Executive Clarity

Listening is essential
and most people
out of the present
don't

they listen a bit
and then chatter inside with what they are
going to say
next

Speaking with attention and awareness
on ourselves
and the person to whom we are talking
is essential

and most people don't:
they talk to some
wish for approval,
wish to be right,
unloading some old tape,
wish to be smart,
wanting to get attention


And
in corporate life:
being at ease
and aware of our bodies,
happy in them,
moving easily,
breathing freely,

this can make all the difference:
in health
in happiness
in creativity

This isn't usually taught,
with "corporate training."

I teach it.


Being present
is essential
to really living our life
as we live it.

This isn't usually taught
as part of corporate training.

I teach it.


Love of others
and love of the Earth
aren't usually taught as part of
corporate training

I teach it.

This is by the day,
and will transform your home
life
your work life
your whole life

The bottom line:
a better bottom line
and
happiness
and
love
and
communication
and
body ease, joy and learning.

This is good.
You are good.

Come partake of the possibilities.

Knees please, go slow, go easy: learn and heal

we've been dealing with Knees
around here

a sweet and amazing
joint
the knee is really amazingly
designed to do not very much,
but it's a huge responsibility:
to transfer the power of the center
down to the feet
to transfer the information and
grounding from the feet up to the pelvis
and from there
to the spine

and it's the feet
and the hip/ pelvis that are supposed
to have lots of mobility,
and the knees
just kind of do not very much
going this way or that
as they bend and straighten
and transfer the force

so:
how to improve your knees?

lie on the floor,
one foot standing on so that one knee is
up toward the sky
and one leg long

if one knee is "iffy"
start with the first best
knee as the one
pointed to the sky

and with the foot pretending to be walking,
or doing yoga,
or standing around,
push a little weight into the standing foot,
and experiment
play around with
discover
the different ways you can
push into the ground:
side of foot
other side
toes
heel

then do easy
feel good
and
interesting circles with your pressure thru
the foot into the ground

and reverse

and rest

and same, first best leg:
come to foot standing again, and press into the ground
a bit,
so the pelvis is rotated,
and circle the knee,
but think of this as coming from the hip,
and feel as part of the circle, a nice sweet
arching of your back during big parts of the
circle

and reverse

and rest

and then
maybe,
in imagination or "reality"
do the same thing,
gently
with your second best leg/ knee

there's lots more
and lessons are cool,
if you are so inclined,
four more months around Sonoma

try linking like this:
Neurological Upgrading Lessons

ciao,
Chris

undoing relationship, keeping love, happiness, learning and awareness

for some reason,
can't publish over at slowsonoma.com

la,
la

here it is:

So life can be
heaven
and life can be hell

often
when people undo a relationship,
they make it hell for themselves and their partner:

they blame
get angry
try to enlist others to "take their side"
feel frustrated
sling mud
drag up the "worst" about the other
rehash "the list" of all past sins
focus on what's "wrong" with the other
blame the other, the parents, other people
try for revenge
fight over the kids, the property, the story about who did what to "ruin" things
and
much
much more

You know that
I know that
you've done it, or seen it

my several times

and then
there is my friend
and maybe yours:
the Work of Byron Katie

Like this,
find the unhappiness
realize you are unhappy,
find the thought behind, beneath, bound up in
the unhappiness
write it down

like this:

Judge your neighbor (or Reality)
Write it down
Ask 4 questions
Turn it around


Okay,
let's today take a common one:

"The relationship is a failure because it's ending"

There it is
a great story, thought to suffer from.

And Marlie and I are dissolving,
that's the reality that this
thought wants to fight.

So let's do the four questions and the turn around:

Q 1: Is it true
that
"The relationship is a failure because it's ending" ?

Well, common wisdom would say yes,
but we aren't look for common wisdom,
we are looking for truth.

Other people might say yes,
but again,
this is about my truth.

And is it true,
deep down that
"The relationship is a failure because it's ending" ?

And the answer is no?

First because as Marlie takes the main impetus,
and I love her for wanting what she wants,
I show me and her
what love really is.

Second, as Marlie strikes out on her own,
without the usual meanness and blaming,
she shows herself and others how to end something
without the usual cruelties.

Third, I have a vision of creating
with a partner a land based center/ village even
devoted to
being present
almost raw eating
permaculture
yoga mixed with Feldenkrais
huge amounts of silence
organic growing and being

this is not Marlie's vision.
She and I are both being honest
and kind to explore what life would be,
even if it means leaving behind a huge amount
of love and fun and common interests
and just
good old fashioned affection.

Q 2: Can I absolutely know that it is true
that
"The relationship is a failure because it's ending" ?

No.
In the Big Picture,
not being God,
I have no real stance as to what is best for Marlie
or for me.
If this is what she wants
and this is where I'm pointed,
this that seems more true.

Q 3: How do I react and how do I live
when I attach to/ believe the
myth/ story/ thought/ concept
that
"The relationship is a failure because it's ending" ?

I feel bad
sad
annoyed
like a bad little boy
afraid
ashamed
angry
sorry
blaming
hopeless
like giving up
out of touch with now
out of touch with joy
out of touch with love
a mess

not breathing
not being useful to myself or others

Q4: Who or what would I be
without the story/ thought/ belief
that
"The relationship is a failure because it's ending" ?

I'd be free.

I could come back to love.

