Pitta
fire and water · hot, sharp, light, oily, spreading
Pitta is fire and water — digestion, metabolism, clarity, drive. It governs the transformation of everything you take in, from food to experience. Strong Pitta gives sharp perception, courage and a real capacity to lead. When it rises too high it burns: heat, sharpness, impatience, criticism, and the skin and gut show it first. Pitta settles with coolness, sweetness, shade and unhurried attention.
When Pitta is settled
- Sharp, clear, decisive, courageous
- Strong appetite and strong digestion
- Warm and bright in the body, sleeps soundly and briefly
- Sees what needs doing and does it
When Pitta has risen
- Heat, acidity, reflux, loose or urgent stools
- Skin rashes, redness, inflammation, cold sores, itching
- Irritability, impatience, sharp words, criticism of yourself first
- Waking around midnight, hot and thinking
- Cannot rest without feeling something is being wasted
Light foods to favour
- Basmati rice
- Mung beans
- Cucumber
- Zucchini
- Asparagus
- Sweet apple
- Pear
- Sweet melon
- Coriander
- Fennel
- Mint
- Coconut
Cooling and calm. Favour sweet, bitter and astringent tastes; keep spice gentle — cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric rather than chilli. How you eat matters as much as what you eat: sit down, slow down, let the meal be the only thing happening.
Lighten or leave for now
- Chilli, cayenne, mustard, raw garlic and onion in quantity
- Fermented and very sour foods, vinegar, alcohol
- Tomato, aubergine and hard cheeses when heat is already high
- Coffee on an empty stomach
- Eating fast, eating angry, eating standing up
A day of light meals
Stewed sweet apple or pear, or soft rice with a little ghee. Nothing sharp or sour first thing.
Basmati rice with mung and cooling greens — zucchini, asparagus, coriander — with cumin and fennel rather than chilli.
A light mung soup with coriander and fennel, taken well before bed so the heat of digestion has passed by sleep.
Pitta season — high summer
Hot, sharp, bright and long. Heat accumulates in the blood, the skin and the temper. Cool and soften — sweeter and more cooling food, plenty of room-temperature water, shade in the middle of the day, less spice, less pushing, and rest taken before it is earned.
Eat and live a little against the season, not with it.
Your day, hour by hour
Room-temperature water. Scrape the tongue. Rise before the heat of the day builds.
Coconut or sunflower oil rather than sesame — cooling, over the whole body.
Move in the cool of the morning: swim, walk, slow yoga. Stop before you are drained.
The main meal, eaten sitting and slowly. Then shade — do not work through the heat.
Fennel or coriander water. If irritation rises, that is Pitta asking for cool and quiet.
A light early dinner, a cool room, something that isn't work, asleep by around 10.30pm.
Daily practices
- Coconut or sunflower oil for self-massage instead of sesame
- Move in the cool of the morning or evening, never in midday heat
- Cooling breath — long even breaths through a soft mouth, jaw released
- Rest each day without achieving anything in it
- Room-temperature water; food eaten sitting down, slowly, in silence or good company
- Time in moonlight, water, gardens, green — anything that takes the edge off
- Let one thing be imperfect on purpose, every day
If you only do one thing: sit down for every meal and let it take twenty unhurried minutes.
Through the cleanse
Pitta wants to do the cleanse perfectly and to do it faster than the schedule. Let that go — softening is the practice. Keep the room cool, keep the day gentle, eat exactly what the day asks for rather than less, and if criticism or frustration rises, treat it as heat to be cooled rather than a problem to be solved.
The 15-day cleanse