Day Nineteen January 20, 2014

Today is day 19 of 'My Big Fat Juice a Cleanse'.  I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the sense of calm that this cleanse has given me.  I became aware today that it is not so much a sense of calm as it is a quieting of the mind.  I practice yoga twice a week...and I mean practice...I don't do yoga.  Every time I bust out my mat, it's a new adventure.  Just getting the breathing right with the poses is still a challenge for me.  I love it though.  That's the thing with yoga, you don't have to be particularly good at it to enjoy it.  When we come to the end of the 'practice', we do Shavasana.  This is when we get to lay down...one of my personal favourite poses.  During this time, our teacher leads us through a type of meditation.  The purpose is to quiet the mind.  I have been learning yoga for the better part of a year...quieting the mind has always eluded me.  I start to think about what I have to do after yoga, what I ate for dinner the night before, was she being a bitch when she said that, I hate caraway seeds...I think you get what I mean.  It's like Shavasana attention deficit.

Today was different.  When Julie (teacher) said to stop the chatter in your mind, I became aware that I could do this.  She refers to the monkey mind.  That voice that won't shut up, like a monkey swinging from tree to tree, never being still.  I felt still, and I felt at peace, and most of all, I felt quiet.

After the class, I felt great.  It's the first time I felt that true quiet calm that yoga is rumoured to provide.  For some, this may not be a big deal, but I have a daydreamers mind, and quieting it was freeing.

I guess the message I'm relaying is that when you are looking for peace...stop swinging from tree to tree.  Quiet the chatter in your head, concentrate on your breath.  You don't have to be an expert in meditation or yoga for that matter...you only need to know how to breathe.