Gift of trees - this is a great idea proposed and implemented by Isha volunteers. It takes US$1 to nurture a sapling and plant a tree in India(PGH is now spread across Southern India). US volunteers who wanted to participate in this effort to bring 33% green cover to Tamilnadu, decided to spread awareness and do some fundraising. Gift of Trees is one wonderful idea. We can buy a Gift of Trees certificate for different denominations($10, $20, $50, $100, etc) and send it as a gift to a loved one. Christmas, Pongal, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentine's day - there are many occasions when we would want to buy gifts/cards/bouquets. Instead, if we can buy this certificate, Isha's 'Project Green Hands' will plant 1 tree for every dollar in honor of the person who receives the certificate.
You can contact me if you are interested in getting these certificates for your loved ones.
http://www.ishafoundation.org/ProjectGreenHands
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Stress and me
I had resisted for a long time to write my experiences with Yoga. The last 1.5 years has transformed me to such an extent in every possible way that sometimes I don't recognize myself. My resistance to write was due to two factors - first, I could hardly get these experiences in words, in any language; second, it will be easy for anyone to judge me as one other crazy being. Anyway, whatever happened to me in the last one week is magical and marvelous(though not the first time).
Since I started practicing yoga and kriyas(www.ishafoundation.org), I have been very calm, composed, joyful and free of many physical ailments (especially back pain - my 24/7 partner for 6 years). Life was going in a very positive way. I got busy with volunteering at Isha yoga, Center for Visually Impaired(CVI, Atlanta, GA) and few other organizations. I had 2 amazing opportunities to give a car ride to Sadhguru. Got wonderful friends and social life in Atlanta improved. The list goes on and on.....
However, 3 months back, I started suffering from severe back pain and slowly I started feeling that I was going back to how I was 2 years earlier. I would get upset or emotionally disturbed without any reason. However, I was still not losing control and I was able to handle everything in a peaceful, calm way. But back pain was something that I could not tolerate and I tried changing my chair in the office, sitting posture, sleeping posture and also stopped doing Hata yoga. Nothing helped me. I realized that there was some problem with my mind or body that was impacting the other, but I couldn't figure out the problem.
Suddenly, last week(1 day after volunteering at the Isha Yoga Inner Engineering class), out of nowhere I felt like talking to my husband for a long time. I didn't know what I was going to talk. I just called him from work and luckily he was also free. As I started talking, I realized that there was one issue that came up 3 months ago and one part of my mind knew that it's not a big deal. Meanwhile, another part of my mind kept thinking about that issue and slowly a poison tree had been developing in me, without my knowledge. My good sane mind had been suppressing this. This suppression had developed so much stress in me without my awareness. Last week I got sick, rather felt so sick for no good reason. After I realized the problem and became aware that this is the root cause, life is back on track. Right after I was done talking to my husband, my body felt like water flowing in a river that we call 'Existence'. I felt like there were knots in every cell of my body that untangled themselves.
The next day I did surya namaskar and realized how flexible I was. In the last 3 months, I had trouble bending forward. It's so surprising how stress killed my body's functions. Inspite of reading about it and hearing it in the yoga class, it's great to learn this experientially.
Since I started practicing yoga and kriyas(www.ishafoundation.org), I have been very calm, composed, joyful and free of many physical ailments (especially back pain - my 24/7 partner for 6 years). Life was going in a very positive way. I got busy with volunteering at Isha yoga, Center for Visually Impaired(CVI, Atlanta, GA) and few other organizations. I had 2 amazing opportunities to give a car ride to Sadhguru. Got wonderful friends and social life in Atlanta improved. The list goes on and on.....
However, 3 months back, I started suffering from severe back pain and slowly I started feeling that I was going back to how I was 2 years earlier. I would get upset or emotionally disturbed without any reason. However, I was still not losing control and I was able to handle everything in a peaceful, calm way. But back pain was something that I could not tolerate and I tried changing my chair in the office, sitting posture, sleeping posture and also stopped doing Hata yoga. Nothing helped me. I realized that there was some problem with my mind or body that was impacting the other, but I couldn't figure out the problem.
Suddenly, last week(1 day after volunteering at the Isha Yoga Inner Engineering class), out of nowhere I felt like talking to my husband for a long time. I didn't know what I was going to talk. I just called him from work and luckily he was also free. As I started talking, I realized that there was one issue that came up 3 months ago and one part of my mind knew that it's not a big deal. Meanwhile, another part of my mind kept thinking about that issue and slowly a poison tree had been developing in me, without my knowledge. My good sane mind had been suppressing this. This suppression had developed so much stress in me without my awareness. Last week I got sick, rather felt so sick for no good reason. After I realized the problem and became aware that this is the root cause, life is back on track. Right after I was done talking to my husband, my body felt like water flowing in a river that we call 'Existence'. I felt like there were knots in every cell of my body that untangled themselves.
The next day I did surya namaskar and realized how flexible I was. In the last 3 months, I had trouble bending forward. It's so surprising how stress killed my body's functions. Inspite of reading about it and hearing it in the yoga class, it's great to learn this experientially.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Coffee stirrer
My first encounter with this 'Coffee Stirrer' was during my college days. Hot chocolate was getting popular in Chennai and small stalls were sprouting up in all local train stations. One day, I decided to try it, finally succumbing to my tongue. I got a small cup of hot chocolate and he game me a straw(or that's what I thought). The straw looked different - tiny and cute. I used the straw to drink the hot(very hot) chocolate and the moment it reached my tongue, hmmm....you know what would have happened. Assuming that my taste buds have been destroyed permanently, I rejoiced when I started feeling my tongue again.
Anyway, even then I didn't realize that it's a stirrer and not a straw. But that story was long forgotten until last week. I happened to use a stirrer and suddenly remembered this incident and wondered why stirrers are hollow. I goodSearch-ed(www.goodsearch.com) 'coffee stirrers' and found this interesting article.
http://www.benratesitall.com/index.php?id=1128577696.Coffee%20Stirrers.msc
However, I couldn't find an answer to my question...
Why are coffee stirrers designed as mini straws, rather why are they hollow?
As Ben mentions in his article, is it just to save manufacturing costs. With everyone going "GREEN", maybe it's high time we start thinking about non-plastic stirrers.
Also, why do we have disposable stirrers - how much plastic is being wasted damaging the environment! Anyway, that's a topic for another whole article.
Anyway, even then I didn't realize that it's a stirrer and not a straw. But that story was long forgotten until last week. I happened to use a stirrer and suddenly remembered this incident and wondered why stirrers are hollow. I goodSearch-ed(www.goodsearch.com) 'coffee stirrers' and found this interesting article.
http://www.benratesitall.com/index.php?id=1128577696.Coffee%20Stirrers.msc
However, I couldn't find an answer to my question...
Why are coffee stirrers designed as mini straws, rather why are they hollow?
As Ben mentions in his article, is it just to save manufacturing costs. With everyone going "GREEN", maybe it's high time we start thinking about non-plastic stirrers.
Also, why do we have disposable stirrers - how much plastic is being wasted damaging the environment! Anyway, that's a topic for another whole article.
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