The other night, I was fortunate enough to experience a true unique lifetime experience: an Ayurvedic massage.
Ayurveda, which means the science of life, is an amazing ancient system of health and wellbeing that originates from India. I've been interested in Ayurveda for a few years, ever since I first learned about it from Deepak Chopra, an Indian Ayurvedic doctor who writes and speaks about health and spirituality in the States (http://www.chopra.com/)
Ayurveda is based on the principle of balance, both internal and external. You can learn more about it here: http://www.whatsyourdosha.com/ and even take a test to see what your dosha is, or your basic constitution or mind and body type, and based on that, you can figure out what diet is best for you, what oils and herbs are most helpful, etc.
Anyway, the point is that I've been interested in this for a while, and the experience at the Ayurvedic doctor was really quite fascinating.
So, here I will outline my experience with an Ayurvedic massage:
I arrived at the clinic and was escorted into a small room with a bed that looked a bit like a sleigh (see the photo) and a small bathroom attached. The two lovely Indian women who were going to give me my "synchronized massage" handed me a robe and what one called "disposable panties" and showed me into the bathroom to change.
Once I changed (I think I was wearing the disposable underwear backwards, whoops) I came back out and one of the women asked me to sit down next to the bed. She then realized that my hair was wet (I had showered before I came) and apparently that was not conducive to an Ayurvedic head massage, so she spent the next few minutes with a hand towel trying to dry my hair, which ended up giving me a distinctive Afro-frizz hairstyle.
Once my hair was sufficiently dry, she poured a bunch of medicated oil onto my scalp and proceeded to give me a very nice scalp massage. The whole point of all of the medicated oil is to get it to enter your skin so it can actually benefit you, so she was really going at it to get the oil to go into my scalp. She then began to whack me all over my head, which at first was a bit disconcerting (but never painful) but then became somewhat pleasurable. I thought she was actually using some sort of instrument (an Ayurvedic head whacking stick, perhaps) but it turns out it was just a very skillful hand clasping that was thwacking my skull. Apparently all of that thwacking helps the oil enter the scalp!
After this part, I was escorted to the sleigh-bed and asked to lie on top of it. I'm not sure you can really grasp the essence of this bed from the photo - it was basically like a typical massage table, but with a very ornate edge to it. I learned fairly quickly that this was to keep all of the medicated oil on the bed and it turned out that the edges helped me (all oiled up) to slide around on the massage table without falling off of the bed.
I was lying there in this sleigh with nothing on but my lovely disposable underwear (backwards). This was the first distinct difference between a Western massage and an Ayurvedic one: there was no discreet sheet or blanket to cover me up - I was lying there on that table in all of my glory. (okay, the head thwacking was probably the FIRST major difference)
At this point, the two women decided to pour medicated oil all over my body - and I mean EVERYWHERE. In my navel, between my toes, on my neck - everywhere. It was great. And this is where the real fun began.
The two women, bless them, then began to exert a full workout on my body. I'm not kidding - they were sweating. And the synchronized part of it was remarkable. They had like a routine memorized. Everything that one of them was doing to one of my legs the other one was doing simultaneously to the other. It was a pretty amazing feeling.
Here is another important difference between Western and Ayurvedic massages: whereas in the West, the point of the massage is to work on your muscle knots and help you relax, as I mentioned before, the primary purpose of these women's work on me was only to get the medicated oil into my skin.
With that said, I was sliding and flopping all over the table while they swooshed all up and down my body. All of my body. I won't go into details, but let's just say there is very little left untouched in an Ayurvedic massage. (But don't worry, it was entirely professional!)
There was one point where I was on my stomach and the women motioned to a part of the top of the bed that was actually designed for me to hold on - I would have slid all over the place otherwise. It was great.
After the women were certain my body had been stuffed with medicated oil, I was able to get up off of the bed (with lots of help because I was totally slimy) and go for my steam. Taking a steam was a bit different than stepping into the 6-person steam room like I do every week after swimming in France. This was a solitary steam box, and since in Ayurveda you are not supposed to expose your head to extreme temperatures, my head stuck out of the box. (If you look at the picture, the steam box is on the back right - with the doors open.) I was still really slimy and oily, and all of the steam made it even worse. It felt great!
After 15 minutes in the steam box where my disembodied head got to watch the women hose down the sleigh-bed, they got me out of the box and one of the women took me into the bathroom. I showered, dressed, and came out to find a glass of hot water with Ayurvedic herbs for me to drink, and then one woman took some red Ayurvedic powder and put it on my head, behind my ears, and made me snort it into each nostril. Then they sent me on my way.
I left the clinic feeling refreshed, energetic, still very oily, a bit confused and elated with my experience. It was so crazy! I came back to tell Ryan and Erin about it, and unfortunately they did not share my enthusiasm (I told them I'd buy them each a session for their birthdays, but they weren't too into it. Ryan has since said she might be interested in the head massage.)
Perhaps I'm a glutton for interesting cultural experiences? That was just too new and weird and exciting. Oh, and for the hour massage and 15-minute steam, it cost me 1000 Rupees, about $25 US. What a steal!
I'm going back next week.
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