A New Routine, New Room

I started a new routine recently. Rather than having my treatments start around 11:00 in the morning, they now start at 8:30 am. This is a blessing really, as mid-day is starting to be quite hot, mid to upper 90’s each day.  I still receive the head and full body massage, but now they are treating my liver. My liver was a bit compromised during the interferon treatments with the enzymes reaching over five times the normal range. I actually had to stop interferon treatment for a week in the middle of the first month to let the enzymes settle down. Again, for this treatment they form a well out of dough that is placed over the liver. Then they fill it with a warm herbed oil. The liver basti has been very powerful for me in that as soon as they start I go into a very deep dreamy sleep and when finished it takes a while to shake it off! They finish my morning treatments by pouring a heavy warm oil over my body and and rubbing it in. It feels great and believe me, it is a little tricky staying on the table while turning over.

Now during the mid-day I am mostly hanging around in my room. I read, blog, and/or snooze……usually in that order! I changed rooms on Sunday and I am now staying in the main clinic building. There are four floors in the building, the first is dedicated to the doctor’s office and the next three contain rooms for clients. Each floor has a common area and rooms around the perimeter. I am staying on the third floor. It is nice being closer to the clinic and the people on the floor usually meet for lunch and dinner which makes for interesting conversation.

In the late afternoon I go back to the treatment rooms for a shiro-basti. Now this is an odd treatment. They start out by taking a square piece of plastic and making it into a cylinder that they then stick to my head with the dough. They then wrap cheese cloth around the base of the cylinder, usually about at my forehead,  and tie it tightly.  After the cylinder is on my head they seal around the inside of the cylinder with a long string of the dough.  Finally they pour warm herb-infused oil into the cylinder and have me sit still for about forty minutes. When I first heard that I would have this contraption on my head for forty minutes I thought…. no way! But by mediating during the wait time it actually goes by very quickly and is quite relaxing.

I am reading a book called “A Life in Balance – Nourishing the four roots a true happiness”. The author, Dr. Kathleen Hall, had a mid-life crisis in the form of panic attacks which caused her to reassess her life/work balance. Her model is that in order to lead a balanced life, one must have and practice S.E.L.F. That is Serenity, Exercise, Love, and Food. Up until now I never really thought of my bout with melanoma last year as a mid-life crisis but I think, in a way, it was. It has forced me to look at the amount of stress in my life and find ways to counter it. While certainly my practice of the E.L.F. part of the equation above could have been better, I think overall I was doing OK there. The part that has really been brought to the forefront is the need for the S (Serenity). Finding ways to reduce stress and boost my immune system is a top priority for me now and bringing more serenity into my life is the most natural way to do this. I started with meditation and now make that a part of my daily routine. Taking this two-month sabbatical has made a huge difference in my stress level and has allowed me to get back on-track to health both physically and mentally. I am well into my fourth week of treatment here and starting to think again about life and my family on the other side of the world. I had a skype video-call with the kids and Susan this morning and it really made me realize how much I miss them! I look forward to when I will see them again and when I can integrate some of my newfound serenity into life and work at home.