Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Is there a big enough box for the hedgehogs?

I am astounded, and slightly relieved, at the number of blogs I have visited lately (in my hemisphere), where the bloggers are suffering from "pre Spring had enough of the cold grey rain tristesse". City and country dwellers are equally affected but those of you with the more extreme conditions of snow don’t seem to be so troubled. Is it the bright white shining light that saves you from SAD? This must mean that my own mood swing of hedgehog woman craving her hibernation box is quite normal and not indicative of a real depressive bout looming on the horizon.


I have been wondering what to do when the inevitable does finally occur. I am reluctant to try the patience of those who pass by here from time to time with the minutiae of my descent into the pit. Perhaps I should just make my excuses and leave like a News of the World reporter or Scott at the pole, “I may be some time…”

I have been arming myself against manic depression with cold hard information. Ever since I saw a video of the neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor, who had a stroke in the left side of her very own brain, I could not get the memory of her very moving account out of my own brain. She experienced and remembered the process of her left brain shutting down completely, and the mystical feeling of being directly in contact with the outside world and at one with it- no sense of self - when she had only her right brain in action. The left brain is the internal voice that finds fault, tells you what you should have done yesterday and ought to do tomorrow. When I am depressed, that voice is not very friendly and turns into Bernard Manning's mother in law.
Just imagine for a moment…the silence…

Is this where meditation can take you, to listen to the silence of your right brain?
I wonder how to turn off my left brain and shut her up, just for a bit of peace now and then. Of course I don’t want to silence her for ever. I need words. But wouldn’t it be nice to just flip a switch…or turn the volume down at least...

I’ll go and take Porridge out instead…

But first a quiz that I did after seeing it at mrs chilli's, a woman who knows a bit about yoga I would say:




Your Dosha is Vata

Creative and restless, you take in all of life's pleasures (maybe a little too much!).

You're quick witted and very talkative, but you also tend to have a spotty memory.

You tend to get very into ideas, people, and lifestyles... but only for a short time.

It's difficult to hold your attention, and you sometimes feel with what life has to offer.

With friends: You are very uncomfortable in new situations or with new people

In love: You fall in and out of love very easily

To achieve more balance: Live in a warm climate and spend some quiet time in nature