G#d@$mn F%#$&ng Yoga

The things that were going through my head during practice this morning would make my grandmother faint. My mind was being so grumpy! My inner being became a pouting, sneering five-year-old with a overly-colorful vocabulary. It was rather humorous to observe, really, but I couldn’t stop it. Well, I guess it would be more accurate [...] yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Hi Aaron

Spoiler alert to all you non-US residents.

I used to blog about Lost, mainly because doing so helped me make sense of what I was seeing. This season, I haven't been feeling it, however. Confused, that is. Somehow, the storyline has been going down rather easily, perhaps because I've been using "closed captioning" and also have been able to stop and rewind on my DVR when something confuses me, thus resolving any confusion right then and there. As a result, I've been able to watch and then set it aside until the next week.

Until this past week, that is.

This past week, I watched from Colorado, without benefit of closed captioning or my handy dandy DVR. And the ending left me rattled. The entire time, I was expecting Kate's son to be Sawyer's. I guess that makes me naive. But whatever. At the end, when the little towhead says, "Hi MUMMY" and Kate takes him in her arms and says, "Hi [..............] AARON", I was too knocked-over to really absorb it. I really hadn't been expecting that. Again, call me naive. But whatever.

When I came home from vacation and finally rewatched the episode last night, I knew what to look for, and when the final line came, I was anticipating it and was thus able to absorb its full impact.

"Hi Aaron"!

This is the baby she's been passing off as her SON? Claire's baby? Turniphead? Putting aside the daytime television-esque-ness of it all, this moment was dripping with creepiness, as if Kate had suddenly turned into Rebecca DeMornay in "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle".

I seriously had a sick feeling in my stomach from it. Literally. I woke up sick this morning. Still went to yoga, as noted earlier, but I did feel nauseated.

Honestly, I probably can't blame my funnyky tummy this morning on Lost, considering Adam had a minor stomach bug yesterday, but whatever. I'm still creeped out and anxious to see where that story goes.

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

The Indian Way

Before I went to India, I was very concerned about the hand policy. Left, right, right, left, how would I remember? I tried to sit on my left hand while I ate, and was shocked when I reached for toilet paper with my right. But once in India, the problem was not a problem at all. In fact, toilet paper available or not, I very easily I appreciated the comfort of having a "clean" and a "dirty" hand.

Back in my apartment post-India, it took me a few days before I realized that in the west, its not that people don't care about being clean or dirty, its that this is a righty's world. I've been making mental note of this. Almost every WC I encounter had the toilet paper roll to the right of the toilet, whereas in India, it was mostly on the left. This must be particularly traumatizing to those who grew up with a dirty/clean hand policy. So do lefty's wipe left? That's quite a reach around. Do you just use the hand closest to the paper?

On the Tyra Show (I know, I know), Tyra gave western toilet squatting lessons to a post surgical woman. (Man who is now woman.) She definitely told her to wipe right.

I digress.

After some initial turbulence, practice today was smooth sailing. I seemed to have "proved" my second series worthiness, whatever that means. Had some hinting towards the next pose coming tomorrow. I'm a bit scared. This is uncharted territory I have a hard time believing that that stuff is possible for my body. Swaha.

yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Boot Camp

So, on the off chance (!) that you haven't been reading me lately, I've been away for the past 9 days at the YC Family Ski Boot Camp.

It's always Boot Camp when the YC Family heads out west. With two days set aside for travel, and no days set aside to acclimate to the high altitude (8,000 feet above sea level at the base lodge, averaging 10,000 feet at the highest peak), we ski every single day besides those travel days. And on each of those days, on every single one of them, we awake by no later than 7:30 a.m., eat a breakfast high in protein (recommended to acclimate to the altitude, and quite effective, I might add), put on many layers so that skiing feels comfy rather than cold, and scurry down to the base lodge by 9 a.m. to put the kids in Ski School, which they love, by the way, so don't be thinking it's just so that we can ski without them.

By 9:30 a.m., we are on a lift, except the days when we take a run with the kids before we put them into ski school, in which case we are on a lift by 8:30 a.m. We carry Power Bars with us so that we don't have to stop when we get hungry; however, by sometime around 1 or 2, it usually happens that our legs are no longer willing or able to take orders from our brains. That's when we know that whether we like it or not, it's time to stop in a lodge, whatever lodge we can find, for some grub and some ass time.

