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| I went away to Cuba to restore my body and soul, for a week, this winter, when I couldn't be without light and all its warmth and growth any longer. My hope was to wake up early, walk everywhere, swim in the ocean, and return to my yoga mat... |
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| I arrived at night so I couldn't see much of the outdoors, I was exhausted, and feeling a little fragile being on my own and feeling unwell. I went to bed and this is what woke me up on my first morning! |
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| I can't describe how restorative it was to wake up with the sunrise pouring red gold light into my eyes: I felt six years old, all my malaise slipped off me slowly over the next three days, and I spend every morning doing yoga on my balcony. Miraculously, with the assistance of the early morning sun, I was able to regain my practice in ways I had almost given up hope for. It took time, and my stiff body was sore at first, but there was healing going on on so many levels, and the salt ocean in the afternoons completed whatever the morning sun had begun. |
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| Every day, outside, coffee at dawn, yoga in the morning sun for a few hours, walking barefoot almost everywhere, especially on the soft sand, and leaves, and swimming all afternoon in the warm turquoise blue ocean. This was so much more than exercise - it was colour therapy, light therapy, immersion in air and water and salt (earth) and fire - and by the fourth day I felt like a version of myself I had almost forgotten. I was literally a new person, in the way that we are new people when our cells completely renew themselves or a new state of mind changes everything. In this case it was some of both. |
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| A few more facts. Right. It's true that my room overlooked a vacant lot with two dumpsters, and come construction materials, and that I'd hear the staff at the nearby Iberostar arriving for work in the kitchens at 6am, because my room was positioned at the edge of my resort, overlooking the back end buildings (at a distance) of the one next door...but who cares about that?! My balcony was very private, so no interruptions of my sun/yoga morning sessions, and being on the third floor I had a view of sea beyond the windbreak of trees which blocked the view from lower rooms. Not to mention the fitness opportunity of multiple stair climbs each day, which overwhelmed me initially, and became a great part of my workout by the time I left (which was about 6 weeks too soon)! |
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| I once read, in a book about spontaneous healing, of a man in Japan who had kidney cancer. He went out at dawn and experienced a feeling of the sun piercing through him, healing and restoring him, and also felt it in his consciousness...the story cited his clinical remission following this. Who knows what is possible? I have always felt something profound in the presence of sunlight - physical, emotional, and spiritual - which I find hard to put into words. I have always remembered this story though, because it speaks to me on an experiential level. Like the energy work I've encountered. Like the indescribable and profound effects of prayer and meditation. These are more powerful forces than we are and I am grateful that I am able to sense and benefit from them to the extent of my awareness. |
