Song Sung Blue

As the media obsesses over colour at the start of the Holi week, a tidbit caught my attention. In Japan, they are recommending colouring books for adults as stress busters. Apparently this is akin to meditation.

Each of us have our own stress threshold and ways of handling it. When I was in college and Dad about 55, he woke up one morning feeling giddy and had to excuse himself from work. This practically shook him to the core and sent some tremors in the family - because Dad never missed office! Adding to his woes, this was a day of the Sales Conference and outstation colleagues were in Mumbai. This led to his immediately giving up smoking ( a struggle we lived through for at least 10 years prior to that day, with my patient Mom also accepting his experimenting with snuff in an effort to fight the nicotine crave). At the same time began his exploration of yoga. He went for a week to The Yoga Institute, Santacruz and came back armed with many books. Ma, always supportive, joined him for an evening yoga class and suddenly dinner time topic took a singular character.

Slowly, I started to get drawn in and following Ma on some simple stretch asanas. About the same time, again, thanks to an over zealous Dad, I had enrolled for an Indo-American Society program on Memory Efficiency ( more about that and what I never learnt in another piece, later, someday). This program included a deep breathing and relaxation exercise for 20 minutes ( another life long struggle and lesson not learnt). 

Over the years, yoga remained a habit I would keep returning to. Interruptions like frequent touring, two pregnancies, balancing work and time with children commonly meant dropping yoga for months at a stretch. Every time, I got back to my routine, though, I would stop to thank my parents for probably the best gift they gave me. 

Parallel, ran my experiments with meditation. Books on pranayam, Raja yoga (many brought back from the Institute) kept surfacing on my bed-side table and forefront of the bookshelf. At office, when our Chairman choose to follow Art of Living, we were nominated for a couple of programs and exposed to So-hum. Some of my colleagues claimed that they benefitted greatly from this practice. Later, at another Organization, the Chairman being a follower of. Grand Master Choa Kok Sui, we had Pranic healing sessions, with a similar relaxation routine. While, I could never get any of these techniques to work for me, I did encourage my daughter to go for a Pranic healing course (yes, I am a chip of the old block and do push the kids to experiment). Last week we compared notes and she was not very certain that the meditation routine is working for her.

Following our discussions, I had this feeling that some of you might be having a similar struggle. Assuming that all who know me, also believe that I am a fairly chilled-out person, I decided to share my stress- busting formula in this piece. A disclaimer, however, before I get down to that. This is not prescriptive and I know of colleagues and friends who have very effective ways of their own. A particular ex-colleague has his personal music room a beautifully done space with guitars and percussion instruments. He mentioned that on Sunday's he needed to quietly retire to his room and play his guitar and this hour of personal time helped him face Monday mornings.

The physical or what one calls Hatha yoga, has worked well for me. The required concentration of breathing in and breathing out and the simple number counting that accompanies this breathing, takes the mind away from distracting thoughts. I have found it much like relaxation and meditation exercises and definitely easier to practice. As starters, I would recommend sitting at one place and gently doing some neck exercises, while focussing on the breathing and number count (can share some more details on request)

Of course, close friends and sufferers at parties, know my other simple mantra. Sing full throated (don't worry that it's not good enough...like that Abba number) and break into a jig. The trick here is to be able to do that on the other side of fifty, without looking (and feeling) silly. Must confess,here, that I have a very patient family that chooses to look bemused and stay non judgmental when I do this on a Sunday morning in broad daylight!

Making the full circle back to colouring books, like all great gifts from my innovative friends Bappa & Nupur, my children and I will never forget the Great Dinosaur Colouring book. Format 18" x 12", to be spread on the floor and may be coloured by 3 persons (tried for one adult and two toddlers) at the same time. Greatly relaxing!