Married: go on a non-date. Searching for someone: go on a non-date.

Week Three, Day Six: ENLIGHTENMENT

LIGHT = light

Lighten up

Lighten your load

Lighten their load

Go ahead and be imperfect

Sad truth, real truth. We are not perfect. You aren’t perfect. Your partner isn’t perfect.

If you are looking for someone, they won’t be perfect.

If you are looking for someone, you won’t be perfect.

Tips for finding someone:

DON’T GO ON A DATE.

Don’t make it at night.

Don’t include dinner and any alcohol.

Don’t include entertainment where you are looking at a movie screen or a stage instead of each other.

Don’t talk about your tastes, your school, your family, your childhood.

Don’t try to impress.

Don’t interview: this isn’t about finding someone to fit your mold.

DO GO ON A HANG OUT/ FUN TIME/ DISCOVERY FEAST

Ask the person to do something you like.

You like nature: ask them on a hike or a canoe ride.

You like books: ask them to hang out at a book store.

You like quiet conversation: ask them to coffee or to small meal for lunch at a quiet place that has cheap and high quality food.

You don’t like high quality food?

This book probably isn’t for you.

DO ASK ABOUT: WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU?

DO SHARE: WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU.

LISTEN AS MUCH AS YOU TALK.

MABYE WITH A TIMER.

MAYBE NOT.

Ask questions.

Give them lots of time for the answers.

Be happy.

Explore what happiness means to you.

Explore what happiness means to them.

Be present: what is going on right now for you.

Ask about their present: what is going on right now for them.

And what good is that going to do?

Well, let’s get real.

Sex is great and it’s only so many hours a day.

What are you going to do the rest of your time?

What makes you happy?

What do you enjoy about being with another person?

If it’s only going out to dinner and movies and whatnot, you’re going to have to stay busy to be happy, and your life is going to be a somewhat empty blur.

If that’s good enough, you wouldn’t be reading a book called Love, Lust and Enlightenment.

So, what's the game in the non-dating strategy:

Enlightenment Game # 14: Go on a Non-date

If you are married, have the non-date before or after the date, because married people tend to get stuck in stay at home and do nothing (which usually means wasting time on the Internet).

And after or before the date, spend an hour really getting to know each other.

Look for the light.

What is great about the person you are with?

What would you love to hear more about?

What vulnerable wish or desire would you like to share? (No complaints, or secret victim crap. But a desire: more love making. A vacation in Moscow. A Saturday in bed)

And if you aren’t married and don’t know each other yet:

Make sure it’s not in the evening and doesn’t include dinner nor alcohol nor any entertainment.

Talk.

Take turns talking.

Talk for five minutes each.

Ask questions in your turn if you want.

Talk about your deepest wishes for the most amazing life possible.

Do not complain, talk about, or “share” your prior romantic messes.

This is not the point.

This can come later, when there is a reckoning of “I’m not so perfect, let me tell you my prior fuck-ups.”

Not a good idea for the first non-date or two.

Just be pleasant.

Just be curious.

Just be honest.

Just be present.

That’s a lot.

Good.

And then, how can we get more to the “light” in enlightenment, and have our non-date be in the light, or the pre or post non-date for the married couple, how can we use this time together to be moving toward our greatest life purpose?

Ask.

Explore, not explain.

Be okay with the IDK.

Enlightenment Game # 15: Explore your and their biggest Life Purpose.

What is your biggest Life Purpose?

For many people, it is to understand their Life Purpose.

This is a very fine Goal.

This is a very fine purpose.

This can be the non-date that will change your life.

This can be the non-date that will eliminate the superficial person you are going to hate in three years.

This can be the time for married couples to fall back in love.

We always sense a deeper and amazing part of someone we commit to marrying.

And usually, we get lost in the busy-ness of our life together and forget the deeper purpose.

Our deeper purpose.

Our partner’s deeper purpose.

Our mutual deeper purpose.

This is gold. Hang out here and deepen and deepen and deepen.

Summary of Week Three, Day Six: ENLIGHTENMENT

If you are single, go on a  non-date.

If you are married, go on a non-date before or after the “date.”

Seek the light.

The light of purpose and glow that is central to you and to them.

The lightening up that comes from being heavy handed with ourselves and allowing ourselves to be children again: what is the heaven we want?

