Tao Garden Health Spa - Days 5 and 6

Day 5
Time to begin the second round of cleansing...

Detox Day 5 schedule (see past blogs for descriptions of repeated treatments):
8:00 - Breakfast
10:00 - Chi Nei Tsang (abdominal massage)
11:00 - Colon Hydrotherapy
12:00 - Banana Leaf, Herbal Steam Bath
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - Foot Detox (50 minutes of foot soaking, scrubbing, and massaging)
3:00 - Thai Massage (50 minutes of deep pressure point massage with stretching)
4:00 - Five Elements Massage (90 minutes of heavenly relaxing massage and acupressure along with aromatherapy that is supposed to help bring balance between the five elements of fire, water, earth, wood, metal)
6:00 - Dinner

After Russ' first Chi Nei Tsang the masseur told him that he needed the Muscle Tendon massage (on day 3) to loosen his muscles so he could make the next Chi Nei Tsang more effective. Boy was he right! On Russ's second Chi Nei Tsang, the masseur was able to dig deep into the adomen, massaging each major organ. At the end of the day, Russ felt extremely tired as his internal organs were beginning their healthy recovery.

Day five was Lesley's turn-the-corner day. Instead of feeling wiped out from treatments, she felt absolutely radiant and energized (and realized how long it had been since she last felt that way).

In the evening, Russ went for some needed sleep while Lesley hung out with Jackie, David and Rae. All of us have major decisions coming up in our lives in the very near future, and so somehow everyone started telling sordid tales of decisions past (relationships, travel, jobs, etc.). Some of the stories were actually pretty tragic but generated peals of laughter from all, even the storyteller. (A testament to how much healthier and balanced we're all feeling after devoting so much energy this week to our well being.) David and Jackie are into jyotish, a method of eastern astrology which more or less says "it is written," so they seem quite peaceful about whatever their lives bring/have brought them. Rae, David and Jackie have all used a pendulum method to try to help them make decisions (hold a pendulum, or use your body as a pendulum, ask a yes/no question and see which way the pendulum moves). Rae prefaces her questions with "Is it good for my highest being to..." Just for giggles, I stood up and asked "Is it good for my highest being to... stay in Seattle?" Well, I won't tell you all what it said, mainly because I'm a skeptic. Nevertheless, it is enjoyable and expanding to hear others' ways of perceiving the world, life's challenges, and life's decisions. We also found out that David and Rae both make jewelry, and we pulled up Rae's website--she showed us some of the jewelry she has made (she even makes some for Hollywood) and clothing she has designed. She paints, too--very creative all around.

One of the most interesting aspects of our time here at Tao Garden is managing skepticism while trying to be open minded. We've signed up for some treatments and evaluations (such as the NES, see Day 6) purely out of curiosity. In the cases of actual treatments, we have been fairly amazed by the changes in how we feel. In the cases of evaluations, such as the energetic nutritional analysis we both did, and Russ's aura test, we remain cautious; nevertheless we are having fun and receiving information that is not only strongly upheld by the practitioners here but fascinating to contemplate as well.

Day 6
Finally--our last big day of detoxifying and cleansing our bodies. Its amazing how much better we look and feel. Our skin is glowing, our posture is effortlessly better, and our bodies are generally more loose and relaxed.

Detox Day 6 schedule (see past blogs for descriptions of repeated treatments):
7:00 - Chi Kung (Russ made it up for this; Lesley slept)
8:00 - Breakfast
10:00 (Russ) - Karsai Nei Tsang (50 minute genital health massage which is basically Chi Nei Tsang for the first 35 minutes followed by working the pressure points, tendons and other tissues in the genital area to release sediments in the reproductive system)
10:00 (Lesley) - Chi Nei Tsang (abdominal massage)
11:00 - Banana Leaf
12:00 - Ozone treatment
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - Full-body far infrared (30 minutes of far infrared over the body [from the farthest segment of the infrared spectrum from the visible light spectrum]) and Chi machine (ankles are placed on a device that moves them rapidly from side to side to loosen up your body, move the energy around)
3:00 - NES-Nutri-Energetics Systems (Place hand on device and an electromagnetic reading provides information on the body's nutritional successes and needs, pesticide contents, enzyme sufficiency, vitamin and mineral sufficiency, presence of antibodies to various viruses and bacteria, and various other things)
4:00 - Sauna and herbal steam bath, fresh fruit
6:00 - Dinner

The NES was pretty fascinating, particularly since some of the results it returned confirmed some things each of us already knew from other sources. Russ was told that his body is low on B-complex vitamins, contains too much oil (fried food) fat and has had too much computer exposure. Further, his liver still needs to keep working on the long process of removing toxins from his body, and that he must work on cleansing and detoxifying his colon (made some progress there...) and kidneys first. Lesley was told that her body is very low on calcium and B-complex vitamins and that it's because she isn't breaking down food well enough to absorb those nutrients. Her report also said she has a high concentration of agricultural pesticides (typically used on non-organic fruit and vegetable crops). She was told she needs digestive enzymes, particularly lipase (body doesn't do a good job of breaking down fats to get rid of them, just stores them) and, interestingly, that she's technically lactose intolerant (!) and that she should think about that possibility whenever she feels fatigue, has emotional swings or has digestive difficulties after consuming any lactose. Food for thought--we'll let our inner skeptics and optimists continue their grappling :)

Another thing we enjoyed was the infrared sauna (different from far-infrared treatment). It was amazing how fast it made the body produce perspiration, and how much! Lesley lived in a house with a sauna for five years so she is accustomed to dry heat and doesn't turn into a faucet when the temperature rises, but she was surprised by the fast results of the infrared spectrum.

Over the week we saw some of the same healers several times, and warm connections have developed in spite of limited ability to communicate linguistically. The men and women working here are highly skilled, committed to their work, and kind-hearted. Lesley connected really well with Daeng, who gave her an abdominal massage and a Thai massage. Daeng was absolutely thrilled to feel how her work was successful on my body during the Chi Nei Tsang. It was so clear that she was personally invested in my health and well being. She even talked me through the Chi Nei Tsang so that I can use some of the technique on my own. Russ enjoyed working with John, a masseur who did the majority of his massages, since he took extra time making sure Russ's muscles were loose and without pain. John also taught Russ a few Thai words and a couple of different ways to tie the traditional light-weight Thai shorts we'd bought in Bangkok.

Our skin feels like satin. There simply isn't any more to slough off. We've been sweating and bathing and getting rubbed all over the place so much that all of our body tissues feel refreshed, healthy.

We've posted pictures Tao Gardens from this week online. Including pictures of our red blood cells before and after our detoxification. The clumped RBC's are oxygen and nutrition deprived while our 'after' pictures are healthy RBCs.) Please check them out http://carmichael.smugmug.com/Events/99386
(Lesley's are the first two pics and Russ' are the last two pics)

Final quick note: Rae keeps calling this place a "health farm" which is cracking us up.