In this interview, Salila Sukumaran speaks with Morgan, an outdoor educator from Southern California, about Morgan's 21‑day Panchakarma retreat in Kerala, India. Morgan discovered Salila on Instagram while researching Ayurveda and reached out for an authentic experience. Motivated by chronic menstrual cramps, reliance on pain medication, and a desire for a deeper cleanse, Morgan attended the retreat at Dr. Sreejit’s clinic. Post‑retreat, she reports elimination of period pain without medication, increased physical vitality, a calmer and more centered demeanor, and a renewed sense of inner beauty. She also notes positive changes in her relationships, describing herself as more playful, patient, and kind. Morgan emphasizes the importance of trusting the Ayurvedic practitioners, being open and committed, and following the prescribed diet and therapies. She credits Salila for facilitating the connection, handling logistics, and providing ongoing support, and strongly recommends future seekers contact Salila to ensure an authentic, high‑quality Panchakarma experience. The conversation concludes with advice for nervous prospective participants to prioritize health and trust the ancient Ayurvedic system.
Chapters
Welcome everybody. Today we have Morgan with us who has just returned from India after an amazing transformative Panchakarma. Morgan, please tell us who you are.
Hi everyone, my name is Morgan. I'm from Southern California. I'm an outdoor educator, so I work on the East Coast. I take kids backpacking on the Appalachian Trail.
Amazing! That is incredible. Morgan has been in touch with me for years now. We've kind of exchanged messages on social media, checked in with each other, and finally Morgan reached out to me and said she wanted to do a panchakarma. So I sent her to an amazing panchakarma center in India, in Kerala. Morgan, how did you find me and what made you reach out me.
I found you on Instagram like at least 4 years ago. I was looking into Ayurveda. I was considering studying it, going to, to get the real authentic experience. At that time, I had no idea what panchakarma was, but I was interested. I watched a couple documentaries, I read a couple books on it, and I found you on Instagram. I don't know exactly how I found you. I think I was looking up probably Ayurveda Instagram, like on Google, and I followed you because I liked the advice you gave. And I reached out to you to like, see if I could study in India. We didn't end up going that route. I wasn't in the place for it, but I'm so glad I reconnected with you for this Panchakarma experience.
It was such a pleasure. I still remember some of our interactions. You were so curious. You always wanted to learn. What stood out for you when you saw my Instagram? I always wonder what stands out, what makes it different. There are so many Ayurveda Instagram influencers.
What stood out for me for your Instagram was the advice you gave. For someone who read books on Ayurveda, it just seemed like you were authentically giving advice and you weren't looking for anything in return.
I love that. That's all I'm here for— authentic advice, authentic Ayurveda, connecting people with amazing Ayurveda providers back home in India who want to go deep and enjoy the full benefits of Ayurveda, especially a panchakarma. So you reached out to me and we sent you off to Kerala for a beautiful panchakarma experience. What were you facing in your life at that time? You're a young, healthy woman. What made why did you want to choose Panchakarma for yourself?
Well, I wanted to experience the cleanse because I feel like I'm pretty healthy, but I wasn't 100%. Like, I didn't have the best diet, and then I had problems with my menstrual cycle. And for the first time in years, because I was at the retreat for 21 days, that was the first time I was able to have a menstrual cycle without pain medication. Oh, amazing. Yeah, so it definitely works. I felt good, I felt rejuvenated, and my spirit was calm and happier. Like, every— like, when I came home, like, everyone was like, oh, you seem so, like, Nirvana. I felt that way. I felt really good.
Amazing. Would you like to tell everyone a little bit of detail about how you were before before and what you experienced after the Panchakarma, just to contrast.
Okay, before the Panchakarma experience, I was relatively healthy. I would let sometimes the stresses of life become too much, like I would get easily flustered sometimes, and sometimes when I don't feel like I'm in control, I get a little frustrated. And after going through the Panchakarma experience, for some reason I just felt more calm and at peace. I wasn't expecting that kind of change in my demeanor. I thought it was just going to address my physical concerns, but no, I felt different as a person when I came back.
Yeah, Panchakarma is all about mind, body, soul connection. It resets us back to who we actually are, like the truest of our spirit, like you being your calm, centered best, you being a strong woman, beautiful inside out. That's what panchakarma does. And many people do not know this about panchakarma. Yeah, it's just for the external. Do you want to give us a little bit of information around your health challenges? So many women are facing issues with menstrual pain, endometriosis, PCOS, PCOD, and they live with pain. And they accept it because Western medicine says that there is no cure for this. This is just what your body is doing, whereas Ayurveda has all these beautiful ways of restoring health. Would you please give us a little bit more detail there?
Well, before I had my panchakarma experience, I had horrible cramps, especially during the second day of my period. It would get so bad that sometimes I would vomit. Or it would just kind of ruin my day. I would constantly have to take Midol, 2 Midols, like every 2, 3 hours just to function and not be in a lot of pain. So to me, if I'm getting something every month and I also don't want to rely on medication, I want to find a way to manage it in a more holistic way. Like I don't want the medication. I've tried so many other ways of helping my cramps and they did help, but this experience, I mean, it's been years since I've been able to have a period with no pain medication.
