An indulgence I gave myself my last week in Bangalore. And why I call it indulgence, is because this picture of a shirodhara has been enticing me for many a year now. Last week on my walk I happened to pass by this ayurvedic clinic called 'Shathayu', and saw the picture even from the street.....and guess the time had come.
Shirodhara is a unique ayurvedic body therapy that mainly includes the gentle, and continuous pouring of a stream of warm herbal oil over the forehead or the ajna chakra. It's done for a continuous thirty to forty five minutes.
I was initially tuned into consciously capturing the experience, yet within minutes the profoundly soothing sensation of the warm oil enveloping the forehead seemed to shift me into a different space of being....a kind of passive meditative state. As it pulls you into itself, and you surrender to the sensations, you realize that it is not a state of sleep, but one of a deep centered awareness that takes over and that's why I use the word meditative. It's like time stops.
As the oil flows onto the ajna chakra area, it is said to be highly therapeutic as it reached the deepest recesses of the brain and creates a vibrational frequency that impacts the entire nervous system and sets the body into balance.
I understood why it said.....'to soothen body, mind and soul'. I'm waiting for my next :)
The attitude of "surrendering" led you to that experience of meditation. Chinese torture apparently involves the drip of water drop by drop on your forehead... :)
ReplyDeleteLol...this was gentle pouring of warm oil; but then I still think honest surrender to process or situation is extremely powerful.
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