our-yoga

It's the time of year that many writers reflect on the major events of the past 365 days.  I'll let the journalists cover the impact of the election, the epidemic of senseless violence, and the scandals of infidelity.

To me, there were 5 major healthcare IT events in 2012 that we need to recognize and celebrate:

1.  EHR adoption became unstoppable - In 2010, the Beth Israel Deaconess Physician's Organization changed its bylaws to require a certified EHR as a condition of practice.   Even in 2010 this was controversial and we had long discussions about exceptions for specialists and grandfather clauses for early adopters of EHRs which lacked the interoperability we required.    In 2012, any such discussion became moot.   90% of our entire community of affiliated clinicians have attested to meaningful use.    As Beth Israel Deaconess expands its accountable care organization, one of the first questions asked by potential partners is the IT integration strategy.   In every community I visit in the US, clinicians are speaking about their EHR experiences.  Initial implementations were often challenging, but I've not found a clinician who wants to revert to a paper world.

2.  Health Information Exchange became real - In Massachusetts and many other state states, communities are exchanging data for care coordination and population health.    Unambiguous transport, content, and vocabulary standards have taken the guesswork out of  health information exchanges.   Although technical issues have been solved, there are remaining business sustainability issues for some HIEs, but several have found that stakeholders will pay for data sharing from the money saved through cost avoidance as new business processes are enabled.

3.  Standards harmonization became a process instead of an emotional debate - Having been involved in standards making. implementation guide writing, and regulation formation for the past decade, I can say that 2012 was a year in which creating/choosing standards become a well defined public/private process without any of the religious wars of the past such as "my XML is better than your XML".    Each time there was a question to be answered, experts came together using a common process and either produced a definitive answer or concluded that existing standards were not sufficiently mature for adoption, encouraging the marketplace to experiment with novel approaches.   For example, Massachusetts designed a very simple SOAP-based query/response approach to provide directories.

4.  Patient and family engagement went mainstream - In 1999 when Beth Israel Deaconess launched Patientsite, it was considered very controversial to provide patients view/access/download to electronic health records.  In 2010 when we added the full text notes created by clinicians, the myths about straining the physician/patient relationship with too much transparency still persisted.  In 2012, it is now part of the Beth Israel Deaconess medical staff bylaws that clinicians share all electronic data with patients.

5.  Privacy and Security in healthcare began the journey to maturity - As I've written previously healthcare has traditionally under-invested in the processes, procedures, and documentation needed to create a mature security program.   Just as strong enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission created a culture of compliance that led us to trust in the integrity of the stock market, so does strong enforcement of HIPAA motivate hospitals and professionals to create a culture of security.   Every healthcare CIO I speak with confirms that 2012 was a year in which security projects became their top priority.

Of course there were other trends in 2012 - every vendor developed a cloud strategy, clinicians went increasingly mobile, and tablets became the new desktop.   Meaningful Use Stage 2 gave us a roadmap for the work of the next year.   ICD10 was delayed until October 1, 2014.  

Overall, life as a CIO also changed.

As a CIO in 1998, I wrote code and architected web infrastructure.    As a CIO in 2012, I focused on change management, governance, budgets, developing the next generation of IT leaders, and communication.    Although I have changed in the past 15 years, the healthcare IT industry itself has matured and the nature of being a CIO in 2012 requires a skill set beyond mastery of technology.    As we approach 2013, I will again strive to maintain my equanimity, empower my stakeholders to select those IT priorities which best meet their requirements, and avoid becoming the rate limiting step in any process.    2013 will be a year with many important projects and a new set of regulatory requirements, but in many ways I think 2013 will be more about getting projects done and less about managing the disruption of change.   2012 set the course and we're all headed to a great future.   Now we just have to do the work that will get us there.

Happy New Year!

Here it is, finally: My first-ever Youtube video! After waiting for a very, very long time to get it uploaded (see previous post), it finally, well, uploaded! I am both happy and relieved at the same time.

In the video, I am doing primary to Sharath's count, from Paschimattanasana all the way to Utplutih. I decided to leave out the standing postures, because I didn't have enough space on my memory card, and also because I can't bear to watch myself dance in UHP :-)

The whole thing is 45 minutes, so please don't feel like you have to watch all of it. But I hope you like it.

