 Where has the time gone? It seems impossible to me that I've already been here a year.
Yet, I feel I've experienced 10 or more years of life in the span of one year. This week has been filled with teaching yoga classes, wonderful programs and learning from master level teachers, as part of the Teacher's Reunion Course to advance our teaching skills. These master teachers are dedicated practitioners, and I have such gratitude for having had the opportunity to study with them. In addition this week, I worked with our off-site consultants, who were visiting the Ashram for some strategic team planning and collaboration. Good meetings were held, that yielded lots of productivity. A non-stop week, as it seems most of them are here - and it's all good! I continue daily with my herbs and supplements, under KP Khalsa's guidance, as the final weeks of the study are now here. April 30 is the final day. I started last year on May 1. Yoga, breathing, relaxation, healthy-vegetarian diet, positive thinking and meditation, supplemented with medicinal herbs for healing - all of these are practiced here daily, and I do feel stronger and more balanced, based on practice. Next for me, is a trip home in May to visit family and to undergo a complete battery of tests - physical, eye and dental exams for comparative lab results. I started the study with a complete set of exams, for a baseline. I'm in the process of planning for the next phase of this project - writing the book about the experience. In a similar, unexpected manner to my landing at the Ashram in the Bahamas, I will soon journey to Thailand. The thought surfaced in a marketing meeting with a presenter, where the idea of going to Thailand, was suggested in passing, as an ideal place for me to be inspired and write, at a very inexpensive cost. Specifically, Chiang Mai was the recommendation. I didn't think much of the idea initially. I was still trying to figure out how to do karma yoga here part time and write part time. I knew I could not afford to be here as a full paying guest, without income, and in doing karma yoga, the writing would take 2-3 times longer or more. I was at an impasse. I trusted that a path would open up. Within the next few days, Thailand references kept popping up - not in reference to the book writing, as I hadn't discussed Thailand with anyone. I wasn't even considering it. Yet, the mention of Thailand, over and over, appeared out of nowhere, it seemed. A presenter showed a slide of a food dish that he noted was from Thailand. He had shown other food dishes, and yet only identified the country with this particular dish. A karma yogi at dinner a couple nights after that marketing meeting, shared a story about her trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. She'd not spoken of the trip during the past few months that I'd known her. Another interesting example - A student I taught in yoga came up to me after class to chat, and she mentioned previously working for the government. Since I worked in government, we continued the conversation for sometime, when she shared she had been deployed to Afghanistan and then spent her transition week in Thailand. She loved it and returned to do yoga teacher training there. Again, Thailand. Richard Miller, creator of iRest, that I spoke about in another blog posting, also shared that he and his son had just gotten back from a trip to Thailand - and Chiang Mai was one of his destinations. Plus, he has connected me to someone who started a yoga community in Tak. More Thailand...... KP Khalsa and I are collaborating on the book project, and I am grateful for the wonderful opportunity to continue working him. KP has quite a list of excellent books that I'd encourage you to check out. Curiously, KP has also had some unsolicited comments from colleagues recently, regarding Chiang Mai. KP has not been there. It's still early in the planning phase, but I've decided that I will do my writing in Thailand. I'm leaping again, and it feels right and good and exciting! I'll be there throughout the rainy season, but as KP reminded me, it will be great for writing and focus. I pray that my words flow freely, and I know that joy and love will be my constant guides. Passing the baton to others, as I prepare to leave the Ashram is also on my agenda. I know I will be back though, so I am not planning to say good bye. Namaste, Sending You Love from the Bahamas. Thank you for taking this journey with me! (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO NOTICED THE NUMBERING CHANGE, I FORGOT TO ACCOUNT FOR TAKING THE TWO WEEKS OFF OF BLOG POSTS AT CHRISTMAS, AND SO THE COUNT WAS NOT CORRECT. SORRY ABOUT THAT) If you haven't signed up for the blog post updates, please do. I also welcome you to leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us!
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 An amazing week at the Ashram - so full of wonderful programs and incredible learning, plus having the opportunity to teach - all added up to a beautiful week for me!