What is the big dream?

How much fun to explore this together.

High Performers to Higher

Let's say you are really, really good at something
and you wouldn't mind getting better.

What could you do?

1. Think of, invent, play with
play with
play with
ten new ways to do something, your sport or music

2. Dew something wrong

3. Do it with the other hand:
In violin, say, this might take a few days
In piano, having each hand play the other's music might be a gas
In golf, switch the hand on top, or get clubs for the whole other swrng
Tennis: hmmm. Could get interesting

Ping pong on the other hand, a piece of cake

4. Doooooo it veeeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooowly

5. Doittoodramedfast

6. Do order it out of

7. Eyes closed/ looking the wrong way/ crossed

8. Breath held, Oh wait, many do that any way.
Well: gradate the breathing: all held, part held, half held, mainly free. all free

(Read the above those five ways)

9 Link up the toe of one foot with the finger of the opposite hand
As in right ring toe and left ring finger.
For a certain period, then the pinkies, big toe/ thumbs and so on

10. Add in some spice .

11. Due it wrong another way

12. And dew it rong still a nother way

13 Dew due it rong enuff so that one of there wrung ways turns out better

14 Furget how to count to ten

Love and a Broken Heart

You've heard it before:

Tis better to have loved and lost,
than
Never to have loved at all.


Whatch think?


In my case, it wasn't a choice.
I loved.
I lost.

Sometimes the broken heart hurt like hell.
Sometimes it just hurt.

Recently, it was gentle, there was a breaking
and
underneath it all a love
for the parted one.

She had her ideas,
her wounds
her reasons,
some understood,
some not
( by both her and me,
the human heart is mysterious...
you know that)

She came
We loved
There were grand moments
There were spectacular moments

She left

Who is to say
that that
is not wonderful, too

This can't be explained in words,
and bittersweet is not what I'm talking about

gratitude
and wistfulness
are closer

but
the closest I can come
is that a couple of weeks ago
I got caught out in a torrential rain
on my bike
and soon,
I was as soaked as you could possibly get
and then it
was just
"what the hell,
bring it on"

pure joy

broken heart:
bring it on

there is a love in there,
too

a deep and sweet love

...
I hope your next heartbreak is
has some of these same flavors
cheers
Chris

Slow, Connect, Discover/ back to the 10 Minute makeup

Slow, Connect, Discover

I help people to
SLOW down
and
CONNECT deeply to themselves
so that they can

DISCOVER

Ease, grace, youthfulness, delight and pleasure

in
MOVEMENT and
LIFE


And you gentle reader
in your ten minute make out

this is your job

SLOW down the kissing
and the touching
and even the breathing

perhaps say what you are feeling as sensation
perhaps go even slower than you think is slow

and
pay attention to how the
CONNECTING
is happening

moment by moment

and in each moment see what you can
DISCOVER

about a new direction, pressure, stopping, starting, shifting

that would make
your make out

more
pleasurable, graceful, delightful, youthful

you know

just plain old

divine

cheers,
chris

Doing it better, vs Doing it Right

You know, gentle reader, this is a trap that can ruin our lives:
the wish to get something right.

The fervor to help another be right.

The pressure to perform something just right.

And besides killing the fun, what's wrong with this strategy
of
"getting it right?"

Let's take someone trying to improve their golf.


The choices are: going for doing it right
and
going for doing it better

Here are some possibilities each way:

Doing it Right

1. Being chronically tense, because you are "trying" so hard

2 Missing the moment by having your attention on what "right" "should" be

3. Going slightly crazy always comparing right to what you are doing, and having a stream of reasons why what you are doing is "wrong"

4. And if, miracle on miracle, you slog through all that and hit the ball "right," Then that's it. Your at the upper limit. It can't get any better. Shucks.

Now,
in this other world,
the world of Now
and the world of Curiosity
and the world of Discovery
which is to say the fertile fields of Doing it Better

there are all sort of possibilities

Better at being relaxed
Better at sensing your feet
Better at sensing your back
Better at breathing
Better at looking at the ball and the world
Better and sensing each finger
Each toe
Each vertebrae
The weight on your feet
the freedom in your neck
the breeze in the trees
the joy of being alive
the sun on your skin
the songs of the birds


all that being alive hooey

which isn't for everyone.
lots of dead people
lots of rocks and water molecules that never got to be alive,
or not yet anyway

skip that detour:
we are alive.

better at being alive
and the joy of discovery and learning
and how
would that play out on the golf course

and perhaps PLAY out is a good way to say it

ciao
for
NOW
Chris

10 Steps to Happiness

Want to be happier?

