I have just returned home after a two week vacation that included 10 days in an Ayurvedic retreat. I was in pretty bad shape when i left and had been more or less unable to function for weeks as I was suffering constant headaches and migraines most of the day, all day long. I needed to get into better condition, as well as to start to create some healthy life patterns. Having just moved here i had no defined schedule and its easy for me to just flip flop around all day long, wasting time, and also not making time to cook well, eat well, or do exercise. Usually my patterns end up being quite sedentary with copious amounts of time watching random you tube videos. It seems like I am finally fed up of leading a totally unstructured life, and so yesterday was the first day of my new life daily plan. It is quite full, and loaded with the kind daily activities that I have been wanting to cement into my daily schedule since 25 years! Whist it is a drastic change, i am allowing myself to miss bits and step up slowly into the complete routine. Since i have also just moved into a new apartment, and i don’t own much at all any more i have also had to spend a lot of time and energy buying the many things I need to live.
Going to sleep early, i.e. at 10:30PM is the hardest part of this schedule. The main reason is that i often want to nap in the afternoon, and sometimes i end up sleeping way to deep and end up sleeping for two hours instead of a short 20 minutes snooze. This means that i wake up late and the whole daily routine is messed up. Therefore NOT taking my laptop or phone to bed with me is one important change, and last night.. for the first time in a long time i just went to bed device less! It was quite nice actually and made going bed feel much better and relaxed.
So Thankfully i woke up on time at 06:00 AM yesterday morning in time for the first activity of the day, Pranayama! I do know a few techniques, but i decided to use a Pranayama app called "Prana27" i had found the night before. I was surprised how good it was, and how it guided me visually and with text and relaxing music that i even liked! It has several options and so I chose to do the first two. It felt good, and my mind was not too busy. Normally i ALWAYS start the day with a black coffee, a smoke, and read all the online stuff, news, Hive, etc for a good 45 minutes. That pattern is hard to change psychologically since i have done it as far back as I can remember... especially the coffee! Fortunately i was out of the habit after my vacation and also they didn’t allow me to drink coffee at all! I can say it is a good idea to get away if you do want to change your habits as its can be a good reset and restart opportunity.
I then went straight into the meditation, which i set to half an hour. It went very well actually, and i managed to complete the entire session. I have wanted to meditate for 45 minutes each day for years now but generally only manage 10 minutes for a long time. I think the lack of morning internet really helped as my mind really was much more calm without all that input!
I decided to skip the chanting, which is something i have done a LOT of in the past years. I think i want to make sure i focus on the breathing and meditation and will pickup the chanting once i am used to everything. That gives me a bit more time to do whatever things i have going on as I settle in to the new apartment.
I also skipped Darshan as i had SO much shopping to do. Darshan is something we do in the Ashram where we basically sit and listen to bhajans in a covered hall with hundreds or thousands of people. So i spent the rest of the morning getting a washing machine and many things for the kitchen for my new Ayurvedic cooking hobby! So i grabbed a masalla dosa in a local restaurant and went shopping!
For lunch I cooked my first Ayurvedic meal focused on the Pitta dosha. I am a Pitta body type and personality and so i follow a diet that suits it. Bring a Pitta Dosha means that i tend to overheat, and overeat! I must eat cooling foods and eat in moderation. I must also eat three meals and at the same time each day. SO i used a recipe from the Chef i had spent some time with in the Ayurvedic retreat and cooked it up with cooling spices only and no chilli. I made a Vegetable Mappas using fennel, turmeric and coriander powder as my main spices. I also used NO OIL at all to fry with, which is common in Ayurvedic recipes. It seems VERY strange to fry without oil but i t can be done and its quite easy with vegetables. We add some water to help it cook through and reduce to bring out the flavours. It takes some getting used to, but that is going to be a lot of oil i am avoiding which can only help with my mission to reduce this belly that i have been carrying around for around 8 years now. There was a time when i was Skinny!
I did plenty of exercise whilst riding my bike around the town and continuing my shopping bonanza. I try to avoid Amazon, but in a place like this remote village in India there are so many things that are either not available or just such bad quality that i have to do it.
Before I knew it i was preparing dinner again, and i was feeling quite motivated and in the groove. I haven’t had full days of activity for some time, and so it was nice to see that i had the energy to just keep going.. Having said that I did have a LONG nap for two whole hours in the afternoon. That was not good, and i think i will have to try avoid napping at all if i am going to make this work. I always wake up feeling tired and lethargic and its hard to shake off. Maybe i have to just do the kind of things that work well after lunch when im feeling drowsy. Perhaps just reading a book, or maybe a walk..
So because of that i went to bed quite late, at 1AM! NOt good! I just wasn’t tired, and despite me not taking my gadgets to bed last night it took me nearly two hours to finally fall asleep.
So that was day 1! ITs a lot of change, and i really hope that i can make this work. It will take time to get everything going, and am really looking forward to finally, perhaps soon, be able to live in a way that fully respects my mind body and soul. Until then, at least ive had no headaches since one week now! AMAzing! :)
Thanks for stopping by! <3
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