India: Mind and Body

I enrolled on the India: Mind and body program without really knowing what to expect. I was simply hoping to be thrown out of my comfort zone... and oh boy, was I ever!

OG puts a lot of emphasis on cultural immersion and traveling in a simple and humble way. So, our accommodations were modest and we took sleeper trains and rickshaws to get from place to place. We had a lot of opportunities to learn from the culture and practices of India through structured activities, but I also felt like we had a good amount of free time.
There was a fairly last minute change to the itinerary, which altered the program quite a bit. Rather than staying in the Rishikesh area, we ended up spending a week farther up in the Himalayas on the Ramana's Garden farm. There, we had a lot of time to do service projects and to get to know the many wonderful people there. We also had a lot of time to discuss our impact, and how we could make the experience mutually beneficial for ourselves as well as our hosts. Things didn't go 100% smoothly, but what held the program together was the amount of love and support between all the people in our group, as well as our program leaders. They all became sisters to me, and I wouldn't want to have shared the experience with anyone else.
India was tough for me. The sensory overload, the heat, the lack of toilet paper, etc. was overwhelming at first. However, one I got into the swing of things, I found the whole experience to be both profoundly beautiful and humbling.
If you're thinking about going on an OG program, do it! You won't regret it.