What’s your creativity type? How the doshas can help you understand your creative process

What is a dosha anyway?

If you know a little about Ayurveda, you might have heard of the doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha. Doesn’t ring a bell? Don’t worry, I’m going to dive into a little Ayurveda 101 here. Some people might think of the doshas as different body types, or body/mind types, but this is not exactly the best way to approach it. The doshas are a combination of elements that form energy patterns. These patterns are present in nature and in our own bodies. The doshas can cause things to go out of balance within us, clouding our true nature. But they are not inherently negative — understanding the doshas and how they are showing up in you can give you more compassion for your weaknesses, and also help you harness your strengths. 

The three doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha

Vata is a combination of the elements of air and space. Its qualities are cold, light, dry, and mobile. In nature, vata is most present in the fall: think about a clear, windy fall day where the brittle, dry leaves are blowing in gusts off the trees. 

Pitta is a combination of fire and water. Its qualities are hot, sharp, and liquid. Summer is pitta season: think about being in the south in the middle of a long summer day, the air thick with humidity and the sun beating down, so that you start sweating the moment you go outside. 

Kapha is a combination of water and earth. Its qualities are heavy, dense, wet and cool. Kapha is present in the springtime, when the frozen earth starts to thaw. I think about growing up in the mountains of Colorado and watching the winter snow melt and fill the creeks to the point of overflowing. 

Each one of us is born with a unique combination of all three doshas. We need all of them to function and thrive, but the ratio each person has is unique to them. What I love about Ayurveda is that it’s not a one-size-fits all approach. The doshas are the key to understanding how each of us is unique, and what foods, habits and lifestyle practices might be best suited to keep us in balance. 

Just as we can approach diet and lifestyle from this Ayurvedic perspective, I believe it’s also a helpful approach when it comes to our creativity. The same tools and practices don’t work for everyone, and understanding which dosha is most prominent within you can help you on your creative path. Even if you don’t consider yourself an “artist,” I think you’ll recognize yourself in the descriptions below and start to see how this could apply to you. We are all creative beings no matter if we are painting watercolors, building a business, or making dinner for our families. 

*A word of warning: when learning about these concepts, it can be easy to get too attached to our “dosha,” or overly identify with it. Remember – every one of us has all three doshas in us. The dosha is not who we are at our core, it’s just a new way to look at things to help us understand our own tendencies! That said, let’s dive in and ask the fun question: if each dosha were an artist, who would she be? How would she work? What would be her struggles and her superpowers? 

The vata artist

Strengths: The vata artist is full of creative ideas. Her head is always buzzing, and she has great passion and enthusiasm. So much, in fact, that it may be hard for her to sit still and actually get around to doing work! She juggles multiple projects at once, flitting between them like a butterfly. She loves to start things but has trouble finishing. 

Struggles: Some pitfalls the vata artist needs to watch out for are becoming easily discouraged or anxious about her work. She is sensitive to criticism and should be careful who she shares all her amazing ideas with. Sometimes she doesn’t trust her own intuition, and will talk herself out of following through with a project. 

Creative medicine: The vata artist will greatly benefit from a consistent routine. Regularity will help her focus and bring all her ideas to fruition. Writing “morning pages” is a wonderful exercise from Julia Cameron that could be especially helpful for the vata artist. Find a time of day that works for you, ideally in the morning, and commit to three pages of freewriting at this time every day. The consistency of this practice is grounding for vata, while also giving her a daily opportunity to get all those ideas out of her head and on paper. Once she can see the ideas written down, she is less likely to talk herself out of things or abandon them. 

Loving acts of self-care are also important for the vata artist. Try writing a list of twenty things that nurture and ground you, and turn to this list whenever you’re feeling anxious or doubtful. I have this list posted in my office and look at every day. Some examples from my list include: hot baths, painting my toenails, chia pudding, ripe avocados, and Nanci Griffith records. 

Book recommendation: If you relate to the vata artist, I recommend The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I’ve talked about this book in previous blog posts, and it’s one of my favorites! The reason I love it for vata is that it provides a clear structure and routine, while also focusing on self-love and learning to listen to our intuition. It can be done as a twelve-week program, following along with the book, and creates a wonderful framework for creative recovery. Especially if you’re feeling disconnected from your creativity, or you’re having trouble sorting through all the thoughts to find what you really want to be expressing, give it a try. 

