Being in Action: Chapter 14 from the Book: Happy vs Unhappy

Happiness and unhappiness.

This book is about moving toward and living in a state of “Almost Enlightenment” we could call the Tao of Now. Living there for our own bliss, yes, and also to increase our effectiveness in being useful to ourselves, others and the Earth.

Enlightenment plus acting in the world. Acting in the world to increase enlightenment. Being in our being to improve our action.

When we discover ourselves, present moment by present moment, we get our lives and our freedom back. Writing can help us focus our self-witnessing. So let’s start this game today: writing about times we are happy vs. times we are unhappy.

Especially useful is to begin to find times we are unhappy that we “blame” on other people. “If so and so would just respect/ like/ listen to/ love me more/ be nice to me more, THEN I could be happy.”

Writing down is slowing down and can really help wake us up to how we give away to others the power to make us unhappy.

Much “aha” can come from noticing when we fall into the “sleep” of “carping” about others, of “blaming” them for our unhappiness.

This can be a beginning to enlightenment: seeing how often we fall for the sad old, same old story – “If only so and so would shape up, then I could be happy.” (Which means: as long as so and so stays the same/ unshaped up, I have an excuse to be unhappy).

(Which means “so and so” is in charge of my happiness/ unhappiness, a weak place for action; a failed spot for enlightenment)

Noticing this giving away of power can be bracing or amusing or dreadful or a relief. Whatever it is, our waking is on the way.

For, whose job is our happiness?

Whose life is it, eh?

Which moment is not a grand one in which to wake up?


Write two lists. Times you are happy. And times you aren’t, with special emphasis on sentences, short sentences, like: “When so and so does such and such, I feel unhappy.”

Try to have a rough balance between happy and unhappy sentences.


Don’t use this as an excuse to feel bad. Instead “get into” the difference between when we feel “unhappy” and when we feel “happy.”

Notice the big differences, and then more and more differentiation: inner voice tone, breathing, sensation patterns, where we put attention (unhappy usually doesn’t
leave room to look out at, or listen out to, the world), how we structure our posture, and so on.

REAL INTELLIGENCE IS NOTICING DIFFERENCES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Experience deeply your emotional power, your ability to set up your own happiness and unhappiness.

Keep connecting to the results of where you put your attention: this is me happy, this is me unhappy.

Real intelligence is increased skill in noticing differences. Increase your intelligence.

Enlightenment is to be present with whatever is. Increase your enlightenment.

Good.

See Links at top of the page for buying the book.
Four prices, same book: $13, $27, $54, $108
108 meditations/ games/ learnings.
What is the value to you?
What is your value to yourself.

Good

Four Suggestions for "lots of fatigue" during a series of lessons

I'm working with a Pilates and Personal Coaching Gal,
looks great,
does fine work with her clients
and in all sorts of pain, in her ribs and neck
on one side from an accident awhile back.

She had temporarily gotten the pain to be "under control"
when she became a Pilates instructor and developed a
great deal of strength,
strength with which she seemed to be able to hold
herself rigid enough not to feel pain

Eventually that didn't work.
She came to me,
and though the lessons need to be slow
and delicate,
huge shifts are happening.

BUT she called, worried that she is sleeping hours
after each lesson and fatigued and taking naps even on
days between lessons. Was this okay.

Four part answer:

1.

This is great. All the healing that didn't get to take place
after the accident,
that got more or less "swept under the rug"
by her strength training,
is now getting to happen.

She needs lots of sleep for this healing time.

Also, all the mobility her strength was holding in bay,
and than can now inch forward out of pain
because we are re-wiring the brain to work the whole system,
all that re-wiring needs lots of integration time.
Hence more sleep.

So, goody. Sleep and rest all you can.

BUT

2. Before you take your naps, or go to sleep for the night:
do small movements, aware movements.
Movements she has learned in the lessons.
Movements she feels good about, and does slowly and gently.
The famous touch the ground, lift to the sky movement.
Get high quality movement reawakened before sleep,
so the brain can be working on that in the sleep and rest time.

3 Put to yourself the "big picture" questions
before you go to sleep:
what dreams and changes do you have for the
next thirty years.
What can your dreams tell you about pathways and adventures
you'd like to include in your life.
Get excited about sleep in this third realm: the prepare for new
territories in your life.
And dreams to help you see things you can't quite see clearly.

So sleep:
to heal and integrate the wounds and the learning

to practice and expand the new movements while we sleep

to dive deeper into and take advantage of any wisdom from the unconscious

The first and second sound almost the same,
but in the context of my one, two, three,
the first is the healing of the ribs and the neck from long ago,
that is now being attended to,
the second is deepening learnings of new movements and patterns and the ease
and pleasure they create
and the third
is just getting interested in what the sleep and dream and intuitive world has to teach us

And a fourth suggestion?

What is my work about?

Being present.
And creating learning and awareness no matter what.
And giving ourselves the joy and freedom that a life of curiosity almost always brings.

So, she has, or anyone has a "fatigue thing."
What differentiation can we notice about our fatigue?
Is it always the same?
Is it in our neck, our ears, our toes, our breathing, our eyes.
Is it the same on the left side or the right?
Is morning fatigue different than afternoon fatigue?
What kind of words do we have in our heads when fatigue starts
to come along?
If we stand up and move slowly, gently and with awareness does the
fatigue shift?
If we take a walk while in fatigue, does is shift the walk? Does our fatigue shift?

