A Letter to India
India Top 10
Amy's Yoga 101 Pointers
A Letter to India
When you come to India almost everyone you encounter will ask you the same 5 questions in this exact order:1. Where are you from?
2. Are you married?
3. Are you single?
4. And your family?
5. How do you like India?
So, after travelling for in India and living in Goa, I would like to write,
A Letter to India.
Dear India,
I am from America. Yea, Obama! No, I am not married (the idea makes me want to vomit). Yes, I am single (and I actually like it, believe it or not). No, I do not want a rickshaw, a taxi, silk, scarves, jewelry, statues of Ganesh or laughing Buddha, wooden boxes, Tibetan carvings of any kind, Nepali hats or mittens, oil, incense, tea, spices, saris, opium, hashish, or an elephant ride. My family lives in America. They love me and miss me. I love India-it is a hot, beautiful, challenging, diverse country bursting with helpful, honest, kind people.
Yes, you can take your picture with me. And your grandma, mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friends can also have a picture with me.
No, I will not pay you for telling me which train I am supposed to be getting on nor will I pay you for helping me cross the street. In fact, general acts of kindness will be repaid in Karma and thank you’s, not in rupees. Sorry, I am probably the poorest tourist you’ve ever encountered. I am here to taste India, to see if what I’ve read and heard about India is true. [Q: Can you really walk alone, at midnight, down the streets of Mumbai, the third largest city in the world, safely? A: (Yes)] India, your people were the most open-hearted country of people I have ever encountered--you fed me, invited me in to your homes, to your weddings, to your trance parties, to join you in eating lunch on the trains and on backstreet tours of your cities.
And India, you are sooo cheap! It is magnificent. However, the bartering to make things cheap can be exhausting. It is best just to change your mindset, plan on cutting the cost of everything in half, and remember that patience is a virtue while you challenge a street vendor to reduce the cost a trinket by 20 cents for 30 minutes. But in the end, you can eat for less than a dollar a day, and buy all your Christmas gifts for less than 100 US dollars. So, that definitely makes you a way baller country for foreign tourists, according to yours truly, Amy Herron, bonafide tourist extraordinaire. .
India, though you have no safe drinking water, reliable electricity, sewage system, recycling system, public transportation, public restrooms, sense of hygiene and concept of punctuality I loved you. You were exhaustingly confrontational and in-your-face. There is no hiding with you: no hiding poverty, waste, excess and no hiding from life’s Big questions: religion, Truth and God (yes or no?). India forces you to discover what kind of person you are AND what kind of person you want to be.
Only the special Indian mix of secularists, Sikhs, Jains, Hindus, Christians and Muslims, with a dash of curries, dal frys, veg thalis, chai, fruit and coconut stands, sprinkled with the pantheon of 36,000,000 gods could force any human being to look within, and discover if you like what you see. And India, for that, the world owes you many thanks. Thank you.
India, with your cows, monkeys, elephants, stray dogs, pigs, piglets, goats, water buffalo, house lizards, skinny cats, spiders and mosquitoes, there is no way to see all of you in one trip or in one lifetime for that matter. India, with your traditions of yoga, ayurvedic medicine, ashrams, Swamis, Brahmins and Gurus, you have much to teach the world about the connection between mind, body, spirit and humanity.
India, I have been to about 20 countries. There is a shortlist of countries I have cried about having to leave and only 2 countries are on that list—you made that list. Congratulations. This really means something, because I’m not much of a crier. I wish I could have stayed longer and I know I want to go back (I didn’t even see the Taj Mahal for goodness sake!). I look forward to experiencing more of your beautiful country in the future.
Namaste,
Amy K
PS- American readers, stay tuned for an India Top 10 and perhaps a Yoga Teacher Training Email Update, if you are interested.
Dear India,
I am from America. Yea, Obama! No, I am not married (the idea makes me want to vomit). Yes, I am single (and I actually like it, believe it or not). No, I do not want a rickshaw, a taxi, silk, scarves, jewelry, statues of Ganesh or laughing Buddha, wooden boxes, Tibetan carvings of any kind, Nepali hats or mittens, oil, incense, tea, spices, saris, opium, hashish, or an elephant ride. My family lives in America. They love me and miss me. I love India-it is a hot, beautiful, challenging, diverse country bursting with helpful, honest, kind people.
Yes, you can take your picture with me. And your grandma, mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friends can also have a picture with me.
