I saw a girl the other day at Wanderlust Festival wearing one of those clever little shirts that said, "Heavily Meditated." I chuckled to myself and then took a second to go through the previous 48 hours...

I woke up Thursday morning feeling a bit flu-ish. Now, I'm not a baby. I don't like to admit that I don't feel well. I try to keep going as long as possible, but after making it through my morning activites, I realized I was a little sick. More than that, I was determined to feel better because I had tickets to Wanderlust Festival in Stratton, VT for the next two days. Wanderlust Festival is a yoga festival. For those of you who've never been to one, it's like a very clean, healthy, mindful, happy yoga theme park (vendors and all). It's uplifting and beautiful and somewhat indescribable. And I wanted to go!!!

Side note: You should go. It was pure bliss. I could've written about every joyous moment and every incredible new teacher and person I met, but that would never end. And I'm still processing it. But trust me... go.

So I came home Thursday afternoon, had some vitamins, oatmeal, tea, the usual. And then I took some Advil. Now, I don't like to take unnatural medicine if I don't absolutely have to, but I had to go back out that evening to teach a yoga class, and I wasn't going anywhere if I didn't get rid of my headache. I got through the evening, and tried to get to bed early. On Friday morning, I woke up two hours early from a bad dream. One of those "I can feel the aches in my body" bad dreams. I somehow fell back asleep for a short time and then woke up again at 6:30 am to begin my adventure, sick or not. I was determined not to miss this.

Side note: Enterprise car rentals is really good at hiding their "important instructions" under the fine print section. (I would call them a mean name, but it wouldn't be very yogic of me.)

Luckily, Zipcar saved the day, and off to the festival I went. I drove through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont until I reached the breathtaking Stratton Mountain. The fresh air alone could have cured me. I spent the next 48 hours in the mountains, in the sun, practicing yoga, meditation, hiking, eating wholesome delicious foods, meeting people, finding awareness with hundreds of yogis there to do the same. The collective energy was palpable. Within the first hour, I forgot I had been sick at all. In fact, I felt elevated. But by the end of day one, I was exhausted beyond exhausted. I could've passed out where I stood, yet at the same time I felt like a million dollars, so clear, so refreshed. I stopped taking the Advil.

So what happened? How did I go from feeling like crap to this?

I think deep breaths are very powerful cleansing tools. I took so many of them while I was there, I'm still breathing that way now. Using meditation to fuel them, plus having that environment to breathe in was definitely the combination that healed me. As Raghunath said on our hike at the summit, "Your body naturally takes deep breaths in air as good as this."

Focusing on being mindful and aware is what yoga is ultimately about. It's finding that inner and eventually outer peace through meditative practices, and finding a sustainable way to live with those intentions, from the things you eat, to the things you say, to the things you look at each day. It's not an easy practice, but the benefits are monumental and invaluable. It's taught me, this weekend especially, how to interact with the world in a better way. And then, voila, I didn't need any Advil.

I think medication should be a last resort, whether it's something as small as a little bug or something that affects someone's daily life. Granted, in many cases a serious or chronic illness requires more, but for the average healthy person who comes down with something, do you truly need it? There is a powerful, innate desire in all of us to breath (obviously), but when we focus our attention on that act, it brings us back to a pure and powerful state of being. The breath connects us to our life while relieving distractions, pain in the body and in the mind, sickness. I didn't fully understand or appreciate the power of meditation, the power of my breath, until I felt it this weekend. I probably still don't. I'll probably be searching for more my entire life. But I know one thing, my weekend of yoga was MY proof. I will always choose to try meditation over medication.

AND NOW... AN EXCERPT FROM THE ADVENTURES AND TALES OF AUDREY:

(Narrated by John Hurt as the famous Harry Potter character Garrick Ollivander.)

Life is kind of like driving in the woods of Vermont on a dark summer's eve. It's dark and scary and you have no idea what's going to happen next, (a passing deer or falling rocks), so you must stay so present and so focused and try to enjoy the adventure. Trust that you will be okay, that you will survive, and that maybe you will come out the other side a little bit wiser. Such is life.

To Meditate or To Medicate... That is the Question