Ayurvedic Daily Dosha Rhythm
Patterns within Patterns, Time and Functional Fractals
“The end, middle and beginning of life, day, night and digestion of food are predominantly influenced by the tridoṣha (vāta, pitta and kapha)”
The ‘Asthanga Hrdayam’ by Acharya Vaghata Translated by Dr. Sanjay Pisharodi and edited by Chitra Eder.
Last week I wrote about the significance of the Solar Cycle of the sun. This week it gets personal. 1
Quick review:
The annual solar cycle with its seasons, solstices, and equinoxes are reflected in the daily 24-hour cycle with its corresponding energy patterns.
The solar year tracks cycles of heat and light through the elements of space (ether), air and fire.
The Ayurvedic daily cycle adds a third element which is the rotation of the earth along with tracking the elements of water and earth, in addition to fire, air and ether (space).
In other words, how the doṣha increase and decrease throughout the day. 2
Advance, retreat and blending of the doṣha
Following the advance and retreat of these dosha gives us an understanding of which activities are best done during these times.
6-10 am Kapha governs the stable, grounding times, symbolizing the slowness of the body
10-2 am/pm Pitta rules transformation managing the processes and functions of the body and senses
2-6 am/pm Vāta oversees the transitional, changeable moments - symbolizing the quickness of the mind. 3
When the sun is at its lowest (middle of the night) a fire to digest experiences (mind and sense stuff) is at its height. During the day we’ve offered the mind plenty of sensory material which it processes at night. If we start offering more sensory material in the evening then we have a greater chance to wake up and stay awake until 3 when the fire is finally exhausted during Vāta time.
Vāta at night many women can get a sudden burst of energy (the mind wakes up at night) waking up around 3 am, which causes immediate anxiety which only increases vāta. Vāta tends to exhausted itself around 5am as kapha starts rising.
The time of Kapha is when digestion is slowest and it is easiest to sleep and rest.
Morning is kapha time, so it is time to wake up. Agni (digestive capacity) has not fully transferred its function to the gut so any food eaten should be simple and supportive of waking the agni.
If we sleep during kapha time, the likelihood of increasing kapha exists, which means more processes of the body will be sluggish. Vāta being the weakest of the three doṣa and the most unstable begs for activities which are not rushed and varied. During pitta times we do not want to do activities which increase heat.
Our guidance is to do the opposite of what kapha wants, and the opposite of what vāta wants. And try not to aggravate pitta, no one wants to burn down the house.
What does this have to do with menopausal symptoms?
These times and equal divisions are overly simplified and linear.
The doṣa cycles start with kapha, then pitta and finally vāta.
Beginning of the day is kapha
Middle of the day is pitta
End of the day is vāta
Beginning of the night is kapha
Middle of the night is pitta
End of night is vāta.
Perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms are usually a combination of doṣha. By keeping these principles in mind, you can discover which doṣa needs pacification by tracking when the symptom occurs.
Let’s take a lesser known symptom such as itchy skin. If you tracked the time of day when the skin itched most you could come up with a more personalized remedy.
If the skin is itching in the middle of the day then you may use pitta reducing topical which is cooling like aloe, ghee or coconut oil. You may also drink peppermint tea with a little sweetener to cool down.
If itching is predominantly at the end of the day or wakes you up at the end of the night before morning an indicator of vāta, then you may want to use a deeply moisturizing oil like sesame and remove cold, dry foods from the diet.
If the itching is at the beginning of day or beginning of night then you may want to address some kapha disturbance. Itching is usually not a kapha issue, but it can happen. A practitioner would need some other indicators to be sure itching was due to kapha.
There are deeper layers in understanding the Ayurvedic clock, such as tracking the cycling of energy through each tissue system (which includes organs). One can reduce it further to discover the dopamine/serotonin/oxytocin natural cycles as well as hormonal cycles.
In essence, all of anatomy and physiology as well as time within Ayurveda can be accessed through understanding the three doṣha.
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Doṣha are bioenergetic archetypal forces made up of two of the five elements ether (space), air, fire, water and earth
There is no line or specific time when one doṣha ends and another begins. Their influences blend, one doṣha begins rising while the other begins its retreat.