Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a month
long series following be&behappy Co-Founder Suyogi Gessner as she experiences a pancha karma detox in India. Check back daily for her latest videos and blog posts, and follow her journey on social media with the hashtag #SuyogisDetoxJourney.
This morning, I got a text message from a friend in New York saying that Bombay is the worst
place to go to for a pancha karma. To me, this is like saying New York is the best place for meditation.
At first, I felt a little upset about the message. But then, after a few moments, I started to laugh and get happy about it.
Ever since I was a child, one thing I try to do is see the best in every person and every situation. And that’s exactly what I did here. Of course, my friend is right: Bombay is not the best place for a deep detox of body, mind and soul. If you were to think about the ultimate place for transformation and wellbeing, you would probably imagine a peaceful lodge in the mountains, surrounded by nature, or somewhere near a lake or the ocean. Nature helps a lot to reconnect to your heart and soul, and is calming and soothing. But instead of making this my reality, and therefore feeling like I should always be somewhere else, I keep a mindset that tells me right now I’m in the greatest place on Earth.
Coming back to New York for a moment: I was there in January writing my PhD thesis, and I felt so much pressure and tension. I was constantly thinking about goals and results. I wanted to finish what I had to do. But we all have days where we’re more creative—when the ideas come flowing out of you—and the days where nothing seems to wind up on your paper. During my New York trip, I put myself into a zone of tension. Then I worried. Then my mind carried me away. So I decided to set all my deadlines and work to the side and simply meditate.
In the beginning I couldn’t focus. My mind was spinning like crazy. But then, after some time, I finally calmed down and relaxed, and I felt like I was in heaven. The next morning, the most amazing thing happened: I wrote more than I did in the entire week before. Wow! For me, this was a great experience.
So this morning, I went to a special yoga class. It is so different than going to a yoga class in the United States or in Berlin. There we need a great environment, silence and a soothing beautiful setting. But here, the energy is different. To start, the room was not free, so the entire class moved silently to the clinic’s waiting area without any complaints or concerns. Imagine the same scene in Berlin or Los Angeles; it would have been complete drama. So many complaints! But here, it was just total acceptance.
I’ve been travelling to India for more than 30 years, and from the beginning the acceptance of people in this country has fascinated me. Here, in the middle of monsoon season, with the skies pouring like crazy, not a single person is talking about the rain or humidity—except the Westerners, of course.
This one principle, having the wisdom to differentiate what you can change and what you can’t, is something you must have. If something is changeable, work on it and change it. But what you can’t change you must accept and be happy. In one of the philosophical scriptures of India, it’s written, that you should do what you have to do, but don’t focus only on the results. You should try and give your best, the scripture says, but God always gives you what you need. It’s a beautiful concept.
Sitting in the clinic waiting area that morning, I could see so many super relaxed yoga-goers who just accepted the outside circumstances. They couldn’t change that the room was unavailable, so they accepted it with love and sweetness. Also, the way they were dressed made me smile. In western countries there are certain super expensive yoga outfits and many women who look at each other judging who looks more attractive than the other. Here was nothing like this. No one was dressed up. They came simply for the purpose to do yoga—to find a unity of body, heart and soul.
During a detox it’s important to become more aware of your thoughts, including how fast you are judging others and comparing yourself with others. These type of thoughts put a lot of stress on us and are not at all helpful to our wellbeing and happiness. A detox can make you more aware of such toxic behaviour and thoughts. You can only change what you are aware of. And sometimes, getting to awareness is the hardest step to take.
Today in my detox I started to drink ghee. Yes, you read it right; you have to drink tons of medicated ghee. There is a whole science behind. Ghee makes it easy to flush out
water soluble toxins but is not fat soluble, so the old sages used a trick: they made you drink ghee until you were not able to digest it any longer, and then they started the purgation process. It’s an odd feeling to drink so much ghee. After you drink it you constantly have the taste of it coming up your throat, and also you feel little nausea. But I am so excited about the whole process that I take it all with a big fat smile. And I can see the results already. My skin has become softer than any baby could have. Every women wants to have a great skin, and maybe even some men!
During my treatment, I try out many yoga and breathing exercises and visualisations to discover what works best for letting go. I’ve also been spending time at the park nearby for some walking and incantations. And guess what I found today? The coolest indian outdoor gym ever.
It’s common sense that to increase the detox quality and hack your system in an intelligent way you need to get your body moving. You need to sweat. Sweating is a natural detox. And here in India, of course, just walking normally makes you sweat like anything. The sweat comes pouring out of you. But if you add in an outdoor gym, then you’re basically swimming in your own sweat.
As I tried out the gym, my heart started to beat like crazy, but i kept on telling myself, “All the strength I need is within me now”. Tony Robbins uses incantations like this with high achievers like President Bill Clinton. Just like Bill and Tony, I love them and find they really work—but you have to use your whole conviction and your whole body to do them. The brain actually is not able to differentiate between what is reality and what you tell it, so if you put all your conviction power and your body into it these incantations, you get amazing results.
I use incantations with all sorts of people who have all sorts of problems—be they health, emotional, achievement, performance or even relationship issues. And it always works. I often combine this with marma, a 5000-year-old technology that works on certain points on the body to reprogram your subconscious mind. So this is what I did today in my outdoor gym in the heart of India.
Your body and mind actually don’t want to be active in such a hot climate. In reality, they want to be in an air conditioned room. But with the marma technique and powerful incantations, I was able to have a great workout that increased my circulation and made the toxins come out more easily.
That’s pretty cool.
Join Suyogi on her journey by reading her daily blog posts, and using the hashtag #SuyogisDetoxJourney on social media.