Doing Yoga After Eating Too Much Breakfast

Experiment, 2019 – A Micro-Phenomenological Study of a “Doing Yoga After Eating Too Much Breakfast”-Experience.

Date/Time: 14/02/2019, 10:00-11:00

Date/Time of the original Experience: 13/02/2019, approx. 10:15

Scale: 5mins : 60 mins = 1:12

Place: Berlin, Germany.

Interviewer: Friend

Interviewee: Els van Houtert (me)

Setting: In the living room of Friend’s house, where the experience of the day before also took place. We were alone in the room, Friend’s husband was in the kitchen. We were sitting opposite of one another; I sat on my mattress, Friend on the ground. I had my eyes closed, so had Friend. That is, for most of the time (except when she had to look at her print with interview-guidelines).

Cognitive and Epistemological Axes

I think I know me and my experiences. I think I know how experience works, I know what it is like to experience something, I know what causes my experiences.

When I want to describe my experiences, I tend to describe what I know about them instead: “I am full, my stomach is full because I ate too much. I taste coconut and creamy taste in my mouth. I did not like my breakfast and I ate too much of it. Now I am nauseous. What I feel and what I taste–something I dislike—is caused by what and how much I ate.

When I want to describe my experiences, it is difficult to let go of what I know, and to focus on what I sense instead. What does `full’ feel like?

… heaviness, fullness, fluidity, liquildity, tumbling movements in my belly. A taste of coconut and creaminess in my mouth. My belly screams. Gravity: There is a bag of water in my belly, pressing on my spine, tumbling when I move.

Body- and Self-Awareness

I think I am aware of what I feel and where my body or my self ends and begins.

At first I feel like this bag of water that is inside of me, does not belong to me. It is alien, it should not be there, it is blocking me from using my body in a way that I am used to use it. Since it is not me, I don’t want to pay too much attention to it. I’d rather try to ignore it and to continue my practice, looking carefully for exercises that are soft and quiet so I can stretch my body without this bag overruling it all.

Once decided to stop trying, I have finally come to acknowledge that this “thing” inside of me, is now a part of me. It belongs to me and therefore should be included, rather than excluded from my conciderations.

I decide to cease the practice, acknowledging that this is not the right time, that my body needs something else right now. It is no longer a sacrifice, it is a form of self-support.