Day 10: PanchaKarma - Ayurvedic Cleanse

Today was supposed to be my last massage but I had to figure out a way to stretch it out just a bit longer... When Vijaya explained to me that the full-length PanchaKarma works to clean out every system in the body and each day of massage represents a different system - I had to make sure I stuck around long enough for the Nervous System.

I am generally an easily agitated person. Not that I get upset a lot but it doesn't take much to make my nerves bounce. Any night that I know I have somewhere to be in the morning - I find myself unable to fall asleep. Loud noises make me jump and anything emotional makes me jittery. Driving winds me up, travel makes me tense, I grind my teeth... you get the picture. So of all the days not to be missed, for me it was very important to complete with the nervous system

So today I went to Dr. Silvanna to get my bones adjusted - since today would have been the skeletal system if I was doing the 7 day PanchKarma. Turned out I really needed it too. My neck was definitely on crooked.

For lunch I had to make sure to eat some yogurt with lemon juice in it - this is to prepare me for Virechana or Purgation. I can see why one might want to use the Indian word in this case - because Purgation sounds downright scary. (Amazingly enough the drinking of the Castor oil part was not too bad... Squeezed a couple lemons into some hot water+Castor oil and it was actually kind of yummy.)

To seal in my back adjustment I lathered myself in some sesame oil (as instructed) and gave myself a massage followed by a hot bath. Something about the heat and the oil pushes the toxins into the lower intestine. The rest of my night was spent watching Galactica (AWESOME-IST SHOW!!!) and then finally I drank my oil concoction and down 2 laxatives. Should be an interesting morning...