Vikriti
Vikriti is the current state of imbalance of your doshas, as opposed to prakriti, your birth constitution. Learn to spot yours.
Vikriti literally means "alteration" or "deviation" in Sanskrit. It is the current state of your doshas: a snapshot of the moment, shaped by the season, your diet, your stress levels and your sleep over recent weeks. Where prakriti is your birth nature, stable for life, vikriti shifts constantly — and it is vikriti that Ayurveda seeks to correct.
This point is crucial: a practitioner does not treat your constitution, they treat your imbalance. A person of Kapha nature can go through an overworked autumn with a Vata excess: insomnia, bloating, anxiety. Applying "Kapha advice" (light food, stimulation, early rising) would make things worse. This is the most common mistake among beginners who discover their profile in a dosha test and apply the recommendations without nuance.
The signs of a vikriti show up in everyday life: changed digestion, disturbed sleep, skin, mood, energy. The Ayurvedic rule is simple: first calm the dosha currently in excess, using the principle of opposites, then return to the baseline lifestyle suited to your nature. To master this foundational distinction, read prakriti and vikriti: your nature vs your imbalance, then learn how to recognise and correct a dosha imbalance.