Prakriti is a person’s basic, individual constitution, consisting of either Vata, Pitta, and Kapha—or some combination of the doshas. Your prakriti is determined at conception and relates to physical and emotional qualities that have stayed with you fairly consistently throughout your life. It sets the baseline for individual characteristics and personal tendencies that endure, such as basic adult height, eye color, hair texture, and bone structure.
The Seven Prakritis(body constitution) Although all three doshas are present in every person’s constitution, the proportion varies from person to person. There are seven prakritis in Ayurveda. The first set occurs when one dosha predominates:
1. Vata
2. Pitta
3. Kapha
There are three dual prakritis, in which two doshas are predominant, although generally, one dosha is slightly stronger than the other.
4. Vata-Pitta
5. Pitta-Kapha
6. Vata-Kapha
And there is one “tridosha” prakriti, in which all three doshas are present in nearly equal amounts.
7. Vata-Pitta-Kapha
Most people fall into the single- or dual-dosha categories; Vata-Pitta-Kapha is rare. However, remember that even if your prakriti is single or dual, you still have some percentage of the less predominant doshas in you. For instance, if your prakriti is Pitta-Kapha, there’s some Vata in your constitution.
When our health is optimal, it’s because the proportion of all three doshas matches our prakriti(body constitution). When the proportion diverges from the prakriti, the result is imbalance and illness. We all experience temporary body changes, like gaining or losing weight, developing the flu, or feeling fatigued. This altered constitutional makeup and state of the doshas reflects our current state of health. This presentday picture is called the vikriti.
When the vikriti doesn’t match the prakriti, a person often feels like something’s “off” or might tell others, “I’m not feeling like myself.” The results of this misalignment could be temporary, like feeling stressed out and irritable from overwork, or they could manifest as a diagnosed illness such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Either way, Ayurveda reestablishes the person’s natural balance by removing the cause of the imbalance or by introducing the opposite quality. For example, if overwork is the source of your unease, you could either quit your job (removing the cause) or add more rest, relaxation, play, and meditation into your daily schedule (introducing the opposite quality).
When someone is severely imbalanced for a long time, it’s possible that his or her true prakriti is masked and that a person is expressing a mind-body type that isn’t actually the one he or she was born with. By getting healthy and clearing out toxins (ama), it’s possible to remove the unwanted patterns and uncover the true prakriti or body constitution
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