He said "No way, how can I manage the kid all by myself in the evenings, dinner, brush,getting him to bed. It will be too much"
She said "See, for dinner, I'll do the preparations early in the morning. And I'll get out of work an hour earlier and I'll get the dinner ready before I leave"
He said "But then, if he starts asking for mommy,mommy, what will I do?"
She said "I'll start preparing him from today itself. I'll explain it to him and he'll understand. And you can explain to to him just the same way I do when you go for your 3 day seminars and he asks for Daddy Daddy. I'll tell you the trick :-)"
He said "But why do you have to do it?"
She said "For myself, just because I want to do it"
He said "But this is so costly too. With all the other expenses coming up, how will we manage?"
She said "Okay, no eating out for 3 weeks. And I'll give up on the fancy rug I wanted for the kitchen and also the pair of shoes I showed you in Mall"
He said "What? You showed me because you wanted to buy those? You just said "aren't they so trendy?"
She said "Okay, we'll talk on that later. For now, you okay? So am I set?
He said "Okkkkkkkkkkkayyyyyyyy, do whatever you want to do"
So,after this long argument, I was finally able to convince S that I was going to join the Art of Living course, a 5 day seminar centered around Yoga, meditation and breathing techniques. (See their website for more information.)
I needed to clear my mind and heart of a lot of things and that's why this course. It is a nice small group of small, who are all there for different reasons. The instructor is a cheerful young girl, who impressed me with her vibrant energy and intelligence.
My take from the first day of the class: "Expectation reduces joy"
Most of the frustration and agitation in our life is caused by the fact that we have set our expectations for someone/something. So when those expectations are not met, it make us unhappy.
So, the lesson is not that we should not set our expectations. The lesson is that we should be aware of our expectations, and when they are not met and we start getting agitated, have the realization that it is our expectation from the situation and not the situation that is the cause of it.
Some of my other takes from this session:
The present moment is inevitable.
Drop your ego, just let it go...you are not your ego.
Holding on to things is the root cause of misery. Bring you awareness inwards, to things you are holding on to, and just let go
Take everything that happened to you as a blessing! Getting into something is a blessing, getting out of something is also a blessing.
Bring you mind to the present moment by observing your breath. The present moment is the best moment to live. Things change. They don't remain the same forever. There is power in this concept! If you are at a high it will change, if you are at a low it will change. Change is the nature of the universe. So realizing this, one doesn't need to feel stuck with a certain situation because it is bad or stick to a certain situation because it is good.
Don't React but respond to situations and problems This is the first time I went to such a session and I really wanted some peace and clarity of mind. And the session really helped me in achieving that. It gave me an opportunity to look deeply inside myself and question my own self. It gave me a direction to path forward in life. On the side note, my son missed me every time I had to go for this. And I had to tell him that Mommy also had a class to go to, just like he goes to his class in school. And while I was out, Dad and son enjoyed their time in activities like this:
