Enlighten Up

Enlighten Up, a documentary from Kate Churchill, came up on my list of recommendations on Netflix. The synopsis-

"Filmmaker Kate Churchill is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Nick Rosen is skeptical but agrees to be her guinea pig. Kate immerses Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. The two encounter celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and world-renowned gurus. Tensions run high as Nick’s transformational progress lags and Kate’s plan crumbles. What unfolds and what they discover is not what they expected."

What the discover really wasn't much. We didn't get any answers one way or the other; however there were some interesting insights revealed by some of the people involved. Nick is our protagonist, the man we can relate to. He's a skeptic who is willing to give Yoga a try. After stumbling from one western yoga school to the next we end up with the same impression, Yoga is a franchise that makes money and no one can tell you what the hell it is for.

Nick and Kate do some traveling and it's not until we get to India that we start getting some answers. Nick gets a chance to speak to a Yogi who sets it out for him: Yoga isn't about any one thing. It's a way to attain some sort of spiritual enlightenment, but enlightenment of what? Hinduism? A Maya type entity? Nothing? The Yogi says yes to all these things. He says it's not so much the vehicle (yoga) to the goal but rather the why. He uses the example of cooking. If you cook for yourself, cook for a friend, cook for a lover or cook for someone you hate you are still cooking. It's the reason why you are cooking that matters; to eat, to be nice to a friend, to make your lover happy or to earn a living. This is true with Yoga as well. Use it for what you want; to gain health, enlightenment, control of your body, happiness in life. If Yoga doesn't work for you then don't do it. This holy man blew my mind, he didn't give a shit if you believed in his method or in Krishna. He simply wanted to teach what he could if you wanted to know. I wish more religious people were like this.

Anyways, back to what Yoga is for. What you commonly see in the west is Asana Yoga which is the pretzel like crazy poses. These poses are good for building strength and health. It seems to work for many people and I'm even thinking about using it myself to help strengthen my back and limber up some. Actually what I'm looking at is Pilates. This regimen uses poses and stretches taken from physical rehab and yoga that are proven effective scientifically. It was developed originally for soldiers in WWI healing from injury.

One neat quote from the movie though. "The sum of a man's habits is the total of his nature." How true is that? I had to look up the rest of the passage from the source online.
"It has come about as a result of his GIVING himself over to the bent
of his MIND.
Unwillingly he has BECOME the creature of his own MIND, wonted to
RESTLESSNESS."

Wow. Gonna have to reflect on that a bit.

Return to Blogging.

It's been quite a while since I last blogged. A few things that have happened in the past few months:

Got in better shape.
Hurt my back.
Fell back out of shape FAST.
Also met a girl named Betsy. She's a softball coach and lives in New York. We hit it off really well and have been talking long distance for a few months. We have lots of common personality traits. I really like her and that's not something that happens much.
Lastly I've been hammering out Paramedic school. It's going fine so far. The material isn't hard to digest and it makes sense to me.

Recently I pulled some clinical rotations in the operating room. The purpose of these is to practice and perfect the skill of intubation. After performing the technique a few times the anesthesiologist started to quiz me on some of the procedures involved. After answering his questions he asked me why I wasn't planning to go to school for something more than paramedic. After much lecturing he convinced me. I'm looking into a BS in nursing and possible CRNA school beyond that. It certainly offers more of a challenge and better pay in the future.

Well that's that for now.