Let’s play with some ways this could happen, and let me start out saying that happiness is a byproduct of being present and engaged and loving in your life. It’s not something you chase, it’s a barometer that tells you that you are living right.

Okay, let’s play.

One: Do something wrong. If you do tai chi, do some of the moves wrong. If you always button your shirt from top to bottom, go the other way. If you always come late, come early. If you always come early, come late. ( Once. See if the world crumbles)

This came from giving a Toastmasters talk on happiness where I offered 5 ways of being happy. The Sacred Rule in Toastmasters is to always present 3 things. So I presented five and by doing that demonstrated the first step.

Here, I don’t know how many steps I’m going to give which leads me to

Two: Living in “I don’t know.”

Sometimes a very fun thing to do when answering a question is to answer, “Well, there are three/ four/ five aspects to the answer.” Not knowing what they are. And then wing it and fill in.

Goals are sweet and nice and good for your character and all that, and a central trait to all happy people is the ability to let a new goal emerge from the present, a surprising and interesting path that hadn’t occurred to them until just then.

And when people ask you a question, or you are telling yourself you should have it all figured out, Hang out in “I don’t know.”

Three:

Be present.

If you don’t know what’s coming next, or what you are going to say next, or do next, you do know what’s NOW.

Experience that.

As sensation.

As feeling.

As noticing your body shape, where are your arms and legs and spine.

As noticing what images are coming in your eyes.

As noticing what sound is coming in your ears.

As noticing where your breath is, coming in or out, or in a pause.

This you can always know. For certain.

Your own experience of the famous NOW.

Four: Be grateful

Tell someone some things you are grateful for, especially about them.

Five:

Be grateful for stuff you thought was really really bad news.

Recently , the wonderful woman who was my girlfriend and lover, and is my girlfriend and lover, decided to call it quits. Instantly and with no discussion.

This was supposedly a disaster.

Except that it threw me back on loving and enjoying myself, and discovering even more deeply the secrets of happiness. ( The toastmasters talk, was before we got back together)

And when we got back together, I was grateful for the way it went down, and our time apart and our getting together at a newer and higher level.

Six:

Be wrong.

There’s a good saying: “ You can be right, or you can be happy.”

We, this lover and girlfriend and I, got back together by having an almost enlightenment moment, when we got together after 57 days apart to slug it out. I realized instantly and she soon after, that there was no problem. That all our stories about how the other had been wrong were not worth getting into.

That was over. We were in the same room. The love was still there. We were wrong about the other having been wrong.

We were free.

From freedom love can flow easily.

Seven: Let it go.

That was what we did, though not systematically.

There is a deep and thorough way of letting things go, called the Work of ByronKatie.

And there’s a kind of Byron Katie lite method called the Sedona process.

Pick up a pencil. Grasp it tightly. Okay, you’re holding on.

Now loosen a little and let it roll around in your fingers. No you aren’t so stuck.

Now open your hand and what happens? It drops.

You’ve let it go.

Good.

Take some story about how someone else was wrong, or there is something wrong with you and ask these three questions:

Could I let this go?

Would I let this go?

When?

There are no right answers and usually yes, yes and now will get the story dropped.

Try it.

Now.

Eight: Laugh.

On purpose.

For ten minutes.

Just start laughing and keep it up.

You may feel foolish.

Good.

Nine:

Be silly.

Move around for ten or twenty minutes in silly, wrong, new, interesting, being present ways.

Or longer.

Eyes closed.

Goof and notice and enjoy and discover.

This is a hidden two part suggestion: Be silly. Move more.

Ten:

Be curious.

What four more suggestions could you add to this list?

What four more could I?

( I’ll go mine in private. You are welcome to write yours in as comments.

Cheers,

Chris.

