After eating the same food at the ashram everyday for dinner, Valentine’s Day was a good excuse, for us to go out dinner.
I invited my beautiful friends, Nikki and Aureille, to join me for dinner at the nearby Dunes resort. The restaurant, which overlooked the ocean, was decorated with colorful hanging cloth lanterns and it was very lively. It was too dark the see the ocean but the music from the waves made a soothing and calming experience. Nature’s music is always at it’s best. After debating between a healthy meal or what I really really wanted, I went ahead and ordered the pesto pasta. It was exactly what I needed and, the warm brownie with ice cream made the evening perfect. Valentines without chocolate can never be fun . Lol. Yep, there’s always a way for my sweet tooth to win.
After dinner, we walked via the street market to our humble abode. On the way, we stopped at Sita’s shop. She has become fast friends with the girls. She told us about her life story which was very touching but it was way past our bedtime and time for us to bid her goodbye or else she could keep on going with banter. We got to our rooms safe and sound. I put on my comfy pajamas and went to bed. I was tired as well as fulled with so much love, that I had an amazing deep sleep. Yes, finally!
I was excited to wake up at 6am because today we were going to do our morning meditation by the ocean when the sun rises. It surely was an uplifting experience to be grounded by the sand below our feet and to gaze at the fierce waves. As I was meditating, a wild dog decided to come near me and growl. I thought, may be, it’s my fear that’s decided to confront me. I acknowledged it and let it go. I changed my mindset to that of a happy environment and envisioned the dog licking me and sitting beside me. And in an instant moment, his growling vanished and he started licking me. I couldn’t stop laughing, I was able to transform my fear into that of a happy moment by just changing my mindset. That’s one of the lessons shared by the teacher during our Philosophy class yesterday and today I put it into motion.
Barbara led a beautiful sun meditation where we connected with each other and everything around us. It was time to go back to the shala (school) for our Hatha Yoga class but before we went back, I had to jump in the ocean. The water was so clear and warm. It reminded me of my Puerto Vallarta vacation with Maria and I had to go for a swim for my dear friend Maria.
I ended up being late for my yoga class because a photographer who was in India for filming a documentary wanted to capture my blissful moment praying to the sun. Of course, I couldn’t say no 😉
As I was heading back to the shala, I realized that my room keys were missing. I was looking for it all over the beach, like finding a needle in a haystack. Alas, my friend Alice came back to the beach to pick up her sandals she had forgotten at the beach and she did happen to have my keys which I had given her when I was doing my photo shoot.
We jogged back to the shala for our yoga class and enjoyed the deep stretching. I was in cloud nine. But as the saying goes, ”All that goes up, has to come down.”
In the afternoon, we had our, Art of Teaching, class. I did a dharma talk about bringing your inner child and childlike carefree personality to the yoga mat by reading from, The Fifth Element. The teacher didn’t like that I had selected that topic because she felt that not everyone has a happier childhood and my talk was a bit too long. The criticism didn’t gel well with me. It reminded me of my ex-boss who would critique anything I was passionate about. I strongly believe and, in fact, I’ve always embraced my childlike mindset. I do things just like I would have done as if I was a kid. May be I’m a bit more wiser now as I see some strands of gray here and there. I was a bit annoyed by the criticism. Normally, I would just let it go but since I’m here to learn and grow, I wanted to understand myself better and get to the root cause of my frustration.
I went back to the ocean for a swim in the evening while the sun was setting. The waves were ferocious. I embraced the waves just as they were my emotions. I noticed that my one past bad memory had triggered this chain reaction and threw me off the joyful wagon. I realized that awareness is the key before I can let go and this is something I’m going to keep on working on.
I tried to understand where the teacher was coming from. I evaluated our different points of view. In this process, I realized that I can either use the criticism or not, it’s a choice I’ve to make. She had raised a valid concern and I had to figure out how to address it without giving up on something I believe. I decided to make my talk shorter, but I kept my intention of being childlike by guiding my students to imagine, if we can just have fun like a child would, how easy it will be to live a stressed free life. Adding my personal story would help me connect better with my students as well. I feel so good that I was able to remove myself out of the equation to see the bigger picture and how it all makes sense.
I learned a great deal from today’s experience. The past is something I can’t change but I can definitely focus on the now, my present moment – to be aware, be a good listener and be open to feedback, before I make any decisions. This is something I can definitely implement in my personal and work life.
Life is just like a rollercoacter ride and I’m learning to ride the ups and down of this emotional journey. And this is what being alive is my friends 🤗
