My ears, nose and throat specialist told me today that my obstructed left maxillary sinus had cleared up remarkably from what he saw a month ago. I took penicillin for about three weeks and on Monday I had another CT scan done and the x-rays showed that my previously blocked sinus had air inside it. The doctor told me that he expected that I would need to have a surgical operation to clear it up. It was not completely recovered so I'll have to go back in three months to see if it's gotten any better.
Shortly after the original diagnosis, I purchased a Grossan Hydro Pulse ® Pulsatile Sinus System because my usual way of doing nasal washes, with a neti pot, did not stand much of a chance to clearing up a blocked sinus. This device seens a stream of warm water in one nostril and out the other, with a rhythmic pulse. I knew I was improving when I had to clear water out of my left sinus by standing in Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend). It is expensive, but I feel it was an investment in my health. It was certainly less expensive and disruptive than surgery.
As I've stated here before, I am experiencing pranayama as if it was the first time. The sensation of moving larger volumes of breath unimpeded through my nose is an exhilarating feeling. I relish every time I sit down to do my kriya.
New York Times Between Poses, a Barrage of Pickup Lines: the YouTube video mentioned in this article is funny, though it's not ready for prime time. I just can't recognize a facsimile of a real yoga class in the video but that may just be an issue of production values. But the pretext of the video is a real issue and I've seen the phenomenon in a few of my classes.
Flow Yoga, my downtown studio, gets mentioned in the article because it has a Thursday night social get-together, and even has plans for speed dating.
This story actually opens an ethical issue of human relations on the yoga mat, especially when teacher-student interplay moves outside the yoga studio and especially when sexual chemistry is thrown into the mix.
- New York Magazine Class Action: Amy Sohn examines some of the more base instincts and sounds Sex and the City, but she makes some valid points.
- Ethical Imperatives and Sexually Responsible Behavior veteran teacher J. Brown explains his own evolution in dealing with students.
- Ascent Questionable Conduct Luci Yamamoto discussed the boundaries of sex, power and yoga. Also see Letters to the Editor
- Whole Life Times Yoga's Silent Scandal
- Self Compromising Postions - another take on the teacher-student relationship.
- Common Ground Posing Problems (same as the Whole Life Times article) by Lisa Maria
- Gawker Rodney Yee: Caught In Pants-Down Pose? - now we start naming names. And back to the YouTube video.
- Business2 Yogis Behaving Badly
Labels: life style, news, philosophy
I did my usual weekend routine of morning sessions at Thrive Yoga. I noticed that I need to improve my cardio conditioning because I am not able to manage my breath once I've gotten into the heat of the practice. I've had to drop into child's pose and take a couple of breaths. I've assumed that regular yoga practice (3-4 times a week in studio) would be enough to get my aerobic conditioning up to scratch, but now I have my doubts. I may need to head to the gyms a couple of times a week.
The other surprise of the session today was that while I was in vasisthasana (side plank pose), I was able to raise my top leg. Previously, I had either kept both legs down on the ground and concentrated on getting my hips as high as possible or I took the tree variation with my top leg cocked and my foot resting on my calf. Either way, it's a demanding pose because it takes a lot of core strength and balance in a way that we don't traditionally practice outside of yoga. Whenever I tried to do a more advanced variation (even with the top leg raised a few inches), my whole body could collapse or totter. My support ankle and my hips would give out. It's also a physically fatiguing pose so I usually end up in child's pose afterwards.
Today, I was able to go for the more advanced pose. I did not plan to do it, but merely said impulsively "What the hell" silently in my mind and raised the leg. I surprised myself with how long I was able to sustain the leg in the air and did not lose my balance (except when trying it on the other side).
What was the difference? My home practice has include a variation on side plank for the past six months and it has taken that long to build up the necessary strength.
In my previous note, I commented on the absence of all but one DC-area yoga studios on the Global Mala Project website. The reason was that DC has its own Global Mala site and campaign. There are a bunch of activities on September 23. The participating centers are listed, including Thrive Yoga and Flow Yoga.
Labels: dc_yoga
Get ready for the next big world yoga event: Global Mala Project: on September 21-23, the United Nations International Day of Peace, the Fall Equinox and my birthday!! Big yoga names, like Shiva Rae, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Seane Corn and others are organizing it. A variety of causes, from trees to AIDS to ware orphans are being supported by the fundraising campaign.
The only local DC studio supporting the initiative so far is Little River Yoga in Annandale/Alexandria, Virginia. This will probably change soon.
