Category: Vata

Unfocused is a common mind trait. Sometimes it’s confused with ADHD that’s a common label tossed around.

Being unfocused is an Ayurvedic Vata trait. In this article you’ll learn how to better handle this in your life and  restore the imbalances.

For a natural Vata, it’s typical for the mind to be expressing and darting from task to task or idea to idea, instead of being laser focused.

That’s a general symptom diagnosis in the mind-body connection that’s common for many of us.

And when off-balance, this can mean getting up off the couch or outta your seat hundreds of times a day. This is one natural Vata mind tendency, anyway.

The better productivity solution is balancing the Vata mind, so that you don’t feel you have to keep doing something else other than what you’re doing. 

It doesn’t matter what the other thing is, but your mind is calling you impulsively to do it no matter what. Sound familiar?

This symptom description is often mistaken as ADHD in our ADD (or attention deficit disorder) world.

Technology has made this worse. We’re juggling our devices and the real world. And there are more noisy distractions that keeps us task switching and reinforcing the tendency to become a bad habit.

You can change your habits to better habits.

That’s completely in your healthy power to keep or change your ways, just like choosing to  make healthy meals.

The healthy way or habits could be to multi-task or time block and feel productive.

But when your mind causes unfocus, worry-anxiety around the imbalance, or you’re feeling unproductive because of your unfocused tendencies, that’s when you want to use restore balancing habit to restore your hyper-unfocused Vata mind imbalance.

Other signs are when your unfocused mind is distracting you or you’re leaning toward an unfocused day. That’s when restoring balance is called for.

And if that’s still tricky to pinpoint, you can make a tally sheet of how many times you switched tasks when your brain prompted you to in the moment (from what you had already planned to do in advance). That way you have a visual to compare to for yourself.

Sometimes you can observe the impulsive nature that the mind feeds.

Let that moment pass and help to give peace to the mind by writing down the thoughts, journaling, or creating a list.

Or if it makes sense as a 1-5-minute task, just take care of it quickly, but don’t re-route your day over the impulses if you want to live a consistent calming life that you’re in charge of.

Because 50 five-minute getting-up tasks is 250 minutes or over 4 hours that you won’t get back.

And not having enough time is one stressor we can avoid.

There’s enough chaos in the world that’ll shake off that daily depleting piece (and peace ✌️).

When we were kids, we didn’t have adult wisdom like that. Time wasn’t so important. Our moody feelings fed us and drove us to what we wanted to do.

We basically didn’t drive our bus.

But as adults, you don’t want your emotions to steer and get the better of you and then also lose time.

If you feel strong feelings about a situation, they serve a purpose to bring joy or cleanse sadness. Or… to show you something bigger about your life where you can make a change. But general daily moods don’t always help.

You don’t want the feelings to turn into daily, unproductive moody symptoms such as anxiety, anger, and lethargy where each represent a different imbalance.

And these can bleed into other Vata imbalances…

Another form of unfocused Vata-hyper mind is when it’s difficult to make decisions.

Because at the root of decision-making are your thoughts that drive what you do in the mind-body connection.

You don’t have control over your thoughts from entering, but you do have control over what you do with your thoughts.

The usual natural Pitta and Kapha profiles don’t show this symptom description unless they have a Vata imbalance which can happen to any of us at any time.

We all possess the 3 doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) to varying degrees, even if it’s just a crumb.

For any of us, our imbalance is our Achilles Heel. Restoring our imbalances is in our power and often an easy fix that needs daily repetition until our imbalance settles down.

Pittas have more hard-charging personalities like the hare in the Aesop’s Fable on a competitive mission. Kaphas are more the slow and steady turtles that finish the race. 🐢

And when you’re overrun with Vata, you can miss the goal entirely in distractions with the scenic route.

The good news is you can balance this high Vata symptom in more ways than one….

Balancing your Vata imbalance through your food senses is one way to begin restoring balance…. because an unfocused Vata imbalance is related to Vata trait symptoms such as anxious feelings, and indecisiveness. It’s no coincidence in our natural mind-body balance system.

And directly related to the unfocused symptoms you experience… something you can do is to nail down a daily routine or habit practice, so you can get back to being grounded and focused.

This can look like at least one or two healthy time slots in your day that are non-negotiable, e.g. yoga or office hours during certain hours.

You set boundaries with people about these non-negotiables. You essentially training them that you are off-limits and disconnected to the world during those times.

The way this works is being consistent and not letting any exceptions in (besides emergencies) because once you do that, then others know that your rules and boundaries are not hard set and taken that seriously. So be firm.

I watch people on the sidelines who don’t have this in place. They’re on the opposite extreme and schedule anything, get distracted by shiny objects, and fill in slots anytime their mood fancies.

…But then they wonder where the time went OR why they’re not happy with their outputs and decisions.

They don’t manage their time well on calendars getting non-negotiables handled as first thing ,so it doesn’t get missed or during the optimized hours where their minds are sharpest.

And if you’re a unfocused Vata by nature with those tendencies, that only makes your life more chaotic like the wind, where you get tossed to-and-from.

You worsen your Vata-ness with too much unfocused Vata behaviors.

People-pleasing too much can be a cause when we’d be better off practicing proper kind words to say no.

And this can be saying no to ourselves since we have other non-negotiables. Like appointments with our wellness routines.

Knowing it will be okay if you say no could be the hurdle. But  you’re not letting others down more than you’re letting yourself down.

Because your immediate feeling of guilt can turn into resentment for others and unhappiness that’s far worse.

So you want to prepare what you will say with tact if someone wants to encroach on areas.

Often, this comes from those who live in chaos and impose their unstructured life on you.

And when you’re with routine, they can’t spill over onto you.

And when you can learn the right words to say, they become more natural and roll off your tongue.

They become and your new way and that helps your routine and focusing.

Plus, you spend more time in this short-lived life doing the things that really matter to you!

For example, you can be in your sweet spot boost of daily energy, and stick with your ideas. And find a routine that you stay competitive with as things in life change.

That will help tone down worry with purpose. And help wipe away the anxious bits that unfocused Vata often feel.

And when you’ve grounded with routines and consistency, you don’t have to stick to only boring routines. You can be creative that most natural Vatas are and love.

I know how that can be, having worked over a couple decades in-and-out of corporate environments where it was all about routine tasks, maintenance, performance, and people management.

None of those areas express creativity. Something Vatas crave.

Vatas are also naturally energetic, encouraging, and eager. Having an idea and then having to wait for management to approve if ever, is anything but encouraging.

And then having people and all the chaos along the way change the dynamics. Well… all that can zap creativity.

So finding a side hobby or hustle as a creative outlet is a good way to re-focus those energies.

And if you’re in flow or with daily creativity, then you’re in alignment with yourself.

That helps grow you toward your life purpose and your authentic identity where you get the deepest satisfaction and joy.

Summary: If you have an imbalanced unfocused Vata tendency today: stick to a routine, express your non-negotiables, find a creative outlet.

The wellness outcome is finding calm and daily joy that you want. And you’ll have a strategy and stick with it.

If you’re curious about what your imbalances are in this season, take the free Body Balance Quiz.