That usually lasts for maybe a half hour, during which we slurp some soup or scarf a burger (in my case, veggie, and not because I feel guilty eating meat, but because over time, I have grown to love those goshdarn meatless patties with a little cheese, ketchup, tomatoes and pickles). And by "half hour", I mean more like 20 minutes. Because any longer than that and we're staring out the window at the snow and the skiiers whooping it up, or, if we're already sitting outside in the sun, watching the schussing action around us, and we can't take any more of the sitting. At that point, we're back on the slopes until it's time to pick the kids up from Ski School. Depending on whether the kids want to or not, we then go back up to the slopes until the lifts close at around 4 or 4:30, depending on the day.

It's a long day, yes it is. But it's far from over, the YC Family Ski Boot Camp. We head back to our accomodations, where we change into bathing suits and then head out to the outdoor pool and hot tub. We stay there for a while, stretching out and splashing around, and then about every other day, I head up before the rest of them and practice some yoga.

This time around, I have a way longer practice than I ever have before. Last year in Steamboat, I was only up to Supta Kurmasana. This year, I am up to Dhanurasana. So, there was some splitting to be done. I think I ended up practicing five times over the nine days, including once at the airport without vinyasas. I only did my Second Series poses twice during that time, and Supta Kurmasana only once.

But today, it all came back to me. And it was delicious. And juicy. And sweaty. Every time I go out West, I come back so much stronger for it. You High Altituders are soooooo lucky. Come to New York for a week, and you will feel like a Superhero.

Val came to talk to me during my Second Series poses. She has been very very into the backbending, it seems, ever since Kino paid her visit. And that's cool by me. Val talked to me about originating the backbend from the root, about pressing down hard with the feet to get the lift up into the back, and it all seems so counterintuitive, but damn, it really works. We did Dhanurasana a couple of times. The second time, she lifted my feet high, and we talked about the balance between effort and surrender that is integral to Dhanurasana and Bhekasana (and, I suppose all backbends). We also talked about how leading with the chin is like leading with the brain, and that instead, the chin should come up last, and the eyes should never lift up at all. Always the driste is down the nose in backbends. THIS is where the yoga takes on its magical quality for me, where it is so incredibly counterintuitive that I just have to have faith in what I am being taught. And the result is always surprisingly rewarding.

That's all!

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Dedicated to Our Youth (Love the Philippines!)

Today, Feb. 25, 2008 marks the 22nd anniversary of Philippine PEOPLE POWER.
I dedicate this post to my children who are part of the youth — the hope of our land. May these graphic images burn in your hearts and remain there always. I pray that the spirit of EDSA 1 will always be the inspiration [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Snap, Crackle, Pop

My spine is must be undergoing some kind of transformation. It has begun to spontaneously crack from rather mundane movements throughout the day, anywhere from my sacrum to my neck. Fun! yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Yoga Relaxation: Modifying Savasana

Savasana (Corpse Pose) is the easiest of all Yoga postures to perform physically, yet is sometimes neglected as being the most important asana within the Hatha Yoga practice. Savasana is a crucial closing of the physical practice where prana, life-energy, has a moment to become grounded, purposeful and collected. As one practices yoga [...] yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Innocent Friendship in the Face of Adult Animosity

It pained me to watch the news on TV. It pained me to read about it again on the online news.
There was 13-year old JC Abalos, grandson of former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos being interviewed on TV and admitting to the public his close friendship with Abe Lozada, the son of Jun Lozada who is [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Digital Asana Project: Floating Chaturanga

Sometimes, especially in flow-style classes, you may hear your yoga teacher say something like “Step back or jump back to Chaturanga.” There are many to do this, of course, and it’s obviously not a good idea to jump back to Chaturanga if you can’t do Chaturanga all that well to begin with. Once you are [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Free Yoga Video: Dharma Mittra

The True Purpose of Asanas. This online Yoga video presents Sri Dharma Mittra who discusses the true funnyction and purpose of asanas (yoga poses). Dharma Mittra offers his approach in how one should practice Hatha Yoga in order to achieve the bountiful benefits of asanas for the body, mind and spirit. To learn [...] yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Our Youth Are the Hope of This Land

I have tried to make this blog as apolitical as possible as my theme is about LIFE and all its many facets as it affects me. But I cannot help but blog about the impact of our youth on me, especially during this time when we are once again faced by a scandal of humongous [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Aspen Day 2 - Lost the Snowstorm Sweepstakes

BUT it turns out, this mountain (Snowmass) is sooooo awesome that it didn't really matter. There is just so much snow. And I skiied like I've never skiied before on a first day. Or maybe like I've never skiied beefore, period.

