What is Yoga?

Rambutan fruit!

Yummy salak...also appropriately called Snakeskin fruit!

I have just finished breakfast and love some yummy new tropical fruits that I have never had before...mangosteen is my new favorite! I guess it is an amazing antioxidant. Rambutan and snakefruit are 2 other new ones I had never had before...yummy too! Aaaah! Today is our 1st full day off since our training began 2 weeks ago. It was lovely to wake up without an alarm (although I still got up at 6 am) and slowly descend the stairs to the lush river that absorbs my morning chants. Yoga is such a beautiful process. What exactly is Yoga is a question that keeps returning as we experience so many different techniques and deepen our intentions. Literally, Yoga means to yoke or Union. Union of the finite Self with the Infinite Creative Consciousness. It is not creating that union, but simply coming into the awareness and remembrance of the ultimate Unity that already exists...acknowledging the Divinity inside each and every one of us. There are many roads or techniques used to experience this remembrance...asana (postures), meditation, concentration, devotion, non-violence, etc. Edward Clark, the creator of Tripsichore from London, is here with us teaching right now. He has helped me experience a few postures I have never been in before. It is such an amazing process to be able, in a short time, to move through fears and beliefs that I can't do something and then exploring the possibility that I can and move in that direction one breath at a time to see what is truly possible. That is part of what Yoga is really about for me...moving beyond what I previously thought what possible by connecting to that Universal Source that nurtures us all so deeply and completely. Good stuff! Being catered 100% raw food daily is so amazing! I have found myself eating more than I probably should because I am excited to try all kinds of new yummies, but luckily my body has been very physically active and returning to fast one day a week is great! Tomorrow I start an optional cleanse that many of us are doing called the Ultimate Cleanse. It basically looks like psyllium and herbal support capsules to help cleanse the intestines and rid the body of excess mucoid plaque. There are also dietary changes, which continues with our raw diet while eliminating some foods like nuts, seeds and bananas for the length of the cleanse, which is 5 days for us. I obviously just completed a big cleanse recently, but since the diet is completely set up for us, I thought I would give it a go and see what happens. I also had a bit of a feeling I might have picked up a little bit of parasites from Guatemala and this is supposed to address that as well. In the 5 day program, it consists of taking about 40 capsules of goodies morning and night, which I am not usually such a big fan of , but several people here have done it before and loved the results (which included excretion of lots of old fecal matter and increased intuition for proper food choices afterwards). Oh, the fun never ends!
I invite you to take a moment (this moment, right now, not later when there will always be a better time, to close your eyes and take several long, deep breaths. watch your breath and watch any thoughts that may arise. connect to that Truth that you are at this very moment in existence. You are infinitely beautiful... I thank you in Gratitude for the endless gifts you share with the Universe and all that you simply are! XOXO Kelly Ordway