India + Discipline

Our Swamji's

Indians LOVE getting their photo taken

The Swamji's went in...so I thought I had to. (Please see Joelle for their Skivvies photo. Of course we had to get one for an Aunt Dish investigation :) )

Our lovely friend Miguel from Argentina.

Joelle and I posing after yoga class. Nice view - eh?
This would be the Ashram meditating on the lake. This would be me finding something to entertain myself while I should be meditating.
The southern most point of India where the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean and the Arabian sea. Me meditating. (Not really - just humoring everyone)

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Kerala India and the Sivananada Yoga Vedanta Ashram: my home for the past two weeks. A peaceful shelter that provides a safe space for personal development and all around growth of the body, mind and soul. An experience that was truly...well...brutal .

Let me start from the beginning and let you see how the story unfolds.

Joelle and I have only two weeks in India, which is a very small amount of time to visit such a vast country. Unfortunately, our original plans got detoured and at the last moment we changed things around. Sooooo - we're left with 14 days and 2 tickets to an ashram in the southern point of India.

At first I was looking forward to spending some time in an ashram. Exercise! Ever since I left Chicago I had to give up my kickboxing, dancing and something I have missed more than anything- running. Doing yoga for two weeks seemed like a wonderful treat - finally some stretching for my body that is craving it.

However, our first day at the ashram was hardly something I was craving.

Rules of the ashram are that you must participate in all the activities. They even go as far as taking attendance for every class. Needless to say, I thought I had been imprisoned in a crazy yogi summer camp. The day starts out at 5:20am with a wake up bell ringing for which seems like 20 minutes. At 6, we start sasang. This includes 45 minutes of meditating (that's 44 minutes too long). I could probably sit through the first 30 seconds in mediating position before my body and mind went ballistic. Honestly, what do you think about for 45 minutes in that awful position??

After meditating, we chant hymns, in some language I can't understand, for the next 45 minutes. Still remaining in this awful position(we are coming close to two hours now) we listen to our head guru lecture. Finally, at 8:00am begins our first Asana or yoga class. The first half hour we practice breathing techniques - this is the worst part of the whole day for me! After 2 hours of yoga, at 10 comes out first meal. We file into the dining hall (chanting of course) where we eat our vegetarian meal on the floor and with our right hand. At 11:00, is our lecture taught by our ever-so-animated (sarcasm at it's fullest right there) Swami Guru himself. This lasts a hour and a half - at minimum. 12:30 coaching class- OPTIONAL(!) -wahoo there is a God! Finally we get a small break (your first chance to pee) until 2:00 pm where we have karma yoga. More about that later. 3:30 starts yoga class #2 until 6:00 when we file in for dinner once again. 8:00pm comes sasang again filled with meditation - in my favorite position - some chanting, some talking. 10:30 lights out. Silence.

Wow. I am more at one with myself then I ever thought?!

Joelle and I go through 2 days of this- enough to pull out every strand of hair on your entire body. We start to talk about other plans and trying to get somewhere else in India to visit. That is until we realized we can't really.

1) it is monsoon in South India at the moment, so going to the coast would mean sitting in our room starring at one another. Trust me- we have already done plenty of that.

2)we have a plane ticket out of this town so we really can't travel too far

3) neither of us have any money.

Case closed. Ashram you are going to get to devour us for the next two weeks.

The next day, I roll out of bed at 5:30am, bitching under my breathe of course, and head to the hall to start sasang. I get into my yoga pose to start mediating and decide to give myself a little pep-talk, otherwise there is no way I am going to make it through these next two weeks.

Really Jilian you are being way to negative about this whole experience. I mean look at the bigger picture: you are on the other side of the world in India...how cool is that?! This may be the only opportunity in your lifetime to be here. Furthermore, people from all over the world would be honored to get the opportunity to study at this ashram.

Okay - so your not that spiritual of a person and you think that the people who talk about seeing the light and reaching Krishna or whatever are freaks. Fine. Just have a little respect. Clearly you don't believe in that, but don't hold judgement at those who do. Take out of this experience what is important to you and leave the things that aren't with a little bit of discipline and a lot of patience you can make this experience beneficial for you.

At this point, I become one with myself. (Haha - just kidding). But this is the time when I have a little positive energy and really really enjoy my time in the Ashram. I just concentrated on the things I did enjoy. In the morning asana classes we had a fantastic teacher. He was so helpful. In fact, he got Joelle and I doing bad-ass yoga headstands in one day. I also loved what yoga did for my body. It not only helps with flexibility and strength, but improves your respiratory system, your digestive system and your circulatory system: it was very obvious. I tried to make the chanting a little bit more interesting for myself. I started to sit next to the Indian men that bang the drums and razzed the tambourine. It was a little more upbeat and entertained me through the songs. And lastly, Joelle and I met a handful of some really amazing people that made the entire experience worthwhile. (Muelenbelt - I got a lady who tops your life story by 100%).

What I've learned is the saying - mind over matter - is not in fact a figure of speech: it's reality. A little determination, a little positive energy, mix in some patience and a lot of discipline and *Wa La - you can do whatever it is your little heart desires (or doesn't desire for that matter :) )

India taxi. Is this not screaming Vertigo?