DOUBTING THOMAS

Since 2013, I have started to use Ayurveda as a means of healing my body. I was in India and it was easy, I could often go for check-ups and the doctor would keep changing my therapy according to need. I had one year in India, so it was a slow, yet useful process for me. I also did sessions of cranio-sacral therapy, advised by my Ayurveda doctor. I also went to see the Ayurveda eye doctor, he told me my eyesight could be improved with treatments and also gave me some mudras I could do to improve not only my eyesight but my body strength as well. I went to the Ayurveda dentist, and he told me my immunity is low, giving me chyawanprash (an immunity-booster paste), and some other powders and pastes I used to rub on my gums with honey or brush my teeth with, saving my then-rotting-tooth for about 6 months. The moment I came to Europe (different food and no more ayurvedic powders), I had to have the tooth pulled out. Ayurveda seemed to look at the body and mind and emotions as a whole, whether it was the dentist or the eye doctor, or general physician.

I have been recommended to do a “Detox” or any form of Panchakarma (ayurvedic treatments). At the time I had little money and no time and felt these are “just some massages”. I had the opportunity to visit friends in the Ayurveda hospital while they were doing the treatments and they did not seem very happy. Later they told me it was good, but you had to keep the recommended food and lifestyle in order to keep the light feeling, so I was not very impressed.

Even though many of you might think of me as: “Well, there’s a true believer”. I am super sceptical and believe things only when I have myself experienced them.

Even then, in 2013, the doctor was telling me to go to the hospital for treatments, but it took me another 5 years before I actually did it. I needed some persuasion. I went to see Ayurveda doctors regularly all these years, taking supplements and following the eating and lifestyle habits as much as I could at the given time. I trusted their advice more and more, as I saw that the more I followed the recommendations, the better I felt.

At a particular moment I was following ALL the advice of the doctors. Yet, I was still unwell. Some things were not getting resolved. The last two years, every time an Ayurveda doctor “checked my pulse”, the reaction was: You must do a Detox. I have already formed an opinion on these “Detoxes” and thought they were just too expensive, in India, as it is far away, including travel expenses, or in Europe where it was far too much for my budget.

I started to think Ayurveda is quite useless, so what should I do? As I came to trust it more and more, I knew that I would probably just do it one day. My doubts were about how expensive it was, whether it was really so useful and is it more like a spa holiday, rather than healing the body. Could it really help?

TOX-IN -> TOX-OUT

I knew I in-toxified quite a lot as a kid, and knowing that toxins are not only chemicals brought in from the outside, but also that the body creates toxins out of stress, mental or emotional. I knew that, if not choosing allopathic medicine, this would have to be it. Five days of “Detox”, here I am.

I will not share all the details here, as it is an experience to have on one’s own, but I will attempt to depict what I felt in a most non-spoiler manner. It started off kind of easy, I had physical sensations for sure, but nothing that I have not already experienced during all the harmful intoxication I did, now many years ago. I went through all of them, and somehow it was not so difficult for me. I took this time to really not do anything, and I took care that others would not involve me in any work discussions.

To be totally honest, I had to hide a little to make the point of people understanding I needed some alone time. It worked! I felt gentle, soft, sensitive, fragile, yet took good care that I don’t bring more stress than needed into the experience. I noticed a few things, how emotions come suddenly and wildly, and disappear in the same speed, like nothing ever happened. I also noticed how my mind was craving for entertainment. How easily we fall into watching TV, listening to music, chatting, without ever giving some rest to the mind. Mind is like a magnet, searching constantly for something to stick on and be amused by, and in the end gets worn out, tired easily.

WEIRD MAGICAL SUPER-HERBS; YAY!

I said not to spoil too much, and I am sure you could Google what is done in Panchakarma (I am guessing what we do here in Germany is just some parts of it), but let me tell you about my own experience. On the first days, you take some herbs. Magical super-herbs that drain all the toxins from your body. I could actually feel them work inside me! How amazing is that? You take a small amount, a mixture of herbs, that pull all the toxins out of your system! How simple! Of course, the doctor decides what exactly to take, what amount, when, for how long, etc. These days I had the time to allow the process to happen in my body and during that time I was allowed, or encouraged to colour pictures, more specifically, mandalas. 