And the yoga matters. A lot. The husband has been skiing for way longer than me - since he was a kid. And he's quite a bit more accomplished than I am when it comes to his skiing technique. But today, it hardly mattered. His fitness regime of stairmaster, the occasional yoga class (once a week, if at all) and maybe a bit of pushups and situps left him sucking wind and complaining of leg cramps. By contrast, I sailed through the black diamond mogul runs with nary a whinge. Not that it's a beautiful sight to behold, me careening down the bump runs. But still, I felt good. It's like with the backbending - maybe it doesn't look all that pretty. But if it feels good, I must be doing something right.

We ran into a friend of ours while picking the kids up from Ski School, and when he asked us how things went, and I was all, "It ROCKED" and the husband was all, "It sucked - the altitude, the heavy snow, the bumps killed my quads..." and our friend was all, "hmmmm?", the husband had to concede: She's in better shape than me. There, he said it. The YOGA. It's the yoga.

In particular, I would have to say that my emphasis on the legs in backbending, coupled with my repetition of Pasasana in my home practice (usually about three times), has served to strengthen my legs and more importantly, to increase my muscular endurance. When you think about what Pasasana is - a deep, deep, squat plus a twist - it seems like a really important posture for prepping for a ski vacation.

I'm going to bathe now, and maybe do some Sun Sals. I will try to do a full practice at least one day this week. But I am not going to worry about it. That would be counterproductive, no?

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Aspen Day 1 - The Snowstorm Sweepstakes begins...

Here is the view from the condo we rented for the week. Unfortunately, Aspen looks a bit bleak right now. It doesn't always look this bleak. When we deplaned early this morning, the sky was a bright cerulean blue, and the sun was so warm that we were overdressed on our ski jackets and jeans.

But now it's four fifteen in the afternoon here in the Colorado Rockies, and the bleak, white light pictured is actually good news. It means that it's about to start snowing. And if like the YC family, you are here for the powder, then that is exactly what you want to happen every day between the time the lifts close at around 4 and when the lifts open again in the morning.

I've been spending a week or so out west since I was about 25 (give or take a couple of years in the middle when I was either pregnant, or my children were simply too young to partake, by which I mean, under the age of two). This was when the husband and I started dating, and he insisted that I learn to ski. I wasn't going to argue this point. I had always wanted to ski. Alas, I do not come from a family of skiiers, and when there were high school ski trips, my parents wouldn't let me go. I can't say I blame them. I seriously dread the day when I get that first handout from the high school ski club, inviting my child to ski...without me. I got engaged on a ski slope in Telluride, Colorado. I spent half of my honeymoon skiing in Lake Tahoe. And I even skiied when I was in the middle of chemo, in between treatment cycles, although that year we stayed on the east coast, in Vermont.

After all these years, it has finally dawned on me that skiing is a sport that, itself, gives rise to another sport, an armchair sport: the sport of Snowfall Speculation. If you make the trek out west to ski, and the sky literally pukes out massive amounts of fresh powder, such that at night you can hear the steady thunderous pounding of human-created avalanches (a safety measure the mountain resorts take in order to preclude inadvertant avalanches the next day), it's as if you won. You WON! It's snowing, and it's for YOU! You picked the right mountain and the right week. You ROCK. It's like you picked the winning team in during March Madness. It's what everyone talks about by the fire in the lodge. It's what amplifies the "happy" in the apres ski happy hours.

But if you wind up on the other side of Mother Nature's generosity, if you arrive out west after having planned your trip for the better part of the year only to find that the good trails are roped off, nothing but rocks and ice, and that the trails that are open are so skiied off that you might as well be skiing on the east coast where ice, or "hard pack" as it is euphemistically called, is the norm...if that is the hand you are dealt, well, it feels as if you lost your big hand at the big stakes table. Or like you bet it all and lost it all on the favorite horse in the race. You and your comrades in skiing all look to the sky and wonder, when is it going to open up and give? You ask each other, "do you think...tonight maybe?" When you wake up to the same old skiied off chunks, you feel like you lost again. Like you went to the Superbowl to watch your home team, and they didn't deliver the goods.

So, I'm counting on the bleak, white sky to be my lady luck right now. Counting on bleak white sky to turn into torrents of champagne powder. And then turn to bright, cloudless blue in the morning.

We shall see....

