A "meditation" for all of life, all the life... if you want to love your life more

Magic Carpet #2:
SENSING
3 LAYERS
OF YOU IN
YOUR BODY
in the
NOW

GAME #2.1 Noticing and getting to know our three layers.

Go to a window, or outdoors.

Stand.

If you can, take off your shoes, or your shoes and socks.

Feel your body as sensation. This is calling “sensing.” So, here’s the game that will set you free from the tyranny of so-called “thinking,” which is nothing more than the yammer in your brain.

Sense the three layers:

BOTTOM LAYER: 

Your feet and toes and legs. 

Your pelvis and hips.

Your relationship to gravity.

MIDDLE LAYER: 

Your ribs and belly.

Your back and spine.

Your neck.

Your arms and shoulders and hands and fingers.

Your relationship to breathing.

The breath coming in.

The breath going out.

The breath moving your ribs and lungs and belly.

TOP:

Your eyes that see.

Your ears the hear.

Your tongue that talks (and other grand stuff)

Your mouth and/or nose as they breath in.

Your mouth and/or nose as they breath out.

Your head that balances on top of your spine.

Your smile or not smile on your mouth/ face.

This is you.

You are present and alive in this very beautiful moment. You are alive in air and body and  breathing and seeing and hearing. (Which equals…being alive.)

You are alive in this your body in this moment in gravity ( Which equals being alive on the planet Earth)

Life is now. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NOW OR NEVER.

We are in a body now. We are alive and on the planet Earth now. TO BE PRESENT IS TO SENSE THIS, IN THE MOMENT.

Life is usually mistakenly imprisoned up above the neck, as words in the head. We miss even our real experiences in the top layer of our smile or what we are seeing and hearing in the moment.

And the choice is huge, and often we forget we have it.

We can come into the three layer now of our real life in the real moment in our real body on this real planet of gravity and air and sound and light.

This is the miracle.

We are alive.

Now.

Our sex is often little more than abysmal thrashing around, if we even have a partner.

And often we don’t. We can’t find a partner in love.

And when we are searching for one, there is the lure of sex and partnership, and even (rarely) of friendship, but we so often are trying to create one of the most amazing, and yet one of the most difficult achievements of life on Earth — a fabulous love — without being present.

Robot A wants Robot B to love it.

Robot B wants Robot A to love it.

Two robots can’t love.

They can just want.

The solution.

Get present. Get grateful. Remember what we love. Realize what our deep and most meaningful goals are.

When, to get present?

This can only have one answer, right?

Now.

Now?

Yes, now.

Right now, of course, there’s another game.

When to play it?

Now.

As you read this book, here’s 

SUPER GAME #2.2

AS YOU READ ( or listen to) THE REST OF THIS BOOK

SENSE THE BOTTOM LAYER, AT LEAST FEET AND PELVIS

SENSE THE MIDDLE LAYER, AT LEAST OF HANDS AND BREATHING IN AND BREATHING OUT

SENSE THE TOP LAYER OF SMILE OR NOT SMILE AND FEELING AIR COMING IN AND OUT OF YOUR NOSE AND/OR MOUTH.

Read just the bold print again while sensing, either all at once, or one at a time, the three layers.

Now, go back to the beginning of the chapter and read that while sensing, either all at once, or one at a time, the three layers.

And the super challenge: read (or listen to) the whole rest of the book that way. (Hint, feeling a smile on your face and putting just a tiny bit of attention on the genitals inside your pelvis will make this a lot more fun)

That sounds like “too much,” right?

And as you read these words, try to be in awareness of at least one of those layers.

And as you read these words, try to be in awareness of another layer.

And as you read these words, try to be in awareness of the third layer.

This is the miracle.

When you can talk to your mate, or to a stranger and have ANY awareness in ANY of these levels, you will be living, in that moment at a vastly more awake level.

At the level of the children who are our guide back into the kingdom of heaven.

And guess what?

When we move, it’s easier to have awareness in the body in the present.

So let’s give ourselves the present of being present as we move.

And how are we going to do that?

