Monday was an interesting day. I woke up not in the best of moods. My energy level wasn’t normal, although I was able to function sufficiently enough. Occasionally during the “cycle,” you have those days where you just don’t feel like doing anything, but you have to push yourself to do things. So I managed to get to work, but didn’t feel like doing yoga. Okay, no problem. I will get a head start on what I need to do on this Monday morning.

I had my breakfast and started to work. About two hours later, I started to have shivers. I was walking up the stairs (maybe about ten steps) and when I reached the top of the stairs, I had to sit down. I had no energy after walking up the short flight of stairs. Furthermore, cramping started to get worse (before it had been manageable, but now it was bad).

Intolerable pain started seeping all over my body and I felt mentally and physically drained, even though all I was doing was just sitting there. Eventually, I started to break out into a cold sweat. Oh, no. This is definitely not good. I walked over to Christina’s office (I felt bad that she was on the phone and I had to interrupt her but hey, I wasn’t feeling well) and told her that I needed to lie down. In the short distance that I had traveled from the top of the stairs to her office, I was already sweating profusely. Drips of sweat were coming down my forehead as I told her that I needed to lie down.

So I went into another room and lay down, trying to focus on relieving my pain, which I found rather difficult because I was sweating so much (literally it felt like someone had poured a bucket of water over me). My clothes were completely soaked and I was cold. Focus on your breathing. Focus on your breathing. I kept repeating to myself.

The cramping was so bad that I wanted to curl into the fetal position (as it was most comfortable for me) but Christina insisted that I needed to stretch that area out, so she had me lie on my back. There were about two blankets on top of me as I was getting really cold.

A couple of hours later, after some homeopathic medicine and a good vomit, I felt much better. The sweat and pain subsided and I felt somewhat functional again and able to resume work. Albeit, I was still cold, so I had a blanket on me for the rest of the day. The weather didn’t help either, as it was raining.

When I got home, I took a nice, long, hot shower to try and warm up and was able to get a little bit warmer. And as I hopped into my bed to go to sleep, I had to have three more blankets on top of me just so I would feel “comfortable.”

This was definitely an interesting experience. As I recall in my younger days, I used to have these symptoms, but nothing as severe as this. I’m trying to figure out what could have caused such a bodily response, but I still can’t figure it out. Was it due to stress? Or was it something I ate? Could it possibly be the change in weather? I know I exercise daily and eat pretty well. I talked with Christina after this whole incident and she told me not to even try and logically understand it. Okay, don’t think about it. But what can I do to prevent something like this from happening again?

Needless to say, this whole incident was rather confusing and one that I would not like to repeat again.

Tags: monday, feeling sick, female issue, pms, sweating, being healthy

Reflecting on this whole journey, I think there were a lot of things that my teammates, Christina and Segovia, had to go through. There were many hurdles to jump over, but I think the rewards were definitely worth it. Emotions and stress levels ran high, but we all pulled through. Good call by Christina to have daily yoga in the morning to Shantha’s music, to help center and focus us on the tasks at hand.

The week leading up to the Conference was a roller coaster ride for everyone: working late hours, trying to repair equipment that was not working, and getting up in the early hours of the morning. For me, this journey was not only a physical journey, but a mental one as well. I think I surprised myself at what I am capable of doing.

For those who have listened to the calls (as I did), there was A LOT of information to absorb in such a short period of time! Hopefully, I can get through all the replays and ask questions in the forum. Such a wealth of knowledge was given to us in only a few days, and it’s going to take a while to absorb it all. The speakers were amazing! And the feedback we got from participants has been overwhelming (in a positive way).
Thank you to all those who joined on this crazy journey with us!

Tags: shanti, yoga conference, yoga event, virtual conference, virtual yoga conference, teleconference

Frankly, it’s been great. The absolute wealth of knowledge contained within the virtual walls is enough to keep someone busily studying, learning and growing for more than one lifetime. In fact, you probably have to resign yourself to the fact that you can’t learn in a lifetime all the material that’s being presented at the Conference. Let’s face it, if you’re reading this blog, you didn’t create the universe and neither did I, so there are obviously some things beyond our grasp as human beings.

