Today was the first day of the 6-day Patanjali Yoga course that I am attending. I had thought that it would be difficult to get up before the sun is up in the morning but frankly my internal body clock made sure that I was up well before the needed hour. There was a brief 5-minute internal struggle, not totally unexpected, on whether it was REALLY necessary to leave the warmth of the bed to venture out in the cold (by Mumbai's standards!) to learn new ways of breathing. But this is January, a bit too early to part with the resolutions. So I dragged myself out and was soon on my way.
Though Mumbai has the reputation of being the city that never sleeps, I had no idea that people would be up and about at what undoubtedly is an unearthly hour by my standards. There were delivery guys and vendors selling a hot cup of tea by the roadside but then there were ladies returning from their morning walks. I wondered for a moment if they were sleep-walking because I couldn't imagine when they must have started their walks to be able to return by the time I managed to stumble on the road, trying to rub the sleep off my eyes.
When I reached the training center I was relieved to find another woman waiting there. Soon the teacher arrived and one by one other students started dropping in. We are a class of 8. The teacher is an elderly gentleman who talks in a mix of Marathi, Hindi and English. The jumble was a trial to sort through, especially so early in the morning but I guess I have got the hang of it now. After the experience of the Art Of Living, I was very afraid that we would be folding hands in front of the photo of Baba Ramdev before we began but there was none of that. Thank Universe for small mercies!
Our instructor took us through the benefits of breathing and how the five fingers of our hands are related to the 5 elemental forces in the universe - Fire, Air, Space, Earth and Water. To be very frank, I have decided to join this class with a very healthy dose of skepticism. I mean I know the benefits of breathing and believe that many times natural medicines are way more effective in curing certain elements than modern medicines - common cold being the case in point. But when the instructor had talked about yoga being able to cure cancer as well I realized that it was well outside the boundary of my belief system.
Anyways, so after being introduced to the 7-8 breathing techniques that we would be taught during the course of the 6 days, we started with the 2nd one - Kapaalbhaati. The trick is to exhale forcefully - one exhale per second - so that the tummy is jolted each time you do that. We did it for 3 minutes to begin with but the target is to do it for 15 minutes eventually. A tall order! Of course we could do it in 5 sets of 3 minute each and later 3 sets of 5 minutes each but we have to keep in mind that the first minute in every set would be spent in bringing the body into the rhythm so we would be reaping the benefit of the breathing technique only for 10 and 12 minutes respectively. Another important thing to remember is to do this on an empty stomach. That's another hurdle I need to figure out how to cross.
After the 3 minutes of Kapaalbhaati, the instructor asked me if I had done this before. I told him about the AOL course that I had attended twice. He nodded saying that it was probably because of that that I was able to do it correctly. So I offered a silent thanks to both the AOL teachers.
A few more minutes of discussion later today's session was over. It was only then that I realized that though I had missed my morning cuppa tea, I hadn't really missed it at all :-)
Getting up before the sunrise is something that I haven't done much in my life but there is no denying the fact that I am already looking forward to tomorrow's session :-)
P.S. Please do not attempt any of the above exercises without consulting a trained Yoga teacher. I cannot guarantee that I have got the details right.
Though Mumbai has the reputation of being the city that never sleeps, I had no idea that people would be up and about at what undoubtedly is an unearthly hour by my standards. There were delivery guys and vendors selling a hot cup of tea by the roadside but then there were ladies returning from their morning walks. I wondered for a moment if they were sleep-walking because I couldn't imagine when they must have started their walks to be able to return by the time I managed to stumble on the road, trying to rub the sleep off my eyes.
When I reached the training center I was relieved to find another woman waiting there. Soon the teacher arrived and one by one other students started dropping in. We are a class of 8. The teacher is an elderly gentleman who talks in a mix of Marathi, Hindi and English. The jumble was a trial to sort through, especially so early in the morning but I guess I have got the hang of it now. After the experience of the Art Of Living, I was very afraid that we would be folding hands in front of the photo of Baba Ramdev before we began but there was none of that. Thank Universe for small mercies!
Our instructor took us through the benefits of breathing and how the five fingers of our hands are related to the 5 elemental forces in the universe - Fire, Air, Space, Earth and Water. To be very frank, I have decided to join this class with a very healthy dose of skepticism. I mean I know the benefits of breathing and believe that many times natural medicines are way more effective in curing certain elements than modern medicines - common cold being the case in point. But when the instructor had talked about yoga being able to cure cancer as well I realized that it was well outside the boundary of my belief system.
Anyways, so after being introduced to the 7-8 breathing techniques that we would be taught during the course of the 6 days, we started with the 2nd one - Kapaalbhaati. The trick is to exhale forcefully - one exhale per second - so that the tummy is jolted each time you do that. We did it for 3 minutes to begin with but the target is to do it for 15 minutes eventually. A tall order! Of course we could do it in 5 sets of 3 minute each and later 3 sets of 5 minutes each but we have to keep in mind that the first minute in every set would be spent in bringing the body into the rhythm so we would be reaping the benefit of the breathing technique only for 10 and 12 minutes respectively. Another important thing to remember is to do this on an empty stomach. That's another hurdle I need to figure out how to cross.
After the 3 minutes of Kapaalbhaati, the instructor asked me if I had done this before. I told him about the AOL course that I had attended twice. He nodded saying that it was probably because of that that I was able to do it correctly. So I offered a silent thanks to both the AOL teachers.
A few more minutes of discussion later today's session was over. It was only then that I realized that though I had missed my morning cuppa tea, I hadn't really missed it at all :-)
Getting up before the sunrise is something that I haven't done much in my life but there is no denying the fact that I am already looking forward to tomorrow's session :-)
P.S. Please do not attempt any of the above exercises without consulting a trained Yoga teacher. I cannot guarantee that I have got the details right.
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