Category: Health & Wellness Monday

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The Spirit Moves Me Elsewhere

Long story short: I participated in an Apache, Two-Spirit, all women sweat lodge ceremony last weekend.  It was very cool (actually it was very hot) – there was singing songs and what I would call dharma sharing and lots and lots of sweating.  So much sweating.

The woman leading the lodge was very easy going. She instructed us as to the proper way to do something (entering the lodge for example) and they she would say that if we felt that we needed to do that thing another way, that was okay.

One of the instructions was that if we ever felt like we were over heated and wanted to get out of the lodge before the end of the ceremony, all we had to say was that, “the spirit moves me elsewhere.”

Some of the women participating in the lodge did decide to step out at different points of the ceremony. They all said the phrase as they exited the lodge.

After the ceremony, I was talking with the friends who I had gone with (they always know where to find the fun woo woo things to do) and we started talking about the phrase, “the spirit moves me elsewhere.”

It seems to me that this phrase may have terrific application in all sorts of life situations, not just sweat lodge ceremonies.

Think about it: anytime you find yourself in an unpleasant situation or even just can’t find an easy way to wrap up a conversation, you can deploy this phrase and leave.  Maybe you’re at a cocktail party and you’re just done talking to someone, use this phrase to extract yourself.  You don’t even have to actually leave, just move to a different part of the room.  Whatever it is you could just say, “the spirit moves me elsewhere,” and move.  No more awkward goodbyes.  It’s brilliant.

Think about it. I really don’t see any situation where anyone can challenge that statement.

As I write this, it reminds me about an old story from this place where I used to work.  There was this gal who had worked there before me (this is one of those old, workplace legends), and one day it was either freezing cold (it was often freezing cold in that office) or the air conditioning wasn’t working … something like that.  At one point, this gal just gets up, states, “I can’t work under these conditions,” grabs her bag and leaves. Like really leaves.  Like goes home for the day.  It still makes me giggle just thinking about it now.

What makes this story even more delightful is the fact that we were subject to a very strict time-keeping policy in that office and the idea that someone would just get up and leave is beyond the pale.  I’ll tell you what, there were more than a few times when I wished I could have said, “I can’t work under these conditions,” and left.

Sometimes, you just have to go. 

The spirit moves me elsewhere.

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Mind the Gap

I was walking and listening to my current favorite podcast, Earth Tribe Radio. Fiona and Jill are wonderfully wacky ladies who make my walks terribly interesting. I started listening to them because they had an episode about how cats are psychic. You know that got my attention!

The particular episode that inspired today’s post was about meditation and mindfulness. They often bring up an idea that sparks something for me to mull over while I walk and, in this episode, it was when Fiona suggested that another word to use when considering this concept is “awareness.” They expanded on that thought, talking about finding little moments throughout the day to be mindful rather than having dogmatic expectations about when and how someone should meditate.

Fiona presented her technique of “stop, drop, and go” that involves just taking a moment to appreciate what is going on around you and then continuing with what you are doing.  Jill shared a similar technique where you exhale and then intentionally pause for a moment before inhaling.  While she was describing this, the term that sprang to my mind was “mind the gap.”

I know that is not what the original “mind the gap” is about, but I think this is an effective appropriation of familiar aphorism. Why not use “mind the gap” as a mindfulness prompt? Don’t you think that it would make a great slogan for a t-shirt or a wrist tattoo? 

Minding the gap is using that pause as a moment of awareness.  I like the idea of using moments of interest throughout your day to be present.  I mean, I can’t be completely tuned in to everything all day long, I’d never get anything done!  Being open to taking moments to notice wonderful, little things here and there though can be enough to create a sense of calmness, of centeredness, of connectedness.

As I was contemplating “mind the gap” as an awareness practice, I noticed this very interesting rock and had to stop.

My initial reaction was that I wanted to grab it.  But why did I feel the need to possess this interesting rock?  I mean, I like a magic rock as much as the next girl, but I also try to respect the sovereignty of objects out in the world.  When I notice a beautiful flower, I take a photo rather than picking it.  Why shouldn’t I show this rock the same respect?  I refrained from picking up the rock but did stop and take a photo of it.

And then I was on my way.  I had minded the gap, given this rock some attention, and returned to my business.

