Cloudy Day in Seattle

As the title implies - it is overcast in Seattle and I want to sing. In the summer an overcast day is like Christmas to me! I can be outdoors, stroll through the neighborhood, walk into my open (usually sunny) kitchen and function almost like what I consider a normal person. What a break!

The last thing I blogged about was accommodation in the workplace and I have to tell you that I've had symptoms that I haven't felt for a while. Back when I was working full time in what I consider to be a pretty stressful job/environment, I used to:

1) Have a hard time staying asleep - waking up at 3:00am pretty much every morning no matter what time I went to bed, what I ate/drank, etc. This has happened the last two mornings and the head pain has been pretty bad upon waking. I used to get so anxious about this because I need to get at least 7 hours of sleep to function and the more I was anxious - the less I could get back to sleep. It is a vicious cycle that often ended up in a severe migraine attack and the inability to even get out of bed when the alarm went off at 6:00am.

I've tried melatonin, loved Ambien and Zoloft (but get pretty addicted to them and don't want to use these types of products - I think they also increase the frequency and severity of the really bad migraine days), tried some anti-anxiety meds but didn't tolerate them...right now I am working on just managing fear and stress, but these old habits are creeping up on me and I need to figure something out if I am going to get back to living and working.

2) Get really agitated all the time. Pain, migraines and other symptoms that I can't control as much as I would like lead to fear, doubt and shame. These negative feelings lead me to feel like life is living me and not the other way around and I get so aggravated. I have a wonderful husband and we communicate openly and candidly when I feel this way and it helps, but I know these types of emotions only contribute back to my pain and headaches so I need to find a better way to stop the cycle when it starts before it gets out of control.

So to sum it up - just working through what types of accommodations and limitations I have over the last few days brings up all this history and fear around migraines. I didn't know how deeply rooted some of these feelings were and how much work I have to do within myself to free me from these self-defeating cycles.

Yoga Philosophy of the Day Part 2

by Nina

Almost immediately after I published my post on Monday Yoga Philosophy of the Day, which was about cultivating equanimity in the face of difficulty and “enemies,” I was sorry I hadn’t mentioned the United States election (post posting remorse?). Because for many of us Americans, this election has been extremely divisive, with the feeling on both sides that those in the opposing camp were our “enemies.” I even know people who stopped speaking to those who disagreed with them over candidates and issues. And I confess that I, too, got swept up in some very negative feelings.

Now, this morning, after very intense night, the results are in and the battles are over, for now at least. However, I find that there is still a great deal of intense feeling remaining, on both sides. Gloating, anger, bitterness. Even Big Bird wasn't being as nice as usual. So maybe it’s not too late to add to what I wrote on Monday after all!

If we practice yoga the way the Bhagavad Gita defines it, we’ll need to step back from these negative feelings. As I quoted on Monday:

He looks impartially on all:

those who love him or hate him,

his kinsmen, his enemies, his friends

the good, and also the wicked.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work for the political causes we believe in. As The Bhagavad Gita says:

He who performs his duty

with no concern for results

is the true man of yoga—not

he who refrains from action.

And, after all, it was Mohandas K. Gandhi, one of the great political activists of all time, who called The Bhagavad Gita his “mother” and believed in its message of “skill in action.”

The wise man lets go of all

results, whether good or bad,

and is focused on the action alone.

Yoga is skill in actions.

Now the challenge for all of us is to put this into practice. (See my original post Yoga Philosophy of the Day for information about what The Bhagavad Gita recommends as the way to achieve this.)

I was also thinking about how cultivating equanimity in the way The Bhagavad Gita recommends pertains to healthy aging. Of course, maintaining equanimity in the face of difficulty of all kinds helps make our lives better (and our bodies healthier). But also, as older people, most of us want to make a better world for those who come after us, whether that means for our own family members or for the next generation as a whole. And this will only be possible if we can all work together, friends and enemies alike.

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