pramāṇa viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smṛtayaḥ

Insight, error, imaginings, deep sleep, and recollections.

These are the five kinds of mental modifications mentioned in yesterday’s sutra. The mental modifications that we restrain with yoga. Some of them are pleasant, some of them painful. All of them are distractions. I think some are obvious. If I were to try to concentrate on something, remembering that it’s lunchtime, or that I have a chocolate bar sitting on top of the fridge waiting to be opened, can get in the way. Often. I’ll have to think about the others.

The thing about being sick is that it pretty much forces me to get sleep. I was in bed for 12 hours last night. I won’t say that was all sleep. But I didn’t get the urge to get up until it was rather late for me. I hope a lot of that was deep sleep. Then I won’t get the urge to get deep sleep while I’m trying to work today.

Since the TV has been off for several days, I read a great book. Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi, by Brian Leaf. Great read. Very funny. Very insightful. Oh, no. Is that a distraction? This insightful book was a distraction from my distractions. I highly recommend it, even if you have no experience with yoga, or the Garden State. Unfortunately, Brian lives and practices in Western Massachusetts, otherwise I’d have to pay his New Leaf Learning Center a visit.

Not watching TV allowed me to spend time out on the deck with my husband, enjoying the cool July air. We also played Beatles songs and played with the dogs. Not that we wouldn’t do that with the TV, but the activities were more focused. And it got us out of the family room for longer.

There’s another distraction I eliminated today. Ok, think what you will, but I am on Scruff, Grindr, Growlr, and Jack’d. It’s fun to chat with guys all over the world. My profile picture is obviously a yoga pose. And I talk to a lot of guys about yoga. If guys are local I try to get them to go to my yoga classes. Not many of them do. Many of them say they are going to, but a very small percentage of them make it. I’m so glad I’m not dating these guys. It would be very frustrating. I didn’t go on any of those today at all. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I did go on my Facebook app. What I did do more of than I normally would have is text friends. It was nice to have continuing conversations with people I knew.

I’m off early to hopefully get some deep sleep so that I can focus on work tomorrow.