How Ayurveda changed Marisa Lopez-Grassi’s life By Jerome Gomez

She is perhaps the most reclusive among the children of the late media legend Eugenio Lopez Jr. She only ventures out of the confines of Ayala Alabang suburban life for her twice-weekly Pilates workout. But today, Marisa Grassi finds herself in Makati (a place she visits so rarely that her husband’s point of reference for Glorietta is a restaurant called Stars) and, rarer still, she’s granting an interview. The reason, she feels, is compelling enough: she wants to be the person she was during the last quarter of last year — at peace and 20 pounds lighter.

Last June while enjoying a five-mile hike with her family in Sun Valley, Idaho, she had an accident that resulted in multiple fractures on her right ankle. She was in severe physical pain — one she’d never known in her life — and was told that she wouldn’t be able to move around for weeks. "My ankle was just dangling like that," she says, demonstrating her situation with her right arm, after pointing out the lines of stitches on both sides of her right foot. When she left the hospital, a friend from the neighborhood convinced her to try undergoing a healing process through Ayurvedic medicine, a holistic system from India focused on maintaining the health of body, mind and spirit by balancing our natural cycles with the universe’s various forces and energies. Marisa’s decision to take the plunge, she says, would change her life.

The man who would hold her hand through recovery, apart from husband Beat Grassi (pronounced "be-yat"), was Ryan Redman, a certified yoga instructor in his late 20s who has had rigorous studies in India and has developed a unique approach to well-being through yoga and Ayurveda. Marisa and Beat describe Ryan as a charming, serene man in his late 20s who "looks normal," as opposed to the sort of fanatic, robe-donning, generously bearded creature some people expect all yogis to be.

Ryan, together with his wife Paige, also a yoga practitioner, would guide Marisa first through detox: a 10-day diet of kitchari that Beat, who is a chef, would prepare for her. Kitchari is an Indian comfort food, sort of a pasty porridge made from rice and mung beans. Then she was told to practice hatha yoga regularly and eat according to the principles of Ayurveda, one of which is eating according to whatever the bounty is of your locale in a particular season.

Compared to Manila, Sun Valley is paradise. It nurtures the Ayurvedic lifestyle. It’s a small place with a population of less than 4,000. The Kennedys have major properties there and so do Hollywood stars like Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks. It’s a community in which most of the residents are into New Age thinking and healthy living. "It’s a really beautiful place," says Marisa who bought a house there five years ago.

Her environment and her new lifestyle left her feeling so good about herself: body, mind and spirit. She had lost 20 pounds in six weeks; she was calm and serene. "It was a time of grace for me because it was time when I felt very, very at peace with myself," she relates. "Usually when you can’t move around, you get angst-sy and restless but because of Ayurvedic medicine I had peace."

And she was also finally free from eight years of anti-depressants — she had to quit before starting detox. "I really wanted to stop this medication. It addresses symptoms but there’s so many side affects: your sex drive goes down; you tend to gain weight because your metabolism slows down. But the most important thing for me was (losing) the Prozac smile. (Before) nothing bothers you, you don’t feel. Then I could start feeling things. I was so much more alert. (Before) you tell me somebody died, or somebody’s ill and I have this smile. It’s very hard to give it up because you can go to a very deep depression — but I did (give it up) with Ayurveda.

"I didn’t realize pala how dense, how thick-skinned I had become. Only now (do) I feel alive again. I’m moved to tears by so many things, I would rather be moved to tears than not feel anything."

Things would change, however, when the Grassis had to leave Sun Valley and go back to Manila. Two weeks of struggling to keep her new Ayurvedic life proved futile, and by the third week, she was back to her old "unhealthy ways." She felt like a lost child rummaging for healthy options in unhealthy Manila, where it takes a strong amount of discipline to look for the right food in a sea of fast-food choices. Where there is really no way of making sure that the organic produce available in the weekend markets are actually chemical-free. After a few weeks back home she has regained the weight she had successfully lost. Plus, she says staying off the anti-depressants continues to be a struggle. And this is why she is granting an interview today.

"Ayurveda is still not a popular practice here in the Philippines and there are very few people who are actually aware of what Ayurveda is," says Marisa who, together with her sister Roberta Feliciano’s Yoga Manila, has invited Ryan Redman to Manila to conduct a three-weekend seminar beginning on Feb. 9. The seminar, called "Tasting the Fruit From the Tree," will explore the link between yoga and Ayurveda, and how to apply the principles of the two in daily life. The first two weekends will be held at Yoga Manila in Ayala Alabang and will culminate in a live-in seminar at the Eugenio Lopez Center in Antipolo. Ryan will lead discussions, mat-based yoga classes, a cooking demo and the meditation retreat.

"In Sun Valley, not many people go to Western doctors there. When they’re sick, they go to Ryan who will give you a remedy — a natural remedy. Maybe you only need to take cumin tea for your indigestion," Marisa relates.

During breaks from the seminar, Marisa wants to tour the young teacher around the country to show him the local produce. "While he’s here I really want to learn which are the foods that are good for my temperament. In Ayurveda kasi you have to eat according to your personality type." But the ultimate goal in bringing Ryan here, says Marisa, and in putting together the seminar is to build a support group for people who might be interested in Ayurveda but have no venues where they can study more, practice, or even simply pose questions. A nurturing community, she realized, is essential in maintaining this alternative lifestyle.

"The beauty of the Ayurvedic practice is it tries to teach you how to live in harmony with your environment," says Marisa. "I don’t know how to do this in polluted Manila." Ryan Redman, she hopes, will lead the way.

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For inquiries and reservations, contact (0917)5229642 or e-mail yogamanila@gmail.com. Interested parties may also attend on a per-session basis. Ryan Redman will also be conducting pranayama classes at Yoga Manila Alabang from Feb. 12 to 23.