Balance is key to health. Awareness and self-observation is vital, in addition to willingness to act on and correct imbalances.

Self-study: using two charts, develop habit of noticing/recording which of the 20 qualities I feel in my body, mind or soul and practice opposite. Also record activities that are beneficial that I tend not to do, and activities that are not beneficial that I tend to do and notice if the frequency of both changes with awareness.

52yo F with multiple complaints and little understanding of Ayurveda.

I envisioned starting with the list of complaints and rating them on a scale of 1-10, to have something to use as a baseline for improvement.
The charts were created to include;
1. the dominant of the 20 qualities each day; whether this was noticed in body, mind, or soul; possible appropriate remedy(ies) for that quality (ie. to increase its opposite and bring more into balance)
2. behaviors to reduce/increase and frequency of those behaviors

In the end, I used several branches. As a remedy to balance qualities, I used hatha yoga for breathing practices, asana and meditation. I also used karma yoga for service and connection. I used jnana yoga for constant discriminative discernment to figure out what quality was dominant, and what was real vs. unreal or self vs. non-self.

The importance of this practice of self-awareness and self-study is outlined in svadhyaya (sutra 2.44), and by Vasant Lad, world-renowned Ayurvedic expert, in "The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies."
In Rev. Jaganath Carrera's Sutra translation, it says that svadhyaya is not only the accumulation of information, but the interpretation and integration into one's life. Vasant Lad states that, "it is your own moment-to-moment awareness and self-observation ... and your willingness to act on your knowledge that will make all the difference"

This seemed like a lot at first, but I was interested in seeing what would 'work' (ie. to raise the awareness and lead to the behaviors that would bring about balance) and what would be do-able for the future.
The colors on the chart brought a visual reinforcement of positive behaviors that were really rewarding and encouraged compliance.

Continue the practice of noting the qualities and practicing to bring them into balance.
Reassess the list of complaints in another 3-4 weeks.
Try to look deeper into what qualities are noticeable at the soul level.

It was mostly as I envisioned. The goals of self-awareness and coming more into balance was realized in just a few weeks as evidenced by the numbers improving on the assessment. The first goal of recognizing doshic effects may have been more accurately written as "recognizing the qualities as they manifest in body, mind and soul". The other adjustment was to turn in this report after just 3 weeks, because the results I hoped to see were already there.

The only adaptation in the plan was to stop and do this report earlier than I thought. I thought it would take a lot longer to see results such as increased self-awareness and better perceived scores on the assessment.

I will keep this in my toolbox, especially for someone who is interested in Ayurvedic remedies. By giving the information on ways to promote opposite qualities and to bring qualities into balance, it is possible for this to be done entirely as self-study, Not being an Ayurvedic practitioner, I could only provide resources for self-study anyway. I would recommend this practice to others who are interested in finding a way to study Ayurveda and experience the benefits themselves.
I would do this entire process again, beginning with asking a client their chief complaints for assessment and comparison and then asking what they wanted to increase/reduce.

• Ayurveda-qualities-and-behavior-notes-20-qualities.pdf
• Ayurveda-qualities-and-behavior-notes-Actions.pdf
• PRE-Rating-scales-for-Ayurveda-TCA.pdf