After going to the yoga retreat in India this past spring, my love affair with all things strange, yogic, and spiritual began. Most recently, I forayed into the potentially loony-bin-type-crazy events, including a guided meditation replete with a gold cleansing, a sound bath with Tibetan singing bowls and a gong, as well as an urban purification sweat lodge. While reading the descriptions of all three, I was certainly intrigued, though left feeling each event slightly empty of some emotion that I was unintentionally seeking. I wanted there to be a breakthrough, an aha! you’ve touched your Divine Self, a “you are finally spiritual” awakening. That has yet to happen, but I certainly am glad I’m trying and enjoy that I’m doing something different. On another positive note, I left all three of these feeling more open-minded, more relaxed, and like karma is on my side.

Guided Meditation with a Gold Cleansing

It was a Sunday morning, after a rather teary Saturday night in. I was being a total girl, worrying about a silly boy. With tears still in my system, I decided that a meditation session would be a great way to cleanse myself of bad boy-juju. After about 50 minutes of guided visual meditation, including blowing up roses aka emotions and bad energy, the facilitator decided that he wanted to cleanse my aura and bring me gold light. He could sense my negative energy when I arrived (he was right), so without touching me, he sent positive light to me. That included wiping away the negative, and sending in the positive. Cooky, I know, but it was nice to be noticed and it’s the thought that counts, right?

Sound Bath with Tibetan Singing Bowls and a Gong

A time to purify yourself, students lie on their mat with their feet facing away from the instruments so that negative energy leaves the body through the feet. For over an hour, the artist played the bowls and a gong – seriously, who knew that the gong could make so many different sounds?! It was rather relaxing, but I found myself too out-of-tune with what was supposed to be happening. My mind kept jumping around and not allowing itself to be overcome by the sounds. When the gong was really loud, though, I could feel the vibrations passing through my body, and I’m pretty sure that’s how it was meant to feel the entire time – the bad shit leaving through the feet. While I only really gleaned 5 minutes of cleansing, I did get in a nice rest and relaxation time, so it wasn’t a total bust.

Urban Purification Sweat Lodge

Facilitated by a student of a Native American “grandfather,” this sweat lodge was the city version of an Indian sweat lodge. Butterfly Woman, our guide, walked us through what a traditional experience would be like, including sharing our intentions, as well as prayers for ourselves and others. Again, this was a chance to purify our energies and obtain positive light within ourselves. With the lights off, sitting in a sauna, 8 women passed around a turkey wing (haha, yes, a turkey wing; it’s meant to symbolize the attunement with Mother Nature) and shared what we wanted for our life, our loved ones, and for the world. It was very ritualistic and it felt good to say out loud everything I desire for the upcoming year, and the hopes I have for my family and friends. If your nose itched last night, that might mean I was thinking about you and sending positive energy your way.

At the sake of sounding like a madwoman, I’m quite glad I’m opening myself to new things and trying stuff I would’ve never done before. I had a few self-awakenings during yoga teacher training, and I’m sure that more will come with more practice and when I find the right guru or medium to get me there.