Markus took his flight back to Europe and left me alone in Aleppey. For all those who are following our blogs since a while, you will probably know that I had 3 difficult abdominal operations in 2012. So my one and only reason to come to Aleppey was a 21 day ayurvedic panchakarma treatment. I wanted to reduce the toxines in my body and to get back on track (I still had a lot of problems). And as some ayurveda councelling in Switzerland had helped me a lot, I wanted to go through this programme.
I arrived with mixed feelings in the Sreekrishna Ayurveda Center in Aleppey, to be honest. Well, knowing that this has nothing to do with wellness, I was actually really scared. How will I feel (you hear those horrible stories of people vomiting all the time), will it help me and last but not least: what will it be like being on the beach for 3 weeks, alone and just a few people around? I had chosen this place because it did not seem to be so commercialised like the places in Varkala i.e. and it promised the traditional treatment. I wanted to force myself to be alone, to find peace, to meditate and to get over all those things that had happened. Not an easy task for someone who loves action - but to put it shortly: it was great! It was the best thing I could have done. And it even wasn't really difficult.
I will not bother you with too much detail of the treatment. The main aim of a Panchakarma treatment is to get rid of the toxines, to rejuvenate the body and to bring the 3 doshas (this is more or less your constitution type in the Ayurveda medicine) into a balance. They do this with a special diet, massage, other body treatments (like oil baths, bodypacks, steambath, etc.), yoga and medication. First, the doctor feels your puls to diagnose your problems and then puts together an individual programme. As I was still very week I only had a soft version of the treatment which was still quite tough sometimes. I got lot of medicines, some really have such an awful taste, it is pure self control to swallow it all down. The programme kept me quite busy. It started normally at 7 am with yoga and ended at 4 pm with a treatment. In between I had enough time to relax, swim in the sea and eat. Every day the doctor came to see me, to check how I am going, to calm me or to motivate me. After a couple of days a could already feel some changes in my body. This was not always nice. Sometimes I just slept in the hammock all day, to weak to do anything else. Some days I did long walks on the beautiful beach or I went to town, just to see something else in between. One oft the most important things every day was the talk about the digestion. Having had 3 abdominal operations I was used to talk about my poo - but still, as english is a foreign language for the doctors and me, we sometimes had a good laugh - but no more details on that...
What I totally underestimated was that while cleaning your body also your mind will be calmed and cleaned. So normally I am a very balanced and happy person, but in this time I had daily ups and downs. Wow, that was surprising. But, this was exactly what I wanted. I have just finished the treatment. For 3 more month I will take all the medicine (well, my backpack is more than full now with all the pills and syrup) and I have to stick to the diet for a whole year: no meat, no fish, no dairy products and, worst of all ;-), not one glass of alcohol. This will be quite a challenge when I go back to normal life. Here in Kerala, vegetarian food is always available, people drink few alcohol. But at home, eating cheese and meat while having a beer or some wine is part of our culture. So, there are quite some challenges waiting for me. But, if I stick to this plan, I have a good chance that my body will fully recover. And after all that happened this is a miracle. So I go for it. It will take a couple of more weeks till I can feel the full results. But already I feel some changes. I will surely come back in 1 year for my next treatment. I should have done this years ago.... and I can only suggest everyone who is thinking about it: do it before you have operations or big problems!
I want to thank all the people and the doctors for their great effort and support. I had an amazing if not always easy time and I really appreciate what they have done for me!
If you have any questions about such a treatment, you can send me a personal message. I will be happy to answer.
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