Bon Voyage GoodMakers!

By producing documentary films for nonprofit organizations, GoodMakers helps charities visually communicate their message around the world.

May 2010 GoodMakers will travel deep into the bush in Tanzania to shadow the dynamic Dr Frank, a former American anesthesiologist turned 'Bush Doctor' who brings his mobile medical clinic and critical medical services to the local Masai tribes people, many who have never been treated by a doctor before. In additional to the mobile medical clinic, Dr Frank's foundation is in the process of building a hospital and birthing center to serve the Karatu community of 20,000 people. Dr Frank is the only medical specialist within a 600 mile radius.

The Selous Film Camp in the southern part of Tanzania is TSC’s training ground for aspiring filmmakers. From there film crews go to the other national parks like Katavi, Ruaha, Mikumi and Saadani. Film courses are offered two times a year and scholarships are available.
Selous Film Camp has invited GoodMakers to teach a digital film lab in Arusha, Tanzania May 2010. It will start with a week long film course and then the best three students will join the GoodMakers crew on the shoot in Karatu to film the FAME and Dr. Frank documentary.

For more info and to support:
http://www.indiegogo.com/GoodMakers

Day 13-15: PanchaKarma Cleanse

The past several days have been lovely. I have an overall relaxed feeling (which right before a wedding is unusual I'm sure). I've been letting myself sleep when I'm tired and when I've been awake I have felt rested. My PanchaKarma experience has been a delightful one and I strongly suggest to anyone who can take the time and invest the money to do this for themselves. I would love to think that I've created a new tradition for brides-to-be as the timing was perfect - no Bridezilla here! On top of having a calm presence for my wedding I also will have clear skin and best yet - no dark circles under my eyes!!!

This week I will interview Vijaya and hopefully answer any questions one may have before choosing to partake in the PanchaKarma. It is an interesting process and ritual - one I wasn't fully convinced of before I started but I feel so great now that I'll be an Ayurvedic fan for life. So stay tuned for more clips...

RAINN - May 2010 - People Who Care

How many people do you know have been molested, raped or have been victims of incest? How sick is it that you can use both hands to count... and that's just the number of people who can speak about it - double that number and you'll get a better estimate of how many people have been victims of sexual assault.

I was moved by www.nonprofitshoppingmall.com's recent People Who Care: http://nonprofitshoppingmall.com/people-who-care/rainn and by what RAINN has accomplished and the work that they promise to continue. It's awesome that everyone can help support RAINN's national hotline a little all-the-time by simply downloading their shopping app (a down-loadable application that automatically earmarks a percent of your online sales - every time you shop online). http://shop.rainn.org/shop/apps

Definitely worth the 2 mins to download...

Day 12: PanchaKarma - Ayurvedic Cleanse

I feel too good.

No seriously, feeling this good first thing in the morning... it's unheard of. I don't have any cravings. No desperate 'give me my morning caffeine before someone gets killed' feelings and no 5pm 'where's my smart cocktail?' cravings. All day today I simply felt content.

This evening I went out 'drinking' with some friends and happily drank soda water the whole time. I felt so energetic and young - not the usual 'I'm too old to be out this late' feeling I usually get around 10pm. I didn't crave any of the drinks and therefor I never felt like I was missing anything. Usually if I choose not to drink at a restaurant or bar - I'll sit there longing to the entire time. For the first time in a long time I feel free from my addictions.

I'm off the ghee first-thing-in-the-morning and am just eating simple macrobiotic style foods that balance my dosha. Tonight though I had some spicy/hot food which is thought of as unbalancing for Pitta's and indeed it was a little too much for my stomach post mono diet etc.

I miss meeting up with Vijaya. I keep coming back to what she said the first day about the word Rasa and building a rapport with one another. I didn't know what she was talking about really when she first said this - but I do now.

It's so rare that we stop and allow anyone to cherish us, to honor us, to speak to our divine selves, to call to our true being. What a gift to have had the opportunity to create such a safe and beautiful rapport with Vijaya and exist in a room with such a gifted healer/spiritual guide as she transformed me.

