- Take bath in cold water twice a day. Taking an immersion bath in river, lake or tank in the daytime is very good to balance pitta.
- Avoid coffee or tea in the morning especially on an empty stomach. They may aggravate your pitta.
- Roam with a good friend who doesn’t control you, in pleasing places such as seashore, park, fountains & falls.
- Stay in a cool house.
- Spend time near water reservoirs.
- Enjoy the cool sea breeze.
- Swimming is very good for pitta.
- Spend more time in cold weather or living in a cool place.
- Drinking cold water / juice.
- Pitta people are advised to do mild exercises.
- Exercise to half of your capacity.
- Applying cold pack with mud or cloth dipped in water, wearing pleasant smelling flower necklace or pearl necklace or crystal necklace is advisable.
- Take sweet, cooling & mild purgatives such as Avipathy churnam, triphala churna or Grapes etc.
- Be exposed to and enjoy the cooling moonlight.
- Relieve your stress by hearing to the sweet voice of the child.
- Listen to pleasant music.
- Try reducing your short tempered nature by doing meditation.
- Chant cooling mantras such as vam, yam, lam and sham.
- Anoint your body with sandal wood paste, camphor, agaru (Aloes wood) & paste of other pleasant smelling & cooling herbs.
- Use of perfumes always is good for pitta.
- Take more melted gee in your diet.
- Taking 1 spoon of ghee with hot milk at 11 ‘o’ clock (pitta predominant time of the day) is very beneficial.
- Do not miss your meal as the tikshna agni (the sharp digestive fire) of pitta will start digesting the tissues & cause debility.
- More foods predominant in sweet, bitter & astringent tastes should be taken.
- Food with contradictory potencies should be avoided.
- Eating food at the right position and the right time helps to decrease emotional strains.
- Eating in a rush or eating carelessly results in the food entering the erroneous passage. This gives rise to consequences that cause severe complications.
- Food should be eaten meditatively.
- Knowledge of the benefits of food is necessary for good health. Apart from this one also needs to follow a restricted life or at least avoid practices that are bad for one's well-being.
Habits not advisable and hence best avoided are:
- Usage of heater.
- Roaming out during summer season.
- Riding on animals.
- Excessive walking in hot weather.
- Taking foods that are pungent, sour and salty in taste.
- Excessive stress.
- Emotions like anger and hatred.
Glossary:
Avipathy churnam – It is an Ayurvedic herbal medicine used for mild purgation & to treat pitta diseases.
Triphala churna – Powder of three myrobalans.
Submitted by: Dr. Gayatri Ganesh
Edited by: Dr. Reeja Tharu