Nevertheless, the journey, not the destination, should be our focus in life. After all, you can’t get to where you want to go without good directions. Too many times in life, we work so hard to get things like money and status and then we find that once we get there, it’s not what we thought it would be. Even though there’s nothing inherently wrong with such pursuits, what have we done, or not done, along the way – and what did we miss?

Whew! And there’s still a whole day left of this Conference!!

Rather than presenting my observations, I’d actually like some help… my memory’s not so good these days! By the way, if you are the member who helps me remember the most about my Conference experience, I might have a little surprise for you, so for your chance to win, leave a comment identifying the speaker and session referenced by each question or statement.

1. Which speaker was a self-proclaimed party girl on her way to becoming a YHC presenter?
2. Joviality and Doing Jokes.
3. There’s more than one way to get from the Malkuth to the Kether.
4. Hello and Goodbye!
5. Humility precedes understanding.
6. There are 50 characters in the Sanskrit alphabet corresponding to 50 petals.
7. Shhh…it’s the secret inside the secret.
8. From STRESS…to SUCCESS!
9. Breakfast at 7, lunch at 12, and dinner at 5. Bonus question: What part of the body does this refer to?
10. Hypervigilance is a common problem.

Enjoy!

Tags: yogahub virtual conference, virtual yoga conference, yoga event, World Yoga Conference

Through the years with this laptop, the amount of grief, anger, and heartache Vista has caused me has been just about unbearable, almost to the point where I was extremely tempted to throw my laptop out of the window and run it over with my car.

Finally, I decided to take my laptop to my brother-in-law so that he could erase all traces of Vista on my laptop and put in a decent operating system.

He downgraded it to XP.

And thank goodness for that! Now I can work much more efficiently without having to worry about those annoying Vista widgets that get in the way. Also, I know where everything is!

Vista has truly caused a lot of heartache for me! That just goes to show…sometimes old is better than new.

Tags: vista, xp, windows, microsoft, IT, laptop, new software, new version of microsoft

There are some items that I couldn’t part with. Little knick knacks of toys, hand sewn clothing and other articles of clothing that have too much importance; too many memories that are too precious to be thrown away. For example: the handmade book my brother made while he was in elementary school, my father’s old stamp book collection, an old book my grandmother gave me as a child, my sister’s sticker collection that she had when she was a child, and a box of toys my mom used to play with as a child. Sometimes I wonder if they knew that I had kept these things…things that might have been trivial to them but not to me.

Of course, there were things that were thrown out as well. There were two boxes of books and old VHS tapes that were donated to our local library. A box of old electronic equipment that was put up for recycling (there are places where people take old electronic equipment and disassemble them for recycling), and more than four boxes of old college notes, papers, and projects that were recycled.

I find it interesting the little things that I do to start off a new year. Apparently, cleaning was one of them. I felt that by removing the old clutter from my room, I could have a much more organized way of living and life.

Now, if only I can clean up my brain the same way!

Tags: cleaning up, start off a new year, memories, stamp book collection, recycling

In reality, a cell phone is not really a phone anymore. I’d say that over 80% of the time I don’t even call my friends to talk. I text them. I reply to them on twitter via my twitterberry app on my Blackberry. I invite friends to events using Facebook mobile. Instead of talking to them, I write on their virtual walls. I communicate via email for business – most of the time through my “phone.”

Is voice dead? Of course not – it’s always nice to hear someone’s voice, but for those quick “how ya doin” or “where we going?”, text has taken over. Now if I could just decide between Blackberry, Android and iPhone…

Tags: iphone, blackberry, facebook, twitterberry, virtual walls, text messaging, sms

My Christmas was spent not with an over-abundance of gifts and physical things, but with great food and conversation. For the first time this year, my family members (mom, brother, and sister) made our gifts or bought small items that were filled with love. With the help of my close friend, we were able to stuff my small gifts into a balloon (without the use of a machine!) for a memorable gift.

