Vacation? - I'm not sure....
I got an e-mail today asking me how my "vacation" was. Hmm, vacation. I spent a week at the Kundalini Yoga Summer Solstice in Espanola, NM. We drove 12 hours straight to get there two Wednesdays ago and we drove 13 hours straight to get back yesterday. Every morning at Solstice, I was awakened at 3:30 a.m. and urged to "Rise up, if you're awake" to go to early morning Sadhana. I only made the first one! I tried my durndest to keep up with everyone else, but I am a woman with a disability that turned HUGE on me up there in the mountains. By the third or fourth day, my body was so sore (particularly my poor little ankles), just from walking up and down rocky hills and trying to take a few yoga classes, that when I awoke at 1 a.m. with a need to go pee, it took me about a half hour to convince myself that I could actually make it to the bathroom. And it was tough getting there. Starting last Tuesday, we did three days straight of White Tantric Yoga (a full 8-hour day or so of chanting and meditation). On the first day, a woman went ballistic on me for having sung a harmony instead of a melody during that first morning's sadhana (which was 3 days previous at that point). I mean she was yelling at me, getting in my face even and accusing me of messing up her sadhana - it was the weirdest thing I've ever dealt with, as far as criticism directed at me. Apparently there are tempers that flare, even at a "spiritual" gathering. Maybe especially so, at such an intense spiritual gathering.
By the last two days of White Tantric, I finally figured out that I was only able to do HALF of what a normal person could do. So I did half-days (the morning half) on days 2 and 3 and slept during the afternoon. Those last few days were heavenly, compared to the pain and frustration of the first half of the week.
My teacher (Mehtab, one of the owners of Yoga Yoga) told me after Solstice that everyone goes through some pain at Solstice - that my experience was "normal." The good thing about it, though (according to Mehtab, who has been doing this stuff for around 20-30 years) is that you work through a bunch of your old neuroses, throw them away and never have to deal with them again. Wow.
So I hesitate to call this trip a "vacation." In my mind, a vacation is a time for maybe sitting on the beach, or partying with your friends in a distant desert or going to a foreign country. But it certainly was a cleansing. For whatever reason, I came home and cleaned my house for about 10 hours today, what with four loads of laundry, getting the mountain dust off luggage and tent, and general house cleaning. I'm supposed to spend the next 40 days journaling, keeping a clean diet, drinking lots of liquids, getting near the water (I'm thinking swimming, maybe tubing) and avoiding toxic substances. Oh yeah and not cursing (cursing isn't good for the 5th chakra, the throat chakra).
I'm very curious to see what comes of all this. I shall keep you posted.....
(p.s. a side note, to those who care about such things - I think it was some of the WORST tasting food I've ever eaten for a week! Breakfast: a liquidy soup with a few potatoes and onions, bananas, oranges. Lunch (during Tantric) - a "Tantric Burger" - the heaviest, worst tasting veggie burger I've ever had. Dinner - a mush of mung beans and white rice, boiled carrots and beets, plain hunk of iceberg lettuce. Thank goodness for trail mix and clif bars, purchased before the "vacation.")
By the last two days of White Tantric, I finally figured out that I was only able to do HALF of what a normal person could do. So I did half-days (the morning half) on days 2 and 3 and slept during the afternoon. Those last few days were heavenly, compared to the pain and frustration of the first half of the week.
My teacher (Mehtab, one of the owners of Yoga Yoga) told me after Solstice that everyone goes through some pain at Solstice - that my experience was "normal." The good thing about it, though (according to Mehtab, who has been doing this stuff for around 20-30 years) is that you work through a bunch of your old neuroses, throw them away and never have to deal with them again. Wow.
So I hesitate to call this trip a "vacation." In my mind, a vacation is a time for maybe sitting on the beach, or partying with your friends in a distant desert or going to a foreign country. But it certainly was a cleansing. For whatever reason, I came home and cleaned my house for about 10 hours today, what with four loads of laundry, getting the mountain dust off luggage and tent, and general house cleaning. I'm supposed to spend the next 40 days journaling, keeping a clean diet, drinking lots of liquids, getting near the water (I'm thinking swimming, maybe tubing) and avoiding toxic substances. Oh yeah and not cursing (cursing isn't good for the 5th chakra, the throat chakra).
I'm very curious to see what comes of all this. I shall keep you posted.....
(p.s. a side note, to those who care about such things - I think it was some of the WORST tasting food I've ever eaten for a week! Breakfast: a liquidy soup with a few potatoes and onions, bananas, oranges. Lunch (during Tantric) - a "Tantric Burger" - the heaviest, worst tasting veggie burger I've ever had. Dinner - a mush of mung beans and white rice, boiled carrots and beets, plain hunk of iceberg lettuce. Thank goodness for trail mix and clif bars, purchased before the "vacation.")