Sunday 25 September 2011

Sorry

Hello everyone

I'm currently in the midst of a bout of writer's block - hope to be back in action soon.

Much love.

xxx

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Neti Cleansing Day 4...

I *may* have overslept this morning by 2 hours so I *may* have nothing to report on today's cleansing...

Sorry everyone! Won't happen again o_O

xx

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Neti Cleansing Day 3

Good evening

How do? Have you had a good day at work? Let me get you a cup of tea and you can tell me all about it.

My day? Oh, it was good thank you. I taught yoga at lunchtime, it was great, I'm growing in confidence and the class seem to enjoy themselves. I've learnt a few things about myself and about teaching too. What things? Oh, just that it doesn't matter if people dislike my teaching style or whether they react when I ask questions in class, that's just the way life goes. All in all I've had a good day. Oh! And I just did my third day of neti cleansing. You want to hear all about it? Oh ok, well... Here goes!

Today, I felt pain. Ouch is a word I would use to describe it. Just pure, plain ouch!! I just went into the bathroom with kit in hand - when I say kit I mean my neti pot and a box of tissues. Filled the pot with luke warm water, tilted my head over the bath and started pouring and I was really unpleasantly surprised at how much my eyes watered and the feeling it created in the back of my throat. I can't even remember the exact pain, just that it hurt!! However, I persevered as one must and cleared the right nostril before openly blowing my nose in the bath again and doing the same on the other side. It didn't hurt as much on the left I am pleased to report. However, despite the pain, my nostrils feel clear, though I keep having to clear my throat. I must have some latent mucus sitting there that doesn't want to leave. I have to admit, I feel as though I have a love/hate relationship with this practice. It's good for me and afterwards I feel much clearer but at the time, I hate the pain. I'm not sure I should be feeling pain! Perhaps I'm doing it wrong...

I have just learnt through the magic of the internet that I'm doing it at the wrong time of day. Nasal irrigation is related to maintaining the kapha dosha, which is an energy pattern and according to Ayurvedic medicine, the body moves through a series of dosha changes throughout the day. The kapha (earth/water) dosha is dominant in the morning therefore practicing neti cleansing in the morning relieves some of the kapha excess. Tomorrow morning it is!!

Ok, I have to go now because I'm having a slight coughing fit which makes it difficult to type.

As my Nan would say, God Bless and as I would say, Namaste.

xxx

Monday 19 September 2011

Neti Cleansing Day 2

Hello one and all

Hope you're all well. Today I feel like utter rubbish!! I felt rather pleased with myself last night after practising the neti cleansing seeing as my nasal passages felt clear and clean and I could breathe like a champion!! I practised again this morning in the shower and came out feeling a bit smug actually, I felt that in two very short neti cleanses, I had rid myself of my cold.

Then I got on the bus. And there began the coughing and the running nose and the utter rubbish feeling. There's something about sitting on a packed bus with a tissue stuck up your nose that just makes you feel self conscious. I didn't really sit with a tissue up my nose... Not much. I've spent most of the day blowing my nose and coughing so I'm shortly going to do the neti cleansing again for another clear out. This is like the nasal equivalent of clearing out the garage. Except instead of old bicycles, you find old mucus.


I think the rubbish feeling is down to the neti cleansing clearing and purifying, and you know what "they" say; it has to get worse before it gets better. I shall update ye either later or tomorrow. Tomorrow probably. I have to plan tomorrow's lunchtime yoga class after this.


I have another recommendation for you: Buddha in Suburbia available on BBC iPlayer. Am I allowed to recommend programmes and websites like this? Hope so. 


Anywhoosle! Cheerio old chaps, see you tomorrow for Neti Cleansing Day 3. Hopefully with less snot.


Bye :) xxx

Sunday 18 September 2011

Admissions... and Neti Cleansing

Hi

I have something to tell you... It's no big thing, but something I need to tell you all the same. I'm a fraud! I've been thinking a lot lately about what direction I want my blog to take, having so far written a few posts about a few things, some that have hopefully made you laugh but some that have just been there to fill internet space. I've come to the conclusion (with Charlie's help) that I want this blog to be a yoga blog about my yoga journey, that I hope you will want to follow. 

