A polarized world

The last two months have been very depressing. Lots of work, travel recovery, news in general, a busier schedule for the kids as school and all their extra curriculars start off full swing and all these made the bags under the eyes more pronounced and dropped my energy level to an all time low. 

It became noticeable to the point where wife and kids pushed me out of the house and said "why don't you go to yoga class?" That was a clear signal that something was way off. They said that at least for an hour after coming home I was a little chirpy. (that used to be 4 hours after coming home!). Got a doctors appointment last week and told my doctor "wife and kids are saying I am moping around all the time and my energy level or interest level in anything and everything is going down rapidly".

The doctor said I was physically very fit. My blood pressure was excellent as was my blood oxygen level. A blood test for a bunch of things was checked off to see if there are issues related to metabolism etc. etc. While I did not understand the jargon, went for the test and got the results. Turns out my Vitamin D levels are off the charts this time on the low side and that is directly related to being depressed. I did have the same issue three years ago but it was low, not this low. 

Going to walk in the sun at least for an hour with short sleeve shirts or no shirt if possible every day, take prescription Vitamin D and check again in few months. That takes care of one part of the problem.

The kids extra curricular schedule has been juggled to the best of our ability, some classes have stopped, others combined to multitask with groceries, yoga class drives, conference calls that can be done while driving long distance to drop kids off in class etc. etc. That will hopefully help in the coming months

The last part is the "news". I interact with "news" once in the morning and evening listening to NPR during work and home drives. Check google news headlines once during lunch and the rest of it is from watching Daily show or Colbert report (now watching previous nights show online at dinner time of Trevor and Colbert's shows). Also watch John Olivers Sunday show on one of the weekday nights at dinner time.  Everything I hear in those interactions is downright depressing. 

It almost appears as though the sane folks have lost their voice and the extreme loonies are the only ones left screaming from the rooftops. 

Forget the war on drugs and the war on terror. My opinion is that there is a war on facts and data right now. Have a lot of data points that say it is not just opinion, but a fact.

There is a lot of fear mongering out there which is pitting people against people on almost every issue. 

You turn on the news and it is all about Immigrants, refugees, war, weapons and discrimination. Some of it is not even news. It is a bunch of folks peddling outright misinformation on national channels. How they are able to do this with impunity with no consequence is beyond me. They should be prosecuted for hate crimes and treason because the misinformation they propagate is actually not in the interest of the country or the people watching them.

Having lacked Vitamin D and being lost in thought all the time, one thing keeps recurring. The basic ability to put oneself in another's shoes seems to have become a rarity. The people who do not have the ability to reason out things seem to have a louder voice than the folks who can ask the repeated "why?" and dig down deeper. 

How do you reason with the unreasonable? That is a tough one. 

Had a long rant of a post on faith vs. religion and what is going on in the US and India with all the Islamophobia and if there will be any reprieve for the folks in the middle east. It was about how poor muslims and sectarian minorities in local geographic areas get screwed over by richer muslims or western countries. The post in itself was so depressing to read that I deleted it. 

There are still a lot of good people in this world that can move it forward. Working on raising two that will hopefully join that category. First thing to work on is to teach them that faith in something (preferably themselves) is a good thing. Next thing to work on is to teach them that religion is a crutch not an asset. Think they are already on the right path on some things but they are fanatical about Apple. So have to wean them off of that. 

Enough with the rant. Onwards we move.. and to post something positive to make up for all this negativity...

Today I learned the difference between having your "chin touch your shoulder" vs. "cheek touch your shoulder" and what a big difference it makes! A post on that later.

Bloody eclipse..

One minute I am on an international call. Next minute there is a lot of commotion outside the house...

Turns out a large gathering of people in our neighbors driveway decided to watch the eclipse. Given the vantage point was a few steps from our house, decided to capture it right there.

The moon's redness was almost gone by the time I got set up..

Then the clouds moved away and got a series of shots which ended just a few minutes ago..

do click image to see the larger version.. 

