Saturday, May 25, 2013

Practice with stomach trouble, this blogging thing

I discovered something this morning: It is possible to do full primary to Sharath's count while having stomach trouble. It all started last night, when I ate an orange that had been sitting in my fridge for too long; really should have known better. About an hour and a half after getting to bed, my stomach woke me up, and I had to go to the bathroom. Nothing came out (TMI?). I made myself go back to bed, but at 3 a.m. my stomach woke me up again. This time, there was a deluge in the bathroom...

Anyway, I don't suppose you care for knowing this level of detail about the goings-on of my digestive system. In any case, when I woke up in the morning, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to do my usual Saturday morning Sharath led primary. But I decided to just go ahead with it anyway; I figured I can always stop if things get to be too much.

It turned out to be quite alright. If anything, the entire practice actually felt a little lighter than usual, maybe because of the loss of water weight. Ha! Now I wonder if this is why people who go to Mysore often report achieving great progress in their asana practice. Could it have something to do with the fact that their stomachs are continually purging the third-world food that they are ingesting, causing them to lose water weight and thus become lighter in their practices? Just speculating here: Those of you out there who have been to Mysore can tell me whether this theory of mine holds any water (no pun intended).

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I can't help noticing that I have "lost" a couple of followers in the last couple of days. I'm guessing that these people have un-followed me because of my not-so-polite reply to an anonymous commenter in my previous post. Or maybe they un-followed me because they are fans of Sadie Nardini, and are upset by my less-than-flattering treatment of her.

Oh well. All in a day's blogging work, I guess. In any case, amassing followers (damn, does this sound grandiose, or what?) is not (or should not be) the purpose of blogging. It's not like I get paid for every time somebody follows me, anyway. Hmm.... how many more followers will I lose by saying this? I guess we'll find out soon :-)

In any case, the whole point of blogging is to say what needs to be said, when it needs to be said. Besides, if one has the temerity to engage in anonymous sniping, getting shot down should be par for the course, no?  Especially if the sniping in question involves insulting somebody's teacher...

All in all, I have to say that this blogging thing is a funny business. Actually, it reminds me a little of academia: So many people's panties get bunched up over things of so little consequence. For instance, as a result of certain things I have said over the years, there are now blogs out there that I literally cannot leave comments on; the blog owners/operators automatically delete whatever comments I leave on their blogs... I mean, really? Might we not be taking our cyber-personalities a little too seriously?

I could go on and on about all this. But as they say, all not-so-good things have to come to an end. So this will be it for now. More later.    

11 comments:

  1. i got your back, nobel. only hope i wasn't the cause of any loss of readers

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    1. Thanks Patrick. I don't think you were the cause of any loss of readers. Even if you were... it's just a blog, no need to get too worked up :-)

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  2. i think you have every right to say whatever you want on your blog and the number of followers is irrelevant, right?

    blogs are more a sort of diary...at least for me, that don't use up space! :)

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    1. Yes, Tanja, you are right. Thanks for the encouraging words :-)

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  3. I lost 10 "likers" off my Facebook page for my blog because I was so bold to say I want to be paid for writing endorsements for all the spammers who want me to shill for their yoga crap in my blog.

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    1. Hello Linda,
      I read your tit-for-tat post. I also get emails from people who want me to promote/shill for their books/merchandise. I have been ignoring them, just because this is a blog, not some advertising service. But on more than one occasion, I've also been tempted to reply by asking, "So how much are you paying me for my services, or am I supposed to just provide free publicity for your supposedly wonderful book/merchandise that I know nothing about?" Unlike you, I have never actually followed through with the question. But this really annoys me to no end: Somehow, people seem to think that just because we practice yoga and are "spiritual" people, we are supposed to bend over backwards and do things free of charge; things that would probably come with a considerable advertising or service fee in another context.

      Gosh, I am angry, aren't I?

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  4. Nobel, I feel for you about losing followers. I've been trying to break 60 forever. Each time I hit 61, someone bails... Perhaps it's the menstrual blood and its aberrations. Also, poop is an eternally interesting topic. Anyone who disagrees should commit to a thorough examination of his or her bottom chakras. And Linda, I loved your tit for tat post. I should like you on facebook right away.

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    1. Yes, poop is indeed an eternally interesting topic of discussion; it is probably the only thing we produce that comes so directly from our bodies, and over which we have ironically so little control over; we have little control over when it comes, in what quantity, and in what shape, size or color it comes in.

      I can't offer any useful suggestions for breaking the 60 barrier. But I think you will break it soon. Like the yoga practice, getting more followers is not a linear process. You need to lose some in order to gain some.

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  5. People come and go no matter what you do. And sometimes it has nothing to do with anything you said. It's especially the case, though, for those of us who challenge the status quo, and/or aren't given to excessive niceties. I notice the disappearances as well, but I think Twitter has taught me that it mostly doesn't matter. You'll usually know when you screwed up and need to offer something to your audience. The other 97% of the time, it's just folks going that really weren't your tribe so to speak.

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    1. Thank you for your support and encouragement, Nathan. I don't really consider myself to be somebody who challenges the status quo; not unless the modern age has regressed to such a point that simply saying what needs to be said counts as going against the status quo.

      It may also help that I don't really have much of a social media presence. I don't do FB or twitter or pinterest; this blog is my only platform in the social media universe. So I just get on this blog and say what I want to say whenever I want to, without too much awareness of what goes on in other corners of the social media universe.

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    2. Not having much social media presence can cut both ways on this issue. On the one hand, you're not hooked in to all the various conversations, nonsense, and everything in between in social media land. That can definitely be a plus.

      On the other hand, my own experience being on FB, having multiple Twitter accounts, plus a few other things, is that I'm less likely to notice a few folks disappearing after a particular post. And given that my articles are traveling around more due to social media connections, the few disappearances are often replaced by new folks rather quickly. That's another reason why I'm not too worried about pissing some casual readers of my writing off.

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