The Dosha for Life book, gives you everything you need to understand how your own personal dosha can become out of balance.
The 'gunas' and practices to follow are all included.

The Gunas or Qualities

In Ayurveda there ‘encompasses a subtle medical science’ called qualities, attributes or characteristics, often referred to as ‘Gunas’, and considered the ‘prime qualities of Nature’ , that occur in all nature and are the foundation of the Elements.

They are concentrated in different combinations in the form of our Dosha’s and they affect our thinking, our emotions and our physical body. Food has these qualities and will also affect the Dosha’s, for example a food that is light in quality according to Ayurveda will also affect the Vata mind, body and emotions.

Charak was ancient Ayurvedic Physician, contributing to the formation of Vedic texts we know today. He wrote that all organic and inorganic substances, as well as all thoughts and actions have definite attributes’ which contain ‘potential energy’ that can manifest into action.

There are twenty Gunas and although this may appear a lot, the actual fundamental understanding of each is simple and once grasped they open up an opportunity for greatly enhancing the psychotherapeutic alliance.

When we examine the Gunas we see that they are pairs of ‘opposing forces’ that function together. Charak explained that ‘the universe…is the manifestation of…basic opposites, male and female energy’ If we understand that depending on our Dosha’s and the formation of its elements, increasing any similar attributes will aggravate, our mind, body and emotions.

A simple example can be seen from the attributes which are Pitta they are hot, light, dry and mobile. During a hot summer someone who is Pitta will find this season aggravating and often unbearable. This will not only affect Pitta physically with sweating, heavy breath and tiredness, but also the mind, which becomes, agitated, hot tempered leading to anger.

The opposite Gunas is cold and they symptoms of Pitta can be relived through applying actions and energies that help to cool the body and mind. The Gunas are subtle forces and ‘demand awareness’ to simply drink an iced drink, which many Pitta Types do will only relieve the physical and mental symptoms instantly, similar to a cathartic reaction created from an emotional release in psychotherapy.