Voluntary Vomit

Today was a bit of a strange day. It started with sticking a catheter (rubber straw thing) up my nose and ending with crying by a candle. In Indian medecine (ayruveda) the body consists of three things (called doshas): Vata (mechanical), Pitta (chemical) and Kapha (material). If any of them are out of wack then we get diseases. So in order to keep them in balance, there are 6 purification systems (called kriyas).

They are:
1. Neti- Nasal cleaning
2. Dhauti - Cleansing of digestive tract
3. Nauli - Abdominal massage
4. Kaphalabhati - Purification of lungs
5. Basti - Colon cleansing
6. Trataka - Blinkless gazing

Today I did everything except the colon cleanse (thank goodness!). I know I wanted to study traditional yoga from the East but I did not realize what I was signing up for. That said, it was a good experience and I'm glad I tried it. We will be repeating this process every Friday so I have some time to figure things out. The hardest part was mental aspect... I was slightly panicking as people all around me were throwing up on the lawn. Remember the picture of the lawn I showed last time? Yeah that lawn. We had to drink 6 cups of salt water and then stick our fingers down our throats until it all came back up. Oh and this was after sticking a catheter up the nose, grabing it from the back of the throat and pulling back and forth until the nasal cavity is cleared. Kind of like this:

After all the vomiting fun we attempted some Nauli, where you suck your stomach in and then relax the obliques and push it back out and then move it around to massage the stomach. It is hard to explain, here is a pic:

Later in the evening we worked on Trataka, which was a pretty cool experience. We sat in little circles in the dark with a candle in the middle. Then we stared at the flame without blinking until we cried. I thought I would not be able to do it but it was pretty easy and was a neat feeling. The goal is to experience one-pointedness. We have done lots of different meditation techniques but this was one of the best for completely clearing the mind. When you are trying hard not to blink, it's hard to think about anything else!

That's all for today! Next time I want to tell you about how different emotions impact pain in our bodies. I found it super interesting. Here are some examples: lower back pain relates to financial stress, neck pain means guilt and self-judgement and shoulders carry burdens (such as concern for others).

I just downloaded Better Call Saul! from itunes. So off for some non-yoga related unwinding before bed. Hope all is well in Canada!

~Amanda