Feb 052012
 
My grandmother used to say “ Pehla Sukh Nirogee Kaya” or the first joy you want to have is a healthy body. I never really understood what she meant till I understood the meaning of mortality. Over a period of time whenever I will get in josh to start taking care of my health the solution that typically came to my mind was to go out and spend some money. So over a period of time I accumulated a Tread mill, best sports shoes credit cards can buy, gym membership, all kind of health foods from Olive oil to Muesli and a false sense of satisfaction on spending the money. Little did I realised that one actually need to use these equipment to reap the benefits.
The Missus has been trying to peddle yoga classes to me as part of her project to keep me fit. I always laughed at the suggestion objecting that I cannot see myself in those contorted poses that you see on the television by yoga gurus.

That was till last weekend, and then my eyes opened in a very interesting manner. I was invited by NASSCOM for a workshop on stress management with help of yoga and meditation. I did not read the invite completely but decided to go as it was very close to my office. I was expecting bearded yoga guru with a smug smile on his face taking pity on us lesser mortals in the worst case scenario and some out of work Tollywood actress trying to push her DVDs in the best case scenario. 

I was late in reaching the venue and a Saffron Kurta clad thin bespectacled gentleman giving some instructions in a very soft and soothing voice. Once I settled and started paying attention to him I started getting a feeling of what we were getting into. The room was full of top executives from various companies in IT and BPO sector in Hyderabad.  Navin the yoga guru was explaining what we will do in the evening and explained that we will do a form of yoga that is called  “ Sookshm Yoga” which is a an easy form of  yoga and each one of us can do it easily without any problem. We were also to do some breathing exercises.

We started with some simple breathing exercises and transitioned to doing some very simple yoga postures like raising our hands while breathing in and out, stretching the limbs and torso. During this whole episode Navin was talking in a soft soothing voice that could put most cranky of toddler to sleep. After about 30 minutes of what I would call a combination of yoga and meditation I realized based on the discourse by Navin that the purpose of meditation is not to concentrate but to let go of all the stress in the mind and body. Some of the postures he explained in a very simple manner like assume you have your child in  your arms and you are making him sleep. I was indeed feeling much lighter after the session and realized that anybody can do these exercises and meditation practice at any place any time. Navin asked us to send our experience through email to him and I reluctantly agreed, the sceptical in my wondering once I send  him an email would I be receiving  offers and coupons for his DVDs and special tonics that will  let me win the next Mumbai marathon? I asked for his card and that my friends was the shocker for me, because I realized now that he is not a full time yoga guru but a top executive with a very large MNC bank and is just preaching what he practices. He has kindly agreed to do this session for us to share his own experiences and help us learn something and not to promote his brand of yoga. (Though if he does that tomorrow he will be very successful at it.)

Now the clouds of ignorance really dispersed and I realized the whole purpose of this session was that you can take time to meditate and do a bit of exercise or yoga to take care of your mind and body. The group in the room was sharing my enthusiasm and most of were very eager to go home and start practicing what we have learned. The lesson learned is that you do not need expensive equipment and a lot of time to start the process of rejuvenation your mind and body.

I have already started doing a few things that I learned in this session; let us see if I can continue to do the same, as consistency will be the key to reap the benefits out of the same.
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