Taste of India

Hello my friends!  Lately people have been asking all about my trip, my experiences in India, what I learned and if I was going to post any pictures.  Truthfully I wasn't planning on talking much about the trip.  Not because I don't have anything to say but because this is not a travel blog and I didn't want to bore anyone with trip photos.  Yet what I realized is that folks really are interested in my travels. I also realized that this is an experience that needs to be shared since so many of you have invested your time, energy, and money in me- it's only right that I give back.  So please sit back and enjoy my taste of India.

 This is Saji my teacher.  He is what you would call a bonefide yogi.  He has been practicing yoga since his early teens and it shows.  Not only is it amazing to watch the ways in which he can move and hold his yoga asanas but just being in his presence you can sense the light that shines from his being.  He received his Bachelor of Yoga Science in India and now he runs International Vasishta Yoga Research Foundation in which he teaches Yoga Teacher Training, Advanced Teacher Training, and Yoga Therapy Training courses.  Right now he rents space from the Chinmaya International Foundation ashram in southern India. Eventually he and his friend will have their own ashram to run these courses.

You can check out his website at vasishtayoga.org

 This is the yoga hall.  Every morning we would wake at 5:30am and meet here to meditate until 7:00am.  Then we would have a yoga practice until breakfast time at 9:15am.  Then we would come back here at 11:00 am for lecture until 1:30pm.  Then meet back here for more lecture at 4:00pm.  After evening lecture we would have another yoga practice until dinner at 8:00pm and then some nights we would meet back here again after dinner for an evening meditation.  So yes, the majority of my time was spent in this wonderful space.

My room at the ashram.

My roommate :) At least for a short while.

This is Durgana.  The day I took this picture it was her 85th Birthday.  She is from South Africa and one of the students in my course.  A true testimony to the fact that you are never too old to do yoga. 

This was a typical meal at the ashram, all vegetarian of course.  It was a special meal because of Dugana's birthday so we were served on a banana leaf. Very eco-friendly!

On this evening there was a local spiritual Shiva celebration.  Here all the local women gathered and stand waiting to transfer " light" from the men's temple on the ashram grounds to a nearby local temple.

Indian traffic.

Yep that's right- he's talking on his cell phone riding an elephant.  A perfect example of India today.  Ancient and modern harmoniously clash.

Our last practice was partner yoga fun...

This is me getting my certificate at our graduation ceremony.

And this is the group on the last day after the graduation ceremony.

So that is a small visual taste of my experience in India.  Over the next few weeks, months and probably years I will continue to share all that I learned from this delicious experience.  Bon apetite!

Take a deep breath and relax

Ok, so I have officially been back for a full week now and I am still decompressing and processing all the information I learned in India.  I also realized that I had broke my computer habit while I was away which is great for my personal life but not so great for this blog.  I guess now is the time to learn balance in all things.  I would also like to invite you to become a follower (like my mom and my friend Linn-thanks Ladies) and leave comments.  I have so much I want to share with you that sometimes I don't know where to start so your comments would be appreciated.

The last post I introduced the Pancha Koshas (5 sheaths of our being) and mentioned that  imbalance in the first 3 layers- the body, the energetic layer, and the mind manifests as dis-ease in the body.  See ancient yogis thousands of years ago figured out that there are only 2 causes of dis-ease: Stress born diseases or non-stress born diseases.  The non-stress born diseases are injury, infections, toxic exposure, or congenital.  Everything else is born from stress. Knowing this is powerful!  If something is caused by stress it can be healed by removing stress from your life and learning new ways to move in the world that benefit rather than harm the body.

This is where yoga comes in to play.  In the western world we have adapted yoga to mean physical activity for our physical body.  It's time to learn that yoga is so much more than that.  The physical practice is only a part of the picture. Yoga is a way of life.  It is an ancient spiritual science that has the capacity to bridge the gap between the demands of the modern life-style and the natural rhythms of our true-selves.  Where modern medicine is largely a science of disease and treatment,  yoga (and other alternative modalities) offers techniques for the healthy functioning of the human mind and body that both prevent and reverse disease.  The World Health Organization (WHO) recently defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well being. Sure we all know the mental and physical aspect of good health but did you know that your social life and spiritual life also play a major role in your overall health as well?   Each factor is interdependent on the next for good health.  If any of these areas are lacking or dysfunctional, dis-ease will occur. Another way of saying that is poor attention or misguided attention in anyone of these 4 areas can cause stress and stress will breed dis-ease in the body.

So here is your first basic lesson on how to combat stress in your life.  

                         Calmness of the mind
                         Relaxation of the body
                         Slowness of the breath
 

 Can you think of any area in your life where implementing these three things would not be beneficial?  So the first step to calming the mind and relaxing the body is slowing down the breath. One easy technique is making the exhale longer than the inhale.  Try it- over the next week anytime you start to feel stressed out or pain- slow your breath down and make your exhale twice as long as your inhale. Take 10 of these slow breaths then just observe how you feel afterwards. Now you are doing yoga.