Big surprise: another game.

Game #2.3. MOVE SLOWLY AND EASILY WITH AWARENESS 

A. Stand up. 

Feel the floor under you and the breathing in your middle and the air coming in and out of your nose/ mouth.

B. Now move:

Raise up onto your toes, so your heels lift from the ground.

Stay there a bit

Come back down

Do this three times.

Do this almost as if “for its own sake.” Do this for the full and easy enjoyment of the movement and your awareness of yourself now alive and moving.

C. ADD ON BREATHING

1. As you come up onto your toes and raise your heels

Add on BREATHING IN

2. At the top, heels up a bit and neither raising any more, nor coming back down

Hold your breath a bit and smile

3. And as you

Come back down so your heels touch the ground

Breathe out

and notice how that feels in your middle layer

Do this three times for the pure enjoyment of up and down with breathing.

D. Now, do this three more times, as you practice awareness shifting from bottom, to middle, to top layer.

First time up and down with breath: notice the bottom layer

Second time up and down with breath: notice the middle layer

Third time up and down with breath: notice the top layer.

E. Walk around a bit.

Notice how you feel more full and alive.

F. Then do D again,

With three additions.

One: Add a smile.

Two: Now, go ahead and do three times of rotating your awareness to do one movement noticing bottom layer, one movement noticing middle layer, one layer noting top layer.

G. Do the three times of going though each layer again. And add on speaking aloud what you notice.

So each time you are going up and down and noticing a layer, say aloud,

“Now I am aware of…”

And state what you are aware of in that layer.

For example:

“Now I am aware of my heels going up and down”

“Now I am aware of my belly in my breathing.”

“Now I am aware of breathing in my nose.”

“Now I am aware of my hip joints”

“Now I am aware of my hands.”

“Not I am aware of my eyes seeing the sky outside the window”

“Now I am aware of my legs pressing down onto my feet.”

“Now I am aware of my ribs in my breathing.”

“Now I am aware of sounds of a bird outside coming in my ears.”

Needless to say, to do this as you are moving and breathing in coordination to your movement is a full menu.

And:

You, as a living person on this planet Earth, are a miraculously full menu.

This is you sensing and noticing and enjoying the fullness of your being alive. Right now. This feels good.

And..

You deserve it.

And, hey, you can do this three layer meditation anytime and all the time, if you like being rooted into the reality of being alive right now, on the planet right now, in your body right now.

This meditation requires nothing more than that you put your attention on what is always there:

Your legs and pelvis and Earth are always there.

Your hands and arms and breathing are always there.

Your breathing in at your nose or mouth and your eyes and ears are always there.

How marvelous to be awake to that now.

Right now.

Right?

Insomnia

The trick with insomnia is this:

Don't fight it

Don't think about it...

Don't worry...

Easier to say than to do,
and
this is your chance to learn to meditate
whether you want to or not

...

this is the secret:
finding something soft and eyes closed
that is more interesting than thinking

a lot more interesting

and guess what:

movement with attention
that is slow
and had variation
and is soft
and had breaks/ rests/ pauses

suits that requirement completely

...
so
here's a good one,
and it helps with necks, backs and shoulders, too.


lie on your side,
in bed
eyes closed,
knees bent comfortably and one hand on top of the other
with your arms straight
in front of you

do things and then rest

1. take your top arm forward ( the direction your nose is pointing is forward)
so that your top hand goes past your bottom hand
do this very slowly

keep this top arm straight and bring the hand and arm back, so the fingers begin to come
up on your lower wrist

go back and forth and feel the movement in your shoulder
and your back

rest

2.
Do all the above and add on breathing
either way:
breathe in as you go forward and out as you come back
or
breathe out as you go forward and breathe in as you come back

do this slowly
about ten times,
seeing if you can feel something new and different and pleasant
in your body each time you do this

rest

3. Do all the above
and start opening your hand like a flower as you roll forward
and bringing all your fingers together like an octopus all legs touching as you come back
go
slow
go
really really slow

feel
the fingers
feel
your breathing
feel your ribs rolling
feel
you shoulder blade moving
feel
the
vertebrae in your spine moving

feel
the pleasure in
feeling/ sensing yourself

at least ten times rest

after those four ,
lie on your back and rest
and imagine the whole sequence in your mind
as you feel rather than do it in your body

then do it again,
but add on:

be aware of your neck
feel how it rolls a little one way and the other

do all four steps
one by one,
nice long rests,
and have your neck as part of this

after those four,
take a big rest


if you want more complicated versions,
come take lessons
or call
and we'll arrange verbal lessons if you aren't in Austin..