Think for a second... have you recently been honored, worshiped, blessed as if you were an expression of the divine? Maybe it's about time?

It's funny... we get so attached to the agenda of our egos we often lose sight of the reality of our true being. We'll adamantly defend our ego's story about how we're not good enough or not worthy enough and we'll convince others of it too - teaching them how to treat us like doormats and making sure we don't get what we want out of life. It's such a strange human tick to be so self-sabotaging and insecure. While we do it - we feel like we're doing it to be nice or not-imposing or something but really it's about the ego being selfish... doing anything it can to remain relevant. Cause the truth is that we are all divine. When we're acting like we're not that's when everyone suffers.

Day 11: PanchaKarma - Ayurvedic Cleanse

Today I woke up and after much 'purgation' - felt like a million bucks! I'm off caffeine and I feel awake in the morning - unbelievable! Usually it takes me all day to have any kind of alert sensations. Not today... I felt awake since the minute I woke up and have been feeling great ever since. I'm on the post-purgation mono diet which means I can eat only fruit in the morning, vegetables at lunch and kitcheri at dinner.

I met my mom at a conference then came home, got some computer work done and walked the dog. At 4 I met up with Vijaya for my last massage. Today we are focusing on the nervous system. I didn't have to get undressed because we were doing a different type of treatment today. So I got under the covers and Vijaya pulled out some large uncooked doughnut like things. She proceeded to craft them one by one onto my face to create little dams for my eyes. Next she heated up ghee and slowly poured it into the dam - asking me then to open my eyes. I was scared at first but it didn't end up hurting at all - it actually felt really soothing. She did this to both eyes and let them sit for 20 minutes each while I rolled my eyeballs around.

Ghee has some amazing properties and has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for years. You can learn more about it here: http://www.amritaveda.com/learning/articles/ghee.asp



Next she did some breathwork with me. This was a truly unique experience. She had me breath myself into a very meditative state of mind and then asked me to locate tension in my body. At that moment I could barely find tension but she suggested I look inside at my jaw and sure enough a sort of clenching feeling was present. She started me down a path of questions to lead me to the memory of when the clenching began. I was brought back to childhood and I remembered grinding my teeth at night. She asked me why I started to grind and the feelings that arose had to do with my parents' separation when I was little (like 2 or younger). This went on for a while and she hand-held me through an emotional journey that I didn't even know I was harboring pain over. The more we spoke and the more I cried the less my jaw felt tight. Then something really cool occurred... The emotional path we were on lead us full circle (to my original intention for doing the cleanse) and it brought me to a realization of what has kept me from intimacy and commitment in relationships. It was a very psychological moment - she brought to my attention the family dynamics that my unconscious automatically defaults into within my relationships. For the last while I just became very present with my true feelings for Peter and just experienced an overwhelming sensation of love, openness and vulnerability.

I came home that night feeling so soft, loving and happy.

What an amazing week!

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...

Day 9: PanchaKarma - Ayurvedic Cleanse

Today I get to experience the full treatment, the official PanchaKarma tandem massage

Vijaya and Areille move like dancers. From my perspective it does not feel like two people at all but one person with four arms.







My fourth massage and I am still struggling with my thoughts and my lack of ability to let go. But something starts to shift - I'm experiencing a deeper connection. When my mind does slow down - it is empty. It is brief but it is there.

I have trouble lifting my body up to move positions - I'm melting into the bed. The amazing sensation of people praying over you and treating you with such love is precious. I feel very blessed to be experiencing this.

Once I've steamed to a nice tenderness I get to experience something else new - they pour warm oil on my third eye for twenty minutes. This was really interesting. At first there is a moment of Chinese water torture - but that quickly fades as does your busy mind. Thoughts jump in, they jump out and then something extraordinary happens... your brain is silent. You are somewhere else. You've locked into a different brain wave pattern. You feel like the low note of a chant. It is very blissful. You stay in this place till well after the treatment has ended - I remember feeling incapable of shifting from this space. Then all of a sudden like when a jar loses it's seal you pop out of it and come back into your body. Intense and great!