BY: Ana Marija Pšeničnik |
Panchakarma – Ayurvedic method for organism cleansing |
|
Panchakarma (pancha – five and karma – effect) is an Ayurvedic program for body cleansing and rejuvenation.
It contains number five in its name because the program was originally comprised of five procedures including nose, colon, stomach and blood cleansing.
Panchakarma was developed with a goal of organism rejuvenation, removal of body impurities and toxins, health enhancement and life prolongation.
In a spiritual sense, panchakarma removes negative thoughts, relieves us of our negative behavior patterns and allows us new and healthy start in life.
In less dramatic form than the original program, this detoxification method is usually performed once a year for disease prevention and with the purpose of spiritual and emotional development.
Panchakarma is divided into three levels.
1. Purv-karma – preparation level
The goal of this level is to prepare body tissues for cleansing toxins release. Traditionally, preparation is performed with the help of snehana – oil therapy, and svedana- sweating therapy.
You can prepare your organism for panchakarma with the help of special diet.
Two to three weeks before detoxification it is necessary to avoid artificially processed food, candies, stimulants such as coffee and most of dairy products.
One week before the cleansing phase, the diet is additionally changed, i.e. it is mostly based on vegetables and wholesome cereals.
These food items, vegetables especially, create alkaline environment that, unlike acid environment, supports toxin elimination.
During Purv-karma it is good to remove all unnecessary activities from our daily schedule since those activities take up a lot of our time and prevent us from investing more time in ourselves.
Meditations and walks in nature are also recommended.
Special attention has to be paid to deep breathing, especially exhaling since it helps remove obstacles, bad thoughts and feelings.
Khichri
Simple, easily digestible risotto will prepare your body for detoxification. You can eat it during the recovery phase also.
- 1 cup of brown basmati rice (soaked in water for at least 30 minutes and filtrated)
- 1 cup of mung beans (soaked in water for at least one hour and filtrated)
- 1 cup of vegetable (peas, carrots, spinach, cauliflower etc.)
- spices (cumin, coriander, curcuma, ginger, pepper, laurel)
- 6 cups of water
Heat ghee in a pot over a mild fire. Add cumin or coriander seeds and then mix in chopped ginger and stew it until it becomes golden-brown in color.
Add one spoon of curcuma in powder form, ¼ of spoon of black pepper and one laurel leaf. Add mung beans, vegetables and pour in water.
Cook for about an hour. When beans turn completely soft, add a pinch of salt. Pour ghee over cooked dish and sprinkle finely chopped fresh coriander leaves.
Ghee (clarified butter)
You can buy already made ghee in healthy food stores, but you can make it yourself.
Use as much natural butter as you can find, put it in a pot over a strong fire and let it melt. When the butter is completely melted, after about 10 minutes, turn down the heat.
Cook for additional 45 minutes over a mild fire.
During that time, impurities will show on the top and at the bottom of the mixture. Remove those on top with a wooden spoon. Do not stir the mixture and constantly remove the foam that will form on the top.
After 45 minutes turn of the fire and let the butter cool off. Prepare a jar and put a piece of cloth over it for filtrating. Filtrate the mixture into the jar.
2. Panchakarma – cleansing level
Traditionally, Panchakarma consisted of five processes - vamana, virechana, basti, nasja and rakta moksha - that were performed only under the supervision of Ayurvedic doctors.
If you are unable to visit Ayurvedic clinic, you can perform cleansing at home with the help of one-day fasting and special tea mixture.
In the morning, drink boiled water with 1-2 spoons of ghee on an empty stomach. This procedure removes toxins from our organism.
During the day, drink herbal beverages only.
Recommended herbal tea recipe:
- - 8 cups of water
- - 4 spoons of cumin powder
- - 4 spoons of coriander powder
- - 8 cardamom beans
- - 4 spoons of grinded fennel seeds
- - 2 pinches of black pepper powder
- - ½ spoon of ginger powder ( or 3 slices of fresh ginger)
Mix all of the aforementioned ingredients in a pot and place them on fire. When it starts boiling, cook for another 5 minutes. Remove it from the fire and leave it for 15-20 minutes with a lid on. Filtrate the mixture and drink warm tea throughout the day.
During fasting days it is important to use deep breathing for remaining calm.
Before going to sleep you can apply a bit of ghee on your feet and massage them and sprinkle several drops of lavender essential oil on your chest. That will help you fall asleep easily.
3. Rejuvenation
During this procedure we turn to simple diet. It is important to gradually and slowly introduce solid foods on the menu.
Eat khichri during the first and the second day, but increase the volume of liquid in the recipe by adding 14 cups of water to the same amount of remaining ingredients.
On the third day go back to the original recipe and use 6 cups of water.
Most people believe that the deepest healing is achieved during this last stage.
It is believed that in the days and weeks that follow after we finish cleansing processes we can see physical, emotional and spiritual changes on levels we maybe even were not aware of before.
After detoxification you will feel refreshing relief. Furthermore, you will be able to better feel the value of every healthy food item you introduce into your organism.
Liked the article?
Share it with your friends!
