Monday, December 31, 2007

A year of sweetness and year of..

sunset 2007
sun almost gone, "year" almost gone

the learning goes like this:
in this moment
i can do this
i can't do that

how can i learn
to know more
about what i "can" do

how can i learn ways
to sneak up
near
what i "can't" do

how can i learn
to be
fascinated
not frustrated
when the learning
doesn't come
"fast" enough

which means
i've forgotten learning
and fallen into the old habit
of wanting "things fixed,"
means me changed
like a broken car

instead of what i really am
a miracle of
brain
body
nerves
blood
bone
learning
and abilities
to learn
to be present
to explore
to discover
to expand
all that i ever
thought
was possible

yes


INDEX OF POSTINGS 2007

DECEMBER 2007

135. Dec. 31: A year of sweetness a year of...

134. Dec. 28: Meaning of Life in Three Layers: A Christmas Present to your Present

133. Dec. 18: 6 awareness days until Christmas

132. Dec. 11: Listening to Ourselves, Now, at the computer

131. Dec. 4: "Resistance" to the Feldenkrais Method (Mainly a post for practitioners) .

NOVEMEBER 2007

130. Nov. 24: What to do about our sleep?

129. Nov. 21: Learning and Becoming a Child again, sort of

128. Nov. 13: Pleasure, Ease and Learning: Group Lessons on Mondays and Wednesday

127. Nov. 12: Yoga in Feldie Land: Triangle

126. Nov. 10: Life is Real only when I am

125. Nov. 6 Moshe's high octane, body/mind/lust powered youth, via Deborah Elizabeth Lotus

124. Nov. 5 Monday Yoga, Feldie feet intro, fun

OCTOBER 2007

123. Oct. 31: Where are the Hip Joints???

122. Oct. 18: Stress, Learning and the Feldenkrais Method®

121. Oct. 16: Walking Again

120. Oct. 12: Walking, a miracle we usually take for granted

119. Oct. 11: Waking Up and Feldenkrais

118. Oct. 10: Weight Loss and Wake Up Feldenkrais

117. Oct. 6: Now Knowing: Food for a good life and a good Functional Integration Lesson

SEPTEMBER 2007

116. Sept. 28: Love, Remembering, Feldie Forum, parenting, whatnot

115. Sept. 19: Feldenkrais Method and therapy

114. Sept. 17: Take a Rest, Learn and Be Human

113, Sept. 12: Learning and Love

112. Sept. 11 The Real Terror

111. Sept. 5 Boring is as Boring Approaches

AUGUST 2007

110. Aug 29: New Life, Choice: Learning or Robot Upgrade

109. Aug 29: Feet on Ground, Eyes glued to Computer

108. Aug. 27: mindfulness, moving, healing

107. Aug. 22: Variety and Learning

106. Aug. 20: Health Backs, and the old choice:
Discovery vs. "Doing it Right"


105. Aug. 18: Happier Backs

104. Aug. 14: What Yoga and "yoga therapy" always misses...

103. Aug. 13 Yoga as if we had a
Brain, Heart and Spirit.


102. Aug. 8: This Moment.
Or: Waking up,
in as well as through Feldenkrais


101. August 7: The Glories of Living and the Feldenkrais so called "Method"

JULY 2007

100. July 27: The Power of Feldenkrais Plus Ananda Yoga

99. July 14: yoga training, more learning, la la

98. July 4: Freedom

JUNE 2007

97. June 28: Letter to a Wonderful Parent of a Special Needs Child

96. June 18: One 11 minute "cure" for depression.

95. June 1: What is Possible? A life full of learning, change and transformation. And happiness.

MAY 2007

94. May 22: Human Beings: Designed to Learn

93. May 16: Learning, Play and Love

92. May 16: Nature, Big and Small, always amazing

91. May 2: Improve Your Brain, Get more Neurons, and Move Better: all in one process

APRIL 2007

90. April 25: Awareness and Attention

89. April 18: Happiness Now? Heresy or Sanity?

88. April 5: A Morning's Feast, an Introduction to Awareness Through Movement®

87. April 3: Rolfing and Feldenkrais

MARCH 2007

86. March 26: An Experiment in Learning and Fun, one rolling to sit lesson.

85. March 16: Slow Down

84. March 11: What is the Feldenkrais Method? And Wake Up Feldenkrais? New Version.

83. March 6: Going from -1 to +3 in ten minutes or less

82. March 2: The Glory of Being Human: Bones, Brains, Learning and Gravity: and, We can Change

FEBRUARY 2007

81. February 26: Learning to Turn, Learning to Learn

80. February 26: Watch the Baby

79. February 25: Waking our Pelvis, Waking our Lives

78. February 21: Thinking and Non-Thinking, and : What Makes a Good Life???

77. Feb. 18: The Enemy Game

76. Feb. 15: The Joy of Improvement

75. February 12: To be Small or to Expand

74. February 9: Life and Love and the Really Good Lessons

73. February 7: The Waking up in Feldenkrais and in the Byron Katie Work, always from within

72. February 5: Porpoise of Life, 2: to Live

71. February 2: A Big Dream: Now and Nature and Love and Learning and Transformation, on the Earth

JANUARY 2007

70. Jan. 30: Lifting Rocks and Having a Good Time

69. Jan. 27: Change and The Anat Baniel Way

68. Jan. 24: Gurdjieff and Feldenkrais

67. Jan. 21: Jesus and Judo

66. Jan. 18: Feldenkrais and Love

65. Jan. 15: Martin Luther King, Racism, Corporatism, some Personal History

64. Jan. 12: Yoga and Feldenkrais

63. Jan. 9: The Feldenkrais Method®, a winter presentation.

62. Jan. 6: Cat and Cow, Yoga 3, Happiness, Mind and Body

61. Jan. 3: Doing "something" (for pelvis, spine, whole self and brain

60. Jan. 2: Doing "Nothing" is more than we might suspect


Friday, December 28, 2007

The Meaning of Life in Three Layers


Marlie's daughter Sari