:::Lovely materials:::

In the process, which I absolutely loved, and coloured-in quite a few, revealed for me many insights. I felt how artists must feel when creating. Allowing the creativity to flow while practicing and practising and practising (whether music, or painting or knitting or anything else). I had so much more focus and awareness of the colours, the shapes. I could feel the nuances and allow my fingers to choose the next colour and my eyes to flow to the next area I would colour. I saw nuance and knew contrast. I felt the beauty of doing and doing. Just doing. Not waiting or struggling to finish. I enjoyed every single moment. The little details of working with coloured pencils vs. markers. How they both reacted with paper, and print. How the more you press the colour pencil, the more colour will come out. But the more you press, the more your hand hurts soon after, so you can sometimes use layers, and sometimes press. Colouring was like a dance with myself. Beauty yet undiscovered.

:::Bed exhibition:::

MY BUDDY BODY

Another point that was completely re-discovered for me, was the relationship with my body. The Ayurveda (Ayur-veda: knowledge of life) Detox is made in such a way that treatments are given together with advice or rules of conduct. The entire time you are supervised by therapists as well as the doctor and provided with everything you might need. Yet, to use the rules to your benefit, you must listen very carefully to your body. With surgical precision, or awareness. If you go too much in one direction, you are in trouble. If you indulge your craving, you are in trouble. If you suppress whatever is coming, physical or mental or emotional, you are in trouble. Being in trouble just means it creates a little more discomfort for you, it can be avoided if you really put all your attention on the body.

The doctor gives instructions in every given moment and can help you get out of trouble and explain how things work, but it is about you, you are the only one who can really feel and know your own body. No-Body can know Your-Body better than you. It brings total awareness and complete responsibility. Such a mind-blowing setting, Ayurveda, you rock!

One more thing I could observe during this time is to see and feel and make use of my body as if it were a temple. This we usually mention when talking about sex, and for sure, this attitude should be applied. With food, and what we use on the body as well – yes, my body is as sacred as a temple; How much do I love it, appreciate it, how much care do I have for it? What kind of food do I take? What creams do I use? My body is sacred! I just looooove this God-given-gift! I want to take good care of it. It is my personal temple.

:::The view from my little sanctuary:::

THE AYURVEDA DETOX IS AMAZING

Then there are more things that are included in the detox, but I would not like to spoil anyone’s surprise. I wondered during this time, whether there is any kind of detox program in Western medicine? One that has no harmful side-effects for other than the body system that is being detoxified? Is there a wholesome detox at all? I do use Western-based medicine for short-term solutions, like a blocked nose, migraine pain, blood results, x-ray and similar.  I do trust it with some miraculous modern discoveries, like prosthetics, by-passes, organ-donation-based procedures. But I would not put my entire health in the hands of mostly invasive treatments. I have made use of it, and in many cases it has helped acutely, but not long-term. Too soon to tell yet, and of course, I have been using natural medicine for most of my problems for years to keep them in balance. It is to be seen how it will come out in the long run.

In short, I would recommend the Ayurveda Detox itself, along with all other Ayurveda practices, as non-invasive, individual body-aligned and deeply purifying. I am ever so grateful for the much-needed rest, for the silent observation of my own body, mind and emotions and for the truly spiritually enriching experience it also provides.

I cannot recommend anything I have not experienced myself. In the internet provider shop I used to work, I  would honestly tell people – if they lived in an area where the Internet was crap – that the Internet was crap. People loved my honesty and would often buy the packages just because they felt safe. Definitely true that my experience is my own, and that is only what I can share here.

As per the money issue, I just had a conversation with someone who payed 12,000$ for a three-week detox. That is around 500€ per day, for three weeks! Ayurveda Detox in Bad Antogast is a short 3 or 5 or 7 days program, it is less than 200€ per day (depends also on your accommodation preferences), includes food, treatments, care and all other details mentioned above. My budget must afford it! For the naturalness of the processes, the purity of the products used and the care the staff provides, I now feel it is cheap! Affordable, at the least. This is how much I love my body! This is how much Ayurveda is effective!

I feel like a new-born baby, with all the capabilities and faculties of a healthy and strong grown-woman. Ever so pure again…

:::A little tired still from the process, but undoubtedly calmer and happier:::