Tag: yoga

Energetically Speaking

The mysteries of energy – what it is and how it works – are largely beyond me.

Personally, I know when I have an abundance of it. And I really know when I don’t.

I accept that energy is all around us and supports us and all other living things. Naturalists might interpret that universal energetic flow as god at work.

But beyond that superficial understanding and my reliance on electrical outlets to power up whatever device I need to use, my understanding of energy is scant.

Eastern religions have a deep and complex understanding of energy. They understand how the energy in us is connected to a larger energetic system.

Some Westerners have clued in and try to apply the knowledge of those belief systems to our own philosophical frameworks.

From this, many Westerners have adopted and follow the dictates of balancing their chakras and pursuing a yoga practice. In Far Eastern culture, internal energetic pathways in the body are called meridians which are the channels through which chi (life energy) flows.

This belief system attributes a lot of suffering and illness to blockages in energy flow. Acupressure and acupuncture evolved as methods to unblock the meridians. By doing so, the body’s own healing energy can take over and bring it back into balance, or a state of wellness.

It all seems like delicate balancing act to me to achieve and maintain a state of wellness in ourselves and on our planet. Many capitalists don’t think this way. Nature is seen strictly as a resource to exploit.

We are all paying a high price for that attitude with climate change and increasingly extreme weather events around the world.

Likely, we have all heard the analogy of how the butterfly flapping its wings can impact events on the other side of the world.

I will rely on this quote by Catherine McKenzie to better explain where that philosophy comes from:

“They say that if a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian rain forest, it can change the weather half a world away.

Chaos theory.

What it means is that everything that happens in this moment is an accumulation of everything that’s come before it. Every breath. Every thought. There is no innocent action.

Some actions end up having the force of a tempest. Their impact cannot be missed. Others are the blink of an eye. Passing by unnoticed. Perhaps only God knows which is which.

All I know today is that you can think that what you’ve done is only the flap of a butterfly wing, when it’s really a thunderclap. And both can result in a hurricane.”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10523011-they-say-that-if-a-butterfly-flaps-its-wings-in

That would appear to put an enormous amount of responsibility upon individuals to consider and monitor how their actions could affect outside events.

I believe there were great cultures that did do that as part of their inherent belief system. First Nation tribes believed spirit was in every living thing. They treated the Earth they lived on and the animals that were sacrificed for their survival accordingly.

I think it is a fair comment to say that sensibility was eradicated at the end of the nineteenth century as effectively as First Nations people and the buffalo were.

All to say, I superficially understand the dictates of maintaining my own energy supplies. I pursue practices and activities that I believe support that effort.

Mostly I have taken up certain practices through a zig zag process of traia and error over the years.

Yoga helps unblock parts of my body that are tight and tied into knots, essentially by tying itself into knots. No wonder so many Westerners think yoga is weird.

I have had acupuncture when no other modality seemed to improve that nagging bursitis in my right scapula. I don’t well understand how acupuncture works, only that it has and does. That is sufficient to my purposes when I am in chronic pain.

They say that the more you know, the less you know. Or as more accurately expressed by Aristotle: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

Regarding life energy, flow, Spirit and interconnectedness among all living things, that is precisely my experience. I know a little bit about a lot of things.

I am in a chronic state of tension as a result. I realize I will never reach that carrot of fully understanding the fundamental mysteries of life: where life started, what life is and what keeps us and life constantly moving forward.

I do know I appreciate the unrelenting quest and happily sacrifice a fair amount of my life energy to seek answers to those multitude of things I do not understand.

I pray for the sustained energy to keep me pursuing that quest for as long as Nature/Spirit/god permits.

Yoga

I went to a yoga class this morning for the first time in what feels like forever. Man, was it good to be back in a studio.

Yoga is often misunderstood as a mamby-pamby exercise routine characterized by weird and exotic names, pretzel twists and breathing work that is based on the philosophy of Eastern religions. It is marked by chanting and incense and all manner of distinctly un-athletic activity.

While parts of that are true, it could not be farther from the whole picture of what yoga is and offers practitioners. Of course, there are some pretzel twists if I’m honest. But they are sooo satisfying.

I reconnected this morning with muscles in my anatomy I had forgotten were there. Hamstring stretches. Spinal twists. Deep and focused belly breathing.

Speaking of flab, it flabbergasts me how easily once taut muscles can dissolve into lassitude.

I must compliment the yoga teacher for her gentle but rigorous teaching approach. This session was no walk in the park but neither was it boot camp for Navy SEALS. I had done a lot of yoga in my previous life.

I even completed a sixty day marathon once where I did one yoga class every day over two months. That took a little commitment. I got to explore a lot of different Yoga disciplines over that time period in the Rama Lotus Yoga studio: Vinyassa, Hatha, Iyengar, Vini, Ashtanga wore me out! Thankfully, there really is something for every age and fitness level.

