Dangers of sleep!

So, I've had two major sleep events if you will so far! One happened in at the Art Of Living Ashram (which is now, my MOST embarrassing moment!) and one in my room, with my roommates as witnesses. I'm going to tell you the incident in my room, before the AOL incident. Need courage to share that one!

This morning, I woke up and did my Surya Namaskar, and went online, while waiting for the hot water to come on. My roommate Azmeen woke up a while later, and casually asked me if I talked in my sleep. I froze. I was like "Please tell me I didn't! Please tell me I didn't" in my head, but as luck would have it, of course not. I said that I did sometimes and it was the result of an over active imagination. She said that she heard me talking and called out "Saroma?" and I said "Huh?" and when she asked if everything was okay, I turned on my cell phone for a second and went back to sleep!!!! But she couldn't quite make out what i was saying (thank the Universe!).

I apparently really freaked her out! LOL! And I was, of course, mortified! And here are the perils of social networking.... I posted the fact that I talked in my sleep on Facebook and Twitter and then, proceeded to tell Azmeen and Jayati, my other roomie to not tell anyone! Like an idiot! It then occurred to me that I had already essentially told the whole world and not just my classmates. Nice Romy, nice!

I need to cut down on the Facebook and Twitter, but when something this funnily humiliating happens, I can't not share it! So anyway, lets just say that my roomies are now well aware of my sleep talking habits. I wonder if I should let them know about my sleep walking or just let them discover it themselves! (KIDDING!)

Now, the second incident, aka, my most embarrassing incident!

In the Ashram and the AOL programs, when we do the Pranayamas and the Kriyas, we are asked to lay down and relax, to ground yourself. Because doing the breathing exercises and meditating really stirs your body and mind and you kind of need to calm down. Now, this is for ten minutes, and I am usually awake and conscious. For some weird reason, I totally fell asleep. It wasn't even asleep, because I was dreaming, but I wasn't because it was SO realistic and I truly believed that I was awake. But yes, when the ENTIRE class of eighty people woke up, I still remained SLEEPING! I am so mad at Anisha for not waking me up!!!

I woke up to find the class and the instructors watching me and you can always tell when people are staring, so while I don't remember this exactly, i shot up and said "What's up?". That was just...... embarrassing to say the least. Apparently, four people were hissing my name to wake me up, because you're not supposed to wake a person up, if they "go to sleep" after the meditation and the breathing. I am using quotation marks, because I'm not entirely sure one goes to sleep. It's not a trance, but it's like looking at the world from a third person's point of view. Super weird, but cool. I wouldn't want to do it again though. They couldn't wake me up, because I am the girl who sleeps so deeply that I've slept through an EARTHQUAKE!

Anyway, to sleep and wake up with a "what's up?" in front of your class, that you've known for ten days, and the senior teachers at the Art Of Living Ashram, is something not many can boast about can they?

Sigh.

Art Of Living - An honest opinion

So, as a part of the induction program, we were made to take the YES+ program the Art Of Living. I was honestly VERY sceptical about this, because I usually tend to run away from such organisations.

Our teacher was Arvind Bhaiiya who started us off with introductions and such like. We learnt Pranayama, SuryaNamaskar and a breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya. We also learnt about positive thinking and how to react to stressful situations and situations we dislike in a positive manner, without panic and just plain old bitching and unpleasantness.

It took me six days for this message to actually sink in. I was one of those girls who alternated between paying attention and making wise cracks and snickering at the back of the class. It was a mix of actually, truly agreeing with some of the points and wanting to look cool. One thing that Arvind Bhaiiya said earlier, but that struck home yesterday at the ashram, was that you don't have to be a cynic, to be dismissive to be cool. And that was EXACTLY what I was doing.

I think I had to come to terms with the fact that I agreed with what was being said and the part of me that didn't like the fact that it had to be told. I am one that fully believes that you need to experience life in order to learn certain things. Like, take for example, yesterday at the ashram, I felt like a total schmuck for not being sincere in the beginning, and I did learn that it's not necessarily cool to be the cynic.

