Strength out of gyms and into Life

check the links before,
people knowing how fitness
can be built in real ways,

all that's missing is working with
pick
axe
shovel
hoe
scythe
sledge hammer
wrecking bar
and other fun stuff:

real work, too for real strength

Here's the links:

Man in Nature, swim run jump happy fitness

another man in woods, getting cool and strong

And one more link
the article in Men's Health
(a really weird/ interesting sociological/ psychological document)
that started it all off:

Fitness in the Wild


Ciao,
Chris

flexible hearts

non grudge holder


a few weeks back
I did one of those things I
do every once in a while

which is to say,
I send out some communication,
this time an email,
this presents me in the "I am right" mode
which as always,
has the unfortunate, "you are wrong" mode
tagging along

so,
I made a mistake.
I realized it.

I felt bad.
I apologized.

And the other side didn't
go
for anything but
unforgiveness.

So:
that's their business.

Wasn't so terrible what I
did,
just a bit insensitive,
and now they want to hang
on
hang
on.

Well
that's their life.

If I go into "I'm right, they're wrong"
they should forgive,
I'm right back where I started.

But, one thing,
that I've come to realize,
is that any areas in my life,
where I'm holding onto a grudge
or a demand
that the other person
'shape up'/ change/ see things my way
and so on
is a place of
mental and emotional inflexibility
that I have to/ get to work on.

And, as in our bodies, so
in our minds and hearts,
when we go past (when I go past)
the inflexible to the flexible....
it/ I feel so much better.


Good.




Making the inflexible flexible
Making the flexible varied
Making the varied delightful

Special Needs Children and Learning Challenges

Update from a posting of October 17, 2006:

Sometimes children need help in their learning.

They may have been born with a neurological issue,
such as cerebral palsy or a stroke, or brachial plexus.
There can be complications in utero or at birth.
Hospital procedures can go awry.
All sorts of traumas can occur.

For these neurological issues,
as well as children with "ordinary" learning challenges
(as in reading and math and social adjustment and co-ordination)
the FELDENKRAIS METHOD,
(invented by Israeli physicist, judo master and child development expert, Moshe Feldenkrais, 1904-1984)
and even more especially the method as refined
in the Anat Baniel Method for Children,
(see Overview, Anat Baniel Method for Children)
is the supreme way on this Earth of helping these children.

This is because in these methods,
we recreate the natural pathways of learning
and wake up the brain to its possibilities of
change and learning and improvement
in a way that no amount of physical therapy or surgery ever can do.

Think of a child learning to crawl.
She or he sees no one crawling,
gets no crawling lessons,
isn't pressured to learn,
doesn't even think about learning to crawl.
He or she just moves this way and that
and learns hundreds of ways to understand
and move
and sense
and coordinate themselves.

A huge amount of learning
involves pushing down
and raising this and that
part of themselves against
the ongoing pull of
GRAVITY.

And then one day,
wanting to get across the room
or yard
easier,
the child "miraculously" pulls together the twenty things
they need
and crawl.

This is organic learning.

This is learning based on function.

This is learning where the brain, the body,
discovery, intention, and action all
merge to create an
upgraded human being.

This is why this method is so amazingly effective.


For a summary
and continued explanation
see Amazing One on One Lessons

You might be excited to
experience the amazing videos
of ANAT BANIEL
working with three children.
Watching the progress of these
three children over a period of time
you can see the almost miraculous changes.
Try this:

Grace, Isabel and Carter Transform and Heal.

---

This work, for a child with learning difficulties,
is the fresh drink they have been desperate for all their lives.
They are not pushed, or prodded, or force to "do it right."
They are not "fixed," or moved in ungentle ways.

They are given small pieces of real and immediately felt learning
(inner and organic "learning,"
not the imposed kind that gives "learning" a bad sound to many children, and adults)
and they begin to renew and change almost before our eyes.

For lessons,
rates,
a free initial phone consultation,
contact
Chris Elms
at 707-721-6835

---

gravity, learning, dance, life, fun, yes

in the feldie
work
the better we understand
our relationship
to gravity

the better we can function

this cat
has mastered
a four legged way
of relating to gravity:

fun

and here's someone who learned
it as art
not necessity,

note the differences

The Feldenkrais Method®

right now,
for those of us who are practitioners
and can stand it,
on
feldyforum,
there is a ridiculous
tempest in a teacup
battle raging:

Is there a Feldenkrais Method?
Is there anything that Feldenkrais practitioners
find in common?
Are we burdened with the name Feldenkrais,
or given an anchor that keeps us on track?

And so on.

first off,
third question:
I love describing the method
as coming from someone
way good at judo
a real discover and experiment scientist
a physicist interesting in the engineering miracle of the human body
a student of learning fascinated with how babies organically learn so much
so fast

The three PhD bigshots
who never ask questions
and always answer have weighed in:
nah, no method,
no common set of practices.

La, la.

So be it.
Their opinion and two bucks will get them
a bus ride across town.
My opinion and two bucks with get
me
a bus ride across town.

And, here's a kicker:
if you really want to remember what the
Feldenkrais Method is,
delve into the
Anat Baniel Method.

