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Created by the Center for Spirituality & Healing and Charlson Meadows.

Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing

What Do I Need to Know about My

Unique Constitution?
According to Tibetan medicine, you were born with a constitution that
is made up of a unique combination of three primary energies: loong,
tripa, and baekan. To be happy and healthy, you need to make choices
that keep your three energies consistent with your innate constitution.
Your three primary energies are composed of five universal aspects of
energy, called the five elements.

Five universal elements

Tibetan medicine teaches that everything is made up of energy. This
energy has five universal characteristics, called elements. The five
elements explain qualities and physiologic functions that work
synergistically to maintain physical and mental health. To describe the
five elements, Tibetan medicine uses everyday terms that highlight
their universal qualities:

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Earth refers to the aspect of energy that provides stability and
structure. For example, you can sit up because of the earth
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element.
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Water refers to the aspect of energy that provides moisture,
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lubrication, and smoothness. For example, your blood is made of
the water element.
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Fire refers to the aspect of energy that drives growth, development,
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metabolism, and absorption of food. For example, you can digest
your food because of the fire element.
Air refers to the aspect of energy that governs movement in your
body, including blood circulation and growth of skin. For example, your heart pumps blood and you
can move your body because of the air element.
Space refers to the aspect of energy that allows the other elements to interact and coexist. For
example, space in your mouth provides room for your teeth and tongue to help you chew and speak
properly.
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, like
everyone else, were born with a unique combination of the three primary energies, called your

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, you
must keep your loong, tripa, and baekan consistent with their percentages in your inborn constitution.

Seven general constitutions or energy patterns

Tibetan 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 energies
rise 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 and
developing tissues. Tripa is highest during the second and third stages of life, when adults need
sufficient heat energy to work, go to school, develop a career, raise a family, form and nurture
relationships, 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 constitution

The gold standard for determining your particular constitution is to have a consultation with a qualified
and experienced practitioner of Tibetan medicine. Such practitioners have graduated from a six-year
medical program and worked as new doctors under the supervision of senior doctors. An example is the
Medical College at the Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical Institute of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in
Dharamsala, India. Because Tibetan medicine is new in North America, you may not have access to a
qualified and experienced practitioner of Tibetan medicine.
However, you can complete two free, online, anonymous, research-based tools developed at the
University of Minnesota. Use the Constitutional Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT) and the Lifestyle
Guidelines 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 eat
and drink, seasonal changes, your lifestyle behaviors, and your mental patterns. Tibetan medicine
teaches that what you think impacts your health and energy balance. Both positive and negative
thinking affect your body. For example, happiness and compassion calm your body. In contrast, anger
increases your heart rate and blood pressure, causes shallow and irregular breathing, and depresses
your immune system. Negative thinking doesnt just refer to a pessimistic outlook. Rather, negative
thinking encompasses three major categories of afflictive thought patterns that cause suffering as
described below.
Three Categories of Negative Thinking
Tibetan medicine teaches that three categories of negative thinking, called mental poisons, produce
suffering 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 in
This Primary Energy:

Imbalance Can Lead to These

Health Problems:

greed, attachments,
desire

loong

anxiety, movement disorders,

insomnia, mental illness,
addictions

anger, hostility,
aggression

tripa

inflammations, infections,
metabolic and hormonal problems

delusion,
confusion, closemindedness

baekan

respiratory disorders, obesity,

diabetes

Your inborn constitution makes you particularly vulnerable to a certain type of mental attitude as you go
about your daily life. If, for example, loong is the dominant energy in your constitution, you are prone to
engaging in the mental poison of greed, attachments, and desire. Consequently, you are vulnerable to
developing 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 baekan
energy.
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) energy
can decrease cold (baekan) energy.

How can I bring my three primary energies back into

balance with my inborn constitution?
Creating a healthy mind and making healthy lifestyle choices will help to bring your primary energies
back into balance with your innate constitution. For example, your inborn constitution may consist of
about 45% tripa, 35% baekan, and 20% loong, meaning that you have a tripa/baekan constitution. If you
lead 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 choices
that 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 inborn
constitution. 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 increase
your heat (tripa) energy and decrease your cold (baekan) energy.
This process of continuously reestablishing balance means to heal from the source and not just chase
symptoms! Tibetan medicine teaches that your mental habits and beliefs have a profound effect on both
your emotions and your physical body at a very basic level.

+ References
Expert Contributor: Miriam Cameron, PhD, MS, MA, RN; Tenzin Namdul, DTMS, BA, PHCcc; Katharine
O. Swenson, MD, MS, RN
Reviewed by: Tashi Lhamo, DTMS, RN

HEALING PRACTICES a-z

Choosing Integrative Healthcare

Acupuncture
Aromatherapy
Ayurvedic Medicine
Biofeedback
Botanical Medicine

about healing practices +

Breathwork
Chinese Herbs
Chiropractic
Clinical Hypnosis
Craniosacral Therapy
Creative Therapies
Cupping
Dermal Friction
Dietary Therapies
Food As Medicine
Healing Environment
Healing Touch
Holistic Pregnancy & Childbirth
Homeopathy
Imagery
Intuition in Healthcare
Massage Therapy
Mind-Body Therapies
Mindful Movement
Mindfulness
Moxibustion
Naturopathy
Osteopathic Medicine
Prayer
Qigong
Reflexology
Reiki
Shamanism
Shiatsu
Social Support

Therapeutic Touch
Tibetan Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Tui na
Yoga

CONDITIONS a-z

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Anxiety
Arthritis
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Back Pain
Cancer
Childbirth
Depression
Diabetes
End of Life and Hospice Care
Headaches
Heart Disease
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Menopause
Migraines
Pregnancy

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Last modified on January 12, 2015