Back, toes, spine, pelvis, neck and nose: an easy wake up play

MOVEMENT ONE: ON THE BACK

1.   Lie on your back, with legs comfortable, and head slightly supported so your neck is a continuation of your spine

Rotate your feet, right and left.
Gently. Easily. Many times.
Feeling this in many places: your ankles, your legs, your hip joints, your pelvis, your spine
Feel this as pleasure, ease, awareness and discovery

Rest
In all rests, scan your body for ease, pleasure and differences from earlier.

2. Bring your left arm across your face so that the crook of your left arm is over your forehead>
Slowly move the left arm right and left so that your head moves left and right, so that your nose rotates left to right.
Feel this as ease and pleasure, and notice as much of yourself as you can.

Do this many times, each time with a slightly different awareness focus.

Rest.

3. Have the left arm as in 2. And move your feet and arm

a. Many times with the head and the feet going the same direction>

Rest

b. Many times with the head and feet going in opposite directions>

Rest

4. Do all the above in 3.b, with the eyes going opposite your head and the same direction as the feet.

Breath . Notice. Enjoy.
Many times.

Rest. Get up and walk around as part of your rest.
And, JUST ENJOY being in your body.
This can be the end of a mini lesson, or, add in the next

5. As much as you wish, do all the above with the right arm.

Remember: no moves that are painful.
less is more.

Good.

Love is/ love ain't 2

Love is grooving on
The other person
And wondering who
that person really is?

And not knowing,
and not knowing more,
and delighting
in the partial discoveries
and delighting in the mysteries

and delighting in the wrong guesses

and listening and watching and waiting
and wondering
and listening some more


Love ain't
Knowing who this other is,
having it all figured out,
especially in the judgmental box
And trying to squeeze the other person into that
Box

Hugs not drugs

My son has a thirty day goal:

Hugging his gal for a nice long 30 second hug every day.

This seems sweet, sane and a good use of having goals.

Maybe for thirty days, I'll each day ask a person I don't usually ask for a hug, if I can hug them.

If they say "Yes," good.
If they say, "No," good. I've done my part.
And I might make the goal to keep asking until one new person a day shares a hug with me.

This sounds crazy good.

What crazy good thing would you like to do for thirty days?

when there's nothing to say...

when there's nothing to say...

say nothing

..

or say, "I love you?"

...

or say, "What's good in your life?
.. 

or say, "I don't know what to say, but I like you."

...

say, the truth, as you feel it,

in that moment

and then listen,

just as happy to get nothing,

as you were to speak

for 

it

or speak from 

it

and it here isn't fancy,

it's just emptiness coming out to do the

next

thing

not even the next right 

thing,

just the next

felt thing

as we go

along

living and becoming more

and

more

or who 

we always were

before the

extra got caked on

by others

and

our own suckered into it

choosing

Good

say the next thing

say nothing

the world will keep spinning

your life will still be rich and full of meaning

you will still be present

or not

and one is free

and one isn't

and that's okay,

too

to have a great/ resurrected relationship

to have a great/
resurrected relationship

wake up

which means you don't "have"
anything
but the game
of finding each other
as
each of you changes
in the moment

and sinks and soars
deeper
and deeper
into the person
that they really are

the mystery
find able only in the present
usually without words,
but the words guessing toward
what they are feeling and becoming
are part of the game

how close can you say/ guess
to today's turn on, confusion
happiness
wonder

let's play listening and
learning
and what can I say
I'm afraid to hear

how deeper from heart
belly and
genitals
and
toes
and fingers
can I hear
ALL of what you are saying

and more
all of what you are being
as each moment's being waves,
like the ocean,
into the next

surfing the moments together
with touch talk joke laugh listen silence
question joke pun empty waiting
all
and
more

tools and toys for the
game

let's play

Breathing with the power belly: independence, joy, discovery, love, life, mindfulness day 4

 

July 4, 2012

Independence Day:

People who work with breathing and who work with “bodies”
have lots of rules:
breathe this way
move that way
this is the correct posture
no strain no gain

And this isn’t mindfulness
the full

Mind in what we do

let’s breathe again today,
more or less the “opposite” of yesterday
and let’s add on the pelvis and head as the

“Middle Line”
of a

five line being we are connecting with
as a daily and ongoing meditation:

Two arm lines

two leg lines

the pelvis spine head line

And breathing (is there more?
sure,
we’ve got 27 more days to fill with
more and more

de

lightful

mind

ful

ness)

