Covid and Ayurveda

Writing this I am day nine into my personal Covid experience.  Woke up two Mondays ago with a scratchy throat and slight cough which quickly turned into a massive headache, body aches, and fatigue.   Today is my first day without symptoms.  Feeling a bit weak, but happy to have the ability to string thoughts together.  I’ll go into details further below for those who are curious, but really wanted to share some Ayurvedic and not so Ayurvedic things I believe to have helped.  I’ll be back to the studio for my 9:30 am class on Monday and Tuesday night begins our adventure in Tarot.  The Tarot class is an experience, so of course I started the experience well in advance to lead the class.  I got stuck in the High Priestess.  I find that so interesting to be with her while sick with this.  Shadow work is done during Covid.  You can’t prepare for that.  What can you do?

Don’t Stop Moving

The first four days were largely unbearable.  The aches and pains are much worse than the flu.  For me (Vata Dosha) my nervous system went into overdrive.  My pain was most intense in the spine which felt super hot.  The pain seeped through all the skeleton, into the muscles, and finally the skin.  The skin became so sensitive even clothing hurt.  I just kept moving.  I went for two walks with the dog each day even with a fever and extreme fatigue.  I was too tired for yoga, but did the lymph routine I teach you guys for when you are sick or stuck in a hospital bed.  My partner in life is Kapha dosha.  He slept and slept and slept and slept.  I forced him to move a bit, but he slept. As I felt better I worked on the house cleaning closets and cabinets.  I found I could keep moving until around 1 or 2 pm most days and then would have to lay down and rest for about 4 hours.

Keep in mind your lymph system doesn’t move on it’s own.  You have to move to flush it.  The lymphatic system plays a critical role in fighting virus.  I’ll let you go down that google rabbit hole on your own, but it is worth understanding how this system works.

I’m a lucky Banyan Ambassador so I have a closet full of oils.  I took advantage of the Daily Self Massage, soaked my hair in Healthy Hair Oil, and rubbed myself down nightly with I Sleep Soundly oil.  I got super dry for some reason.  I’m playing with the Trim Support balm now too.

Take Your Herbs

Preventatively and for all of life I take Triphala Guggulu, Neem, and various oils including Flax Oil.  Once Covid hit I doubled these herbs and added Tulsi to support lung health.  Advil was a necessity due to the severity of head and body aches.  I took Niquil for 4 nights out of sheer desperation to enter the 4th stage of consciousness each night.  Gotta do what you gotta do, but do know it slows your digestion and isn’t the best choice on that level.  If you need herbs from Banyan use the coupon code JOY10 and use my link to save.  CLICK HERE

True to Vata Dosha, my experience was much dryer with very little drainage and mucus.  My Kapha partner was much more in his sinus, coughing, sneezing and with a lot of drainage.

Liquids

I kept cucumber water with lemons in the fridge.  Drink watered down juice as well.  Have some fizzy drinks on hand.  You will crave them.

Ayurvedic Tea:   boil water, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves and ginger for about 15 minutes.  Drink all day.

Celery Juice:   Juice celery, lemon, ginger, cucumber and a bit of cayenne and black pepper daily.

As a side note, we were not prepared to actually get Covid and once you have it you are stuck at home.  Of course we stocked up in March with the rest of the world, but as this thing has dragged on, we haven’t stocked anything.  We ran out of toilet paper, drinks, and most food.  My mom shipped us a thermometer and beverages.

Food

Easy to digest food is the best.  You won’t be very hungry and if you are lucky like me you will lose your sense of smell and taste towards the end so you can keep the weight loss going.  I was super happy to lose some weight and hopefully keep it going.  Once I lost my sense of taste I found myself craving lime tortilla chips only because I could sort of sense the sour taste.

All Yummee Congee:   1 cup of rice to at least 4 cups of water.  Cut up a ton of veggies.  Throw it all in a pot and simmer for about 25 minutes.

Hot Baths

This was critical.  Daily soaking for at least an hour in a hot tub with bath salts.  Wouldn’t have survived without this option.  For me, it helped the body pain. For my partner, it cleared his passages.

Netflix

Your brain will turn to mush.  This is not a great time to make decisions and you won’t be able to.  I’m just now finding all of my mistakes of the past two weeks.  Just watch TV.  Read if you can.  Sit outside and stare at the trees.  I don’t know why the Universe wants us to be so unproductive right now, but it does.  You won’t be able to meditate so just sit there.

How did we get it & did we get tested?

I don’t know how we got it and no we did not get tested.  We’ve been good since March isolating and doing very little.  I will say in the last month we have let up a bit.  We’ve been constructing the Mason studio bar area and usually just go to Lowe’s where we can make strategic hits for supplies knowing the store so well.  We explored Home Depot the other week and both felt we had been in the store too long and it wasn’t super clean.  We also started riding our bikes on the Loveland Trail most Sundays and getting lunch outside in Loveland.  We went to the gold club one night for dinner. So I guess we could have gotten it when we let our guard down.  We didn’t get tested because it was obvious we had it and trust me, you will not feel like leaving your house to go get tested.  I find it interesting the number of folks who have it in the US as reported on the news is at least two short because no governing agency knows we personally had it.

What’s next?

I’m so excited to feel free.  I can’t wait to get back to the studio and relax knowing I got at least 3 or 4 months of not having to worry about infecting anyone.  I can’t wait to get on a plane and go see my kids.  I can’t wait to go out to dinner and go to the mall and go see a movie and a million other things I never did anyway.  I’ll continue to mask up, wash my hands and be a good patriot.

I’m grateful to Covid.  To be brutally honest it cleared my life of a lot of toxic patterns & people.  People have really shown who they are and I’ve seen the highest of highs and the absolute lowest of lows.   I’m relieved Montgomery studio is now rented.  I love the donation model of yoga and I’m happy to continue with our skeleton schedule in Mason, but I’m looking forward to more meaningful work of a spiritual nature.  Working hard on our Wedding Venue in Mason and planning out a lot of intense spiritual experiences for folks.

Stay safe!  Peace, Pamela