Considering Impressions

When I think of impressions, I think of imprints, of printing presses and old-fashioned type-setting.

Latter-day printers would lay down their metal sorts, all backwards, and a piece of paper would be placed on the large folding part of the printer, then to be folded and laid horizontal and flat. An arm would be pushed, which would in turn press a heavy inked plate onto the paper. Voilà, typesetting! Have I mentioned I'm in the first year of my PhD in English? Literary references are like air to me; let me know if it ever makes me too obscure...

Anyways, the impressions that simultaneously jump to mind when I'm musing about old-fashioned printing-related impressions are those impressions that people leave on us. There are, of course, fleeting, constantly evolving daily impressions, there are impressions that last the day, the week, the month, the year, and those that stay with us over many years. This all seems relatively mundane and obvious, right? Well, I think the metaphor of printing machines works well here: the impressions left by people are like those indents left by old metal moveable type on the paper. Not only do these impressions often leave some sort of visible mark (though not always so inky!), but they also press themselves onto some corner of our souls. The older we get, the more pock-marked our souls. Corny? Maybe. But, being human, we need images to help understand each other, as if they exist somehow between me and you because they're visual.

Which impressions have remained with you? Do you notice any common trends when you think of those longest-lasting, or most deeply etched impressions? It seems to me that there's a well of strong emotion attached to each of my deep memories, and that that can be triggered by any sort of event. Buddhist teachings would tell me that, although the cause of any trigger for such emotions and associated memories (or vice versa) appears to be external, that in fact the trigger is in me, that I'm letting myself be triggered. To test this, try sitting still, eyes closed, feeling the breath move in and out of your nostrils. Your mind will wander, but keep gently bringing it back, as and when you can, to that breath inside and beneath your nostrils. Be patient with yourself. Eventually you'll likely feel an itch. Now, steel yourself just this once against scratching it. Man, it takes a lot of effort not to scratch it, right? Well, perhaps each of our emotional triggers are similar. Am I out to lunch? It's late, so I think not. Is it so unreasonable that it all comes down to mental habit patterns? It's time to teach this human some new tricks!

Tomorrow morning I've got my first new trick to try towards this end. I don't know how many of you are into yoga or arts/sciences of happiness, but there's this new project on the market called "Blissology." I shake my head. The name is cornier than anything I've written so far. But I like corn...especially on the cob. Anyways, Blissology is Eoin (pronounced "Ian") Finn's pet project, and the idea is that it's a combination of daily yoga (35-ish or 55-ish mins per day, depending on whether I choose the short or long yoga for that day) and 10-minute long meditation. Each day has its own theme. It has three additional daily focuses (and these are every day). These are three-fold: nature appreciation, food appreciation, and gratitude. To these five Mr. Finn add's one weekly "wild card," which he posts on his website, all in the name of bliss. Sounds pretty blissful, right? I don't want to go on about it until I've given it a week to try each day's yoga+meditation and can give some sort of educated opinion on the subject, so if you want to read more in the interim, visit Eoin Finn's website. But, my DVD set arrived in the mail today, so tomorrow is day 1 for my foray into Blissology! We'll see what impression this combination of good practices, strengthened by the right intentions, does for me. Let us say I hope to be impressed ;)

Visualizing Yggdrasil

This is an image of Yggdrasil from the Mythology Wiki. Of course, there are a plethora of images, but let's begin also with some idea of what this tree looks like! The squirrel on Yggdrasil is Ratatosk, who runs up and down the tree, carrying insults from the eagle at the top of the tree to Nidhogg, the root-gnawing serpent in Niflheim at the bottom (info from The Illustrated Book of Myths). Yggdrasil, according to the Mythology Wiki, connects the nine worlds of Norse mythology.

For good measure, I should point out that there are many Trees of Life from diverse mythological traditions. I love the intricacy of the Norse version, but it is, by no means, unique. The belief in interconnectedness and traditions of nature worship are definitely time-honoured paths towards human wisdom!

Opening Ceremony

I don't consistently make New Year's resolutions, being guided more by necessity than by tradition. This year, I made a set of New Year's resolutions. I spent a year last year living in, and falling in love with, London (UK) and making amazing friends there, and I moved in late August of 2010 to Toronto to study in the PhD program of my dreams. Toronto, however, has proven itself an unfriendly city and I had some fairly major hiccups to enjoying my time here. I miss my amazing people in Vancouver, where I grew up, and in London, which became my second home in the very short space of a year. But I'll be here now for five years (fingers crossed that I jump through all the hoops that are required by the program) so I'm looking to grow some roots here. I've made two amazing friends here, and my boyfriend and I have moved into a great new place. My books are finally unpacked, my meditation mat is out, and I'm embarking on my journey towards happiness. Coming back to my New Year's resolutions...my goal for this year: get happy!

I've been fortunate--extremely fortunate--in my life so far, but I need to learn gratitude, sympathetic joy, and the difference between contentment and happiness. So that's my mission for the year.

I love great food, great literature, Bikram yoga and the stillness that I experience after a particularly wonderful Vipassana and Metta meditation practice. I describe the latter activities as hard-core yoga (an hour and a half in 35 degrees Celsius) and hard-core meditation (10-day silent--aka no communicating with other students--meditation courses are a part of the discipline) to avoid being pigeon-holed, but I've also recently begun looking into other possibilities for developing self-awareness, compassion, and sympathetic joy. I'm in the gathering phase of this journey. I'm also fighting some sort of non-clinical depression, which seems to be far more common that I'd imagined, and I'm optimistic that, through celebrating this journey through food, meditation, yoga, and literature like a Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar, and by recording it here and maybe, over time...dare I say it?...hoping for some sort of interaction in the land of blogs, this space will help to celebrate the experiences of beauty and the struggles along the way.

Now, about the name of this blog. "Yggdrasil" is the name for the Norse tree of life, from which "the High One, the All-Father, the Hooded One, the terrible Spear-Shaker, Odin of the many names, gained the secret of the runes, magic symbols by which men can record and understand their lives." The tree itself is the world tree, a massive ash, with three roots, one in the land of the giants (Jotunheim), one in the land of the gods and the Norns--the Fates--(Asgard), and one in the "dread realm" (Niflheim) of the serpent that constantly gnaws it. The world ash, Yggdrasil, unites the heavens with the three earthly realms and reminds me also of the Celtic Tree of Life, a symbol of union and wisdom. It reminds us that everything is cyclical and interconnected. Good reminders in a search for overflowing happiness.

Now, for some happiness! Ready. Set. Go!

Note: all quotes about Yggdrasil are from Neil Philip's The Illustrated Book of Myths: Tales and Legends of the World. Ill. Nilesh Mistry. Mississauga, ON: Fenn Publishing, 1995, p. 62.