Panchakarma

Panchakarma is an Ayurvedic purification program. As my pre-treatment I had 3 days of shirodara and oil massage (explained in further detail in my Christmas Eve post). The treatment itself is 5 days and I am on day 4.

Day 1:
I was given this syrupy liquid to swish around my mouth before instructed to drink 50ml of ghee (clarified butter) followed by a medicinal tea. It was not so bad. It was a little gross drinking so much ghee, but not terrible. I basically just hung out in my room all day reading Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald. I felt pretty exhausted so I decided not to go anywhere. At 6:30 I had a bowl of incredibly bland, watery porridge. Then I went to bed at about 8:30, for lack of anything better to do.

Day 2:
Again I got the same as Day 1, but with 100ml of ghee. It was really horrible to drink that much, and I really felt like retching after. I was good about it though. I went out for a bit in the afternoon, just to check my email and whatnot. Again, I had some porridge later on and then finished my book before going to bed.

Day 3:
Yesterday! I was given 150ml of ghee! It was possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever done. Honest to God. I felt nauseous pretty much all day and I could taste the oil and grease for hours and hours and hours (it was probably 6 before I couldn't taste the ghee anymore and I had taken it at 8am). I went to bed at 7pm last night because I felt so sick I couldn't even read.

Day 4:
Today. I feel much better. I had a gentle Ayurvedic massage today followed by a swedan (sauna) and then body scrub. It was actually quite nice. Today is my day of rest before I am given the "medicine" tomorrow, which is apparently some sort of herbal laxative. So it looks like I will probably spend all day tomorrow in my room, rather, on the toilet. Oh well, I am so glad it's just one more day after today. Also, today I got to eat kicheri, which is rice and mung beans. It tasted absolutely decadent after only eating porridge, bland bland porridge for 3 days. Every night I have been dreaming of food. I can't wait.

Hm... well, I think this is a boring post. I was going to write a lot more, but I've been writing some emails and doing some searching, so I have been here for almost 2 hours already, meaning I don't feel like writing anymore.

One interesting thing though. There is this pigeon who roosts in my window sill and she has 2 eggs. I've been watching, I can't wait for them to hatch. I think it might be annoying, but I'm excited anyway.