Stay Cool and Collected: A Daily Balancing Routine for Pitta

With Pitta as your predominant dosha, you’re naturally intense, joyous, and focused on fulfilling your dreams and desires. However, if you accumulate an excess of the Pitta elements of fire and water, you can find yourself feeling Pitta-inflamed, with symptoms of irritability, impatience, and rigid or controlling behavior.

An accumulation of Pitta can also manifest in a variety of health issues, including skin rashes, acne, high blood pressure, hemorrhoids, and acid indigestion. By creating a daily routine that balances Pitta, you can turn down your internal heat and return to your innate state of radiant health.

Ayurveda prescribes a complete daily routine that balances all of the doshas. However, in modern times many people would struggle to find the time to complete all of the steps of the traditional routine. For this reason, we’re offering you a simpler, more doable daily routine tailored to the specific needs of the Pitta dosha.

Morning

• Wake up by 6 a.m. every day. This will help you develop a good routine and ensure you get abundant, restful sleep. This is important for Pittas, who tend have trouble falling or staying asleep when they feel stressed and out of balance.
• When you get up, drink a glass of warm water. This signals your physiology to eliminate toxins.
• Meditate for 10 minutes, or longer if you can, letting the inner quiet set the tone for your day. Set an intention for your day—something simple such as, “Every step I take is filled with calm and ease.”
• Massage your body with cooling and soothing oils such as coconut, sunflower, or olive.
• Take a cool shower or bath.
• Get dressed, choosing clothing in cooling colors such as blue, green, and silver.
• Practice a Pitta-balancing yoga sequence (this takes less than 10 minutes).
• Eat a healthy breakfast with awareness.
• Perform your morning work and activity.
• Leave plenty of “space” in your schedule between appointments and due dates. Pittas tend to overschedule themselves and then become stressed by the time pressure. Whenever you find yourself feeling pressured or irritated, focus your attention on taking three slow, deep breaths.

Mid-Day

• Eat lunch between noon and 1 p.m. In Ayurveda, lunch is the largest meal of the day because your digestive fire is strongest at this time. Favor sweet, bitter, and astringent foods and reduce pungent, salty, and sour flavors. Eat slowly and mindfully.
• Sit quietly for five minutes after eating.
• Walk for 5 to 15 minutes to aid digestion. Walking slowly along a natural body of water is deeply healing. Allow the water’s cooling influence to calm and soothe you. If you don’t live near the ocean or a lake, take a walk where there is lush vegetation or simply lie down in the grass in your backyard or a park. The color of greens plants, blue sky, and rich earth are wonderfully pacifying for Pitta types.
• Perform your afternoon work and activity.
• Meditate around sunset.
• Avoid engaging in intense exercise or competitive sports in the late afternoon or evening as this will spark your Pitta spirit too close to bedtime.

Evening

• Eat lightly at dinner and do not eat after 7:00 p.m.
• Sit quietly for five minutes after eating.
• Walk for 5 to 15 minutes to aid digestion.
• Enjoy a relaxed evening. Spend time with friends and family, appreciating the gifts of loving relationships.

Bedtime

• Avoid overly exciting, dynamic, or intensely concentrated work in the evening. Begin winding down for sleep at least 30 minutes before you intend to go to bed. Enjoy some inspirational or light reading.
• Enjoy a relaxing, warm bath before bed, adding a few drops of aromatic oils such as rose, lavender, or sandalwood to the water.
• Aim to be in bed with the lights off by 10:30 p.m.

Commit to following an ideal daily routine for one week. Without being overly compulsive, try following a program that aligns your daily rhythms with those of nature.