Checked in to the yoga hospital!

Hello!  Well, since I wrote last, I spent a little more time in Rishikesh city center taking some yoga classes, listening to lectures, and taking some Bollywood dance classes (very fun and funny!).  I spent another week and a half at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama ashram.  It was wonderful to see friends I met there last month with Carma, and wonderful to have time to really settle in to a routine there.  I was proud of myself.  I woke up every day for 5am meditation, then yoga til 8am.  The yoga classes were gentle, with a strong focus on joints and glands exercises.  I really enjoyed this style, it is not difficult and is very effective for all populations, as it could be done sitting in a chair and very gently.  Looking forward to teaching these more at home.  After yoga class, we would have breakfast and then there was usually a class, video, or more meditation.  After lunch, there was usually another class and after dinner, a lecture.  The classes ranged form sanskrit to yoga anatomy to philosophy.  I learned alot.  There was a woman swami visiting and lecturing during my time there.  I had some great conversations with her and she gave lectures which were really helpful for me in sorting out some of my questions about god and spirituality.  The ideas, images, and philosophies of yoga and pre-yoga times really make sense to me and match some of the beliefs I have held for a long time, beliefs that did not quite fit into most concepts of religion and spirituality predominant in the west.  I have been saying for a long time, "I believe god is nature, people, and love", but always felt a little on the outside of religion and spirituality at home.  But something is clicking for me here in a new way and it is exciting and comfortable for me to think of god as universal energy within all of us and within all living things.  I am really grateful for the exposure to these ideas in this country and for the opportunity to meet this holy woman swami.  Also while at the ashram, I the opportunity to attend an Indian wedding reception!  We only stayed for the meal and to meet the bride.  The ceremony part happens later in the night.  Also, I have had my first Indian clothes made, which I wore at the wedding and can wear for the yoga conference.  I will eventually attach some pictures, the computers lately have not allowed for picture attachments.  Oh!  But here is a link to the photos that Carma and I took during our time together, so feel free to browse through these:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bap2rnev.9boem8x7&x=0&y=-5rv3rc

After my time at the ashram, I took a train from Rishikesh to Delhi and flew to Pune in the same day.  I only spent one night in Pune, just enough time to meet a friend of some friends at home.  His name is Dev, he is Indian from Pune and is studying in Minneapolis but home visiting family now.  We went out for the evening and I will return to Pune to his family the spend some time with them at Christmas (thank goodness I will not be alone at that time!).  I left Pune and came here to Kaivalyadhama Institute/Yoga Hospital in Lonvala, which is the site of the yoga conference and pranayama breathing workshop that I will attend after Christmas.  I came early to volunteer, but upon arrival, they checked me into the yoga hospital just like any other patient.  It is a great way to learn about the treatments firsthand, and I am really enjoying it!  We have 2 yoga classes a day and 2 'nature cure' treatments daily, which range from massage to mud on the face or body, steam baths, foot bath, hip bath, and others.  Also, we are learning kriyas (cleansing processes).  I have learned neti pot (salt water wash for nasal passages) and another kriya involving sticking a tube down the back of the nose and pulling it through the mouth to clean that passage.  I had a hard time with it this morning and the Dr. stuck his fingers into the back of my throat to help me and grab my tube and pull it out my mouth.  I have never had someone else's fingers down my throat before!  Anyway, it has been interesting to learn these and I will definitely continue neti pot at home.  I also witnessed some more advanced kriya practices, such as a man swallowing 2 liters of salt water and vomiting it up to clean his stomach, and another man swallowing 22 feet of cloth and then pulling it back up, also to clean the stomach.  Don't worry, I will not be here long enough to begin practice of those!  Anyway, I will head back to Pune for X-mas, and then back to the yoga hospital for the conference and workshop.  1,200 people will come to the conference, it is the 5th International conference on yoga research, therapy and education. I think it will be really great!  Back in October, I submitted a paper to the conference committee about CORE/El Centro (a natural healing center for all levels of income and my previous place of work in Milwaukee).  I did not know until I arrived that my paper had been accepted, and I will not only be participating in the conference, but I will also be presenting!  Although I am nervous, it will be good for me to push myself and good to share the mission of CORE with others.  It is really an incredible place and can serve as a model of using yoga and other natural therapies to work towards social transformation.  I will post again soon, but maybe not before X-mas.  I miss you all and wish you beautiful holidays!