Touring Around

Are you looking for me?

Murta — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:34:49 +0000

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat. When you really look for me, you will find me instantly - You will find me in the tiniest house of time. Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? {S}he is the breath inside the breath. - Kabir

Murta — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:51:28 +0000

I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Breathing

Murta — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:08:12 +0000

If you were portraying an anxious person on stage, how would you breathe? Would you take slow, deep breaths? Or would you take shallow inhales constricted by tension in your throat and chest? When we breathe with shallow, constricted breaths, we are adopting one aspect of the emotional posture of anxiety. It is almost impossible to feel deeply calm and relaxed when we are telling our body, through our breathing, that we feel unsafe. It’s easy to tell people who are anxious, “Slow down, relax, take a deep breath” when in reality they may have significant challenges to overcome: (1) They may physically have forgotten how to take a slow, deep breath. (2) The muscles of their rib cage, diaphragm, abdomen, and neck may be chronically out of balance and unable to cooperate to allow deep breathing. (3) Their base emotional state may be one of anxiety and suppressed fear, and from that state deep breathing is extremely difficult (almost like trying to take a deep breath through a straw; it takes that much effort). They may also have a chronic disease such as asthma, COPD, pneumonia, congestive heart failure, emphysema, etc. (If you do have such a condition, please do not do this exercise if deep breathing might cause you any distress; when in doubt, as always, consult a medical professional). I was working with a young client the other night. She suffers from nearly constant anxiety and is taking medication to provide some minimal relief. A quick check of her breathing depth showed that it was a “4” on a 10 point subjective scale. And this was after we had done some deep breathing and shoulder releases! Is the anxiety causing the shallow breathing, or is the shallow breathing reinforcing the sense of anxiety? I’d say both. Situations that make her anxious further contract the breathing muscles. Once constricted, even in non-anxiety-producing situations, her body doesn’t feel relaxed. The mind keeps sensing that there must be something to be fearful about because “the body is not breathing in a relaxed way.”

Touring Around

Murta — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:21:21 +0000

The Kintamani Volcano in S E Asia

The volcano at Kintamani was impressive but not the highest on the island. The volcanic cone is a mountain called Gunung Batur and is 1717 metres high and there is also a crater lake called Danu Batur (Lake Batur) aswell as other smaller craters. We had lunch at a restaurant 400 metres up a mountain which had a great view over the volcano. I'm not sure when it last erupted but the village of Batur was originally down in the crater and that was wiped out by a violent eruption in 1917 which killed thousands and destroyed more than 60,000 homes before the lava flow stopped at the entrance of the village's main temple. This was taken to be a good omen and the village was rebuilt but the volcano erupted again in 1926.

Luckily the Dutch administration at the time had anticipated the eruption and evacuated the village so not that many lives were lost. This time the village was relocated up on the crater rim and the surviving shrine was placed in a new temple.