A mother and school teacher talks about the Maharishi Ayurveda programme for safe Internal Cleansing which she did at home for the first time early in 2005.

“I was having bad breath a lot, not just in the morning, and I had major bags under my eyes and low energy levels. I was also having moods a lot; irritability when I was teaching. So I decided to do something about it.”

“I didn’t have enough money or time to do residential Panchakarma, and I read an article about Maharishi Ayurveda Internal Cleansing, so I went to the website about it and filled in the questionnaire that helps you decide if it’s OK for you to do it.”

“It seems that if you have a few complaints like I had it’s OK to do the home programme, but if you have more complaints or more serious symptoms it’s better to consult the Ayurvedic doctor and do the residential programme.”

“The Home Cleansing lasts 60 days and starts with 15 days of preparation when you stop eating foods like cheese, bread, sugar, chocolate, butter and oils, and foods containing preservatives.”

“At first I thought ‘I can’t manage without these foods’, and felt a bit stressed and full of cravings for them. But after a while you don’t really notice the change of diet and you find things to take their place – a date instead of sugar, a chapatti instead of bread.” And you begin to feel light and clear.”

“Then you do a further 45 days on the same diet, plus the recommended cleansing herbal preparations. I used Triphala with Rose, Detox tablets, Herbal Cleanse and Genitrac.”

“What I noticed during and afterwards was that my energy returned, my bags disappeared, as did the moods, and my breath was no longer bad.”

“The other benefit was that I no longer felt the need for cheese and bread and chocolate, and I’ve rarely eaten them since. Given the time and money I’d prefer to do the Maharishi Panchakarma programme, but now that I’ve tried this once I realize I can do it every year at this time of year, like a good spring clean.”

“As a working mother, I’m the sort of person that finds it easy to follow a regime, and this one definitely delivers benefits so it’s easy to want to do it again.”

Interviewed 16.01.2006 Skelmersdale, Lancs.