Preparing to Go – Susan

Today is my 28^th day of treatment, I will have the final treatment tomorrow morning, which involves a deep steam and nasal drops from the doctor.  I am on the 6^th day of the thyroid treatment and have had many meals of rice with various spices. Today’s meals are best; the rice is topped with cumin seed sautéed in ghee.  I will have my last of the 18 rice meal in the airport lounge!

The trip has been a delight on so many levels.  I am so pleased to have given myself the time to:

1. Focus on my well-being
2. Move my attention from an external to internal orientation
3. Be without constantly “doing”
4. Treat the thyroid
5. Balance the female hormones
6. Clean out bodily toxins
7. Release fears
8. Hang with Alan outside of our fast paced life
9. Ponder what is important to me
10. Connect emotionally and spiritually often during treatments

I have so much respect and admiration for the Raju family and their ayurvedic approach to healing.  I am so pleased that Alan and I happened onto their Panchakarma cleansing treatment, it seems to work wonders on both of us.  Alan looks fresher and calmer than I have seen in a long time.  All the treatments have been easier for me than last year.  I am a bit off at the moment, as I go through the thyroid treatment, yet so much stronger than when I arrived a month ago.  Amazingly, I would say it would be great to stay for another week!

I have not come to love India.  I am probably more accepting of how different it is than my last visit.  Just yesterday, I said to Alan, “wouldn’t it be ideal if this clinic was in Italy, Spain or France”.  Bottom-line, it is worth the challenge of the overwhelming traffic, the Indian time (slow or never) and the very different level of cleanliness.  I wish the clinic was managed more like we do things at home, but I find if I am very proactive on what I need, things do get done.

Yesterday, Murity took Alan and me to the mall to shop for gifts.  We drove over an hour each way in excessive heat, pollution and masses of cars, motor scooters and endless humanity.  I sat with my camera on my lap with the intention of capturing the fascinating surroundings and decided an aerial photo from the web would do a better job than a single shot could replicate.

At one point there were 5 huge water buffalos lying in two lanes of busy road, happily having a snooze.  The scene came and went before I could snap the photo. Here is a web shot of water buffalos strolling down a street to give you a sense of the size of these animals.  Try to imagine five of them lying down in the road, while the traffic slowed to pass them.  One even had his head on the another’s back for his snooze!

My good pal, Kim left yesterday and the clinic is considerably quieter without her presence.  This visit we continued our unending conversations about healing insights and sharing our client tools.  Her friendship has been a lovely gift.  Here she is dressed in her travel clothes, looking very western for the first time in a month.  Alan is helpfully weighing her suitcase in the background.  Pal Andrew will be here through the end of Alan’s trip and is wonderful company.  Andrew does traditional Chinese medicine and is a professional chef, so he has lots of interesting insights about the food and healing approach.