Days 6, 7, 8 – Rollercoaster. This is Just the Beginning.

DAY 6   4/3/11

Super tired today. In addition I had a really tough time with Nasya. Feels like it went to my brain. Burning, uncomfortable. They tell me I just gotta deal with it, in two hours it finally goes away. After the pain went away I finally got really relaxed which was nice. Kind of felt like I was on something, probably because the herbs went to my brain.

Went to a market by the train station with Frauke. The train stations here are super hectic and so is the neighboring market. They sell anything and everything here. And because it’s the weekend, all the men are getting haircuts and shaves on the sidewalk. The barbers have a chair set up with an umbrella for shade. There are about 12 in a row all with customers.

I bought some beautiful silk, a tongue cleaner and some sandals. I think I’m going to have a blouse and pants made from the silk I got. Frauke has her tailor right there when I’m ready to have it made. Too tired to walk back we take a Auto Rickshaw back to the clinic.

Relaaaaaaaax

 

DAY 7   4/4/11

Had my treatments, feeling ok. Emotionally I have stuff coming up for me, things from the past and specifically from the past year. Expectations and hopes that have not been fulfilled. Things I have been promised that have now been broken. I’m all of a sudden in a super bad mood. Everyone can read it on my face. I’m disconnected.

While eating a late lunch Frauke and Karl ask if I would like to go to Natrej Market with them. Frauke wanted me to know where it was before she leaves. We get into an auto-rickshaw and hit the main street. I immediately regret going. It is a traffic jam as it is a holiday today. First day of the new year in India. We have a bus run us practically off the road and pass us literally with an inch of space…this is not an exaggeration. Then we breathe in heavy black diesel fumes from the vehicles around us. Chaos in action. We take over the lane of the cars coming in our direction, popping in and out, cutting people off. Too much for me.

Finally we get to Natrej, try to negotiate some gold chains unsuccessfully. I buy a cd of mantra sung by a famous Indian singer and hop into another Rickshaw to head home. Frauke says I look altered, well I feel altered. My body is so sensitive from the Panchakarma prep that our outing was over-stimulating for me

At night I toss and turn unable to sleep. Misery…

 

DAY 8  4/5/11

Couldn’t sleep well at all last night. Every little sound from the airconditioning to the fan, the feeling of the sheets against my skin, my mosiquito bites all over my body and of course the light from Richard’s iPad. “Icky” is one word to describe my experience today. I feeling so fucking icky. And what do you do when you feel a certain way during Panchakarma? Just go with it.

So I get up early and go to yoga which is always a good idea. I really like our yoga teacher, Nandana. She creates a peaceful space where ever she goes, it’s nourishing to be around her.

I see Dr. Mehta today instead of Dr Swapna. She checks my pulse, “HOT!” I’ve got a lot of heat, lot of Pitta going on. Again, that’s the source of almost any ailment I have. She asks about my sleep and I tell her it’s pretty bad. I tell her I am over-sensitized which she says is normal for this point in the process. Dr Mehta also tells me there are emotions that will come up as well. I mimic a rollercoaster with my hand as tears well up in my eyes. With a great deal of kindness and empathy in her eyes she says that she and Dr. Swapna are here if I ever need to talk and if I am having a tough time. This gives me a great deal of relief.

Go upstairs, cry for a bit which makes me feel better, still feel icky though. Something clicks for me though and I get into a better mood and become more playful which makes a huge difference. I’m starting to get a pretty bad headache but the day is ok emotionally. It’s weird how your body does one thing and your heart another and your mind yet another.

I’m pretty relaxed in the evening minus my pounding head.

 

Day 5 – World Cup Game Day

World Cup of Cricket game today! Everybody is ready. Shops are closing early in anticipation. Will get to that in a second.

Panchakarma! Decide to extend Nasya because of success. Left side needs some help. I’m receiving my usual treatments, heart dhara and dry massage. It’s a rather relaxing day just hanging out, listening to music in the garden. I’m started to get in touch with just BEING rather than DOING. It’s been a long time and I’m so present to being grateful for having this time. It is such a gift.

