It is beautiful. We are waking up early, doing our jala netis, practising asanas, learning some about adjustments, alignment, anatomy, philosophy, mantras. Then we do ashtanga and finish the day with meditation.
I am really enjoying the adjustments & alignment class. I feel I could be good at it. I am also consistently in awe with ashtanga. I mean, it is terrible, mind numbing, repetition of the same flow for every single practice. Yet there is joy in observing my own progress in numerous poses. It also seems relaxed and slow. After a very basic surya namaskara warm up we get into a sequence of poses, with no actual flow, just one pose after another. Simple, right? Leaves me sweating every time, like no vinyasa class would. A lot of men got into yoga via ashtanga. I did it before, in Ireland. Once per week, maybe twice, so now daily ashtanga practice is definitely something new. And I see progress!
A lot of our teachers say “when I used to practise”. According to the yogic philosophy and beliefs, yoga asanas are just a tool to prepare our bodies for meditation. And sure our teachers are able to do all the challenging poses, hold them for extended periods of time. I suppose when they say “used to practise”, they mean they are down to one hour per day as opposed to an intense 4-hour per day heavy workout routine.
I really struggled with establishing my own practice. For some reason I felt so fatigued that I would rather take a nap at any free time during the day rather than work on my core. I even started drinking coffee, as I felt disturbed by my spontaneous falling asleep during numerous classes. I think coffee is doing something, although it does not feel as excitable as it used to.
I enjoy seeing my body changing. These things have to do with ayurveda. With my daily naps and taking it easy whenever I could. With my ayurvedic anti-pitta tea and with amla fruits I ate a tonne of recently. I will think of a way to grow them at home, Poland is getting more tropical so should work, no?
So my pitta has decreased. My psoriasis is calm, inflamed acne is gone. I may be shifting towards the other doshas: I am getting vata acne, focus issues, my regular stomach burn got replaced with kapha phlegm. Oh, and I find the weather really, really cold, especially right after the sunrise. Why can’t I just lower all doshas at once? Or establish some kind of stable balance? Ok, to be fair, I am generally skewed towards boiling-water pitta by birth, and I enjoy it much more than any other dosha. I would not be such a fan of coffee otherwise, would I? 🙂
I definitely felt my pitta decreasing now. Probably the first time in my life despite not feeling heard or managed, instead of trying to get my point across, I just thought about how I appreciate the relationship with someone, and just let it go. That was definitely something. Not something I have any recollection of ever experiencing. Like, ever. Meditation is getting easier too. Am I awakening? Just a joke running in my head, with all the complicated practices we are doing to reach samadhi, I think I just really, really enjoy the journey. My life could look like this. Except, I would like to have my loved ones nearby, including my cat.
The joke about awakening has to do with my dream last night. There is one chant that I hear in the neighbourhood every day from around 5am. It seems to be coming from some temple or ashram in the village. So last night I dreamt about different elements of my life, the important ones, and in between each scene I heard the chant, with more detail than I do every day. After I heard the chant for the fifth time, I woke up and could not go back to sleep, no fatigue. Maybe slightly cold. I literally had nothing else to do but to do my morning practice.
Sadhguru says it is when we get in rhythm with life, we find that aliveness at brahma muhurta. I thought more about disturbances in sleep patterns to be honest! But since it encourages my personal practice, I will try to harvest it. At least until I feel another aggravation of my pitta, when it is recommended to sleep in.
Brahma muhurta is a 48-minute period that starts 1 hour and 36 minutes before the sunrise, that is perfect for reflection, meditation, studying and morning practice. Not good for eating or stressful activities. That is when the yogis wake up to do their own practice before they teach. Does that mean going to bed super early? 10pm or 11pm is normal to me. As my teachers say, rest is very important, time is not important.
When I get home, I really hope I keep up with the health and the rhythm. I hope I will keep in mind what I learned here. I will adapt my life so that small things remind me of my teachers in India. I will try to share some good things with my friends. We can talk about philosophy, drink chai, cook or maybe have some evenings with kirtan? I was told to keep creating, to be an artist, and probably I will. I just need to be myself and must not be afraid 🙂
