Casting out the Spirits!!!
Ah Vacation.... We spent the last week in Maine on a family trip. It was lovely, even with a hurricane that took out our last day. I pretty much existed on lobster with tons of butter, fresh baked goods, hand-picked blueberries, s'mores and cocktails.
Yes, I know, Cocktails? Really?
Really. I haven't had this much alcohol in such a short period of time in at least the last 3.5 years. It's been since before I was a mom, before I was nursing, before I was pregnant. And that seems like eons ago.
Now, before you get all crazy and think I went on a week long swim in the ETOH you should know, when I say I "existed on cocktails" you should read it as: I had a drink at each dinner, plus a sip or two from whatever my hubby was having. I know, BIG drinker right here. That said, one mixed drink is enough to make me a wee bit tipsy. Woo-Hoo! Watch out for Party-Girl-Fischer!
The return to RVA and to my life and my mat (which I sadly admit gathered a LOT of dust last week) has also meant a mini-detox for my body. Ugh! It isn't pretty and it isn't fun. S'mores, lobster, butter and baked goods are all quite lovely, but they don't exactly set the stage for my cells to be singing with glee. Add in the removal of alcohol from anywhere it chose to deposit itself in my system and I can tell you my yoga practice has definitely felt MUCH better before.
And once again, all I can say is thank goodness I practice yoga. Thank goodness I have a practice in my life that will set straight all the haywire stuff I do to make myself crooked. I tend to focus on the emotional and the spiritual in my practice and in this blog. But, this is a physical practice and it has real physical benefits and I am glad for it.
Anusara doesn't say anything much particularly about diet or alcohol. We honor our bodies as the divine temple of the soul, but you're not going to come into class and hear a speech about not eating meat or the requirement that you become a vegan or something. In this Tantric approach, as I understand it, we are meant to have a wide range of experiences. In fact, we are meant to push our edges and expand them. And, as long as you do it with balance back in the other direction you can practically do what you want. So, in theory, from this perspective you could go on a frat party bender complete with 5 straight nights of keg-stands and follow it with a super detoxifying week of practice that would somehow land you back in the middle of health. And in that way would still be living the Tantric life. That's the theory. But if you take into account the other side of things, the belief that the Divine is actually living IN you AS you, it might make you rethink the keggers. I mean, I personally don't want to be the one who is responsible for giving the Divine alcohol poisoning.
All I can say as this week of detox continues and my body lets me know just how much I should NOT be skipping out on practice: Yoga is a hell of a lot easier when I'm not using it to try to clean up the mess I made last night. So while I'm in no way asked to forgo alcohol for Anusara or for my yoga practice. I'll probably make that choice 9 out of 10 times. Because the way I feel in my body and on my mat is a heck of a lot more important to me than the spinny feeling I get in my head for a few minutes after a cool drink.
Contemplation: How has your practice influenced your eating/drinking/living choices?