A book is coming out soon;
MOVE INTO LIFE,
by Anat Baniel,
making very clear
the
nine essentials of
vitality and learning:
1. movement with attention
2. slow ( the brain can't learn new if it's going at normal speed)
3. turn on the learning switch
4. subtlety
5. flexible relationship to goals
6. variation
7. imagination and dreams
8. enthusiasm
9. awareness

we could also posit these as fundamentals of the Feldenkrais Method:

we are two legged beings
we live in gravity
we were engineered for maximum mobility
we have a rib cage that gets in the way of things
we have small feet with many toes
we have a pelvis around which big muscles have most power
we have a spine composed of many vertebrae,
this spine holds up our head and shoulders and arms
good use of the spine seems pretty useful

learning based on function
has a lot more bang per buck
that learning based on structure
or this is right
or how to use the muscles

learning based on action
in the real world
leads to a better life in the real world

almost anything can be learned
better
if broken down into smaller chunks
and
even better if this chunks shake
up established patterns
and orientations

reversible motion is good motion
motion that comes from or increases our lengthen is a good thing

doing things one or two ways is stucks-ville

real learning is fun

sensing ourselves
--brings us into reality
--creates conditions for amazing change
--gives us back the real world underneath all the words


more could be said,
but that word statement kind
of gives me the stop now
idea

ciao
chris

Dancers, Musicians, Actors: a fine opportunity in Tucson this week

DANCERS: dance better.
MUSICIANS: play better.
ACTORS: use your voice and body more easily.

Hello:
My name is Chris Elms and I am in Tuscon this week,
until the 25th of February.
This I realize is a short time
and
I am curious what if anything I can contribute to any of the
faculty or students in the dance, music and theater departments in that time

My work
which I call Neurological Upgrading,
is from the Feldenkrais® Method (http://feldenkrais.com),
of which I am a practitioner after a 4 year training,
and the
Anat Baniel Method,
in which I have taken the Mastery Training to work with
High Performers. (http://anatbanielmethod.com).

This work, by using our brain,
literally creatine new neurological pathways,
can help improvement at all levels:
• injuries become irrelevant to heightened and easeful movement
• chronic stuck points become the leaping off point for expansion of
movement, awareness and thinking capabilities
• high performers, Olympic athletes, world class musicians,
gain that extra ten percent that put them to the next
level, whatever
that might be for them.

I can give demonstrations of the brain/ body/ learning
connection to groups.

The most rapid upgrading,
however is in individual lessons,
which are slow, gentle,
hands on,
with the client fully clothed, lying or
sitting on a low and firm table,
and discovering inside connections
and ease
that she/ he might not have known
since they were a child.

Or maybe never.

Please fill free to call or email.
Soon.

With enough interested clients
I would be happy to schedule regular
two or three week visits to Tucson,
as the lessons are most powerful in 6 or more
per two week concentrations,
since the brain,
though it loves to learn,
also love to slip back to the way
it has always done things.

A concentrated group of lessons
allows the change to integrate and become the
new you.

Thanks for reading and considering this.

P.S. The starting picture, on my business card,
is something I learned to do recently, at 63 year old.
Not by huffing and puffing and "trying harder"
but by applying the go slow, learn faster principles
of this work.

why not be happy?

a house in Tucson
my temporary abode


why not be happy?

other people
are like this:

they like us
they don't like us
they are too busy to care one way or another

and:

why not be happy?

we are tired
we are perky
we are up
we are down

and:

why not be happy?

without the story

breathing

looking out into the sweet world:
what else is there

but this current
of delight

in being alive?????

learning and the sweetness of life

learning is one thing
that can always make a life
head toward an even better life

and if it is real learning
it is always sweet

real learning comes from
our own discovery
our own exploration
our own putting together of
new
new ingredients
new ideas
new ways of going about the
ingredients
and the ideas

that's the sweetness of
reall learning

not crammed down your throat

"learn what I (the Big One, the Teacher, the Boss)
want you to learn"

kind of learning

we've all had
enough
enough
enough

of that

new Wednesday life is good

in a new place, Berkeley
full of bookstores
and coffee shops
and people on bicycles
and
new sights
and sounds


new impressions
feed the mind

new ways of moving
feed the brain

new ways of moving
when we actually know
what we are doing

as in
have our awareness right
here
with the two arms
and two legs
and one spine
and
large
large
field
of possibilities

.....

you know that

if we just take anything we
do a lot
and discover two or three optional
ways
of doing
and experiencing
and sequencing
and tempo making
and being
it differently

then
we begin to unshackle ourselves
from the bondage

Something like a resumé

Neurological Upgrading Lessons ,

by Chris Elms, M.A.



Improve:

• EASE in your own body



• BALANCE and coordination



•OVERCOMING LIMITATIONS, Special Needs children, Stroke, Accident recovery



• IMPROVING SKILLS AND ABILITIES such as yoga, sports, problem solving, delight in learning, enjoyment of life, patience, self love



• INCREASE PLEASURE in being Who you Are



• ENHANCE YOUR LIFE and your pleasure of being in the Present





Training and background:



M.A. Psychology, Lone Mountain College

B.A., Humanities, Stanford



Trainings in Gestalt therapy, Ericksonian hypnosis, Permaculture Design, The Work of Byron Katie, The Feldenkrais Method®, and the Anat Baniel Method.



