A little fun Saturday morning in my new kitchen, making myself a cup of yerba mate. Found the monkey tea brewer at Wheatsville Coop in Austin, Texas.
I like monkeys.
Monkey tea
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Author Archives: MaryAnn Reynolds
Poetry, reciprocity, feeling absolutely useless and enjoying it
I used to post poems I liked to this blog, but I stopped a while back and removed them (well, all except for Shoveling Snow with Buddha by Billy Collins, widely available online).
By the way, Shoveling Snow with Buddha is a wonderful poem to read in August when it’s over 100 degrees. Just saying.
The major reason is that poets are often impoverished and yet the best ones give us the beautiful gifts of lifting spirits and expanding worldviews, maybe shifting our identities for the better, touching our hearts and souls.
Somehow they manage to use words, which are a left-brain tool, to convey right-brain experiences of intuition, wonder, and new associations.
Every poem available online is also available in a book, and when you buy a book of poems, the poet makes money. They don’t make money from having their poems published online.
Buying a book of poems reciprocates the poet for his or her talent, sweat, and generosity. They need to eat too. (I think Billy Collins is doing pretty well, though, and I have bought a handful of his books. Billy, if you disagree, please let me know.)
I still subscribe to Panhala, which sends me a daily email with a poem in it. Each poem includes the poet’s name and the printed source — so you can buy the book or find it in a library, if you choose.
I have a hunch that Panhala, even though it posts poems for free, probably steers more people to poetry in general, to particular poets, and to buying poetry books than anything else online. Joe Riley does it as a labor of love. No advertising, just poems, photos, and music.
Today’s Panhala poem makes me want to make an exception to my rule. It’s by David Ignatow, is titled For Yaedi, and is from New and Collected Poems, 1970-1985.
It’s a short poem, and I’m going to only quote part of it.
…When I die
I want it to be said that I wasted
hours in feeling absolutely useless
and enjoyed it, sensing my life
more strongly than when I worked at it.
Thank you, David Ignatow. Thank you for that poem. I love that sentiment. I find myself longing for some hours to waste. I’m so used to being productive, to forging ahead, to getting things done.
My shoulders tight, especially my right shoulder, which seems to be where that forging ahead energy resides in my body.
I got my grades in massage school, and I’m doing so ridiculously well that I realized I could afford to slack off a little. I stayed home half a day, turned in an assignment a day late, and made 80 on a quiz. So there.
Thoughts have been swirling about finishing the work on the trailer, big expenses coming up (tuition, car repairs or replacement, finishing the next four months of massage school), dwindling savings, finding work, and this intensely hot drought that seems to be unending.
I am going to set aside several hours tomorrow to waste while I sense my life strongly. Maybe a little shaking medicine, sitting, breathing, yoga, toning, journaling, walking — no, wait, that’s useful. I’m going for useless.
Hmm.
I think tomorrow is the day to let my feet lead me. They’re already telling me they plan to take me to Barton Springs.
My hunch is that I will probably have more resources to draw on to solve my problems after taking a useless day than I would have if I had a useful day.
I’ll post the outcome on Monday.
New 30-Day Project: The Month of Living on Discounts (via 30 Days at a Time)
My friend Shelley Seale is doing a series of 30-day projects this year. She’s calling it “the year of living consciously”. She’s worn no more than 6 items of outerwear, eaten only locally grown food, meditated, practiced happiness and giving and living sustainably for 30 days at a time, and then incorporated what works into her life.
Now she’s starting 30 days of living on discounts. Can’t wait to learn more about living well frugally!
Insight into internal and external awareness
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Top 20 thoughts to think while meditating
This is a repost from Elephant Journal, written by Blake Wilson. I found it quite hilarious!
My favorites:
15. I got this shit down!
12. Everyone would totally freak out if I started floating.
If you’ve spent much time on the zafu, you may like this a lot too. Click the link above to read the rest.
You can check out Blake’s blog here.
15,000 views!
Today this blog passed a major milestone, 15,000 views.
It’s taken a little over 1.5 years to reach that level, learning much along the way.
Thanks for checking it out, whether you’re a subscriber, occasional reader, or found your way here via search engine. I’m grateful for your interest in the same kind of things that fascinate me. Which I know isn’t just anybody’s cup of tea! It says something for you that you are also interested in healing, yoga, Buddhism, meditation, wellbeing, useful science, wisdom, and more.
I love the connection, especially when you share via emails and comments.
I hope to make it worth your while to continue to read here.
What would you like to see more of?
A doctor who uses yoga in his practice
Saw this article in today’s New York Times and thought I’d share.
When patients with rotator cuff injuries do a pose derived from yoga, the results were as good or better than surgery or physical therapy. The yoga pose is headstand with the forearms making a triangle with the head, but you can do it against a wall — inversion is not required. It works by letting a new muscle do the work of the injured muscle.
Another study found that for patients with osteoporosis or its precursor osteopenia, ten minutes of yoga every day for two years built bone density in the hip and spine, while the controls lost bone density.
Yoga is weight-bearing exercise using the body’s own weight, especially in partial and full inversions. In addition, stretching pulls on the bone where muscles attach, and this can build bone density.
Another article is about piriformis syndrome, when the sciatic nerve is pinched by tight butt muscles. It can be caused by prolonged sitting.
Pressure-point massage can help. Some home exercises can provide relief in the majority of sufferers.
