're feeling vata imbalanced.

If you're feeling some anxiety, are you feeling insecure?

Notice where you need to create some calm stillness in your life and maybe eat some rooted vegetables, things that are a little bit heavier to help you feel grounded.

And if you are feeling creative, don't ignore it.

Get out the paintbrush.

Get out the journal and the pen.

Bring out the guitar.

Celebrate this part of who you are.

Awesome.

Well, I really enjoyed our conversation, Christine.

Do you want to let people know how they can find you and learn about all of the wonderful things that you help people with?

That would be great.

Thank you so much, Zoa.

You can find me online at my website, bloomeherbalclinic.com B L O O M bloomerbalclinic.com you can check out my musings on Instagram @christineinbloom and you can find me on Facebook @christineandbloom as well.

Great.

Thanks, Christine.

Thank you.

So.

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