Also, the yoga here is really great. It’s simple movement and stretching, meditation and philosophy. Vandara is our teacher, she is really wonderful and calming to be around.

Back to World Cup. After 28 years India winnnnnnsssss! We watched the last two hours of the game on a projection in one of the neighborhoods nearby. What a celebration! They had kids drumming any time India scored a point which was quite often!

It was so great being with them and they graciously accepted us into their party.

India Winnns!

The Cheerleaders

There's Jerry!

Me getting whirled around. This is good for Panchakarma

Sarita and Andy

The ladies that got me up to dance! Love them!

 

Day 4 – The Diet

The diet. Well, if you like mushy food, that is, muted greens, browns and yellows then this is the place for you! At first I didn’t mind, now I’m starting to crave things like ice cream and foods that crunch. We had the tv on for a bit and an Oreo commercial comes on. I was cursing out the child for taunting me with that Oreo cookie by twisting it open so seductively. I don’t even like Oreos!

Even though I’m giving up some things, I’m making new friends. Frauke, Jerry, Sarita, Simrin, Alain, Bassem and Karl. They are mostly from Europe including, UK, Germany, Holland and France. Wonderful Bessam is from Lebanon.

Starting to draw again. I missed it. Will put up some sketches.

Very productive Nasya. I can feel my right side is totally clear. There is some stuff that came out today that came from lord knows where and when! All of my treatments are going well and I’m feeling good.

Yummy

Sauteé Veg

Dal

Khichri - I got this after begging for variety

 

Bessam - Yoga Teacher from Lebanon

 

Panchakarma – Day 3

It’s the semi-final game for the World Cup of Cricket today. India vs. Pakistan, this is no joke my friends, this is war. The city is buzzing.

More on that later, back to Panchakarma. I meet with Dr. Swapna every morning at 10:30. Today is special as Dr. Smita Naram (the wife of Dr. Pankaj Naram and co-founder of Ayushakti) is here and going to do a pulse reading. I’ve heard about her. One of the other patients shared with me that she had a small bite to eat while she was out and it was not within the guidelines of her diet. The next morning Dr. Smita called her out on it. Amazing!

Dr. Smita recommends a hair lotion specifically for my Alopecia. She shares with me that her sister-in-law had Alopecia as well. It had become very severe and she had lost much of her hair. She did Panchakarma and followed specific guidelines and by one year all of her hair had grown back and has not fallen out since. Sounds good to me!

My treatments remain the same Hearth Dhara, Naysa and Pindswed. The Naysa is intense. I lay on a table with my head tilted back as much as possible. The practitioner, using an extra long dropper, proceeds to fill my nostril with medicated oil that I am to slowly inhale. They ask me if it is going far up into my sinuses, no such luck. It stops right at the peak of my nose and goes no further. After they have put this in both nostrils, they give me a facial massage focusing on the sinuses. Then I wait a few minutes. Finally, I am given a somewhat sweet and earthy mixture of herbs to gargle. It really does help to clean your sinuses of mucus. After, I feel a little more clear but not a significant difference. This will take a few more treatments at least.

In the US many doctors have told me that I just need surgery to open up my airways (which I already had but it didn’t work). Dr. Swapna says that I will most likely not need it when I am finished with these treatments.

Back to cricket. Richard has had the game on all day. I’ve been watching it on and off. If you are not familiar with cricket, like myself, we are talking an 8-10 hour game. So finally at 10 or 11PM when it was over and India won, I heard tons of cheering and celebrating outside. I head down with my camera to capture the celebration. I’m told there is a big party not far from the clinic and it is just a lot of fun to watch. So I drag Richard out of bed and we head down the street. There are men of all ages dancing with joy in front of one of the many projections of the game throughout the neighborhood.

We are standing on the edge of the crowd when 2 men come up to Richard, pick him up and put him in the middle of the festivities. I eventually get pulled in as well and we dance in celebration with our new neighbors chanting, “Indiaaaaa, India!”