No, I will not pay you for telling me which train I am supposed to be getting on nor will I pay you for helping me cross the street. In fact, general acts of kindness will be repaid in Karma and thank you’s, not in rupees. Sorry, I am probably the poorest tourist you’ve ever encountered. I am here to taste India, to see if what I’ve read and heard about India is true. [Q: Can you really walk alone, at midnight, down the streets of Mumbai, the third largest city in the world, safely? A: (Yes)] India, your people were the most open-hearted country of people I have ever encountered--you fed me, invited me in to your homes, to your weddings, to your trance parties, to join you in eating lunch on the trains and on backstreet tours of your cities.
And India, you are sooo cheap! It is magnificent. However, the bartering to make things cheap can be exhausting. It is best just to change your mindset, plan on cutting the cost of everything in half, and remember that patience is a virtue while you challenge a street vendor to reduce the cost a trinket by 20 cents for 30 minutes. But in the end, you can eat for less than a dollar a day, and buy all your Christmas gifts for less than 100 US dollars. So, that definitely makes you a way baller country for foreign tourists, according to yours truly, Amy Herron, bonafide tourist extraordinaire. .
India, though you have no safe drinking water, reliable electricity, sewage system, recycling system, public transportation, public restrooms, sense of hygiene and concept of punctuality I loved you. You were exhaustingly confrontational and in-your-face. There is no hiding with you: no hiding poverty, waste, excess and no hiding from life’s Big questions: religion, Truth and God (yes or no?). India forces you to discover what kind of person you are AND what kind of person you want to be.
Only the special Indian mix of secularists, Sikhs, Jains, Hindus, Christians and Muslims, with a dash of curries, dal frys, veg thalis, chai, fruit and coconut stands, sprinkled with the pantheon of 36,000,000 gods could force any human being to look within, and discover if you like what you see. And India, for that, the world owes you many thanks. Thank you.
India, with your cows, monkeys, elephants, stray dogs, pigs, piglets, goats, water buffalo, house lizards, skinny cats, spiders and mosquitoes, there is no way to see all of you in one trip or in one lifetime for that matter. India, with your traditions of yoga, ayurvedic medicine, ashrams, Swamis, Brahmins and Gurus, you have much to teach the world about the connection between mind, body, spirit and humanity.
India, I have been to about 20 countries. There is a shortlist of countries I have cried about having to leave and only 2 countries are on that list—you made that list. Congratulations. This really means something, because I’m not much of a crier. I wish I could have stayed longer and I know I want to go back (I didn’t even see the Taj Mahal for goodness sake!). I look forward to experiencing more of your beautiful country in the future.
Namaste,
Amy K
PS- American readers, stay tuned for an India Top 10 and perhaps a Yoga Teacher Training Email Update, if you are interested.
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India Top Ten
Drum roll please…
in no particular order, here it is…
Amy’s India Top 10:
1. They say bottled water is the only water foreign stomachs can tolerate in India. EVERYONE who has been to India tells you not to drink the water. It isn’t safe, you’ll get parasites, and cholera, dysentery, intense diarrhea, stomach pains, oh and you might die. Ha! I drank the water. I didn’t get sick. Super stupid? Maybe. Super human? Perhaps. Super street cred? Most definitely.
2. Street food. India, this really should be in all of your advertisements. I can eat for 30 rupees a day (that is less than 1 US dollar), food that is amazingly delicious, amazingly fresh and good for you AND amazingly cheap. I really don’t think I could ask for anything more. The street fare in India is endlessly diverse, healthy, quick, tasty and dirt cheap. Perfection, if you ask me.
3. White tigers, elephants, monkeys, stray dogs, stray pigs, resident house lizards, cats and COWS. Every morning in Goa I fed the Mama pig my banana peels, to help her feed her piglets. A lizard lived in my beach hut and a friendly, skinny cat tried to. Monkeys ran around the Yoga Shallah in the afternoons and ran free throughout the zoos and along the roadside. I spotted (and photographed, yikes!) Holy Elephants in temples. The stray dogs were always friendly and could count on me to feed them an extra naan, roti or chapatti when I had one. And giant white tigers were spotted (and heard!) in the Mysore Zoo. I wish the ability for animals and people to coexist like they do in India could be found here, in America.
4. COWS. They have the right of way in traffic, they are fed for good luck/karma, they are never eaten and they are EVERYWHERE. They roam the interstates, the beaches, the back alleys, temples, zoos and spice plantations. In fact, I actually think it might be an upgrade to be born a cow in India in another lifetime.
