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What Do I Need to Know about MyUnique Constitution?According to Tibetan medicine, you were born with a constitution thatis made up of a unique combination of three primary energies: loong,tripa, and baekan. To be happy and healthy, you need to make choicesthat keep your three energies consistent with your innate constitution.Your three primary energies are composed of five universal aspects ofenergy, called the five elements.

Five universal elementsTibetan medicine teaches that everything is made up of energy. Thisenergy has five universal characteristics, called elements. The fiveelements explain qualities and physiologic functions that worksynergistically to maintain physical and mental health. To describe thefive elements, Tibetan medicine uses everyday terms that highlighttheir universal qualities:

Earth refers to the aspect of energy that provides stability andstructure. For example, you can sit up because of the earthelement.Water refers to the aspect of energy that provides moisture,lubrication, and smoothness. For example, your blood is made ofthe water element.Fire refers to the aspect of energy that drives growth, development,metabolism, and absorption of food. For example, you can digestyour food because of the fire element.Air refers to the aspect of energy that governs movement in yourbody, including blood circulation and growth of skin. For example, your heart pumps blood and youcan move your body because of the air element.Space refers to the aspect of energy that allows the other elements to interact and coexist. Forexample, space in your mouth provides room for your teeth and tongue to help you chew and speakproperly.

The five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space combine to form the three primary energies:movement, heat, and cold. In the Tibetan language, these three primary energies are called loong, tripa,and baekan. The Tibetan word nyepa refers to these energies that are essential for life. You, likeeveryone else, were born with a unique combination of the three primary energies, called your

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constitutional nature or constitution.

Primary Energy Tibetan Term Composed of This Element:

Movement loong air

Heat tripa fire

Cold baekan earth, water

Each of your three primary energies has many divisions and subdivisions. To be healthy and happy, youmust keep your loong, tripa, and baekan consistent with their percentages in your inborn constitution.

Seven general constitutions or energy patternsTibetan medicine teaches that the three primary energies interact to form seven general constitutions.Each constitution is named by the dominant energy or energies:

Loong: Loong dominates tripa and baekan.Tripa: Tripa dominates loong and baekan.Baekan: Baekan dominates loong and tripa.Loong/tripa or tripa/loong: Loong and tripa dominate baekan.Tripa/baekan or baekan/tripa: Tripa and baekan dominate loong.Loong/baekan or baekan/loong: Loong and baekan dominate tripa.Loong/tripa/baekan: All three energies are in equal amounts, a very rare constitution.

Your inborn constitution does not change throughout your lifetime. However, your three primary energiesrise and fall according to your thoughts, lifestyle choices, the time of day, your stage in life, the weather,and other factors. Your energies can become unbalanced: either too high, too low, or disturbed.

According to Tibetan medicine, baekan is highest in the first stage of life, when children are growing anddeveloping tissues. Tripa is highest during the second and third stages of life, when adults needsufficient heat energy to work, go to school, develop a career, raise a family, form and nurturerelationships, and do all the other busy activities involved with adulthood. Later, in the fourth stage of life,loong is highest when older adults need to become less grounded and prepare for death.

Find out your unique constitutionThe gold standard for determining your particular constitution is to have a consultation with a qualifiedand experienced practitioner of Tibetan medicine. Such practitioners have graduated from a six-yearmedical program and worked as new doctors under the supervision of senior doctors. An example is theMedical College at the Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical Institute of His Holiness the Dalai Lama inDharamsala, India. Because Tibetan medicine is new in North America, you may not have access to aqualified and experienced practitioner of Tibetan medicine.

However, you can complete two free, online, anonymous, research-based tools developed at theUniversity of Minnesota. Use the Constitutional Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT) and the LifestyleGuidelines Tool (LGT) to learn about your constitution and how to live in harmony with it.

What causes imbalance in your three primary energies?Many factors can cause your three primary energies to go out of balance. Examples are what you eatand drink, seasonal changes, your lifestyle behaviors, and your mental patterns. Tibetan medicineteaches that what you think impacts your health and energy balance. Both positive and negativethinking affect your body. For example, happiness and compassion calm your body. In contrast, angerincreases your heart rate and blood pressure, causes shallow and irregular breathing, and depressesyour immune system. Negative thinking doesnt just refer to a pessimistic outlook. Rather, negativethinking encompasses three major categories of afflictive thought patterns that cause suffering asdescribed below.

Three Categories of Negative ThinkingTibetan medicine teaches that three categories of negative thinking, called mental poisons, producesuffering instead of happiness. The three categories of mental poisons are:

Greed including attachments to desires, people, objects, and behaviors.Anger including hostility, irritation, aversion, and aggression.Delusion including confusion, delusion, ignorance, and narrow-mindedness.

Each category of mental poisons affects one of the three primary energies described below.

Mental Poison: Causes Imbalance inThis Primary Energy:

Imbalance Can Lead to TheseHealth Problems:

greed, attachments,desire

loong anxiety, movement disorders,insomnia, mental illness,addictions

anger, hostility,aggression

tripa inflammations, infections,metabolic and hormonal problems

delusion,confusion, close-mindedness

baekan respiratory disorders, obesity,diabetes

Your inborn constitution makes you particularly vulnerable to a certain type of mental attitude as you goabout your daily life. If, for example, loong is the dominant energy in your constitution, you are prone toengaging in the mental poison of greed, attachments, and desire. Consequently, you are vulnerable todeveloping anxiety, movement disorders, insomnia, mental illness, and addictions.

In other words, greed both causes and results from an imbalance in loong energy. Anger causes and

results from an imbalance in tripa energy. Delusion causes and results from an imbalance in baekanenergy.

When one primary energy goes out of balance, the other two energies are likely to go out of balance,too. Chronic energy imbalance can produce complex health problems involving loong, tripa, and baekan.Bringing all three energies back into balance can be difficult. For example, increasing heat (tripa) energycan decrease cold (baekan) energy.

How can I bring my three primary energies back intobalance with my inborn constitution?Creating a healthy mind and making healthy lifestyle choices will help to bring your primary energiesback into balance with your innate constitution. For example, your inborn constitution may consist ofabout 45% tripa, 35% baekan, and 20% loong, meaning that you have a tripa/baekan constitution. If youlead a stressful life, your loong is likely to increase and even become your dominant energy.Consequently, you will suffer because your energies are not in balance with your inborn constitution.Then you need to calm your thinking, practice relaxation techniques, and make other lifestyle choicesthat decrease your loong and bring you back into balance.

Try to live in a manner that keeps your three energies consistent with their percentages in your inbornconstitution. Some of the simplest lifestyle choices consist of eating food that balances your energies.When, for example, you are cold and your baekan energy is too high, you can eat spicy food to increaseyour heat (tripa) energy and decrease your cold (baekan) energy.

This process of continuously reestablishing balance means to heal from the source and not just chasesymptoms! Tibetan medicine teaches that your mental habits and beliefs have a profound effect on bothyour emotions and your physical body at a very basic level.

Expert Contributor: Miriam Cameron, PhD, MS, MA, RN; Tenzin Namdul, DTMS, BA, PHCcc; KatharineO. Swenson, MD, MS, RNReviewed by: Tashi Lhamo, DTMS, RN

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