Chocolate meditation

The title of the blog says it all really...
Ever heard of it? Neither had I, until a few days ago but now I wish to share it with you all and I recommend you try it.
It is definitely the best meditation I've ever tried...

Here is the link... Either pre record yourself or have somebody read this out to you.

http://www.buddhafieldnorth.org.uk/kids-area/chocolate-meditation/

I am not joking.. You will never appreciate chocolate so much and you will never eat it the same again.
Tell me how you go...

Part time nurse, part time Bollywood dancer

Returning to Delhi for the third time, Hannah and I vowed to transform ourselves into delhi-ites, despite the upcoming Diwali festival that was coinciding for those days.

We managed to visit Connaught place, ride the Delhi metro and manoeuvre the train station with ease and confidence... Diwali, however, was a different story and after some expert advice from the locals we decided to enjoy the festivities from the safety of a rooftop restaurant. It was the most spectacular fireworks display I have ever seen and it was one of the most chaotic. On the street, children were dancing among fireworks while their parents mingled together, teenagers were setting off bombs amongst the oncoming traffic and the residential dogs of the main bazaar were going mental. As we dodged the stray fireworks that came shooting our way, I couldn't help but think that we should possibly be heading to the nearest Emergency department to lend a hand to the Indians that had lost theirs. It was like a happy war zone...that continued until 3AM!!!!

The other highlight of Delhi was the arrival of our friends from home, Hilary and Megan, turning our travelling duo into an epic wolf pack. As first timers to India we were unsure of what their reactions were going to be but as Hilary shimmied her way down the main bazaar exclaiming 'I f*#king love this!!!!!' and dodging cow poo, we knew it would be okay. It was interesting to see what the girls found hilarious and crazy in those first few days which we had come so immune to in the past couple of months.

Our first stop as a wolf pack was Pushkar for the annual camel festival. We arrived into the Ajmer train station and then had a one kilometre walk to the bus stand to catch a bus to Pushkar. Whilst walking through the middle of town, we encountered a dead man lying on the street with maggots coming out of his nose. It was disturbing for us but everyone else (well, the indian people) just ignored him as they walked past carrying out their daily lives. The impression I get, as a foreigner in India, is that life here seems so expendable and undervalued and it makes me quite sad. From the dead man on the street to the people who ride motorbikes with their infants and toddlers and no helmets. I am no good with words so I can't really describe how it makes me feel... But just sad. I value my life and everyone in it so much but the mindset here is, not the opposite, but different.

There is a lot of good though... Don't let me put you off!
For one, the camel festival. What a hoot! I had never seen a camel before and now I have seen hundreds. I mean it - Hundreds.
We rode camels, enjoyed desert sunsets via camel,held picnics on the back of camel carts, learnt the price of camels, watched camel hair cuts and camel nose piercings all the while declining the hoards of children wanting our money.
We also shopped. And shopped. And shopped.

However, my favourite part of Pushkar is yet to come...

And it has nothing to do with camels...

Or shopping..

But BOLLYWOOD DANCE CLASS!!! Dun-Duna-dun!
Not only was it the most exercise I have had in 2 months (and that includes the trek to base camp) but the moves were sassy, there was plenty of hip thrusting and it just so turns out, our teacher thinks we have what it takes to make it in Bollywood.
We danced to the slumdog millionaire soundtrack and have since been showing off our new choreographed moves to anyone who will watch...which is practically every indian we met.

Indian cooking class - tick
Bollywood dance class - tick
Is it time to party yet?

Spiritual Awakenings

25 October 
For the next eight days we are spending it in rishikesh - the yoga capital of the world. We have decided to call Shri sant sewa ashram our home where they offer yoga, massage and arranged marriages. Never fear, I'm not that desperate yet. 

We began our spiritual journey with a 0645 class of purification. It began with a little nose cleansing. We got mini jugs with spouts which we filled with warm water and poured into one nostril and let it drain out the other WITHOUT swallowing. It took a few swallows of water which he assured us was safe before we got some good flow coming out the other nostril. We then sat in a semi circle which consisted of me, Hannah and our young Nepalese yogi and did breathing exercises. 
Lastly, we chanted/sang. He sang his version and we sang our version but he wrote the lyrics out for tomorrow's purification so we can get it right.

We also went to beginners yoga which was quite uneventful except for when he made us try put our legs behind our head. Beginners luck? I don't think so. 

26 October 
On our second day of purification, we continued on with nose cleansing. I managed to pour a jug through each nostril like a professional but Hannah had a little more trouble getting it going. The yogi think she has become unbalanced since yesterday. How does he know about all the chocolate we were eating last night whilst watching gavin and stacey!! Awkward.
We then got to put little feeding tubes into our noses and down into our throats to clean our sinuses. My problem came when I had to pull the tube out through my mouth with my two fingers as I kept hitting the gag reflex. I was determined though so when the yogi offered to pull the tube from the back of my throat I told him to go wash his hands. He came back with two fingers looming so thought I would try one more time and... I grabbed it! Managed to play with it a little by pulling the two ends one at a time in a see-saw motion. 
On removal of the tube, my nose was all snotty and dripping and the yogi happily exclaimed that it was all the dirt I was harbouring. He was really doing the hard sell on daily sinus cleaning. 

Later that day, we decided to try laughing yoga. There was a lot of pretending to be lions and jumping around and singing/dancing of mantras. Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna! Hare hare! It was funny and boy, did we laugh! 

27 October 
Today our yoga session was taught by Swami Yogananda Maharj Ji who is 105 years old!!! It was inspiring, interesting and he seemed like a top bloke as he stood before us in his jockeys. He could really move and then yelled at us as we were jogging on the spot 'FAST!!.............SUPER FAST!!!!!!'

Meditation was next on the list of things to try and we opted for a guided meditation class lasting 45 minutes. We sat comfortably on our mats and were told we couldn't move our legs for the entire class. Twenty minutes into the class when I was begging my mind to turn off, all I could think about was how sore my bottom leg was and how much I needed to move it. At one point, I thought I had gained enlightenment and felt myself hovering about my mat, no longer connected to the ground or my body. Sadly my bottom half had just gone numb and I was not experiencing my emancipation. For the last 20 minutes the pins and needles took over and my leg was cramping and searing. 
Switching your mind off is hard but sitting in one spot for 45 minutes is harder.. 

29th October
The good news is we have found a prefect little 'yoga for beginners' class taught by a spaghetti like indian called Baba who likes to try and twist us into all shapes and sizes. He tells us daily we are not flexible and need to be but his classes flow and he is constantly adjusting, helping and pushing us further with our yoga. We like him a lot, and we like the class. For me, yoga is a much better form of meditation and I'm feeling inspired. I want to be spaghetti, like baba. It only took him five years of daily practices so by my calculations... 4 years and 51 weeks to go!!

31st October 
Our spiritual journey has not ended but this blog entry has.. It concludes with the mother Ganga. The river flowing from the Himalayas, which then meanders through to Varanasi and out to the Bay of Bengal. The holiest river in the world. And potentially the most polluted. 
The last thing to do in the spiritual journey was simple really - do as the Indians do and take a swim in mother Ganga. In Rishikesh, it is not as polluted being so close to the mountains and the currents are so fast that everything gets washed away pretty quickly. I was accompanied by an Argentinian named Sebastian as Hannah was not so keen on the swim and 'at 25 is not going to give into the peer pressure' we were putting on her. It was refreshing and I dived under three times. Well, dived twice and fell on a slippery rock once. 
And as expected, we emerged from the Ganga with holiness radiating out our pores... Or something more sinister...