A day off!

Once a week, we get a free day. No classes, no requirements – just a day to do as you please. For the first week, the ashram offers a group outing. I decided not to tag along with the group – they were leaving at 8 am to hike down the mountain and wouldn’t be back until 5:30 or later and while I was intrigued by their plan I really didn’t want to be gone all day and navigate a large group.

The wake up bell still tolled at 5:30 am (groaning ensued), but I was able to enjoy a leisurely morning catching up with a few of my people and getting some social media time.

I had an appointment with the on-site Ayurveda Doctor. Ayurveda is a 5,000+ year old healing science, it originated in India and focuses on the maintenance of health through close attention to balance in one’s life, right thinking, diet, lifestyle and the use of herbs (https://ayurveda.com/ayurveda-a-brief-introduction-and-guide/).

The appointment was quite informative and in alignment with many of my yoga learnings. I walked away with a suggested Ayurveda treatment, an herbal supplement to reduce my reliance on anti-histamines for seasonal allergies, support that my current diet is in alignment with maintaining health and should not be adjusted as well as day to day practices to implement. I will let you all guess what the sources of unhealth in my life stem from…..could it be overthinking, stress management and getting enough rest?

After a leisurely breakfast we got to see a large group of wild monkeys run through the ashram, jumping and climbing and chasing as they pleased likely due to the fact that the population was so low. We have heard that they can be aggressive so we kept our distance but enjoyed watching them from a very close distance.

Another classmate of mine and I set off on our own adventure! I will try to be brief, but the takeaway if you decide this is tl;dr is that is was an amazing day and exactly what I needed.

On our way down the mountain, it’s about 0.9 miles, we saw the mules in action. Yes that’s the trail – dirt and rocks. Until you near the ashram entrance then you have steps.

As we made it to the road we quickly realized that we should have pre-ordered a cab. It is impossible to tell a cab from a hired tourist vehicle from a regular car…. We asked the men who run the snack shack for help flagging one down and thankfully they obliged (they spoke little English) – it was not quick but we got one. We quickly realized our driver spoke zero English – we translated our destination into Hindi and he would only say “no” over and over…. We weren’t sure that meant as he kept driving int he direction we needed to go. As we neared Rishikesh he pulled over and stopped on the shoulder and said “OUT.” It appears that not all cars are licensed to drive into the city and we found ourselves in one that could not. I’m not sure if it was a real taxi or just a guy with open seats headed in the right direction that they snagged – we had to work around his family’s shoes left nicely in the back floorboard.

We walked across the guarded border into Rishikesh and thankfully my adventure mate spotted a local tour company that had “taxi” at the bottom of their list of offerings. We found an English speaking office who set us up with a driver for the rest of our planned day for only 2500 Rupee’s (that is ~$25 US).

We enjoyed a nice ride with an English speaking driver. He turned off the main road and told us to get out and walk that way…. We found ourselves on a pedestrian and moped only bridge over the Ganges River, it was jam packed.

We made it to our first destination – The Beatles Ashram! In 1968 the Beatles traveled to Rishikesh for a 3 month transcendental meditation program. And the story is it that they wrote many songs there. It was deserted in 1997 and in 2015 the forest department reopened it as a tourist attraction.

Our driver was indeed waiting for us, we interrupted his nap, and we were off to our next destination. A 90 minute sound healing session.

We may, or may not, have been in someone’s living room, but he greeted us with cold water and candies so what could go wrong? It was phenomenal. The focus was vibration and it was different than our western sound healings – there was a lot of physical contact with the vibrational instruments. Our sound healer was the nicest man with amazing English. I was aware the entire 90 minutes, not asleep as sometimes happens, but my body was not under my control – it twitched and moved and wiggled – releasing and absorbing the healing vibrations.

Once again our driver was waiting for us, and he delivered us safely back to our ashram for the hike up. We pass Patna Waterfall on each of these hikes, and the sound is a nice accompaniment to the hike. We made it back to enjoy a snack and some ginger honey lemon tea (I had a chai masala too, I am a sucker for a good chai) in the ashram cafe and got to catch up with some other classmates who enjoyed their day relaxing here and hiking down to the road and back.

Tomorrow it’s back at it – the 5:30 am bell will set in motion a full day of classes (both physical practice and classroom) and three meals based on a Yogic Diet (https://www.yogabasics.com/explore/yogic-lifestyle/yogic-diet/yogic-diet-guide/). After today I am feeling better as I think about the coming 6 days. And my first full night of sleep last night didn’t hurt either!!

Namaste!