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Yesterday morning, I decided to try filming myself doing primary series to Sharath's vinyasa count from his led primary CD. The day before (Friday), I had bought a digital camera, ostensibly in order to record whatever beautiful scenery I might encounter on my drive through all the states I will drive through (North Dakota, Montana) when I start my drive from here to Idaho in a couple of days.

But the moment I decided to buy the camera, it also occurred to me that I have never actually seen myself practicing before. So I bought myself a mini-tripod as well, and set it up in my living room yesterday morning, and started filming from Paschimottanasana all the way to Utplutih (I don't have enough memory in my data card to film the entire primary series; besides, I really can't bear to see myself dance in UHP...). So, I basically hit "record" immediately after the standing postures, and got onto my mat and started doing primary to Sharath's count all the way to Utplutih. So the entire video is done in a single take.

The final product is about 45 minutes in length. I watched it after practice, and I don't want to sound immodest here, but I actually thought it was pretty good. If you can see it, you'll see that I can't get into Mari C or D in one breath, and I wasn't sweaty enough to be able to bring my arms through into Garbha Pindasana within one breath either. But it is what it is. All in all, I have to say that I actually enjoyed seeing myself practice (does enjoying the sight of yourself doing practice violate any of the yamas, I wonder?). I wish you could see it too...

Which brings me to the question: Why can't you see it? (not that you'd necessarily want to see a 36-year-old Asian guy breath and fold himself into all kinds of shapes for 45 minutes, but it's always good to have options, right?) Well, I tried uploading the video to Youtube yesterday afternoon. The whole operation took more than 3 hours (never knew that uploading videos could be so much trouble...). At the end of it, Youtube politely told me that my video has been rejected because it is too long. Gosh... they could at least have the courtesy to tell me before making me wait three hours, don't you think? Or is this the price of being able to upload things for free? I suppose if I had wanted to use one of those cloud-based uploading systems, I could probably quite easily upload my video somewhere for a fee. But I'm just an amateur yogi, and am not willing to invest money just so that people can see my totally uncensored home practice... In any case, by this time, I was totally exhausted, and totally Fett Up:

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Dearest readers, 2012 is drawing to a close. The world didn't end and the solstice has passed, so in solar terms, a new year has already begun. Many have been saying that 2012 marks the end of an era of humanity, and the dawn of a new one. For me, 2013 is certainly going to bring about some major changes.

On December 31st, I am leaving East Timor, my adoptive home for most of the past 8 1/2 years. It's hard for me to begin to write about the significance of this to me. I came to this half island nation when I was just 23 and I am leaving now, 31 years old. How to sum up the changes that take place during a quarter life? In this place I found friendships that transcend all boundaries and will last a lifetime, loved and lost a soulmate, and through this loss learned the meaning of fleeting pure happiness. I have climbed mountains in the sunrise, heard the Old Magic humming, swum with whales and dolphins, dived with a dugong, four-wheel-driven up a rocky escarpment with a flat tire, camped on beaches under the stars, slipped into a career and become a yoga teacher.

I have held babies just born and witnessed the death of a child; I have sat on the floor listening to gunfire while a teenager sobbed with terror, spilling stories of past horrors that he witnessed as a boy. I have been displaced from my home and returned to find it looted, but while others ended up in a tented camp, I still had a roof over my head. I have learned time and time again what it is to be privileged: a well-fed, well-educated testament to the top tier of the geographic and social birth lottery into which probably everyone reading this blog is also born, free to choose my own destiny, to make my own choices, to have any job I choose, to marry and have children if I choose, and only if I choose. I have been constantly humbled by the everyday hardships of the other 80% of the world's population, by the barefooted men who walk miles over the mountains, by the women who bear their babies year in and year out, by the children whose lives are more work than play and who go to bed hungry every night of their lives.  I have seen the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets of my life, felt peace in the midst of chaos, found love amidst the woodsmoke and the flowers.

In essence, I grew up, here in the hot, humid air. Like a migratory bird, I landed in this place to shed the awkward feathers of a fledgling and grow a pair of wings. And now it is time to fly - away from this land I have lived in but that could never be my home, leaving behind great chunks of myself that have bled into the earth, the sea, the sand and the sky. A part of me forever to remain here; a part of here forever to remain with me.

