I've had a bit of quantum shift since returning from Malaysia.
The first three weeks back were filled with chaos, stress, drama and more nonsense than you can shake a stick at. I was struggling to cope with the jet lag and time difference, let alone the climatic issues of going from 34 degrees celsius to 8 degrees celsius.
I came back from my trip realising that I was tired, tired and yet more tired. Emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually tired. Actually, not just tired - freaking exhausted, in all senses of the word.
I was tired of stress and drama and other people's issues with themselves being projected at me in the form of nasty little missiles. Tired of letting my mind run off on wild tangents. Tired of being tired, stressed and exhausted. Tired of not having enough time for myself and always shunting myself and my needs into second fiddle playing position. Tired of taking on other people's crap. And finally, I was tired of letting my mind be disturbed by all kinds of external influences in addition to the internal ones!
To cut a long story short, I turned to yoga in a big way to get over myself, get away from the stress, get out of my comfort zone and get into a nice peaceful sanctuary that is mine, all mine, mwah ha ha ha!
Why yoga? Well, in the past when I've been totally stressed and over everything, I've turned to yoga and meditation. I've used yoga as a tool previously to deal with stress, manage my relaxation and generally chill the heck out after crazy weeks at a hideously stressful past job. I need discipline and structure and coaching with my yoga practice, which I've found at the local yoga school.
The local yoga school is about eight minutes walk from work and about 12 minutes walk from home. It's my sanctuary away from my home sanctuary, a place that I have just for me, where I can go and do asanas and breathe and hiss and bend and stretch and generally turn inward to focus on my breathing and on being present for about 75 minutes three to four times a week.
We do Vinyasa, which I love as it's flowing and structured and logical - which suits my need for structure (certainty); but at the same time we don't do the same things each class and I have two different teachers for the three classes I do each week - which suits my need for variety (uncertainty).
I attended my first "glow yoga" class the week I returned from Malaysia as a way to help me get over my jet lag. It was awesome - yoga in neon clothing to funky beats under UV lights. It was heavenly, peaceful, funky, fun and sedate all at once. I wore a neon yellow top that I bought in KL for about $3 AUD which has little silver metal studs all over it. Apparently it looks like a nuclear explosion under the UV lights. Oh dear.
A few days later I did a savasana workshop, which was transformative, enlightening and kicked off a journey down a yoga path I've never walked before. Savasana is that final part of every yoga class that I have lovingly referred to as "blankie time" in the past, where you loll about on the floor on your mat, for relaxation time. In the workshop, we spent a great deal of the 2.5 hours in savasana (corpse pose), getting comfortable and familiar with savasana.
At some point during the workshop, we did Yoga Nidra, which is a guided relaxation. During Yoga Nidra, the room went still, quiet and black. It was like an out of body experience. It was awesome. I have Yoga Nidra in my iTunes collection, so I'll be whacking it into a playlist if I haven't do so already.
Since then, I've been going to classes very consistently for several weeks. I started with twice a week and now I go three times a week with two evening classes and one Sunday morning class. I may look at adding in a fourth class on a Saturday morning, when time permits. I do like to have one day on the weekend to run around like a crazy woman and do stuff like shopping and laundry and hair appointments. We'll see.
This fourth week back from my adventure has been less stressful, less challenging and less taxing mentally. I've started making leaving on time for yoga a non-negotiable item on my to-do list. It's a very important medical appointment that I cannot cancel. I'm finally back on Aussie time and over the time difference and the jet lag. Yes there has been a lot of drama in my day job recently, but I believe the worst is over now.
Well, until the next full moon anyway.
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