Incredible, incredible. You're a beautiful woman inside out, you know. I can feel your spirit. And beauty was also an important aspect for you when you went in for your panchakarma. Do you feel more beautiful in your skin right now after the experience?
I do. I really do feel beautiful. I feel— I can't find the words for it, but it's kind of like I feel like I'm back to where I was as a kid, where I was just content with myself, not really wanting to change anything. Just had that sparkle in your eye, that innocence. I just feel that way. I feel really good.
That is so beautiful. Have you noticed any changes with your significant other, your loving relationships? Have you felt any positive changes there?
Yes, I'm more playful and I'm more kind.
That's lovely.
I'm more patient too. I was not expecting this at all. I would say honestly, of course, not having period pain is amazing. But the change in my whole personality to be more of who I was as a child, more innocent, more kind, more gracious towards others, it's like I don't let a lot of things affect me. Things that would have affected me, like a car honking at me, doesn't really affect me anymore. Like really peaceful. Zen, very zen.
Beautiful, beautiful. Now there are tons of retreats on the internet. If you Google, there's at least 1,000 retreats that come up. What would you suggest someone do when they are wanting to do a Panchakarma? Should they reach out to me, or should they go on by themselves? You're a world traveler, you work for a travel company. How do you think you benefited when you reached out to me?
I would recommend everyone reach out to you because I met so many people at the facility who had gone to 10, 15 different places, and all of them said that the place you sent me was the best authentic experience. And there were some people that are returners, 10-year returners, Some people that had major complications with their health that are living testimonies to say that Dr. Sreejit knows what he's doing. I was a little nervous before I went to India because I wanted to get the authentic experience. I trusted you, of course, so I was like kind of like, okay, if Salila Sukumaran said it's good, it's good. I would just say that you have to be careful with online because you don't want to end up like some of the people I met who went to 15 different facilities and then they finally got lucky and found that one. Because I mean, if you're paying about $2,000 for each experience you're doing, that's about $30,000 that you didn't really get anything out of. And then you finally found Dr. Sreejit. So I was happy with Dr. Sreejit, I was happy with the facility, it was comfortable. The Dr. Sreejit and his team are amazing, very helpful, picked me up from my hotel, everything was professional. I would say that if they're looking for an authentic experience and they don't want to risk the chance of possibly coming up with one and they want for sure to have an authentic panchakarma experience, they definitely need to contact you.
Thank you so much for that testimony, Morgan. What would you suggest someone do when they are getting ready to go for a panchakarma to India? How did you prepare yourself for the experience?
I didn't think too much. I looked up what to expect. Dr. Sreejit and his team are very thorough, so Dr. Sreejit was already sending sending me messages telling me what to expect, so I wasn't really worried. But I would say, in order to prepare yourself, just be ready, be open, trust the doctors, trust the advice, and be committed. Be committed to the experience when you're there. Eat the food. Don't go off and eat whatever like if the doctor says take this medication, take the medication. If he wants to give you this therapy, you don't really think it, just trust him because Dr. Sreejan knows what he's doing. I mean, I feel amazing.
Yeah, that is so important. Be open, stay open, stay committed, and trust the process. Trust yourself. Those are the people who come out with the best outcomes. It's the ones who you absolutely jump headfirst, you know, into the process. How was your experience working with me, having me on the side guiding you and being in touch with you throughout the process? Did that help you?
That helped me a lot. I mean, you being the first contact to Dr. Sreejit, and then I would just ask you questions that I wanted— not that I didn't feel comfortable with them, I I knew that I can trust you. So I would ask you questions, you'd go directly to Dr. Shreeja, get back to me as soon as possible, gave me the information for the visa, gave me the information on what hotel to stay at. I would recommend like going through you.
Well, thank you so much for all those wonderful encouragement and advice to anyone who's thinking about a panchakarma. Just to wrap up and to end this conversation, what would be your parting words to someone who is thinking of a panchakarma and they're kind of nervous about the medicine, the taste, or what are they going to put me through? Is this going to be hard on me? What would you advise them?
Health is everything. You're gonna— you may be nervous, you may have— you may be wary of trusting trusting Ayurveda, I would say trust it because it works for me and I know other people it's worked for. It's an ancient medicine and it works. But if you're worried about like, oh, I don't really trust it, I think that your health is everything. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have your health, that's very detrimental. So I would say that if your health is health is a priority and you're looking for things that Western medicine doesn't have the answer to, such as PCOS, endometriosis, and things like that, I would definitely recommend going the Ayurveda way.
Health is everything. What beautiful words to end this conversation with. Thank you so much, Sukumaran. Really blessed to know you. Namaste.
Thank you. Namaste, Salila Sukumaran. Thank you so much for helping me with my health journey. I really think it was one of the best things I've ever done.