There are no words for these sea-changes, these great transformations. Most of us mark them with life's big events; my tribe, the global nomads, we mark them with entry visas and exit stamps.

So where to next, dear readers? Well, for a little while, I will be returning to Canada, the country of my birth. Living a mere 600 kilometres (400 miles) from my birthplace - the closest I have lived since I was 8 years old! For the next few months you will find me nestled in the mountains in Whistler, British Colombia, soaking up the cold, the snow, and the crisp clean air. From the tropics to a Canadian winter, from the sea to the mountains, from one of the poorest countries to one of the richest, it is harder to imagine a bigger contrast, and I am reminded that in my nature I gravitate towards extremes.

Everything changes and yet nothing changes, dear readers, and I will still be blogging here, about yoga (a lot) and life (a little bit), and probably about skiing, and snow, and the dislocation that only a returning expat knows. About a homecoming to a place that is no longer home, about an affluent society unseeing of its own good fortune. I am trying to go without expectations, but of course that is impossible, so I hope to study and teach yoga, to reignite my practice in the chilly air of winter, to reconnect with old friends and the land of my birth, and to keep blogging about all of this, the yoga of life.

As always, if you're reading this, I am both humbled and honoured that you have taken the time to do so. Happy new year, readers - what changes, big or small, will 2013 bring for you?

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Practice this morning was... interesting, because of the combination of physical heaviness and emotional heaviness in me. There was emotional heaviness, because of the lingering effects of watching Les Miserables yesterday; as I was breathing and moving through the asanas, bits and pieces of songs from Les Miz would come into my mind, and I would actually get goosebumps. There was also physical heaviness, because after watching Les Miz yesterday, I went to a Mexican restaurant and indulged in my secret Mexican vice: Huevos Rancheros! I probably have enough cholesterol in my system right now to last me the entire week, maybe even the rest of the month. Why do I do this to myself? I don't know; there's just something about packing a lot of carbs and protein and corn into myself every now and again that is mind-numbingly satiating; getting drunk on carbs, if you will.

Despite the physical and emotional heaviness, I still did a pretty satisfactory full primary. Took longer breaths in the standing postures, ala Grimmly. And in the finishing backbends, I did six UDs instead of the standard three, because I felt that I needed to do more to open my body for dropbacks and standups. The whole practice took an hour and a half. Not exactly Sharath's pace, but respectable enough, I think, especially given the extra things I did.

This morning, I had some more time to think about Les Miserables, and to ponder the question of why more Americans do not like musicals. As I understand it, the Golden Age of musicals in America was during the forties and fifties, when Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote all their wonderful pieces (Oklahoma, South Pacific, etc), and when the likes of Judy Garland entertained millions with their on-screen singing. In the ensuing decades since, despite a few attempts to revive the genre here and there (Chicago, Hairspray, etc.), the musical has never quite caught back on. I get the sense that most Americans think musicals are weird or dorky.

Why do they think this? I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps many Americans think that musicals are weird because they require the audience to suspend too many common-sense beliefs about reality. For example, a student in one of my classes a few semesters ago said, "In real life, people don't break out into song after they have been shot and are dying! They just... die." Interesting point.

Another related reason for the lack of general interest in musicals may be this: The very nature of singing requires the singer to maintain a sort of artistic distance between what she is expressing through her singing and the emotion that is supposedly conveyed through the singing. I know this is a very awkward way of saying what I'm trying to say, but think about it this way: If you are really, really sad and devastated about something, you probably wouldn't be singing about your sadness. You would be crying, sobbing, bawling or doing whatever else it is that you do when you give vent to your emotions. Being able to sing about something requires you to put a certain poetic distance between you and the raw emotions that you are supposedly feeling. I suspect that it is the presence of this poetic distance that alienates many people from musicals: After all, "real people" do not sing when they are sad. They just cry or sob or bawl or whatever. So musicals are "not real", from this point of view.

I don't really know if the above represent the reasons why many Americans do not like musicals (although I think I am on to something). I also don't really want to change anybody's minds about musicals. After all, as one reviewer puts it, "Either you are in or you are out when it comes to musicals." There is no middle ground.