Richard Miller, the creator of the iRest yoga nidra training that I took a few months ago, Molly Birkholm, who was my teacher for the iRest training and who is co-founder of Warriors at Ease, and Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, a researcher and professor at Harvard, provided a week rich with information, insight and inspiration. The Symposium on Healing Trauma might have been a heavy and depressing backdrop. Yet each presentation was filled with hope and lightness and sharing of research and practices that show yoga and meditation work and can help so many people who are desperately trying to find ways to cope with trauma. From the veterans that Molly works with, to the young women trafficked in Nepal that Molly and Richard are working with, to the people of all walks of life being studied at Harvard and elsewhere by Sat Bir and others on his team - the data is solid and the positive impact that yoga and meditation are having on people's lives is undeniable. Interestingly, we learned that all of us have faced trauma of one sort or another. When a car suddenly swerves in front of you and you barely miss being in an accident, there is trauma to the nervous system as your body is thrust into the 'fight or flight' mode of survival. There are physical indicators such as increased body temperature, sweating, increased heart rate, quickened breathing, tensed body to name a few. When we wake up late, skip breakfast, run down the stairs panting and out of breath, to catch the train or get to our car and then fight traffic or stand body to body on the train with our heart still pounding, rushing to get into work and then experience the anger of a boss or team members waiting for us to be in a meeting - those are also traumas to our body. Many of us daily live trauma filled lives and don't even realize it. We accumulate all of those traumas and wonder why our lives feel so stress filled. One of the main contributors to major diseases is stress, and the other is lifestyle. Studies show that the most common complaints about health are chronic fatigue and stress. The most common causes of fatigue are heart trouble, diabetes, kidney infections and glandular disorders. The yogis teach that most of these symptoms could be easily removed with a natural diet, relaxation, breathing and Yogic exercises. To hear Molly share about leading yoga with Vets who have limbs missing and to experience the gentleness she approaches each yoga practice she teaches is witnessing an angel among us. To listen to Richard speak in a calm and soothing voice, while sharing the wisdom that comes with years of experience, we felt an outpouring of love from a man we had not met before, but who made us feel so comfortable, relaxed and familiar. Sat Bir has devoted his life to his research, in an effort to provide validation to those of us in the West, of what yogis in the East have known for thousands of years. The icing on the cake this week was my getting to teach a 3 day course on the Essentials of Yoga, with lectures and a customized yoga classes for the participants. It was a wonderful experience! I also taught two regular yoga classes and enjoyed every minute of the teaching. I loved sharing with each of the students in the course, Swami Vishnudevananda's condensed essence of Yogic teachings, designed specifically for those of us in the West. He called his five principles for physical and mental heath, as well as spiritual growth, the 5 Points of Yoga:
Sending You Love from the Bahamas. Thank you for taking this journey with me! If you haven't signed up for the blog post updates, please do. I also welcome you to leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us!  We've listened to a Sufi minister, a Tibetan lama, a Reconstructionist rabbi, a Christian reverend and a Sivananda swami. Meditation as a Path to Enlightenment has been this week's Interfaith Symposium's topic. At the same time, the ashram was dealing with an outbreak of the flu - mainly with the karma yogis who provide all the services in the ashram. In the measured way that I've seen hurricane's handled, lightning strikes and other equally serious situations, the yogis who run this ashram had a plan that was quickly and quietly employed behind the scenes. Guests were not impacted, and all the activities of the Ashram continued uninterrupted. Nearly 40 people were quarantined and not allowed to mingle with others on the property. Food, water and anything they needed were brought to them until they fully recovered and showed no symptoms for a full 3 days after symptoms subsided. It meant that those of us who were not sick were covering in all sorts of ways. For me, I spent no time in the office - and after writing this blog I will be attempting to catch up with the hundreds of unread emails in my inbox - not a new phenomena :) I taught two yoga classes each day, made announcements for the guests, gave two tours each day, opened 2 daily workshops by introducing presenters and doing the opening prayers, attended the workshops to be available for assistance to the presenters and then closed workshops with prayer, assisted with preparations for Gita folders, and even rang the bell before workshops one of the days. Everyone else here had similarly packed schedules and added duties. It was an exhausting week, and yet so much of it was fun. I taught beginners classes, intermediate classes and even a workshop on asanas today. With all the teaching, each day was an affirmation of how much I love to teach. Guests were generous with their kind words and acknowledgement of my classes being good experiences for them. I was happy that the yoga transmission was positive for them, and that I was able in a small way to be part of their practice. The tours were also fun. Being able to share about the ashram with newly arriving guests was a labor of love. Workshop openings/closings and doing announcements - all were fun and a nice change of pace for me. Everything, except the Gita folders and bell ringing, were done with a really positive and good heart. On the day that my supervisor told me she needed help with folders for the Teacher Training Course Bhagavad Gita class, I had already planned to do an hour of asana practice, as I hadn't done any in days. Helping her, as I did, meant I had less than 15 minutes to do asana practice. I was not happy about this assistance and the intrusion on my plans for my practice. If I had explained how much I needed the asana practice, I'm sure that I would have been encouraged to go and take care of myself. While I mentioned my intention of practice, it was a passing comment, rather than what it should have been said. On the next day, when I was told to ring the bell, as it is done, 15 minutes before each workshop, I had been going 6 days straight with hardly any asana practice - 10 or 15 minutes here and there was all I had time