I think my persistent knee joint pains are not just as a result of bad posture, lengthy air travel or my over-indulgent ego while performing yoga asanas. There is another reason!Its my expanded weight - I have put on nearly 15 pounds in the last 6 months - as a result of over indulgence in rich foods. I can't avoid them, especially when I am in India. Every trip brings back an extra 5 pounds. I indulge in my favorite dishes which are rich in calories including some of the sweets such as gulab jamun. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all include dessert. I will eat as if that was going to be my very last meal and very last trip to India.
Yesterday I had another epiphany. Not only was I accumulating fat around my belly, but over the last 13 years I have been accumulating every piece of clothing I purchased or was gifted to. They hung in my closet as mementos of year after year of expanding waist line. I was hanging on to them for reasons inexplicable, procrastination I guess! But the last two years as my expanding waist shrunk, I hung on to them so I could eventually get them right sized and save money buying a whole new wardrobe. BAD IDEA! I was awaken to this excess by my house cleaner who remarked "You have too many clothes". I only wore a fraction of them. Finally comment from Nuvana's husband "I never get rid of my old clothes as they are part of my memories" simply made it all the more real. I am an accumulator like him!
Argh! It was time for action. Yesterday it finally happened. The result -- three extra large garbage full of my memories! There were two shirts gifted to me still in their original packing. The total weight - Nearly 250 pounds! It hurt my knees to lift these monsters into the back of my car for a trip to Goodwill. I could have had a garage sale and collected a pretty sum. No way! Let that be a problem for someone else. It was time to shed this excess weight in my life and be light on my mind. Now its time to work on the 15 pounds and relieve my knee joints of the excess weight. Now here's the irony. The same afternoon I took my munchkins to the Nike Employee Store - a privilege for friends of Nike Employees to buy the latest from Nike at discounted prices. It was an invite from Carolyn - a friend and fellow yoga student at Sunset Yoga. The first words out of her mouth as she came out to receive us - "Hey you look trimmer - looks like you lost weight in India".
I simply smiled without replying and said to myself "Oh yeah and there is 250 pounds of it in my car". I must confess that I did add a small amount to my Nike collection after that.....
Namaste
The Yogi
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4 comments:
I found your site on Google blog search and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Seems like you follow a holistic lifestyle with strong priority to Iyengar yoga.
The premise of Iyengar yoga is to use the body as a tool to work on the emotions and the mind and eventually unite the body and mind with the spirit. Have you ever worked the other way round? The impact of emotions and mind on the body? Did you know that every physical ailment has a negative belief system behind it?
It was your mentioning of persistent knee pain in your blog that got me wondering. The meta-physical reason for knee problem is attributed to stubborn ego and pride, inability to bend, fear, inflexibility, the attitude of won’t give in.
Why not repeat a new thought pattern, a set of positive affirmations, “I am flexible and flowing. I bend and flow with ease. All is well. Forgiveness. Understanding. Compassion.”
Repeat this new thought pattern to yourself several times in the day. Probably, repeat them as a mantra even when you doing your asanas.
So instead of shedding that excess weight in form of your old clothes, why not shed some of your negative patterns?
From one yogi to another..Namaste
That is a great insight. I will try it.. as a matter of fact I have been working on eliminating some of the negative stress. Ego is inherent in our being - I will never admit that I have no ego..thanks for your comment and advice.
Great inspiration. I've been cleaning out my closets, but lately I've felt the urge to purge my journals! I rarely do this but when I read them they are not who I am now and just feel like they are taking up space. I have a couple shelves of them to go through. Got any tips on this?
Journals are a preservation of your past. If you feel you need to to disconnect with that past, you can put them in the recycling container and they will be gone. If you wish to preserve them - you may want to consider buying a high speed scanner and scan the journals and recycle the paper.
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