How to Balance Melancholic's Cold & Dry Temperament CLASSIFICATION OF FOOD, HERBS, & LIFESTYLE

AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE ON MELANCHOLIC

Cold and dry with a slow, variable or erratic metabolism. Colicky, tense. Withdrawn, pensive, anxious, and hesitant. Analytical, intelligent, detail oriented and creative. Prone to ojas depletion, dehydration, an overactive nervous system, and depression.

Irregularity, cold and dryness give a person a melancholic temperament or constitution.

The deficiency of a melancholic person gives them a more mental rather than physical orientation.

When well balanced they are creative thinkers and problem solvers known for being dependable and efficient. They can absorb new information quickly and easily.

When unbalanced, though, they can be anxious, depressed, moody and withdrawn. Physically they are prone to dry, cold conditions like gas and bloating, dry skin and hair, insomnia and osteoporosis.

In Ayurveda, their temperament is similar to a Vata constitution.

The key to Melancholics' good health is balancing their dry, coldness and calming their overactive nervous systems so they sleep better at night.

Fortunately, the biocharacteristics theory of medicine can help.

Balance & The Biocharacteristics Theory of Medicine

Greek Medicine is one of several traditional, holistic healing systems that utilize biocharacteristics to understand and treat clients. Others include Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Unani Tibb (modern Greek Medicine popular in Arab cultures).

Biocharacteristics are descriptive terms for imbalances, including:

• Qualities such as hot and cold, wet and dry, heavy and light
• Tastes such as sweet and sour
• Elements like earth, air, fire and water.

These qualities appear in people, food, herbs, lifestyle practices and habits, and diseases.

At its simplest, the biocharacteristics theory of medicine first uncovers imbalanced qualities in individuals. It then applies the opposite qualities to correct the imbalances.

If you're too cold, biocharacteristic theory would recommend you put on a warm jacket, enjoy a hot drink or add some spices to your food.

If you're too dry, drink more fluids, and eat more oily, gooey foods like oatmeal, meat or ghee. If you're too hot, have a cool drink, sit in the shade.

Simple, but powerful, examples like these form the basis for natural healing systems that have kept people well for thousands of years.

Greek Medicine's 4 Temperaments

You may have encountered Greek Medicine's temperaments (Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic), which are often presented as personality types to help you understand and communicate better with others.

Each is associated with a humor named after substances in the body: yellow bile, blood, phlegm, and black bile, respectively. However, humors may better be described as symbols of your body's systemic nature, which incorporate many different biochemicals.

Each humor gives rise to a temperament that includes your dominant personality traits and describes your physical, mental, and emotional tendencies.

Recognizing these connections can help you understand others better and correct physical, emotional and mental imbalances in yourself.

Let's take a closer look at the melancholic temperament.

The Challenge of Balancing a Melancholic Temperament

The melancholic temperament is characterized by cold and dryness.

Its humor, black bile, was believed to reside in the spleen and thought to be the cause of depression. Black colored bile is more common in Greece because it is a side effect of hemolytic anemias like thalassemia.

Today's medical professionals use the term melancholia to describe severe cases of depression.

In traditional Greek medicine, however, the term melancholic is a holistic guide to physical characteristics as well as mental and emotional traits.

Melancholic Temperament's Physical Traits

Dryness may be due to the kidneys draining too much fluid, leading to excess urination. But dryness doesn't just mean dehydration, it also means undernourishment, due to poor diet, poor digestion, or malabsorption.

So melancholics tend to be lean and thin with prominent bones and joints and stiff muscles. They are often cold (especially their hands and feet) and may have thick, straight dark hair.

These are the people who are rarely warm enough and have extra blankets on their bed at night during the winter just in case.

They bundle up when the weather turns a little chilly in autumn. And, come winter, while they enjoy watching snow fall, they prefer to stay inside where it's warm. Don't look to them if you want a friend to join you for ice skating or cross country skiing.

If you are melancholic you may suffer from digestive disturbances like gas and bloating.

And as your dry coldness moves from your digestive tract to your bloodstream it delivers dryness throughout your body promoting a host of illnesses and conditions.

A few common examples include constipation, leg cramps, dehydration and poor circulation along with osteoporosis, depression and anxiety.

Here are some of the reasons.

If you are an unbalanced melancholic, you will typically suffer from insufficient amounts of the fluids necessary to make the digestive enzymes and hormones you need for quality digestion.

As a result, food sits too long in your digestive tract and ferments promoting the gas and bloating that, in turn, lead to a buildup of metabolic toxins and poor nutrient absorption.

This can cause an insufficient store of glucose in your liver, promoting hypoglycemia. Or you may experience dry, rough skin and cracking joints.

