ayurveda in thailand

it has been a little over a week since I arrived at Yoga Thailand.  I still want to call it “the new” yoga thailand, because although it has been open for a year and a half, it still seems new and beautiful to me.   It took me a few days to get settled, India has a way of taking things out of you….had a little head cold, felt quite fatigued.  The ashtanga yoga practice helped to sweat away those toxins.

My first major activity here was training five of the thai massage therapists in the ayurvedic treatments of shirodhara and abhyanga.  that was fun and completely different teaching challenge than i’ve faced before.  There level of english is basic, making translation a necessity.  And still it was funny to see their reactions to ayurvedic concepts.  in the end they did understand, and especially picked up the massage techniques quickly.  abhyanga is an oil massage done with long, calming massage strokes and ayurvedic medicated oils.  shirodhara is a pouring of warm oil on the forehead.  It is very calming and relaxing to the whole nervous system.

It was also very interesting for me to see how easy it is to offer these treatments, if one has the right space.  There are a few complications like the potential messiness of the oil, but if you can get around this, they are not so complicated.  And these therapies especially help to eliminate the residual effects of deep rooted stress, especially when it creates patterns of stress in the nervous system.    Who knows, maybe this is something we will see in New Orleans soon.