What do you think when I say yoga ashram?!

From Byron bay I took the train back to a place called Gosford, about an hour and a half north of Sydney where a women Shakti, met me to take me to the ashram deep in the mountains in the countryside.

When we arrived it was around 10pm, at which time the ashram was in the practice of mouna- the practice of silence that takes place every night from 8:15 until 7:30am the next morning.
The day started at 5am so I headed to my room with two girls that I met, Sophie and Remi, that Shakti had introduced me to, and went to bed ready for the next morning.

Each day had a clear rota.

5am- Wake up
5:30- Yoga class
7:00- Breakfast
8:00- Karma Yoga (Basically cleaning tasks around the ashram which is a practise of giving yourself for the benefit of everyone in the spirit of the community.)
9:00 Rostered work (Work to contribute to the Ashram running eg kitchen, grounds work and mantience, house keeping, office work etc)
11:00- Tea break (break for tea and fruit)
11:30 Rostered work
12:30 Lunch + clean up
1:30- Rostered work
2:30 Yoga Nidra (Guided mediation)
3:00 Afternoon Tea (Tea and fruit)
3:30-5:00 Rostered work
5:15 Yoga/meditation class
6:00 Dinner + clean up
7:15 Evening class or DVD
8:15-7:30 (The following day) Moana

You worked in all the rostered work times unless you had free time, and you had three and a half days off a week.

My time at the ashram taught me a lot about myself.

I need to learn to challenge my perceptions of why I feel the way I do about things in everyday life. If its regarding an event, person or situation, I need review my opinions and decide whether or not I am justified in thinking in the way I do. I should open up to other viewpoints that may exist and see if these could alter my own preception.

For example one of the yoga residents is a more of an authorian figure, with a dominating voice and strong character. When I first spoke to him I felt as though his personality was overwhelming, too controlling and that he had some kind of superiority complex which  made me feel like inferior person and child-like. After overhearing a conversation he was having about his family, I learnt that he was the the second oldest in a family of ten children and was the oldest male child. This made me realise what I'd mistaken for an overbearing nature was probably just a caring nature used to being in charge and looking out for others younger than he.

Now having looked at his characteristics from another viewpoint it has opened up my mind and I can now see how my initial ideas were narrow-minded and did not allow for other possibilities.
I need to remember to apply this logic to other scenarios and I will go through life with a greater acceptance of world.

Also, having never really done a lot of meditation in the past, I found the meditation classes a relatively new practice but what I achieved in my first real class was a really strange. It was a truly unconscious state of being.

Deep within my chest I felt and could visualise a ball of light that brightened with every intake of breathe and which decreased with every release of breathe.

My body was no longer identifiable to myself; It was a void space- part of the atmosphere that surrounded me, something I could not determine to be a separate entity.

The only sensations I could feel were a gentle warmth in the very top of my head, and a mild coldness in my hands and feet and the warm ball of light in the center of my chest pulsing with each breathe.
Suddenly I became aware of an intense burning pain in my lower back just below my rib cage to the right of my spine which demanded my attention and eventually caused me to pull away from my trance and lay down.

Very strange, but very intriguing.

I found life at the ashram very easy. It was so simple just to slip into this community and live as they did.

So what is Yogic Lifestyle I hear you ask?

When people hear about the practices that go on in places like these it gets some mixed reactions. Some people believe these places are like a cult, involved in some weird going ons. Hidden away from society in some eccentric rejection of society with the sole purpose of having some higher level of being in a meditative trance.

OK, that may be in some ways true I guess. Yes they are hidden away from society but no more than people living in some of the rural villages that exist around the world.It not so much a rejection of modern society but the decision to leave material posessions behind and concentrate on themselves and a cleaner existance.

Sinics argue that its easy to achieve an inner calmness and acceptance in a place like that, hidden from the 'real world,' but if your your not open to the practises and willing to and are able to let go of all the bad things that haunt you then it doesn't matter how you spend in places like that, it won't have any lasting affects on you. You will simply foget everything as soon as your return to your normal routines.
The residents that live in these places aren't just a bunch of people trying to leave their previous lives behind, they are educated people who have chosen to study and adapt to the yogic life style and wish to pass their teachings on to people who want to learn.

Yoga is much more than streaches that people do in classes in leisure centres across the world, one or twice a week when people can be bothered to attend. Its many practises combined. Its a dedication to all these different practises: breathing techiques, mediataions, postures- understanding our bodies and minds and achieving a true inner peace.

One day when I was reading some of the feedback forms while working in the offices,  I came across one persons form who'd gone on to write on the back about how much this place and the practices had helped her life- after what I gather were some negative experiences.

This person had focused on one of the phases I'd remembered hearing, 'Act rather than re-act,' and this struck a cord when I read her letter.

I find this a very interesting concept. Taking control allows you to measure the degree of movement in yoga, and enables you to work within the range which you are capable. This idea also works in everyday life. Instead of letting things happen to you and dealing with responding to these actions, if you are the active party you are in control of the situation and therefore able to cope better. It strengthens you mental ability and gives you greater power in the situation. A similar philosophy I also learnt in my psychology classes at college, talked of this 'control' being achieved with knowledge. If you are in possession of knowledge about an event that will happen, for example how to cope in an earthquake, then when a earthquake does happen you are mentality prepared and will suffer less stress than those who were unprepared. I wonder if knowledge is essential however in being active. Are those who are active in possession of knowledge more so than those who re-act, or can simply be active alone. Maybe its just a question of individual personality.

There will always be times, however, when a passive approach is more suitable- a time to 'surrender and accept' as the lady on the form had written.

In some quite free time I had I managed to finish the latest book I had 'The Alchemist,' by Paulo Coelho, a book with many interesting philosophies of its own.

One that I really liked was this (written in relation to love but could be also about friendship,) "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you will find nothing when you return." I guess only time will tell about my friendships back in England and those I made with people from all over the world whether they are only 'moments of light' or indeed 'pure matter.'

Life at the ashram wasn't always serious though. It was a time for everyone for personal reflection but we also had some fun too.

We found a hoover that was used as a backpack, just like the ghostbusters suits, so me and a couple of the girls-Hannah and Elina- made a video acting out a ghostbusters scene. ( Which exists somewhere on Youtube I do believe!) We skipped one of the mediatation classes to film it, although everyone in the class heard us singing the theme tune and screaming at the 'ghost' so it wasn't much of a mediatation class after all, oops!

I also had a conversation with one of the girls that was just embarking on a six month residencey at Mangrove, about digging a tunnel in the back garden when I was about four  or five and when my mum asked me what I was doing I said I was digging a hole to Australia. Think i'd been watching too much Neighbours! In fact I think I was probably trying to get to Ramsey Street. Little did I know at that age that it was much easier just to get a plane and that many years later I would finally get to Australia, I may even make it to Ramsey Street eventually.

                                                                                                                     

I found it to be a very calming, grounding environment to be in and very much disagree with the opinions of someone I later spoke to that the people who stay there are avoiding real life. They are simply living a much more basic kind of life and focusing on themselves and living in a very much self-sufficient way.

I left that place feeling refreshed and happy. It was an awesome place. Amazing people, beautiful surroundings, gorgeous food and inspiring classes.

After that wonderful break from the real life it was now time to head back to the city and continue my journey on to Tasmania!