Coffee, Yoga, and Life's Other Necessities: A Day in the Life, Yoga Version--Day 15

This is hardly a normal day for me, but seeing as it's Summer, my "normal" routine consists of sleep, reading, writing, eating, and working.
Not all that exciting.
So we're gonna go with yoga version of my typical day. Feel free to chant "Om namah Shivaya" along with me.
Except don't--I'm too enraptured by facebook at the moment. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you champion of letting go!
....

So. I wake up dark and early at five A.M. I stumble around the bathroom for a bit, and end up looking high, since my eyes get so red from trying to stab them with contacts pre-coffee. It doesn't take me too long to get ready since all I do is dress in temple clothes (a long skirt and blouse of some sort) and twist my hair into braids. I normally use this time to post my blog of the day and wonder where the hell I am.
Ohh, that's right. An Ashram. What is my life?

At 5:30 we all gather at the main temple, which looks like this:

We start off with a prayer for our living teacher Sri Shambhavananda. We repeat "om shanti shanti shanti" as well as "om vakratundaya hum" 108 times. Two of my favorite chants are:

Namo Namaste Guru Maharaj
Shambhavananda Jaya Jaya Maharaj
Tav Charananshrit Gurudeva
Maduram Maduram Gurudeva

and

Shambhavananda Gurave
Shishya Samsara Harine
Bhakta Karyaika Deyaaya
Shambhavananda Namam Yam

We then chant the entire Guru Gita (sans water--yikes) which sounds like this:

After going through an arati practice in which we dance at the back of the temple and make offerings to the deities, we sit in silent meditation for half an hour. What could be easier than sitting and thinking nothing for 30 minutes?
A lot of things. Eating tar. Lifting 100 pound weights. Running a marathon.
I'm still getting the hang of it.

7:00 is breakfast. Shoshoni is famous for its exquisite food, and breakfast never ceases to disappoint. We usually have kitchree or oatmeal, a grain of some sort, fruit and yogurt. And coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

Kitcharee!

After breakfast, I have the mornings free. Usually I use this time to catch up on emails/blogs, but I also try to write in my journal and read some Game of Thrones. It's not my genre of choice, but it's pretty interesting so far. This is also a good time to go hiking and breathe so hard, all of Shoshoni can hear you.

The view makes it worth it :)

At 10:00, we have our first yoga class. The first half hour is pranayama--or breathing techniques. The most popular breathing technique we've done thus far is "nadi sadhoma" or "alternate nostril breathing." It looks something like:

At 10:30, we then move into the asana (or physical) portion of yoga. Shoshoni yoga teachers still focus on the breath throughout practice, but we do also go through some sun salutations and hip-openers.
There is nothing better than a good hip opener.

Half moon pose!

After yoga, we go to lunch in the lodge. There's normally soup, salad, and various delicious items. Lunch is the longest meal of the day, and if it's nice out, we'll play with the hula hoops, slack lines and unicycles outside.

It generally takes about an hour to clean up. We rotate jobs, but I've mainly been in the dining room, wiping tables, sweeping floors

Warrior II Pose

and putting plates away. Conquering the dishes is a good feeling, but when time becomes a pressing issue, it's no longer so nice.

At 1:30 or 2:00, we transition into "seva" which means "selfless service." I'm the official afternoon lodge cleaner--my jobs range from (re)sweeping floors, dusting, folding and putting laundry away (which I discovered I adore) and keeping the fires going. We use this time to focus on mantra (which is a repetition of sanskrit words) to keep the mind focused on the present moment. Another technique the staff may use is breath work.

4:30 is afternoon yoga. On the weekends, there are two options offered: a flow class or a restorative class. This is optional for work-study and immersion students, so it depends on if I really worked myself during seva.

5:30 is dinner. There's certainly no shortage of food around here.

After cleanup, we go to temple for meditation. The sort of meditation varies throughout the week: Mondays and Thursdays we have "Satsang" where we do an online chat with Babajii (the Guru). This time is available to staff to ask questions about spirituality and enlightenment.
Tuesdays are the Medicine Buddha; Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays we do "kirtan" which is a singing chant/offerings to deities. Sundays are an entire hour of meditation.

The Ma Shrine--where one worships female deities

Around 8:00, we all start getting ready for bed. Yup, we're cool like that.
It's an intensive day, but a good kind of exhaustion. Having a structured schedule really allows you to focus the mind and feel the breath.
Plus, someone makes dessert for you twice a week. Not bad.

Every staff member at Shoshoni gets one day off per week--I frolic around Boulder on Mondays. Typically days off are used to catch up on laundry, go explore Boulder and Denver, and dance around in one's underwear.

Guys, I'm kidding about that last part. That's not ashram appropriate. You should dance around in your bathing suit instead.