Beyond the Doshas: A Foundations-First Approach to Ayurveda

One of the things I love most about Ayurveda is that it gives us many different lenses through which to understand a person. We have the doshas, of course, which have become perhaps the most familiar aspect of Ayurveda in the modern wellness world, but we also have the gunas, agni, the dhatus, the malas, the vayus, the senses, daily and seasonal rhythms, and an extraordinarily rich understanding of the relationship between the mind, body, behaviour, environment and the way we live our lives.

When someone comes to us for Ayurvedic wellness coaching, we may recognise their prakrti, observe aspects of their current vikrti, and begin to form an idea of the qualities that may need to be reduced, increased or brought back towards balance. From a purely doshic perspective, we might even have a fairly good idea of what we would eventually like that person to be doing. But knowing what would theoretically support someone and helping them actually create meaningful change in their life are two very different things, and this is where I find the Maha gunas particularly useful.

Understanding the Mind Through Sattva, Rajas and Tamas

Ayurveda and Yoga describe three fundamental qualities of nature known as the Mahagunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. While these concepts have considerable philosophical depth, within a wellness coaching context they also give us a very practical framework for observing qualities of the mind, behaviour and the way a person is currently engaging with life.

Sattva is associated with qualities such as clarity, balance, discernment, harmony and awareness; rajas brings movement, activity, stimulation, ambition and change; while tamas is associated with heaviness, inertia, dullness, withdrawal and resistance to movement. Importantly, none of these qualities are inherently “bad”. We need tamas to sleep and rest, we need rajas to act, work, create and make things happen, and we cultivate sattva because it supports greater clarity, steadiness and our capacity to make choices with awareness. The question, then, is not simply which guna is present, but whether its expression is appropriate and supportive within the circumstances.

This becomes particularly relevant when we begin to consider the goals and process of behaviour change.

Imagine someone comes to us experiencing fatigue, irregular routines, poor sleep, low motivation and a general sense that they have become disconnected from their health. Perhaps we can see patterns that suggest a particular doshic imbalance, and from our Ayurvedic knowledge we could quite easily create a beautiful list of recommendations: wake at this time, eat these foods, avoid these foods, practise this sequence, use these spices, establish this evening routine, introduce pranayama, meditate each morning, and perhaps add a few other practices for good measure.

On paper, it may be an excellent Ayurvedic plan, but the more important question is whether the person can actually do it.

Sometimes the First Goal is Simply to Create Movement

If someone is currently experiencing a strongly tamasic state (apathetic, disengaged, overwhelmed, lacking motivation or finding it difficult to initiate change) a long list of perfectly tailored Vata, Pitta or Kapha-balancing recommendations may not help them in the way we intend. They may already know they should go to bed earlier, cook more nourishing food, move their body and spend less time scrolling on their phone, so knowledge itself is not necessarily the missing ingredient; the difficulty may be translating that knowledge into action.

In this situation, our first job as coaches may be to help create enough movement, engagement and confidence for change to become possible. From a Maha guna perspective, that may initially mean supporting movement from tamas towards a healthier expression of rajas, perhaps by helping someone establish one morning action, go for a short walk, prepare one nourishing meal, create some structure around bedtime, reconnect with something meaningful, or simply begin noticing the relationship between what they do and how they feel.

Rajas can help us get things moving, but over time we do not necessarily want to remain in an increasingly rajasic state of constant optimisation, tracking, striving and self-improvement. The longer-term direction is towards sattva: greater clarity, steadiness, discernment and an increasingly intuitive understanding of what supports wellbeing. In this way, the Mahagunas can give us a surprisingly sophisticated framework for thinking about readiness for change.

Rather than only asking, “What would balance this person's doshas?”, we can also ask, “What does this person have the capacity to engage with right now?” That small shift in approach can completely change the way we coach and help people make positive change in their lives.

Starting Where the Person Actually Is

This is one of the reasons I am cautious about turning Ayurveda into a long list of dosha-based guidelines and rules. Theoretically, we can personalise almost everything, but greater personalisation does not automatically produce greater adherence, understanding or wellbeing, and sometimes it simply gives someone more things to think about when what they actually need is greater simplicity.

A person who is already overwhelmed may not need twelve new Ayurvedic practices (served as a 'Daily Routine'); they may need one thing they can successfully integrate into their existing life. Someone who has spent years disconnected from their body's signals may not initially need an elaborate understanding of their prakrti; they may need to begin noticing hunger, tiredness, tension, overstimulation, fullness and the effects of different daily choices. Similarly, someone living with highly irregular routines may benefit enormously from eating at approximately consistent times, getting enough sleep, moving each day and establishing a basic morning and evening rhythm before we become particularly concerned about whether every ingredient on their plate is perfectly matched to their constitution.

This does not mean we ignore the doshas. Their constitution and current state can continue to inform the direction of our work, but we do not necessarily need to make every intervention explicitly dosha-specific from day one. There can be tremendous value in simply helping someone establish the foundations of healthy living first.