5. As soon as I got in a taxi in Mumbai, I was surrounded by it, literally- young women with babies swarmed my car, asking for coins…Poverty. It is in your face. You cannot be mentally prepared for it. It shocks you. And then it quickly becomes normal. But the most amazing thing about poverty in India is the safety that still exists in spite of this poverty. There are no armed guards at banks, there are no houses surrounded by tall fences and razor wire, pick-pocket incidents are rare and there were no ‘unsafe’ places where I was warned NOT to go to by the locals in any city that I went to. You would not find this in the USA, such extreme poverty but so little crime.
6. Bartering and Haggling takes on a whole new definition here. It is a game for vendors and businessmen everywhere. I found it exhausting and frustrating. But I’m competitive and on principle I didn’t want to pay an extra 20 cents for something if I could wear you down over an hour of back and forth ‘discussion’ on the cost of something. Basically, whatever price you are quoted, expect to pay less than half, if you have the patience to make it happen. Do NOT even throw out a number if you aren’t interested in buying something, they may just say yes, and then boom- you are the proud owner of peacock feathers you didn’t want.
7. Traffic! Cows, mopeds, bicycles, cars, taxis, dogs, rickshaws, vans, trucks, semis, tractors, motorcycles and pedestrians all just GO, with seemingly no concern for traffic lights, speed limits, lines, crosswalks, the correct side of the road (the left in India) or anyone else on the road. There is a lot of honking to warn you are passing or coming around a bend or just to say hello. Every time I found myself in a vehicle, my knuckles turned white, clutching whatever was available to me, while I felt a little more alive because I was a little bit closer to dying. I lived through it so there must be a system to the madness because I never actually came close to being in an accident. It was just terrifying to watch when you were not in control. Traffic: You have to trust the Universe, hand over control and enjoy the ride.
8. Temples are to India what Churches are to Europe. Everywhere. But in India they are more run down and more genuinely loved. I enjoyed the temples in Hampi—a town that reminded me of Pompeii- in the sense that its temples were frozen in time and a similar color- of skin, rust and expensive vanilla candles mixed together. Hampi is a World Heritage Site, where 30+ temples are found scattered amidst GIANT boulders, hills and valleys. In Hampi you can discover, after renting a bicycle and doing a self-guided tour, among monkeys and cows, and walking up 1,000 stairs, a Brahmin to bless you AND a breathtaking view. It is a very special feeling place.
9. My Personal Shooting Star Challenge. Say what?!? Every night in Goa, I walked on the beach, till I felt like stopping and then sat down to look at the stars. There I would stay until I saw a shooting star, could make a wish (sorry, I can’t share, I want them all to come true J ) and then walk back to my hut. The longer you waited for a shooting star, the more stars you would notice. Sometimes I’d sit for 2 hours, once for less than 2 minutes. Every time it was a new experience. The peace I found there I hope everyone I love can find in one way or another. Those were the most enjoyable nights I’ve had this past year. Just me and the sea and the stars.
10. Yoga! The Teacher Training Experience I had in Goa challenged my perspective on life, myself, my idea of usefulness, etc. It will (hopefully) help me be better to everyone I encounter in my life. Basically, though, the Yoga is another email in it of itself. In short, just trust that Yoga definitely makes the cut on the top 10 list.
I hope this email finds you healthy and happy. I got a new phone (read I don't have your number unless you've texted or called me) but still have the same number, so give me a call if you'd like to catch up (828.291.6019). Open your heart and enjoy 2010!
Cheers,
Amy
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Now....drum roll please....Amy's Yoga 101 Pointers:
1. Keep your connection with your breath. This is what makes yoga, YOGA (and not just another form of exercise). Inhale and exhale through your nose. Work on making and maintaining your breath long, slow and deep. Copy Darth Vader, he is an excellent yoga breather. You should be able to hear your breath. You are trying to inhale into your chest (not your belly) for a count of 5 and the exhale for a count of 5, audibly. Your breath is your personal assistant, it keeps you focused, energized and strong.
2. If you focus on your breath you will notice a stillness of the mind. You want to keep your mind with the body and the breath. Always return to the breath. The harder a posture is, the more you want to focus on keeping your breath, long, slow and deep.
3. Every movement should have an Inhale or an Exhale to accompany it. For example in Sun Salutations you Inhale, raising the arms, Exhale folding forward. Inhale to a half lift, Exhale Chattaranga. Inhale, Up Dog, Exhale, Down Dog. Synchronize the breath with the movement. Generally, you Inhale, creating length in the spine and then Exhale, as you move in to a posture.
Universal Alignment Tips:
4. Shoulders- In almost all postures, draw your shoulders down and back, away from your ears, lengthening the spine.
5. Pelvis/Hips- Your pelvis tips forward in all forward bends and especially in Downward Facing Dog. In balancing postures, you want to keep your hips square. In standing postures, you want to draw your tailbone down towards the floor.
