Back to the Om...

I am embracing it I think... finally, but especially in when it is in mantra form. I am admittedly still not so impressed with it in solo form, however. Specifically, I think I'm particularly unimpressed when it seems like certain teachers try to "OM" for 20 seconds longer than anyone else in the class... to the point where their voice is crackly and scratchy... and especially because I thought it was a sound to bring everyone in the room together, not practice solo opera singing!!! You know who you are, yoga teachers! I personally prefer the togetherness of the OM but even more so the symbolism of the mantras that are often involved.

The mantra I was just reading about is Om Namah Shivaya, probably the most famous (?).

ॐ नमः शिवाय

I read a bit more about what it means after a bit of chanting that I unknowingly got myself into the past couple Thursday evenings in an Anusara mixed levels yoga class that completely, 110% empowers me. Just ask Natalie and Alice because I could not shut up about it last Thursday, and the Thursday prior, Natalie got an SMS from me exclaiming that I can do anything in the world. Anyway, I embraced the OM, finally, and it was because the whole "song" (what is it called when a mantra is sung?) that my favourite Michael Lau leads us in for Anusara class. There is a lot more to it, but it does start off with "Om Namah Shivaya" and then follows a bit about gratitude to your teachers, their teachers, and their past teachers, and so on.

Essentially, the mantra, if you break it down, represents the elements that govern the chakras, such as earth, water, fire, air, and earth. Then each piece of the sounds contained in the mantra mean something as well. They each represent a part of our "body" (referred to as mayakosa in Sanskrit). For example, "Na" refers to the whole physical body (also referred to as annamayakosa). The "ma" component refers to the prana or energy (pranamayakosa), "Shi" or "Chi" refers to the mental acumen (manonmayakosa), "va" refers to the intellect (vignanamayakosa), and "ya" refers to the blissful body (anandamayakosa). Again, the "OM" or perhaps more importantly, the silence beyond the sounds of the three syllables that make up the "OM" refers to the soul or the life within oneself.

But what does this all mean? Apparently I'm not the only one who finds the ideas behind this mantra hard to interpret.... but it has been done and is perhaps what most closely resonates with me the most broad, most general, and most appropriate for me:

Peace and salutations to that which I am capable of becoming.

Dear body, I'm listening...

This is a hard one for me, but I stayed home from work, yoga, working out, coffee... everything... today. I am listening to my body, as I have been trying to and wrote about in a previous post: What is my body telling me. It's harder than it would seem.

I spent the day napping, reading on my computer, and filling and refilling my glass water bottle with boiling water from my kettle. Keeping it close to me kept me nice and warm when I was in the shivering stages of my fever. There was one thing that was occurring uncontrollably a couple of the times while I was trying to go to sleep for a nap. I was crying. I wasn't actively crying, per se, but tears were streaming from my eyes. Even from a scientific standpoint, I couldn't figure it out. I imagine my body just in this release mode, but I'm still a bit bewildered. I'm going to think on that a bit more.

Everything else was right on par. I still had my appetite, which never seems to go away! I wish it would sometimes, though. So, I had my usual organic yogurt and oats for breakky, a piece of gluten-free toast with organic butter, and later in the day a black bean and salsa omelette with blue corn tortilla chips. There was a snack of carrot sticks and 1TBS of peanut butter (finished the jar!) thrown in there at some point too.

At midnight, I did step out for about 10 minutes to raid the corner store that's half-block from my house. I needed a bottle of water and ended up picking up some raw (unpasteurized) orange juice and grapefruit juice, and... yes... a small container of Belgian chocolate ice cream. It felt so amazing on my throat.

Despite not being able to exercise or go to work, I still felt pretty good about my day. That is definitely one thing on my mind when I stay home, especially because I don't lose my appetite... getting my exercise in. There is a blog and Twitter feed that I follow. This guy is currently doing a 60x360x2011 Challenge for the New Year and his 40th year alive, which involves doing some sort of exercise for 60 minutes every day for the entire year and blogging at least once per month about it. Sound familiar? Anyway, his Twitter posts are great, and I've been following him for a year. So, today, I posted this comment:

"This is great, and I am enjoying following you on Twitter and here on your blog. I have been doing the same, daily exercise, but for the first time in 5 years, I have a cold. I stayed home from the gym and yoga one day this week and today stayed home from everything. What can you recommend for times like these, and do you have a game plan for if and when you catch a cold? I usually can still exercise if I don’t have a fever and if my symptoms stay shoulders and above. However, this time I have a bit in my lungs and am feverish. I know my body will be fine, but still part of me feels as though I’m letting myself down. Would love to hear your thoughts!"

and his response was as follows:

"Hi Jodie, congrats on your pursuit of wellness. It’s worth the effort, wouldn’t you say? I’ve given some thought as to how I will handle sickness, etc. and admittedly don’t have a full-proof plan just yet. I’ve found that I can typically walk through most illnesses, however, a 60 minute walk with a bad stomach flu/virus could represent a real challenge. Since my goal is to live the 40th year of my life to its fullest and to show people the role of fitness as part of a weight management program, I may have to get a little creative if I find myself in this situation. Perhaps I will make an exception and do an hour of meditation – fitness for the mind. Thanks for your note. Keep me posted on your progress. Live Well!"

I think that I'm going to incorporate active meditation into my regime if something comes up like this again where I cannot do physical exercise. I felt like I was really good to myself today, and this little bit of extra validation really helped.

Body combat... a work-out or interesting play on words

29Nov10, 6:30pm: Body Combat class with Kelvin

I got in a good sweat and feel like my heart got beating too! I love feeling strong and powerful! The class was full, however, and I got a bit annoyed with some of the other participants. As I've discussed space and time already, perhaps a discussion on proximity is in my future.... ha ha! More on that later.

As for today though, oddly I am just realizing that the two words... body... and... combat could essentially summarize my mood for the past few days. I'm going to think about this and write more later.