Trainings in Gestalt therapy, Ericksonian hypnosis, family therapy, Permaculture Design, The Work of Byron Katie, Ananda Yoga, The Feldenkrais Method®, and the Anat Baniel Method.

15 years as Designer/ Builder, and Designer/ Landscaper.
Designed and spearheaded the creation of the 5 acre: Sonoma Garden Park, in Sonoma, California.

12 year student of Tai Chi. Developer of Essential/ 4 Brain Tai Chi.

8 year student of yoga (started in my fifties). Certified Yoga Instructor. Developer of Essential/ 4 Brain Yoga.


Designed and spearheaded the creation of the 5 acre: Sonoma Garden Park, in Sonoma, California.



Feldenkrais Method: Completed four year training in 2005, and am now a certified practitioner.



Anat Baniel: Completed Mastery Training for working with

Special Needs Children in 2006

Completed Mastery Training for working with Vitality and Anti-Aging, 2008

Completed Mastery Training, High Performers, 2008

Completed 10 of 10 segments of the Basic Training, 2009.




30 minute lessons.

Single lesson: $60-120.


12 lessons in one month
money back guarantee
$400-800.


Contact:

Email Me

or call

707-721-6835

Availability in Tucson, Arizona: Feb 10-25

Availability in Atlanta, Georgia: February 26- March 26

Availability in Arcata, California (north in Humbolt county): April 15- May 14

Availability in Orcas Island, Washington: May 15- June 15



Hours: 11 AM, 11:45 AM, 12:30 PM

3 PM, 3:45 PM, 4:30 PM, 5;15 PM



Highly beneficial to have lessons on two, three, four or five consecutive days.



Website possibilities:

Almost Enlightenment An 108 page, 108 activity E-book to improve moving, emotional well being, thinking and “soul”

SlowSonoma.com poems and thoughts on living an awakened, happy and useful life

Wake Up Feldenkrais

(Especially: Neurological Upgrading Lessons )

Travel Heal Do this Work Blog





707-721-6835
19262 Carriger Road, Sonoma, Ca. 95476
after Feb. 9:
2749 E. 4th ST., Tucson, AZ 85716
after FEb. 26:
3088 Marne Dr., Atlanta, GA 30305

Why I became a Feldie

when i was in my mid thirties
i was happily engaged in a career that allowed
me to use my body and my brain
and my creativity
and be outside
and add super bonus,
if I was really ON that day,
meditate in the present
as I worked.

I did landscape,
design
and installation.

It was fun,
it was challenging,
I loved being outside
and working real work
and see real results and beauty.

And sometimes I'd do too much.
And since I was in the Bay Area,
I already knew about these classes where
you rolled around on the floor,
well, not always rolling,
but always moving in a bunch of easy
and engaging and interesting ways.

And after these classes,
I'd always feel a huge amount better.

They were called Feldenkrais classes,
for the man, Moshe Feldenkrais,
who invented them.

And sometimes, in my thirties and
forties,
I'd go to these classes, not from being wrecked
and in pain and wanting to get out,
but from the pure joy and
ease
and happiness at being a live
human
in an aware body.

I felt good after these classes.

I remember being in awe of the teacher
after one class and thinking:
one group of people gets worm out and tight
as they work
and another group
gets paid to help these people out of that.

But, it wasn't for me.
Or so it seemed.

I always told other people: go see a Feldenkrais person,
go to a Feldenkrais class
when they'd complain about back pain
or shoulder pain.
I knew how easy it could be dissolved.

Then in my fifties,
I took up yoga,
almost on a whim
(someone asked if I wanted to go to a class.
I said yes.).
And wasn't very good at it.
But feel in love
with a yoga teacher and
had a sweet eight years
from that.

One day, the yoga teacher and
I heard about an invitation to do
a weekend of this "Feldenkrais" stuff.

What the heck.
I'd been telling so many other people
to "try" it, maybe time for me
to give it another fling.

So we went.
Three movement adventures,
called Awareness Through Movement
lessons,
each day.
Three lessons a day instead of
one a week.
For two days.

I felt like I was ten years old again.
I couldn't believe the waking up
and shift
and ease
and plain old fashioned giddy happiness
I felt in my body.

Wow.

And the leader
"just happened"
for have a training program
coming up in a couple of months.
(a four year training,
seeming always like "too much"
until I'd had this
ten year old feeling).

I couldn't wait to join.
Now I could become one of the ones
who helped
the others out of the tension and pain
and tightness of working too hard,
too fast, too.....

I didn't know what.

I just knew,
I wanted to feel this good all the time.

And
I wanted to be part of the solution.

travel, heal, learn, love, contribute

i've got a new
mini blog
that tells of my adventure;

on the road
month at a time in
various sweet spots of the world

living with family of:
special needs child
stroke or accident or surgery recovered
someone wishing to way upgrade an already high performance


or

living with other Feldenkrais
or
Anat Baniel people

mutually upgrading
getting more clients
have sweet learning fun
upgrading love
and being
here
now

and gardens,
two

here's the other blog:

Travel Learn Love Heal

contact me
if this could be great for you

why move with awaeness and learning?

Why move with awareness and learning?

I started to write: why the Feldenkrais work
why the Anat Baniel.

Decided instead to write: why move with awareness
and learning?

Because to be present
is to be happy
or to be very close to the possibility of ongoing happiness.

