Breathe away to good health

The past week has been quite eventful for me. By eventful I do not mean happening. I had been lying low for most of the time last week. My usage of the words lying low is intentional as I intend to covey multiple meanings through these two words (Don’t we just love the English language for that!). Firstly I was lying low means I was inactive on my blog – a single post in 8 days qualifies for a self –explanation. Secondly, I slipped off a staircase and lay low on my bed nursing the blue-black patches on my body and the last and final meaning of lie low is literal – I was undergoing The Art of Living course so I’d been lying low ‘breathing in and breathing out’ all of last week !

Few of my family members had undergone this course some time back and they did recommend it to me but being the lazy lump that I am, I lacked the drive to search, enroll and endure what they had to offer. However, there were a few concerns that were playing on my mind – like my ever-increasing girth on an otherwise lean frame and poor immunity (so poor that I catch cold when someone sneezes ever meters away) and even poorer stamina (I’m like a total zombie at the end of the day!). I knew the answer to all my concerns was exercising and activity but they don’t call sloth a working woman’s vice for no reason! :)

A morning of activity is often followed by several mornings of snoozing. A productive thought of practicing yoga is often greeted by several counter-productive ones. Without proper knowledge of warm-up and an experienced instructor, the effort ends before it begins. And the amount of variety of yoga available in market today makes the effort more daunting - Power Yoga , Baba Ramdev Yoga, B.S. Iyengar Yoga, Bharat Thakur Yoga, Shilpa Shetty Yoga, Kareena’s size zero Yoga and latest in the list Lara Dutta’s Yoga..phew!

A doc’s recommendation to follow the Art of Living helped me sort out the confusions in my mind. I had just a wee bit of idea that it involves breathing exercises and meditation but I decided to take the plunge (After all, we like to believe doctors are always right!) Oh boy! Was I in for a surprise! The Art of Living basic course that I enrolled for was a tedious, breath-taking (pun intended! :D) and enriching process spanning six days. It involved Yoga, Pranayam, Meditation, Detox, Diet Control, Stress Management and a host of other processes. Their most popular and proprietary process Sudarshan Kriya, is an immensely powerful healing process and detoxifies you completely and rejuvenates you in ways more than one. I’m not much of a religious person, I’m slightly spiritually inclined but my reasons for joining this course were far from spirituality. I was expecting health benefits and overall well-being from it and it did fit the bill completely.

Today, I’ve returned to work fully rejuvenated and recharged. Though the processes left me gasping for breath on a couple of days and with lack of sleep on others, I’m not complaining! Courtesy: the shine on my face and the vanishing inches on my waist. Detox did work and how !!! Now the only challenge is to inculcate the routine in my daily life which going by my past record looks like a Herculean task.

Just in case, this post has inspired you to be an Art of Living follower, go ahead and do it. It’s a sure shot way to health and stress-relief and to washboard abs too. May be shortly we can give Sheela a run for her money ;)