To: K-list
Recieved: 2003/08/05 17:54
Subject: [K-list] interconnectivity
From: Nina Murrell-Kisner
On 2003/08/05 17:54, Nina Murrell-Kisner posted thus to the K-list:
Hello, everyone,
A while back, I was a fairly regular participant in K-list conversations. For
some time, I have been watching the activities here peripherally, lurking, as
some say. :) It is nice to know that this list is here, come what may; I marvel
how Mystress and her bevy of moderators have kept it going for so long.
Non-ordinary experiences following a car accident in 2000 brought me to this
list and others like it. These days, I don't worry too much about what those
experiences signified, but I do see how they initiated a new perspective that
carried with it the opportunity to go deeper into seeing the workings and
limitless range of my body, my mind, of consciousness, and those of others, as
well. This is a gift that I develop through practice and mindfulness. I say
gift, but what it reminds me of is realizing that buried beneath the filth
lining the walls of my house are windows... and now I am in the process of
cleaning them. I get to see one window clean, and the view it offers, and it
inspires me to clean the next window. I'm getting to see how, beyond the walls,
the windows, and the house, there is nothing but view...
It is a curious paradox that, while 'kundalini' experiences may seem
ungrounding, they can have the effect of grounding a person. At least, this is
how it worked for me, when I set out to discover the links between my
experience and what had been written in various mystical and medical
traditions. It was a springboard for getting me way down deep in 'my body', a
body which, in the end, revealed itself to be nothing but thoughts and
sensations, sometimes more believable than other times. It wasn't long after
seeing the movie 'The Matrix', and the binary digits scrolling down Neo's
'display', that it all clicked home into understanding.
So, these days, it is all a grand toy. Sometimes I get into playing pretend,
sometimes I let it drop. It is nice to go between the two - I suppose my
biggest question mark is - why hang around to play pretend? With that question,
I get right back into the pretend. :) I guess it's a little like what happens
in breathing with no resistance in the diaphragm - when that feeling of sinking
or falling appears, it is often more comfortable to stick to what I know, which
is, not sinking or falling.
On a more mundane level, the explorations I do these days hinge mainly on inner
observation, getting deeper into the function of anatomy and physiology, of
mind, through deep self-observation. I took a year or so to study and earn a
yoga teacher's certification; now I teach one to two classes a week. I've half
renovated a house, and moved there, and now am trying to figure out how to keep
my dogs from digging holes in the yard while I'm at work. (The neighbor tells
me they take turns lounging in the holes - we call the holes
'bark-o-loungers'.) The home projects are endless, but I am sleeping better now
than I have since soortly after the accident.
Good to see you all again,
Nina
P.S. Below is an excerpt from a list I share with fellow teachers, but I share
it with you as a way of showing the nature of my 'this day' explorations.
. . .
I recently punctured/tore my right achilles tendon. The injury was not so great
that I couldn't limp on it, but I did notice that the more I used it, the more
it would swell and the range of motion and strength in that joint would
decrease considerably. After several incidences of this, I noticed that there
were actually 2 kinds of swellings happening when I didn't honor the limits of
the injury: 1) a soft, spongy swelling, associated with water retention, which
would swell the entire surface of the ankle; 2) a firm swelling, associated
directly with the tendon, sensitive to the touch, which would linger longer
than the soft swelling. I began to wonder why there were two swellings...
The first swelling can be explained by the process of inflammation, a
protective measure of the body... and it is something I reduced by taking
ibuprofen, icing and elevating the area, and using the cell salts ferrum
phosphate and natrum sulphuricum (prescribed by a natural healer friend).
The second swelling is still something of a mystery, though I am beginning to
pull together some observations which directly correspond to something I found
last night on Sam Dworkis' website regarding fascia and neuromuscular responses
to injury. (http://www.extensionyoga.com/)
Essentially, what I am suspecting is that my body has sequestered the area of
injury by way of inflammation and the contraction of fascia. It is the
contraction of the fascia and thus the tissues surrounding the injury which
produce the second swelling. However, this contraction may also explain
contractions I have felt elsewhere in the physical body, as well as in my
mental and emotional bodies, particularly when one stops to consider that
fascia are a web that wraps the entire body.
I think the most amazing learning piece I have gained from this is direct
experience of how, when a body is still in injury crisis, even the 'stretching'
of parts of the body distant from the injury can produce a system-wide
contraction as the body attempts to maintain a protective stance. I suspect
that it is only after the body has made it through the injury crisis, and the
fascia/tissues have relaxed out of contraction, that stretching or working the
body can be anything but counterproductive.
I recall that in our teacher training, we were taught to progress very slowly
after an injury, and work distant from or adjacent to the injury instead of
right on top of the injury. I think there is a strong connection between that
piece of wisdom from Iyengar, what Sam presents on his website, and what I have
experienced.
I'm really struck, again, at the actual physical basis for the emotional/mental
changes that even a small injury can precipitate! It is really remarkable that
something so small and so distant from what we consider to be the 'center of
our thinking' (head) and 'center of our feeling' (heart) selves can tug on
those spots through the web of fascia, causing seemingly inexplicable changes.
It's really an amazing complex of dynamics in which each of us reside.
__________________________________
To get a reminder of your password or adjust your subscription, visit:
http://www.kundalini-gateway.org/mailman/listinfo/k-list_kundalini-gateway.org
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.