After quite a while, it was me, myself and on my walk!!

There is something about Lal Bagh that is so captivating – it maybe crowded, it may be noisy with quite some chatter (now with the summer vacation, presence of more people) but there is something about this place that is quite charming. Everytime I take a walk in Lal Bagh, the experience is different. Every walk here has a different story to tell.. It is the same place but something changes every time. Wonder where the change happens – in Lal Bagh or in my mind!!

Before stepping out on my walk, I decided on a

NO for

  1. Wearing headphones
  2. Thinking
  3. Taking pictures

YES for

Walking with the core engaged / braced (Yoga / Pilates / Zumba instructors, gym trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists and other relevant practitioners would tell you what this is, if you aren’t already aware of this. Google aunty has a lot of videos on this, though I would recommend the former any day any time)

Why the NO’s?

No headphones with music playing helped in looking at the greenery, smelling that dew on the grass and mud, feeling the sweat while walking, inhaling the fragrance of the different flowers, hearing the waterfall and chirping of the different birds and insects (though I wouldn’t be able to tell one chirping and buzzing from another :-)).

There was this lovely green parrot that so beautifully melded with the colour of the leaves. The colur of the beak was a sparkling bright red. It is here now and there the next and one had to look keenly, to spot it on the branches. When the parrot hears a movement and a rustling of the leaves, it is off to another branch. Just watching it flitting from one branch to another was such a treat to watch. In the attempt to take a picture, a moment that could have been otherwise captured with the eyes, would have been lost.

This NO was a hard ask – to think. It is natural for me to slip away into my thoughts – could be introspection, could be a conversation with myself, could be thinking of something I would like to do.. There were many moments in the walk when I would find myself thinking of something and when I realised it, I would snap out. In one of the pathways was a low bench facing a lush green long patch of grass and many trees. Watched what was in front of me and could not but notice the opposites.  (NO thinking and only observation :-))

The squirrel comes down the bark of the tree while the monkeys go swinging up and up the branches of the tree..

Some blades of grass are flat and broad while some blades are serrated and narrow..

A person sitting closeby, doing a breathing exercise in all silence while a little further away were a couple of people talking loudly..

Growing on the branch of a tree was a new leaf in all its shining green while right next  to it was a dry and yellow leaf, ready to fall off the branch..

If it was a hard ask for this NO to thinking, the YES of walking with the core engaged / braced was whew!!! The body flops and slumps with a lot more ease than keeping it in the appropriate posture to walk. If I try to kep the core engaged / braced, I forget to breathe and the moment I breathe, the core drops and the body slumps forward. Well!!! if having the right posture is a need, then working towards it is a ‘must and should’ (loved this phrase that I heard someone using and borrowing it for the blog :-))

A walk at Lal Bagh isn’t complete without a breakfast at a hotel. Which hotel will the breakfast be at, depends on the mood that morning. This time it was at a hotel where it is order, stand, eat and go.Just when I was enjoying a crisp masala dosa, I heard a person shouting at a group of six and using words at the group. Apparently this person’s family of three had occupied one side of the table and part of the group of six the other side. According to this person, they had moved a bit aside to bring food to their side of the table. Seeing them move aside, the group of six had occupied the entire table. Stepping back to the table and seeing it occupied made the person hopping mad. This person looked at the group and went about ‘scolding’ them. On the other hand, the group of six went about with their chatting and eating.

There were a few others who saw this happening and tried to pacify the person and suggested that the family occupy the place that was available at another table. This available table was where I was and right next to me. The next ten minutes, I heard while I ate. It was quite a ‘earful and mouthful’.

Watching this incident made me introspect (My NO to thinking was only during the walk :-)). Whether it is the person, their family or the group of six or all the othrs around – they would have come for a breakfast to the hotel with some joy and anticipation of having a hearty and happy breakfast. Somewhere, this incident could have affected a few of them, if not all.

Many times, we fixate ourselves to a table, a food, a person, a habit, a behaviour, a skill, a place, a thing etc and it is so difficult to ‘let go’ of it. We are fine if it is our choice to ‘let go’ but if someone demands us to ‘let go’ or we think they have snatched it from us, it isn’t acceptable to us.  The unacceptable triggers a multitude of emotions and actions.

To be aware of what we are experiencing and how we are acting; and our ability to regulate ourselves in as many situations as possible,  is always the need of any hour!! Self-awareness and self-management is work in progress certainly for most of us, if not all of us!!