So, sit comfortably

Way at the front of the chair

(as my qigong guy says: So your genitals
are hanging off into the air,

Or as I’d say: so your pelvis is on the chair
and your legs are off)

put both hands on your forehead

Elbows pointed forward

First yesterday’s breathing:

Bend down, round your back,
bring your elbows toward your belly
let your belly go back and in
as you breathe out
and squeeze the air out

Add on pelvis awareness
and rock back on your pelvis as you round down

Feel your chest sinking,

Feel your head and pelvis moving “as if”
towards each other

Feel the whole pelvis head spine line

And

And

And

Keep awareness in both arms and both legs

now, after the air is out and your are as
curled up as you are going to be,
push your belly forward

Breathe in

Rock forward on your pelvis,
Lift your head, connected to your arms
towards the sky
and feel the pelvis spine head line
and two arms and two legs
and

Breathing in

Do this happily a number of times.

Now rest

Now, put the hands again on your forehead
again elbows forward

And bend down, elbows toward belly,
pelvis spine head all a unit,
and SUCK IN AIR

This is going to be “different”

Hell yeah

Good!

Belly squeezed way in

And

Suck in

Air

To your lungs

To your lower back

Suck

Suck

As you curl up

(again two arms, two legs,
this is life

Life is big)

At the bottom pause,

And as you push your belly forward

THRUST  (gently) your pelvis so your butt
rocks back and the top near your belly moves forward

As you move forward a bit on the chair

And PUSH the AIR OUT

ARCHING breathing out lifting your spine long and

Full in this

Curve

Then, come back down and in and curling up

Folding in

SUCKING THE AIR IN

AS YOUR BELLY PUSHES SMALL

Get small and round and full of air

In your back and lungs,

And then push the air out

Thrust your belly forward

Let your hands and arms and back and pelvis

All lift your gaze towards the sky

Many times

Rest

And then play with three of each

Type of breathing

No right way:

One, in my opinion,

“relaxes”

The other, again, my opinion,

Is a power stroke,

As if with a martial arts thrust

You feel and sense and notice what they are

Like to

You

Good

Saturday night

Saturday night

is a great night
to
Do the Work

take a walk

write in your journal

do all the usual stuff
but at
slightly different
vibe
tempo
attachment
placement of attention

as usual

what would that mean?

try it
and
"find out"

a change
with
awareness
is always
a portal
into........
the real
you

the one who relishes
and lives in
and thrives
on

the unknown

the new

the now

happy Saturday evening

Chris

Love is the answer, what is the question?

IF LOVE is the ANSWER
what is the question?

And why is the question there?

Because we love to be in suspense

be cause we love to trip fall dance leap
move forward

if we always know
their is no learning
no asking
no wonder

I wonder what love is for

for to clue the planets together?
for the grow the grass?
for to sing song life into action
and keep it rolling and roiling


life from movement
the sexy stuff
that can be love
always hints at love

and then we cling
and demand
and try to control
what we can't
and love

seaps
away
crying

but not dying

love never dies

it just goes into a cave to nourish
itself

into the pearl to become an oyster
or into an oyster to become a pearl

which came first
the answer or the question:

what is love for?

for your delight
and falling out of the cage
of the self that doesn't exist
falling out, and having to fly,
the bird push out of the nest

no you
and yet you have wings
and you could fly
you have to fly

and what flies you
wings you onward?

love


....
this appears to be a mystical answer
me
my
mo
mooo

it's fun to know
not
what we are going t
o
do
or
say
or learn from the word,
pushed out of the nest,
where are they going to go

maybe they will fly

today,
it felt like they did

good

Why Paint?

To have stuff to put up on your
walls that amuses
and delights you.

I'm in a course where they want you to "process" this
and "process" that,
but I just like to move colors onto the paper,
feel how that makes me feel,
look at what I've got,
fool around a bit more,
and see what I come up with.

The process is discovery.

Big deal.

Well, actually: all discovery
is a return to who we really are:
majestic beings in the thrill of the unknown
now.

What's next?

Put up another color and see.


And when to stop?

Go slow.
Follow the breathing.
Keep looking.

Ask yourself when is it done.

When you think it's done,
it is.

Good.

Who is the real You, underneath the voices?

who is we?


