I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity in the past few months to sample a small fraction of the knowledge, styles and teachers the wonderful world of yoga has to offer. My first getaway was to the Kripalu Center in Lennox, Massachusetts - a nexus of yoginis and weekend retreaters located in the beautiful Berkshire mountains. Kripalu - the structure, the history and the philosophy - is truly incredible. Housed in a former monastary overlooking a gorgeous lake, the Center has served as a laboratory of yogic philopshy, training and lifestyle since the 1980's. Sol Yoga's own Lane Bruchey was trained at Kripalu in the center's calm, intelligent and intuitive style. Click here to read an article about what Kripalu Yoga has to offer.
While at Kripalu, I participated in a three-day workshop called Yoga Body, Buddha Mind with Om Yoga Studio owner Cindy Lee and her husband, Tibetan Buddhist Meditation teacher, David Nichtern. Less rigorous and more meditation intensive than I had predicted, this workshop opened my eyes to some of the things I may use my yoga practice to hide from. While I'm perfectly comfortable doing 108 Sun Salutations, I am not so comfortable sitting still in meditation for twenty minutes. By not so comfortable, I mean sweaty, angry, fidgety and pissed off that I have paid good money to be torutured- not so comfortable:) And despite my initial and continuing reservations about whether this workshop was serving me in any way, by day three I found myself opening up during a metta (heart-centered) meditation. Moved to tears at one point during the meditation, it was hard to argue that the essence of the workshop has not touched me in some way.
I learned a lot at my little weekend getaway at Kripalu. Here are a few things that I think can be applied every day life:
1. Stop taking everything so seriously
Cindy Lee is a comic. Her husband is an assistant in this humor filled show, but Cindy - a former dancer and choreographer of the movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun - is a true, honest to goodness stand up comic. What I appreciated so much about this quality was the authenticity that it brought to her teaching. While she did an excellent job of thoughtfully relating yoga to life, she also was able to completely disintegrate the idea that she was seperate, better, or above the workshop participants in any way. I, for one, am absolutely guilty of taking everything in life - including the perfection of my yoga practice FAR too seriously- so it was challenging to be in Half Moon or Down Dog and be laughing so hard your sides were splitting. What Cindy succeeded in doing by being her natural, humorous self was a) create a sense of playfulness in the experience of yoga which b) built comraderie and community amongst the workshop participants. It wasn't the most challenging yoga I had ever done, but it was absolutely the most fun.
2. Don't believe everything you tell yourself
I attended the workshop at Kripalu by myself which gave me an opportunity to notice a very interesting thing that I do when I am a stranger in a group of people - I make up stories about how the other participants in the workshop view me. This was detrimental for two reasons 1) it is incredibly self-centered to imagine that other people are as focused on you as you are on yourself and 2) EVERYTHING I believed the other participants thought about me was negative. It was truly amazing. According to my mind, people I had never spoken to didn't like me, thought I was fat, were competing with me to be better at yoga and were all stuck up, pretentious snobs. I share this story not because I am proud of this weird self-flaw, but because I have a sneaking suspicion that we all make up these stories about ourselves and our lives on some level. How true are these stories?? Well, in my case, one particuarly limber yogini who I had been sure was hating me from across the room all weekend long sat down next to me in the dining hall at lunch one day and proved to be an amazing, kind, engaging human being. Proof that maybe some of my other beliefs about myself and others could use a little challenging.
3. Take a break
There is a lot to do at Kripalu. 6am yoga classes, hiking trails, fantastic meals, amazing healing arts (ayurveda, massage, reiki, acupuncture and so much more), five hours of workshop a day, danskinetics, mediation classes and evening activities. As a total and complete busy body, I loved the packed pace of this schedule and could not wait to cross every single Kripalu experience off my list. But what I found after my second morning of getting up at 5:30am and trying to soak up every moment of the day, was that I really just wanted to sit in a quiet room and read a book and watch snow fall outside of the window. I could not understand this compulsion as (I know I have already mentioned) I paid good money to be there and did not know when I would be going back again. But as hard as I tried to push myself, the reality remained that a boring, quiet afternoon was what I really craved.
So I gave in. I even skipped part of the workshop one day. My whole life is action packed with obligations, entertainment and scheduled activities - I realized that a day or two off would not hurt me and that I wouldn't be missing out on my Kripalu experience, rather I would be reveling in it. I left more renewed then when I had arrived.
4. Eat, Drink & Be Merry
The food at Kripalu is great. It's all healthy, the majority of it is organic and a large percentage is grown locally or on the Kripalu property itself. As it was explained to us in our Kripalu orientation, many of the cooks claim to meditate while they are preparing the food for the guests.
As I am writing this blog, I am eating Christmas cookies for lunch to follow up on the three cups of coffee and handful of raisins that I had for breakfast. Not exactly wholistic, natural or meditative.
What I learned at Kripalu is that you are what you eat. The health, energy and care put into the food there nutured my body in a way that was quite frankly very suprising. I ate soup for breakfast, flaxseed on my sandwich for lunch and even declined dessert after dinner. But it wasn't about eating 'healthy' in the low-calorie, appetite supressed, watered down way; it was about eating home-made food that had been infused with thought and intention from planting to consumption. It was really, truly a beautiful way to nourish myself I felt happier, lighter, less sluggish and inclined to take the importance of food preparation, creation and consumption home with me. So far I've made quiche.
5. Revel in that which you love
The last day of the workshop, David Nichtern led us in a metta mediation which is meant to send loving-kindness out into the world. We had to bring various people (some we like and some we don't) into are hearts and minds and wish them happiness, health, safety, satisfaction and freedom from suffering. One of the people we had to bring into our minds and chant this mantra to was someone we loved without reservation; someone that embodied love to us. When I brought this person (my Grandfather, Dean) into my mind I was overwhelmed with the feeling of love. It was truly extraordinary. To me, Dean stands for unconditional acceptance and reliability; he represents all of the tenderness, support and belonging that my often crazy family offers; he brought a sense of old world confidence and class to my life and since he has passed away almost five years ago I truly miss him on a regular basis.
The feeling of love in my heart was so strong and powerful it overtook me and I sobbed out loud. But it felt cleansing and comforting to know that my tears were because I loved and had been loved so deeply and unconditionally by another human being. Dean is not the only person that loves me this way. It is important to remember that even though life and relationships are hard, most of us are swimming in a sea of love. And the power of it can move one to tears.
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