My Results of the Cleanse

This week I had my final consultation with Purnima to check my pulse. It was a wonderful afternoon, thank you Purnima and Carole for taking the time out of your day to visit and for the wonderfully nourishing lunch Purnima made for us.

I was very happy to hear that my pulse showed that I am all balanced! No ama (or waste) is showing up! I am not going to go into detail about that (because I couldn't anyways) but just to give you an idea Purnima can gather from the pulse how our whole body is operating. She checks the strength, rhythm and volume of the pulse as well. Initially my pulse was weak and sluggish, and the subdoshes were on the low side. Now it's strong and moving well.

Now that my body is in great balance my doshas can be easily discerned. I am officially Pitta-Kapha. Not what I thought I was! You may wonder what a dosha is? That's a very important question when it comes to Ayurveda. You can learn more here. You really understand yourself better on all levels when you know your primary doshas. Knowing that we are all unique expressions of the 5 elements of the universe (fire, air, earth, water, ether), come together in our own way is truly inspiring and uplifting.

I do feel great, very energetic. When I stop to think about it, with my busy schedule right now, I should normally be pretty tired! But my energy level is great and I wake up ready to start the day! I am more aware of the connection of how food affects my body. If I feel good after I eat, or not. My agni feels very balanced, not just physically but mentally and emotionally too. The concept of agni, the Sanskrit word for "fire," is essential to the Ayurvedic tradition. If you are interested in learning more about agni check out this article.

In my Intermediate yoga class we are going over the chakra system. It was fitting that last night was all about Manipura Chakra - located in the solar plexus area - which cooresponds to fire and physically governs our digestion. I came across this description in my research yesterday:

"Fire is needed for any aspect that involves movement in your life. Movement of the bowels, movement of the body, movement in your life. We want to maintain our inner fires, strongly burning, but not burning out. Fire is burning each day to transform our food into fuel for our bodies, to move through the day, and burning away whatever is no longer needed, no longer of service, no longer who we are. When our fire is strong, we dare to live our dreams and be out there in the world doing what we believe in, living in alignment with who we are."

So the cleanse was definitely a great experience for me, I have learned so much about how my body works and how to care for it. The Ayurveda system really shouldn't be missed in the study of Yoga. When asked how Yoga and Ayurveda are related one doctor wrote: “Ayurveda is the science and yoga is the practice of the science.”

I definitely intend to do a cleanse at least once a year, hopefully twice (Spring and Fall are the times you want to be doing that). Let me know if you have any questions or would like any more information!