Take The Quiz: Which Ayurvedic Dosha Is Your Period?

We’re sharing a guide to period “personality types”, according to Ayurveda from Deepak Chopra-approved expert and author of Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda, Sahara Rose. Take the quick quiz and discover exactly what your bod needs most during that time of the month…

Periods are like belly buttons. No two are the same.

Periods vary as widely as types of digestion (which I discuss in this article), except it’s way less talked about, so we often don’t know what a “normal” period is supposed to look and feel like!

Believe it or not, periods aren’t supposed to be painful. You’re not supposed to have a week of cramps and a pile of Hershey’s Kiss wrappers every time your body flows.

According to ayurveda – the world’s oldest health system, in which I am an expert (and best-selling author) – our menstruations are sacred cycles that tell us a lot about our internal health. In fact, we can tell which dosha is out of balance just by observing our periods!

Doshas are based on the natural elements; the word dosha in ayurveda means energy. The three doshas are vata (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth). We are all comprised of these three doshas, but in varying amounts. Some of us are naturally more vata and airy (think cold, bloating, gas, constipation) while others are more pitta and fiery (think hot, acidic, aggravated digestion, inflammation) and others are more kapha and earthy (think cool, easily gaining weight, slow digestion and metabolism).

Our doshas can fall out of balance from not eating the right foods for our dosha, toxicity, hormonal imbalance, stress, inactivity, over activity, lack of sleep and a host of other reasons. Periods are great indicators of our imbalances because they’re a reflection of what is going on inside our body.

It’s important to address period problems before they manifest into graver illnesses such as early menopause, PCOS, amenorrhea, osteoporosis, fibroids, cysts and other issues we do not want to be dealing with. Ayurveda gives us an even closer look by giving us the framework of the three doshas so we can narrow down the exact cause of our menstruation mishaps. We always must treat the root cause of our imbalance with diet and lifestyle so it doesn’t reoccur in the future. Taking a pill is only masking a symptom rather than addressing the cause of the problem. Through ayurveda, we are able to pinpoint the root of the problem and build a healing lifestyle around it to bring our bodies back into balance.