Which is all to say:
put part of the attention on the fatigue
and part on learning about and playing with the fatigue
and part of curiosity about the fatigue
and part on getting more clear about the different subparts to the fatigue

A Sufi master of name Idries Shah, when busy putting out a whole slew of books
that brought the Tales of the Dervishes, and the Sufis and Nasrudin to the west,
would feel "tired."
He would go out and rake leaves for awhile.
If the tired went away, he'd know what he'd been feeling was mental staleness.
if the tired stayed, he'd know it was time for a nap.

Now Sufis do sensing exercises, so for all we know he did something close
to two above by sensing himself in certain ways as he feel asleep in his naps.

Who knows?

But everyone's fatigue is different.
What can we discover about it and it's parts?
Can we make it "more."
Can we make it so it's just on our left side?
Mainly in our left foot?

There are many possibilities.
Many.

These three books, by the way
are MUST READING
for anyone on any spiritual path:

Tales of the Dervishes


Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin


The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin

Sex and Migraines

Once somewhere
I read in a newspaper of some research that found
masturbation
and or sex
as healing of headaches
or migraines

The obvious could be
getting the system back into pleasure

Another possibility
is the mobilizing of the spine
involved
(many people, those who study real bodies in motion,
recommend pelvic action with masturbation
rather than just "doing it" to yourself)

and the consequential freeing of the spine down
way down
below the neck
and opening the diaphragm
and the
whole coming into life
that tends to be blocked off in migraine

in a weird and wonderful way
this is akin to the "problem" in Cerebral Palsy
not being the spastic/ unusable arms and legs,
but that very immobility keeping the body/ brain
from trying out all the random possibilities that
results in rolling over, crawling, and so on

So,
move the attention to pleasure

move the spine/ self into fullness

move the pelvis into action

mobilize the big muscles in the big places
to give a break to the overworking smaller muscles
in the head

there is more
i'm sure

way more

Migraine as specific pain, an a game for moving attention in migraine land

Migraines are a great case of
yesterday's suggestion
to sharpen the
distinction
between where is the pain
and where is pain free,
since people actually have an incentive to do
ANYTHING,
even weird stuff,
to get out of their particular hell


here goes:

One:
Sense the pain,
get the exact shape,
exact size,
where it is in the head

Two:
sense the entire self
and place the precisely sensed migraine shape within the
bigger self

ie. realize that the pain is there,
but lots of place it is not

Three:
hone in on the boundary
where does the pain stop

Four,
Breathe and notice your breathing

Five
Split the headache in two
down the middle,
and on the in breathe visualize the left side
of the headache as whatever color is pleasant and soothing,
but have this color exactly in the counters of the headache,
not everywhere on the left side

on the outbreath
visualize the right side of the headache another pleasant color

Six:
go back and forth with this

Seven:
a few times,
on some research that sexual stimulation has
an ameliorating effect on severe headaches
added in a pelvic clock

I haven't before,
but from my tai chi experiment I might
ask for sensing the opposite foot of the side of headache being sensed
and visualized in color and adding either that color,
or a third and fourth to the opposing feet
as the meditation continues

there are also psychological possibilities,
like whose head DO you want to bonk,
but usually the humor and objectivity to go there
is absent

Pain is... not everywhere, so where else can you go/ Bonus: helping with migraines

Let's say your right shoulder is sore
You had an accident way back when
or you fell on it
or lifted weights with anger and inattention
or whatever
pitched a baseball too many times without full awareness

It's sore.

You lie down on the floor or table or bed
and someone asks you to pay attention
to what you notice.

Where do you go first?
To the sore shoulder?
To the calm ribs on the left side?
To the happy toes in right or left foot or both.
To the tension in your neck that you didn't even know was there,
and you're kind of excited to release.
To the feeling/ sensation of the back of your head on floor/ ground/ table/ bed?
To the good feeling in your left pinkie?

The list is long and varied, but the points are two:

One: there is a lot of us to pay attention to
This is a great and glorious "game" at almost any moment in our lives.

Two: we may have a tendency to put our attention
immediately on "what's not working"
rather than what feels good.

So, be it.
This might be nature's way of helping us remember that
we have an area needing improvement

And the other point is elusively obvious:
why neglect all the rest of us.

So, if you are in any pain:
lie down and any position that is comfortable

Scan yourself for painful areas
and non painful areas

Be sure to include a sensing of all of your skeleton:
legs toes fingers hands ribs vertebrae pelvis head arms shoulder blades

Sense all of you
and get this feeling:
how much of you is a non pain zone
and how much is.

And then try this:
begin any movement
slow and gentle in the non pain zone,
and notice it
feel awareness spreading to this movement
and allow yourself to enjoy aware and slow and gentle movement

Now rest
and feel what difference that made

Now do this same feel good movement
in a slightly different way.

As you do this,
feel what is going on in your body
learn more about how this feels good.

Rest again.

Now pick some third way of making this movement.
Go slowly and gently
with the premium on awareness
and as you are doing this movement
pay
a SMALL amount of attention to your pain zone.

See if you and your brain can realize that gentle good feeling
movement can coincide with parts of us that don't "feel so great"

Rest.
Now, with the smallest possible movements,
move some part of you in the "pain zone"
or right next to it
(shoulder is the zone,  move the ribs, or your elbow or fingers, or you neck;
or move, very very slightly,
your shoulder)

The movement has to be slow enough and gentle enough
that the pain doesn't increase.

