Tara has no prana...

Yeah, it kind of feels like that.  Most of January actually (hence the month long absence from the blog).  I was sick for nearly the whole first 2 weeks of January with some kind of head cold that everyone seemed to be getting.  I don't usually get sick that often (I didn't get sick at all last year, minus the last couple of days in December when the cold started to settle in) and when I do it doesn't usually stay with me that long.  This one, however, knocked me on my ass.  It wasn't even that there were a lot of symptoms--no fever, no throwing up.  Just a lot of congestion, coughing, achy muscles (that was the first symptom) and a huge energy zap--due largely to being unable to get a full night's sleep courtesy of the coughing and congestion.  I tried everything in my home remedies tool box to fight it without meds: hot water with lemon, ginger and honey, neti pot, cut out all the dairy, ate spicier foods, shots of apple cider vinegar...nothing helped.  I kept my practice up for a little while and always felt a little better afterwards, but I finally had to stop that too because I just didn't have the energy for it.  I finally caved, took a sick day at work and got some Advil PM and Mucinex.  2-3 days later, I was sleeping through the night and feeling better--though I had some really bizarre dreams.

So, the cold finally cleared out but my body felt like it had been through a train wreck.  Body was exhausted, energy was depleted and my appetite and digestion felt completely off balance.  Sugar snuck its way back in, almost felt like it needed to after eating so many spicy foods.  Now the appetite is feeling a little more normal and I'm working to kick the sugar back out of my system (or at least as minimal as possible).  I may enjoy the taste of sugary foods (can't lie on that one) but it always messes with my mental and emotional state--I feel better in that sense with it kept to an aboslute minimum.

My energy is still touch and go right now and, more often than not, my practice feels very tiring (as evidenced by the 30 minute savasanas I've been taking).  All the days of coughing also left a very annoying, and very persistent, knotted/pinched up muscle right next to my right shoulder blade.  When I try to use that muscle or "round the upper back," it's like there's some kind of vise in there that clamps down on it.  Not fun.  That's been hanging around for about 2 weeks--even after some seriously deep tissue massage.  Tennis ball massage, heat, arnica gel...nothing.  This "gremlin" (as Kai at The Reluctant Ashtangi likes to call them) does not want to let go.  My knees have been a little achy as well and my right foot (the one that had the surgery) has suddenly started feeling pinched up and achy as well.  I've also noticed a tenderness/tightness in the attachment area of the left hamstring--which could spell hamstring tear if I push it.  It's not an injury yet and I'm hoping to keep it that way, so I'm being very careful in my forward bends right now.  Add in some tenderness and mild pain in my low back/SI joints following a cranio sacral session (the session was good, but it appears to have stirred up something in my lower back/sacrum area).

Today my friend was explaining to me and a couple of other friends at the studio how you could tell how the prana (the vital life force/energy in your body) was moving in your body by what direction a dangling pendant was spinning (called "dowsing").  If the pendant spun/rotated towards you, then your prana was in balance; away from you and it was out of balance (he said you could also tell which foods were good for you via the same method: toward you = good, away from you = bad).  I watched my friends hold it and saw how it move even though they were very clearly not moving their hands or arms. 

When I held the pendant--no movement.  Tara has no prana, lol.  Which of course is not possible, lol.  My friend suggested that something was probably just blocking it.  With the state my body is in, I don't doubt it, lol.

Oiy, here's hoping February is an improvement...