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Published: December 17th 2010
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So I am sitting on the terrace of my hotel in Varkalla beach. I am staying in the Mango House (no mangos so far), the balcony is painted salmon pink, there are cococnut trees and palm trees across the little path, 10 meters opposite. I am sitting in a wicker chair, it is 12.18pm and I am avoiding the strong midday sun. Our hand washed laundry is hanging casually all over the place, trying to dry. My yoga mat has been drying for 2 days and it's still wet. So it is, finally here and now I feel ready to write a blog entry!
Quite a bit has happened. I am in Kerala, South India and I just finished my Sivananda Yoga teacher training course on Sunday. I am slowly coming back into a non-ashram life here by the beach. I am in paradise. The beach here is gorgeous, it goes on for ever and the Arabian Ocean is blue and very good friends with the sun. There are yoga sessions offered everywhere and ayurveda massages available in every 20 steps or so. There are cafes, an abundance of gorgeous foods, cakes, coffees, fruit juices. The are things to look
at, to buy. There are yoga friends all over, scattered around the clifftop like marbles that rolled away, and you bump into one every 10 minutes.... so why is it that I miss the Ashram sp much and I keep thinking about it?!?
I miss chanting. I miss yoga. I miss saying 'OM namah shivaya' instead of hello and praying OM Trayambakam. I miss sitting cross legged and eating with my hands and I miss feeling in control of my mind. How did this happen to me? I went to the ashram to become a yoga teacher, and came out something much much more than I thought I could ever be... I don't really want to talk about my ashram experience too much as it's very personal and quite frankly, just too far out for anyone who wasn't there to really understand or accept. So I'll give you just a little taste.
I arrived at the ashram on Saturday 13 November by rickshaw in the middle of a late and unexpected monsoon downpour. I registered and was given a pillow case (with cartoon bears on), a mosquitto net (pink with holes), two sheets and led to the girls
dorm. Everyone was at dinner so I had the whole empty top floor of the dorm to choose from. Seeing 50 empty bunk beds, I suddenly felt shy and very self-conscioius. I chose number 27, and settled down into what would be home for a whole month. After 2.5 months of travelling, it felt great to lay my backpack down and not pick it up again for so long.
We were all initiated the following night, given a big cereomony, tikkas were placed on our foreheads, we made offerings to Ganesha to remove obsticles from our path. We were given two sets of uniforms, a yellow tshirt (the colour of learning) and white pants (the colour of purity), books and bags. The following days were some of the hardest in my life...
The schedule and phsical strain were the first things to show, the schedule started at 5.20am, wake-up bell. Here is my day for the last month:
5.20am Wake up, get ready
6am Satsang (chanting and meditation)
8am Asana practise
10 am Breakfast, shower, do handwashing, do homework, study
12pm Bhagava Gita or chanting class
1pm Asana coaching
2pm Lecture on philosophy
4pm Asana teacher training
6pm Dinner
6.30pm Karma yoga (working in the health hut for an hour, selfless service)
8pm Satsang
10.30pm Pass out
When I look back on it now, I don't know how we all did it. In the first week the hardest challenge was sitting cross legged on the floor for 8 hours a day! Try it, it's hard! Aching hips, aching knees, variations in class that you thought you'd never be able to do. There were a 140 students on the course and everyone dealt with it differently. I think it really was all the prana that kept us going. So, you get the idea, we were busy!! But amazing things happened, people changed, day by day, it was a rollacoaster of strengh and weakness and emotion and a permanent gym workout for mind control. All I can say is thanks to grace for everything that was. I don't how much of it will stay with me, but I know this... I can't wait to start teaching yoga :-)
So that's the ashram, we graduated on Saturday. On Monday I jumped on a train and came to Varkalla to try and unwind, all our bodies are aching, you
would think that we would feel all flexible and bendy, but infact everyone feels stiff and achy. I pulled two muscles in my back so I have been laying off the yoga for a few days but today we went to the beach at 7.30am (a little late I know) and practised some meditatioin. We took a swim, the currents are so strong, normally I love swimming in the ocean, but I get so scared. The waves pick you up, drag you along the sea bed and cough you up with sand in your ears and your bikini all twisted! Anyway, I am now chilling on the balcony and thinking how beautiful life is :-)
Tomorrow we go to Amma's ashram for the day. She is a saint that basically gives hugs! So I am going to get a hug off this amazing women. She does something to you when she hugs you and I'll just leave it there. I heard that 10,000 people go everyday and she hugs 5,000 people everyday!!
So, blog entry accomplished, over and out! I heard that it is snowing really heavily in London and everyone seems to be complaining about the weather.
If I was there, I would do my best to cheer you up. Smile and breathe, it's not so bad!!
Love and light :-)
Om namah shivaya
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This is the first time I visit here , I would like to have a sim
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This is the first time I visit here , I would like to have a similar feeling, thank you for your share.
This is the first time I visit here , I would like to have a similar feeling, thank you for your share.