Yoga Workshop

Ohm

Last week a friend asked me if I wanted to come along to a yoga workshop. She really wanted to go, but didn't feel like going alone. I used to go to yoga classes in the Netherlands (a long time ago) and liked it so I said yes to my friend. Then I got the info....:

Yoga for Self Healing

Learn an easy and effective Self Healing Technique that works wonders for your overall health...
Swami Maheshananda will teach the Yogic concept of Prana (the vital life force).
When prana is balanced and in harmony with the energy of the world around, we feel healthy, full of vitality and able to respond to life in a joyful and creative way.
When it is imbalanced, we feel weak, unwell, and unable to deal with life effectively.
Wherever energy is blocked and stagnant, there is a possibility of disease and dysfunction. You will learn to feel and manipulate your own prana (life force) through Yoga practises that support healthy and balanced prana.
This workshop offers an opportunity to study Prana Vidya (pranic Self-healing techniques).
By using these techniques we can liberate trapped energy, thus promoting healthy function of all the organs, the emotions and the mind.

About Swami Maheshananda:
He travels nationally and internationally to conduct seminars and workshops on Yoga and has led groups on high altitude pilgrimages to Kailash, Manasarovar in Tibet and Indian Himalayas. He was initiated into the Dasnami Sannyasa Order by Paramhamsa Niranjanananda, the anointed successor of Paramhamsa Satyananda. Swami Maheshananda lived with his Guru for twelve years, serving his Guru's mission in various capacities.

http://wanderingmahesh.blogspot.in
http://facebook.com/swami.mahesh


OK, that sounded fine, but then I saw it was a full day workshop, from 10 till 16hr, and I started to realise it was a very serious affair with a real Swami even. The term Swami to me is a synonym for old man with a long white beard, dressed in nothing but an orange dhoti, and equals VERY SERIOUS yoga.

I checked out the links and found that Swami Mahesh is not old, has no beard but is dressed in orange alright.

I had said yes to my friend and had no good reason to say no after all, so I borrowed a yoga mat and went to the workshop. We were in a group of about 12 people, most of them seasoned yoga-ites and some even yoga teachers. Swami Mahesh is a very nice guy and he started with a lecture on the concept of Prana, chakras and energy flow in the body. After that the yoga exercises started and, to my great relief, I didn't have any trouble keeping up. But then the Ohm-chanting started... We had to block our ears with our thumbs and cover our eyes with the other fingers and chant 'Ohm'. The resonation that the chanting causes in your head and body is supposed to be very beneficial for the enegry flow, but it drove me nuts. I tried it for 2 sequences and only lip synced after that (sorry Swami). Boy was I glad that exercises was over!

Little did I know there was more pain in store for me.... must have been the bad karma from not doing the Ohm chanting serious enough...

"Lunch break and after that more yoga, starting with: Ohm chanting" (my first reaction was to get my mat and run). I stayed and had lunch with my friend and decided I would have a look at the terras that I was sitting opposite to on my mat. I walked over and wanted to step out, just to find out there was a fly screen door. Never saw it so I ran into it in a full head on collision, banging my right foot very hard against the bottom part causing the screen to rip out and my foot to hurt badly. The worst thing however was feeling very embarrassed for doing such a stupid thing. I got the screen back into the rail and myself back on my mat with a throbbing toe.

The afternoon session was fine, I survived the Ohm chanting by keeping the vibrations down (by chanting in a soft voice) and it helped that we didn't have to block our ears and eyes this time. The meditation after that went very well and I didn't fall asleep (quite some snoring going on around me), but my foot kept bothering me.

Looking back, the morning after, I know a full day yoga workshop is not my cup of chai and I won't be found chanting Ohm any time soon. My toe is killing me and my muscles ache from the exercises, but I did enjoy the yoga itself.

Cultural differences

One of the things I really love about being an expat, is that we get exposed to different cultures. Going on holidays to a far away country is not the same as living there, trying to learn the language, finding your way in the local supermarket and learning to cook with different ingredients. We have lived in 5 different countries on 4 different continents so far and every one of those countries had their unique culture and religion(s). With exception of The Netherlands and Australia, we have always stuck out in a crowd and have been the obvious foreigners. The only 'discrimination' we have encountered so far is that prices tend to be higher for us than for locals (especially in Nigeria).
I have high hopes that my boys grow up as world citizens with open minds and without prejudice, but maybe I am a bit naive. Time will tell.

Every Tuesday morning I go to the ANU project to teach English to a group of women. They make bags out of tetra packs and cement bags to earn some money. One of the volunteers bought some bags last week to give as presents to friends in The Netherlands. When she got home she had a good look at the bags and felt she couldn't take them to Europe.... Too much of a difference in cultures I'd say.  See if you agree:

The two bags she bought with the design that might not be taken lightly in Europe....

The swastika is a very old and very common sign in India, symbolising 'auspiciousness' or good luck. Thanks to Hitler most Europeans won't be able to look at it in that way anymore. You might even get molested walking around with one of those bags.

Still, whatever the design and however you feel about it, I think it is an art to make this out of used tetra packs!

Stereotypes

The latest craze on Facebook is posting photo collages with stereotypes of people, jobs or countries. They are very funny but they also make you think about the (mis)conceptions there are.

Two examples (again copy-pasted from FB, no idea who has the copy write...)