We don’t have to change our path or our intention every time something catches our attention.  We also don’t have to go through our lives with blinders on to all the fascinating things around us. If we mind the gap, we can enjoy those small moments of appreciation without getting sidetracked.

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Who do you listen to, your body or your mind?

Recently, I have been working out less.  I listened to my body and noticed that it wanted a break.  I didn’t quit going to the gym all together, but instead of five or six days a week, it was more like two or three.  I would still set my alarm for all the usual days, but when I got out of bed (I made myself actually get out of bed before the decision was made), I would listen to my body if it told me that it didn’t want to exercise that day.  The trick is to actually get out of bed before deciding to tap out. Otherwise, I couldn’t tell if my body really wanted a break or my brain was trying to trick me.  I find my brain lies to me a lot.

Aside from the get out of bed test, the reason that I could tell that I was listening to my body and not my brain is that I was still feeling good even though I wasn’t exercising as much.  I tend to get really antsy when I don’t get enough exercise, sometimes I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin. I was able to focus and be productive and I was still moving enough to keep my back from getting too angry with me, so it was clear that my body was still getting what it needed.

Now this is no way to achieve one’s fitness goals, but it is a good strategy to keep things copacetic if you are of a certain age.  I am still listening to my body and I am starting to feel like I need to ramp back up to my higher activity level.  I can feel it in my arms a lot right now. 

Thinking about how I need to listen to my body instead of my brain when it comes to exercise led to contemplating other areas of my life in which my brain likes to lie to me. No surprise, food is the next biggie.  When I listen to my body, I tend to eat more fruits and veggies.  I don’t get as hungry and I don’t get tummy aches.  When I eat what my brain wants, it tends to be more white food – things with a lot of sugar, things that are processed … things like French fries.  My brain always tries to convince me that I want to eat fried food.

It’s funny to think that I shouldn’t listen to my brain.  Isn’t that where my smart is supposed to be after all?  It can be more challenging to hear what my body has to say to me, especially when my brain is shouting and jumping up and down. But when I am quiet and listen, it never steers me wrong.

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The In-Between Things Blog-versary, Day 1

This week is The In-Between Things blog-versary!  It’s been a year!  I feel like I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing, but I also feel like it has been a very edifying experience and am looking forward to discovering what year two has in store.

A few numbers to make things seem important:

  • 1 person
  • 4 categories
  • 52 weeks
  • 145 posts

In celebration, I decided that this week we would take a look back at the past year by highlighting five favorite posts for each category.

I was sure that it would be simple to skim through and pick my faves.  Not so fast my friend!  Wow, there is a lot there.  I also noticed formatting issues and little typos on pretty much every post (thank you for tolerating my imperfections).  Other than the corrections, there weren’t really any posts that stood out to me.  On the plus side, I guess that means that the writing is at least of a consistent quality (for better or worse). On the minus side, it made it challenging to pick out a few posts in each category to highlight, so I’ve tried to go with just a range of topics.  I’ve re-opened the comments on these posts, please let me know what you think of them.  And if your favorite posts weren’t highlighted, please leave a comment here about which one(s) you feel were overlooked.

Health & Wellness Monday (38 posts)

Health and Wellness topics were assigned to Mondays because I have a big hang-up about starting the week off right.  Getting that Monday morning work-out in is, to me, the key.  One thing that I noticed is that the posts that caught my attention were mostly about mindset, not exercise.  Hopefully those are the posts that are more interesting for you as well.

With that in mind, here are my top five Health and Wellness posts from the past year:

Pinnacle Peak
This was a great adventure with a special person, but the real reason that this post made the cut is the in-between things tree growing sideways out of a rock in the middle of the dessert.  You go tree! I mean really, if that tree can grow and thrive there, what excuses do any of us have to not be our most amazing selves?
2019 Suggestions
Kind-of like how I forgot about my 2018 suggestions until December, I also had forgotten about my 2019 suggestions.  I’ll tell you what, time management is still a huge nut for me to crack.  For example, I severely underestimated how long it would take me to get this week’s posts organized. I guess the good news is that I’ve gotten better at starting sooner.  How are your plans for 2019 coming along?
Trailblazing Women
I felt so empowered and energized after I left this event.  Women being frank about the challenges that they face in the world, particularly as professionals, is important.
An Intro to Chakras – Svadhisthana
These chakra posts were tough.  The whole point of this blog is to not go too indepth, just touch on interesting concepts and move on.  Chakras don’t really lend themselves to that treatment.  Re-reading the series, I’m struck by how much I crammed into the posts, even after I edited the pants off them.  When I was doing the writing, I remember feeling most engaged by the manipura and anahata posts, and I thought for sure that I would pick one of those to share here.  But when I went back, svadhisthana really spoke to me.  Something about the idea of the daily creativity cycle of death and rebirth.
Vitamin D Therapy
What can I say guys, I really love a good dose of sunshine.

