Day One was amazing!! Fire ceremony started us off, a priest led us through a ceremony to cleanse our energy and then unite and bring energy to our training, finally we sent the energy to those we love around the world to connect them to our experience here. We were each anointed and then had a red and yellow string tied around our wrists. We all took another length of the sting to the ancestor tree where we chanted and then tied our string to the tree uniting ourselves to this place.
After orientation classes started. First off was Yogdarshan, Yoga Philosophy, we learned that the mountain we are residing on is the sacred mountain Shiva went to before he married Parvati, Mount Kailash. I enjoyed the Doctor’s discussion of the journey of the soul and the repeated cycle of soul evolution and the human experience, the discussion of scripture versus religion, and the assurance that we have each made our way to this exact location and experience not out of luck or coincidence, but as a continuation of a prior journey and growth of our knowledge/intellect. Have you ever been somewhere or learned something that wasn’t on your radar but just felt right?
After lunch we had Anatomy & Physiology where the topic was structure and function. Each afternoon we have a window for Svadhyaya (Self-Study) and time for working assignments – I chose to take a nap, I desperately needed it. The jet lag had taken full affect and I was struggling to stay awake during lessons. After my 45 minute nap I truly felt worse, a headache had set in and my body hurt everywhere…. I think part of this was the fact that I have been lax on my diet and the stress of travel along with the gluten and dairy were causing inflammation. I was nervous about our fist asana practice (yoga class), luckily it was slower paced Hatha class focused on stretching and relaxation. After asana we have meditation and unfortunately I was the one who snored…. I barely functioned through dinner from exhaustion. I showered and went to bed quite early, but was unable to sleep through the night.
Day Two started bright and early with a 5:30 am wake up bell. But don’t you worry, I was awake shortly after 4 ready to go so I decided not to fight the desire to sleep any longer.
Today’s goal was to skip the afternoon nap (in hopes I will sleep more tonight) and to trust that my body will feel better quickly as my dietary restrictions have been clearly communicated. I had moments where I told myself to just eat what is being served, to not make a big deal of it, to tolerate because we know the gluten and dairy sources are of higher quality outside of the US – and then I realized the madness of my thoughts. I witnessed others speaking up without shame or trepidation for things that are far less significant and realized that I was yet again playing out a lifelong thought pattern.
I woke up to some pictures of my dogs, they are smiling ear to ear!
Where are you. Thanks for sharing your journey, will follow along.
I am in Rishikesh India