Posts in the “personal” category

Chakras in the body, by Ram Dass

“And when Jung starts to deal with his archetypes, collective unconscious and so on, he is starting to deal with the fourth chakra ... he himself is afraid to go on, that’s quite clear. He goes just so far and then he stops, because he’s afraid that if he goes the next step, he will no longer be able to do what he does as Carl Jung.”

From http://www.ramdass.org/RD/chakras-in-the-body-2/

What you seek is within you ~ Ram Dass

“What you seek is within you.” ~ Ram Dass (I think that quote comes from Ram Dass. I heard it today while listening to the audio version of his book, Polishing The Mirror.)

Ram Dass - Standing on a bridge and watching time flow by

I’ve been reading the book Polishing the Mirror by Ram Dass lately, and at one point he says something in regards to being an observer and “standing on a bridge and watching time flow by.” I thought that was pretty cool because my own analogy has been to think of myself as being the needle on a record player and just staying in that one spot as time (or in this case, the album) streams by.

Chakras in the Body (Ram Dass)

“And when Jung starts to deal with his archetypes, collective unconscious and so on, he is starting to deal with the fourth chakra ... he himself is afraid to go on, that’s quite clear. He goes just so far and then he stops, because he’s afraid that if he goes the next step, he will no longer be able to do what he does as Carl Jung.”

From a Ram Dass post, Chakras in the Body

Trying not to go unconscious at 2:15am

I woke up Thursday morning at 2:15 am and quickly knew something was wrong; if I didn’t act fast I was going to go unconscious for the eighth time. I threw down some Zyrtec and Benadryl, put some ice in a towel, went outside, and sat down with my head between my knees. (When I get close to passing out I feel extremely warm, like some form of hyperthermia, so I try to cool down as fast as possible.) I don’t even know what I did wrong this time, but that’s how life with MCAS rolls.

What joy is there in this moment?

The mast cell disease has been kicking my butt the last few weeks, and I’ve come close to losing consciousness several times. Had this been eighteen months ago when I didn’t know what was going on I surely would have lost consciousness, but these days I at least know that I can try to rapidly load up on the meds and do some other things to stay conscious.

One thought I’ve had during these times is, “What joy is there in this moment?” I don’t mean that in a negative thing; in fact, I mean it as the exact opposite. For example, when the syncope started last Thursday at 2:15am and I ran outside to sit with my head between my legs in the icy cold weather on the porch, I asked myself this question. My first answer was that the cold felt good. After a little while I noticed the faint sounds of an owl making “Who ... who” calls somewhere in the distance, and combined with the cold dark silence, that was very pretty.

Frankly, my main thought was that if I was going to go unconscious again – something you never know if you’re going to come back from – I wanted my last thoughts to be of something joyful, and that’s when I started thinking to ask myself, “What joy is there in this moment?” If you’re having a bad day or a bad moment, I encourage you to ask yourself that question. For me it’s been a way of finding some gratitude in my most difficult moments.

Being lightheaded and passing out because of Stevia Truvia

I have been “sick” the last few weeks with a mysterious illness that has caused me to be lightheaded and even pass out. Whenever I get sick like this I think, “What has changed?” Well, one thing that changed is that when I returned home in late January I started using Truvia (Stevia) instead of Equal or Splenda. Sure enough, I stopped taking Truvia and I was fine, and then I tried it again yesterday and became lightheaded in a few hours, and nearly passed out again. I was able to check my blood pressure and heart rate during this latest episode, and my BP was fine (120/72), but my heart rate was 87 or higher. After reading other accounts of people saying that Truvia causes lightheadness and fainting, I hope I have found my culprit.