Because to move with attention requires us to be preesent.

Because to move with learning requires us to do
something besides what we always do.

Because life is a lot of fun when we learn.

Because there is a lot of suffering in the world,
some from greed and structural injustices,
and lots in the have too much world
comes from being stuck in a life
that seems like life,
but is really a lot closer to being a robot.

Say it again:
to move with attention and awareness and learning:

wakes us up to being alive
gives us a grand chance at ongoing happiness
will create conditions under which we can be
useful

useful
to ourselves
the Earth
and each other

and here's an anat baniel class
where one can
systematically do
this kind of delightful
learning


good




P.S.
An online ebook
is now finished.
First 12 pages =
12 activities/ meditations/ learning games
is free if you email
and ask.

Check out
Almost Enlightenment

if you wish.

"tucking the pelvis under"

"tucking the tailbone under"

in Tai Chi

in Yoga

in whatever

lots of people
recommend this

I don't

unless you are coiling into
to expand/ punch/ push
outward afterward

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.

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

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.

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

Beginnings of an Answer for Lynette

Lynette,
wonderful Lynette
asked about the Alexander Yanai Lesson #512.

If you know what these are:
great.

If not: they are 550
lessons Moshe Feldenkrais recorded
as he gave them on Alexander Yanai Street
in Tel Aviv, Israel,
over a period of many years.

So: here's a start to a rather convoluted
movement:

You are lying, on belly,
left leg long,
right knee up toward belly on the side,
right hand down alongside body
and under right thigh, with palm down,
left hand standing near the head, elbow up.

And you bring,
somehow:
the right hand up to the head
region.

Here's my beginning take on
this:

In standing:
one would be standing on the left leg,
the right knee would be bent,
sort of in "tree pose" of yoga,
right foot on right thigh,
right hand down near crotch,
palm facing backwards.

As if taking a sword from a scabbard
on your left hip,
you pull the sword out with your right hand
come across yourself in the front,
and end up pointing
dramatically
the sword to the sky
directly above your right shoulder.

A LESSON THAT IS SOMEHOW RELATED IN MY MIND:
the upright
end play with the lesson is this:
on knees, upright,
right arm going in circles either backward,
or forward at your side.

The lie down version,
my cutting to what I think is the chase:

One right side,
knees bent,
left hand standing in front of chest,
right arm hand down in crotch area.

Play first just with extending
thighs,
so knees are straight down from spine,
as in the standing on knees position above.

Then use this extented knees/ thighs
arched back position,
to bring the right arm
under the body and in circles
this way
and that.

Obviously it's a big lesson,
and a hugely valuable one,
and begins to show how much mileage
we can get from working on the "downside"
parts of us,
those the are often "trapped"
in babies,
and in our habits
are "trapped"
out of our awareness.

Okay,
that'
s
just the start.

Mysticism, the work of Idries Shah, letter to feldie forum

When I first read Marty' s Mystical remark,
I thought of a couple of things,
and then thought the world could live without those
thoughts.

That is probably still an accurate guess,
but since Jeff's delightful threading in these waters,
here goes:

1. The Sufis have a strong and clear teaching about
avoiding and/or leaving behind mystical experiences,
for many of the reasons that Jeff mentions,
and most importantly, that they keep a person back from
real development.

Quotes below.

2. Not too long ago I was receiving a lesson from Marcie
L., and she asked about the lessons my trainer gave. (Don't guess,
doesn't matter.)
I said, they were amazing, though more mystical than anything.
I didn't mean this as criticism,
but I certainly didn't think of this as praise, since
a this sort of "oh wow" experience, at this point in my learning/ growth,
seems to bring the Functional
Integration lessons to the level of stimulation
rather than information.

3. Idries Shah, burst into the world in the 60's
gifting the world with all sorts of previously hidden
or poorly translated Sufi material.

three main strands:
a. Amazing stories, that operate at many levels. The best, Tales of the Dervishes, is must reading every five or ten years.


b. Explanation and overview and opening view into
the real world of Sufism,
the best book being, The Sufis.


c. The teahouse, underground route to Sufism in the humor
stories (supposedly) of Mullah (not a bad word back then) Nasrudin .
The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin.


4. Some quotes from the Sufis:

(page 375, my old edition, in section, Miracles and Magic):
"This limiting effect of the sense of wonderment
is the reason why Sufi teachers have spoken against
indulgence in the ecstatic experience,
which is only a stage in the development of the Sufi. Lost in awe and wonderment, the Sufi Seeker is halted when he should be going forward
to the realization beyond.
The seeking of temporary (or even permanent) mystical
experience is therefore spoken of as a 'veil.'"

page 380 : "The Sufi's task is to organize himself
as to make possible for the meaningful operation of an organ or perception
and action
which will have a continuing effect."

page 381: "Both high magic and ordinary mysticism,
viewed from this light,
become for the Sufi merely the struggling on of a partial
methodology which will simply reproduce its own pattern.
Unless it evolved far enough to enable it to reproduce more than it inherited,
unless, in fact,
there is a genetic amplification of scope and sufficient power
of reproduction of that scope,
the whole thing is a creaking anachronism."

