Of Maha Sivaratri, Mudita and Inversions

I am not an intensely religious or spiritual person though I believe in "a higher being" and good actions reaping good results. Of course, theory is always easier than practise...so even Good Karma on some days is hard. Today is Maha Sivaratri - it is especially auspicious for married women to pray for the well being of their husbands and sons - so I fasted. I won't say it was hard or easy but I have spent the last 20 hours on no more than 2 hot cups of water with lemon and honey and a cup of tea. Remember that feeling you get when you aced a presentation, or completed an assignment well ahead of time - well, that is how I feel now. A little hungry but very grateful to be given this opportunity.

The mind has been restless the past few days - stuck in circular thoughts of no value. It is so easy in the Silicon Valley to develop silicon dreams - aspiring for more, never getting satisfied and never taking a moment to rest, relax and  enjoy...what I needed was to get back the stillness in my mind was a yoga class - I have only attended Nicole's yoga classes a couple times but always come back to ground the mind and acheive a sense of peace. She talked about Mudita today in class - an interesting proposition called "sympathetic joy" - the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being rather than begrudging it. The traditional paradigmatic example of this mind-state is the attitude of a parent observing a growing child's accomplishments and successes. Our society is an internally focused one - very individualistic, driven and success oriented - yet when you add in the layer of Mudita, there comes the sense of oneness, the joy in the success and happiness of others besides you.

I practised inversions today - anyone who knows me knows I absolutely detest inversions...the sense of being upside down - not in control is singularly unpleasant to me - I know inversions do miracles for the immune, respiratory and circulatory systems -- yet trusting one's body to the vagaries of gravity is as I said before unpleasant. Yet in the past couple practices I haven't been rolling up my mat and leaving the class when it is time for inversions but tried to practise and stretch myself a little bit more in that area...
This week is whizzing past fast and soon it will be next week, time for me to board a plane...how has your week been thus far?