This piece was recently written for the splendid new Australian glossy Heart Beauty, and its guru-like editor Rosemary Hamilton, who has both in spades.
"You have too much phlegm,’’
opines Dr Alvin James B.A.M.S., A Class Medical Practitioner and
avatar of all things Ayurvedic at Avista Hideaway Resort and Spa
Phuket. The resort island’s latest luxury eyrie enjoys a panoptic
perch atop the steep green hills between Patong and Karon beaches, a
surfeit of the titular vistas, and a spa where then ancient Indian
art of well-being is getting a modern-day makeover.
I clear my throat and fight the urge
to hock a loogie. Dr Alvin is an affable chap from Kerala with soft
doe eyes and a slow motion head bobble that quickly becomes hypnotic.
I am slouched in an outsized chair in the consultation room, where he
plans to identify my prakriti, or body type, and discern which of
three doshas, or humours, is prevalent.
“There is vata, pitha and kapha,’’
he explains, “vata being air, wind, kinetic energy, pitha being
fire, or digestion, controlling emotions like anger, fear and
bravado, and kapha being phlegm, which is potential energy,
resistance to disease, immunity and keeps the joints lubricated.’’