So who has the right perception of us Dutchies? I remember how princess Maxima (the wife of our crown prince Willem Alexander), got into trouble when she stated that "The typical Dutch person doesn't exist". 
There is some truth in every stereotype I guess. I don't smoke 'wiet', I don't know any of the Dutch folk dances and we don't go on holidays with a caravan, but I know Dutch people who do. We do/did own/owned (depending on what is still left of our stuff in Libya) clogs and orange outfits and we have worn them to many a get together where a Dutch touch was required, and proudly. And how I miss my bike (Libya again). I had one boy in a seat on the front, one in a seat on the back, a trailer for schoolbags and shopping and a boy on his own bike next to me (holding on to him with one hand on his back/neck) not so long ago. But I never cycled holding an umbrella...

How true is this one??? I always have a hard time finding an answer when someone asks me what I do all day? I keep myself fairly busy, but with what? Not with travelling and massages, although that would be bliss I am sure. I guess the 'What I think I do' is fairly accurate haha. The 'What I really do' picture is not correct in my case (I never sit on our table like that haha).

If you would ask me now my answer for today would be: 'getting up way too early to get the boys of to school, fed, watered and properly dressed, tidying up the house, drinking coffee with my husband, check my mail and Facebook, read the news, read blogs and write my own blog while in between I do the dishes and loads of laundry.' It is not even 10 AM yet!

So do you fit into a stereotype?

13

Today is Ruben's birthday. He was born 13 years ago at Nickol Bay hospital in Karratha, WA. Our second boy. I remember how surprised I was that he looked so different from his older brother. He still does. He is the only red head in the family (on both sides) and he is the most even tempered, happy go lucky boy I know. Let's hope puberty won't change that...

We have 2 teenagers in the house now and an 11 year old that is trying very hard to behave like one too. I love seeing them grow and change and becoming more mature, while at the same time they are still boys.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUBEN!

Draught

The summer hasn't even hit us yet in Bangalore, but we are having issues with the water supply already. The gated community that we live at has a big water tank that gets filled by different sources. One of those sources is a bore well close by, that has somehow lost it's capacity at the beginning of last week. I am not sure if it was due to a faulty pump or because the well dried up, but the fact is that it didn't produce any water anymore.
The other way the water tank gets filled up is by tankers that come in several times a day. High demand for water and the heavy Bangalore traffic reduces the amount of tankers coming in on a daily basis.

Both problems combined means we have been on a water ration since Tuesday. We have a few hours of water in the morning and a few hours in the evening and the rest of the day we have to make due with the water we have collected in buckets.

The community's Yahoo site is stacked with mails about rationing water, wasting water, accusations of people hoarding water, what could be the solution (short term and long term) to prevent this from becoming a more chronic problem, etc etc.

For me it means I have to get up early enough (even during the weekend) to make sure I can have a shower, do a load of laundry, wash the dishes and fill some buckets to flush the toilets and wash our hands, while we have water between 6:00 and 9:00 AM. Similar exercise during those hours PM.
Unfortunately we live quite far from the water tank, so it takes a considerable amount of time for the pipes to fill and the water to reach our house. Last night we still didn't have water at 19:00 hr.

The management committee of the owners association has been working hard all week to try and find extra supplies of water from outside, but also to get the bore wells that have been drilled a few weeks ago inside the community's walls working. This takes time, but we are hopeful that it won't take a whole lot longer before we have enough water coming in to have our taps running for at least a few more hours during the day.

Copy - Paste

There are a lot of 'life lessons' and 'wise words' posted on Facebook every day and it often happens that I think: I should remember this one! But then I forget. I have copy-pasted one here today that I had read several times before and thought was a nice one to think about. So here it is, something to ponder over during the weekend maybe? 

The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and filled it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “YES”.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions. Things, that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else -- the small stuff.” he said.

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you...” he told them.

“So... pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Worship with your family. Play with your children. Take your partner out to dinner. Spend time with good friends. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap. Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled and said, “I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

Enjoy your weekend, make sure to have a nice cup of coffee with a friend!

1 Year

Tomorrow it will be 1 year since "The Day of Rage", a memorable day with demonstrations against the government in Libya. In the week leading to it there was a lot of talk about it between expats and I checked the stories with my Libyan friends to find out how much of an impact it would have. Rumour was that Gadhaffi himself (still strange to be able to write his full name and not refer to him as The Leader or Mr. G.) was behind the demonstrations because he wanted change of government anyway and this made him look like one of the people. The fact that demonstrations were allowed suggested it was all orchestrated by The Ruler anyway. Usually busloads of people were dropped at the Green Square and handed banners to "demonstrate", always pro-Gadhaffi of course.

Nobody seemed to sense this was going to become the start of the revolution, but it did. I would love to say: "And the rest is history", but it isn't. It has been the beginning of a long process. Gadhaffi is gone, but Libya is still struggling to find it's way to become a free and democratic society. After more than 40 years of dictatorship, with no freedom of expressing your own opinions, always being scared you would be overheard and thrown into jail (or worse), and a strong tribal influence on society, the whole political infrastructure has to be build from scratch.

The past year has been traumatic for a lot of people that are connected one way or the other to Libya. I know that we were lucky to be able to leave the country just in time and we didn't have to live through a civil war, but even after a year we still are affected by it. It has had a big impact on our lifes.

I am not sure if it is appropriate to say Happy Anniversary to Libya, but I do hope and pray the 17th of February will prove to be the day that things turned out for the better!

Alif Mabrouk Libya!!!