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

The Social Politics of Neigborhood Names

I live in a kind of physical and social borderland- - an interesting bit of geosocial real estate in the city of Seattle. If I look at a city map, I can see clearly that my third floor apartment is located well within the geographical borders of the Central District. But if I [...] yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

And just like that...

the Boring Chickie packed up her bags and left.

Not so long ago, a person I know admitted to me that they created the original Yoga Chickie Satire Blog. Remember the I Luv Gurji blog by "Adrian"? I've often wondered why this person would take the time and energy to create and maintain a blog, with phantom commentators and pretend friends, especially when she has her own blog in her own persona. It's compulsive behavior, fueled, I would imagine by some obsession that deep down has nothing at all to do with me.

This same person wrote to me last night requesting that I never again speak of her on my blog. When I made a quick phone call to my friend in law enforcement, he agreed with me that it looks suspicious, that evidence points to this person being the person behind Boring Chickie.

Assuming that is the case, then let's see how this all would work:

1. She cooks up a blog called "Boring Chickie" whose sole purpose is to attack me as a person and as a writer.

2. She sees references to herself on my blog, maybe specific, maybe implied, I'm not going to say, and begins to get cold feet. Boring Chickie gets deleted - or rather, made private, which is essentially the same thing.

3. The deletion/privitization of Boring Chickie is followed up immediately with a request that I cease all mention of her on my blog. As if a deal were being negotiated.

Well, the logical question is: Would it be okay if I cooked up a fake blog where I wrote mean things about her instead?

But that's not my style. (Rick.)

Instead, here's what is: I will not be told what to write and what not to write on my own blog. I measure the appropriateness of what I write with my conscience and with something else which I will get to in a moment. When I have mistepped, I have made the appropriate deletions. Always, I have taken responsibility for my actions. Never have I done it under veiled personalities.

So, what is the other element with which I measure the appropriateness of what I write? Simple. I ask myself this: Would I put my name to it? If the answer is no, I do not do it. Only if I would be comfortable being associated with my words do the words ever make it to the public eye.

If you can't admit to writing something because you're too embarassed to admit it, then don't hit publish. If you think people would dislike what you wrote or dislike you for writing it, and you care, don't hit publish.

It is so simple. Could you say it to my face? Then say it here. If not, then don't say it anywhere.

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Backcrack

I forgot to mention that for the past two days, I have been noticing my some cracking sounds when I backbend. It feels good when I hear the cracking. And I'm wondering if the cracking is a good sign for my spine flexibility?

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Why is Yoga So Expensive?

Yoga classes in New York City now regularly go for $20 a pop. In L.A., it’s not much better, with the average price tag being somewhere around $17. Why is yoga so expensive?
At first glance, you’d think that yoga ought to be quite cheap. There is no equipment involved. You don’t need a tremendous amount of [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

There Was Blood

The triumph of reason over faith is brutal and not a triumph at all.

This is what I got from There Will Be Blood, which I saw last night at a tiny old style theater on Elm Street in New Canaan, Connecticut. It was a miserable two hours and forty minutes in my life, and yet here I am thinking about it still. Yet I wonder, is it that the film was thought-provoking, or is it that I am struggling to get something out of what might have otherwise been nearly three hours of time wasted in the dark, staring at darkness?

Plainview is a man of no faith. When we first see him, his existence is bound to the earth, and in fact, deeply tied to what lies below the surface of the earth. Nevertheless, it seems that more than anything else, it is those driven by faith that motivate Plainview and propel him forward in his life. This is because Plainview thrives on beating those who would compete with him, beating them into submission, beating them senseless, even beating their brains out.

Plainview's greatest nemesis is a young man named Eli, a faith healer and preacher, whose own nemesis might be his brother, Paul (if Paul exists at all, as opposed to being Eli, himself), who is responsible for bringing Plainview to their little town. On a tip from "Paul", for which "Paul" is financially compensated by Plainview, Plainview comes to Little Boston, as it is called, to suck the oil from the land, in return for a promise to move Little Boston into a prosperous future, where crops will grow and bread will no longer be a luxury, and where the Church of the Third Revelation will become the cultural center for the God fearing people of the region. Plainview's business partner is his son, HW, whom Plainview took in as a baby when the baby's father was killed working with/for Plainview on an early and rudimentary oil derrick. Plainview is tender with his son, but does not tell him the truth about his adoption.

