I have been itching to write this since yesterday but I decided to sit wait till the next Writing Hour in my day to not mess with my schedule. Who knew I had it in me?

Anyhow, I have just woken up. Like less than 2 minutes ago. I was supposed to up at 6 AM – that was The Plan. But I gave into a little bit of random Internet last night and could not do my seven hours of sleep. But I am here now. To tell you something really interesting I learnt yesterday.

It was World Yoga Day yesterday. I had gone for a trial Yoga class. And I have some thoughts about it.

First, that I have been breathing wrong all my life.

(Oh, and in case you did not catch it, the title of this blog is a play on Shaunak Sen’s film.)

So, apparently, when you breathe in, your belly is supposed to balloon up. And when you breathe out, it’s supposed to deflate. My default breathing – for all my life – is my chest balloons up and deflates. So, can you imagine what learning that the one thing I have been doing all my life; the one thing I have more than 100k reps for can do to a girl?

Well, not much really. But it gives me a fun story to tell. A dinner table trivia. And also, tiny bit of thinking about how if I could have been breathing wrong all my life – of ALL things I could be doing wrong, what else am I wrong about.

Also, I didn’t fact-check this. The Yoga Instructor told us to breathe a certain way in our practice and I assumed that’s the way you are supposed to. And cooked up an entire stream of thoughts around it.

And, if I am being honest, I do wish I have been breathing wrong, so that I have a funny story to tell. After all, if anything, I want to be a great raconteur.

Second, that I really enjoy workouts and exercises and yoga. I don’t actually if they’re synonymous. But yes, I like moving my body and doing fun things with it. Especially if you’re doing it with a bunch of friends and you can make a whole game out of it.

But I would probably not continue with this particular Yoga class. Takes a lot of time for very little of actual movement. I don’t know, frankly. Let’s see. However, in the future, I’d love to do some fun (and challenging) practice for sure.

Third, and I will most probably redact this, that I am supremely cautious and scared of new things and spaces and not knowing what’s happening around me. The instructor made us lie down, close our eyes and meditate. And, for the life of me, I could not close my eyes and not know what was happening. I knew they were walking around in the room and turning off lights and the AC and playing ambient music and someone came in for a quick chat and whatnot — I did not know why they were doing all those things and it was super nerving for me.

And no, there was nothing outright creepy or unsafe about the whole situation. I know it was just me. But I did notice how other people in the room seemed completely okay with it and were able to trust and follow. I, for one, could not. Not for the first 15 mins of 20-min meditation anyway.

Right after all that Yoga, I went to Ramen Bowl with some friends. Andheri West Shitposting, and then Mumbai Foodie, had talked about it and Chandni + I wanted to go try it. And it seemed basically healthy with all the veggies and the chicken and a little bit of noodles. Aakash joined us. We reached, the rains were terrible and they were out of Ramen. Clout does that to you.

But I was hungry, so I switched my intentions. Got Melvin’s chicken starter + some fried rice. Went to Aakash’s and ATE. It was only after all the hogging that it occurred that it was super unhealthy and waste of my kachra food quota. But it’s okay because it was also super yum.

I came back home. I was in a funk. So, I whiled for a bit and finally fell asleep. I must to get better at not letting the funks dictate what I do with my time. But, I was able to navigate the funk better – truly work on it by myself instead of relying on any kind of food or company or content as distraction. And that was my mini win that I boasted about to my close friends WhatsApp group that’s got 40 people now :p

On this bright and beautiful Saturday, I hope to have a regular day. I am wondering if I should fast – but it’s only coming to me because I ate trash yesterday and I disallow building this habit for myself. So, I’ll do my regular, healthy eating. And learn to be more mindful.

Let me go have a great day now.

And that’s all for today,

From the messy, slept-in desk (bed) of Anshika Kushwaha.