Final Hours in India.

Today is my last day of this long visit to India. This day is so bittersweet, even the weather is trying to convince me to stay. Usually a hot and humid day...today is perfect. It is warm and breezy and I can see mango are starting to pop out on the trees.

This last 3 months has been a great experience. I came for many things, dance, training, family, solitude. I learned so much about myself and felt I found much more than what I expected to. This was truly a great visit for me.







Highlights:

Bharatanatyam. - I now have a very strong base of skills in this art form to build upon. I have set goals and want to dance more. I feel empowered by this dance form and have a great amount of pride in learning it. I feel more connected to god when I dance, so I will continue to dance.








Yoga - I am a certified global Ashtangi. I can now register and teach yoga. I feel wonderful in the knowledge I have learned from my course. I know my personal practice has improved and will continue, but along with that came the education to teach safely, authentically, and to empower others through yogic practices. I want to explore this, I want to help others explore this.


Family - I have spent some serious quality time with my In-Laws. They have got to see me in every capacity, moody, weird, goofy....they saw the real me. This was very important. I am grateful to have had this precious time with them.

Spirituality - I have been blessed in India, truly. I have found a profound and real spirituality on my visit. This feeling replaces a nothingness, or an emptiness that was inside me. I went to a number of temples, churches, and other places of worship. I received profound blessings from Guruji Maharaj in Dehli, and felt a profound connection there. I am still processing this piece...it is heavy. I am happy to talk about it when I get back. I am excited for this beginning in my life.

Charity - I have started laying some idea seeds with my Father-In-Law to work on something both of us have wanted to do for a long time. I am proud of this work. I want to be a part of something bigger, important, lasting....perhaps this is it.

Weddings - I have been to so many Indian weddings of all types. I have had a blast and made some great friends and connections. Indian hospitality is amazing and I was fortunate enough to experience it multiple times.


Gluttony - I have spent, ate, and over-indulged myself at every opportunity. It has been great, but now I am ready to focus. I have been studying my Yamas and Niyamas, reading and digesting how to employ these factors in a modern way in my life. How to employ them in my dance. The real work comes in the USA where the challenge to live them is sometimes hard.

We leave tonight midnight Kerala time. (Noon Sunday for the USA) and will return Monday evening. I am ready to go home and start working on my practice, my daily yoga. It is hard to employ it here as life is so different. I am anxious to see my friends, give them the tokens I got them and catch up on the gossip.
I want to see my family, my kitties, I want to see snow, I want a pizza.

I am now prepared to return home with this new set of eyes, excited to see things in a new way. Ready to love more, ready to live better. I will return again, not sure when for sure, maybe in a year. I will also re-unite with my new yoga family and someday visit the Ashram in Mysore. Until then, Thank you India.

Namaste,
Christy

A Baby Yogini is Born!

I DID IT!!!
I worked so hard for this certification. Ashtanga is very hard. Learning yoga in India is no joke, it is hard in many ways. I doubted myself a few times and was scared I wouldn't pass certification, but I did and I am very proud.

Finally back in Thrissur with my family and my husband. The last month in Kovalam for yoga training was very intense. It was both physically challenging and spiritually awakening. I can finally sit back at my computer and digest some of this experience.


To start, I could not blog while at the training for a number of reasons. First, the coursework and daily regimen kept me very occupied from 6:30am to about 8:00pm I was engaged in the course or dinner and socialization afterwards. Second, my brain was being overloaded with information and my body was being challenged physically, it is hard to reflect on your experience when you are still recovering from it. Third, internet connections were hard. I had to purchase a Netsetter USB for constant access, even then I used it mostly for study or the occasional Facebook check in.

This yoga training changed me profoundly. I am a newly born yogini, I have some different perspectives on my own existence, my own practice, the ethics and morality I choose to employ in my life, and what I perceive as important/necessary in my life. These life changes came from voluntarily forcing myself into an intensively hard living arrangement, a rigorous daily asana practice, the daily challenge of witnessing abject poverty and feeling local resentments and animosity towards foreign visitors, and experiencing overwhelming and unconditional love and support from a group of people who united for the soul purpose of becoming a yogi/yogini. I am humbled by this experience, I am profoundly proud of myself, and grateful to all my teachers.

I am just beginning this process of analysis, and frankly, it will probably take months to fully accept the dynamic changes I feel starting to develop in my own being. How I integrate these feelings and changes into my daily American life will be truly another endeavor. Many of the philosophies I learned about were interesting, Yogic science and living sutras are very archaic. I think part of the challenge is deciphering the information, and artfully applying those wisdoms into modern life/logic. This will be my challenge going forward.

Many people have asked me..."Will you teach, or When you return where are you offering classes?"  I am really humbled by this. My intent was really to do some serious mind/body conditioning and to learn how to bring my practice to a more organized daily ritual. I didn't think anyone would want to learn from me. So to answer that question....YES, sure, want to learn? I would be happy to lead a class. I must give this disclaimer though, Ashtanga yoga is hard. It is nothing like the vinyasa-flow, fitness type yoga Americans seek in gyms. It is regimented. I also learned this form in India, so I will lead my class in an "Indian style" which will be very different from what most people associate with a yoga course.

Let me get home and put out some feelers. If you are interested, please reach out and email me on Facebook. It will help me to know who is interested. I would be honored if anyone wants to do some Yoga with me. I learned some great pranayama and lead meditation techniques that I thought would also be great to introduce to a beginner class.

In the meantime I am using the next twelve days in Thrissur to relax, meditate, hang out with my family, and get ready to return back to the USA. In this time-off I will have a few more adventures. I have a wedding betrothal and a overnight trip into Cochin arranged. I need to return back to the studio to do some finishing dance work with Aparna. I need this time to fully digest all I have learned. I will blog more on that. It takes time...I have time.

Namaste,
Christy