In the morning, Life’s miracle is here waiting or me, and all I have to do to snatch it is to not snatch it. To just be. That’s all. Not to snatch, but to glide on home to myself, and what is this self, this human being on this planet earth? Well, one very “grounded” way to realize my life in the present on this Earth, is to start with gravity. I have a skeleton that holds me up in gravity, a spine and pelvis over two legs, holding up ribs and arms and a head. First level of be present, for me, is to notice the relationship of this arms legs spine head skeleton to gravity.

That’s my start.

And the next level of here and nowness, and life on Earthness is this: Air. In the middle of me, I have lungs and chest and ribs and diaphragm all designed to breathe me, whether I know it or not. Air in, and I am inspired. Air out, and I expire. In, out, I can notice this relationship to air, in the present, adding that on to awareness of my relationship to gravity.

And now, the top layer, the complicated one, the head. Thinking, thinking, thoughts, thoughts, and really the head is designed to be up high to better notice the world. Eyes for eating and making sense of light. Ears for doing the same with sound. Tongue and smell to sweeten and nourish my life, and to make the world taste good, and my language to reach out.

And to keep it simple, noticing in the present what is my relationship to light, noticing it coming into my eyes, and having an awareness if my neck is free and mobile, for if I want to look behind me, this is necessary. Sound can reach me from behind, whether or not my neck is free and mobile. Light cannot. To live fully, I want to be able to easily and clearly look around me and see all that is available and wonderful.

So, here’s my three layer awareness cake, and where does awareness live? The brain? The self? Who knows, but awareness that I have awareness creates a kind of inner lighting up for me.

And for you, with your skeleton and gravity, and your ribs and lungs and air, and your neck and light, maybe this simple and full meditation can help your days be more full and rich and aware and pleasant.


Tuesday, December 18, 2007

6 awareness days left until Christmas

water bear Reed College

Ah,
to be aware while
browsing the stores

ah
to be aware of the guilt
obligation
habit
routine
and fear stuff
nagging away to
buy more
give more
do more

ah
to say no
to an invitation
or two

ah,
to say yes
to an invitation
or two

where do we want
to be present
and following our breathing

and remembering the three oceans:
gravity
calling on bones and brain and pelvis
how are we "grounded"
what is our weight doing
right now

and air
our lungs inside the rib cage
or can it be
a rib basket

and light, sound, taste, smell
the joys of a head
mobile and free at the neck
looking left
and right
even now
on the computer
keep the eyes forward and let your
nose
go up and down
and right and left
and following your breathing
and know
about your pelvis
and be
in love
with the you
right now

what else to do?
love others
love the earth

does that have anything
to do with Christmas?
it certainly could have.

and does awareness have
anything to do
with our ability to love?

yes


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Listening

cow

sitting down at the
computer
and
what do we listen to?

said,
the more Proper way:

to what
do we listen?

can we listen
to our pelvis?

is it there,
have we played and enjoyed moving it forward
and back
tucking tailbone under
alternating
with butt back and up?

pelvis
yes

and spine,
holding up our head
is our neck free
are our
eyes and jaw and neck
relaxed and mobile?

pelvis,
spine,
neck, jaw, eyes,

and ribs
how are they?
what would it be like to wiggle them
a little
before we play too much on/ with/ under the
spell of
the computer?

wiggle ribs?
rib basket
or rib cage?
lean, arch, curve left,
left hip up
toward left ear
this fun
ribs together on left
and expanding
like an accordian
on the right.
can we enjoy
playing that way,

and
of course
the other way.

and our breathing inside those
ribs
and down
into belly/ diaphragm?
is it in our awareness
and now ness
and
pleasure?

breathing yes
ribs yes
pelvis yes
neck jaw eyes free and easy, yes


so
can we listen
to healthy and mobile pelvis
aware and relaxed jaw, neck and eyes
spine holding up our head
feet on ground,
butt on chair
breathing in the air

and other words
can
we listen to what it
is really like
to be here
now

creatures of gravity
(pelvis, feet, spine, butt on chair)

creatures of air
breathing free the ribs the lungs the air

creatures of light
(free neck
to see easily in a wide variety of directions
on upright and rooted spine)

wow

there's lots to being
here
isn't there?




of help with this
is to sign up for
DEsk Trainer

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Invitation to Improvement and Joy

headstand

Invitation to Improvement and Joy

Let’s say: you have a soreness in your back or shoulders or neck as you move through life, and wouldn’t mind not only having that go away, but could enjoy learning how to function better from head to toe, from pelvis to ribs, from elbow to ear, from spine to sternum, from eye to brain?

