Lockdown Diaries - Lockdown#1

This is a write-up from the lockdown dairies that I wrote during Lockdown #1 back in 2020. 

Life Hack Series : 21 Days Challenge - A Magic Wand

I always felt the 21 Days Challenge is overrated till I tried it myself. In 2020, I ventured into a number of 21 Days challenges and to my surprise, it worked like a Magic

As I started with WFH, very soon the days lost their structure. The rhythm it had all these years just vanished into thin air! Phew! Waking up was anytime before 8. Breakfast was almost 11am. Lunch at 3pm, dinner by 10 pm, and sleep by 12 pm.

• My rendezvous with Akshar Yoga triggered my first ever 21 Day Challenge. I was ready by 8am to practice Yoga along with Grand Master Akshar through FB Live. I never realized when the 21 Days got over since Yoga is part of my morning routine.
• I had a long-standing desire of taking up driving. Again it was the 21 Days Challenge that pulled this wish to reality. 
• I am very lazy by nature. Of late I had to rise early for catching the office cab at 6:30am. With the lockdown and WFH, this practice drifted. As I had felt the morning bliss, I wanted to get back to this practice. Hence resorted to the 21 Days Challenge again and now I am up before sunrise daily.

Today I complete yet another 21 Days Challenge - that's Blogging. I have written blog posts for straight 21 days. Isn't it amazing!

Rendezvous with Akshar Yoga on Facebook

I am someone who swings between utter laziness to deeper studies of variety of topics. On one such occasion of my laziness I was scrolling throgh the Facebook and got a notification that said    "Akshar yoga is live".  In an impulse I clicked on it and watched the yoga for a while and then "liked" the page. This was just the beginning of my journey on the yoga mat from the  lockdown days..

Lockdown had just set in and things had come to a strange point and whole world was wfh. So suddenly there was no more running around !

I was getting up when my eyes opened by around 7:30 and after morning chores will get to work.

This was before I followed Facebook page of Akshar Yoga. After rendezvous with Akshar Yoga things changed! Well for good..

Grand Master Akshar Guruji started his live facebook classes at 8am. I was supposed to be on the "Yoga Mat " by this time with about 10 minutes of walking around (टहलना) on the terrace.

I started to do yoga everyday with grandmaster Akshara without miss, though I missed several asanaas 😊

"Namo Adish" became new mantra which I leaned during the classes. After classes Q&A , Katha, Kahani by Grandmaster Akshar became integral part of my day.

I signed up for multiple other sessions which was on Zoom. At one point I was talking, walking, breathing, reading about YOGA all the time. I spoke to my family and friends about yoga, goodness of yoga and grandmaster Aksharji's classes..in some sense as Guruji says I became "Yogini".

As Guruji has said, Yoga and yogic way of life is a "Password" to unleash the universe. I feel fortunate to have received this password during this year and I am eternally grateful to Akshar Yoga! 

I seek Guruji's blessings to carry it forward. 

प्रणाम गुरुजी। "नमो आदेश"।

2020 - A year of PAUSE

This year has been rather heavy, yet so very essential.. Everything came to a standstill without any clue.. It's as though world took a "Pause".

When I reflect back, I feel if it was not for this pause, then I would have been deprived myself of so many things..

My routine in the past 20 years was hectic and packed .. get up at 4:45am, get ready, making lunch boxes for work, catching the office cab at 6:30a.m and reaching office by 7:30 am. Then like a clock - work and more work, attend meetings, lunch, tea and sit back in the cab to reach home by 6pm. 

Finish tea, go for a walk, come back by 7 pm and then attend work meetings + dinner. Sleep by 11pm..

In between catch up with young MM with her studies and school stuff. In short it was always Run..Run and Run..

Well! Even writing this is making me breathless… And think of following this routine for about 20 years..

In midst of this with not much pomp comes a change - Work from Home , social distancing because of the pandemic..

I got about 4 hours of extra time which I was spending on commute in the office TT.

This opened a lot of possibilities for work, health and hobbies..

My leap into Yogic life is only because of this pause.. As my Guru Grand Master Aksharji says it's because of the "ठहराव". He says to feel the effect of every Asana give pause..

Pause is powerful!