but keep doing this
as you get more and more happy
and soft with
fingers
spine
neck
shoulder
ribs
breathing

take lots of rests

do it a bunch on one side
so slowly than you can imagine,
almost like it's sleep movement

take lots of rests

you might fall asleep

that's okay

you might keep enjoying this
and
radically improving your spine neck shoulder and brain and fingers

that's okay, too

smile while you do this
sense your toes
and send happiness to them,
and let them send
happiness to you

good,
cheers
chris

wake up, an ongoing meditation for 2014, all day, every day

ten fingers
ten toes
belly
eyes
ears
nose

that's it for the starter
all day,
each moment

meditation

the belly is about breathing,
and the nose, too

and what about the spine in between,
if you remember and sense that too, so much
the
better

and the ten toes,
down there at the bottom
as far from our thinking apparatus as
possible
and connected to the legs

if you can sense your entire legs
great

and if the legs and their anchor, the pelvis
remind you that you are in gravity
so
much
the
better

ten fingers at the ends of our hands
where are yours, right now?

and the eyes,
taking in light

where is the light coming from
right now
that is bouncing into your eyes

and ears:
sound,
day and night,
sound coming in

what is it

it's big this meditation
not as big as life
lots getting left out you can add
on

and
an all day
now reading this
later talking
walking
driving
reading

give it a try
if 2014 is the year for you
to
wake up

cheers
Chris

23 : Ten fingers, ten toes, belly....

Ten fingers Ten toes
Belly
Eyes
Ears
Nose


the belly and the nose:
breathing

the belly and the nose:
the spine and the head and the pelvis

eyes: light

ears: sound outside our head

fingers,
toes,
and the whole limb if we can

have fun

even now

ten fingers
ten toes
belly
eyes
ears
nose


good

Thumb and little finger, games for you, and maybe food for the brain of a child

Last week the toes, 
this week the fingers.

And what is the biggest different we can
find
in the fingers.

Between the big strong and ever useful thumb,
and the little weak, and often forgotten pinkie
is a great place to start
(though in reality the ring finger is the least recognized
in the brain, but that's okay,
let's make the differences as far away as possible:
big finger = thumb
littlest finger = pinkie.

Now, this gets tricky with a special needs child,
because we can play with these fingers and the
child might not be able to distinguish
the differences.

So what to do?
As always start with yourself:

start with whatever hand is connected to the  shoulder and elbow
that feels best.

Let your hand be wide.

Splay out your thumb and little finger as far away from each
other as they can comfortably go,
and then paying attention to them both,
begin to rotate and gyrate your hand
in many places and positions.

Roll in around, way out there,
up high, over the the side, down between your legs,
behind your back.

Bring it close and rotate the hand up and down your front side
feeling the differences in the thumb touching your body and the
little finger doing the same, and feel/ sense all the while,
the relationship in space and in sensation of the two fingers.

Take lots of rests.

Have some fun.

Take a walk to rest, or lie down.

Then do everything you did above
with realization of the elbow
and the shoulder blade
and the ribs
and the spine
and the pelvis.

Think of different ways to circle your head
with the pair of fingers, the little finger and the thumb,
all the while keep attention and awareness
on and open to your spine and ribs and pelvis.

Take lots of rests.

Would this to be good for your child.

In little doses, sure.

Keep it small.

Don't force their hand,
and I have never said that literally,
it's kind of neat:
don't force their hand.

And touch their spine or ribs now and then
as you do this.

