The Panchakarma Experience Part II - Ghee

Medicated Ghee & herbs

The first 5 days begin with medicated Ghee. 2 tablespoons on Day 1, then 4 tablespoons on Day 2 and increase by 2 until we're up to 10 tablespoons on day 5 and the jar is empty. The Ghee helps to increase the digestive fire, thus it increases the metabolism. Yoga classes help stimulate the digestion of the Ghee and the detoxing process. Once my whole body is saturated with Ghee, certain signs will tell us that the toxins have to be moved from its deeper site to the surface and brought out of my body. When my skin, hair and whole body feel oily and the Dr. can see it, she'll know the Ghee has soaked into my system. That's something to look forward to!

The upside of the first five days are the 2 daily massage treatments at the clinic. I'm receiving  Abhyanga and Shirodara treatments every day from Putu and Ketut, the therapists at the clinic. Abhyanga is a massage using warm sesame oil mixed with herbs that is massaged all over my body for about 45 minutes. The Shirodara uses warm coconut oil and herbs and is gently dripped on my forehead for about 45 minutes. The effect is to relax my mind and open my third eye. It usually makes me fall asleep it's so peaceful.

Garam Masala (Curry Powder)

A nice surprise from the alone time happened when I arrived for yoga one day and found a group of people leaving with Dr. Sujatha. She was holding an Ayurvedic cooking class at her family compound near the clinic. I was invited to join and it was a really nice afternoon. For one thing I got a full meal, so that was exciting. She showed us how she makes Kitcheree (since I'm eating it every day that was helpful), zucchini soup, a beetroot dish, 2 different chutneys and dal. They were delicious. She has a large herb garden so she's able to grow most of the herbs she cooks with. She makes her own garam masala, curry powder, and I got to watch her make spices from scratch. Amazing.

Kitcheree

Heading back to my room at the Garden View Hotel, I got sidetracked in a conversation Ketut, who works at the reception desk. He was looking for someone to talk to and since I don't have much to do, I learned quite a bit from our talk. 

Turns out the "sand on the floor of my room" I ask him to sweep up daily, is actually from the ceiling because there are really bad termites. Then, I got to hear the whole story about how the owner died in the last year and his son has taken over the hotel and refuses to spend money on upgrades and isn't very nice to the staff. 

The clinic booked this hotel for me and tomorrow I'll be moving to another hotel across the road that clinic also booked. The room is pretty cheap so  I'm trying not to complain because I don't want to look spoiled. I'm more concerned about what's happening with the Panchakarma then the hotel. It's funny how we ignore things when our focus is somewhere else and we just want to make things work. Tomorrow I'll change hotels and have a day of rest from the Ghee, the yoga and the massage treatments. It'll be a whole day with nothing to do and head full of oily hair.

Dr. Sujatha cooking with Ghee