In Sanskrit, mala means garland or a string of beads used to count mantras.
Labels: life style, philosophy, practice
I've heard a lot of nice things about Triangle Yoga in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It's a bit out of the Washington, DC area, but I know of two instructors who took intensive classes there. I ran across this interesting demonstration of combining music and vinyasa on YouTube, while wasting time during lunch.
Rhythmic yoga flow does require a command of the asanas and breath that most beginners don't have. I'm not even sure that I could get it at first try.
Labels: yoga_resource
I have been paying closer attention to my breathing during my yoga sessions and meditation since I've regained some space in my nasal passages. It's almost as if I were breathing for the first time. I've noticed that what might appear a slight adjustment in my spine can result in a dramatic difference in the quality and depth of my breathing. As a person who works constantly stooped before a keyboard and monitor, I have a strong tendency to round my spine forward. That's the direction that my body is being pushed By keeping a small curvature to my lower back and a slight tilt forward of by pelvis, I seem to find the optimal position for getting maximum movement from my diaphragm, my rib cage opens up and my shoulder blades draw together. If I ever so slightly move towards a straight back (no natural curvature in my lower back), my breathing seems to start shutting off. It's almost as if my diaphragm got turned off.
Why is this important for me? Because I've noticed times in my practice when my breathing seems to shut down. I could never understand why. Now I think that in certain movements or positions, I lose form in my lower back and that triggers what seems like a diaphragm freeze.
I first felt the difference when I was seated in meditation. I usually sit on a block because I want to keep my knees below my hips. In that position, it's very easy to slip out of the correct posture because the back gets tired of holding the position and I start gradually slipping into rounding my back forward. I then sensed the quality of my breath as I tilted my hips forward (putting in curvature) and then released my hips to a lazier position. This has almost before a focus of meditation as I savor the quality of my breath depending on the slant of my back.
Labels: breathing, meditation, practice, spine
There will be a multi-session workshop at the River's Edge Center on August 11-12. Yoga Praveena Sri Arun H.S will give four sessions. He comes straight from Bangalore, India where he has his own Iyengar-style studio. Peggy Braly, a frequent visitor to this blog, wrote me to see if I could give the workshop some play. She also suggests that Margaret Townsend and her River's Edge Center should be included on the list of Virginia yoga studios. Let it be so!
About two week, I noticed that I had a very bad sore, scratchy throat and a cough caused by the inflamed throat. I had trouble swallowing. Aside from that, I was not feeling any other symptoms. After it did not get better in a week, I knew something was wrong. I thought that I had inflamed tonsils or, at the worst, throat cancer from my long years of smoking so I got an appointment with a specialist.
I had a thorough examination of my nasal passages and throat. It was not the tonsils or cancer (thank God!). My left maxillary sinus (think cheekbone) is completely obstructed and densely packed with mucus or something else. On the CT scan, it shows up as if it were solid, not hollow like the right one. My doctor tells me that this condition has probably existed for some time, and he is surprised that I feel no pain. My body has evidently contained the infection until recently when the inflammation spread to tissue at the back of my throat.
I am on penicillin for the next two weeks to try to clear up the infection. Within two days of popping the pills, I felt some of the swelling go down in my throat.
I had not been going to yoga this past week because I didn't know if I had something that might be contagious. Today I went to class at Thrive and it was amazing. For the first time, I practiced without feeling my breathing obstructed. My sinuses had swollen so much that they partially blocked my breathing. This affects me especially at the early phase of the session before I was warmed up.
I know that this condition has existed for years because when I started my pranayama and yoga practice three and a half years ago, I noticed that I did not seem to breath fully. I also tended to make more noise breathing because I was forcing air through smaller air passages. I thought it was rhinitis (when the nasal passages get irritated and swell up) and consulted a doctor at work, but he seemed to think it was not anything serious. I started doing nasal rinses with saline water to clear out my nose. Although the use of a neti pot did (and does) clean out my nasal passages, it did nothing for my sinuses. Today on the mat, I noticed that I had adjusted my ujay breathing to take advantage of my swollen sinus, tightening my throat higher up. Now I have to relearn how to do ujay all over again.
Perhaps the most serious thought is that I've been carrying around an infection for years and my body has been fighting it off, confining it and clearing away the toxins, but never completely getting better. It has probably been a drag on my energy and health all that time. Maybe my yoga practice has helped ward off the worst symptoms.