If you don't force anything,
and don't expect yourself to have had the
years of training a practitioner has,
and just let it be joyful,
something will happen.

You will have some experience.
Your child will have some experience.

If you are non judgment,
and not forcing,
they will learn.

You might not know what.

That doesn't matter.

Go slow,
gentle
curious.
Enjoy the touch.

The Learning Switch: Anat's Second Principle/ Essential

One: there is no learning switch.

Two: Anat didn't invent learning as crucial to our method

Three: without a constant awareness that a purpose of a lesson is
this:
the student/ client learns something
the lesson isn't a lesson

That's really all that needs to be said.

With a special needs child, with any child, with your lover:
what's the difference between the "this little piggy goes to the market" toe,
and "this little piggy stays home" toe

That's huge
That's delicious

and if we can hook that up
with the opposite hand's fingers,
little toe left to little finger right,
how much more delicious

and if we can sense
and they, the special needs child, any child, the lover
wakes up to the spine in between this two,
how useful

and then for a lesson:
what's a function this can tie into

for the practitioners:
you figure it out

for the parents:
stand up,
move around,
find something you do that noticing left big toe
and right thumb makes clearer, easier, happier,
more pleasurable, more potent

don't try to evoke that in your children
by movement or manipulation,
but have it in the back of your mind
when playing with toes and fingers

go slow enough so you can see that look
in your child's eyes,
you know the look when the learning switch is on

practice with your mate
who knows the delights that might led to

Good
Move into Life
 










The Potent Self



Mindfulness and Learning

Tai Chi upgrade

If you know tai chi,
and want to radically improve the awareness/ mindfulness
benefits
try this:

start the form as you usually do
with extra attention on whether your weight is on
your left foot
or your right foot

gradually expand your awareness
so that each time you weight is on your left foot,
you add on as well
attention to your right hand,
and vice versa

do this as fully as possible:
all fingers, all toes,
the meat of the hand, the fullness of the foot
the wrist, the ankle

and in the foot
attention to where your weight is being placed

keep doing this and then add on:
selecting one digit of the "lit up" hand ( which is the
hand opposite the foot pushing down into the Earth)
select one finger of the "lit up" hand
and put attention on that finger and the equivalent toe
of the opposite/ weight bearing foot

And switch in the next posture
as your weight shifts to the opposite foot

Like this:
left foot on ground, right hand lit up: chose the thumb and the big toe
right foot bearing weight, left hand lit up: choose the little finger and the little toe

toward the middle of the foot,
those toes are "harder"
but that is the fun of it
in a way

and you'll forget to keep this
awareness game going,
maybe,
and just come on back
and "light up" your brain
as you do tai chi

the computer... as i sit here on a gray today, is waking in the game plan?

So i sit here typing

la, la

usually this is fingers doing
what fingers have been trained to do

but something holds up those fingers
let's call it a hand

let's hand it to the hand
knowing how to do handy things

like type

but what holds up the hands

well the table actually

and what holds up the things the hand
are connected to
called arms

the part called the shoulder

and what holds that up

okay
okay

the cat's out of the bag:
we have a spine

and what holds the spine up?

ah,
well

we do

and the chair under my rear
the chair that is tilted forward on its two front legs

so my legs
and its legs make a four legged creature
with my spine coming up off this
and then the shoulder area
and the arm things and
the hand things
and the fingers

so could i create variation
that would help my spine
realize its "spineness" more?

yes

i can round, and the chair has a shift for that one

i can arch, and the chair shifts the other way

this has to be too boring to read unless you are playing
in your own chair hands eyes spine

and side bending
the tilting tower way
and the curving like a C and a backwards C way

those do a lot for a spine at a computer

and we haven't even come to twists
yet

but i could twist my shoulders to the right
and head to the left
and keep my eyes on the computer

and do that yoga still
push push look at me go

or internal learning
let me love and learn about me style

you could play with that if you want

a kind of pre Christmas present to yourself today

as you talk, walk, sit, dance, shop
what are you doing?

what shifts
little
unknown to anyone but you
could you make

that would make all the difference
in your awakeness???