The pitta artist

Strengths: The pitta artist is focused, organized and driven. She wakes up in the morning knowing exactly what she wants to accomplish, and is good at following through. She is courageous with her voice, and therefore can often become a leader in her field — that is, if she doesn’t let her perfectionism get in the way!

Struggles: Yes, the pitta artist is a perfectionist. She is especially frustrated by what Ira Glass calls “the gap”: “All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good,” Glass says. Pitta hates this! She wants to be good right away, and she may not have the patience to stick with something through that learning curve. In the worst case scenario, she may be so afraid of failing that she never even gets started. 

Creative medicine: What pitta needs most is to bring a sense of play into her work. If she is having fun, she will loosen the reigns of perfectionism and forget about her fear of failure. The “Artist Date” is another of Julia Cameron’s tools that allows for play and spontaneity. Start by making a list of twenty things you would love to try if you didn’t have to do them perfectly. To get your mind going, think about things you loved to do when you were a kid, or things you imagine yourself doing when you retire. Is there a way you could indulge in one of these things? 

If you’ve always wanted to get into photography, an Artist Date could be walking around your neighborhood with an old camera and shooting a roll of film. If you used to be a bookworm, but never seem to have the time anymore, your Artist Date could be going to a local library and committing to getting lost in the shelves for an hour or two. If you’re at a loss, a walk in nature will do wonders for pitta, getting you out of your analytic mind and into the present. And if you’re stuck at home, check out this post for more ideas on at-home artist dates.

Book recommendation: If you see yourself in the pitta artist qualities, check out Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert writes with a sense of ease and humour that can help pitta lighten up. I love the way she discusses fear and perfectionism. “I finally realized that my fear was boring,” Gilbert writes, “because it was the same thing every day.” Reframing fear will help the pitta artist connect to her superpower of courage — the courage to share her bold voice and her burning passions with the world. 

The kapha artist

Strengths: The kapha artist has a stable mind and good reserves of energy. Once she gets going, she is able to work for long hours and make steady progress on her projects. She is compassionate and deeply intuitive, which can lead to a strong emotional core in her work and an ability to connect with others through her art. 

Struggles: Kapha needs to watch out for losing her spark. She can struggle with a lack of motivation, or experience long periods of “writer’s block.” It could be that she had a time in her past when she was more creative — she romanticizes that time and doesn’t feel like it’s something she can get back to. There’s a sense of giving up, or settling for a life that’s “good enough,” but doesn’t really light her up. She may feel very emotional about her creative work and have a hard time getting past some sadness or grief around it. The kapha artist is used to her habits and her routine, and has a hard time adding in something new. 

Creative medicine: If the kapha artist is feeling blocked, she needs to do some digging to see what’s underneath. I love this quote from Julia Cameron: “Blocked artists are not lazy. They are blocked… Do not call the inability to start laziness. Call it fear.” A kapha can look lazy at times, but she’s really anything but. Whether its fear, grief, or another emotion, it’s worth identifying what could be causing the lack of motivation. Doing some journaling around past creative experiences is a good place to start. Was there a time in your life you felt more creatively connected and inspired? Was there an experience that caused you to shut down?

On the more practical side, the kapha artist can really benefit from bringing some new routines in to help inspire a zest for life! These can be as simple as waking up earlier, taking daily walks to contemplate your next move, or taking cold showers to wake up your brain! I think of a cold shower like a loving slap in the face when I just need to snap out of a sluggish state. An Ayurvedic cleanse could also be a great way to start to remove blockages on both a physical and emotional level. Check out this post for five simple, cleansing practices to help with creative blocks. 

Book recommendation: If you identify with the kapha artist, get a copy of The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. This quick read is a no-nonsense approach to breaking through resistance and getting your butt to sit down and work! No journaling exercises, no twelve steps, just some well put tough-love to help motivate you to move past your blocks, whatever those may be. “Depression and anxiety may be real. But they can also be Resistance,” Pressfield writes. The kapha artist has a tendency to get stuck in negative emotions, and sometimes simply getting to work is all it takes to get things moving and to start feeling better. In other words: less thinking, more doing! 

Do you relate to any of these artist types? I know you were raising your hand reading one of these, saying “yep, that’s me!” Or maybe you see yourself in all three! The benefit in looking at things in this way is that it can bring in more self-awareness and self compassion. When we see our tendencies, we can start to find ways to bring in more balance to our lives on a daily basis. What we need might change through different times of life, through the seasons, or even day-to-day. 

I’d love to hear what resonated with you and what creative medicine you think you need right now!