I was listening to a podcast on my walk the other day and it opened with this quote:

Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself…

– Carl Jung

It struck me that this is what I was feeling when I decided to start this blog.  I was looking for an outlet to communicate. And even though writing is a solitary endeavor, I do feel more connected by having this outlet to explore different things and share my thoughts. 

Thank you for reading.

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The 19th Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIX to the US Constitution

Technically this post is off-theme today, but it is important-enough topic that I know you won’t mind.  Today we are celebrating the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The 19th Amendment prohibits states from restricting voting rights on the basis of sex.

Ah, that’s nice, so what.

Here’s the thing: the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920!  Yes, 1920, not even 100 years ago.

Oh, well, I’m sure it was just an oversight.  You are?  Well then, why was language removed from the 14th amendment that would have included women’s suffrage?  Do you know when the 19th amendment was introduced to Congress?  1878!  Um yeah, that is 42 years from the time that the legislation was introduced until the time it was ratified.

And this is why, even though I grew up thinking that women were equal citizens with full rights, that women’s legal status is a precious and precarious thing and should not be taken for granted.

In the early days of the republic, voting rights were generally limited by states to “freeholders.”  A freeholder was defined as a person who owned land worth a certain amount of money.  Now, women were denied the right to own property through coverture laws, legal doctrine by which a woman’s legal rights and obligations were subsumed by those of her husband.  So, by default, women would not have the right to vote as they couldn’t be “freeholders”.

As time went on, property restrictions began to be eliminated as a condition for suffrage. In parallel, women’s rights advocates were focused abolishing coverture; however, by this point the two issues were being treated as mutually exclusive.  New York State’s Married Women’s Property Act of 1848 made substantial changes to the existing laws concerning the rights of women to own and control property, influencing other states’ legislation as well as the language of the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed the applicant for a land grant to be of either gender (it specifically indicates, “he or she….”). 

As women began to gain rights as property holders, they were expected to pay taxes on their assets although they continued to be denied the right to vote.  Now what was that whole American revolution thing about again?  Taxation without representation?  I see…

Opponents of the 19th amendment claimed that giving women the right to vote would harm the institution of marriage as women were already represented in the public sphere through their husbands.  These arguments succeeded in blocking women’s suffrage as part of the 14th amendment in 1868, which specifies that voting rights shall be granted to “male inhabitants.” And the fifteenth amendment, ratified in 1870 to clarify the intent of the 14th, states that voting rights “shall not be denied or abridged…on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” and pointedly does not include sex.

Rather than falling too far down the rabbit hole of the history of women’s legal rights in the United States at this point (don’t worry, there will be more coming down the pipe), let’s celebrate that on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified.  And let’s plan a big party next year for the centennial.  In the meantime, never forget that women’s inclusion in the public sphere has been hard-fought and piecemeal and that we must be vigilant about defending the status of women as fully vested citizens.

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Vitamin D Therapy

One of my favorite treatments to boost my mood and enhance my overall sense of well-being is Vitamin D Therapy.  I find that with even a brief treatment, I feel much better.

Vitamin D is important for building and maintaining strong and healthy bones because calcium can only be absorbed into bones when vitamin D is present.  I think the most fascinating thing about vitamin D is that your body just creates it.  Not out of the blue, but it is synthesized in the skin when exposed to sunlight.  And then it is used to build strong and healthy bones. It’s like photosynthesis for people!

It turns out that there is also a lot of scientific research on the benefit of vitamin D for treating depression and other psychological conditions.  It starts to get really technical, like this article on the National Institute of Health website, but the gist of what I read was that it seems likely that vitamin D can amplify serotonin in the central nervous system, which may lead to treatments for certain neurological disorders (such as ADHD in children). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter used to convey messages between nerve cells and it contributes to feelings of wellbeing and happiness.