From the moment Plainview arrives in Little Boston, there is no sign of Paul, only of Eli, who appears identical to Paul, but whose life is about God, not about money, except insofar as money will build and maintain his church. Eli goads Plainview, mocking him, implicitly, for his lack of faith, holding that lack of faith over him when things go wrong. Plainview stands for none of this, beating the crap out of Eli on a fairly regular basis throughout the film until in an abrupt turnaround, Plainview finds himself being slapped silly by Eli in a baptism that is forced upon him by one of Eli's followers who has seen Plainview commit a (possibly justifiable) murder and seeks nothing from Plainview other than Plainview's repentance in church.

During the baptism, Eli forces Plainview to say, "I have sinned; I have abandoned my child" (after a drilling accident, HW has gone deaf and has been sent away to boarding school), over and over and over again, screaming it like a zealot. Plainview feels nothing but contempt. Or does he? Immediately after this, he brings HW home from boarding school and resumes taking care of him, providing him with a full-time sign language interpretor and once again teaching him the oil business and treating him as a partner. Not long after, we see HW grow up and marry Eli's sister, Mary, in a religious ceremony.

For that brief moment, it would seem that faith, as embodied by Eli, has triumphed over reason, as embodied by Plainview. But the end of the film provides a very different resolution, one which is a complete reversal of what happened in Plainview's baptism. Plainview forces Eli to admit that he is a fake prophet. And as with Plainview's admission of abandoning HW, Eli's admission quickly shifts from insincere to heartwrenchingly authentic. Only unlike Plainview's admission, which is followed by forgiveness for his sins, Eli's admission is followed by his being bludgeoned to death with a bowling pin. Plainview stands over Eli's dead body and tells his butler, "I'm finished now."

And then the movie cuts to black. Credits roll. But rather than being left to wonder what happened next to Plainview, I felt that he had already answered the question. He was finished. His battle against faith was finished. And that was that. Reason won. But there was no great spoils to the victor. No great prize. Just the business, the mansion, a son who was by now disowned and no other family. Of course, there was the bowling alley in the basement and the butler who might or might not help him clean up the mess.

I wonder if anyone else who saw TWBB got this out of the movie.

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

My Day with Happy Slip

Feb. 7, 2008, Mag:net Cafe Bonifacio High Street, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm I was not familiar with the place and had to ask some security guards where Mag:net Cafe was. It was just a little before 11:00 and thankfully, the place was not yet full. After registering at the entrance, I made my way [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Primary in the morning, Second in the afternoon.

Yep, I did it. Went to led Primary at the CT Shala this morning. Then I came home, rested for a bit and did all of Second.

My fingers are about two inches from my toes in Kapotasana. I wonder if that is close enough such that an adjustment would get me the rest of the way. Well, I probably won't find out for a loooooong time. Anyway. Also, I won't even attempt Karandavasana without being taught it (the same was true for Pasasana, at least right up until about a week before I was taught it by Val) because there doesn't seem to be much point. Instead, I do it with my head on the floor. Other than those two, I am amazed at how much easier Second Series is than Primary. Sure, the leg-behind-head poses are challenging. But they are within reach, whereas when I went to my first Led Primary class, I was shocked that ANYONE could do Mari C or D since I was fairly sure that I would NEVER be able to do so. And then it was several years before I was actually able to do so. And let's not forget Supta Kurmasana. Shudder.

Although it was really funny to practice like it was 1975 (in Mysore), don't know if I would do it again any time soon. It just seemed like a lot of time to be spending on the mat. Plus, I need the Swenson Practice Manual beside me once I get to Mayurasana, which breaks up my flow. But I have to say that it's kind of funny to practice poses I don't often get to practice. And Second, itself, offers much of what Primary offers, although less in the way of deep twists and more in the way of leg-behind-head. And of course, all that backbending. And inverting. I guess what I am saying is that in practicing all of Second, I don't yearn for Supta Kurmasana because I have all the leg-behind-head poses. And I don't yearn for Mari D because I have Pasasana.

And man, this is so boring. I can't bear to type any more of this.

So, yeah, I practice twice today. Primary in the a.m., Second in the p.m. I hesitated to reveal this dark secret because I know exactly who it is going to piss off. But whatever.

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Carl, it was fun beating you up

on that other blog. The blog that shall not be named, which shall most certainly not be named on this blog, although I am sure that the authoress of said blog that shall not be named shall turn up soon enough to leave a comment that will link back to said blog that shall not be named.