I loved that we did the SuryaNamaskar, because it's been almost ten years since I actually practiced yoga. I used to do it EVERYDAY till I was in the tenth grade and then I stopped. After doing the series for about three days, I attempted some Asanas, that I couldn't do before, but I could do now, with just a little bit of stretching. It made me SO happy and I know that if the Art Of Living and Arvind Bhaiiya hadn't come to my life, I would still be disappointed when I tried and it would hurt like the dickens.

So I thank him for that, and for enabling me to learn a lesson in life. I like that everyone at the ashram was so down to earth, including Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, or Guruji, as he is called there.

There are a lot of things I'm hesitant to sign up for, but I can truly say that I acknowledge and respect his knowledge and admire the fact that he has helped MILLIONS the world over. I can also say that at this moment, I am not a disciple if Guruji. To me, I believe that life is the best teacher and you learn only if you live it! But this is me now, and I have learnt to not say "never" so who knows what will happen in the future.

Another thing that reaffirmed something that I've been trying is for me to look at the positive in all situations and to stop cribbing about things that aren't in my control. There are positives and negatives to every situation and I have to grit my teeth and bear the bad and focusing on the good makes this easier. Hearing this, everyday, for the last six days kind of made me take a decision to cut down on the whining and the bitching and just live life and enjoy it! I'm not saying that I'll never complain, because if I can do that, then I should start my own Art Of Living! I'm nowhere near that kind of peace with myself and life! I have ISSUES!

Another thing that truly touched me is that there were thousands of people in the ashram, just trying to get a glimpse of Guruji and we were just given the opportunity to meet him in an audience of about a hundred people and actually talk to him, just because we joined Symbiosis. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I am truly a lucky person!

For me, apart from all of this, the highlight of this was introducing JeetuJi to berries that grew in the ashram, meeting Maheshwara and Indrani - the elephants that live there and finding out that Rihanna, a teacher there was my neighbour and had seen me walk Gypsy!

All in all, it's been an interesting session, it taught me some things, reaffirmed things that I've been trying to do and opened my eyes to a different side of me. Thank you Symbiosis for this opportunity and thank you Arvind Bhaiiya for making this happen!

PS: I will get permission to post pictures before I do with this post!

When you just gotta go!

I was at PVR cinemas today to watch the fourth installment of Pirates Of The Caribbean. Now, I ordered my usual coke-popcorn combo and settled in. Halfway through the movie, we broke for interval, but I chose to stay in my seat as I didn't really need to do anything. I sat through the crappy advertisements, that seem to air only in movie theatres and laughed at them with my mum.

About five minutes after the interval, I felt like I needed to pee, but it wasn't really anything urgent, so I was sure I could last the rest of the movie. I ignored it, to a point where it became un-ignorable and there was still about half an hour left of the movie. I excused myself, and ducking, so that I wouldn't disturb anyone, ran out of the hall and went to the loo.

Now, in the Gold Class cinemas, there are no stalls, only one loo. There is one for women, one for men and one for the handicapped. I made my way up the ramp, down the corridor and to the women's loo. I, very confidently, turned the handle, because I thought no one would really be in there. There was someone in there. I think I scared her because I jiggled the door a little.

I REALLY needed to pee at this point, so I debated between the handicapped loo and the men's loo. I then thought, what if some poor old dude who was handicapped needed to go, so I opened the men's loo. I peered inside, but there was only a urinal and I can't go on one, so I went into the handicapped loo.

Incidentally, here is some information for you guys. The men's loo smells nicer than the handicapped loo. I think they don't clean out the handicapped loo as often as they do the men's. So, I did wish for a millisecond that I did have a willy and could use the cleaner loo! Sheesh!

It was quite funny when I came out, because I looked under the door, if I could see any shadows that may indicate people standing outside. When I couldn't, I slowly opened the door and peeked and quickly ran out and stood in front of the women's loo, trying to act as if I had just come out of there. I kind of fled the scene, when I heard the door behind me open though. I didn't really want to meet the woman who was, I am sure startled, by the door jiggling earlier.

What would life be without adventures!