Even though it is not fashionable these days, I still like to get my vitamin D the old-fashioned way – by sitting out in the sun. It can be found in certain foods or taken in supplements, but how cool is it that you can get something so good for your body for free, just by going outside?  Totally not scientific, but I sure feel happy and calm after I spend some time in the sun; I like to think that it’s because all of the vitamin D that I’m making is boosting my serotonin levels.

Now, my style of vitamin D therapy is not for everyone.  I am fortunate that I don’t tend to sunburn and if you do, you should certainly limit your exposure.  The Mayo Clinic indicates that the recommended daily dosage is 600 international units (IU) for pretty much everyone (400 for babies under one year and 800 for adults over 70).  I am not sure what that translates into in terms of sun exposure, but I expect that it is not too much.  The way that it is synthesized in the skin varies depending on location, time of year, and skin color and can be inhibited by use of sunscreen.  Basically, if you are more pale, you need less exposure, which is good news for skin safety.  Negative effects are possible with doses of more than 4,000 IU daily, which seems to me would correspond to a pretty nasty sunburn anyway.  So, don’t overdo it!

But if you needed another reason to get up and go outside, think about the fact that not only is nature is awesome, but that you have the ability to create a chemical reaction in your skin that is designed to help you stay healthy and make you feel better.

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Indoor Cycling, Summer Edition

I have recently made some changes to my indoor cycling schedule. I’ve traded in my Saturday morning class for Sunday.  I know, I’m surprised at myself too!

I’m happy that I am managing to still get in at least two classes a week, even without having an overwhelming amount of grrrr to get out on a daily basis like I used to.  But every time I go to the gym on Sunday morning, I crack myself up.  Here’s the thing:

Yesterday was a beautiful summer day in southern California.  Around 9am I got in my car, drove one mile to the gym, and spent 45 minutes in a dark room taking an indoor cycling class.  There is nothing about doing that which isn’t at least a little ridiculous. It felt like I was living in a scene from LA Story.

First, it’s barely a mile.  And I don’t think that it is too much to expect that I can comfortably and safely walk there during daylight hours (I give myself a pass to drive when it is still dark out).   Also, after 8am parking enforcement is in full effect.  Either drive around for 10-15 minutes looking for a spot or pay to use the metered parking.  If you’re going to spend 10-15 minutes driving around looking for a free parking spot (like I did), you may as well have walked. 

Second, it was a beautiful day but here I was choosing to do my exercising inside.  Not just inside, but in a dark room.  I really can’t get over my own ridiculousness.  If I had decided to go to the 8:30 class instead, I wouldn’t give myself such a hard time because that still counts as first thing in the morning on a Sunday.  By 9:30, you should have already started your day (unless you had a big Saturday night, which I did not).

One important component for getting habits to stick is to make them automatic.  There aren’t options, it is just what you do.  I don’t spend any time thinking about how I’m going to get to the gym on any other day.  But on Sundays I keep considering all the options.  I should walk…maybe I could take my bike…then I have to dig it out of the garage…do I need air in my tires?  And by the time I’ve run through the whole monologue, it’s late.  I need to either decide ahead of time that I’m going to bike and make sure that everything is ready, or I need to take that option off of the table and just know that I’m going to walk.

The bottom line is that I still make it to indoor cycling at least twice a week and that is what really matters.  But I can’t help but laugh at myself about how I get there. 

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An Intro to Chakras – The Thousand-Petaled Lotus

“Here is the supreme sixteenth kala of the moon. She is pure and resembles the young sun. She is as fine a thing as the hundredth part of a fiber in the stalk of a lotus. She is lustrous and soft like ten million lightning flashes and is down turned. From her, whose source is the brahman, flows copiously the continuous stream of nectar.”

Description of the Six Centres, Verse 46

Sahasrara – the crown chakra

We have been talking about the chakras based on the ancient, Tantric text, Description of the Six Centres. We have covered the six: muladhara, svadhisthana, manipura, anahata, visuddha, and ajna.  Last week, I indicated that ajna is the highest corporeal center.  So, what’s the deal with sahasrara?

Sahasrara is described as being located above the crown of the head, belonging to the plane of transcendence.  This is the terminus of Kundalini’s journey, when the energy of our lower chakras has allowed her to rise to the point at which she connects us to the divine consciousness of the universe.