5. The first story in the Sufis,
called the Islanders,
read side by side
with
Moshe's beginnings in Awareness Through Movement
about the fate of humanity resting
in whether we will all be fitted nicely to be like
everyone else,
or find the way to become that which we truly could,
makes amazing tribute
to the breadth of Moshe's vision,
and the deal I sometime harp:
the link of Moshe and Gurdjieff
and the slight problem of sleeping me, you, us, humanity.


Ciao,
Chris Elms

Sitting to Standing

One of the great gifts
of Moshe Feldenkrais

was his engineer/ physicist

eye

looking at our bodies
moving in the real world

with real possibilities
and real
constants

the constants of gravity
and a big head at the top
of a long spine
and the big muscles
around the pelvis

being a good three
to start with


anyway:

if you are sitting:
where is your weight
in this world of gravity?

On your butt.


If you are standing:
where is your weight?

On your feet.


So, sitting to standing
is shifting the weight
from butt to feet,
a movement of the center of mass
of our bodies
forward.

So,
try two ways.

Sit.
At front edge of chair.
Put one hand in your hair.
Bend forward,
Pull your head easily, sweetly,
interestingly,
forward,
and down,
as if looking under the chair,

until your weight is clearly over your feet.


Then come to standing.


Another.
Put one hand behind your neck,
with fingers as far down
your back as possible,
pointing down.

Warming up,
noticing arching and rounding in your back:
Elbow goes down
and stomach comes in,
elbow goes up,
and stomach comes out.

Do the warm up
slow
easy,
feel the weight in your pelvis,
the shape in your spine/ back,
the in or out
of your belly.

Find a place where elbow
is kind of pointed up and forward.
belly out,
the arching shape in your spine,

and from that

bring weight forward to
your feet,
and see if there's a way
you can arch
your back, lift your butt
at just the right time,

just a tinsy little bit,
and raise your pelvis
ever so slightly,
like half an inch,
off the chair.

Go slowly,
back and forth from there.

Take lots of rests
and feel
think
sense
imagine this through.



Play with two ways:

head down,
and pelvis just barely off chair.

head upish and forward,
and pelvis just barely off the chair.


This is a week's long
project.

Don't rush.

Your patience and curiosity
will be rewarded.



Sit,

on back, arch, flex, sidebend....learn, learn, learn

Okay: here's some beginnings to an amazing learning.
These positions
are just places to come to and away from
slowly
with awareness
and
learning.

The more of yourself you can feel,
all your bones,
your shape,
what's happening to belly,
to spine,
to breathing,
to legs and arms.

Soft face,
easy neck,
awareness as you go,
not just at end points.

So, above: start with right foot "standing",
left leg under,
left hand behind your head.



Push very easily on your right foot,
and push out your belly,
and arch your back
and twist the right side of your pelvis to the left.

Go back and forth,
many times, between this and the "starting position."

Feel what happens in your spine,
your ribs,
your foot pushing into "ground,"
your belly coming out as your back arches,
your spine twisting also.

Feel, feel, sense, sense, learn, learn.

Rest after 10-20 times
of slowly, learning-ly, pleasurably doing this.

3.

Now, with both hands behind head,
both elbows staying down,
add a sidebending of your head,
nose staying pointing to sky or ceiling,
as you do the movement.

Feel all the above,
plus spine making three
different
and interesting shapes: arching,
twisting,
side bending.

Again, 10-20 times, each time learning
a little something more.

Rest.

4.

Now, if you can,
take the fingers of the right hand
into the toes of the left foot.

Take your time.

Go toward the foot
as you arch and twist, if your hand needs
some help.

Maybe "cheat" by lifting yourself a little
as per next step.

If you "can't" don't worry.
Imagine it.

5.

Now, combine doing movement #2, the
arching and twisting

with coming back to #1,

and then folding in like this in
#5.

Slow, slow,
resist the crank out, sittup urge,
do little,
do 80% of what you think you can.

80% of your "limit"
and 200% of your usual awareness.

This is great learning.
Great spine awakening.
Great awareness awakening.

Do 10-20.

Rest.

Imagine how this would be
on the other side,
everything reversed.

Rest.

#6

Take your right arm out
at about 45 degrees from your body.
Imagine the elbow as a fulcrum for
rolling up.
Push the elbow into the ground a number of times.


#7

This is difficult.
With left elbow behind head, roll over to the right,
weight over right elbow,
head kept low,
left elbow pointing low,
roll over right elbow until you are in this reclining position.

We need another picture here,
of after rolling up,
bringing the right elbow more
under your shoulder to hold you up.

This is to show the people already Feldenkrais
and Anat Baniel practitioners
some possibilities.

For the lay people,
once you are in this semi reclining position,
leaning back on the right elbow,
left hand behind the head,

you arch and
fold your back,

so,
as below pictured

#8

your back arches,
your elbow comes back,
your spine twists,
your belly comes out,
your spine lengthens.
And your foot presses down.

Go slowly from this "limit,"
again going to 80%
with 200% awareness,

to the folding in the next
picture.


#9

Feel the twist,
and what happens in ribs,
and all of your spine,
and your whole shape.

