March 25, 2010

Ujjaiy_Kauia (Ew-Jai-EE_Kah-why-EE)

Ujjaiy is yogic breath. The act of pulling in air through the nose which creates a audible noise emanating from the throat. To create this one must constrict the throat so Ujjaiy breath can be created.  The point; to divert the mind from the 60,000 avg. thoughts thunk daily so one can focus on the breath and get back to nothing. The zero point. Total stillness.  From this space, real creative accessibility can be drawn upon and deep insights into life, as well as total bliss can be felt.

But who can breathe with all this mayhem going on! Oy vey! No one told me that Hawaii was going to challenge the very basis of my own foundation that previously existed. In class we are learning about something called, Proprioception, speaking of foundation. Said in my own terminology, proprioception is the sum total of your movement. As in, all the collective memory that has been stored in your body from past experiences in which your brain knows and remembers how to move mechanically.  So, we are downloading new information on how to properly move our bodies and eliminating the old cookies and software that no longer serves us.

Throughout the process, my own proprioception of knowing and remembering how to do certain things is vastly becoming limited. For instance, I was told that Kauai has a way of drastically reducing people's use of electronics. Point served when I was chest deep in the Pacific and found my I-pod in my bathing suit. Note to self: My own proprioception for using my I-pod, or any other one like it, is becoming slowly lost.

I have only been on the internet TWICE this week (5 days so far), which is the same duration of about 3.2 hours while living in New Jersey that I would be online.  So, breathe, new experiences coming, new thoughts, maintain breath to prevent mind from running away and hijacking me with it AND new proprioception being learned from not sitting at my desk surfing the net and wasting away on Facebook.

Wait a second.. maybe its the BREATH that is causing the mayhem, not the mayhem that's causing the lack of breath...the newness, the heart opening and all the challenge that comes when one transplants oneself into a totally new environment.  It's kinda like the chicken and egg conundrum, which really isn't a conundrum. One cannot exist without the other. New situations cause new problems. So whether or not it's the fact that it's hard to breathe in a new environment or the new environment is causing the chest to tighten and breath constrict, it really doesn't matter.   I'm gonna breathe either way and face myself.  Werner Erhard said "life is a problem." I agree. It's the best problem yet. I think that when I breathe deep, open my chest and expand my body, new energy comes in and old energy goes out, thus challenging my foundation for my own existence.

So to wrap this up tightly now, I will breathe in and let life throw at me whatever's in the way.  Because my old proprioception of comfortability isn't going to work out here, it would just cause myself to overstretch myself.

2 comments:

  1. I'm working on my own proprioception!
    Maybe you would be interested in what I've been listening to. I'll send you the files via email.
    soak up this experience
    xoxo

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  2. Brandon, as I was reading this I felt tears welling, I am touched and inspired! I felt myself through your sharing. I love you, Felice

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