Naturally Balance Your Mind, Body & Spirit — Ayurvedic Essential Oils for Every Dosha

Ayurveda is a natural medicine modality, developed in India over 3000 years ago.

It’s based on three concepts: the interconnectedness of self and the natural world, the body’s constitutions, and life forces, or doshas.

Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word meaning “life knowledge” or “science of life.” Based on plant medicine and natural remedies, the goal of Ayurvedic medicine is to regain balance between mind, spirit, and the environment — to reclaim or increase harmonious living.

Why Use Ayurveda?

Ayurveda combines plant medicine and lifestyle approaches to bring balance and harmony to one’s life. Homeopathy has roots in Ayurveda, and much of Western medicine comes from Ayurvedic principles.

Although much of its original teachings are lost, Ayurveda is a recognized and certifiable medicinal practice in India today.

What makes Ayurveda special is its individualistic, whole-person approach. In Ayurveda, each person has a unique energy imprint, which creates one’s constitution. Ayurvedic medicine examines and ultimately treats each person through a deep understanding of their physical, mental, and emotional traits — so they can adjust their health and regain mental, emotional, and physical balance.

Essential Oils and Ayurveda

Naturally derived and potent, Ayurveda utilizes essential oils to gently restore balance to your energy, including:

• Difficulty sleeping
• Concentration and focus issues
• Low energy and sluggishness
• Stress and anxiety symptoms
• Depression or mood swings
• Manic energy Anger and irritability
• Lack of mental clarity or motivation
• And much more.

The Doshas

Ayurvedic medicine posits that there are five elements that make up the world: ether (or space), water, earth, fire, and air.

We are each made up of these elements, too, represented by the doshas.

You may have any combination of these elements, but your dosha reflects which elements factor most prominently into your constitution.

An Ayurvedic practitioner can help you determine your dosha, but here are the basics on the elements each dosha expresses the most.

• Kapha: Earth and water
• Pitta: Fire and water
• Vata: Air and ether

Let’s take a deeper look at each dosha and how essential oils can support and rebalance them.

Kapha

Kapha, represented mostly by earth and water, is associated with spring. There’s a slow, steady, heavy, even sluggish quality to Kaphas. Physically healthy with strong bones, they’re typically very compassionate, happy, and caring.

They can also experience slow metabolism and weight gain if they’re off balance. Their spirit is prone to depression, and they can lack motivation. Kaphas often need outside encouragement and support.

Kaphas also need warmth and stimulating essential oils that are spiritually and emotionally uplifting, mentally clarifying and stimulating, and physically warming. If you identify as a Kapha, give these a try:

• Traditionally used in Ayurveda as a meditation aid, this warming Cedar Essential Oil balances Kapha’s cool, stagnant energy. Its warm and soft scent is stimulating to the physical body, yet calming to the mind, and promotes emotional equilibrium — a perfect balance for a Kapha who is having difficulty finding motivation and is overwhelmed by upcoming tasks.
• Treat all of Kapha’s imbalances with Kapha Ayurvedic Essential Oil Blend featuring tulsi, palo santo, cedar, orange, and cinnamon. Its uplifting effect inspires mental clarity and enthusiasm, rebalancing mood and mental state. It cuts through stagnant energy that a Kapha often suffers, and can refresh and energize an unmotivated Kapha.

Pitta

Associated with the heat of summer, the tenacious Pitta is associated with fire and water.

Highly competitive, motivated, and intelligent, they’re natural-born leaders. Physically, they’re muscular and strong, and often hungry. They can be aggressive and impatient, prone to conflict and mood swings because of their fiery nature.

The best oils for a Pitta will cool their anger, settle their emotional swings, and calm their mental activity:

• Peppermint Essential Oil removes mental fog and sharpens focus. As a cooling oil, peppermint is extremely effective for Pittas, and can relieve tension and ease emotional swings. Its cool and clearing nature also makes it ideal for stimulating mental agility and improving concentration. Physically, it can relieve overextended bodies and muscles for a hard-working Pitta.
• Pitta Essential Oil Blend is cooling, calming, and purifying, which can soothe hot anger and reduce harsh, judgmental thinking. This floral relaxant contains the pure essential oils of lavender Kashmir, rose-geranium, and ruh khus. (Try the roll-on version, too!)

Vata

Air and ether dominate a Vata dosha. They are cool, flowing, spacious, and light — and their dry qualities are represented by autumn, for its cool, dry days.

Vatas are known to be slender, creative, and sometimes eccentric. They’re often flexible and easy breezy, yet their moods can change with whatever’s happening around them.

Mentally, they can become easily overwhelmed. stressed, and forgetful. Emotionally, they may experience high levels of anxiety and can have trouble sleeping. Physically, they have poor circulation and generally don’t like the cold. They may have irregular eating habits and experience digestive issues.

The best oils for a Vata will be warming and alleviate the mental and emotional stress that often builds up in Vatas, including:

• The earthy, grounding Vetiver Essential Oil can bring airy, spacious Vatas back down to earth and offer emotional equilibrium. Vetiver Essential Oil is deeply calming, balancing, and restorative, promoting relaxation to overwhelmed Vatas. It’s also an excellent oil for promoting deep and revitalizing sleep for anxious or sleep-deprived Vatas.
• Vata Essential Oil Blend is designed to center and balance flowy Vatas. This blend of palo santo, jatamansi, clary sage, and ruh khus, will help Vatas relax, go inward, and center. It soothes an agitated nervous system, calms an overactive mind, and supports strong vitality.

Essential Oils For Every Dosha

The essential oils that we derive from Mother Nature’s Apothecary are beautifully supportive of our own energies. Although individually we may use different oils to balance our unique energy flows, there are a few oils that can be used anytime to ground and center any dosha, including:

• Clary Sage Essential Oil promotes peace and calm and can soothe rattled nerves and emotions. It offers powerful hormonal and emotional support, providing balance when calm and relaxed states are needed in our high-stress, fast-paced modern world. It produces feelings of lucidity, equanimity, and tranquility, bringing any dosha back to a centered, calm, harmonious state.
• With a lush, herbaceous, floral scent, Lavender Kashmir Essential Oil not only blends the complexity of aroma to make a delightfully smelling oil, but its complexity also extends to its ability to soothe and balance all doshas. Calming but uplifting, revitalizing yet relaxing, this gorgeous gift of nature is a must-have for every dosha.
• Intensely sweet, cooling, and calming, Night Blooming Jasmine Absolute Oil (also known as “Queen of the Night") pacifies the Vata, cools Pitta, and revitalizes Kapha. Deeply soothing, it has almost euphoric effects, bringing harmony and joy, love and peace to every dosha, and opening the heart to reestablish interconnectedness with those around them, including the natural world.

Natural Remedies for Balanced Living

Although Ayurvedic practices include much more than plant medicine, essential oils are a good place to start and are powerful tools to incorporate into your routine to reestablish balance and harmony. To learn more about Ayurveda, visit Ayurveda And Aromatherapy, written by our founder, David Crow.

Remembering our interconnectedness to nature, we can understand that it provides all the tools we need to maintain balance and harmony — including therapeutic essential oils.

By scheduling a consultation with Floracopeia founder David Crow you can gain more personalized advice and health suggestions that can only be given through a one-on-one conversation with an experienced specialist.