Cleanse, Day Four: Ouch!!!!

All right, all right. Perhaps I was a little overly optimistic to think this cleanse was going to be a true love, a cleanse to remember (see prior post). Today I woke with aches so acute I want to sum them up as such: I'm dying.

Fortunately, I'm not. I certainly do not know who to blame for my aches, so I blame no one, not even myself. That revelation of non-blame regarding pain is one huge step life for me, to be in the middle of a cleanse and not feel as though I'm in a suit way too tight for me, or on a planet where there's not enough oxygen for me, or in some mean babysitter's kitchen where no food is served after 3 p.m. because you're going to go home soon....some day...not too much longer, and eat. I have so much to tend to during this cleanse that pointing fingers at past people or habits that cause stored toxicity and stress in the body is--rimshot, please--counter-productive.

Still. I am miserable. The aches I feel are in my upper and mid back, thighs, and hips. It's just like having the flu, but I have no other symptoms. You'd think I'd be all happy about that. Only to a slight degree am I. I know I'm not sick, so why why why ME? The answer is, 'why NOT me?'

Part of this cleanse--oh, I'd say a large part of it--is mental: hot baths, heating pads, calming teas so I can sleep, and the prescribed yoga by my coach are part and parcel along with a whole foods diet. On this cleanse, if you stick to it, you can't escape improvement. It's just that the road to that can start out bumpy. All cleanses offer that. Money back guarantee: A challenge for you psyche and soul or WE pay for your vegetables!

Hey, Ouchville: I'm not having any fun walking down your streets these days, but soon I'll find a clearing, and I'll say goodbye to you, and that will be a breath of fresh air. Namaste.

Santosha: State of Contentment

The second limb of yoga's eight limbs is niyama, the five rules of self-discipline. The one I am currently working on (practicing actively) is santosha. It is especially challenging for me on a day like today--when I am tired and uncertain of many things going on in my life--to practice santosha. But the show must go on, as they say.

Santosha is the practice and cultivation of contentment. Every breath, every moment,
provides the opportunity to practice patience and acceptance of what we are experiencing so that we can become happy. Even in tough situations, even in moments that are so far from joy we are stunned that life is so this or that (read 'anything but good!') this niyama according to Patanjali offers us the opportunity to reside in the state of contentment.

Santosha is not the same as complacency. Santosha requires us to simply notice and be as even-keeled as we can, flowing with calm and a non-rattled mentality with the forces of difficult times, life change, or disappointments. Complacency is giving in, defeated. Complacency takes little work and has dire consequences. Santosha takes active self-study and helps set us onto the path of liberation from suffering. In a nutshell, the attainment of contentment/santosha/happiness requires work.

"Owing to contentment, there is an unexcelled attainment of happiness" or...
"antoshad anuttama sukha labhah"
-Patanjali Yoga Sutras ii:42

Yoga Schedule: Pink Lotus Yoga, Fall 2010

If you love yoga, you might find something in my fall schedule that suits your fancy.

Our most eclectic effort yet, Pink Lotus Yoga is offering this fall Hot Yoga, Extreme Weather Yoga, by-invitation 90-minute classes, and a yoga program called Yoga2U. Namaste. Practice makes...well...more practice. -Marcia