India: Daily Practice

Day 1: 

3am wake up, severe jet lag. attempt to go back to sleep. 

4am automated bells begin by (an evil) machine heard miles around

4.30am give up sleep, get up

5am morning mediation, chanting (last 40 minutes after legs go numb from lack of practice, does not feel meditative)

6am-8.30am yoga asana class with 101 year old yogi (similar to yoga calastinics), he's as limber & humorous as a young man half his age, an entourage of young (boys) demonstrate the poses (helpful with his strong Indian accent)

9am breakfast (curried yellow rice with yellow vegtables and chai)

break

11am-12.30pm chanting with the Kryia Yoga Course class with Indu (she sings like angel, I sing like frog)

12.30am cleaning of the room & heart

1pm lunch (yellow dahl, yellow cabbage curry, chapattis, and yellow rice and sadly, no chai! this is very upsetting)

3.30-5pm yoga class with Indu, more yoga calestinics

5.30-7pm Ganga Aarti (fire ceremony on the Ganga River) & Satsong with Swamiji

7pm- dinner (more yellow curry)

8.30- crash

Day 2-14: 

3am wake with jet lag again and again, stay up

4am evil bells and chanting (by day 3, enjoyed the sound of the bells...enjoyed most sounds from India, mood as light as a feather)

5am hand wash clothes in leaky sink and hang to dry outside room daily

6-8am Kriya Course class with Mataji

skip breakfast (it's all yellow but miss my only chance for 

Kamal's Class with Meg

delicious chai)

8.30-10.30am Ashtanga class with Kamal the Ashtanga "Wonder" (we had another name for him... let's just say he was strong, almost forceful with the adjustments)

10.45am take away chai from "the office" cafe (with promise to return their metal cup since no one in India does take away)

11am-12.30pm Chanting Class (45 minutes into class, mouth feels like cotton and tongue not working. Sanskrit is hard. Wished I had learned a second language as a child, would it be easier then?)

12.30pm Seva: cleaning of the floors & heart (my heart is in need of major overhaul)

1pm lunch (yellow yellow yellow yet yummy) Wishing for chai. Must devise plan to feed new chai addiction in the afternoons

1.30-3.30pm various afternoon adventures.... the beach, tea, shopping, an orphanage, playing a board game, ludo, at "the office", a massage.... 

3.30-5pm yoga (which I only made about half the tme after the the first day)

5-7pm- yoga class with Surinder at the Raj Hotel (my preference) or Ganga Aarti (fire ceremony at the river)

Surinder's Class

7pm dinner (yellow curry at the ashram unless I was awake enough to go out to eat)

8.30-9pm crash

Amazingly, I've never had more energy. I had time to focus and really listen to my body instead of mindlessly eating or chasing after everything that appears to be urgent (teaching, class prep, calls, texts, emails, errands, carpooling.... life). 

At home, Houston: Daily Practice

4am or whenever I can fit it in with my son's schedules... I'm still on India time. My mantra for the new year: "Yoga is not an exercise done on a sticky mat. Yoga lives inside you."