Transitions | Easing the Body

Transitions are challenging for the body and soul. To travel across continents or even half
whether by land or by air takes an invisible toll on our bodies. Traveling, adjusting to time zones and jet
lag, they all have their adverse effects on my body. The worse experience I had was in Vancouver, the further I
have gone from home in 20 hours, where after 1 week I had to resort to seeking
homeopathic help to restore physical balance.

Lilies_2
i woke up to these wonderful smelling flowers, left on my bedside by my lovely hosts.

For this trip I am conducting an experiment, based on the
advice from Dr. S, my all-dependable and sensible Ayurveda doctor. Do you realize even after 2 hours of driving,
you feel fatigue though you merely sat still during that time? As he explained, when we travel, our bodies
are going against ‘wind’ and that consumes energy. So now imagine a 12 hour flight across 6000
over miles? I guess he’s explaining the
cause of jetlag.

I asked him then, what’s the best way to minimize the
inevitable imbalance triggered from traveling – in my case, flying 6000
miles? When our bodies are using up
energy as we travel against the ‘wind’, energy will be diverted away from the
digestive system. Any food consumed
right before or during the flight would not be properly digested. Ever felt that tray of airplane food just
sitting right in your stomach forever?

I always forgot how far Europe was from Kuala Lumpur, the journey was long. To carry out this experiment, I made a
request for a fruit platter instead of the normal warm meals for all the meals
during my flight. The fruit platter was
rather large with grapes, apple, orange, papaya, kiwi and melon. I hardly could finish them all. The occasional hunger pang in between were
eased by munching on raisins, also recommended by Dr. S for its fabulous
antioxidant content. And of course, plenty of water and juice.

36 hours later now in Munich,
I am still jet lagged but my body seems to be adapting and functioning well in
a relatively short time. And just fruits
for a day ain’t going to hurt you – I survived!