At the moment, I have a stinking post-Bestival cold (of which I must write about next! The festival, not the cold...) so I decided what better place to start than Yoga for Colds! I researched and I found a lot of yogic advice and so I started writing a post about how yoga can help reduce the severity of a cold and how it can reduce recovery time. I had a few paragraphs going, with a couple of headings, in bold! But something about it didn't feel very honest. I wasn't writing from my fairly minimal experience, I was writing what I was being being told, and something about that made me stop, delete and start again. 

It's much better to write about your own experiences, it gives a more heartfelt and honest view of what you're going through. So before writing this post, I went into my bedroom, picked up my neti pot and went and cleansed my nasal passages like they have never been cleansed before!! So this, my dear friends, is how I think I'm going to blog about yoga. I'm going to practice a yogic... err, practice, for a week at a time and I'm then going to tell you all about it in all it's gory detail!

So here is what happened with my neti cleansing...

Me, my little neti pot and a box of Kleenex went into my small bathroom to begin (and end) this practice. Usually the recommendation is for you to use non-iodized salt, of which I have none at the moment, so I opted for plain, warm water. I filled the pot then leaned (leaned or leant?) over the bath, placed the spout in my right nostril, tilted my head to the left and poured. Out of my left nostril came a small stream of now warm and slightly snotty water. Remember, I have a cold at the moment. 

I haven't practiced neti cleansing for quite a while so I had forgotten what it feels like to do it. Feeling the water at the back of your throat is quite bizarre! I wanted to cough it out but the idea is to keep your chops closed while pouring the water through your nostrils so that it doesn't come out of your mouth. Now, rightly or wrongly, and I hope this doesn't gross you out too much, but I usually take the spout out of my nostril and then openly blow out of my nose into the bath to expel any mucus that may have built up in there, which will now be released by the water. Then I gently blew my nose a few times and then refilled the pot and repeated the same thing but on the other side, so that is in my left nostril. This one seemed to be a bit stuffier than the right nostril but the cleansing definitely cleared the airways and made a marked improvement for me. I repeated the open nose blowing into the bath and then used the Kleenex again for any that was still in my nose.

I have to say I have already felt an improvement, I don't feel as stuffy or 'yucky' as I did before.

I'm going to continue this for the next week and will hopefully remember to blog the outcome... I'm not going to post a photo of my nasal mucus, I just mean I'm going to write down the practice, any differences I see, and many other things that I can't think of right now.

I hope you're enjoying my blog peoples, if there's anything you want me to write about or research and blog then just put it in the comments. Yoga related obviously!! Unless you want me to research cake, I can totally do that :)

In other news not at ALL related to yoga, I think you should immediately go out and buy Yes Man by Danny Wallace. And read it too. One of the funniest books I have possibly read in my entire life. Filled with laugh out loud moments and a lot of wisdom.

Ok, that's all for now, hope you've had a great weekend and I'll blog you tomorrow :)

Namaste xxx

Wednesday 7 September 2011

An Open Letter to My New Upstairs Neighbour

Dear Neighbour

Hi! Welcome to the neighbourhood. I hope you are so far enjoying your new surroundings and that everyone is being friendly and welcoming.

When you moved in, my housemate and I surmised that you must work long hours during the day, otherwise why would you consider it acceptable to drill and bang into the late hours of the night putting your Ikea Aspelund bed together. We gave you the benefit of the doubt and didn't complain, we know how hard it is to work and try to run a household, especially set up a new one. 

You seem to have finished the necessary building works but now I have discovered you feel that it is also acceptable to let your children run around on what is obviously wooden flooring late into the night when I am trying to get a peaceful night's sleep. Maybe you are vampires? Not having children of my own, I can only empathise and say that from the experience of friend's children, when they are young and wilful, it must be somewhat hard to get them into bed and stay there. However, I'm not sure Super Nanny would agree - after all YOU are the parent and THEY are the children. You can probably guess where I'm going with this.

PLEASE! Make your children stay in bed. Or at least wear industrial thickness socks so that I can't hear them banging around when I am trying to get my recommended 8 hours of slumber. Yes, this is London and we live on Albion Road, maybe peaceful is too much to ask, but I would like to go into work not looking like a shattered, bedraggled mess every day. I do not work in the fashion industry so I can't pull this off as the 'next big thing'. If you need recommendations for thick socks, I know Primark do some for about £1. I will GIVE you the £1 if it means I can get some sleep.

From your tired and irritable downstairs neighbour.