Eventually, if you don't balance the dryness, it can lead to inflammation, a heat condition that will increase the dryness even more.

Melancholics & Mental Balance

Do people often remind you to "get out of your head," or suggest you may be "overthinking" a particular issue or concern?

Maybe you've been accused of being too rigid in your thinking. Or of being negative and over cautious.

All of these mental traits are examples of a melancholic mind out of balance.

On the other hand, when you are in balance you enjoy an efficient, detail-oriented mind, and a love of research.

Other people will enjoy your broad range of interests and your willingness to share your wisdom or encourage them to see new ideas that open the door to unexpected opportunities.

Melancholics & Emotional Balance

The term melancholic comes from the Greek words melaina chole that translate as black bile.

If you are melancholic and your emotions are out of balance, you may be prone to mood swings, depression and sadness.

You may also be nervous and anxious, often accused of being "too sensitive" or emotional.

Your sensitivity to others and your drive to solve problems may have you thinking in circles, reviewing, analyzing and then reanalyzing a particular issue, never quite letting it go.

Meanwhile, you become more negative and depressed with each thought.

On the other hand, your commitment to introspection, along with your sensitivity and empathic abilities make you an insightful, friend, colleague, or coach. You may be someone that people come to for advice, recognizing you as a creative problem solver.

Melancholics with their analytical, problem solving minds, may be creative artists, musicians or writers, or enjoy planning, finances or diplomacy.

Melancholic Temperament's Relation to Ayurvedic Doshas

Ayurveda defines three body types or constitutions. Vata is dry and cold and made up of air and ether elements. Pitta is hot and made up of fire plus a little water. Earth and water elements predominate in Kapha, making it cold and wet.

In Greek medicine, Vata is most similar to the cold, dry Melancholic temperament. Both are associated with bones and astringency (earth element). Kapha is most similar to the Phlegmatic type, which is associated with water and the body's fluids.

Of the other two temperaments, Sanguine (Blood), is hot and wet resembling oily Pitta-Kapha. Choleric, on the other hand, is hot and dry and resembles a Pitta-Vata constitution.

In excess, both Melancholic and Vata constitutions can experience variable digestion and elimination. For example, constipation for a day or two, followed by diarrhea.

And their often poor digestion can lead to malabsorption, poor circulation and a triggered nervous system that can cause insomnia, anxiety and restlessness.

There are some differences between Vata and Melancholic, however.

In Greek medicine, Melancholics are associated with the Earth element and considered to be cold and dry.

In Ayurveda, the Earth element is associated with the Kapha dosha and considered to be cold, wet and heavy.

Vata, on the other hand, is defined by the air and ether elements, both of which are cold, dry and light. Vata tends to have prominent bones though, so has a bit of earthiness.

Treatment for a lightweight imbalanced Vata often involves food and lifestyle activities that increase heaviness and density.

Melancholic Balancing Diet

To balance a melancholic's cold and dry temperament with diet, favor sweet, warming, hydrating and grounding foods.

These could include:

• Oils like sesame, olive, almond or ghee
• Hydrating, warming foods like soups and stews, bone broth or golden milk. Flavor them with small amounts of pungent spices such as cinnamon, fennel, ginger, garlic, rosemary and thyme.
• Grounding, sweet foods such as butternut or acorn squash, sweet potatoes, nuts and seeds. Meat and dairy (considered sweet in Ayurveda) are helpful, but in moderation, as they are difficult to digest and promote gas, bloating, and eventually inflammation.
• Mineral rich, salty foods such as bone broth, miso, nettles, feta, shrimp, or dulse
• Demulcent foods to soothe their often irritated digestive tracts including oatmeal, okra, chia and flax seeds, cinnamon, or avocado.
• Sour foods like citrus fruit, yogurt, pickles, apples, peaches, cherries and grapes

Lifestyle Practices to Calm & Soothe Melancholic Temperaments

Some helpful lifestyle practices for Melancholics include:

• Established daily routines, especially eating meals at the same time every day and regular bedtime and wake times. Routine helps improve their digestion and provide stability that calms the nervous system
• Daily self massage (abhyanga) with sesame oil, which is warming and balances dry skin
• Gentle exercise such as yoga, tai chi, or walking in the woods
• Calming breathwork such as alternate nostril breathing

Herbs to Calm & Soothe the Melancholic Temperament

Some herbs to help balance Melancholics include:

• Ashwagandha, which is heavy, grounding and warming
• Ghee, which is oily, easy to digest and sweet
• Haritaki, which cleanses the colon, promotes healthy digestion and balances cold, dryness
• Licorice Root which is sweet and gooey and helps build moisture