Go slowly, slowly
learn, learn,

aware, aware,

enjoy,
enjoy.

loving of moving, tuck in/round, and spring out/ arch

folding in,
as in bringing belly in
tilting pelvis toward chin
round the back,
bring arms in



then, rotate to the front,
arch back,
tilt pelvis a little so butt toward head
(just a little)
head upright
spine long
push through feet and hands
and Earth




round,
breathe in,
get ready



breathe out
push out belly
push into ground and hands

brush knee this is called,
one hand pushes forward
one by the other knee


the whole of Tai Chi
except reverse Monkey
can be done as a series
of breathe in, contract, coil, round

and press up and out
expand / push/ pounce

Round and ready, arch and expand: gardening and life

gardening
is a sweet chance
to see
if all the rolling
around on the floor,
and working in chairs
and this and that

can translate
to the "real" world
of action

like martial arts,
a chance to move our big muscles

unlike martial arts,
a way to feed ourselves
and connect to the Earth

and a series of photos
hinting at the rounding and breathing in
and loading to use power

then arching, pushing, extending
breathing out
using power

a hint of the usefulness
of doing both sides
in gardening

one sided lessons amazing on the floor,
but "out in the world"
we tend to get stuck in a pattern

I like 3 right handed digs
right foot in, hold shovel nearer
the end with right hand
and then three left foot left hand
forward











the change helps
me not "go to sleep"
as I enjoy
moving soil rather than
fighting to get it done

Five lines of our us, six directions of our spine

we sit in a chair

five lines:
two legs, can we sense them,
five toes each side, usually
the calf, the knee, the thigh
the hip joint

sense both legs,
heels, ankles
both legs all of them


two arms
more digits,
fingers this time
all of them
and the hands
and the wists
you know the parts,
all the way to the shoulder socket

where do these guys fit:
sense the spine pelvis ribs shoulder blade

might as well throw
in awareness of the head
and the end of the spine

that's us

that's a lot


and sitting:

on what?

where are we balanced
out with gravity?

and the directions of the spine:

the earliest
the fetus:

1. bending our spine in a C pointing forward
mid back back
pelvis rotating forward at bottom part
sternum down
head forward

sort of the slump thing
and it could be a lengthened
C forward

can we do it
both ways

2. the easiest for the spine
wrists behind head
if we can
or back of hand to opposite cheek
and rotate,
feel the spine shifting
one vertebrae atop another,
rotate right

3. rotate left


what's left?

rest



4. C pointing backwards
belly forward,
arching back
looking up in a lengthening way
not shortening neck
butt rotating up toward back of the head
breathing soft
rotating to front side of pelvis
feel us
getting taller

rest

5. wrist again behind head
or hands interlaced
now making side facing
C's

tilting left first
not a pizza tower
but left elbow down
left hip up
shortening ribs over there
and back to center
C pointing left (open part of C)

6. open part of C to the right
right elbow down
right hip up,
shortening R side ribs
lengthening L side,
feel weight coming all
to L side of pelvis

and sitting
5 lines
6 spine moves

this can be a little
or
a lot
of awakening of awareness

good

Awakened Movement

To move
is

fun


To move
is

to be alive


To move
is

to move toward
or away
from various things in life


To move
is

a chance
to dance


To dance
is

a chance
to express
our life,
the joy
and
the other stuff


And what would awakened movement
be like?

A chance
to move dance
create
shapes
and motion
in ourself
in a slow
and aware way

or even,
after we've gotten the sense
and feel of it,
a fast
and aware way

to move so we know
how we are moving

and can slop
reverse
change directions
breathe
smile
sing
dance

while we move



A nice state,
a nice practice


I think
feel
sense
believe

Then again
beliefs
are just
beliefs


And experience
is all
we can
really know.

skeleton, halloween, five lines, death, happiness and so on

Once we were born
Someday we die

long time
in skeleton-land

skeleton:

spine holds up head
arms off shoulder things

legs off pelvis thing,
at hip joints

if sitting:
we are sitting on the pelvis thing

sense that
now

enjoy,
move and
learn
and love
from there:

grab someone cute
and have some fun:

now we are alive

someday
we'll be dead

good

(for waking up)

ideas for discovering movement

take a position
any position

feel, sense, know yourself

see what you might do
in movement for
three different reasons:


1. to notice parts, places and connections
that feel grumpy or unknown
or wanting more love
and see
what might move there

2. think you are a baby/ kid
and wanted to move
to a toy
or food,
how would be transition
into action

3. think you are in combat:
a.
and wanted to get out of trouble

b.
and wanted to attack

what would you do

okay,
that's
that?

maximum instability, and what it means to be human

someone on Feldyforum asked
about how to create maximum instability

here's my thinking
if we aim at maximum instability that's useful
and even poised, for maximum mobility

take the human body
raise the center of gravity as high as possible
and lessen the base:

thinking like an engineer here we go:
on toes
on toes with arms raised
on toes of one foot with arms raised

and with props:
on toes of one foot with arms raised, holding rocks, a long pole, another person
all the above and on a ball, a slippery surface (ice, watery), a tight rope

going about to the human max:
on toes of one foot on a ball on ice holding another person above one

going beyond the bounds of the human, I think:
on toes of one foot on a ball on a tight rope holding another person above


and Moshe has lots to say about this:
from Body and Mature Behavior, page 96-97 newest edition:

"In the unstable balance the center of gravity is as high as possible,
and the potential energy is maximum.
No supply of energy from any other source
is necessary to change the position.
The displacement feeds itself on the stored potential energy.