Add in an awareness of all the part of you that aren't in pain.

Move slowly and gently,
I've said that I know,
and
hey
move slowly and gently,
and find the pleasure
the learning,
the pleasure
even in this small and slow and gentle movement
inside the pain zone.

Rest.

This is a retraining of many people's whole world view,
so go slowly and gently about learning to see pain
neither as all consumming
nor as something that needs to be instantly "gotten rid of"

It will go
as organization increases,
so keep moving slowly (and gently)
in ways that feel like they are connecting more
of
you
to more of
you

Good luck.
Lots of rests.
Tons of awareness and smiling and breathing.
And did I mention:
move slowly and gently.

ciao
for
Now

Good.
Chris

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

Variations in the touch the ground, touch the sky, minimum grand exercise for each day

Several postings back

I came up with a very simple "fitness plan,"

involving two simple exercises for five minutes each a day,

and some grand

and I think quite good diet suggestions.

That post is at : Diet and Movement for Health Gain and Weight Loss



Today, in my new book, I came up with just the beginning

of a series of variations for the touching the ground

and then reaching for the sky "game"



I'm more and more pleased with this as a minimum "wake up call"

for the nervous system, and "warm up" for almost any activity.



As you recall, you simple lean down and touch the ground, bending

your knees all you want,

and then lift your hands up toward the sky.

Preferably doing this outdoors, barefoot, for just five minutes.



Here's what I wrote:

Variations: something new each day



I’m going to get you started on variations for touching the ground and lifting your hands toward the sky, and I could go on and on. There are surely at least a hundred variations, probably more like a thousand. Maybe I’ll only give seven and you can have your own fun of discovering plenty more, so that each day you discover and add on at least one more way to do this.



Okay:



One: Eyes open and eyes closed. Feel how these are different.



Two: Bend your knees more and sometimes touch the ground with your fingers, sometimes your palms, sometimes the backs of your hands.



Three: follow your hands with your eyes and head; let your head hang down on your chest the whole time.



Four: Go up and down with your weight on the left foot. You come up with the variations.



Five: Go down with hands near the left foot, or in front of it, or to the left, and then come up and have the hands going….You pick three different upward trajectories.



Go slowly in all this. Each variation uses your spine and shoulders and ankles and ribs slightly differently. Feel in the sense yourself way how this works. Feel the pleasure in this. Feel the being present. Feel your breathing. Feel how the shape of your spine and vertebrae changing is slightly different each time.



Six: Take a small rock in one hand. As you touch the ground and lift ( in all the various ways) feel the difference in the hand, arm and side that is lifting the rock.



Seven: with one rock, shift which foot you put your weight on, and then shift what hand and what trajectory your pick for the rock. E.g. weight on left foot, rock in L hand and going up over the L side. Rock in L hand and going over R side, though weight stays in L foot. Rock in R hand, going over L foot, going over R foot. Don’t worry about these words, just discover the possibilities for which foot you put weight on, which hand you put the rock in, where you lift the rock.



That’s enough. There are plenty more, and in those seven uber categories there are several dozen variations as least.



Have fun.

Up and down in a chair, meditation as we upgrade

Going slowly to find ourselves

Please sit comfortably at the forward edge of a chair, log, bench, rock. Don’t try to sit on the ground for this, and if you can swing it, find a way to do this outside. Be barefoot or in socks to do this.

See what you feel like “sitting upright.” Don’t try for “good posture,” but do be forward so that you aren’t leaning back into the chair or whatever it is. Feel a nice, easy sitting, how your pelvis works, where you spine is, how your head is held up, how your shoulder blades rest on your back, what and where the ribs are.
Notice your breathing.

Come home to yourself and see what that is like.
Hang out here for awhile, just following your breathing.

Now, resting your left forearm on your left thigh, take your right hand from your right knee, and slowly, slowly, slowly, caress down your right leg toward your right foot. As if to touch your sock, or the inside of your foot. If you get to the floor, fine, but don’t “try” to get anywhere. Just go down the leg, and rest at the bottom.

Let your head hang freely. Notice breathing, spine, ribs, pelvis, shoulder blades, head in this position.

Then slowly, slowly rise back up and come up so that your hand is back to your right knee, all the while staying resting your weight partly with the left elbow on your left knee.

Do this “many times,” which could be five, could be thirty, and make each time pleasurable and a learning experience and an awareness meditation. Look for something slightly new to discover each time you go down and back up.

Rest.

Rest means to come upright-ish. Even to lean back in the chair if it’s what you are sitting in. Rest and feel yourself after this small amount of low effort, high awareness movement.

Now, come to the same left forearm on the left thigh arrangement, and play with these variations; as you take your right hand down the inside of your right calf, one time going down look (slowly, slowly, with awareness, ease and learning) to the left and bring your nose facing back to the middle as you come up, and the next time, easily and just a slight amount if you have any “neck issues,” turn your head to the right the next time you go down.

A little tiny bit is fine.

The brain learns from differences.

Notice the different going down head to the left, head to the right, head in the middle.

Go slowly and gently enough to be able to notice differences.

Many times again.

Each time learn and feel something new.

