Day 2 (Jessica)

Today was our first whole day at Kaivalyadhama. Being a tad bit partial to food, I will probably go into more detail about food than any normal person would want to know, so I apologize in advance and will post a lot of pictures with my posts to make up for it ;) That being said, today our day started at 6am with the best herbal tea I think I have ever had. It had more flavor and bite to it than anything I’ve ever paid $4.00/cup for in a coffee shop in the states. It was a ginger tea. After that we observed Yogic Shuddhi Kriyas. Yogib Shuddhi Kriyas are basically a cleansing process before yoga. The first part is exactly the same as using a nettie pot in the America, if you are familiar with that. You use the pot to pour water in one nostril with your head tilted, and then the water comes out of the opposite nostril, cleansing the nasal passage. It’s as glamorous as it sounds, haha. After that they use a rubber cord, and slide it down the nostril until it comes out of the mouth. They then pull it from either end, rubbing clean the nasal passage. Honestly, this part scared the ba-gebbies out of me…we have yet to try it.

After the cleansing, we went to the basic yoga class that took place in an amazing room in the picture below.

It is very calming and a great way to wake your body up. We then had breakfast. Now here goes my food obsession, so bear with me. For breakfast we had green gram sprouts that were boiled and then pan-fried with tomatoes, neem (a herb), and spices, usually cumin, dried ginger powder, and salt. Since we’re at a hospital where people come to be healed, the food is bland according to the locals here…not by Cindy and my tastes though. Honestly, we’re thankful that for the first part of our time here at least, things are on the bland side. We’ve still had our scares and our stomachs are getting used to things, but we haven’t had any problems yet (fingers crossed). The water here is all filtered and everything is prepared so that foreigners and locals alike avoid exacerbating their problems if you know what I’m saying. So far the food has been great!

After breakfast we met with an Ayurvedic doctor who taught us about how Ayurveda originated in the Hindu religion. The word Ayurveda itself means knowledge of life and with this knowledge it is believed that human beings can maintain health and treat sicknesses that happen during the course of a life. So within all of this nutrition is a very important component.

Treatment of different disease states is determined on an individual basis. First a person’s dosha must be determined. The dosha is based on body type (prakruti) and personality to some extent. There are three doshas called Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Each dosha has certain foods that help it and certain foods that aggravate it based on hot and cold properties. People can also have combinations of two or even all three doshas. Depending on the disease, different combinations of foods and herbs/spices are prescribed. These methods come from thousands of years of practice and I think that everyone should take a week or so of their lives to at least read the basics.

So back to food, for lunch I honestly can’t remember the exact meal, but the main part was a mixture of potatoes and eggplant, with rice and dal (soup). It was good, but about halfway through I could feel rumblings so I slowed down and didn’t finish my huge portion to avoid “paying” for it later.

The next part of our day we learned in more detail about the three doshas and which foods do what for each dosha. We cooked yusha, which is a food used to help cure diarrhea, and learned about other foods used as medicine. This was probably my favorite part of the day. I feel like any time you can avoid medicine you should. There are so many medicinal properties of foods that are overlooked in western culture, that have little to no side effects.

Jeglag is setting in so I’ll speed through the last part of our day with lots of pictures. We took a walk through the garden that is in the middle of the hospital grounds.

Then we had the best meal I’ve had yet. It was a pumpkin dish that was mmm mmm MMM.

Then we sat in on a lecture about yoga practicing and how it relates to the health of the body overall. Most of the activities we participate in are with Indians as well so the teachers speak in Hindi and English, so it’s been cool getting to hear the other language.

Now, my eyes won’t stay open, so until next time!!