You know the you in You
how sternly judges and looks down
on
You and him and her
growling out a string of whatever
with the undercurrent:
You are yuk

That one's not You

And the other side
Gestalt called it the underdog
we can call it the Victim
it looks out from it's sad little hole,
and thinks how mean, rough tough ufair
awful everyone
everything is
especially the long long long ago parent/ ex-spouse/ trauma
such pain, the scabs peeled back daily
as proof

that one's not you either

so what's left?

Go quiet
beneath the voices
any voice
listen to the birds and the wind
sense the spine and your fingers and toes and skin
look up into the blue, blue sky
don't talk even about how beautiful it all is

just experience:
that's you

Moshe and Osho and Gurdjieff and me

Who am I?

Same as you, a miracle of learning and discovery.

My latest discovery is this book:
by Osho: Titled: Courage, the Joy of Living Dangerously














While I'm at Amazon links, this Title Freedom: The Courage to Be Yourself (Osho, Insights for a New Way of Living Series)
 
reminds me of the Gurdjieff work I was involved in
for many years in Berkeley under the guidance
of a bad boy conscious fellow by the name of
David Daniels.

David was always boiling the work down to
this;
either you are yourself,
or you're trying to fit into what others
want you to be.





The first book, the top book, the one that I fell into by moving into
a new place where the old tenant let me borrow some of her books
(If you ever get a chance, this one
is amazing:
)
Anyway the Joy of Living Dangerous came to me
reading eyes heart and mind:
and it so reminded me of Moshe and his brutal and
fearless intelligence, lack of hesitation in calling the stupid
the stupid,
and their mutually blunt, and obvious, analysis of Society
as the mechanism for making drones out of one
and all.


Moshe has some marvelous quotes about the mask,
behind which we hide our lives,
and if we keep busy enough, we don't feel the pain
of not knowing who we really are or what our real heart's content is.

That's of course in
Awareness Through Movement
(what a new cover, eh?
but then again neither Moshe
nor Osho was one to hide from the
obvious joy, centrality and usefulness
of Good Sex
as a healing and nurturing aspect of life)

David used to talk about the human need for
warmth, and how sometimes you could satisfy that
within the usual codes, and sometimes you couldn't.

Maybe I "shouldn't" put that here.
Oh, well.

Life is good and long, and we all started like this story in the Osho book:
Two men are bragging about how far back they can remember.

One, quite huffed up, says: I remember playing with my kitten in my backyard
when I was just three years old.

The other nods, and then says: I remember going to a picnic with my parents.
When I went to the picnic I was in my father.
When I came home from the picnic, I was in my mother.

So be it.

The broad suggestion in Osho"s book
is to prepare for death by at all times
chose the unknown over the known.

The known is safe and what the mind wants.
The unknown is a risk and a thrill and what the heart wants.

Moshe was reputed to have a huge curiosity
and tolerance for ambiguity.

Katie, as in Byron Katie, sees herself as a woman
set free because she lives in and from,
"I don't know."

Our work, in the Feldenkrais and Anat Baniel method,
thrives from living and acting from the "I don't know,"
the discovering of just one little option for one little movement
in our client,
and linking that to a larger awareness,
and a bunch more of "I don't knows"
explored,
and connections found,
and all along brain cells and pathways are being created.

They come in for a lesson with one brain.
They go home with another.

This is the food of the new,
the food of the now,
the food of the unknown.

May we have happy eating today.

Shoulders with a Brain attached, vs Shoulders as a Car Door to Oil

A friend sent me to the blogsite of a kind of neat guy, who has
some pretty fun stuff to recommend now and then,
but the link was to one of these insulting;
Here's your body,
treat it like a machine and you can make it a better machine
kind of deals.

The big scoop: Raise up your shoulders, hold them there,
release. Do this a number of time,
daily,
and you can increase "Range of Motion."

Some other time I'll return to earlier rants
about how insulting "Range of Motion" is
as a goal for a real human being, but let's just think like
this for a minute:

We are one being.

We evolved from creatures living in nature
and needing to feed and defend and clothe and procreate
ourselves.