This may be so. But I wouldn't be doing my duty if I don't make at least a feeble attempt at possibly changing somebody's mind. So here goes. To its credit, the latest interpretation of Les Miz actually makes a very credible attempt at bridging the artistic distance between artistic expression and emotion. It does this by having its performers sing their parts while they are filming, instead of pre-recording everything in the studio and then having the actors lip-synch on screen. This, combined with lots of extreme close-ups of the actors while they are singing and emoting, gives a certain immediacy to the delivery. For instance, take a look at Anne Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream", which was sung and filmed in a single take... well, actually, it looks like they don't have the actual scene on Youtube yet. But I found a clip below that at least has her voice in it. Take a listen. And then maybe go see the movie. And then maybe you'll change your mind about musicals. Or not :-)

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Earlier today, I went to see Les Miserables at the movie theater. I really liked it. As you probably already know, Hugh Jackman plays the protagonist Jean Valjean in this latest interpretation; yes, Wolverine plays a French ex-convict-turned-mayor-turned-saintly-adopted-father. I honestly found that a bit hard to swallow when I first heard about it, but I have to say that I really think Jackman played the role very convincingly. Personally, I would have envisioned an older actor in that role, but Jackman pulls it off with much gravitas and presence. Russell Crowe is also quite convincing (although not intensely badass enough, in my opinion) as Inspector Javert. And actually, the best acting in my opinion goes to Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, who play the Thenardiers, the money-hungry and morally corrupt inn-keeping couple who swindle unsuspecting patrons.

This is really a very neither-here-nor-there attempt at a movie review. It's really very difficult to say much about a work that appeals to me at so many levels. Let me just say this: As somebody who intensely loves the original musical (btw, I don't know why more Americans do not love musicals), I can't watch even a minimally credible interpretation of this work without being profoundly moved. I actually know the lyrics to many of the songs by heart (I know, I'm really a musical geek), and I find it just impossible to watch Les Miserables without having that powerful feeling that our lives, insignificant as they seem, are part of something much, much bigger. As Jean Valjean sings at the end, "To love another person is to see the face of God." Powerful stuff. I highly, highly recommend it.

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I have scaled back my practice to primary only for the next few weeks, in order to energetically adjust myself for my move to Idaho.

Some people may see going back to primary only as taking a step back in the practice, but this is incorrect. If nothing else, going back to doing primary only can be an invaluable "reset" button that enables one to clear up whatever sloppy technique/faffiness/spiritual-physical gunk that may have accumulated from not paying enough attention to the basics. In any case, any sort of significant progress can only occur through a period of "stepping back" and consolidation.

I have discovered in my case that nowhere is this more true than with backbends. As you know, if you are doing primary only, the only backbends you get to do are the finishing backbends, plus dropbacks and standups. Now there has been a lot of debate recently in the Ashtanga blogosphere about whether it is a good thing for teachers to insist that students be able to drop back and stand up before going on to second. Many people have made the argument that this no-second-before-standing-up-from-backbending rule (let's call this "NSBSU" from now on) is not a sound rule, because some of the first few backbends of second series may actually help the student to find the muscles that she needs in order to stand up from a backbend.

I personally think there is some merit to this argument. I myself was moved on to second by my teacher before I could stand up from dropping back: If I remember correctly, I was actually able to grab my heels in Kapo by myself before I could find the necessary muscles to stand up from dropping back.

But over the last few days, as I restricted my backbends to Urdhva Dhanurasanas and dropbacks and standups, I began to see that there is a certain beauty to NSBSU. Here's why: If you have to go into UDs and dropbacks immediately from primary, your body (and mind) doesn't have the luxury of relying on the first few second series backbends to open up your body for you. In other words, you don't have the luxury of thinking: Okay, I have all these nice gentle second series backbends (except Kapo, of course) to open up my body for me, so I can, you know, relax a little, and let these backbends do the work for me.

I suspect that too many of us have a tendency to think this way, and, in this way, to use these second series backbends as a sort of psychological crutch. And as you know, in yoga practice, whatever happens on the psychological level inevitably translates into something on a physical level. Which also leads me to suspect that more often than not, this kind of "relax a little" mindset leads one to execute the second series backbends in a sloppy fashion (a possibility made all the more tempting by the fact that you are lying prone on the mat...). Which leads to one getting less out of these backbends, and possibly even to injury.

