Sunday, April 7, 2013

Day 1 of 7 days panchakarma

What is panchakarma, one may ask. It is a type of Ayurveda treatment which is designed to detox and cleanse your body of toxins. Ayurveda treatment can only be diagnosed or treated by a doctor trained in this specific area, ie an Ayurveda practitioner. There are loads of information you can find on Ayurveda on the net, it being a teaching which has been around for the last 4,000 years.

I decided to seek Ayurveda treatment for a myriad of reasons, one being constant digestion problems, and also a sense of imbalance in my health due to many reasons. Also, I was thinking since I only have one body, heck I should be taking good care of it and its about time I did a detox of some sort.

So, when you meet the Ayurveda doctor for the first time, he will ask you general questions about yourself, take your pulse and look at your fingertips ( i don't know why). Oddly enough, the doctor predicted certain things about me without me volunteering any information. The doctor will then prescribe a treatment for you, based on your condition. So, I didn't ask to do a detox but was recommended to do so by the doctor.

Now this detox may sound harsh, but I believe many people have done it and continue to do it regularly because of the benefits. So for the first part, I go for an Ayurvedic massage, done by a therapist. The oils used will differ according to what the doctor prescribed. It starts with a head massage and shoulders and hands and the therapist will literally slather you in the massage oils. This lasts for an hour. The massage serves to improve your blood circulation and help in the rejuvenation process which is one of the benefits of panchakarma.  The massage can only be done in the mornings.   The centre I went to was so packed that I could only get a slot for a massage at 4am! Once you have chosen a time, it is recommended that the massage is done at the same time throughout your panchakarma. So I guess I'll be going to bed by 9pm and up at 3am for the next week!

After the massage, you take a shower with a herbal scrub which removes the oil from your body. Then you take your medicine for the day. For my treatment, it was a mixture of ghee and some herbs. To be honest, it didn't taste that bad, in fact, there was no taste, just a 'heavy' texture. Many people I know balk at this part of the panchakarma. Then, I drank a cup of hot water with crushed ginger. This was very soothing after the ghee concoction!

So for the rest of the day, I cannot eat anything until after 4pm when I am allowed to eat plain congee, which the centre has prepared for me. Throughout the day I am supposed to drink the hot ginger water (this I have to prepare myself).

I feel quite full after the ghee medicine, but I wonder how I would feel the rest of the day without food! I really hope this detox will be a success and a start of a healthier lifestyle! You can read more about panchakarma here

No comments:

Post a Comment