Bliss Body
Yoga Journal. By: Andrea Ferretti. Photo: Musaddique Naina. I had just jetted back and forth across the country, spending half of a three-day trip riding shotgun in my boss’s rental car and wrangling with reservations agents over botched travel plans. I was frazzled and exhausted, the embodiment of imbalance. My body clock was off, my brain had shut down, and my mood was just plain grumpy. After a sunrise flight, I crawled into bed at 10 a.m., didn’t move until evening, and still didn’t feel like myself.
Ah, but fortune was smiling on me: I’d planned a trip to an Ayurvedic spa for the very next day. I was pretty certain that if anything could bring me back into balance it would be warm oil streaming over my scalp and body, a four-handed massage, and the wisdom of Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old holistic approach to healing.
Not long ago you could experience Ayurvedic treatments only by checking in to one of a handful of residential clinics around the country. (Or by going to India.) There, a practitioner would inquire into everything from how well you digested food to how easily you perspired before he or she prescribed customized therapies. Between treatments, you would learn about the foods, herbs, and asanas to incorporate into your everyday life.