What I really liked about beating you up on that other blog was that once again, I got to be a Barbie doll, which is the realization of my truest wish in the world. Being an ass-kicking Barbie is merely the icing on the pink-frosted cupcake. And being an ass-kicking Barbie with a Kundalini headband is, like, oh-my-god, the rainbow jimmies on the pink-frosted cupcake.

Now, enough about you. Let's talk about me.

I had the most kick-assiest practice ever today. Alas, I was alone in my house, so the question remains, if I had the most kick-assiest practice ever and no one was there to see it, did I really have it? Here's how it went down. I had an hour, and I decided to just do whatever I could do in an hour. And what could I do in an hour? Why, my entire practice through backbends, including dropbacks, that's what.

Of course, I could only afford three breaths in each posture other than Parivritta Parsvakona, the Marichyasanas, the Kurmasanas and Pasasana, all of which I allowed myself five whole breaths. In, out, done. No waiting in downdog. No dropping to onto my belly and waving my shins around to open up my sacrum. IT'S ALL CRAP. None of it is necessary. Not today, at least.

OK, time to go. Must neti and then off to the prom.

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

I aint gonna

yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Neti, my nostrils thank thee

Today, on the way to voting (NY Primary Day), I stopped at Whole Foods for a new buncha coconuts, and I got a lovely bunch too. I also got a "neti pot", my first ever. I have been feeling kind of blech today, couldn't get to the shala for the past two days because of kid-related obligations that fell during the morning hours, ended up taking yesterday as a "personal moon day" rather than waiting until Wednesday, blah, blah, blah, lots of excuses and excessive sensitivities that pretty much add up to nothing more than a not-so-subtle structure of attachments and aversions, blah blah blah...I needed a pick-me-up. Plus, seriously, I had a weird taste in my mouth, which tells me I might be catching a cold.

And so, I took home my brand new, pretty little neti pot, and got right down to business. I was skeptical, but excited to try it after hearing about it over the years. I didn't think it possible that I could flow water from one nostril by feeding it into the other nostril. And yet....it worked. It worked beautifully.

I am already a big believer in the benefits of salt water. There's a simple scientific principle called "osmosis" that holds that if you bathe cells in salt water, the cells will, in turn, expel water in an attempt to bring their own salt to water ratio into balance with the salt to water ratio existing outside themselves. (The old saying, "water seeks its own level" applies to salt as well.) Thus, if you flood your intestines with salt water, your intestines will react by pulling as much water from your body as possible in order to bring the salt-to-water ratio within its cells back to balance. The watery bowels must go somewhere; hence, the laxative effect. This is why salt water is used in Western as well as Eastern colon cleansing practices.

Salt water baths relieve aches and pains in the body in the same way. They cause the cells of the skin and the tissue that lies just below to expell water, which reduces inflammation. Love my epsom salt baths. And who doesn't love to swim in the ocean?

So, neti should work the same way. Not only does mechanical action of the water flowing through the nostrils help to clear mucuos, but also the osmotic reaction of the nasal walls react by expelling fluids, thus shrinking in the process, thus making the breathing passages wider.

I know I feel good now.

Now, to practice. Because in the battle between me and my obnoxiously loud mind, which is spinning lots of excuses for not practicing and lots of ways to delay practicing, the only one who loses is me.

YC yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;

Vote!

Polls are open in 24 states today. In quite a few states, you can vote today even if you are not yet registered. yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

A Personal Encounter with Fr. Fernando Suarez

Our community had a chance last Jan. 31 to attend a healing Mass with Fr. Fernando Suarez, the healing priest, whose healing Masses have been attended by thousands seeking healing for ailments and other afflictions. About 600 of us attended with our sick loved ones. Ever since Fr. Suarez returned for a visit from Canada [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Meet-and-Greet in Manila for Happy Slip!

Hi All, Thank you for confirming your participation in the Happy Slip Meet-and-Greet this coming February 7, Thursday at Mag:net Café, Bonifacio High Street from 11:00AM-3:00PM. You are one of the lucky 100 bloggers to join us in this rare opportunity in meeting Filipina YouTube sensation Ms. Christine Gambito brought to us by the Department [...] yoga therapy; Self Improvement;

Health Benefits of Olive Oil

Enjoy our new article describing the many health benefits of olive oil. Recognized for its’ abundant health benefits, olive oil is being chosen by many consumers as a preferred form of fat in diets and is being recommended by nutritionists and health professionals as one of the best alternative oils to traditional fats and oils. [...] yoga; Yoga Poses; Health and Wellness;