Look for the pleasure and the differences. You don’t need at all to be able to verbalize the differences, but see if you can feel/ sense/ notice them. Awareness is the tool, and it is it’s own reward, you will discover.

Rest. And use the rests to integrate whatever learning you have.

Now place again the left forearm on your left knee and this time take your right hand down the inside of your left calf and back up again. Go slowly. Feel how this is different in your ribs and pelvis and spine and head. Enjoy noticing. Enjoy learning. Enjoy going slowly and being in a meditative state.

Rest.

Now do this same right hand down the inside of the left leg movement with the two variations of head one time to the left, even a slight amount is fine, and one time, your head turned to the right.

Do this slowly.

Rest.

Sit “upright” and notice any differences.

Get up and walk around and notice how it is to be you.

Then sit again, and repeat the this to the other side:

Right forearm on right knee, and left hand first down the left leg, and then the right.

And at each side trying out the three possibilities of head straight down, head to the right, and head to the left.

Don’t rush this second side.

If you are in a hurry, don’t be, but leave it alone and come back to it later.

This is your life.

You are worth going slowly with. This meditation is your chance to be with you in a kind and gentle and present way.

Good.

Improving Tennis as a chance to move toward enlightenment

I am writing a second book, this one of 108 ways to live a more fit,

awake and healthy life.

(link to book one, contents and eight sample chapters, above)

In it there are tips on eating in a different pattern
and a more healthy kind of food.

There are a progression of meditations and movement games,
all with the idea of "getting fit" with as little over effort,
and as much conscious and awakened effort as possible.

The main thrust of this new book, and the one
already written is:
we have two choices: Mindful Living or Mindless.
One is amazing. The other, no matter how well programmed,
eventually grows stale and turns our life in a pseudo-life.

I highly recommend reading the eight sample lessons,
and doing one a day
and then buying to book and for 108 days
spend the ten minutes trying out something "new and now"
in the worlds of
moving,
emotional learning,
thinking,
"soul."

So, the following tennis "games"
are just incidentally to improve your tennis,
and will surely be included as a chapter later in
this new Fitness as an Enlightenment Game
book.

Here goes:

Get a couple of small rocks that weigh just a little more
than your tennis racket, and have the rocks different enough
in weight so that your brain notices which hand is holding the
heavier rock when you are holding both.

This isn't necessary to get started,
but will add a lot to the exercise (that isn't "exercise")
over the long run.

Stand as if to hit a right handed forehand.

Except make a backswing with both arms.
If you have the rocks, fine, use them the second
time through this.

Make your backswing with both arms,
and then make a forehand swing with your right arm
and a backhand swing with your left.

But more like this,
just swing the arms from your right side to your left
side
slowly
and gently
and paying attention to each arm,
it's weight and shape and place in space.

Come back, with both arms parallel,
and repeat this motion,
two more times, eyes closed to "feel" in
the "sense yourself" way
how you do this.

Now,
according to Moshe Feldenkrais:
unless we can do something at least three
ways, we are a slave,
so let's give ourselves seven variations of this
two armed swing.

1. As we swing the arms right to left,
we notice and deliberately shift our weight from right to left foot.
Coming back the weight shifts left to right foot.

2. As we swing the arms R to L,
we keep our weight on the back (R) foot the whole time.
Going and coming.

Wait, you might not know this, if you aren't in the Feldenkrais and Anat Baniel worlds.
Take a sweet rest between each variation. Stand easy, arms down. If you have the rocks, drop them. Close your eyes. Feel the "you-ness" of you in the moment.
Notice any changes in body ease or overall organization
in each rest.
The rests are for your brain and your soul and your fitness.
Take them.

3. As we swing the arms R to L,
we keep our weight on the front (L) foot the whole time.

Rest.

4. As we swing the arms R to L,
we shift our weight in opposite directions:
to wit, we start with the weight on the front foot,
and as we swing to the L, we shift our weight to the back, R, foot.
And as we "come back" we shift our weight from the back, R, foot,
to the front, L, foot.

Rest.

5. This gets a little complicated.
Good.
Read and "think" this in your mind.
"Thinking" as a practice,
rather than the mislabled babbling to either speech or "words in our head"
(monkey chatter as the meditators of a certain stripe call it),
thinking is sadly undeveloped.
So:
start with the arms spread, L arm out to the L,
R arm back as if in the backswing of a forehand shot,
as you "swing" forward with the R hand,
swing "back" with the left hand.

One arm will chose to, and have to, go over the other.
Notice this.
For four times do whatever you picked.
and then the next four shift whatever arm is on top.

Notice: how are you shifting your weight
as you do this?

Are you tensing your jaw or your breathing,
or rushing through this?

Don't.

This variation can be done
in all four of the above combinations of weight shift.

Rest.

6. As we swing the arms R to L, in the beginning style,
and shifting weight "normally" R to L,
moving the chest in the opposite way.
Figure this out.
Go slow.
This is thinking without words.
Both arms go R to L,
the chest each way goes opposite the arms.

Do the weight shift as "normal" but have awareness of the weight
in each foot,
as well that you notice when the weight is 50-50.

Rest.

7. Let the L arm do what it normally does in a forehand.
Bring your R arm back
and play with these eight variations:
4 variations of the weight shift:
(R to L, all R, all L, L to R)
as you make the right handed swing.

How does that make 8?