for. I wasn't used to being in the non air conditioned outdoors all day, and the days were quite hot. I also wasn't used to doing demonstrations, as is necessary, for beginners' classes, without having sufficient warm up myself. The bell ringing request sounded like an expectation to my imbalanced Pitta mind - with heat and the intense nature of my schedule, and without time for relaxation - my Pitta was quite high. The bell ringing addition to my day, unveiled a strong reaction and I 'lost it'. I usually happily do most everything asked of me, but I grumbled and loudly complained about that bell ringing after my supervisor had rushed off to her next duty (she too was covering for others and had a packed schedule). I had no idea how to ring the bell and I was completely annoyed that I was now expected to do this task too. I angrily pronounced after I rang the bell, 'this is it - I will do no more!' The funny thing, as I look back at it, the bell ringing is so much easier than I imagined it to be. And, I could have said 'no' - the ever present dilemma of being a 'pleaser' from the time I was a little girl, according to my mother. It just didn't occur to me in my imbalanced stated. The worst is now past for those who were sick, and I am only teaching one class today and not doing tours etc. I also took a much needed and great asana class and did my own long practice this morning and feel pretty amazing. I am happy that I had the chance to teach so much and to meet so many nice guests when I gave the tours and attended the workshops. It was noticeably energetic last night when we did our chanting, as some of the karma yogis returned to satsang for the first time in days. We all felt and expressed gratitude in our chants. While not the enlightenment of a heightened spiritual nature per se, yet enlightenment about ourselves came to each of us this week. For me, it was a really was a good week! I am glad that everyone is now healthy, and we are back to our regular routines. Namaste, Sending You Love from the Bahamas. Thank you for taking this journey with me! If you haven't signed up for the blog post updates, please do. I also welcome you to leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us!  Trying to capture what life is like here, especially as a karma yogi doing selfless service is a bit challenging.
The same issues that we all face in daily life are here in full force. Without the veils of office decorum, political correctness, cultural awareness or even job qualifications most of the time, the situations in our daily work settings are much more powerful and blatant. People are here for all sorts of reasons and working through all sorts of issues, usually having nothing to do with the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat. As we all know, our issues travel with us wherever we go, if we let them. The main difference I've seen is that here, the annoying person, the co-worker who agitates or doesn't pull their weight or workload, the habitual complainers - all of these labels are bundled into one, and yogis call them "saint makers". According to yogis, we are each "saints in the making" so to speak, as we learn and grow spiritually. We also are "saint makers" for others when we annoy, etc. Realizing our true nature requires experiencing ourselves and observing our behaviors, reactions, thoughts - meditation provides us the vehicle to observe our thoughts and karma yoga provides us with the vehicle to bring our true natures more and more to the surface. If there is no one to annoy and agitate us, then how can we work on the virtue of patience? If everyone is a top performer and produces work to excellent standards, then how can we work on being less judgmental? If no one ever complains, then how would we learn to discern, listen with compassion and go within for our peace and joy, instead of relying on others to share their happiness? Each person that evokes in us some reaction is an opportunity to either detach from our reactions and move to the next lesson or attach and struggle through all the emotions and suffering that goes with the attachment. Detachment does not mean disinterest or not caring. It simply means to not be attached in order to avoid suffering. Here, the lectures often have a story mentioning chocolate, as everyone seems to love chocolate no matter what part of the world they are from. Chocolate is a big desire for many. To provide an illustration about attachment to a desire that inevitably leads to some type of suffering - If we are a true chocolate lover and someone gives us a big chocolate bar, we may pace ourselves a little and savor each bite, but inevitably we will eat the whole bar. If soon after on the same day, another person gives us another chocolate bar, we will feel really lucky and without thinking, we may begin to eat the second bar too. Since one chocolate bar is good, then two will of course be even better - right? Yet, by the end of the second bar, we will feel a little less enjoyment than we did with the first bar. If still another person then gives us a third bar just a little while later, and this one is our favorite brand of chocolate, we will dismiss the fact that we just ate two other chocolate bars, and instead recall how much we like this type of chocolate bar, and chances are quite good that we will start eating the 3rd chocolate bar too. By the end of the 3rd bar, we are likely to feel an upset stomach, and the chocolate will definitely not taste that good by the end. Your limit may be two or may be five, but everyone has a point of pain, with even those things that are most pleasant to us. There are friends here who tell the stories of time and again overindulging in chocolate bars they buy at the Boutique Store, and then being sorry they did afterwards. I have done a fair amount of overindulging with ice cream in my past, consuming as much an entire half gallon on my worst days. So, I can relate. Detachment also is not about limiting. When we consciously limit ourselves, we are actually very attached to the object of desire. Detachment means you can take or leave the chocolate. You can appreciate and enjoy a piece, but it is no longer something that is craved. According to the yogis, detachment from desires leads to true freedom. I'm still working on this, and I know that my year of karma yoga and focus on yogic practices, plus supplementing my healthy diet with medicinal herbs have all helped. Next time you are at your whit's end with someone, smile inside, and know that they are your 'saint maker' and try not to pacify your frustration with chocolate :) Sending You Love from the Bahamas. Thank you for taking this journey with me! If you haven't signed up for the blog post updates, please do. I also welcome you to leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us! |
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