I cheated once or twice (in my opinion) by taking part in a Yoga Nidra class. All we had to do for the entire class was lie prostrate on your back on the floor. I love Yoga Nidra.

I find it funny, though, how busy your body can be even when you are doing nothing. Every knot and pressure point and tensed up muscle makes its presence known when you’re simply lying on your back on the floor.

I came to love yoga for its health and energy benefits. Other than swimming, not many sports appeal to me. Competitive sports are for other brave souls.

Yoga kept me limber and flexible for a good long time. To me, that is one of yoga’s greatest gifts. Muscles need to move and yoga postures address all of them.

Don’t be put off by the weird posture names. Downward Dog. Sun Salutations. Tree Pose. I was put off by the names, at first, and I definitely have my favorite practices. Yoga is great in that it offers a diversity of choices so you can find and settle into the preferred practice you want to actively pursue.

I was once heavily into Bikram yoga. That is a special branch of “hot yoga” and is practiced in a very hot room. Its’ creator has since come into disrepute for the “touchy-feely” license he took with students.

But the foundations of Bikram yoga are solid. A steady progression through the twenty-six postures from start to finish that gently stretch every part of your body for a complete and deeply satisfying exercise routine.

I hope I started on a new path today. Day One of what I hope will be a revived weekly yoga practice. Baby steps however.

I don’t want to commit the familiar mistake I make of jumping into something with too much enthusiasm. That tends to burn me out and could threaten to put me off an otherwise engaging and beneficial activity pretty darn quick.

I was heartened to discover that by reengaging in a “first step” back to something I previously loved and was committed to, it may once again become a regular habit.

After today’s session, I am heartened and encouraged that a regular yoga practice may take root again in my life.

Time will tell, of course. But it was a decidedly promising start.

Wholehearted Agreement

This opinion piece was published in The New York Times a couple of days ago.

Writer David Brooks is riding a familiar hobby horse.

As much as “therapy culture,” has risen in recent decades, it has plenty of legitimate critics.

I’m one of them.

I particularly like the issue taken by Brooks with what qualifies as “traumatic.” Where it once referred to extreme abuses in war or profound psychological damage from assaults such as rape, the word trauma is now thrown around like rice at a wedding. Similarly benign “damage” and the insults of living life are too often labeled “traumatic,” as well.

I appreciated the caution in Christopher Lacsh’s 1979 book, The Culture of Narcissism. He warned the perils of endless introspection would result in the very culture we live in today.

Self-absorption among younger people “rules” and “rocks” and smears itself across the planet on all manner of social platforms. My concern is how many young people are chasing fame and fortune before they can legally drink in some states.

And for those who can’t or don’t make it in a big way, well … teenage suicide rates are off the historical chart. It is not a coincidence.

Putting the cart before the horse comes to mind. Healing is hard work. I write about healing because of some big, frequent ugly events that no little girl should have to live through. Not “mom was mean to me when I was little” variety but that was an issue, too.

I feel I “paid my dues” in the healing community. I employed a lot of personal searching, soul-searching, and healing modalities (yoga, meditation, talk therapy, anti-depressants, sobriety).

But make no mistake. Arriving at a healing destination where I can look back on the journey with a mixture of self-compassion, compassion for the perpetrators, self-forgiveness, and wry sense of humor took decades.

Through it all, I raised children, worked in the world, and I lived without a partner. My recent status as a married woman is a great cherry comfort on the cake of my life and healing. Not the catalyst.

That determination came from me and my own personal actions. Some days I fell apart. On other days, I felt little and worthless. But I always managed to cling to the mast. It was no cakewalk but it was worth it.

So in the therapy-soaked social environment of today, sometimes just knowing the psychological lingo qualifies you in your own mind for respect and special management.

That isn’t working and the piece below deftly explores why. The question is, can the social Titanic we are currently sailing avoid the iceberg in time?

Body Love

As I sometimes do, when another author’s message speaks to me, I feel compelled to share it.
Such is the case with this musing on what our bodies really need by blogger Hollie Holden (hollieholden.me).

I, for one, can relate to her message.

******************************************

”Today I asked my body what she needed,

Which is a big deal

Considering my journey of

Not Really Asking That Much.

I thought she might need more water.

Or protein.

Or greens.

Or yoga.

Or supplements.

Or movement.

But as I stood in the shower

Reflecting on her stretch marks,

Her roundness where I would like flatness,

Her softness where I would like firmness,

All those conditioned wishes

That form a bundle of

Never-Quite-Right-Ness,

She whispered very gently:

Could you just love me like this?”

-Hollie Holden https://www.hollieholden.me/

Art by Yulia Ustinova