Our neighbors celebrating their victory.

 

 

 

Panchakarma – Day 2

We begin the Purvakarma (Prepatory Stage). We meet with our doctor for our intial checkup in the morning. We will be meeting with Dr. Shwapna 5 mornings each week. She carefully places her elegant fingers on my wrist and checks my pulse with a crease in her forehead as she focuses. I’m told I’ve got a lot of heat, too much heat in fact. Shoot…I already knew that! This, she says, is the source of my stress, anxiety, migraines, allergies and Alopecia.

She makes her recommendations for treatments and asks me if it’s okay that she put me on a very strict diet to start. I hesitantly nod. I watch as she checks 5 items from the Panchakarma Diet Chart. Here’s what I can consume the first three days:

Breakfast – Tea, Fresh Papaya, Mung Soup
Lunch – Saute Vegetables and Dal
Dinner – More Mung Soup

I love veggies, so how can this be bad, right? Although, I must say, putting restrictions on what on can eat and when gets me a bit ansy.

Then she prescribes an assortment of herbs that I will be taking during my time here. Some I mix in water and others are tablets. Those that are mixed in water taste like, well, what the air smells like here sometimes and it isn’t appetizing. Overall though it is totally doable. Of course it is, it’s only Day 2! I’m excited to begin this journey.

I have the all of the same treatments as Day 1 minus the Shiro Dhara. The doctor includes Nasya for my congestion.
Nasya – This treatment involves a brisk massage over the sinus area using a warm blend of herbal oils. A gentle heat is then applied and finally 2 to 3 drops of detoxifying oil is introduced into the nostrils to loosen and dislodge accumulated toxins. This is effective in the relief of sinus congestion, migraines, hormonal imbalance and hay fever.

Before lunch I take the most bitter tasting concoction of herbs. Then I happily eat sauté veggies and dal at lunch. After that, another 10 herbal tablets and the other delicious tasting herbal powder in water. A few hours later it’s dinner and yes, it’s mung soup. Another round of herbal pills and finally, it’s off to bed. I’m kind of liking the structure of this now…

Nasya

Our Room at Ayushakti

Terrace Garden

 

Panchakarma: Day 1

Hello India! We have finally arrived to Mumbai, to the Ayushakti Clinic (Malad), on the 28th of March. It is 5AM and we settle into our “cozy” room which will be my home until April 30th. The room is bare bones as is the facility. You can see evidence of the monsoon seasons this building has been through anywhere you go. Still, it is one of the most well kept buildings in this neighborhood.

The first day we receive some relaxation treatments including:

Heart Dhara – A well of dough is placed on the chest and a warm herbal decoction as well as medicated oil is poured continuously over the heart area.

Pindswed – A form of massage that is dry and penetrating.The treatment involves the therapeutic application of heat with a ‘bolus’, a cotton cloth filled with specially medicated Ayurvedic herbs that stimulate the body to eliminate excess fluid and toxins.

Shiro Dhara – A continuous, rhythmic flow of medicated oil is poured at a specific temperature from a specific height onto the third eye area, inducing an experience of deep relaxation, leaving one in a state of meditation.

We get to eat whatever we want, which we do as we won’t be doing that for weeks. We get a peek at our new neighbors who are all at lunch. Looking forward to meeting them.

Heart Dhara

Shiro Dhara

Pindswed

Alopecia Areata

Hair…it’s a big deal right? Some of us spend quite a bit of time and dollars on that dead protein sitting on top of our heads. It let’s people know a little bit about who we are, i.e., feminine, hard core, glamorous, sophisticated, bold, f#%$ off, etc.

So, it’s perfect that I’ve been completely bald 4 times in my life. I have Alopecia. It’s an auto-immune disease and essentially your body sends a message to your white blood cells telling them that your hair follicles are foreign material and to take no prisoners. I started losing my hair at the tender age of 5. It started out in perfectly round little spots which would grow bigger over the course of weeks and months. For years I had bald spots that would appear and disappear.

