We watched a whacked out comedy last night--Pineapple Express--filled with shoot em up pot smoking drug dealing bloody murder and mayhem with car chases and explosions and I was totally laughing my ass off. I really needed that--just crazy, nutty entertainment to let go off all seriousness and be goofy and silly. Comedy makes us laugh at life, at ourselves, at others, at our condition, and I think that holds high healing value. Hasn't it been proven in some scientific lab somewhere that laughter releases some chemical that is healing? At any rate, common sense says laughter is very good for us. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the movie, but it was certainly just what I needed after a weekend long yoga intensive that was both energizing and tiring. I am SO grateful for learning from Mark F how to position my shoulders (Anusara) during asana practice to prevent injury. The head of my right humerus bone has come both up and forward out of its stable position and therefore certain muscles need to be trained and strengthened to bring it all back into proper alignment. This has been bothering me for over 6 months, and gotten progressively worse, so I'm now working with a physical therapist 3x a week. After the long weekend of study and lots of asana practice incorporating the proper alignment of the shoulders, I noticed yesterday morning when I got up that I could feel no pain at all, as if some profound healing had taken place, which is pretty amazing. Recently I've been feeling slight discomfort in my left shoulder as well, which probably means the same thing is going on over there. Last night in bed I could hear the hooting of an owl, not that unusual out here, but very unusual to hear it from inside the house, so I knew the owl was perched nearby, probably doing a call and response with another owl. As I sit here writing, I can still hear the hooting. In most cultures the owl is ambivalent as the symbol of wisdom and darkness/death. Over the years more than just a few yoga teachers have told me to not be so serious; many more have corrected my shoulder position. Obviously there was wisdom and knowing in those words of advice, but I'm not sure I knew how to heed their cautions. Now nature is telling me to be wise with my body or I'm going to injure it, and perhaps I need to lighten up and come out of staying too long in the "darkness" of seriousness and step more often into the light of laughter. Hoot hoot.
