Wellness among tropical flowers, shimmering golden oil, smiling people and gentle massages: this is what those seeking relaxation can look forward to when they choose Ayurveda in Sri Lanka. What many people don’t expect: a Panchakarma treatment can really shake things up. Because an Ayurveda treatment is a process that goes deep. Find out what an Ayurveda time-out can do. And reflect on what strengthens you to fly home deeply relaxed, rejuvenated and confident.
What you can experience during your Ayurveda treatment
During your Ayurveda treatment, you find peace. You are on the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka, far away from home. You reorient yourself in a tropical environment. During the treatment, you have time for yourself. It is often precisely then that you realise what remains beneath the surface in everyday life: deep exhaustion. Questions to which you have no answers or painful memories that disturb up. All of this can happen, but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes there are also
- headaches in the first few days due to a lack of coffee.
- restlessness and impatience because your body is slowing down while your head is still running on autopilot.
- skin rash because your body is detoxifying through the skin.
- silence that tastes of emptiness and makes you feel unstable.
- intense dreams because your subconscious is working.
- insomnia, because your body and mind are in motion and keep you awake.
- tears or sadness, a touch of melancholy – for no tangible reason.
This is the moment when you stop functioning.
Ayurveda is renewal
An authentic Ayurveda treatment is based on inner cleansing. Ayurveda is a natural healing medicine that first detoxifies the body in order to prepare a healthy foundation for the therapy. For good reason, the Panchakarma programme includes bowel cleansing, nasal cleansing and oil enemas. And yes, those who are reluctant to undergo ‘Vasti’, the enemas, can switch to herbal medicine to cleanse the intestines and harmonise the doshas. (More below in the section ‘Ayurveda works holistically’).
Ayurveda is not a spa.
What you need when you embark on a Panchakarma treatment
Your Ayurveda treatment will promote
- your openness to learning new things.
- your patience with yourself.
- your courage to go through an uncomfortable day and
- your willingness not to have an immediate solution.
Real change begins with inner peace. You need time for that. And an acceptance of what wants to emerge and develop there and then.
Ayurveda also means: simply being without functioning
An Ayurveda treatment helps you to become more aware of your needs. It helps you to recognise yourself outside your family and professional roles. It is quite possible that you will gradually realise how much you push yourself beyond your limits in everyday life.
Many Ayurveda fans confirm this: sleep becomes deeper over time. Hunger becomes more natural. The sense of taste becomes more refined. Cravings disappear completely. You feel good in your body. Your vision becomes clearer. You breathe more deeply. And yes, your faces change, too. Your zest for life stirs. Thoughts sort themselves out. And then some things that have been blocked for a long time are released.
This can also happen: If you take an Ayurveda treatment, you suddenly make decisions that were overdue – clearly, calmly, confidently. Or a sentence stirs deep inside, a wish, a call that has been waiting to be heard for a long time.
Like this, for example:
I want to write again.
Or: I need more time alone.
Or: I can’t go on the way things are going.
Or: I feel my inner strength and trust myself. I can do this.
This is important during your Ayurveda time-out
Take time to really calm down. Leave work at home. Don’t take on too much. Give yourself the chance to live through these liberating experiences and grow personally.
Practise yoga and take part in meditation with a monk who visits us from time to time. This will support your development process. Treat yourself with love. It is also important to know that during an Ayurveda treatment, you need people who treat you with care and look after you with love. With patience and respect for your pace. People who are there, even when things get quiet or uncomfortable. And you need a place that has no expectations of you – except that you are there. With everything that belongs to you.
Just Ayurveda and you
What you find in a real Ayurveda treatment is what has been ready in you for a long time. It has taken time. Attention and care, good nutrition and rest, time in nature and a focus on yourself.
Ayurveda has a holistic effect
An authentic Ayurveda treatment is a Panchakarma programme. Panchakarma means ‘five actions’. Ayurveda uses five tried and tested methods to remove waste products and toxins from the body: Colon cleansing, nasal cleansing and oil enemas are joined by medicinal vomiting or leeches, although these are clearly the exceptions in practice.
While larger Ayurveda hotels generally do not carry out these rather unpopular treatments at all, our Ayurveda doctor also offers ‘vomiting’ in special cases to lower Kapha and reduce mucus in the lungs. And he works with ‘Rakthamokshana’ to lower Pitta. This bloodletting treatment can be useful for severe cases of neurodermatitis or psoriasis, for example.
The core message of this blog post is:
Ayurveda is a medicine that sees people as a whole – with everything that makes them what they are: physically, mentally and emotionally.
The three doshas are at the centre: Vata (air and ether), Pitta (fire and little water) and Kapha (water and earth) – basic energetic forces that are different in every person. Ayurveda therefore has no one-size-fits-all recipes. That is why every treatment begins with a detailed diagnosis, the Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis. The aim of the treatment is to bring the doshas into balance. After all, how you feel depends not only on your body, but also on your thoughts, your digestion, the quality of your sleep – and your lifestyle.
Someone who thinks a lot, gets cold quickly and gets exhausted easily, i.e. a Vata type, has different needs to a Pitta person who is often irritable, reacts hot-headedly and wants to do everything perfectly. Or a Kapha person who likes to enjoy themselves, finds it difficult to get moving and needs a lot of stability.
An Ayurveda panchakarma treatment not only treats symptoms, but also gets to the root of the causes. In this way, Ayurveda supports you in achieving balance on all levels. Getting there is a profound process.
What guests say after their Panchakarma treatment
It is therefore not surprising to hear the comments of some Ayurveda guests at the end of their stay. ‘It’s really medical what happens here,’ marvelled a young woman who had started the new year with an Ayurveda treatment. Another guest summarised after three weeks: ‘I had set my sights on wellness and relaxation. I hadn’t expected an Ayurveda treatment to challenge me so much physically and mentally’. ‘I know Ayurveda, I’ve already done several cures. I know that there are days that feel like crises. That’s completely normal,’ says a person seeking peace and quiet calmly on the phone, who was planning a two-week holiday to detoxify and strengthen her immune system. Or they say: ‘Ayurveda is a reset for me to recharge my batteries.’
How I experienced my first Ayurveda treatment myself
In 2010, I experienced my first Ayurveda treatment in Sri Lanka after being made redundant and going through a separation. This was shortly before I started my own business. I had travelled there with many doubts and uncertainties. And with little idea of what to expect during those four weeks. I hadn’t experienced the consequences of the treatments described above at the time. I felt completely at ease and really enjoyed the massages and was able to fully immerse myself. (Later, I had a rash for a few days – each time on different parts of my body: in the crook of my arm, then on my fibula or on my décolleté).
Today I realise that this Ayurveda time-out was the most valuable gift I could have given myself. The decision to embark on an Ayurveda treatment in Sri Lanka was the best thing I could have done at this turning point in my life. I returned to Germany stronger and more self-confident. With clarity in my luggage and new energy to say ‘yes’ to my new life.
During this time, I felt deep inside the desire to create a place in Sri Lanka for people who want to come home to themselves and do something good for their health. This is how Sandaru Lanka came into being.
I wish you a long, healthy life and lots of time for what is good for you.
Your time is now and it starts here.
Susanne | happy@sandaru-lanka.com
Susanne Kleiner is a communications expert, trainer, coach, copywriter and writing teacher from Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Together with Thushara, she has fulfilled her dream with Sandaru Lanka: to create a place for people who want to find themselves and enjoy Ayurveda. Here you can read more about the people behind Sandaru Lanka and the story of how Sandaru Lanka came about.