One year, as a freshman in high school, I lost it all in a matter of months. That was rough. As if my self image wasn’t already totally screwed having just begun to settle into the cruel reality that is puberty. Within two years all my hair would grow back just in time for senior year. Since then, my head has been as bald as a baby’s behind 3 more times. Each time I’ve gained more perspective and stronger sense of self. At the age of 25, I had a full head of hair that began to thin out yet again. I was slipping into resignation and acceptance mode when I said, “I’m not going to do this again”. I looked into my options and Cortisone was the one that kept popping up. I had resisted this for years after an initial failed attempt years before but finally decided to go for it. I went in for my first treatment, which consists of 25-45 injections into the scalp. Ouch.

Fast forward five years. I had been receiving cortisone injections every 2-3 months. It had become a routine that I barely noticed other than the excruciating session of repetitive needle pricks. Over the past couple of years I’ve become more and more conscious of what I put on and in my body and somehow kept skipping over the Cortisone. I finally got to a point this past summer that I didn’t want to put this stuff into my body anymore. Long term use can result in Leuchemia, the dosages I was receiving were very small and unlikely to cause cancer but why mess with it?

I stopped the Cortisone injections this past August. Sure enough, after a couple of months I started losing my hair and had a few bald spots show up by October. Right around that time I ended up working myself into the ground. I was run down, over-worked and could barely get up for anything. One of my clients owns an wonderful Wellness Center called RakSa. She took one look at me and said I had to come in and set up a wellness plan with her. I signed up for a 4-week plan. At the time, after the initial evaluation, the biggest message I kept getting from her was that I had to love myself and restore and nourish myself both physically and emotionally. I was that person that rolls her eyes when I hear people talk about how you have to love yourself  but with how I was feeling at that moment it struck a cord with me because it was absolutely missing for a really long time.

I began on a regimen that included a specific diet, one session of energy work a week, daily affirmations, yoga, naps when I needed them, boundaries with work, etc. I was a really good patient and followed the whole plan for 4 weeks. The most important thing I got from this was being present to what I needed and wanted and taking time to do those things. I was actually being present in the moment! I started the plan in early November and by the beginning of December I was feeling better than I had in a long time. I was well-rested, relaxed and felt really at peace. Around this time I noticed my hair started growing back as well. I have had a few bald spots since I stopped the Cortisone injections in August. I can’t tell you the surprise and power I got out of realizing that it really is up to me and they I can heal myself without any toxic medicines. After those first four weeks, I continued with the structure that my plan had set up.

Fast forward to late December. My boyfriend and I decided to go on a two-month trip to a few countries and visit family for the first half. The second half we would go to Mumbai and do a Panchakarma cleanse. This is an ayurvedic cleanse with a few different and intense levels of cleansing. Preparing to leave for 2 months completely dismantled my regimen that I was on after the wellness plan. By the time we left, early this month, I had lost a few patches of hair again. The main reason I am doing this cleanse in Mumbai is to really get to the source of what is causing my Alopecia. I don’t know what that is but what I have learned thus far about the possible causes of auto-immune disease is that it goes deeper than just genetics. There are deep emotional connections to this, past traumas, decisions I made as a child about life, etc. I really am committed to transforming those things not just for my Alopecia, but for my overall well-being.

I’m sitting here in Bucharest, 10 days away from beginning my journey in Mumbai. I’m going to be documenting the process as much as possible during that time. Stay tuned…

Metro Graphics Do Good, Paris

Gotta love it when graphics do good. One of the main hubs of the Paris Metro system has a long stretch of info graphics. As you step onto the moving sidewalk, the graphics start to come into view. Telling passengers how many gallons of gas, travel time, CO2 and years off of your life are saved through participating in the metro system. The statistics were really impactful. They ranged from macro to micro, from the individual to city-wide.

They are designed well because they can communicate a great deal across language barriers. I mean, my French is pretty good, but a lot of the important facts communicate immediately.

If we got people in LA present to the difference using public transportation, you think it would make a difference?

Stay tuned for the video so you can see the graphics in their entirety.

 

Metro Graphics for Good