Need help finding source of quote that 90% of disease is stress-related
Note: I first published this post in 2011. Be sure to read Tom Beckman’s comments and click the link if you’re looking for the source of the quote. Thanks so much to Tom, who is the associate director of the Health Professionals Program at the HeartMath Institute, a great program for stress reduction, for this persevering research!
Note: It’s November 2022, and I want to add something about how stress and disease are related. Our autonomic nervous systems react to threats (severe, mild, and even imagined threats) by preparing us to take action (to run, fight, hide).
When this happens, our heart rate increases, pupils dilate, lungs take in more air, digestion slows, cortisol and epinephrine/norepinephrine are released.
In other words, stress prevents our systems from resting, repairing, restoring, regulating, and digesting — the functions that keep us healthy.
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I’ve heard this statistic for several years. I’ve seen various forms of it in print, too, often attributed to the Centers for Disease Control but sometimes to the American Medical Association.
I’ve searched the CDC and AMA websites but haven’t found it.
I also searched Snopes.com, but it doesn’t include it.
Because there are variations (some say doctor visits, and the numbers range between 60 and 99 percent), it’s been difficult trying to hunt down the source of the quote.
That’s why I’m posting this. If any readers can shed some light on this, I would sure appreciate hearing from you. I’d love to have verification of the actual original quote and the date it was first published.
I’d like to use the quote with integrity.
Also — if this is close to true, is it possible that we’ve been chasing the rabbit down the wrong hole? That we’ve been addressing symptoms and not the cause?
Free day of yoga class at Thrive Fitness
I’m teaching Yoga for Stress Reduction for Free Day of Yoga on Labor Day, September 5.
The location is Thrive Fitness (formerly NiaSpace), 3212 South Congress, Austin 78704.
Time: 6 to 7:30 pm. Class size is limited to 15, and the doors close at 6 pm sharp (so we can get on with the relaxation!). Bring your mat and water bottle.
If you’ve never experienced restorative yoga and think you might like to try it or if you have experienced it and want to make it a regular part of your life, please join us if you can for a deeply relaxing experience!
Although details are still being worked out, it looks like I will be teaching this class regularly on early Friday weekends, sort of a yoga happy hour/release-the-work-week/relax-for-the-weekend/gather-for-healthy-dinner afterwards type of class.
I’m very pleased and excited about that!!! Thank you, Universe, for coming through, because I’d been hoping for a Friday evening restorative class! Thanks, Donna, Becky, and Todd, for making me feel welcome.
The Five Tibetans plus one
My training to become a massage therapist includes training my own body. We practice and are graded on our own biomechanics when delivering massage. After just a few weeks (and considering there are students who are right out of high school and from very conventional backgrounds), the teachers are beginning to convey that massage therapists transmit their own health and well-being through their hands — the energetic connection.
Just this past week, my class’ primary practical massage teacher, Cindy Anderson, introduced us to the Five Tibetans.
I’ve encountered this series of exercises before, years ago. Cindy says we will be doing them regularly and that past students often thank her for teaching them — and tell of practicing them on mountaintops and other unusual places!
Curious Mind here googled “Five Tibetans” to learn more (especially to learn that they may not always be taught well on videos), and then headed over to Wikipedia to read about them.
Highlights: The Five Tibetan Rites are reputed to be at least 2,500 years old. The origins are unknown. They predate modern yoga (asana). Some of the exercises bear some similarity to certain asanas, so perhaps they influenced yogasana. Who knows?
They are done in order as a vinyasa (flowing sequence) and are said to stimulate the chakras. Many other claims have been made as well — they are a fountain of youth, reversing the aging process, and such. I think you can safely say they build strength, flexibility, and balance, and they will give you more energy.
You start by doing a small number of repetitions — 1, 3, or 7, depending on your comfort and ability level, but no more to start. You add repetitions slowly until you can do 21 of each. Add repetitions so slowly that you do not feel sore the next day. Never do more than 21. (Although apparently some yoga geeks do 108 of each! Make up a rule that works for you, is what I say.)
The Wikipedia description is good, including that you stand erect and take two deep breath cycles between each. Cindy has us exhale through rounded lips with eyes open wide.
There’s a whole blog about them: The Five Tibetans — Expert Advice, Support, and Information. It offers free downloads of the original English description of the exercises, posters of the exercises and warm-ups (should you need them), and a PDF showing 7 undulations to relieve office tension that will be helpful to readers with desk jobs who are concerned about their health.
The blog is connected to a website that offers DVDs showing you how to do the exercises and even Five Tibetans teacher training.
However, if you just want to see them, here’s a pretty good animated description.
If you do them for the first time from reading this blog, and if you don’t already have a regular yoga practice, please please please do each one very slowly and mindfully, tuning into what’s happening in your body, and never go beyond what’s comfortable for you. Be very gentle, especially with your neck and back. Be mindful and err on the side of caution!
If you are not in shape, please download the warm-up exercises mentioned above and do them first.
Right now, I think of them as an alternative to a morning sun salutation — and that’s just where I’m coming from now. Both sun salutations and the Five Tibetans build strength and flexibility. They work the major muscles and joints of the body. They are fun to do, as well, at least for me. I’ll mix them in with my daily sun salutations, and perhaps later I’ll write a post about what I like about each practice.
The sixth Tibetan rite is a breathing practice. It is not usually taught in the US (our culture tends to frown on celibacy) but is recommended only for those living a monastic or committed celibate life. Wikipedia included a brief description and a link here. You do this exercise only to transfer the energy of the sexual urge up into the spiritual centers of the body.
The Well: bodymindheartspirit 