When its center of gravity is maintained at the highest position,
the human body is fit to move
in any direction
with practically no expenditure of energy,
and even this minimum is drawn from its
potential energy.
The potential energy is restored
afterward
so that all movement starts from this configuration
of maximum potential energy.

The standing body is thus ever ready for
translation (non rotation motion, in footnote)
movement at short notice. In that respect
it is more perfect than the body of
any other animal,
which may be faster in one particular direction,
but has not the all-round freedom of movement of
humans."

weird ideas about "stability"

I've just had, recently this amazing
realization about all this "stability"
stuff

First, an experiment:
extend your arm, you pick,
forward,
lengthen arm out at hand,
and at same time
bring shoulder blade backwards

viola:
you have a "stabilized" shoulder

now, try this:
bring c7 backward
and thrust your jaw forward:
viola:
you have a "stabilized" neck

which is to say,
immobilized

sooner or later I'll post on
the non-tragic (via work of Byron Katie)
separation from a wonderful sweet partner,
who is a yogi
and among my faults. her faults, her mother, my mother,
her this, my that, the usual imperfection not wanting
to see imperfection
she
doesn't like to hear these
ideas about "core stability"
which is the same nonsense:

immobilize a person,
turn them into a post,
and call that "stability"

minor problem:
humans are designed for maximum instability
= mobility


much more on this as we go.

what's great about yoga, what's limiting

great:
people move
people realize they have a body
people pay attention to their five lines
people have some challenges in balance and new "shapes"
people might be pointed toward spiritual evolution
people get out of houses, cars, (though usually drive to class, ah, well)
people see they aren't the only one who could learn and improve
people move from posture to posture

this is the most important part
of a yoga class:
people move from posture to posture

and maybe:
people are pointed to something higher in life

limiting:
alignment, balance, and shape fitting are implicitly posited
as the core to real change in life

and

life is not posture, alignment, shape

life is movement

how can we combine the two?

stay tuned for cml #2

Chris Movement Lesson #1. arching and chairs and fun

In the fabulous
amazing and
life transforming
Anat Baniel Method,
our training group this last days did a number of lessons
kneeling over a table

I was curious what using a chair would be like
and discovered,
quickly, that the head is not supported
the way it is when we kneel at the low
tables especially deigned for the Feldenkrais Method



However,
this segment, as they are called
(nine days, from on Saturday to the following Sunday,
of various intense learning and upgrading of our nervous system,
awareness, skill level, and more),
we also did a ton of work on the head pelvis connection
especially
vis a vis the "power center"
of the strong muscles connected to the pelvis
and
especially-2, the muscles of the lower back,
lifting both arms, head and thighs
in achieving upright "posture"

There are
and we did
lots of ways to stand on hands and knees,
or knees and forearms,
or sit in a chair
and use the lower back muscles to arch one's back
and lift either head or arms or legs or all three:

below shows
some,
but not all
of the possibilities of a chair
to encourage
educate
strengthen
discover this
"power center"
in our lower back

please note:
the slower
and less Donkey-like
we do these
movements

and the more we use the minimum
of effort
and maximum
of attention

the more we will
learn
benefit
transform

p.s.
rolling the head easily
side to side
as one does these
is a nice way to make
sure extra effort is
not being used in
our necks and jaws

noticing and softening
the breathing while to these,
is another

Gurdjieff, Moshe, living and sensing and waking

Picture this: Into a group of goody, goody, vegetarian,
sugar avoiding, meditating till their knees dropped, make up avoiding,
purple and die dye wearing, oh so pure souls
storms a
chain smoking,
swearing,
over weight,
wildly naughtily and profoundly profanely humorous,
sugar and meat eating,
Television watching,
attention as It promoting
Jew.

Moshe at Amherst?
I don't know. Wasn't there.

But this certainly was my Gurdjieff teacher breezing into Berkeley to save a bunch
of us from SAT (Seeker After Truth), a goody, goody group,
as deep as possible into the "spiritual materialism" that Chewing Gum
Trungpa talked/wrote about .

Said SAT, was Claudio Naranjo's baby, and since Claudio
was greedy/ open to everything,
we were greedy/ open to everything, Tibetan Buddhism, Gestalt
therapy, Scientology (just the methods, a few, not the cult,
sorry if anyone is offened), the Gurdjieff legacy (Claudio's gal friend
had been a small child around the infamous G.), the Sufi stories of
Idries Shah (highly recommended, today, tomorrow and forever, including
the humor branch in the stories of Nasrudin),
and lots and lots from Claudio's year in the desert with Oscar Ochazo,
later of Arica fame.
With The Arica-ish influence came the endless route of torturing ourselves
and others with the Eneegram, and that's another, very long story.

But, we were very good
and Kathy and Claudio were crashing and SAT was crashing,
and in breezed above mentioned overweight swearing f...ing
chain smoking New York Jew.

He had a group in New York, which included writers for New Yorker,
and founder of National Lampoon. They, east coast branch, had bought
a farm in upstate New York and spend the weekends doing the
Gurdjieff version of meditation:

sense both arms, fingers to shoulders
sense both legs, toes to hips,
be awake and aware to sounds coming in the ears,
be awake and aware to reflected light coming
in the eyes

go about your entire day doing this,
and doing real things:
making gardens,
build barns,
dig pounds,
move rocks,
create pathways.

