Was waiting for all this to be over before I posted again, but it's looking like that could be a long time.
It has been a very tense and heartbreaking three weeks. People on the verge of tears. Meeting friends, students, at some point we will well up. It really is just such a horrendously enormous disaster. Physcially, mentally we're ok here in Yamagata City, but emotions are raw.
Feeling bad for all those people who haven't had the support of a yoga practice and community both material and cyber. This is where the power of yoga is. Bringing people together on a higher plane of being. To coin a phrase (sorry can't remember the name of the Zen Ashtangi) I've been trying to 'practice heroically'. It's tough at times to focus under these circumstances, but practicing primary everyday, often with a friend, with Sharath's CD has been a comfort. Just to listen, surrender and breathe. One of my students wrote, its for times like these that we have been training in yoga., to make our mind, body and spirit strong. I have even more faith in Yoga Chikitsa now, my body is sorted, mind is following, and emotions, well that'll come in time, keep breathing, practicing, oh and that teeny left over of shoulder weirdness...GONE, along with four kilos of weight....nerves'll do that to ya!
For my small part I've tried to keep our group together in spirit, we've had some classes and people are practising hard, like they need it. Which of course we all do. I shall help with donations, with a primary led class for charity. When the time is right I'd really like to offer more. One of the most difficult things is being so close but relatively useless, everyone wants to help.
The first few days really were quite terrifying, and I'm not even in a disaster zone, just the neighbour of three. But talks of nuclear explosions and melt down, radiation levels, winds, possiblity of another big earthquake anytime anywhere, constant constant tremours. Subtle vibrations, shakes, jolts. There was a lack of information, or rather lots of things being written but trying to find the facts, what is actually happening, what do we need to do to prepare. Reseach skills have seriously been honed, as has my knowlege of nuclear reactors and radiation. New respect for the services and miltary, and eyes opened to the workings of mass media. I have been sticking to technical reports and serious, informed journalism. I must say the government broadcasting messages have been really good at keeping people calm. Information is out there, after the weather forcast we have now a radiation level forcast. Each prefecture also publish hourly updates on air radition levels, and daily for water and food. For the first week many slept ready to grab their survival pack and get out of the house. There is a fault line near here, if a big quake occured there would be liquification of land in one area. Nerves frayed, heart races at every tremor. Tremors experienced in shouldstand and urdvha padmasana were two of the more memorable ones. But these are worries, worries don't actually exist, some mind control needed here, ok prepare, but don't worry.
Still there is so much suffering around, so much, the consequences are vast and seemingly never ending. Those courageous workers in Fukushima battling away, other's trying to just survive day to day in the massive clear up. Nerves are frayed and lives have been destroyed the situation in the worst hit areas is tense, people are starting to crack. The tsunami has produced 23 years worth of rubbish. Just that is unfathomable, what will be done with it all? However the human spirit is strong and will overcome, support is coming in, in all shape and form. The motto here is: all that can be done is just to do whatever it is you can do. For the most part that means carrying on with daily life, keep money circulating, keep society ticking over.
Thanks to everyone keeping Japan in their thoughts, a lot of positive energy is needed, it really makes a difference. x
But now, since daily yoga practice, I have become more at peace with existing, and found a happiness less dependent upon external factors. Still very much a work in progress, but there IS progress. Especially with ashtanga, practicing the sequence over and over and over and over, going deeper and deeper. The forms are the same yet the currents run deep. Repetitive, yet always different. I never would have thought that after seven years of primary I am still very much engaged with the practice, still discovering, not just the phsycial, but the mental, the energetics, the whole lifestyle, the never ending practice that is life. Enjoy the process. 