When sahasrara is activated, the illusion of the individual dissolves. In this state there is no activity of the mind, no subject or object. The element of sahasrara is “adi tattva,” “adi” meaning “without beginning,” and “tattva” meaning “thatness” or “reality.” Here is only purity, clarity, light, love, and truth.

The sahasrara mandala possesses no special color or quality, its light contains all color vibrations united in pure light. It is described as a lotus flower with 1,000 petals arranged in 20 layers of 50 petals each.

Jung was not particularly interested in sahasrara.  To him this chakra was a philosophical construct, the ineffability of which put it beyond any psychological application.  He saw it as the logical conclusion of preceding chakras, but without practical value from an analytical psychology perspective.

Chakra Wrap-Up

Do you remember when we were just getting started on this topic, I said that there seemed to be something in the air as far as this was a subject that a lot of people were interested in right now? Maybe that has to do with the universality of the fundamental ideas of this concept?

Not to get all Jungian about it, but individuation and the sublimation of ego seems to be very strong in the collective unconscious at this time.  I keep running into the concept in lots of different places.  For example, I just read a book by Michael Pollan called, How to Change Your Mind (stay tuned, book review coming up shortly) about psychedelics as a tool to transcend ego. I also found myself listening to a podcast about meditation and when I stripped away all the jargon, the bottom-line objective of the various styles of Buddhist meditation practice (as I understood it) was to remove the ego from acting as a filter on the practitioner’s perception. When the guy talking finally got to the point, what I heard sounded a lot like what we covered in anahata, visuddha, and ajna.

The bottom line for me is that the chakras are one way of describing some sort of fundamental desire for cultivating a sense of what I would call inner peace and well-being. Kundalini yoga, the various types of Buddhist meditation, psychedelic therapy, or Jungian analysis are all just a few of the different paths that someone can take if they are interested in going on that sort of journey.

Thanks for sticking with me through this little adventure. I’d really love to know what you thought about the chakra series.  Were there any big questions that popped up for you?  Anything that you think that I could have explained better or that you would have liked me to spend some more time on?  Anything that didn’t make sense or that you think that I really got wrong?

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An Intro to Chakras – Ajna

“This is the incomparable and delightful abode of Vishnu. The excellent yogi at the time of death joyfully places his prana here and enters that supreme, eternal, birthless, primeval deva, the purusa, who was before the three worlds, and who is known by the Vedanta.”

Description of the Six Centres, Verse 38

Ajna – the third eye chakra

The highest corporeal center is the ajna chakra.  Commonly referred to as the “third eye chakra,” this chakra is located between our two physical eyes and is considered the location of wisdom and of conscience.  It is considered a sacred spot.

Ajna translates as “command,” “authority,” “perceive,” “knowledge,” or “wisdom.”  Any of these translations relate to our accessing our conscience, our inner guide, our intuition. When our third eye is open, we are in touch with our intuition, we cut through the illusion of perception to access truth. It not only helps us to make good decisions, but at the extreme is said to give us access to psychic powers. With the opening of this chakra, the development of our wisdom and humanity is completed and we reach the bridge to divine consciousness.

The ajna mandala is described as a transparent lotus flower with two white petals, said to represent the nadis (energy channels), Ida (feminine energy) and Pingala (masculine energy). Ida and Pingala converge with the Sushmna nadi (the central energy channel which is the path of Kundalini) at ajna, creating a sense of oneness and unity.

Another way of looking at this is that at the ajna chakra, we become aware that there is no duality (light/dark, male/female, etc.) that these are just expressions of a continuum.  For example, rather than hot and cold, something is described as having more-or-less coldness.  In the same way, something isn’t bad, it is just lacking goodness to whatever degree. This realization creates psychic space where we can experience the bliss of the oneness of the universe.

The seed syllable of ajna is “om” which is believed to be the supreme sound of the universe and contain all other sounds. “Om” represents the three worlds (past, present, and future) that are accessed through the ajna chakra (the past and present are perceived with our physical eyes and the future is perceived by our third eye).

When we have a blockage at the ajna chakra, it may manifest in physical symptoms such as vision problems, headaches, migraines, and dizziness or in mental symptoms such as confusion and an inability to think clearly.  By opening ajna, we access our ability to see things without the projection and color of ego. We accept ourselves and others and to treat everyone (including our self) with love, understanding, and forgiveness. We have the clarity and wisdom to recognize the truth that is always around us and the knowledge that we can look within for the solutions to our problems.

