PanchaKarma – The Ultimate Healing For Body and The Mind
As many of you know, Larry and I left United States in December to travel the world. For a year we will be testing ourselves in different cultures, environments, conditions and explore how to live a healthy balanced life no matter where we are.
Throughout the years we have tried many different modalities of health – from raw food diet, vegan, vegetarian, ketogenic diet, paleo … you name it, most likely we have tried it. So we can comfortably say our relationship with a healthy lifestyle has been a long and solid one 🙂
But we haven’t played much with Ayurveda. Not until now…
As with any new relationship, we are still exploring and learning more about it every day. But the best way to really understand the practice is to fully immerse yourself into it.
That’s why we went out on a search for the best Panchakarma center in Bali and signed up for 21-day cleanse at AmrtaSiddhi Ayurvedic health center in Ubud, Bali.
What Is Panchakarma?
Panchakarma is an ancient cleansing and rejuvenation program, which consists of series of individualized therapeutic treatments that clear ama (toxins) and excess doshas (subtle energies) from the deep tissues of the body. According to Ayurveda’s ancient texts, panchakarma can both prevent and cure disease, and it is particularly successful with chronic illnesses that allopathy hasn’t conquered, such as allergies, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and migraines. On a deeper level, panchakarma can increase an individual’s sense of clarity and inner peace.
So basically it is the ultimate healing experience for the body, mind and consciousness.
It is highly individualized based on the needs of the individual depending on the Ayurvedic constitutional type, dosha imbalances, age, digestive strength, immune status, and many other factors.
According to Ayurveda, our natural state is one of health, happiness and an inner sense of well-being. Health is defined as the body being clear of toxins, the mind is at peace, emotions are balanced, wastes are efficiently eliminated and organs are functioning normally. In a busy, stressful and toxic world, our physical and mental systems accumulate toxins causing deterioration in bodily functioning. This eventually weakens our systems, which opens the door for chronic, degenerative, and non-specific diseases to develop. These can evolve into serious specific diseases, ultimately damaging an individual’s health and wellness.
That’s where Panchakarma comes in. This full-body detoxification is one of Ayurveda’s most potent healing tools.
Panchakarma Health Benefits
- Eliminate toxins and toxic conditions from your body and mind
- Restore your constitutional balance improving health and wellness
- Strengthen your immune system and become more resistant to illness
- Reverse the negative effects of stress on your body and mind
- Slow down the aging process
- Enhance strength, energy, vitality and mental clarity
- Bring about deep relaxation and sense of well-being
- Restore your body’s own ability to heal itself
Panchakarma Protocol
First, an ayurvedic practitioner assesses your current body-mind state (vikriti) and compares it to the unique ayurvedic constitution with which you were born (prakriti). Both your prakriti and vikriti are a unique blend of the three doshas—vata, pitta, and kapha—and numerous factors can disrupt their delicate balance.
Then, the practitioner creates a specific protocol which consists from medicated ghee, herbal supplements as well as foods to avoid and daily treatments.
The program itself starts with detox part which is based on the intake of medicated ghee over a period of around 5-7 days. This combined with medicated oil massages, scrubs, yoga, meditation sets the course for optimal health at the end of the treatment.
Throughout the 21 days there are almost daily treatments that are tailored to you utilizing Ayurvedic herbs.
So after the first week of pulling toxins, it’s elimination time with daily oil enemas for 4-5 days. The detoxing part works on a deep cellular level (by removing dosha) and thus resets your constitution back or close to its normal state.
Once the body is rebalanced, it is easy to absorb the rejuvenative effects of the treatments that form the last part of the program. Plus AmrtaSiddhi is arming us with a deeper understanding of ourselves through their ayurvedic and cooking classes.
The picture below is a shot of what our diet consists of during the first week…
