It’s my last night at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY – or as I like to call it, Hippie Camp for Adults. Technically, it’s a place for holistic studies. The grounds look like Kellerman’s from Dirty Dancing. You stay in these little cabins and meet at a large dining hall for meals. The workshops offered include more mainstream things like yoga and watercoloring, but also include the unusual: shamanic healing, African drumming , vortex healing, homeopathy, song writing and living from your soul. The dining hall is very crunchy-granola. Literally. No meat. It’s a paradise for vegans. They had great french fries at lunch yesterday. If I tell you I smuggled in my diet sodas you won’t be surprised. And tonight my friend and I snuck off campus for a high-salt Mexican dinner. OK, so maybe we’re not as hippie as many of the other people who come to Omega, but you can also tell that by the way we dress – sort of normal NJ weekend dress, not Birkenstocks, bead necklaces and ‘just got done with yoga’ dress.
Still, I like being here. There is a good energy about the place. Everyone is happy and everyone talks to one another. And you really learn interesting things. I took the watercolor class. Even there we were coached to turn off our inner critics and there was a lot of discussion about activating the right side of the brain (the more creative side). I’m lucky in that I get to use my right side at work equally as much as my more analytical left side, but it has been good to really exercise my creative muscle with something new. It’s rare that I can really make that a priority. I was quite tired at the end of the day. As if painting is so hard! Tomorrow I think we have to paint a fruit.
By the way, they have dancing ("movement") workshops here too, but without Patrick Swayze they don't call to me.
Still, I like being here. There is a good energy about the place. Everyone is happy and everyone talks to one another. And you really learn interesting things. I took the watercolor class. Even there we were coached to turn off our inner critics and there was a lot of discussion about activating the right side of the brain (the more creative side). I’m lucky in that I get to use my right side at work equally as much as my more analytical left side, but it has been good to really exercise my creative muscle with something new. It’s rare that I can really make that a priority. I was quite tired at the end of the day. As if painting is so hard! Tomorrow I think we have to paint a fruit.
By the way, they have dancing ("movement") workshops here too, but without Patrick Swayze they don't call to me.