My Whole World Spins

Never have I really experienced the effects of dizziness. The closest I've come to it was during meditation sitting on the floor. Even with eyes closed and darkness all around me, I could feel the world outside spinning in a clockwise direction. Sometimes I tell myself it's because my meditation skill is so powerful that I was able to get so close to the earth and can feel the revolution!

But my first real experience was when I visited Shangri-La, China, just last week. Well known for its high altitude and what that may entail, I got myself prepared as much as possible... mentally. After the plane touched down and taxied, everything still felt fine. But once inside the jet bridge, suddenly I felt like I was moving in slow motion - like in one of the Matrix movies.

One of the friends I was holidaying with is a chiropractor. One of those days there, he helped me readjust my neck. He got me to lie down on the floor with my legs pointing away from him, and cracked my neck while positioned at the top of my head.

Immediately after that, I couldn't stand up. Best I could manage was to kneel on the floor because at that point, my vicinity was going really fast round and round right in front of my eyes. It took me a good ten minutes of "resting" before I could stand up and walk straight.

However, the most serious case came the morning after. Now, I'm not saying that these two incidents were related but maybe they might have been. I performed my usual routine: after opening my eyes and groggily checked the time I reluctantly separated myself from the very comfortable duvet provided by MGallery Songtsam Retreat; and proceeded to the toilet.

The first stop of course was the toilet bowl. As I stood there and prepared myself for some much needed release, suddenly the toilet began to move. The first few microseconds were slow but gradually picked up speed. Next thing I knew, my right hand came up to stop the wall of the shower cubicle coming straight at my forehead.

Once everything stopped, I realised how dangerous that was. If my hand had been a second slower, I might have inadvertently slammed my head against the glass partition of the shower cubicle and who knows what kind of damage that might have caused.

Before this, I've only heard from my mom's description of her dizziness episodes and how once she found herself lying on the floor on top of the stairs. Fortunately for us both, nothing serious came out of this phenomenon.

But I do hope that I did not just begin another one of those old-age syndromes so early in the game.