the awkened life

what a fancy idea,
the awakened life?

and yet:
hey
what is the alternative?
the
asleep life?
the
normal life?
the
staying out of trouble
life?

then again,
ordinary
life is
a brilliant gift,
and we double
triple
quadruple
it
by
"being there"
as
we go
as "it" goes
as time
which exists.
or doesn't exist
flows
through
the day
as the sun
rise
and sets

all is
good

when lived
in the almost awakened
state
and
or
the awakened
one

good.

how to get smarter

R/L differences after a lesson




How to get smarter?

Pay attention to reality.

Look at what is out there.

Get interested. No words, just perceptions.

And then start to perceive differences:
if I look from this way,
and that,
what is the difference?

If it is morning or
night,
what is the difference?

What is the difference in
me
if I am breathing in
or
breathing out?

How is the bird I am looking at
different than
that bird over there?




If I put my weight more
on
my right foot
than my left,
what could I learn about how I stand.

This easy life
is all about learning
and learning is all
about delight
delighting
in the little differences
details
joys
distinctions.

Yes.
Life is good;.

balancing the latest Feldyforum tempest in a teapot

What if "balance" were to be seen
as what it is,
somewhat of a non-existent
approximation of
not falling over.

Then, would not Judo,
or physics,
or the study of infants learning to sit up,
or even raise their heads,
perhaps be useful to this
action of
not falling over.

Hmm.
We seem to have lucked into a "system"
developed be a man
who excelled in Judo,
was a physicist/ engineer,
and had a profound interest in how
babies move bodies into new
phases of learning.

What a pleasant state of affairs.

And then there is "learning,"
as in gifting another person
with a one sided lesson,
so they are "out of balance"
and get to rise to higher level
of organization.

In their somewhere,
the brain,
what Moshe called the most precious
material in the universe.

Good.
Good.
Good.

What's the difference?

Between what Moshe
seemed
to have taught and the
stuff that is going on in
the Feldyforum?

this question
presumes
i read the damn forum
which i rarely
do,
and that i read it with a mind
to really deeply understanding
each
point of
view,
which
i don't

so,
what kind of answer
might i provide?

something like this:
moshe developed a system
to change, heal and transform
people by improving
their intelligence
and function

and what goes on
on Feldyforum
seems to stray from that often

is that bad?

no
life is good

life is really
really good

and usually,
i think
feldyforum
is a grand
waste of time

amusing though
and who am
i to say
how anyone
but me should spend
/
waste their time


time is all
we have
and in
the end
we die


good

taxes and death and other possibilities

garden park in spring. 5 years of work there, and maybe it'll last
and
endings have their own amazing sweetness, too




TAXES AND DEATH

both good
in their own way

even better:
death
as a reminder:
we are alive
NOW

as i write
as you read


even better:
taxes
a
reminder:
it's complicated to live in
a society
and this one
this whole civilization
is.....

fill in your story


but
let's just say this:

not geared around
happiness
or now
or nature
or love


oh, well


we get to point ourselves
wherever we want to

and sometimes that's a lot
of work
and with the ease
and learning of being
present

can be done

How "the method" Works, Part One: Teamwork, part one

WHAT IT IS ABOUT, THIS NEUROLOGICAL UPGRADING/ FELDENKRAIS/ ANAT BANIEL METHOD WORK: ONE, HIP BONE CONNECTS TO THIGH BONE, THIGH BONE CONNECTS TO SHIN BONE
OR
TEAMWORK.

How many on the team? How many are coming to the party?

A party of one: not a real party.

A soccer or baseball team of one or two, again, not so great.

And one way of seeing this work is to think of it as reminding the various parts of us that they aren’t in this moving and living thing on their own.


Let’s explore this example.

Sit at a table or desk.

Put your right hand on the table and slowly move it out and away from you, thinking just of your hand. Go out and back slowly, just paying attention to the feel and sense of this.

Now rest.

Now, do the same back and forth movement, and think of your elbow and your hand moving forward and back.

Rest.

Now, think of shoulder and elbow and hand. Go slowly and try to notice as much as you can and make the movement slightly new and interesting to you.

Rest.

Now use the other hand to discover and feel where your right shoulder blade is. See if you can feel the top, the edges, the bottom. With your left hand still behind you and on the bottom of your shoulder blade if you can do this comfortably (or have someone else touch there lightly), move your hand and arm forward and back, feeling the involvement of your shoulder blade.

Go very slowly, and try to sense the movement, no matter how small in the shoulder blade.

Rest.

Now do the same movement, but with your left hand on the ribs underneath the shoulder blade. See if you can feel some movement in them as the hand and arm and shoulder and shoulder blade come forward and back.

Rest. In all the rests, feel the difference right arm to left, and the greater awareness of that whole side of your body. Notice differences in your breathing and other areas in your right side.

Now. Leaving the hand alone, just move your right shoulder blade and ribs forward and back. And then go back to moving the hand and arm, the whole teams.

Rest.

Now, leaving all the arm stuff alone, think about moving the right side of your pelvis forward, as if you are rotating your belly bottom to the left. Perhaps moving your right knee forward will get this going. Go slowly forward with your right hip, and then back, and feel perhaps what happens in your spine and ribs.

Rest, noticing as above.

Now, move hand, elbow, shoulder, shoulder blade, ribs, spine and right side of the pelvis in one cooperative movement, forward and back. See if the movement is clearer and easier and fuller with the “whole team” taking part.



Now let’s expand the party to include two people, to do this exploration with another person, or a special needs child. Have them sitting at a table or desk, and very easily move their hand forward and back along the desk or table.

Now, very very gently have your hand underneath their shoulder blade and more following along than guiding, and the other hand on their elbow, help the shoulder blade and the hand feel as if the are part of the “same team” of moving the hand forward and back.

Rest.

Now, with one hand on their elbow, and one very very lightly on the ribs under the shoulder blade, again, more just going along for the ride, help them feel the ribs and shoulder blade and elbow as all part of one “team” moving the hand forward and back.


Don’t push.

Don’t demand.

Just explore and help them explore how their team works together at this moment in their lives. The better this feels for them, and you, the more the learning and ease-ing and increasing of awareness and ease and skill.

There is nothing to do “right.”

There are tons of little details and sensations to learn and explore, for both the people in this dance.

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