I have tried many different meditations over the years including Vipassana, Sahaj, Sudarshan Kriya, Yoga Nidra, Sound Healing, Flute Meditation, Candle Meditation, Pranayama, etc. I wake up every morning determined to meditate, but I can’t because I’m overwhelmed by the amount of information I already have on health topics. I’m probably suffering from information paralysis.
Fitness is no different. There are gyms, HIIT, Pilates, yoga, aerials, boxing, and other forms of meditation, but you can’t just pick one and stick with it without feeling FOMO.
Recently, I investigated Darana at Sirim’s new extended stay wellness program and was amazed by its simple wellness plan. Simple sound healing with the addition of yoga once a day and pranayama that lasts approximately 45 minutes. It’s a therapy that’s too easily overlooked, and maybe that’s why I continued with it after I got home. Indeed, the same yoga and meditation rituals seem boring and unintellectual when compared to the variety of yoga and meditation rituals seen today. However, it is possible. And instead of just learning meditation or yoga and getting confused or overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge, you need to practice it.
I found a kind of peace above the monotony of life. Even though I was in the same environment, in the middle of nature and lush Sahyadri mountains, I observed something new every day and found beauty in it. Whether it’s a cloud chasing the top of a mountain, or noticing a gorgeous flower that blooms once every seven years and realizing that your life might be similar to it. Perhaps life is not a long race, but a slow one, and the slowest person wins, is what I got from the flower that blooms once every seven years. How moving! The nature walk was simple, unlike my extreme adventure trekking in the Himalayas, but it was enough to make me reacquaint myself with myself.
As someone who has never stuck to the same type of cuisine for more than two meals, I was surprised to see how easily I could adapt to eating healthy food at every meal. The spice-free foods tasted better with each meal: Indian thalis, Buddha bowls, roasted pepper soup, and broccoli salad with sliced ​​almonds. Additionally, the cooking classes I attended made me realize that I can make easy and healthy meals myself. Awa Pulao and Sweet Potato Chat takes less than 15 minutes to prepare.
As someone who tends to acquire knowledge rather than practice, I realized the importance of practice. Every time I breathed the pranayama that was taught to me in third grade in school, I realized how ignorant I was about how to practice pranayama. I know the theory of breathing and how to do pranayama, but theory is completely useless without practice. I realized that what I needed most was to go back to basics and put them into practice. Practicing the basics is difficult enough.
The importance of connecting with the Earth for our health cannot be ignored. As a child, I played in the mud and in the schoolyard. But as an adult, I lost touch with the earthly elements. Growing spinach on the farm during the retreat felt like going back to basics all over again. I had read books about gardening, but amazingly, at the age of 25, I planted my first plants on a retreat.
I have fond memories of playing in the rain when I was a child. But when you grow up, you don’t want to get wet in the rain. Due to my city life and work schedule, I am losing touch with nature. At the retreat, we participated in a stream walk as it started to rain and crossed a small stream in the rain. Excitement and joy flooded into my life again. It felt like a breath of fresh air, both figuratively and literally. I started to enjoy the simpler things in life.
The whole retreat felt like going back to basics. At first I resisted, thinking it was too easy, but I already knew everything. But honestly, I knew it all on an intellectual level, not as a practice. This retreat helped me establish new healthy habits around eating, yoga, and meditation.
)
