snakes, boobs, and mangos

I do a very high level "body work,"
and I put that in quotes, since it's so much about tuning the
brain, rewiring the brain.

Yeah, back neck shoulder pain
ofter dissolve, but it's the high level functioning that
makes a big difference.

and today,
after a lesson,
when my client was walking with awareness
and integrating what he learned,
he was not walking with a free neck.

Two parts of good function, 
are
1. strong use of the center, the pelvic area,
and 
2. highly mobile neck and eyes

I asked him to scan the room,
as if he were out in the jungle,
to scan for snakes,
boobs
and
mangos.

Then I realized this was a nice metaphor for
various level of life:

the danger/ watch out level

the sex/ connection, find a mate level

and the survival/ pleasure eat and thrive level

these
are
all
part of
a great relationship

the sex every day relationship

Really?

sure.

the snake part
is what we need to learn to see as conditioned
( unless they are really dangerous, then call the cops,
and move on),
our anxiety that comes up
usually when we don't get our way


the boob part:
admit
express desires

say what you want,
100% of the time

and see what happens,

listen to no
listen to yes,
listen to the connection that comes from listening

and the mango:

taste life
taste the now
taste the other person

speak with awareness of your tongue moving
get really now

and then again,
taste your food

and
taste
your
partner

yes

Feldie Fun,#5 Eyes and Tongue

EYES AND TONGUE
These are important to life on earth and to mammal life and to human life. We have a tongue that tastes like the other animals and licks the wounds sometimes and plays in kissing ( do other animals do that?) and we talk.

The human tongue talks.

This has an up side: we can communicate, we can say hello, we can write poems, we can explain our trip to Mexico, we can share our feelings and our dreams and our vision of a healed planet or a just world.

It also has a downside: we forget the dog as a shaggy smelly moving and loving and wiggling organism and boil it all down to "dog." We have someone frown at us and instead of someone frowning at us, we have a big story on how they don't like us, and how we should be treated better, and how this/life isn't fair and on and on, the words making us more and more miserable.

No, not the words; our believing in the words.

We have eyes and stand upright, when we aren't latched into a computer or a car seat, and we can see farther with these upright eyes and huge parts of our brain are connected to vision.

Good for the eyes.

Good for the tongue.

And now: let's play a game. A head and eye and tongue game.
The game will go like this. Roll your head gently to the right. And back to the center. And back to the right. And so on. Easy, with awareness and enjoyment. For example: what would it be like to follow your breathing and sense how you were sitting or standing while you did this? Can that awareness make this moving of yourself more pleasant?

Fine. And rest.

Now roll your head gently to the right and back to the center and let your eyes move to the left. This is either easy or difficult or something in between. Go so slowly that you can feel an almost pleasant, if not pleasant, difference between the nose going one way and the eyes going the other. Feel this personally: your nose moving one way and your eyes moving the other.

Rest.

Breathe.

Wonder.

Enjoy.

Now roll your eyes to the right and your tongue to the left, and back and forth, with your tongue going right as your eyes go left, and back and forth and back and forth, again, so slowly that you can't help but enjoy this a little or a lot. And rest.

And do this some more, tongue one way, eyes the other and at the same time roll your head from facing ahead to facing toward the right and back to the center.

Which is to say, as your head goes front and to the right and to the front, have a little windshield wiper thing going with the eyes one way and the tongue, your eyes and your tongue, wagging away merrily in opposite directions. Have your eyes and tongue wagging back and forth more quickly than your head is turning right and back to the center, and this can be a very slow "more quickly."

Is there a way to enjoy this?

I imagine so. I feel so, sense so when I do it. Give it a go. See what happens and what you learn.

Friday: Sept. 8: Feldie Fun #2

FELDIE FUN #2
Let’s remember our Feldie Way of going about “doing,” which is

to put our awareness on the process,

to go slow,

to use less force,

to use lots of awareness,

to breathe and smile and wonder,

to rest a lot,

to meander,

to undo the idea of finding the “right way,”

to return to how we learned as babies,

to indulge in the world of now,

to explore in the world of How?

to exult in the world of sensing,

to look for pleasure,

to goof around and experiment and look for learning.

Okay, so what shall we try today? Heck, let’s do a little more rotation around our central axis, because that is the easiest way to get to this radically wonderful and elusive obvious: our backs aren’t a thing, they are a co-operative venture of 24 vertebrae and various muscles and whatnot and a brain that is either making things easy and sweet and pleasurable, or not. I won’t give a separate number for the rests this time around.

1) Sit at the front edge of your chair. Sit more or less tall and see how your Sitz bones feel on the chair and how your feet feel on the floor and how your breathing feels in your body and how you feel in your you. Now, slowly and easily turn your head to look behind yourself to the right and to the left. See what is the same and what is different about each direction. Pick the direction that is easiest to turn. Rest.

2) Turn halfway to that direction and put your hands under the opposite armpit. Slowly and all the rest of the above list, rotate your shoulders and ribs to the right as you move your head and tongue to the left, and then rotate your shoulders and torso to the left as you rotate your head and tongue to the right. The tongue? Yeah, let it go a little farther that your head is going, as if it’s leading the motion in that direction. Go back and forth and bunch of times, noticing how many vertebrae you can enjoyably notice. Rest (Come to the center and close your eyes in rests.)

3) Turn halfway in that direction and move your eyes one way and your head the other. Back and forth, easy and fun. Now, move your eyes one way and your tongue the other. Sometimes move your head the way the tongue is moving, sometimes move it the way the eyes are moving. Slow way down. Get confused or not, and see how it is to stop, start again and really figure out what the heck you are doing. Are you having fun? If not, rest and figure out a way to go about confusion and learning and having fun. Rest.

4) Do the same thing again and make sure you really can figure out if the tongue and head are moving as one, or the head and eyes. And make sure that the tongue and the eyes keep moving in opposite directions. Rest.

5) Move to half way. Move your knees so that one knee comes forward and the other comes back. Allow, enjoy, notice as that rotates your hips right and left. Do this for awhile until it is easy. Then put your hand in your opposite armpits and have your arms and torso rotating one way and your hips the other. Remember all the Feldie ways above. Enjoy. Rest.

6) Turn to look over around yourself to each direction and see what difference this has all made.

7) Turn halfway. Slump and slouch and bring your belly in and let your head come forward and your pelvis tilt so you are more on the tailbone. Then push your belly forward and arch your back and tilt onto the front of the pelvis. Feel all the vertebrae in this movement. Rest.

8) Do the simple reference, turning left and right and enjoying the awareness and the involvement of neck and eyes and pelvis and ribs and maybe even the tongue.