I'm not making any sort of categorical claim that it is impossible to do the second series backbends without sloppiness. Rather, I'm just speaking from my recent experience here. As I was saying, over the last few days of doing primary only, I've realized that if you have to go into UD straight from primary, you pretty much have to do a lot of work right away to bring as much of the backbend into the upper-back (by bringing your shoulders over your elbows) and into your quads and psoas, because you only have three UDs before you have to drop back and stand up. No time or space to mess around. I discovered that because I had to do so much work in so short a time, my backbends felt more open, and there was this delicious burning sensation in my thighs from all this work (for more details on this sweet delicious burning sensation, see this post). Which makes for a very satisfactory and fulfilling backbend practice, all in all.

In other news: Happy Boxing Day! Speaking of Boxing Day, this quirky post that I wrote on Boxing Day last year has unexpectedly been getting a lot of views in the last few days; people probably stumbled upon this post as the result of randomly googling "Boxing Day" or "Boxing Day Images". In fact, as you can see, it is actually the second most read post of all time on this blog as of right now.

As a result of this unexpected occurrence, this blog has been getting a crazy number of hits yesterday and today. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the number of hits I've had so far today (I won't tell you how many) is the highest this blog has ever gotten in one day! Crazy, right?

So yeah, now you know: I actually do look at my blog stats... Did I ever say I did not, anyway? But all this leaves me with mixed feelings. My ego, of course, feels good from having so many blog hits, but there's also a more ambivalent part of me that finds it rather strange that a supposedly Ashtanga blog should be getting so many hits on account of something that is totally not yoga related. Ah, c'est la vie...          

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

'It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leader worship. The way she put it was:

"When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?"'

George Orwell, 1984

I spent all of yesterday evening on my couch reading 1984. I know what you're thinking: Who spends Christmas Eve reading George Orwell? Well, apparently I do: Having disconnected my home internet account in preparation for my move to Idaho, and having no family in this country (and thus no family obligations to attend to during the holidays), I found myself home alone and effectively disconnected from the rest of the world yesterday evening (the significant other had gone to Florida to visit her dad). So what better thing to do than to curl up on the couch and read some mind-blowing scary shit like 1984?

Well, it wasn't scary, but it definitely was disturbing and thought-provoking. As I read, I couldn't help forming connections between the novel and things I experience in my everyday life, and the above passage was one of those that definitely jumped out at me in this regard. In the novel, the Party champions chastity as one of the virtues to be cultivated by the citizens of the totalitarian state; the Party Line is that the sole purpose of sex is to beget children for the service of the Party (which involves, among other things, telling on and denouncing their parents). This being the case, sex is not something that should be done for pleasure; sexual intercourse "was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema." The Party also recognizes that sex and making love uses up energy; energy which could be channeled into more "constructive" things like marching, waving flags, and other Party-sanctioned political activities. Which is another good reason to promote chastity and discourage gratuitous sex, from the Party's point of view.

As I was reading and thinking about these things, the cynical and subversive part of my mind couldn't help forming a connection here with our yoga practice. As you know, Brahmacharya is one of the yamas or ethical observances of yoga. The yoga "Party Line", if you will, is that if you conserve your sexual energy and not have too much sex, you will have more energy for your practice and the other great things in life, like fulfilling your householder duties and eventually becoming a self-realized being. So if we look at things in this rather cynical way, doesn't our yoga practice function to control and re-channel our sexual energies for a larger goal, just like the Party in Orwell's world tries to control and re-channel the sexual energies of its citizens in order to fulfill some larger political goal? Is yoga then a sort of self-imposed Totalitarianism of the soul?

Wait a minute, not so fast! You may be thinking. Surely yoga practice is the furthest thing from totalitarianism! If nothing else, chastity is imposed on you from the outside in Orwell's totalitarian state, whereas brahmacharya is self-imposed.

Or so you say. But what's the real difference between "self-imposed" and "imposed from the outside"? They are both forms of imposition. I'm not saying that there is definitely no difference between the two forms of imposition, or that there definitely is a difference somewhere. To be honest, I don't know the answer, one way or the other. I'm just thinking aloud, as always. But here's something else to think about: Remember all those gurus who have fallen from their states of grace since the beginning of the history of yoga? If you need a little memory jog, the latest two such cases involve somebody whose first name rhymes with "bathtub", and somebody whose name can be rendered in Spanish as "Juan Amigos". Could it be, could it just be that perhaps these gurus fell from their states of grace because of some failure of whatever systems of brahmacharyic self-imposition that they have imposed on themselves? Could it be that perhaps they had had enough of a life which consists of sex gone sour, from their point of view, so they decided to take things into their own hands and make the sour sweet again (which, of course, resulted in things becoming even more sour than they ever were to begin with...)?