Grateful for now.
Grateful for the fun and not fun
and learning and everything we've had
over eight years.
Honored to have been in this life.
In love with Marlie and myself.


And what's the turn around to
"The relationship is a failure because it's ending" ?


The relationship,
ending in awareness and love,
is a huge success.

ah, my.

Down into the poop
and back up again,
the good old Work of Byron Katie.

It's work
and if I work,
I'm back to my real self:

free
present
in love with Marlie just as she is

that's a nice self
to be in,
I feel

new life: go slow, learn, heal

this world is an amazing place:

if we lie down
out of gravity

and very slowly
move one part of ourselves
and keep moving that part easily
and awaring all the while
and follow that movement back
somehow to our spine

then
rest

then move another
part
slowly
slowly
with awaring
and following:
back to the spine
back to the spine

and usually
moving in a way
that keeps the belly soft
and the chest
and head free

doing all that
and connecting up
in various combinations,
the two sets
of moving
and awaring
and connecting

what's going to
happen?

learning

waking up
to now

pleasure

falling
into
the newness
of what
we could be


is all this true?
try it
and
see for yourself.

sept 11

didn't write my Wednesday ramble
yesterday
and
today
is a famous
day

september 11

things
"went wrong"
if you/ we/ one
held the story:
no one can do rude
and senseless attacks
on Americans
in America

I'll skip any talk
of perhaps
attacks have come from
our organized violence
wing,
known
as the military
(and composed
of fine
and sometimes confused
and often idealistic
and often brainwashed
and sometimes clear as a bell
young men)

people
can get into habits

the enemy
habit
has been the ruin
of a million marriages
throughout history
and probably
even this moment,
this very moment
a million relationships
are suffering from the

ME RIGHT .... YOU WRONG

ME GOOD....YOU BAD

wars


and so nations,
something
goes
wrong,
and the
so called "leaders,"
go for habit
rather than
learning,
and
find
an
enemy
and attack


and
alas,
many suffer as
a result

and
also:

in

our bodies:
we often
fall back on
the same habit,
almost,
and
find an enemy:
the pain,
the clumsiness,
the inflexibility,
the limitation,
the I can't do that
place

and attack

and gosh,
just what that place
needs,
like a child confused
and afraid
and having a "bad day"
is someone to slow down,
listen
pay attention,
ask
and discover:
what's going on?

how can we make that a little better?

how can we pay attention in
a soft
and easy
and
healing
way?

ah,
nice idea for
"bodies"
and
"partners"
and
of course
even for ourselves




more thoughts
on sept 11
and the "enemy game"
over at the Brain Plasticity
and Amazing Changes blog

ciao,
for
now

Distinctions: Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain vs. "normal" Tai Chi and Yoga

Some classes start soon
Saturdays,
Sundays,
Monday at 9:30 AM
in the morning

They are called Yoga / Tai Chi and the Self / Brain

First:
what is the Self?

It's the real you,
the real me,
the one who is in us,
and always free,
always aware,
always present,
always open to the experience
and the wonder
of being alive.

Some yoga classes talk
of this,
and very, very few follow through.

So be it.

The major distinctions
on a watching what we do,
how does it feel to do it
level are these:

In the yoga class,
there will never be one
RIGHT WAY
to do any pose.

Every pose will have variations,
among which you can discover
who and how you are in your
body at this day
of your life.

In the yoga class,
the pose gets to be the focus.
That's fine, in a way.

In a way,
it forgets that postures
are just positions we take
on the way to something else,
and that core to human
life is movement.

Every pose in Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
will have an element of movement.

In most yoga classes,
you are given
a pose,
and expected to put yourself in
that pose,
whether you are ready or not.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
every person,
or every level will have something
to learn and to discover.

In most yoga classes "teaching"
doesn't think about "learning,"
which is:
students learn something.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
the goal
in all parts of the class will
be to create situations of learning.

This makes "most yoga"
sound kind of punk,
doesn't it?

Oh, well.
"most yoga"
is still wonderful, as a way to get out
of a sedentary life,
and especially, if you are naturally
athletic, will give you useful
and interesting ways to get stronger.

Even there though,
"most yoga" encourages far too much
use of extra effort,
and it's really too long a story beyond saying this:

human bodies were designed to be unstable.

that instability is the key to amazing mobility.

"stabilizing" the core, or the this or the that,
comes at the expense of mobility and
really being able to use yourself
well.

And Tai Chi.

Well,
the normal way is a fixed
pattern,
done only to one side.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
we will learn to move both ways,
and we will learn variations
within that pattern.

In "most Tai Chi," huge effort
is put,
again,
on getting the form "Just So,"
while giving lip service to relaxation.

In Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
the emphasis, will be on discovering
and loving your body,
and what it can do,
and what it can't do,
and the possibilities
that come open as we begin to move through
the tai chi
form.

Again,
sorry
for the snobby sound.

"Most Tai Chi"
is miles better than doing nothing.

And I hope
you'll find Yoga/Tai Chi and the Brain
a useful adjunct to your ongoing practice,
in either Tai Chi or Yoga,
or a
great way to begin a much
lighter,
and I think,
far more useful
practice
for yourself.

Who knows?

The experience
is always in each of us,
in each moment.

This is good.

Even now,
this now,
is the only one we have.

This is good.

Come experience
your Self
and your Learning
and your pleasure,
if you so wish.