How to Build a Routine for Your Pitta Dosha Lifestyle


Establishing a supportive daily routine is a crucial part of the Ayurvedic lifestyle, and it can be especially helpful for the pitta dosha lifestyle. Routines can help keep your body and mind in a balanced and peaceful state. Avoid Pitta imbalances like irritability and impatience by creating a guide for your day.

According to the Ayurveda, we are all ruled by three different energies, or doshas, known as vata, pitta, and kapha. These doshas are governed by the elements, earth, water, air, ether, and fire. We’re all made up of a unique combination of these three forces. If you don’t know which dosha is most predominant for you, the Ayurvedic Body Type quiz is a fun and easy way to find out.

Pitta is composed of fire and water. The characteristics of pitta include hotness and moistness, so qualities that are opposite to these can help to restore a pitta imbalance. With Pitta is your predominant dosha, you’re naturally intense, joyous, and focused on fulfilling your dreams and desires. However, if you accumulate an excess of the Pitta elements of fire and water, you can find yourself feeling Pitta-inflamed, with symptoms of irritability, impatience, and rigid or controlling behavior.

When out of balance, pitta causes fiery, reactionary emotions such as frustration, anger, jealously, and criticism. Imbalanced pitta is often at the root of inflammatory disorders, which can affect organs and tissues throughout the body. Ayurveda prescribes a complete daily routine that balances all of the doshas. However, in modern times many people would struggle to find the time to complete all of the steps of the traditional routine.

All About the Pitta Dosha (Mind-Body Type) in Ayurveda

Routine for Your Pitta Dosha Lifestyle

A regular daily routine is like health insurance for sustainable wellbeing today, tomorrow and into your future. As the Ayurvedic wisdom guides “Your body today is the result of your choices yesterday and your body tomorrow will be the result of your choices today”.

  • Choose to establish a regular daily routine as the framework for daily activities.
  • To get started, tick off what you are already doing, and then consider what you would like to add to your daily routine.
  • Adopt changes easily, one step at a time.

Pitta Morning Routine

Wake up at the same time every day. This will help you develop a good routine and ensure you get abundant, restful sleep. While the night-owl in you might enjoy the fruitfulness of night-time work sessions, staying up late tends to be more disruptive than helpful for pitta, especially when it comes to our circadian rhythms.

  • Evacuate bowel and bladder first thing upon rising.
  • Clean teeth and scrape tongue to remove accumulated toxins and bacteria from the tongue
  • Oil pulling is an ancient Ayurvedic practice that helps to nourish and rejuvenate the teeth and gums, balance oral bacteria, and relax the muscles of the neck and jaw.
  • Drink room temperature water to stimulate and gently awaken the digestive tract
  • Perform a Pitta oil massage on your full body then bathe or shower 
  • Add in yoga or gentle stretching for morning exercise, too much intense exercise can actually be quite pitta-aggravating.
  • Eat a cooling breakfast that includes Pitta balancing foods like a fresh smoothie, egg white omelet, or dry cereal. (See Pitta food guide)

Pitta Afternoon Routine

Though morning and evening are the most important places to focus your attention when you are first establishing a daily routine, there are a few other things to be mindful of as you navigate your day.

  • Eat lunch between noon and 1 p.m. In Ayurveda, lunch is the largest meal of the day because your digestive fire is strongest at this time.
  • Favor sweet, bitter, and astringent foods and reduce pungent, salty, and sour flavors. Eat slowly and mindfully.
  • Because a pitta imbalance can lead to excessive focus, intensity, and seriousness, it is important to build in time to slow down, relax, and be playful.
  • Meditate around sunset.
  • Avoid engaging in intense exercise or competitive sports in the late afternoon or evening as this will spark your Pitta spirit too close to bedtime.

Pitta Evening Routine

A successful daily routine begins the night before. Choosing to be intentional about the flow of your evening ensures that you are grounded at the end of your day, that you get enough rest, and that you sleep as soundly as possible.

  • Leave the office on time: Pitta individuals tend to have excessive perfectionist tendencies and often stay back after regular work hours. However, overextending yourself on a daily basis will increase your stress levels and you will not get the time you need to de-stress at the end of your day.
  • Talk to family or friends after dinner: Communication is very important to pitta type individuals, so spend half an hour to one hour talking to your loved ones after your dinner. This will reduce mental and emotional stress and helps you relax.
  • Practice breathing exercises to relax the body and mind.
  • Massage your feet, scalp, or both with oil. This Ayurvedic practice helps to calm the mind and ground the energy before sleep. 
  • Avoid computers, work, or studying after 7 pm and avoid fast-moving and aggressive movies, TV, etc.
  • Go to bed early around 10.00 to 10.30 pm, with lights out by 10.00 pm.
  • Keep the bedroom minimalistic and as a sleep zone. No computers, phones, tablets, books, etc.

Honoring a Pitta Dosha Lifestyle

Because a pitta imbalance can lead to excessive focus, intensity, and seriousness, it is important to build in time to slow down, relax, and be playful. To this end, we highly recommend that you leave space for (or even schedule) some downtime every day. Give yourself full permission to step away from your to-do list in favor of doing something you really enjoy, whatever it may be—as long as it is playful and relaxing for you.

Pittas are sharp thinkers. When out of balance, however, they can be short-tempered. Learn the physical and emotional characteristics of this dosha and what you can do to keep it in balance.

It’s important to note that following an Ayurvedic daily routine does not mean that you should schedule every moment of every day. Instead, it’s about creating consistency with a handful of habits that are repeated each day at similar times. This invites the body to relax into a sense of safety, normalcy, and ease.

Remember to keep it simple. It’s best to start with a few consistent activities throughout each day, work with those for a couple of weeks, and then re-assess your capacity to stick with them.


Learn more about how to support the pitta dosha with food choices, color therapy, and aromatherapy.