Well, as I said, I have no answers here, only a few not-so-well-thought-out questions. But maybe, if you would like to burn off a few calories from your holiday indulgences by exercising a few brain cells, you might like to ponder this matter a little, and maybe leave a comment or two here. I'll love to hear what you have to say.      

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

It's Christmas Eve and we're gathered around the hearth at our farm awaiting the Christmas snowfall that is forecast tonight for New England.

I've split logs from an oak tree that blew over during Hurricane Sandy and cut thin flakes from an old cedar tree that fell at the edge of our pasture.  The cedar's oils pop and crackle in the fire, so I only use small pieces at a time.    The room is filled with the scents of the balsam fir Christmas tree, the smoky sweetness of burning oak/cedar, and an apple crisp made from the orchard next door.

The animals are tucked in for the evening.   The chickens and guinea fowl are roosting in the rafters of their coop, near the warming panels we installed for sub-freezing nights like tonight.

The dogs are curled up together in the hayloft after a day of running and rolling in the sunny pasture.

The alpacas and llama are sitting under the ice-ringed moon with their legs tucked under their bodies.    They only sleep in the barn on windy or rainy nights.

The forest is still and the only sounds that echo through the rolling hills are twigs snapped by wandering deer, the quiet hum of wild turkeys in the pine trees above the paddocks, and the whistle of a distant train.

To me, Christmas is a state of mind - a sense that for a day or two the anxieties and conflicts of the world can be set aside so families can revel in the positive aspects of the past year and the anticipation of good things to come.

2012 was a turbulent time for us with family health issues, a pace of healthcare IT projects that exceeded any previous year, and many transitions as we sold our home/my father in law's home, closed Kathy's studio/gallery, and consolidated everything to Unity farm.

As we approach the end of the year, there are undone tasks and unresolved challenges.  Some define anxiety as a feeling of fear and concern about the unknown.   On Christmas Eve, I know that for every future setback there will be a process to make it better.  There's no reason to worry today about what might or might not be.

Especially today I'm willing to put aside every negative memory or emotion and focus on the overall path for 2012 which has been overwhelmingly positive.

My wife is cancer free and enjoying every day in her new role as farmer's wife (no blind mice or carving knives involved)

My daughter has a new sense of independence after becoming a confident driver and taking on responsibility for all aspects of her personal life.    Mom and Dad are always available to provide assistance and advice, but we're a safety net not a guiding force.

My parents are steadily improving after a year of several health issues.  They openly discuss all the possibilities for the future and the stepwise path to ensure they have the highest quality of life possible.

My colleagues in all my IT worlds - international, Federal, State, and BIDMC continue to a make a difference every day by improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care.

My own health, mental and physical, is the best it has ever been and I feel a great sense of well being.

May you all have a holiday season with the nurturing joy and love of the season, taking in the sights, smells, and emotions that remind us of all of the good things this world has to offer.

I've never been much of a holidays celebrator; I've always seen holidays as just a time to do pretty much what I always do, except at a much slower pace. I know, boring right? But this holiday season so far has been quite interesting; so far, it has been a season of indulgence, not necessarily in good ways. But it's too early to tell, one way or the other. But rather than pass any value judgment on what has happened, I'll just try to tell it like it is, and you can decide whether it's a positive or a negative development.

Food

The holidays are traditionally a season of (over)eating a lot, and the same thing seems to be happening to me. Last night, we went to this really nice bar downtown, where I had a wild rice burger (wild rice seems to be indigenuous to Minnesota, as I understand it), some mushrooms, lots of fries with lots of ketchup, and two large glasses of beer.

