“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” BK Iyengar.
Mondays. When better to write about feeling stuck in a rut and unmotivated than in bleary weather and on a monday?
I fast. For a plethora of reasons, like being able to meditate better, giving my body a break, to my personal shoutout every week to Lord Shiva. I find it helpful and restorative to cathartic. There is a multitude of reasons one can fast for, but every person has a specific way. I eat only dinner and cooked the Sattvic way. I will be writing about Ayurveda, its incredible simplicity and benefits, and my favourite tips in the next post.
Yoga isn’t just asanas and physical exercise. It is a way of living. It is diet and a state of mind. The asanas are but a tool to help us get there better. Even though I love my inversions in public places as much as the next person, I have come to realise (the hard way) that unless my mind is happy, no amount of core strength can help bring me joy.
I fast and work and stretch and live my life on a (relatively) empty stomach because loosening the strings of dependence on the most basic of things is life-altering in tiny sublime ways that can change your life. It opens up windows to your personality and character that you didn’t know existed. It is all very helpful and terrifying at the same time. It helps you stay on course. It helps you stay grounded. And most importantly, it offers you peace.
It is amazing that five years of one day a week fasting has offered me the will to go vegan (my favourite meal at 20 used to be curried chicken liver), to become an Ashtanga yoga teacher and practitioner, move to new a country, learn new languages. I can’t honestly say that fasting alone has brought me these challenges/ changes, but I like to believe that doing things that seem like a pain in the bottom and an incredible inconvenience, can and will reveal parts of your personality to you in the most amazing ways. In the most desperate of situations, life will offer you a path. An option, a choice. And that path will change your life in the most fantastic, ‘I can’t believe this is me now’ way. I was desperate five years back, and I found a tiny sliver of hope with my prayers and fasts on Monday. It was small and little and it changed my whole life to the point of who I am now would blow my 24-year-old self’s mind. (self high fiiiiive).
So, I am fasting. It is Monday. My tummy is growling because I have the privilege to choose to go hungry, and for that I am grateful. It is a reminder that a lot of people don’t have the things that I, sometimes, take for granted. And finally, I am okay with being uncomfortable, maybe if only for a day – it is to help me get my head out of my own butt and think beyond myself and my primal needs.
Get uncomfortable. Get hungry, get heartbroken, get broke. Try and do something you never thought you could and watch life help you blow your own mind.
Do you fast? I would love to know if you do, and why. Coffee drinkers who have been able to quit, I would love to hear from you as well!
fast friendly food – made with shaved coconut, milk, sugar and lots of love!
Mystellavalentine 