I have been lucky enough to be allowed to practice in the mornings with the yoga course Allison is assisting on. Yoga at 06:30am for 2 and half hours, followed by an hour of breathing exercises and meditation. Your overall goal in yoga is to attain enlightenment and the answers are not found outside yourself, the answers come from within grasshopper.
My yoga practising frustrations have remained with me but I'm working on them. The other day a balancing posture that would normally create anger, frustration and a spoken under my breath swear word when fallen out of, remarkably caused an inward laugh instead. I may be getting slightly ahead of myself here as this happy, calm and forgiving way of practising yoga has only happened occasionally. The rest of the time I'm mentally beating myself up.
Am I getting better? I don't know, it's hard to tell with yoga. One day I feel I have energy and more flexibility, the next I feel tight and lethargic.
When we're doing Yoga (Asana) practice I occasionally look across to Allison to get some partial solace that maybe I'm not the only one going through a mental and physical struggle, but it just upsets me even more as she's doing some crazy shit with a pleasant facial expression. Note to self, don't look at wifey when practising Yoga.
Last Friday we did an Osho meditation (he was an Indian Guru). It was a moving meditation with specific movements conducted to specific music. Your right hand is held palm up by your sternum, your left is held palm up at your naval. Step your right foot forward and at the same time slice your hand through the air with a spear like lunging motion whilst verbally making a swooshing sound. Then draw your left palm up drawing up energy swapping places with the right and step your left foot forward, swoooosh. Step sideways right, swoosh, sideways left, swoosh, diagonally right, swoosh, diagonally left, swoosh. Then back to the beginning. Repeat, repeat, rpt, rpt, swoosh, swoosh. This form of meditation was new to me, but it was good. My energy was there at the beginning, for some reason I was a ninja lunging through the air with weapon in hand. Then my energy dissipated and I became less of a ninja and more of a feeble sloth, I had to concentrate hard to bring that initial energy back to the meditation.
We buy 20 litre water bottles here, by my excellent mathematical brain I'd hazard a guess that's roughly 20kg (no big deal for this man). I carry it up the stairs and proceed to do some deep squat presses, "be careful" says Allison. Don't you know who I am, this is nothing to me, I think whilst sitting into the squat deeper and faster. Whoa whats that? As soon as I had that egotistical thought my back twinges. Since then I've decided I'm not doing any other form of exercise till I'm happy that my core strength and flexibility have significantly improved. Luckily since then no major issue has arisen.
When you are travelling around a country, you will inevitably bump into people you've met along the way. Allison bumped into Anita, a woman she had first met at Ammas Ashram, she saw her in Atman, an Italian restaurant come beach hut resort in Arambol.
My inevitable bump was more of a surreal nudge. I was walking along the beach, minding my own business without a care in the world. And then I saw him, my doppelganger also from Ammas Ashram. Not all dressed in white now, just plain black shorts on. A part time devotee, I thought, a devotee that walks the walk for a brief moment then reverts back to just being a simple traveller like the rest of us. Although he still had a smile on his face which I didn't mind as much this time round, probably because he didn't look in total bliss and it was more of a natural expression. I wasn't quick enough on the draw to get proof with my camera, I was too in awe of his presence and fumbled at my bag too slowly. He was gone as quick as he arrived, was it him? I need to hunt him down and get evidence of the second coming. Me and Allison both thought we saw him again a few days later, but alas he was going too fast on a scooter to be sure.
The Health and safety at work act does not exist in India, or at least I don't think so. I think they may have rewritten theirs as the hazardous and risk taking at work law. Flip flops, no hard hats and wooden scaffold without guard rails make it easier for potential accidents to happen. On top of the roof they work, hauling stuff aloft with little to no preventative safety measures in place. We heard a big bang the other day and I naturally thought a builder had just fallen braking their neck, what a pleasant surprise when we discovered it was just some building materials.
My yoga practising frustrations have remained with me but I'm working on them. The other day a balancing posture that would normally create anger, frustration and a spoken under my breath swear word when fallen out of, remarkably caused an inward laugh instead. I may be getting slightly ahead of myself here as this happy, calm and forgiving way of practising yoga has only happened occasionally. The rest of the time I'm mentally beating myself up.
Am I getting better? I don't know, it's hard to tell with yoga. One day I feel I have energy and more flexibility, the next I feel tight and lethargic.
When we're doing Yoga (Asana) practice I occasionally look across to Allison to get some partial solace that maybe I'm not the only one going through a mental and physical struggle, but it just upsets me even more as she's doing some crazy shit with a pleasant facial expression. Note to self, don't look at wifey when practising Yoga.
Last Friday we did an Osho meditation (he was an Indian Guru). It was a moving meditation with specific movements conducted to specific music. Your right hand is held palm up by your sternum, your left is held palm up at your naval. Step your right foot forward and at the same time slice your hand through the air with a spear like lunging motion whilst verbally making a swooshing sound. Then draw your left palm up drawing up energy swapping places with the right and step your left foot forward, swoooosh. Step sideways right, swoosh, sideways left, swoosh, diagonally right, swoosh, diagonally left, swoosh. Then back to the beginning. Repeat, repeat, rpt, rpt, swoosh, swoosh. This form of meditation was new to me, but it was good. My energy was there at the beginning, for some reason I was a ninja lunging through the air with weapon in hand. Then my energy dissipated and I became less of a ninja and more of a feeble sloth, I had to concentrate hard to bring that initial energy back to the meditation.
Osho
When you are travelling around a country, you will inevitably bump into people you've met along the way. Allison bumped into Anita, a woman she had first met at Ammas Ashram, she saw her in Atman, an Italian restaurant come beach hut resort in Arambol.
My inevitable bump was more of a surreal nudge. I was walking along the beach, minding my own business without a care in the world. And then I saw him, my doppelganger also from Ammas Ashram. Not all dressed in white now, just plain black shorts on. A part time devotee, I thought, a devotee that walks the walk for a brief moment then reverts back to just being a simple traveller like the rest of us. Although he still had a smile on his face which I didn't mind as much this time round, probably because he didn't look in total bliss and it was more of a natural expression. I wasn't quick enough on the draw to get proof with my camera, I was too in awe of his presence and fumbled at my bag too slowly. He was gone as quick as he arrived, was it him? I need to hunt him down and get evidence of the second coming. Me and Allison both thought we saw him again a few days later, but alas he was going too fast on a scooter to be sure.
A previous photo at Ammas.
The Health and safety at work act does not exist in India, or at least I don't think so. I think they may have rewritten theirs as the hazardous and risk taking at work law. Flip flops, no hard hats and wooden scaffold without guard rails make it easier for potential accidents to happen. On top of the roof they work, hauling stuff aloft with little to no preventative safety measures in place. We heard a big bang the other day and I naturally thought a builder had just fallen braking their neck, what a pleasant surprise when we discovered it was just some building materials.
Not long after I took this photo we heard a thud.
One step backwards and he's a gonner!
Working on an electric pylon, just balancing, no harness, other things look a bit suspect too!
Looking forward to hearing more. Glad to hear you are being kinder to yourself. Yoga isn't a race, I've already beaten you!
ReplyDeleteCrazy to watch how the Indians build.
P.S. I bought one of those Sloan t-shirts.