Maybe I didn't drink enough water before I went to bed last night, but when I woke up this morning, I could actually vaguely feel the after-taste of ketchup lingering in the back of my throat; or maybe the whole thing is just a psychological after-effect (Phantom Ketchup Syndrome?). Very weird feeling. In any case, I decided that over-ruminating over over-eating wasn't going to do anything for me. So I promptly put Sharath's led primary CD into my computer, and started doing led primary to his count. Lately, it seems that doing led primary to his count has become the fall-back of choice for days when I am either physically or emotionally not in the best practice state of mind/body. It went surprisingly well this morning. Didn't feel the sluggishness from the fries or ketchup or beer that I was expecting to feel. The thing is, after you have been doing primary to Sharath's count for a while, you don't even think it's really that fast-paced, even though he really does get you through primary in 65 minutes. It's kind of like you just jump on the speeding train, and let the train kind of pull you along to your destination. Probably not a very good analogy here, because unlike being on a speeding train, you actually have to do some work here. Oh well.

But speaking of Sharath and food, here's what he said about food in a recent conference. According to Catherine Haylock's notes from the conference, Sharath says:

“You eat once a day you are a yogi, twice a day a bogi, three times a day a rogi and four times a day you go to the graveyard :)”


Catherine then goes on to report Sharath as saying:

"Too much food is not good, the body needs to work more and if we keep doing this, over the time our body wears out because of the extra work and will get sick.
Food is very important and we should always be conscious about what we eat and how much we eat. If we eat too much dinner, the practice in the morning will be difficult. If we consume too much food our mind isn’t sharp, you are getting dull and you can’t progress. A yogi eats only once a day."

Damn! I'm definitely a rogi! Btw, does anybody know what a rogi is?

Technology

The other area in which there has been indulgence is in the area of technology; specifically, cell-phone technology. I've always been very conservative when it comes to cell-phones. I don't have an I-phone, or whatever the most fancy cell-phone out there right now is. I don't even have internet on my phone. For the past couple of years, all I've had is one of those Samsung slide-phones that are only good for making/receiving calls and taking pictures. Just the basics, in other words. I've never seen the need to squeeze more features into a little piece of metal. Others may differ, I understand...

Yesterday, I had to go to the AT&T store to get a new cell-phone charger, because I had misplaced mine. That was when I found out that my phone is so ancient that they don't even make or sell the chargers for it anymore! Damn... So I was "forced" to upgrade to a newer phone, just so I can have a chargeable phone! I managed to get the least fancy upgrade; some kind of phone which slides sideways, which makes it ideal for texting. Well, I don't have much use for anything like this, since I don't text much. But I got it anyway, because I needed a chargeable phone. (Oh, and it's purple, which happens to be my favorite color...) And I still decided not to have a data plan (i.e. internet) on my phone. I know, I'm really old-fashioned this way; I really believe in keeping a phone a phone, if this makes any sense.

I just realized that you probably aren't very interested in my views on what a cell-phone should or should not be. I also realize that Sharath probably has nothing to say about cell-phones (although I have heard from various sources that he is a lover of gadgets and technology). In any case, I suppose I should sign off now, to prevent myself from slipping into more unnecessary rambling.

Happy Holidays.  

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

I did full primary to Sharath's led primary CD again this morning. Like the last time I did Sharath's led (see this post), this morning's practice was another congested one. Except that I was being very stubborn this morning; I wanted to keep to the vinyasa count and the pace so badly that I didn't even bother to pause to blow my nose. It would've been pretty gross if you were watching me practice this morning; from around Garbha Pindasana all the way to Utplutih, snot was coming out my nose, and I just let it flow. Surprisingly, I didn't drown in my own snot; somehow, I was able to find the space in my respiratory system to continue breathing and moving. It certainly wasn't comfortable, but I like to think that it forced me to find a deeper space to breath out of. And the really interesting thing is that, immediately after practice, I blew my nose, and was totally congestion-free after that!

Anyway, this also makes me wonder: What do people in Mysore do if they are congested during led primary? I mean, do people just get up in the middle of led to go to the bathroom? Or do they just continue, snot and all? Anybody know?

In preparation for my move to Idaho, I think I'm going to stick to just doing primary for the next few weeks. My teacher (PJ Heffernan) told me that Sharath told him that it is a good idea to do primary only when you are moving to a new place, and to stick to primary only for two weeks after you move to the new place, in order to get used to the energy of the new place. Sounds like good advice; I'll take it. Which means there will be no adventures in Karandavasana impotence for the next few weeks.  

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities