SENSITIVE TYPES and MRI’s: SHAKE RATTLE N’ ROLL

A well’a bless my soul
What’sa wrong with me?
I’m itchin’ like a man in a fuzzy tree
My friends say I’m actin’ wild as a bug
I hadda’ MRI
I’m all shook up!

Well, please don’t ask me what’sa on my mind
I’m a little mixed up, but I’m feelin’ fine

I hadda’ MRI
I’m all shook up!

(If you have been around a while, like me, you are familiar with those song lyrics!)

OH, DON’T GET ME WRONG; THERE ARE REAL ADVANTAGES AND I WANTED THE MRI PERFORMED.  This post is about something personal–fair warning.  But if you are sensitive to energy and to your own body, and if you need an MRI, maybe something here will be, in a small way, useful.

I hadn’t really considered any side effects of an MRI.  They are minimal in the grand scheme of things, I suppose; yet, consider the subject to be worthy of a write-up.   So, here goes . . .

It wasn’t until later in the day (yesterday)  when alone that . . .  well, that the “out of sorts” feeling was clear.  It was evident that something was energetically wrong and of course, I knew why.  The MRI naturally.

It was subtle, but I am sensitive, a psychic.   My own body’s natural electromagnetic field, especially in the area of my neck and brain (cervical scan) were rocked and rolled yesterday–and shook every which way but lose.

Which is, apparently, the method behind the MRI madness in the first place… the body’s own magnetic energy field gets confused and sends out a signal of some-such that the MRI machine picks up the confused atoms as images. I think something close to that goes on anyway.

Here’s a Google blurb about the science behind what happens:

How does an MRI scan work?
The MRI machine is a large, cylindrical (tube-shaped) machine that creates a strong magnetic field around the patient. The magnetic field, along with radio waves, alters the hydrogen atoms’ natural alignment in the body. Pulses of radio waves sent from a scanner knock the nuclei in your atoms out of their normal position. As the nuclei realign back into proper position, the nuclei send out radio signals. These signals are received by a computer that analyzes and converts them into a two-dimensional (2D) image of the body structure or organ being examined.

All I know is that last evening after the scan… there was the re-living the whole MRI, banging sounds included. Like someone who re-lives a trauma–like an auto accident or a similar disturbing event.  I was surprised by the flashbacks of the whole thing; truly.  After a bit of momentary disorientation on the table just after coming out, then I thought, “Okay, Done deal.  It’s over.  Moving right along with my life now….”   

Yet, the residual feeling experienced as the day wore on was one that would be expected if someone had grabbed me by the shoulders and shook the heck outa’ me.  I distracted myself with TV and then reading.  I had some trouble pulling my energy together for any kind of quality meditation and felt too wiped out to do any yoga.

I found myself snacking late into the night in a misguided way to restore order. That’s my old pattern!   The first sign of a problem, find something to eat.  Fell right into that one.

This morning I still feel somewhat shaken–similar to the feeling of when first set free from the MRI coffin-like machine.  Oh, was I glad to be let out of there!

Alright. Facts.  My body has been bending, lifting, turning and twisting for 70 years now.  Nothing lasts forever.  Impermanence:  a fact of life.  Degeneration of the cervical spine can cause radiating pain, numbness, weakness in shoulders, arm, and hand –my symptoms exactly.   Nothing lasts forever, especially the human body. Decades of bending, lifting, turning, and twisting can really take their toll on your neck and in my case cause radiating numbness in shoulders, arm and hand… mostly at night when sleeping, go figure.

How about the MRI’s benefits?  Well,  I got to see the photo images which were given to me on a CD before leaving the hospital outpatient facility.  Uploaded it to my computer to view when I got home and with my minimally medically trained eyes, do see some degeneration of the vertebrae and some disc herniating toward the spinal cord.  Yet, just what the radiologist will make of the images and what the recommendation, if any, will be handed out,  is unclear to me still at this time.   My general intuitive impression is not much can be done and maybe a cervical pillow and new mattress could help too as the symptoms show up when sleeping.

Nighttime numbness (and a bit of pain) increases just as the upper body strength training that I’ve been doing increases the strength in the shoulders and arms.  It’s a rock and hard place kind of scenario.

All in all, feeling shook up for a little while (this too shall pass)  is probably a small price to pay in order to know a few things about my body.  Speaking of shook up, what brought this all to a head (pun intended) was a recent freakish wind event that caused an object to hit me on the side of the head.  Resulting vertigo (another blast from the past so-to-speak) which could have come from an inner ear issue.  Or from something in the neck which is what I hope the MRI will clarify.  Oh, what a tangled web!

My greatest celebratory moments today will be knowing that I can swallow as much as desired.   THAT was difficult to NOT DO except between each of the long scans of the MRI.  Really?  Yeah, the guy said, don’t breathe too deeply.  Okay, got that, no problem.  Then said, don’t swallow until you hear the MRI banging stop.  Huh? Crazy! I did my best.

No more MRI magnet banging issues and go ahead… swallow anytime and all you want, Joy!

Those last words… my happy thoughts for today.

PS  —  My habit is to write things out of my system.  Blogs are so useful for that purpose.  This post has been therapy in that way.  I also wrote it for others who may feel a bit weird after an MRI to know they’re not alone.  I did have those side effects from my MRI and if I did, others who are tuned into their body and vibes, in general, are likely to as well.

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Thoughts on Life: Resistance versus Acceptance – Fighting versus Flowing

FIGHTING VERSUS FLOWING

RESISTANCE VERSUS ACCEPTANCE 

I was on the final 15 minutes of my hour spin bike workout, doing intervals.  There’s a point of non-resistance that has to be reached to get through those final intervals when the legs are burning and the level of fatigue makes you want to resist.  A coach once said, “Your legs should be burning–let ’em”.

There’s a point where you have to give up and surrender the battle to get the last few sets of intervals done successfully.

It’s acceptance.  The lungs are on fire and so are the legs and you’re pushing through to the end but if you fight this or resist it, you just can’t do it–you quit.

Today I thought about how this is just like life.  I mean, on the bike you accept it,  the “what is” of legs burning and the like and if you accept then the work is so much easier and you’re less likely to give up.  Or said another way what you ‘do’ give up is the resistance to ‘what is’–the burn or breathlessness or whatever.

When you give up the resistance and let the mind participate with the body, allowing the merging and accepting the fact that ‘yeah, it’s what it is, until it isn’t anymore’, THAT is so liberating, especially in those final moments.

Those hour long interval workouts are like the last moments of a race.  What really counts is what you do at the end when you have to dig deep and get to the finish line, especially when total exhaustion is so close.

When life becomes a crisis in some way and let’s face it, life presents challenges and if we deny this we are not living on this planet I think.  At those times do we surrender? Or do we fight it? Do we want to deny what’s happening and thereby struggle against it?

We make life harder for ourselves if we struggle.  I make the last 15 minutes of my workout harder if I struggle against.

This applies across the board or that’s my position in writing this.  No matter what life presents us with at any given time (and sometimes life is like those last 15 minutes of an hour long interval workout at the gym–rough!)…. point is that if we feel like we have to battle it or take a position of struggling against it, we find it’s all so much harder.

So many times in life we think something shouldn’t be what it is.

We deny reality or fight against how things ‘are’ and use all kinds of tactics to deny reality somehow.  It’s exhausting.

We can make this comparison with the Christian way of thinking about life being a struggle against a devil and having to fight the evil–this kind of mentality.

Another way of thinking is to simply not think–but what I really mean is allowing whatever ‘it is’ to be what ‘it is’ without the judgment.

Judgment is the christian way of dealing with life I think which comes from an idea of an ideal perfected state that we all must strive for but know we will never achieve (because they tell us that in their dogma), rather than the opposite which is giving up that fight and becoming free.

Does that mean that we don’t try to be better humans or that we stop doing our best?  That’s not what I’m saying.  

I’m talking about not beating one’s self up because of ‘what is’ or what isn’t during any given moment.  I’m writing here about not struggling against it or making the self wrong somehow in the process.

The last 15 minutes of intervals my legs burn and I’m breathless–it’s part of life at that moment and I accept that and don’t fight against it or resist it.

When anything in happens in life, I can draw from that ability to accept what is actually happening without judgment or without making myself or Life Itself wrong.  It is, after all, what is.

When my legs are burning, I don’t attach to the feeling–I let them burn.

When I’m right on the edge of breathlessness, I let it be and don’t fight against the feeling.

If I grunt or groan or tense my muscles or make a face, it’s only making it harder to simply flow with ‘what is’ in that moment.  Life is like that.  Life ‘is’ and there’s a certain amount of being okay with it and not judging it but simply noticing it that is very freeing, liberating.

Someone thinks a lot during meditation time.  No need to fight that.  Simply notice it without assigning a meaning or beating self up in any way.

Someone feels angry.  I’m not saying to act the anger out and of course we shouldn’t totally repress it but one way to handle it is to notice it as simply being ‘what is’ in that moment.  Or maybe for the whole day the feeling is there.  In noticing it one is standing outside of it and this juxtaposition is causing separation from it emotionally.

Just like “the leg’s are burning, let ’em” that happen during my workout.  It is what is and nothing last forever!  ‘It is’ until it isn’t anymore and the less we can attach to it and the more we simply notice it without emotion or resistance, the realization comes clearly that nothing last forever.  That’s the nature of reality:  impermanence.

And impermanence is a blessing.

Acceptance of ‘what is’ in any moment is liberating and elevating.

Judgment of what is in any moment is attachment and suffering.

That’s one difference between Christianity and Buddhism although there are many good similarities as we all know.

Acceptance is surrender and surrender is Divine!

Just my two cents, hoping to have expressed this in a way that’s understandable.

Impressions, Imprints, Cyber-footprints in SAMSARA

SAMSARA and IMPERMANENCE

Impressions!  Imprints!  Cyber-footprints!

I don’t think about that often enough.  Or so I recently realized!  I tend to work through my rough days on my blog, hoping that as I do so that a reader out there somewhere may be helped through the insight that I, myself, seek.    But before going further, there must be an understanding conveyed.  One that I don’t convey as often as I should; one that should go without saying but that I forget to say–perhaps even forget to say to myself!  But look, it’s not easy to stay awake sometimes!  Life is full of … well, the most efficient way to say it is through one word SAMSARA.

Let me get an official Buddhist definition of that word [SAMSARA] and this from Wikapedia seems as good as any others from Google:  Saṃsāra (Sanskrit, Pali; also samsara) is a Buddhist term that literally means “continuous movement” and is commonly translated as “cyclic existence”, “cycle of existence”, etc. Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death that arises from ordinary beings’ grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. Specifically, samsara refers to the process of cycling through one rebirth after another within the six realms of existence where each realm can be understood as either a physical realm or a psychological state characterized by a particular type of suffering. Samsara arises out of avidya (ignorance) and is characterized by dukkha (suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction). In the Buddhist view, liberation from samsara is possible by following the Buddhist path.

I use divination to help me find peace because the process of  looking for insight puts one in the mental framework wherein one shifts or better said begins to detach from the mental affliction long enough to look for insight. [My profession involves divination after all; its a habit.  LOL.]

I’ve been conversing through private text on my Facebook account with a blog follower who summarized the last few years of my life in a few lines that made me startle a bit, thinking ‘Man o man, my life really sucks!”   But of course it doesn’t, and it is full of just as many ups, downs, attractions and aversions as anyone else’s here in Samsara!  No better or no worse, at least potentially, as anyone else’s life who is aware of their mind where it is all located anyway!

Here’s the last bit I wrote this morning, sharing a paragraph from the communication that I’ve been having with a reader:

I think one comfort is that we are never alone in what we experience since the human condition seems very universal… in that no matter what kind of dilemma one is in, one can always find so many others going through the same illusion or experiencing the same dream (or nightmare); so that on some level there is comfort when we can do as the Buddhists do which is Tonglen … basically to say, ” May all of us, may we join together , all of us, and may I be the one to gather it all up here, now;  and then may we all be free of our delusion and wake from the dream and be liberated! And how does the liberation happen”?

What kind of  liberation? Mental–for that is how it all occurs anyway, in the mind.  So, to look at life and hear, see, experience it without aversion or attachment, either one… to just say “Oh, now it is this and now it is that or now it is ‘not’  this and now it is ‘not’  that… hmmmm… okay… and that’s how it is or isn’t…. and now I notice that there is a regret thought, or a memory thought, or a judgment thought, or a happy thought, or a silly thought, or a sad thought, or whatever it is.”   Just looking at the mind.  Well, that’s pretty simplistic  sounding, but most Buddhist teachings are and that’s why I, for one,  like them. LOL I may blog this. Don’t be surprised if you see this text again!

Some  last thoughts:  IMPERMANENCE!  This is a good one to reflect upon too.  That helps put it all in perspective as well… the Buddhist perspective of the “precious human life.”   I have to often remind myself not to become caught up in self-cherishing; this, too, being the source of difficulty and suffering.  And then if all else fails, I hit the pool and go swimming to focus on my kick, stroke and lap times while everything else falls away!