Friday, December 19, 2008

Who am I? Who are we all?

we have someone come into our lives.

they are very important.

this is because they give us a chance
to realize
how we are an experiencing
awaring being

they are a person
for whom we can give
this gift:

our awaring
our listening
our looking

maybe,
within the feldie
premise:
our touch

our touch
to guide them
into their unfolding into "more"
of who they could be

what does that mean?

The less we are sure
and the more we are curious,
the better.


Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sitting twisting

try this

sit at the front edge of a chair , bench, rock or log

put one elbow near a knee,
and with the hand of that arm,
cup the side of your face

put the other hand behind your head,
elbow toward the sky

do two games:

pelvis in circles


up elbow in circles


let these circles talk to each other


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

standing, head, eyes, self, Self

from a 108 chapter book
on how to be happier
in 4 levels:
moving and learning,
emotional learning
thinking
soul

this a moving and learning chapter,
(all short)

FORTY-FIVE: MOVING AND LEARNING

Tapping the heels revisited at a higher level.

Stand, preferably outdoors, maybe even in mild sun coming toward your eyes.

Tap, tap on your heels at least thirty times. (This given earlier: rise on toes, easily drop back down on your heels.)
See if this is different than when you began all this learning.

Rest.

Tap, tap now again at least another thirty, and do this: slowly move your head to the right and left (many taps to get to the right, many taps to get to the left), and as your head is slowly rotating, have your eyes, not fast, but much faster than your head, be going to the right and left.

Notice if you do what we all tend to do: jerk the eyes from one side to the other.

See if you can make their movement, though faster than the head, slow enough to be a smooth and continuous movement.

Rest.

Try this again.

Rest.

Try this again.

Rest. For “extra credit/ fun,” you might want to try:

Do this again, adding on slowly lifting the arms forward and a bit out to the sides with the use of your lower back, and lowering them.


Saturday, December 06, 2008

What are feelings? What is thinking? The prison of conditioning.

I'm in the midst of a, to me, amazing, project
and have not much time to devote to this
and
this is so huge
that I wanted to get some
starting ideas/ understandings out
there
and see what they might stimulate.

What are feelings? What is thinking?
The prison of our conditioning.

1. Very few pure E-motions out there.

a.The mother bear, dog, person, skunk
perceives a threat to her young,
inner mobilization flashes up,
something like anger,
she goes into action to repel the threat

b. We are the one she is chasing.
Fear could be the name
for our inner mobilization
and getting the hell out of there.

2. Most, so called "feelings"
are far, far more murky,
often no action, just some tendency
to action,
a combination of inner sensations
and a bunch of words in our heads.
(the first two, "pure" emotions,
where pretty word free).

That our feelings combine sensations,
often unpleasant in ways we don't directly
pay attention to
and a "story" which we often obsess
over offers many
ways out of feeling traps,
and I won't go into these now.

3. THE FROWN EXAMPLE

SOMEONE, OUR LOVER, MATE, FRIEND
WALKS INTO THE ROOM
WITH A FROWN ON THEIR FACE

We have some internal reaction,
or not,
but the story possibilities are huge.

a. We tell ourselves the "they are angry" story.

From here, we can go off with the "they are always
getting angry" story, go into a being angry at them
story.

We can go into the "they are angry and I'd better watch
out" fear kind of story.

We can go into a "they are angry and I'd better attack
before attacked" story.

We can go into a "this is so hard always putting up
with this story."

And more.

b. We can tell ourselves a "they are sad" story.

And "feel sorry" for them, wonder what we can do.

A "feel burdened" story, as we "always have to take
care of them.

An "angry" story: "Why don't they get it together
and stop bring that sadness around."

A sad story, "they are right, I forgot, but now
I remember how hard life is."

Another sad story: "they are thinking about our troubles,
and now I feel bad, too."

A weary story: Oh dear, prop up time.

And so on.

Cheerful even: "Oh, goody, fixing them time."

c. We could have more neutral responses:

Curious: what's up.

Concerned without baggage: is something bothering you, can I help.

Amused: you are so cute when you frown.

Loving: I love all your shades and colors. This frown thing
is just one more wonderful aspect.


d. Feelings and reality:

the frown might have been, from their point
of view: anger or sadness

then again in might have been a stomach ache,
or worry about their work,
or an experiment in facial muscles

4. Thinking is what?

Are any collection of words in our head
"thinking"

Moshe has some interesting things to say about thinking:

As in, most people never have real thinking.

Most thinking is just mental masturbation.

Looking at the reactions to the frown,
and say it was just stomach gas,
we can see that the mental abilities
weren't put to very good use.

What would real thinking be?

5. So:
What is feeling?
What is thinking?

A lot of unclarity,
and oh yeah,
this bit to add to the stew

to place "feelings" as nouns:

I am angry
I have sadness

rather than verbs:

I am angry-ing
I am sad-ing

turns them into something therapists can
live off of for years,
but cut us off from the sort of
dynamic change and experimentation
that this work opens up for us.

6. Back to:
What are feelings?
What is thinking?

The lack of clarity,
shows for me, how well Moshe was
"thinking" in his beginning chapters in
Awareness Through Movement
about the stuckness of humanity,
and improving moving being the quickest
and most clear way
to get people out of being the same,
the same as everyone else
and the same
as they always have been.

A longish start,
but it's been mulling since I
had the "not enough time to write"
story..


Ciao
Chris