the de-tox de-bate

I have been contemplating on signing up for this 7-week detox program that Pure is offering here in Singapore. I have visited (and revisted) the Pure Yoga site for several days (or weeks) now…reading through the program overview…gauging and assessing if I actually had enough balls to actually do it.
And so it has come to the nth time when I am actually seriously considering going for it. It’s difficult, really. Some days I wake up with the firm resolve that, “hey, I am going to do this!”…and some days, I find myself resolved with the fact that, “maybe next time”.
Okay, so what are the reasons for not going for it?
Hmmm….well, for one…it’s not that cheap. And I’m not just being frugal about it…it’s really not something you just jump right into without much thought. Fine – so cost is one thing…but hardly the most important reason.
So that brings me to reason #2 (which is actually quite related to point #1) – if it’s not that cheap and involves a considerable amount of money – then of course the risk is high. If, at any point during the program, I decide that I cannot do it…I would be wasting some hard earned cash!
Finally, I come to reason #3 – the simple reason that I am not sure if I can actually do it. I mean, c’mon, 7 weeks is an awfully long time. And being in the real world during that time – with all the temptations of mouth-watering brunch food, divine desserts and exhilarating cocktails – is not really going to help me a lot on this detox trip. I mean --- can I actually survive it?!?! It’s one thing to be on a detox program in a nice spa, somewhere up in the mountains or by the beach in a nice little boutique hotel or cozy cottage, with 20 other women (or men, to be politically correct) who are there for the exact same reason, with an in-house chef who just cooks all the good stuff and quite another thing to be in the middle of a detox program in the midst of reality, or life as we call it. The thought leaves me feeling like a fish out of water – not very pleasant.
And yet, as I was on the plane to Bangkok, it dawned on me that this detox program was actually how it really is for a yogini in training, right? In the journey to grow deeper into the practice, in learning and growing deeper into yoga, we are not disjointed from our “real lives”. Yoga IS part of our real life. And maybe it is not that easy and it never was. There’s certainly enough reason why “discipline” or tapas is one of the principles of yoga. And so are truthfulness (satya) or integrity. And maybe it should not be seen as a struggle but rather a change in how I live my life. Free from things that do no good for my body.
So have I reached a conclusion given the epiphany that I had as I was suspended millions of feet high up in the air? Maybe not…and it seems that it has become a never-ending debate with myself – or maybe until the workshop actually starts that is.