In each of the above,
do sometimes your chest the same way the
arm is moving,
sometimes opposite.

Rest.

7b: Do a right handed forehand as easily
and smoothly as you can,
not particularly "thinking" about
how you are doing in,
but hugely AWAKE AND AWARE to the sensations from finger tips
to toes,
spine ribs pelvis and all else,
sense yourself as you make as easy a swing
and as aware a swing
and as pleasurable a swing
as
possible.

Good.

And, start the book, a segment a day,
link up above,


so give it a try
and then buy it after you get in the grove
and do 108 days of waking.

Good, 2.

Chapter 90: Facing/ enjoying criticism, and Who is the Real "me" anyhow

Moshe Feldenkrais, in his book
Awareness through Movement,
comes across very strongly in his view of
most of humanity stuck behind their "masks,"
the social construct foisted on them by their social conditioning.

He points out that aware movement, and especially the awareness we
can foster in aware movement,
is the quickest way to begin to connect with somethng
real about ourselves, and make changes that take us behind
our habits and our conditioning.

This is chapter 90 of the book whose name is still in flux:
Write yourself a Love Letter
108 ways to new our way to Now
108
4 Brain Mindfulness
4 Brain Fitness

This chapter itself,
could be in the moving, the thinking, the emotional or the soul section,
but it has some useful hints in finding and loving ourselves, I think.

Loving the all of you.

Make a list of five or ten things that someone thinks are “wrong” with you. This can be a Difficult Person in your life right these a days, or any old dastardly person who has given you a hard time at some time in your life.

Write down the five to ten things, the so-called criticisms.

Breathe.

Smile.

Stand on one foot with one hand behind your head as in the prior game/ activity/ meditation and circle the elbow in the air in such a way that your back, ribs, pelvis, feet, and “whole self” are participating in this circling. Notice both arms and both legs and spine and breathing while you do this.

Make it slower, reverse direction, come into the present, meditate with this motion.

Sit back down. Move your head to the right as you move your eyes to the left, and then, and as always, slow, slower, slowly, move your head to the left as you move your eyes to the right.

Then rest, and notice the non-verbal you.

Now, back to the world of words and concepts. Look at the “list.” Feel how these “criticisms” are at least partially true about the social you, and feel and sense that the “real you” may be closer to the one who can pay attention and standing on one foot and circle the elbow with awareness.

Feel and realize and understand that in some respect, each and every one of these “criticisms,” is at least in part true.

About part of you.

And maybe this “part of you” is not the “real you.”

But nevertheless the character who goes around using your name and behaving in your behaviors at least sometimes seems to act in the ways of the “list.”

You know: “selfish,” “mean,” “unkind,” “withdrawing,” whatever “they”/ someone has told you over the years..

Really, get this. Part of you does this not so wonderful stuff.

Oh, well.

Don’t feel bad. Just realize: hmm, the social not me “me” is not perfect.

See how far you can go with where this could be taken:

Can you feel the difference between the verbal you and the you underneath all the words?

Can you realize that the “list” has a lot of truth about the not you “you?”

Can you look out into the social constructed world and see that almost everyone else has the same “list” of imperfections?

Can you feel love for this so-called “imperfect” being that happens to the socially constructed “you” that might not be “you” at all?

End of chapter, this is around page 200 of the book.

The book is for sale,
as a pdf
over the Internet,
you purchase and I email it to you.


In case you want the book
without looking at the table of contents that
this link will get you to,
here's the pay pal
thing:

108 Paths to Awakening

4 Brain Transformation

Extra for Tuesday, chapter 76 from the book

Chapter 75 was thinking about the difference between

what is Reality, and what I want from Reality,
and can there be healthy, non-grasping "wanting."

Here's chapter 76:

Who am I?

If we aren’t the wanting, wanting, “having to have it” thing, if we “do” but aren’t that activity that seems obsessed with filling and getting, who are we?

If we aren’t some image that wants to be filled and fortified and propped up, who are we?

Without our story, who are we?

If we go very quiet, quieter than any words to explain or say it, and get some experience of “ourselves,” what is it that we are experiencing?

Who are we?


A good fine immense question: Who am I?

And can the answer ever be in words?

Monday treat, Chapter 61: Easier neck, smarter brain for those who sit at computers

The normal Monday posting is at my Special Needs Children blog.
It's about the amazingly vast field of opportunities parents or
anyone has to create learning in themselves or another, by
NOTICING DIFFERENCES.

As I rewrite and upgrade the book I sell as a pdf,
I keep find chapters I'd love people to experience right
away, whether or not they buy the book.

Here's chapter 61:

Sit somewhere comfortably where there is a desk or a table in front of where you are sitting. Put your forearms on the table/ desk, such that one hand is on top of the other. Then lay your head on your hands.

Practice rolling your head right and left (nose going right and left, rotating in your neck and spine) in two ways:

1. Your forehead rubs along your hands, so that as your head rotates, the spot on your hand stays roughly the same. Do this a number of times.

2. Your head actually rolls right and left, as your nose rotates. So as your nose goes left, the part of your head touching your hand rolls toward the right on your hands. As your head turns, you touch a new spot on the hands at each part of the moving. Your head shift a bit to the right. Sense this moving point of contact, a, from the point of view of the backs on the hands, and b, from the point of view of your head feeling where it is touching/ pressing against the tops of your hands.

Of course, coming back, your nose goes right and head travels to the left.

