After a week of transition into a new apartment, city, state, and four interviews later, I decided its time to get down to business again on my mat- Dharma style. This blog will be devoted for the next 7 days to documenting my success and failures on the mat and in the kitchen. I hope to start creating some good habits, and begin to reap the benefits of a home practice. In turn, by sharing some of my difficulties and tricks with others, maybe they will not feel alone or frustrated on their yogic path. I will let Sri Dharma guide me, even though many miles away, because the guru always lies within your heart.
For my first entry let me give some background:
I grew up in a suburb of NYC, and had an idyllic life for a kid. I was outside constantly, rode my bike, climbed mountains, walked by the river, and was generally a super happy, healthy kid. I was a serious dance student, and at an early age recognized that how you treated your body truly affected your emotional and physical state. My mother was an AMAZING cook, and prepared every meal for the family. While not heavy on pre-packaged food, and always an emphasis on getting vitamins and important nutrients, this also included serving a meat for lunch and dinner most nights. Vegetarianism was a foreign concept, and seemed illogical to her with two growing kids. She grew up on "square meals", we loved to eat meat, and we were pretty darn healthy. As a mother, I would be pretty content too.
As a young dancer, I began to develop a strained relationship with food. I loved to eat, had a fierce metabolism, but was aware that if I "ate too much," I would get fat. This started me on a wave of experiementation with diets: I tried to reduce my saturated fat to 12 grams a day (how? why? I dont know!), then no sugar, then no carbs, etc etc. It never occured to me to cut out meat. I was eating lean cuts of chicken and fish, and by all my rationale humans were omnivores. I knew I would fail given such faulty reasoning to start-for losing weight (you would think this rationale would have applied to all the other crazy diets, but that is how deeply my family's meat eating habits went). The cruelty to animals factor did not speak to me either-yet. I certainly didnt consider the health benefits surrounding a veggie diet. Words like heart disease, cholesterol, and diabetes were reserved for the elderly.
Fast forward ten years. We are now living in a time where approximately one-third of Americans are obese....ONE THIRD! That is a staggering number. The impact of that number on the healthcare industry is massive. Not to mention the negative effect large animal farms have on the environment. More and more information is being made available documenting how a diet high in GREEN stuff contributes to lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
So back to me-ten years later. I have always felt political, but felt disenfranchised by the system. I was not one to march in a protest, but always cared and wanted to find a way to stay an active citizen. I was also a spiritual girl, but searched for many years for my niche. I found it in YOGA, and it became such a place of healing and growth that I wanted to learn more and more. I spent a year taking every type of yoga in search of my teacher, my guru. I found him in Sri Dharma Mittra. I was so lucky! I felt my heart explode with all the love that is saturated in the walls of his studio, and listened to all the ways to find pure bliss. But I could not ignore his main tenet: Ahimsa. Part of the niyamas, observances of a yogi's behavior towards others, ahimsa means non-harming, non-violent, cultivating compassion towards all. This clearly included animals. By listening to Sri Dharma's explanation of karma and why consuming the flesh of any animal could prevent you from achieving pure bliss (and I wont go further into detail), I finally had the motivation to try. Who wouldnt want to achieve bliss, and in addition, contribute to the happiness of all beings, make a positive impact on the environment, take a quiet political stand, and become healthier? More importantly, who wouldn't listen to a 70 year old man who can stand on his head with no hands?? If nothing else, if I was going to be a Dharma teacher, I needed to know what this whole vegetarian thing was about.
And so I begin my journey to set this as a habit, as well as having a consistent home practice. (Samadhi by Saturday! ha) I have been a vegetarian since June and my boyfriend is joining me this month to see whether it works for him as well. I have always struggled with waking up and getting on my mat, so in the wise words of my mentor Rebecca Kovacs, I am just going to "SIT MY BUTT DOWN" every day even if its for three rounds of breath. I will also include a vegetarian recipe and some interesting reads. I hope this cultivation of ahimsa will begin to show up every moment of my day.
Look on the Dharma Yoga Center website for incredible offerings this Fall: http://www.dharmayogacenter.com/welcome.php
Peace, love and happy eating!
No comments:
Post a Comment