We have a brain,
perhaps the most amazing 2-3 pounds of matter
in the Universe,
and what is it concerned with as far as the amazing shoulder,
this joint that is barely a joint,
with the shoulder blades floating so freely on the back ribs:
bringing our hands to our mouth to feed ourselves,
throwing a javelin,
grabbing a tree branch to climb to safety,
reaching out to pick up our babies,
or hug and more our mates

or.....
"range of motion."

Can you begin to see how insulting it is
to
A. Our lives
B. our shoulders
C. our brains
D. our ability to learn and improve
to come up with some scheme to treat ourselves like a machine
that needs oily and improve
"range of motion?"

(Okay, there, I guess I didn't wait to rant,
did I?

If you enjoyed it, thanks.)

Okay,
so instead of shrugging up and releasing down,
what is the alternative for those of us with a brain
and the ability to lay down new neural pathways like crazy
(the so called brain plasticity,
that every live wire person who kept learning their whole
life knew about without knowing the name for it)

Okay, here goes:
I'll include some pictures,
and when I'm bored or something,
if that ever happens, add more, because it takes a long time to upload photos,
but here is a way of treating your shoulder
AND BRAIN
AND WHOLE LIFE TO IMMENSE IMPROVEMENT

So.
Just sit.
Feel yourself.

1. Then do the shrug thing, and lift both shoulders.
Okay that's the beginning comparison.

2. Intelligence and laying down new neurons only takes place
with awareness and noticing differences, so
Lift one shoulder
and then the other.
Do this several times and discover the differences
and what's the same.

3. Now pick one shoulder to improve.
Don't pick one that's in pain, but if it's past pain that no
longer is around, pick that one, if you want.

WHATEVER SHOULDER YOU PICK,
SO SLOWLY,
SO ABOUT 70% OF YOUR LIMIT,
SEARCH FOR AND FIND PLEASURE AND EASE THROUGHOUT
EVERY MOVEMENT.

4. Now just lift and lower the shoulder you picked,
noticing a difference between these two areas:
your shoulder blade
your ribs.
Go slow, slowly, slower.
Go gently. Notice the ribs not moving much,
and the shoulder blade rising and lowering.

Rest.

Notice differences one side to another just from that.

5. Now lift you shoulder, always this same one,
and very slowly turn your head to one side as the shoulder turns,
and then bring back to the middle as the shoulder descends.
Go back and forth,
notice differences.
Find pleasure to each side.

Time for a picture or two:

Here Vick raises his right shoulder, the one he chose to work with, and looks to the right.

Here he raises the same shoulder (through the lesson, always the same shoulder, then at the end, the perception of differences is the greatest)


6. Now rest
and notice a difference in feeling one shoulder to the other.

7. Now, and this is hard to show with a picture,
but LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD, AND KEEP YOUR GAZE STRAIGHT AHEAD,
while turning your head first one way,
and then the other, slowly and gently,
as you raise the chosen shoulder gently.
As the nose comes back to forward, the shoulder comes down slowly and easily.

When doing this pay attention to four things:
your shoulder blade
your ribs
your neck
your eyes.

Rest after several times each way,
and feel differences,
in your whole being,
and differences
from one side to another.

8, Now while lifting, again
slowly and gently, the same shoulder,
one time tilt your head toward the lifting shoulder

and one time tilt your head away from the lifting shoulder

Do this several times, looking for pleasure and ease in your whole being,
and learning.

Rest and notice differences side to side.

9. Now shrug one shoulder and then the other and notice differences.

10. Just sit and feel yourself and notice differences side to side:
can you see differences here?

Here's Vick before the lesson: for starters:

You might be able to see differences side to side,
and in a general feeling of ease and relaxation.

But this is dynamic relaxation.
The shoulder on the right is a smarter,
more evolutionarily cool shoulder.
How to tell?
Well the pictures won't show much,
but you do it and you'll feel.

One at a time lift the arms forward and up
and see/ feel/ notice/ exult in which shoulder seems
like its younger and more vital and really part of "all of you,"
and which one's just "off on its own."

What would be a cool book to add to this lesson?
The Elusive Obvious, by Moshe Feldenkrais,
with its great section on "doing it right" as a dead end,
and "Doing it better," as a lifetime of improvement,
joy and discovery:

For a whole batch of movement lessons, click on the label below, there's sixty of so, I think












Anat's book, too, with its slightly watered down
but superb descriptions of the way we can keep improving our vitality
our whole life.