Do this “many times” (eight to thirty), slowly and easily.

Rest.

Now switch which hand is on top and do this movement the second way, where your head rolls along the hands, again “many times,” and as you do it, shift easily your focus:
What’s happening in your neck?
What’s happening in your ribs?
Where is your nose pointed?
Can you feel a tendency to shift in your pelvis?
What are you eyes doing, or do they want to do?
Do you have a breathing pattern with this?

Rest.


Now do the head rolling way, again shifting top hand, where you deliberately:

1. Shift your weight side to side on your pelvis and thrust out your ribs a bit on the side to which your head is rolling (which is opposite the way your nose is pointing. Keep sensing the point of contact between your head and hands).

2. Let your eyes swing like a pendulum actually looking farther to the left and right than your nose is.

Go slowly. Gently. “Many times.”

Rest;


Now, the final variation. Roll your head this moving along your hands way. (Put the other hand on top). And move your eyes in the opposite direction that your nose is moving.

If you really want to pay attention, notice that your eyes and pointing the way that the pelvis is shifting.
Go slowly. Follow your breathing.
Enjoy learning this and picking up more clarity about yourself and being present.

If you want all 108 Wake Up/ 

Move and 

Be Happier and 

Think Better and 

Cultivate "Soul"

lessons,

feel free to

order the book,

links above will give you views of the contents

of all 108 lessons,

and the text of the first eight lessons.

here's the pay pal
thing, if you'd like to order now

108 Paths to Awakening

4 Brain Transformation

A simple "weight loss" diet

At the end of yesterday's blog, I got a bit fancy
in the eating/ food thing,
and then I had the thought
today
that it might be more useful to people
to have a sample eating path
without all
the no this
and no that.

And what does alternative eating
have to do with this work?

Well, any experiment in the non-habitual
is a pathway to waking to ourselves.

And eating
is a mess in our society,
the bombardment with chances to eat
non-food,
and this work is about escaping the planned
and programmed roles and places
in which society wish us to be confined.

And...
well, this work is about moving toward more
optimum feeling
and moving
and "health"
in both the "Bouncing Back from Trauma" sort,
and the "Getting on with Achieving your life Dreams, vowed and unawowed."

Have good fuel in us might
help with all that.

And this, of course,
is my recommendation
for a pretty good
health gain
or weight loss eating program.

Not a "diet" in the sense of torturing,
but a treating ourselves to really fine
eating.

Okay:

In the Morning:
Green Smoothies.

The simplest form
is greens, like kale, chard, dandelions, lettuce, beet tops
and
some fruit: bananas, frozen this or that,
even better: in season and local.

A dash of celtic or Himalayan salt.
A dash of cinnamon or ginger.

And that's it.

To give it more "umpf" and get in some morning fat
plus protein,
with the incentive that raw fat helps burn away
fat in our bodies,
and feed our brains,
we can add :
soaked pumpkin, flax or sunflower seeds
or soaked almonds.

Anyway: lots of liquid chlorophyll in the mornings care
of green smoothies.

if this gets boring, add on some cooked or raw eggs later
in the morning,
or even add some raw eggs to the smoothie.

Real eggs
= chickens out on pasture
and only eating grains that are non genetically modified.

Lunch:
1. Any raw meal

2. Cooked fish or meat plus salad.
Use raw stuff and a blender to make your own sauce for the fish/ meat
and salad dressing.
Use cold pressed olive or flax or coconut oil,
organic.
Add soaked seeds, garlic, or rosemary, or whatever you'd like.
Vinegar if you like that.
And so on.

3. Cooked whole grains, quinoa, millet of buckwheat.
Salad and homemade dressing.

Not grains and protein, although avocado goes with everything.

Dinner:
Big salad
with think smoothie/ like dressing.

Or, any raw meal that appeals to you.

Make lunch the big meal.

If tempted to binge or cheat once or twice a week,
do it at lunch, after the green smoothie morning,
and before the salad dinner.

If you want occasional steak and salad
or fish and salad dinner,
go for it.

Soups:
with lunch are great.

With salad for dinner are great.

Mainly vegetable.
No dairy (later add raw dairy, especially raw keffir and raw yogurt)

All along: raw butter is fine,
if you can get it.

What about desert?
Make the morning smoothie your sweet treat.
Make the night time salad dressing thick and sweet
with honey or stevia.

Eat carrots, beets, sugar peas, apples.

What about snacks:
Hard boiled eggs if you aren't doing raw.
Just about anything if you are doing raw.

When you eat raw you can graze all day
and still lose weight
or be healthy as all get out.

Or so it seems to me.

Okay,
have fun with this and hop on these three books from yesterday:
Nourishing Traditions















And for Raw eating,
this chick is 50 and hasn't been sick in 14 years,
eats raw meat, cheese and milk,
and has a lot of fun:
Raw Fifty




And these people
found at RawFamily.com
are sweet, amazing,
and the inventors of the
extremely useful and delicious
and life changing
GREEN SMOOTHIE:
Green Smoothie Revolution

Friday Extra, #300: Smart Fitness, Smart Weight Loss, using awareness and variation, and taking it fun/ easy/ awake

Barefoot rock lifting

for the brain

spine

ribs 

pelvis

arms

breathing

awareness

brain

joy of it

Let's say you or anyone wants to:

lose weight and be healthier
or
just plain be healthier, their weight is fine and they know
they aren't really feeling "fit" as a human being
or
improve an ongoing skill in tai chi, yoga, music

How could we/ they/ you/ I
go about this?

