ashram life

So. The ashram. Quite an experience. It may sound incredibly cliché, but I think I just may have found a new career path. Okay, not path so much as a separate path arriving at the same destination. Confused? Let me explain. No, it’s too much. Let me sum up. Actually let me start by telling you about the Ashram itself. (Bear with me today, apparently I’m all over the place).

The ashram is one of those things you read about in any ‘Adventure’ magazine or watch on the Travel Channel. One of those stories where you get caught up in the excitement of the words and the luring promises of the pictures. That story where you catch yourself staring off into space, daydreaming, imaging yourself at that specific destination. You might even talk about it with certain friends or significant other and make a statement about planning a trip there. Then, you put the article down or change the channel and continue on with your daily life. And sooner or later, completely forget about it. And yet, that is exactly where I found myself at the Ashram. Actually there.

The ashram was beautiful, the setting- picturesque. The schedule was full, the wake up bell early (5:20am), lights out late. Mountains and lakes surrounded the ashram, including lions across the lake- their grunts and roars audible during the quiet mornings and evenings. Food came only twice a day, large delicious vegetarian feasts, consisting of typical Kerala food- minus all the spices (apparently onions and garlic are not zen and therefore banned). The early morning and late evening 2 hour long satsung (meditation) sessions were challenging as I attempted to keep my fickle mind from the extremes of racing with thoughts or drifting off sleep, and attempting to coax it into a state of relaxation and awareness and connection with the present.

The people were fantastic. Granted there were a few ‘ashram’ types, those that stereotypically you think of when you think of an ashram (some might use the words dirty hippy here), but most of the people were fantastically interesting. The type of people that you merely see and yet immediately desire to sit down with with over a drink and wait with baited breath while they convey their life story to you. That’s such a rare phenomenal, incredibly intoxicating, and I feed off those interactions. Our small group was the sole American representative, and the rest of population hailed from a long list of countries that stretched throughout the entire globe. The common thread was English (albeit sometimes broken) and yoga.

Oh, the yoga. Four hours daily of classes. The most intense yoga sessions imaginable. The teachers were encouraging and grueling in the same breath, constantly assisting and correcting, and challenging. Always challenging. We could always go “more up” or “stretch further” or “hold longer”. We spend the hours twisting our bodies and stretching ourselves in ways that seems inconceivable. Despite the obvious physical pain, I loved every second of it. My headstand became consistently steadier and longer, I conquered the crow without breaking my nose, and I trembled my way through the 11 other poses, grinning like an idiot with every small victory, every pose successfully held. I once even had the pleasure, courtesy of the lotus pose, of viewing my own feet over my head while my chin, chest and arms remained on the floor. The style of yoga (hatha) was different from our daily classes (astanga) which translated into a slower style of yoga and holding all the poses for longer. Much longer. We held all the poses for so long in fact that stopped hurting and we were able to be comfortable in whatever pose we were in. And than we held the poses for longer. Until the comfortable feeling left and was replaced with the feeling of fire being poured directly into my muscles. And only then did we release. And that we experienced twice a day. Needless to say that ibuprofen became like candy to us, but despite our minor medical dependence, we never quit or gave up and endured all the sessions. So good.

Anyway, my time at the Ashram got me thinking. Two things that I love, two things I’m getting a degree in. One- social work, social change, social justice, social action. Two- public health, community well being, infectious disease, health disparities. The main ties that bonds these both: global work/international work. One other thing that I greatly enjoy- Yoga. Since being in India and working with Women's Empowerment, I've run into a lot of road blocks because India (and many other developing countries) are strongly influenced by a patriarchal theory. Therefore, empowering women can often be met with resistance and even violence, as this excellent article points out.

During the first day of the trip, I was struck with the revolutionary idea of combining all of the things I'm passionate about, all the goals I want to accomplish in my professional life, and using Yoga as the spearhead. Therefore, I could use Yoga as a tool for Empowerment of Women and girls, which is much less threatening to cultural traditions resistant to liberal empowerment programmes, and also as a tool for improving individual health (as Yoga has the ability to do this) and the public health of the community (through various educational sessions on health and disease). I cannot quite put into the words the excitement that this possibility brought, and it seemed to make perfect sense. It just clicked. I spent a couple of days asking some of my new friends and teachers if they were aware of any programmes or organizations devoted to this. Through a Canadian girl, who would have probably been a great friend of mine had we ever lived in the same area at the same time, told me about a NGO in Sri Lanka devoted to using Yoga to create social change. So it did exist. People actually could do this as their job. And hopefully I could too. My mind started to race ahead and mentally complete grants for pilot studies and study funding.

Of course there was one thing missing. At this point, I am just a girl that likes Yoga, not a Yoga teacher. Since starting Yoga I've always figured that I'd get certified to teach at some point, just for a enjoyable side job/extra income. However, the Ashram offers Teacher Training. Top of the line teacher training. In India. For one month. The month before Christmas visits, the month that was already open in my calender. Seems kind of perfect. Meaning that I could become certified to teach before I return home. For (albeit slightly) cheaper than rates in the US. And again, in India, the birthplace of India. At the same time when I'm finishing up my degrees. Giving me all the tools I would need to make this dream a reality. So needless to say, I have a decision to make in the new few days, but there is a very large part of me that is leaning towards living in an Ashram for a month and becoming internationally certified to teach yoga. And all of this because of a simple spur of the moment decision to take a trip to a Yoga ashram.