Svasthavrtta: Creating the Conditions for Health

This is where Svasthavrtta becomes such an important part of Ayurvedic wellness coaching. Svasthavrtta is sometimes translated simply as a “healthy lifestyle” or “healthy regimen”, but I think its significance is much greater than our modern idea of accumulating wellness habits. It asks us to consider the conditions that support health on an ongoing basis: our daily rhythms, food, sleep, movement, hygiene, sensory inputs, social conduct, relationship with the seasons and the many ordinary behaviours that shape physiology and wellbeing over time.

These things can sound almost too simple. Eating appropriately, sleeping adequately, moving the body, developing supportive daily rhythms, paying attention to what we repeatedly expose our senses and mind to, and learning to recognise what is nourishing and what is depleting. Yet these foundations are not insignificant simply because they are basic. For someone whose life has become characterised by irregular sleep, rushed meals, inactivity, chronic overstimulation and very little opportunity for restoration, establishing a more supportive daily rhythm can create tangible changes in how they feel and function.

Perhaps more importantly, as these foundations begin to settle into place, the person starts learning through their own experience. They notice that when they sleep well their capacity changes, that eating differently affects their digestion, that moving in the morning shifts their energy, or that reducing certain forms of stimulation leaves their mind clearer. Instead of Ayurveda remaining something they are told to do, they begin to understand the relationship between their choices, their environment and how they feel.

This is where Ayurvedic Wellness Coaching can become genuinely educational rather than simply prescriptive.

From Prescription to Literacy

One of my central goals in Ayurvedic Wellness Coaching is not to make someone dependent on the coach's knowledge, but to help them progressively develop their own. Of course, education and recommendations are part of coaching, and there are times when we need to explain concepts, offer structure, suggest practices and help someone understand why a particular change may be useful, but ultimately I want the person to become increasingly capable of observing themselves, recognising patterns and understanding cause and effect within their own life.

Over time, this might look like recognising when they need more rest and when they need more movement, noticing when they have become overstimulated or stagnant, understanding when their routines have drifted away from what supports them, and developing the confidence to make appropriate adjustments rather than waiting for somebody else to tell them what to do. It also includes recognising when something has moved beyond the scope of everyday self-care and when it may be appropriate to seek more specialised support.

In other words, we are developing Ayurvedic literacy and autonomy.

This is quite different from saying, “You are Vata, so here is what you should do.” Instead, we are teaching someone how to think with Ayurveda and how to apply its principles within the changing circumstances of real life. Once those foundations are established, the doshas often become far more meaningful anyway, because they are no longer abstract categories someone has learnt through a quiz or a list of characteristics; the person has begun developing the awareness required to recognise qualities and patterns within their own lived experience.

The Doshas Still Matter

None of this is an argument against doshic assessment or individualisation. Quite the opposite. Prakrti and vikrti remain important parts of the Ayurvedic framework, and understanding them can give us valuable information about tendencies, current imbalance and the direction in which we may want to gently guide someone. There is, however, a difference between keeping the doshas in mind and making the entire coaching relationship about correcting them.

For many people, particularly at the beginning of their Ayurvedic journey, there is considerable value in first establishing the conditions from which deeper individualisation can become useful. We might think of it as progressively adding resolution: initially working with broad foundations such as regularity, nourishment, sleep, movement, appropriate stimulation, daily rhythm and awareness, and then, as the person's capacity and understanding develop, refining those recommendations through a more detailed Ayurvedic lens that considers constitution, current imbalance, season, age, environment and circumstances.

Where there is disease, significant pathology or a more complex doshic presentation requiring detailed assessment and management, we also need to recognise the boundaries of wellness coaching. This is where the work may appropriately move towards the scope of a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or Ayurvedic doctor, sometimes alongside other healthcare professionals. Knowing when greater assessment, treatment or referral is required is part of working responsibly within a wellness coaching role.

A Whole-Person, Foundations-First Approach

For me, this is one of the most useful ways to understand the role of Ayurvedic wellness coaching. We are not simply identifying someone's doshas and telling them what an ideal Ayurvedic lifestyle would look like; we are meeting a person where they actually are and considering their constitution and current state alongside their mental qualities, motivation, capacity, environment, responsibilities, existing habits, understanding and readiness for change.

Sometimes the first step towards sattva is not meditation at 5am, but getting out of bed and going for a walk. Sometimes the most useful Ayurvedic intervention is not giving someone more information, but helping them successfully implement one simple change. And sometimes the greatest progress is the moment a person begins recognising for themselves, I know what happens when I live this way, and I know what helps me come back to feeling good.

That is the kind of change I am interested in cultivating: not perfect adherence to an Ayurvedic lifestyle prescribed from the outside, but the gradual development of the awareness, skills and autonomy required to participate more consciously in one's own health.

The Maha gunas help us understand the mental and behavioural conditions from which change becomes possible, Svasthavrtta gives us the foundations through which health can be supported in everyday life, and the doshas allow us to progressively introduce greater individual specificity as understanding and capacity deepen. Together, they offer something much richer than a list of rules for Vata, Pitta or Kapha; they give us a framework for helping someone understand themselves, work intelligently with their own nature and circumstances, and gradually learn how to live in a way that supports their health.