Let's take some steps from the Anat Baniel Method
and
the Feldenkrais Method
and
a whole lot of other things that say:
Do something, no matter how small,
to get the ball rolling.

And the Buddhist and other traditions
that hint either subtly or not so subtly:
either we are mindful
or
mindless.

So:

If you keep being and doing the same thing,
nothing will change, so let's start with some small changes:

One:
In moving, I'd like to suggest ten minutes worth of "moving"
with awareness that could make a huge difference in
somebody's life:

One five minute package,
and set the timer, and quit at five minutes,
you can work up to more,
or do another five,
but for three or four days,
quit at the buzz or harp or marimba of the timer:

Go outside if you can
Get barefoot if you can
and do this:
Touch the ground (bend your knees all you want)
in whatever way comes easiest to you
and then
lift one or both hands up toward the sky.
Find a pattern and repeat what you have picked
for five to twelves times:

As you go up and down notice:
the shape of your spine
your breathing
(go very slowly on this, so you can feel/ sense and
savor yourself at every point of the movement)
where is the weight on your feet

which foot has more weight
what's going on in your ribs
are you keeping your neck soft
where are your eyes focused
are your fingers and toes and jaw soft and relaxed
what is the "five line" shape of you, two legs, two arms, one spine
how is your pelvis shifting in this


After a number of times,
stand up and just notice yourself,
and then pick another way of going down,
maybe a little twist
or just touching with one hand
or touching between your legs, or out to the sides
and as you come up
find another variation on what to do with your arms
and then
feel
sense
savor
learn from and enjoy doing this a number of times

Then stand and rest

Now, if you want to get a little strength from this
get something,
a rock
a broom
a gallon jar partly filled with water,

and touch that object to the ground,
and lift it up overhead

Have a pattern that you decide on
and repeat it
slowly
and with great awareness
a number of times

You can lift the object with one hand
lower in with the other

Lift it near your body
or farther away

Make circles in your lifting

many many choices

Pick one at a time
and enjoy really feeling and sensing this in yourself

Do all this for five minutes
and then stop

BIKE RIDING WITH "LAZY" INTERVAL TRAINING
And what of the other five minutes:
get a bicycle and go ride it somewhere uncrowded

Play around with what is about 50% effort,
what is 30%, what is 80% and so on.

Then start at 20 % and increase up to 80%,
keeping your back easy
your jaw relaxed
your arms relaxed
your breathing through your nose

When you get tired,
slow to any amount of effort you pick
less than 50%,
keep breathing and recovering
and making sure the rest of you that isn't pedalling
is as relaxed as possible.

Then, when you pick, speed up to something above 50%,
you pick the amount,
you pick the duration,
but don't go until you are panting and unable to easily
breathe through your nose.

You pick when to slow back down to
less that 50% effort.

Notice where your attention is.
Can you look out at the world and sense inside yourself
as you do this.
It's only five minutes.
Enjoy.

And if you don't have a bike:
walk out of your house,
this has to be something you can do
as often and easily as possible,
walk out and
walk like this,
alternating less than 50% of what you feel like your
maximum effort could be
alternating that with some figure/ guess you pick
above 50%

This again: with looking
and breathing through your nose
and keeping all the places not involved in walking (neck, nose, jaw, fingers,
even toes except to push off and press into the earth) keeping
all of you as soft and aware and relaxed as you can
while you change up your speed and effort

Again, just for five minutes.

Later, a longer essay on eating,
and you can see the page at my website:
Food, Health, Weight Loss: Discoveries and Suggestions
from halfway decent shape 66 year old

Here's a gift from tomorrow's blog entry:
a simplified:
try this and this a this
morning, lunch and night
program of the positive sort,
link is SIMPLE DAILY EATING PROGRAM
FOR OPTIMIZING HEALTH AND/OR WEIGHT LOSS

Here's more of an overview on
a non-habitual
pretty darn healthy
eating pattern:

A green smoothie each day

Consider a diet without these:
flour products,
pasteurized dairy,
fruit out of season,
sugars like sugar and agave and the fake stuff,
soy that isn't fermented
nuts and seeds that aren't presoaked

Figure out what sort of high grade protein
might be wonderful for you

You can eat lots and lots of what's left:
high grade meat, eggs, vegies, soaked nuts, smoothies,
beans if that's your thing (not mine), butter, especially raw,
fish

Lots

a study went like this:
people of semistarvation diets
of 1000 calories:

90% fat lost .9 pounds a day
90% protein lost .6 pounds a day
90% carbs gained .24 pounds a day

raw fat,
in a raw meal,
will lose you weight
and build your body
and feed
your brain

(see Nourishing traditions, below)

Think about how a meal or two a day of
raw eating could figure in with the above ideas

Don't worry about it.
Make one shift today
and see how fun that could be.

Consider a "cheat day" per week where you go out,
buy and consume out of your house,
the various "left behind" elements.

