Serenity in the City

…which is entirely misleading. We were serene for approximately three hours, most of which was during the yoga session. After that, I at least, degenerated into what is most flatteringly described as ‘narky’ and most honestly described as ‘in a right mood’.

How did this happen? A good question. We skipped off to yoga clad properly in our white linen trousers and t shirts and looking for all the world like experts. We had been to an introductory session previously, but it was very shortly after we arrived and so we were  still quite jet lagged. An embarrassing snoring incident during the relaxation session may have masked my inner yogi then, but this time I was ready for it.

The teacher was American and very easy to follow. We had a class full of interesting people and began with the teacher asking us why we were there and what we wanted to get out of it. The man next to me wanted to achieve greater inner peace and serenity. The lady opposite me had been travelling all her life and also wanted to take a step back and develop her own peace of mind. You can see any number of countries, she said, but it doesn’t change your mind. You have to find your own calm and carry it with you. M and I look at each other. We take note. The girl next to her has been through a tough period in her life and wants yoga to help her recover. The Vietnamese girl (the rest of us being a mixture of nationalities – hardly surprising for a class taught in English) wanted to be healthier and fitter. We were somewhere in the middle. Something peaceful and calming amid travelling but also a way to get fit doing something fairly universal, so present in most countries we are going to.

The teacher tells us that yoga can do all of these things for us. We proceed with the class. It’s a mixture of exercise, relaxation and theory, the latter mostly relating to how the body stores energy and how to get the blood to circulate better to help us feel more energised. There is also an element of healthy vegetarian diet, an element of positive thinking and meditation and ‘proper’ relaxation, which we practice at the beginning and end of each class. I manage not to snore this time but still fall asleep.

The interesting part for me is the religious element, or lack thereof. Some hard line Christianity teaches that yoga is somehow bad for you, that it is all about emptying your mind, thus opening the door to ‘evil spirits’. I noted that in reality, this form of yoga at least, does not teach meditation as emptying your mind so much as focusing it. The idea is that if you can get your mind to stop whizzing through a thousand thoughts about what to have for dinner, what you will do next, etc. etc. for as little as five minutes you can achieve a wiser, more peaceful mind because it  has a chance to block the chaff and focus on more important things. You can still have thoughts, but you acknowledge them as if from a distance and try to bring your mind back to focus again. It sounds, to me, a lot like prayer.

To some extent, the more spiritual parts of the yoga class we were at, were what you wanted to interpret them to be. There is a chanted prayer at the beginning of the class which entreats Ganesh to help us block obstacles to our concentration. But as the teacher explains, Ganesh takes the form of an elephant, and the idea is to evoke an image of an elephant, clearing things out of its path with its trunk. The image is helpful, whether you are thinking of Ganesh as a God or not. All in all, the class is mostly made up of relaxation and exercise. It is very calming and afterwards we float out, feeling mentally serene and physically taller and more flexible. And that is after only the one session.

And what caused serene and beautiful to turn into irritable and tetchy? Nothing more than a bit of heat, some loud dusty roads, getting soaked to the skin in a monsoon downpour which we weren’t quick enough to spot the signs of, a ‘peaceful botanical garden’ which appeared neither to be peaceful, nor much of a garden – and being thirsty. (Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink).

How can deep serenity turn so very easily to a total inability to see that the causes of your misery are really not very miserable at all? My theory is that, were we to have actually found ourselves in mortal danger, the serenity would have lasted longer. The human mind knows, in really urgent situations, that it must remain calm in order to survive. If it’s just a minor annoyance however, it goes crazy.

The solution? Well in my case, stomping wetly home, rescuing the cat from its usual perch which it climbs to and then gets stuck because it is too scared to come down, and having a sleep for a few hours. (We later discover it is normal for Vietnamese to sleep for up to two hours at midday, so I was living like a native – just three hours or so out of sync). I emerge newly serene again. One can’t just go to sleep, however, wherever one finds oneself, or even, as the yogi teaches, do a shoulder stand to help blood flow. One would be run over, arrested or sectioned fairly swiftly.

One just gets on with it I suppose. And stops making a silly fuss. That would be the British way.

I’ll go and put the kettle on.