Joy To The World....

Day 3 started off with the " Peace, Love, Joy, Gratitude" dance again led by Beth. I love this dance! I think I'm gonna have to do it with my Kindergartners in the fall. What a great way for them to start their day. Then we danced out of the room and made our way to our level 4 training which started with another one of those insane 3 hour Masters classes. This one focused on hip-openers which happens to be my strength so I didn't struggle too much with the poses. But I do have to say my inner thighs are burning right now as I type this. Each day our trainer has had a theme for their masters class that also carries on throughout the day. Our theme today was JOY. Hence the title of this post. In fact, we ended the masters class dancing around the room to the song Joy To The World. Not the christmas carol version, but rather the cool one by Three Dog Night. I remember that being my favorite song when I was in like the second grade. And as we danced around we had to hug 5 different people before we could leave the room and go to break. We also did our warm up stretches to Bob Marley's "Don't Worry, Be Happy". So you can see it was a very JOYFUL day.
Today was also a day filled with not only lots of music and singing and dancing, but with a lot of chanting as well. Something I have not had a lot of experience with until this weekend. We chanted our mantra for the day which was "Lokah Samastha Sukino Bhavantu" which means: May this world be filled with a sense of well being and happiness, and may my thoughts, words, and actions contribute to that happening. But my favorite chanting activity we did was one called Kirtan. That is where you chant a mantra like singing a song in rounds while playing a variety of musical instruments. My favorite one was one that included a phrase from each of the major religions of the world. As we sang them at the top of our lungs you couldn't help but feel the barriers that separate these organizations dissolve as we were all interconnected in song. It was so cool. And I also got to play an instrument called a Tibetan Singing Bowl that made the most amazing sound just by running a mallet-like tool around the edge of the bowl.
We also practice more Sanskrit words by playing games and doing partner yoga activities. But my favorite Sanskrit activity was when we got to do what our trainer Kristen called YogaFit line-dancing. Of course being one of those people who was borderline obsessed with Country Music line-dancing back in the early 90's I was totally into this. We did a fun version of the Electric Slide that included a yoga pose for 4 beats of the music. Great way to practice the language and the movement at the same time.
We ended the day with another session on the philosophy of yoga that included a very interesting discussion about the word and symbol OM. Here's the deal. It is the sound of the universe, and it represents our oneness with everything in the universe. It carries the 3 energies needed to have a full life. The first energy being that first breath you take when you are born, the third one being the last breath you take when you die, and the second one being all of the breaths that make up your life inbetween. That is why it is the most sacred of all the mantras and so important in the yoga philosophy.
We also learned about the deity known as Ganesha. That is the elephant-headed statue that is so often portrayed in pictures pertaining to yoga. He is usually sitting surrounded by lots of mice and eating dessert. This deity is symbolic of the idea that you can live among the peasants of the world (the mice) and still live a life full of joy (I guess that's what the eating desserts part symbolizes).
As I drove away from the resort this evening I couldn't help but realize how all of the organized religions of the world seemed to all be saying the same thing. And how they all seem to have similar stories and symbols to represent the same concepts. And it just goes to show you that we truly are more alike than we are different.