In other words: are you game to become a more complete and aware and happy in your body and happy in your awareness person?

If this sort of improvement, about upgrading your nervous system, and rekindling your love of learning appeals to you, come on around and give yourself for awhile to this work, this Way of Conscious and Exploratory Movement.

Let’s say you want to play tennis better, or ski better, or golf with more ease and improvement and success. Again, are you willing to go inside and discover how you are and how you could be more, as this marvel of engineering, all these bones and muscles with a big brain on a planet of constant gravity and a body of two legs, and brain that loves to learn?

Good.


Tuesday, December 04, 2007

"Resistance" to the Feldenkrais Method



resistance so-called
to the Method

again:

now, there is a sort of "resistance"
which is a hideway excuse,
as in : this client is resisting change

famous was Milton Erickson who never had resistant clients:

fun stories:
the man in mental hospital,
grumbled and wouldn't cooperate,
he was Jesus.
great said Milton, since your Jesus,
you're a carpenter, here's a hammer and saw,
get to work

or the young boy in office
stomping on floor,
protesting being there.
Milton: nice stomp, but a big boy could stomp
much harder
of course, the boy stomps harder,
well, that's getting there, but a strong and big
boy could do better than that
and so on and so on
until the kid was begging to sit.

NLP,
which has some sleazy uses,
(seducing women, say),
has some brilliant ideas:
one of which,
there are no resistant clients
only bad therapists/ teachers

2. on the other hand
Moshe
and many others have pointed out:
people love to have the idea of changing
with the hidden clause they
don't have to change anything

3. thinking about resistance
as inertia

two passions back
(byron katie's, the Work, in between that
and the feldie method)
I pretty much single handedly stated a large
(3 acre) public garden, herbs, flowers,
food, trees, permaculture, soil and soul,
good place, now beautiful.
anyway,
since i loved it
i was enthused to invite lots of people to come.
many liked the idea
many said they'd be out "tomorrow" to help
most didn't make it

i discovered one class of people showed
up:
new to town

my theory became:
people have a rut of 3 or 4 main things they do
and it's really hard to break into that

new people don't have their ruts
defined yet
and so are open to somethng new
and wonderful

with ruts,
old and familiar
wins over new

recent article in New Yorker
on a megachurch in New England,
interesting confirmation:
best new members:
people moved recently,
divorced, lost jobs,
i.e. broken from their rut

4.A. resistance in ourselves, part A, heroic overcoming
last month i set out to do this
national november writing month ( NaNoWriMo.org)
where you go for a 50,000 word novel in
a month
i did it
and plenty of days
"resistance," reared it's slothy claws:
too hard, too crazy, novel sucks,
don't know what i'm doing,
etc etc too busy
blah blah
and i did it anyway

old Gurdjieff work thing:
in a group,
take an "aim" sew an hour a day,
talk to three people a week about job,
wear a business suit to all plumbing jobs,
weird or hard or interesting
you publically admit to something
and
set out to do it (Gurdjieff's idea:
people can't "do,"
are a bunch of I's
one i says, yes, i'll clean my room
tomorrow
tomorrow another set of I's want to watch tv or "has to"
answer the phone or , you know )
and see what happens

anyway,
another resistance
i do halfway well at heroically overcoming
is an aim
to do one or two alexander yanaii
a day
lots of resistance
though
and
always
always
glad i do

HOWEVER
4.B. then there's part B:
the resistance wins:
for twelve years at least i've been going to
"get around to"
learning piano,
learning guitar,
even writing the novel.

with help of organized event
some progress on third,
but piano
and guitar
ah,
and spanish
all languish in the "sometime"
labyrinth

so what is my "resistance"?

one, the ever-ready "story"
story:not enough time
but time to read New yorker,
or see dvd on computer
or...you know,
stuff that's part of my rut

story:
i'm not natural, or talented
or .....


and another factor:
non instant satisfaction
as learning curve bites
which actually, once people get to the Feldenkrais lessons,
we have much less problem with
in our work
(and maybe someone teaches music so the immediate
process of discovery is as delightful
as in ours?
don't know yet.)

5. so,
in a way, it seems to me:
that one of the core processes of our method:
the playing open of habits
to create new options
is what's (partially) going on when
people don't want to/ can't/ are "too busy"
and not interested in
opening to having the feldenkrais method
in their life

they have the habit of not being involved
in our method