It was fun catching this on our neighbors driveway and chatting with folks at the same time!

The many degrees of "relaxation"

Today was a very special yoga day. Bikram Yoga San Jose had a special class at 10AM with Rajashree Choudhury teaching the class.

We have heard so much about her teaching style and how special her class is from the teachers. So it was a not to miss experience. A lot of times I end up missing classes taught by visiting teachers because of the travel schedule. Was fortunate to be in town to attend this class.

The dialogue in every Bikram yoga class is the same. The time for every class is the same 90 minutes but the teachers are a broad spectrum. On one side we have the high energy fire breathing dragon drill seargents and on the other side we have the hypnotic horse whisperers. Then there are varying mixes of the two combinations. The end result after the class is more or less the same. You are completely drained of thought and you are happy to go out into the world, all zoned out! 

Once in a while you get someone on either extreme who can make you feel more zoned out than you think was possible. Not talking about doing a pose deeper or more correct to the form during class here...

It is about a certain silence in your head that is just quieter than the usual. We should have a scale to quantify silence, that is exponential like the Decibel scale or the Richter scale.

Maybe "silence" is the wrong word here as this is not the opposite of noise. It is more than just the absence of sound. It the absence of any sensory data going into your brain to disturb you. 

We had a great class today where Rajashree took us through the usual 90 minute routine with some tidbits of information thrown in. Most of them were about why we do what we do in class and encouraging us to persevere.  

Then when the poses and final breathing was over and we were all stretched out on the mats, she started talking softly, telling us how to relax. There are one or two teachers who try this by saying "relax your neck, your shoulders, your hips... " and they make you consciously relax your body head to toe. What we heard today was different. It was advice, technique and hypnotism at work. 

After a few minutes of listening to her talk, I had no idea what she was even saying! It was almost a whisper. It was like being submerged in a tank of water or what the astronauts decribe as part of their space walk experience. You know there is a tether connecting you to the world but it seems to be getting more and more distant as time passes.

Got a tingling sensation in the left side of my head after a few minutes into this "whispering shavasana". Usually tingles in the hot room means that blood is flowing to that part of your body for the first time in a long time. Within a few minutes there were tingling sensations all over my brain and at that point the whisper became very faint.

Then everyone clapped for some reason and was back to staring at the light on the ceiling. It was like coming back out of anesthesia after a surgery and staring at the lights or that is the closest I can explain what happened after being "so far out there".

Had been in shavasana for more than 15 minutes. For a person who runs out at the end of 90 minutes on any given day because of a conference call to attend or a kid to pick up from some class on the way home, the extra 15 minutes is a luxury. Today it was a real lesson. Now I know why the teachers say "missing the 2 minute shavasana at the end of class is like working very hard, then forgetting to collect your paycheck". 

Going to stay on the mat after class for longer times, at least on weekend classes or Friday evenings going forward. 

Todays class was like a power surge that forcibly reset the hardware in my head. Now the trick is to relive this experience after every yoga class!

After class we got to talk to Rajashree for a few minutes.  Jr. had come to BYSJ so she could see what this was all about and also clicked a picture.

Wanted to tell her so many things. Wanted to show her how my broken hand is now normal again. How Bikram Yoga has given me a second chance and made me believe in the concept of second chances, but before I said anything she mentions her son wears a Janau and asks me if I do Sandhya Vandhanam every day. Told her that I do it most days but only once a day.

My Bikram Yoga attendance is better than my Sandhya Vandhanam frequency. She says "do that as well! it is good for you"

Jr. was all smiles when she said "your daughter is beautiful". Today Jr. saw almost a 100 people come out all smiling after class and line up to talk to Rajashree. It is my sincere hope she does yoga again soon. Given how busy she is with 8th grade, she could really use it. 

It was truly a "special experience" like the teachers at BYSJ told us over the last few days.

Hats off.. we should really say "Mats off" to Rajashree Choudhury, the "horse whisperer extraordinaire"!