I have tried numerous different meditations over the years including Vipassana, Sahaj, Sudarshan Kriya, yoga nidra, sound healing, flute meditation, candle meditation, pranayama and others. For every morning of the week, I decide to wake up and meditate, only feeling paralyzed by the amount of information I already have on the topic of wellness and thus, not able to meditate. I suffer from information paralysis perhaps.
It’s no different with fitness. There’s a gym, HIIT, Pilates, yoga, aerial, boxing and other formats of meditation, I can’t pick one and stick to it without feeling FOMO.
Recently, I explored the new long-stay wellness programme at Dharana by Shillim where I was taken by surprise by their simple regimen for wellness. Yoga once a day and a simple sound healing supplemented with a pranayama lasting around 45 minutes. It was a regimen that seemed too easy to miss and maybe that’s why I stuck to it – even after I went back home. Sure, compared to the diverse yoga and meditation rituals found today, the same yoga and meditation ritual sounds boring and unintellectual. However, it’s doable. And I need to practice meditation and yoga, not just learn them and feel confused and overwhelmed with knowledge.
There was a certain ease I found in life beyond the monotony. Even though I was in the same environment in the middle of nature and lush Sahyadri mountains, I observed new things everyday and found beauty in it. Be it clouds chasing over mountain tops or noticing the stunning flower that blooms once in seven years and realising how my life might be similar to that. Life is perhaps not a long race but a slow one and the slowest person wins was my takeaway from the flower that blooms once in seven years. How touching. The nature walk was simple unlike my extreme adventure Himalayan treks, but it was enough to make me reconnect with myself.
As someone who has never stuck to the same kind of cuisine for more than two meals, I was surprised to see how easily I adapted to eating healthy food for every meal. Be it Indian thalis, Buddha bowls, roasted bell pepper soup or broccoli salad with almonds sliced on it – the spiceless food started tasting better with each meal. Moreover, a cooking class I engaged in made me realise I am capable of preparing simple and healthy meals for myself. Millet pulao and sweet potato chaat barely take 15 minutes to prepare.
As someone who tends to intellectualize more than put to practice, I realised the importance of practice. With each breath of pranayama, which I was taught in grade 3 of school, I realised how little I know about how to put pranayama to practice. I know the theory of breath and how to do pranayama but without practice theory does not help at all. I realised what I needed most was going back to basics and implementing basics. Even putting basics to practice is challenging enough.
The importance of connecting with Earth for wellness cannot be ignored. As children, I played in the mud or on school grounds. However, as an adult I have lost touch with the Earth element. Growing spinach on a farm during the retreat felt like going to basics again. I had read about gardening but surprisingly I planted the first ever plant of my life at the retreat, at the age of 25.
As a child, I have memories of playing in the rain. However, as an adult I don’t like getting wet in the rain. I’m losing touch with nature thanks to city life and work schedules. At the retreat, I engaged in a stream walk where it started raining and I crossed a small stream in the rain. Excitement and joy rushed into my life again. Felt like a breath of fresh air – both metaphorically and literally ! I began enjoying the simpler things in life.
The whole retreat felt like going back to basics. My mind resisted it at first thinking it’s too easy and I already know it all. However, the honest truth is I knew it all at the intellectual level and not as a practice. The retreat helped me to solidify new and healthier habits related to eating, practising yoga and meditation.
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