Stay up late working,
sanding floors, painting walls with one inch
wide paint brushes,
sometimes stay up all night,
sometimes two nights in a row.

This group didn't do the G movements,
and another group, the group of this fellow's
teacher, did, sort of.

But even with this other group
(which ended up also, like the first guy's East coast
group) migrating to warmer, tree and space and fun Berkeley,
was more interested in working as meditation,
and they had a theater group, Theater of the Blue Rose.
A play a month, ten months of the year, Rose Tatoo, Cabaret, Glass Menagerie,
and so on, not light stuff, two weeks rehearsal, two weekends on, bam it's
off and on to the next play.

So, anyway:
This was a great experience,
that also feel apart with the leaders not quite
able to be as awake at all times
as they wanted us to be,
but at least:
real work,
meditation as something that isn't on a pillow
but in real life.

I often think, that if Moshe had copied this
aspect of G,
and had his "followers" out in the country,
doing their five lines
and awareness through movement while doing
"real things"
the whole indoors, martial arts, aspect of the work
might have been expanded to rather amazing
levels.(For example, Anat, who adores Moshe,
might not have a dungeon of darkness as her learning space)

But, what an experience:
the West coast branch,
since we already more or less lived in country
beauty by living in Berkeley,
didn't buy a farm to practice work/ meditation:
we rented a big factory space and
restored an old car,
eating cookies and drinking coffee after work
'till twelve or so each night,
a nice, amazing shift for many of us,
and certainly a switch from habitual patterns.

And the sacred dance:
second teacher, teacher of first,
and everything first was
except overweight,

(and the war they got into
another, long story)

did teach, via one of his ex girlfriends the
"movements" for awhile, on the stage of above mentioned
Theater of the Blue Rose
(when people in that group were between jobs
and needed to save money, they'd sleep on the stage at
night..... and the jobs: what can you do and cultivate
consciousness: lots of cab drivers, carpenters, garden makers...
last two I found big fun, frustration, huge learning in,
and need, occasionally, long before I came to FM as career,
the need for ATM for aching back).

Oh,yeah: Movements on the stage.

Don't remember much:
complicated,
beautiful music.

Here's the way my mind works:
the main thing I remember is Virginia,
the teacher of the movements, complaining
to David, the G teacher, about people coming
late, and David saying,
"It doesn't take a genius to come on time."

Maybe this is enough,
on what was a long, weird and wonderful
fifteen year,
adventure.

Ciao,
Chris

What would Wake Up Yoga be Like?

Ah, la, life is so good.

Wake up Yoga would be about using the
silly/ wonderful/ interesting/ curious/ artificial/ brilliant/ idiotic
poses
postures
shapes

of yoga,

to wake up to:

1. Now

2. The miracle of being in a human body

3. The constancies of life on Earth:

Breathing

Gravity

4. The constancies and challenges of the Human Form:

Two legs

High center of gravity

Designed as a column with rotation the simplest action

Place of seeing/ hearing/ smelling high up

Place of balance and strength far down from this place

Power in the middle, small delicate muscles at the edges

5. The miracle of the Human Possibility:

Awareness ( the now again, and more: awareness of our habit, and
awareness of other variations)

Slowing Down to Learn

Learning as its own joy

Joy when we quiet the rest of the nonsense down

Learning quicker and more pleasant when we don't "try hard"

6. Making the impossible possible
The possible easy
The easy elegant


Something like that:

And more about going inside and finding who and how
you are
and
DISCOVERING POSSIBILITIES

rather than the tired old monkey see
highly skilled monkey do
and monkey try to imitate highly skilled monkey

Like this:

Lie on your back.
Feel the sweetness of the floor.
Raise one leg to standing, i.e. foot flat on floor, knee toward sky.
Press into the foot standing and rotate that hip
Keep the other hip on the floor
Push out your belly.
Come back to flat.
Go back and forth, and LEARN

Try breathing in on the hip rotation/ belly out
Try breathing out on the hip rotation/ belly out
Notice the two changes in your spine:rotation and arching
Notice even more: which vertebrae are doing what
Notice: is your neck free
Notice : is your jaw and breathing free
Notice: are your finger soft and free
Notice: which way would your spine like to side bend along the floor
Notice: the way your foot presses into the floor
Notice: the force of your foot against gravity and that moving through your whole spine
Notice: how much fun, delight and learning it is, to Notice

Mini Cure for Depression

the depression
thing:

ah,
we can weave ourselves
down and under,
de
press
ourselves

the Work of Byron Katie
I'm doing at SlowSonoma.com
and 108 Days: Undoing with Love

is one way out
of this trap

another
is to just get to now

and especially
the now
of being in our bodies
and learning
to be happier
smarter
and more at ease
in there:

like this
mini lesson:


notice pelvis

turn head left
right

pick one
way

turn half way that way,

move eyes left and right

close eyes
imagine fixed ahead eyes
and turn head right and left from half way L or R,
whatever you picked.

come to middle
breathe

go halfway again
close eye,
rock
R and L on pelvis

stop, open eyes and turn head fully
that way:

notice improvement in ease and range

and if you had depression where would it go
while putting attention on
some many real
and tangible parts of our functioning
and learning
Selves?