I was able to stuff some socks into a balloon for my mom, and green tea and Chapstick for my sister (my brother didn’t get a balloon but he did get a home cooked meal!) Along with the “stuffed balloon” came a bouquet of balloon flowers.

Suze Orman writes, “The things that matter most in this world are those that carry no price tag, for they can neither be bought nor sold at any price.” I totally agree with this. The smiles on their faces was more than any gift could buy. Furthermore, my aunt liked the idea so much that I also made her a bouquet of flowers out of balloons, which brought another big smile to her face – a wonderful thing to see since she had just lost her husband a couple of weeks prior to the holidays.

It’s truly amazing what smiles can do for everyone.

Tags: smile, happy family, the best gift, balloons, big smiles, loving family

As I have recently returned from a visit with the old family, I am reminded of many things. Most importantly, as I alluded to earlier, time does fly. I see my family probably 5-15 days out of the 365-day year.  Sometimes I fleetingly think that that is way too much, but more often I know that it is simply just not enough. Relationships are hard work, particularly when there are one-year gaps between personal visits.  Nevertheless, that does not make the endeavour any less meaningful, or desirable. I enjoy my time with my family, and it would suit me fine to find more ways to spend time together.

As I reflect on the last year, I am reminded of something that I try to teach my kids in my youth group. Never presume someone, including yourself, to be a simple sum of their past experiences. For in doing so, the passion to become more than who you have been and the ability to see others for more than what they been will be diminished by mistakes long since gone.

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Tags: year of tiger, new year of 2010, spending time with family, reflection

Once I got off from work on New Year’s Eve, I had a wonderful time focusing on my personal life and business during my three daysoff. However, having returned to work on Monday, I’ve already started being bombarded with things that I have to take care of, both for my regular work and my personal business. . I start working at 9 am, go home after 6 pm, and start taking care of my acting jobs until 2~3 in the morning every day. As everyone is aware, everything is on computer nowadays, so I recently calculated how long I’ve been using computer a day. It’s come out to 17 hours (!?) – minus probably one hour overall for eating lunch and taking a shower. I have even been skipping dinner every night during my crazy working hours.

I feel so bombarded even though I try not to. I try to take it easy. I’m surprisingly fine physically and emotionally at some level, though. But what is not cool is that my eyes have been burnt. It’s been very difficult to keep my eyes open and I sometimes get teary while looking at the computer. Every night I put cold eye pads on my eyes before going to sleep, but they didn’t work anymore. That’s how exhausted my eyes were. It’s hard to concentrate on anything when my eyes are like this. So last night I put warm towels on my eyes and went bed earlier, although it was still past midnight. .

It worked!! My eyes are less stressed this morning. I was so glad I’d listened to my body, which told me that my eyes didn’t need cold pads but hot towels.

I know from the bottom of my heart that I shouldn’t torture myself like this, but I still need to keep moving on until my body tells me to stop. I shall be very careful to open my heart and keep listening to what my body is telling me so that I can avoid being told  “it’s too late.”

Tags: bombarded, busy schedule, taking care of eyes, looking at computer, how to take care of eyes, instinct, listen to body

So I said to myself that I wouldn’t hold myself to the traditional “resolutions,” but hey, I set goals (same thing, I think). The usual goals come to mind – eating healthier, exercising more, being more proactive in my career goals, etc. Then I thought of one that has escaped me for many years. I set a goal to not take things too seriously. Not to say that I’ll be like the wind, but my goal is more to “stop and smell the roses,” so to speak.

Everything is about balance, and I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I can put too much pressure on myself. A lot of times I forget to enjoy what is happening right now, and that is a shame. One can always worry about the future, but sometimes we forget that one can always enjoy everything that is right in front of them at any moment.

Here’s to a wonderful 2010!

Tags: new year eve, new year resolutions, goals, being healthier, exercising, smell the roses