Similar Posts

  • |

    Flu Shot

    ByElizabeth

    I woke up woozy and sore this morning and went back to sleep for about 45 minutes after I was done with my morning practice. Although it is atypical for me to need more sleep after I have practiced, I knew that I was not sick. I was just experiencing side effects from the flu shot.

    I have only gotten the flu shot once before. The side effects felt like I had the flu (albeit a mild case), and I got the flu any way that year. As I haven’t gotten the flu in the past several years, I have not gotten the shot in subsequent years. (Note: The vaccine has been very effective 17 of the past 25 years, and not particularly effective for three of the other years. It was suggested to me that I should not continue basing my decision on having, by coincidence, only gotten the shot during one of the ineffective years–2003-2005).

    I was strongly advised to get the flu shot this year as a precaution for the trip to India. The plane travel, regardless of how much healthy living I do otherwise, will both tax my immune system and put me in contact with a host of viruses, etc. Also, and perhaps more important, I know I will be visiting loved ones in the hospital this flu season. Going through a little discomfort now is worth it to minimize the risk to those I will be visiting.

    Have you gotten your flu shot?

    Below: Workers line up to get the flu shot at the Health Unit.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

  • | |

    Why to Have a Teacher

    ByElizabeth

    I have never been inclined to (or even capable of) bhakti–unquestioning surrender and love for guru or deity, though I have practiced for years with those who believe for better or worse that it is an essential element of the yoga. I do, however, believe that having teachers is essential to developing a full and healthy yoga and meditation practice.

    Just as there is little point in having a machine that you do not know how to turn on or work, without instruction it would be very difficult to access and apply the fullest and most optimal benefits of the various practices.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

  • | | | | | |

    Great Gary Snyder Quote (and Sadhana)

    ByElizabeth

    My friend Dan just posted on his blog a great Gary Snyder quote on the need to do maintenance (of the self) in order to be most creative.  The idea that we need to maintain our tools and toolbox, as it were, in order to be most creative, is exactly what we are taught about the tantric yoga sadhana  — practice.  With our yoga practice, diet, lifestyle, work, consumption, participation in community, we seek to live progressively more in alignment with the undulating fabric of space, time, and apparent world so that we have maximum well-being best to serve ourselves and others with delight. In our sadhana, we include both study and experience (experience includes meditation, asana, and pranayama).  As both John Friend and Paul Muller-Ortega teach, we engage in the practices and studies to learn with ever expanding insight how to see and experience the highest first and live from that place.  Living and practicing with such an intention is, I think, the maintenance done so we can live out all of our lives as a reverential and creative act.

    Dan–I look forward to reading the sermon.

  • | | |

    Bearing Witness

    ByElizabeth

    It was raining and that was the smallest of discomforts compared to the suffering being funded by our government.

    I do not have the courage to refuse to pay taxes. I am willing, however, to give away enough of that portion of my retirement savings that has undeniably been bloated by a war economy to offset most of my tax liability.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.