6. Knees and Toes See Together- You want your knees and toes looking in the same direction. They are pointed in the same direction, so they stay aligned, thereby preventing knee injuries.
7. 4 Corners of Sole of Foot and Palm- So, when you are pushing off your hands, especially in downward dog, you want to be putting equal amount of weight in all parts of your hand, so PRESS into your 1st Finger and Thumb. And you want to keep equal weight in your feet: press into the big toe mound of your front foot (this will also keep your knees and toes aligned) when you are in lungey postures.
8. Belly Button in Towards the Spine- This is YOGA!. Drawing your belly button in towards your spine, therefore engaging your lower abs is actually called turning on your Uddiyana Bandha. And Bandhas are energy locks in the body. If you focus on drawing your belly button in towards your spine, you will develop greater core strength, increased balance, and better posture. You can even do this waiting in line at the grocery store or while walking your dog. Check yourself, turn your Uddiyana Bandha on...draw your belly button in towards your spine and turn on those lower abdominals!
9. You generally want to move in to a posture from your Heart Center (aka Sternum). So INHALE, creating length in the spine, EXHALE, leading with the Heart Center moving in to...whatever.
10. In each posture try to keep your gaze fixed on 1 single point (aka Dristi). This will help keep your mind steady and calm. This will be especially helpful in Balancing Postures.
---> From LIFE to LOVE and LIGHT :)
Namaste,
Amy
I hope this email finds you healthy and happy. I got a new phone (read I don't have your number unless you've texted or called me) but still have the same number, so give me a call if you'd like to catch up (828.291.6019). Open your heart and enjoy 2010!
Cheers,
Amy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amy's Yoga 101 Pointers
Now....drum roll please....Amy's Yoga 101 Pointers:
1. Keep your connection with your breath. This is what makes yoga, YOGA (and not just another form of exercise). Inhale and exhale through your nose. Work on making and maintaining your breath long, slow and deep. Copy Darth Vader, he is an excellent yoga breather. You should be able to hear your breath. You are trying to inhale into your chest (not your belly) for a count of 5 and the exhale for a count of 5, audibly. Your breath is your personal assistant, it keeps you focused, energized and strong.
2. If you focus on your breath you will notice a stillness of the mind. You want to keep your mind with the body and the breath. Always return to the breath. The harder a posture is, the more you want to focus on keeping your breath, long, slow and deep.
3. Every movement should have an Inhale or an Exhale to accompany it. For example in Sun Salutations you Inhale, raising the arms, Exhale folding forward. Inhale to a half lift, Exhale Chattaranga. Inhale, Up Dog, Exhale, Down Dog. Synchronize the breath with the movement. Generally, you Inhale, creating length in the spine and then Exhale, as you move in to a posture.
Universal Alignment Tips:
4. Shoulders- In almost all postures, draw your shoulders down and back, away from your ears, lengthening the spine.
5. Pelvis/Hips- Your pelvis tips forward in all forward bends and especially in Downward Facing Dog. In balancing postures, you want to keep your hips square. In standing postures, you want to draw your tailbone down towards the floor.
6. Knees and Toes See Together- You want your knees and toes looking in the same direction. They are pointed in the same direction, so they stay aligned, thereby preventing knee injuries.
7. 4 Corners of Sole of Foot and Palm- So, when you are pushing off your hands, especially in downward dog, you want to be putting equal amount of weight in all parts of your hand, so PRESS into your 1st Finger and Thumb. And you want to keep equal weight in your feet: press into the big toe mound of your front foot (this will also keep your knees and toes aligned) when you are in lungey postures.
8. Belly Button in Towards the Spine- This is YOGA!. Drawing your belly button in towards your spine, therefore engaging your lower abs is actually called turning on your Uddiyana Bandha. And Bandhas are energy locks in the body. If you focus on drawing your belly button in towards your spine, you will develop greater core strength, increased balance, and better posture. You can even do this waiting in line at the grocery store or while walking your dog. Check yourself, turn your Uddiyana Bandha on...draw your belly button in towards your spine and turn on those lower abdominals!
9. You generally want to move in to a posture from your Heart Center (aka Sternum). So INHALE, creating length in the spine, EXHALE, leading with the Heart Center moving in to...whatever.
10. In each posture try to keep your gaze fixed on 1 single point (aka Dristi). This will help keep your mind steady and calm. This will be especially helpful in Balancing Postures.
---> From LIFE to LOVE and LIGHT :)
Namaste,
Amy
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