A grounding discovery

Anuloma Pranayama: with the grain; in the natural order.

In doing a little research on Ayurveda I came across Anuloma Pranayama, and had to look it up. (It's recommended as a way to ground people with an imbalance of vata). Anyway, here's a (semi) brief description of how it works...

The right hand is in Vishnu Mudra, the index and middle finger folded in towards the palm (same mudra that's used in Nadi Shodhana).
When exhaling one nostril will be completely closed and the other side will be partially closed, to slow down the exhale.

Here's how it goes:

Inhale through both nostrils.
Hold the breath in with bandhas on.
Close the left nostril with ring finger, and use the thumb to partially close the right nostril.
Exhale through the partially closed right nostril.
Completely empty the lungs, then lower the hand.
Inhale through both nostrils.
Hold the breath in with the bandhas on.
Close the right nostril with the thumb, and use the ring finger to partially close the left nostril.
Exhale through the partially closed left nostril.

That's one complete round.
Repeat.

Message In A Button

Yooooo! Happy Sunday!

So I was at a store awhile ago and they had all of these pin on buttons that said different things...Mom's Rock (I got one for my sister), a bunch of other ones, and then I saw this button that said "Being nice to people is a really good idea". I thought hey, that is a good idea! I could totally pin this on my bag and wouldn't that be a great message to spread to other people, maybe they would read it and try to be nicer. I wasn't thinking like Barbie nice where your face hurts from smiling and you give everything away to anybody because they ask for it ( like both of your kidneys for example, which would be waaaay nice, but potentially life threatening and excessive). I was thinking consideration...tolerance for other people's human-ness... and possible bad days, etc...So I pinned my bag and felt like Ms. America walking around spreading my message of "Nice-ness".

Well, one morning I was walking down Church Street and this big lumbering guy who had this big scruffy yellow/gray beard and an eye patch was talking and yelling out loud. I couldn't really decipher what he was saying, so as I pass by him he starts yelling louder "Hey mmdfds sdmfdf, kind of sounds like what he said, then he says it again. So I speed-pass by him (we are only a few feet from the bank, which was where I was headed) he's mumbling shouting more and I walk/hop the last foot and make a bee line into the bank (did I mention he had a crutch also?) SO, I am finished at the bank and am heading for the door, when I practically ram into THE GUY FROM THE STREET!!!!!

........erggggggg..... suddenly I realize what the guy had been shouting... he had been asking me to hold the g-darn door for him!!!! I was so weirded out that I panicked and blew right by the guy with the crutch AND the eye patch, didn't hold the door, all the while sporting a "being nice to people is a really good idea!" button, I think I must have turned 5 bazillion shades of red....

So...that is when I realized that the button on my bag was not a message for other folks, but a reminder for me....kind of like my very own version of a yogic Emily Post(but less up-tight). Blast! I chucked my lip-gloss,tiara, and crest super white smile sportin' Miss. America vision of bettering the world and decided it was better to better myself!

the end

no offense to Miss America or those aspiring or tiaras or super bright smiles or Emily Post