I did it, I extended my maternity leave to the maximum which is 70 weeks. We are so privileged to be able to do this here in Quebec. Today being Woman’s day, I was reading some article about women being fired from their job after returning from a maternity leave. I hope this isn’t what is awaiting for me once I return…
I did a 6 day intensive meditation and yoga course a couple of weeks ago. I also got into a yogic regime; no meat, no eggs, no alcohol, no caffeine, no tobacco (easy for me as I don’t smoke) during that time. It is strange how well I was sleeping during those 6 days. I don’t know if it is the fact of practicing yoga and meditation everyday, combined with the yogic regime but I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night feeling anxious as I often do. Since then, I went back to eating meat, but not too much, and drinking alcohol on the weekend. I have been able to stay away from caffeine, which I am proud of. I am back to waking up in the middle of the night feeling anxious, and having nightmares. I have kept a daily 30 minutes meditation session. Hopefully I can keep the pace once I go back to work. Given my anxiety that has come back, I wonder if it is the alcohol or the meat, or the lack of yoga exercises that causes this.
I just finished reading the book `Quantum Healing` from Deepak Chopra. I was so intrigued and attracted by Ayurvedic medicine and real life stories of illnesses and healing. All the benefits enunciated about meditation certainly make me want to keep on doing it for the rest of my life. My husband is now reading the book, and funny enough, there is one point that we both questioned, which are the cancer patients who heal overnight. Last week, there was a TV program on CBC regarding all the errors made in pathology and the wrongful cancer diagnostics that ensue. My husband pointed out to me whether those miraculous overnight healings talked about in the book could just be wrong diagnosis at the base, and I had been wondering the same thing to myself. It sure is hopeful to think that some people could heal themselves overnight, but so hard to imagine possible at all at the same time. As I had mentioned in a previous blog, my eldest sister had breast cancer when she was in her thirties so I can’t help but worry a bit about my situation. According to Chopra, just worrying about this could put me at risk. I definitely have to keep my daily meditation session.
Now I am reading another book `There are no accidents` from Robert H Hopcke. Interestingly, I lived a synchronicity episode while reading it. I had decided to keep my 14-month-old son at home rather than sending him to daycare that day, but I badly felt like reading. I only can read while my son is napping. So he went for an afternoon nap and I kept on thinking to myself `don’t wake up yet, I still want to go on reading`. At some point however, my son had been sleeping for an unusually long period and I started to worry about it. I then thought that I should go and check on him, but I knew I would wake him up by doing so. I thus resisted and kept on reading. My son had been sleeping for 3-½ hour which is quite a rare occurrence, and I thought `as soon as I am done reading this page, I will definitely go and check on him`. Then I finished reading the last line going into to next page, and I heard my son babbling.
