I have been attending a workshop called "The Art of Living" for the past week. It was held at the Coral Beach Hotel which just happens to be down the road from where I live (right next to the Indian Ocean - lovely!)
I must say that it was a transformative experience. Although I dread being seen as a goody-goody it would be nice to know that, at my funeral, people won't be heaving a collective sigh of relief! Besides, I constantly deal with loads of inner chatter and thought that it wouldn't hurt to explore ways to have some silence and peace in my head!
The course was designed around yoga, breathing exercises and a number of key points.
My favourite was "what you resist persists". This means that the more you close up and hold tightly onto yourself, your beliefs /your viewpoint and reject everything else, the more you'll find yourself in situations that challenge you and your frozen thinking. The more open you are the lighter your life becomes and the easier it will be to deal with what you view as wrong or bad. Judgment is never a good idea and nothing is carved in stone!
This really struck me because I tend to be much like a statue when it comes to what I think is right and wrong and who I think is good and bad. In my world it's almost all black and white and there's hardly any grey (besides, grey is SUCH a dull colour but let's not go there!)
The other major thing I learned is that, at our very core, we are all the same. We all want love and happiness. This might sound pretty obvious but I tend to forget all about it when the cashier at Shrijee's is taking 100 years to ring up the bill or when the askari is busy chatting and ignores me when I'm waiting at the gate!
It wasn't all angel's wings and clouds, though. There were times when I thought the processes we were going through, like dancing with our eyes closed and laughing for no reason at all, was an exercise in silliness. But I noticed that once I stopped thinking, it was actually very liberating to laugh for no reason and dance blindly. The constant worry about what other people might think eventually stopped and it felt like I was suddenly free of a nagging headache.....
I think the best advertisement for this course is my teacher - she's close to 40 but looks about 20 (who needs Dr.90210 when you can laugh and breathe your way to unlined skin and a brighter smile!). The attendees were from vastly different cultures/backgrounds/ages but by the end of it, we all felt a strange sense of one-ness. It was refreshing.
I'm not saying that I'm going to be an angel after this (I had a little tiff with The Engineer in the past week but I didn't tell the teacher!). I don't think I can stop being a Judgey Judgerson anytime soon or stop having concrete opinions (I'll have to shut down this blog if I ever run out of those!) but at least I'm more aware of my own thoughts, why I have them and the effect of these thoughts out in the world.
Alright, if you've read this far and been rolling your eyes, I get it -it's time to stop! I hate a goody-goody as much as the next guy so no more preaching but before I go back to my regular complain-ey entries, allow me this last bit of goody-goodyness. This is a little prayer we learned which I just have to share:
"Lead us from untruth to truth,
From darkness into light,
From mortality to immortality,
Peace, peace, peace"
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