Jung describes ajna as the pure sphere of detached observation.  Here you become a non-ego reality, a thing not even to be called “self.” The ego disappears completely; the psychical is no longer a content within us but we become contents of it.

And now it’s time to bring Maslow’s hierarchy back because here we can relate ajna to Maslow’s concept of self-actualization.  For Maslow, self-actualization is the level at which an individual is able to maximize their full potential. A self-actualized person is able to resolve the dichotomies inherent in life experiences through creative activity.  Wait, that sounds familiar…in the ajna chakra we realize that there is no duality…

Ok, so we have reached a higher level of consciousness when we no longer interpret the world around us in terms of opposing forces.  This is the detachment that enables us to view our existence without ego – we are not a part of the universe; we are one with the universe.

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An Intro to Chakras – Visuddha

“He who has attained complete knowledge of the atma becomes, by constantly concentrating his mind on this lotus, a great sage, eloquent and wise, and enjoys uninterrupted peace of mind. He sees the three periods and becomes he benefactor of all, free from disease and sorrow and long-lived and like Hamsa, the destroyer of endless dangers.”

Description of the Six Centres, Verse 31

Visuddha – the throat chakra

The next chakra in our journey is visuddha, the throat chakra, also known as the purification center (visuddha translates to “especially pure”). The idea is that this chakra has the ability to process toxins (of both substance and ideas). Associated with self-expression and communication, the visuddha chakra relates to listening as well as speaking.

According to Hindu tradition, the mandala for this chakra is described as having 16 purple or smoke-colored petals, the color of wisdom and spirituality.  These represent 16 of the 25 powers that the practice of yoga can impart.

The center of the mandala contains a white circle, representing the full moon, contained within a sky-blue, downward-pointing triangle.  We learned in manipura that the downward pointing triangle represents the element of fire; however, the element associated with visuddha is ether and the materials that I reviewed neglected to explain the significance of this symbol which was previously associated with fire.  I am going to speculate that it may have something to do with the influence that manipura exerts on visuddha.  Think about ether as vibrations; the air (from anahata) is moved through the throat by the fire of manipura (like smoke rising in a chimney).  In the throat, the rushing air vibrates, creating sounds that are the words we speak.  The ethereal quality of those vibrations means that we also feel them throughout our entire body.

Inside of the mandala’s white circle is a white elephant, a symbol of luck, wealth, power, wisdom, and clarity.  The syllable for visuddha, “ham,” means “I am.”

An imbalance in visuddha may manifest in a fear of speaking, a lack of control over one’s words, lying, gossiping, the tendency to not listen to what others are saying, being verbally aggressive or even mean, or feeling a lack of purpose in one’s life. When blocked, a person may feel insecure, timid, and introverted, and may blame others for their own unhappiness. Think about a time when you realized that someone doesn’t have the faintest idea what they are actually saying, they are literally exhaling their thoughts and feelings with no awareness of what they are doing to other people.

A cause of blockage in this chakra is not speaking up for one’s self.  When we tolerate bad treatment and insults, that external negativity is like a toxin.  Speaking up for ourselves is purifying.  When our visuddha chakra is open, we are able to transform negative experiences into wisdom and learning.  However, we must be careful to not express ourselves with hurtful words, mean thoughts, and bad behavior. Authentic expression is not something that comes easily. One exercise that can be helpful is to pass your words through three gates before speaking: is it true? is it necessary? and is it kind?

“The truth should always be spoken with love and not with knives…”

Shree Mahaprabhuji, Hindu Philosopher

For Jung, in this chakra one steps beyond the empirical world and lands in the world of concepts – of psychology. Here we realize that the external thing that we think that we are reacting to doesn’t exist, it relies on our interpretation of it to have any meaning.  We become aware that everything is subjective. The world that we inhabit, for better and worse, is a reflection of our psyche.

This chakra actually inspired this entire series.  Here’s the story: I was at Consuelo’s and Arvindjeet’s yoga event in February.  We were just starting to get settled in and I began to have a terrible coughing fit.  Unbearable, tickly coughing.  Consuelo mentioned that she had had a cough like that before.  Later, when I asked her about it, she said that it was related to the throat chakra.  And down the rabbit hole I went.