For my day off, I headed to Dehradun, to meet Dr Singh, aka my boss's mum. She is a wonderful lady, and I had a great time meeting her and her VERY friendly dogs. Sultan in particular loves a hug/ jumping on top of you.
As well as some delicious food, she took me around Dehradun. The city used to be very green, but is going through rapid development, so to find the green spaces she took me up into the hills. As you enter the leafier areas, you can feel the air getting clearer and the noise changing, it's amazing. Our first stop was a site called Robbers Cave. Here you pay 35 rupees (about 35p), and can walk up through a beautiful river to a hidden waterfall in a cave. I think it's a holy Hindu site, as many people were praying etc on their way up the walk. It's also a great photo op, and many people were doing extensive insta shoots. I was taken by our taxi driver, as Dr Singh's walking meant she couldn't come, and it turns out he was a very enthusiastic photographer. I have some suitably influencer style videos of me walking but I will save everyone from those for now.
We then went to an Arboretum/ tree research center. This enormous building was built by the British about 100 years ago, with the aim of housing specimens of every tree in Asia. It's still a thriving research center and pretty cool. After some more yummy food I made my way back to Rishikesh.
I ran into Vikas as I got back, who took me on his motorbike to the bridge where we could cross the Ganga. From here we walked across and spent some time sitting on his rock and watching the sunset. He told me the story of how he and Sonu, our Hatha teacher met. They spent 6 months watching each other from their respective rocks without saying hello, Vikas with his group of girls and Sonu his book, before being introduced. They've been great friends since, and teaching yoga at Jiva together. There were 3 particularly sweet baby cows playing on the beach, and after some more high quality cow video content, we went to the Aarti.
Aarti is a group prayer lead by the ashram on the banks of the Ganga at sunset everyday. It was very vibey, with lots of people, mantras and fire/ flowers being put into the Ganga. Apparently it was a relatively short one, but I enjoyed it. Vikas saw King Charles (then Prince) attending the same Aarti a few years ago. Mum is considering coming out here, if that can't convince her to, not much can!
A fair bit of the group chat has revolved around relationships, in particular pressures to get married in Indian families and why it's not the path for some people. We noticed a good contact in Rishikesh however, for anyone reading this wanting some help in the relationship department, see image below. I also finished my book, Him by Geoff Ryman on my day off. It's very good, an imaging of what it was like to be a family member of Jesus, who was born as a woman. An unusual book, and I would recommend.
Back to yoga. In week 2, things have stepped up a notch physically. In Hatha each morning one of the sun salutations includes "Yoga food". This is a round of going from downward dog, to high plank, chaturanga (low plank to a non-yogi), then upward dog and back to downward dog. For the first four rounds each move was on one inhale or exhale (inhale high plank, exhale chaturanga etc), with the fifth holding each pose for 5 inhale/ exhales. This is repeated on each side of the sun salutation and on each day is extended by 1 round. Sonu tells us that in his training he was doing 600 a day!!! In alignment we are learning how to move our heads, backs and arms, and this is feeding into Ashtanga flow practice too. In Ashtanga we have progressed through the standing series to the seated series. To have time to learn new asanas each class, we are moving through faster, and it is punishing, but very rewarding. Feeling the progress is awesome, if at the time counting to 5 breaths feels like an eternity.
In pranayama, and anatomy, we have learnt some new breathing techniques. Kapalbhati is breathing that cleanses the frontal brain. Another technique is Nadi Sodhana Pranayama. People generally breathe with one nostril dominantly, and this changes every 60-90 minutes. During the change there is 1-2 mins where your breathing is even. Nadi Sodhana is breathing through alternate nostrils with the goal of evening your breath and extending the even period. This has a big impact on removing blockages from your respiratory system and calming the brain. There is a lot of amazing science on how pranayama helps with everything from managing diabetes to lowering blood pressure and I will try and look up more of the science once I leave.
We also learnt about Bhramari Pranayama, or humming bee breath. This involved closing your ears off with your index finger, closing your eyes and deeply inhaling, and humming on the exhale. This is repeated over and over. Apparently repeating this for 10-15 rounds will help insomniacs sleep (Nik - are you reading?). This is also apparently very beneficial to pregnant people. Apparently if this is repeated for 10 mins every morning and evening through pregnancy, you will not have much labour pain, and very low chance of a c-section. I'm not sure if there is clinical data to back this up, but worth a shot??? If anyone reading this wants to know more, let me know!
In philosophy we've moved onto the second yog, Niyama, or observances. The last 2 days have been focused on Shoucha or cleanliness. Both of the external and internal world. It's very interesting, and also very practical. A lot of food for thought in regards to western medicine and treating symptoms vs causes. Next week we have some Aryuveda classes, and I'm looking forward to learning more.
By the end of day 2 this week, I was exhausted physically, and have woken up today very stiff. I am persevering, feeding my body with all the delicious food, and managed another cold shower today. Ashtanga class is up next, wish me luck!
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