Alight

Here's some "Eating a cooler and smarter way books:



For non raw this is amazing, and cured me from the vegan trap:
Nourishing Traditions



And for Raw eating,
this chick is 50 and hasn't been sick in 14 years,
eats raw meat, cheese and milk,
and has a lot of fun:
Raw Fifty



And these people
found at RawFamily.com
are sweet, amazing,
and the inventors of the
extremely useful and delicious
and life changing
GREEN SMOOTHIE:
Green Smoothie Revolution

Twisting in Sitting, Chapter 25

TWISTING IN SITTING

Sit comfortably in a chair. Feel how this is.

Move to the front edge of the chair and look around behind yourself to the left and to the right. Notice the difference. For this learning we’ll just go to the left. So, just look to the left five or six times and notice how easy this is, and how far your head turns. Rest.

Now, put your left hand on the chair to your side or behind you, and put the back side of your right hand on your left cheek. Now turn to the left, using the ribs and the upper spine as well as your neck.

Do this a number of times, at least twenty, “easily,” and learn about your spine.

Rest. Rest means, to deepen your connection inside. To feel at ease. To feel in the sensation way of feeling what learning and awakening is happening inside of you. To notice changes in your breathing, your sense of length, your ease in sitting, your sense of aliveness. And anything else that comes to you.

Be present.

Give yourself, over and over, in all these lessons, be they moving, thinking, feeling, or soul, the present of being present.

Even reading or hearing this, just now, if you aren’t “doing” the lesson, breathe, close your eyes, feel your spine, and be with yourself, right now.

Come to the above position (right back of hand on left cheek), and turn about half as far as you go to the left. Then take your hand from your left cheek and put it about a foot in front of your face. Now, “easily,” and “many times,” move your right hand in a circle around where your face is pointing.
Watch the hand with your eyes and let your head turn with the watching. KEEP A SMALL DISTANCE BETWEEN THE HAND AND YOUR NOSE AND KEEP THIS DISTANCE FIXED. So when your hand goes up your nose comes forward and up, when you hand comes down your nose stays the same distance away.

Even more, use your back, as if you are “looking” at your hand with your whole spine.

Go slowly with this.

Have someone read the directions to you, or do it small, small piece at a time.

When your hand goes up, arch your back a little and push out your belly, as if your whole spine is lifting your nose.

When your hand goes down, fold and round your back a little, bringing in your belly, again as if your whole spine is bringing your nose down.

When your hand circles to the left, come to sit on the left side of your pelvis, and when your hand comes to the right, shift your weight that way.

Read these directions a few times and really get it, going back and forth between the hand circle and the head/ back/ spine/ pelvis circle.

Feel the pelvis’ rotation in all of this. This is huge to notice and will change your life forever if you do something like this every ten minutes when you are at a computer.

Come back to the middle and rest.

Rest deeply as per all the above suggestions.

Come back to the first position, with the back of your right hand on your left check. Again turn halfway to the left, and this time make the head/ hand/ back/ pelvis circle in the opposite direction, but this time with the hand touching the face.

Feel the circle your elbow is making as well as the circle your nose is making as well as all the shifting in your vertebrae and your pelvis.

Slow down.

Really enjoy this. There is tons to learn and love and like and discover and enjoy.

Feast on it all.

Rest, again, fully and deeply, with pleasure, presence and learning.

Then simply turn left and right and notice whatever learning and ease has come to this simple human action.

And then get up and walk around with whatever new feelings and sensations are in you.

(the book is for sale as pdf,

see link at top of the page)

this is chapter 25


In case you want the book
without looking at the table of contents that
this link will get you to,
here's the pay pal
thing:

108 Paths to Awakening

4 Brain Transformation

Thinking and Feeling about Death

 While we are alive, live. 

Grand advice, and our work is about 

"more life" 

for ourselves and others, isn't it?

In the Feldenkrais work, the group lessons especially,
you move in a pattern,
you slow down and wake up to yourself
and discover things about yourself
and your patten
and your possibilities in new patterns,
and then
you
REST.

This is like a little death in a way:
a death to the rush ahead,
a death to the "try, try, try"
a death to the "crank it out" schools
of living
or of physical exercise.

The goal isn't to wear ourselves out
it is to wake ourselves up,
to learn
and then give the brain (you)
a chance to integrate.

We go to sleep at night.
Death to the day,
and a chance to slow down, stop thinking,
let go of bodily tension,
stop striving,
give up identification with all the
"I am this" and "I do that" verbal categories by which
we label and limit ourselves.


We die to that.
With good breathing, and maybe some Feldie-ish moves before we
go to sleep
or some nice sex
or a good book
we drift into a recharge zone.
We wake up the next day,
as if reborn.

In Friday's http://slowsonom.com blog
with it's cleverish title: Taxes are taxing, death is relaxing, love is everylasting,
I explored around this idea,
the Sufi idea,
and I think all the mystics really,
this idea of "die before you die."

Think about the "death" at night:
no thoughts,
no "I am the person who is ...." so many years old, owns this,
is related to that, works at this, is successful or unsuccessful at this
and at that.

A sort of emptiness.

Now, death as an activity in life has, to my mind,
one huge disadvantage over many other activities:
it is not reversible.
So you can't try out a left leaning death
and a right leaning death
and a breathing in death
and a breathing out death
and an indoor death
and an outdoor death
and a death by water
a death alone
a death in a crowd
and so on.

Little room to play.

Oh, well.

The advantage seems to be that it is a big sleep:
and end
to
all the identifications by which
we tie down
and limit and
define ourselves as so much less than we really are:
they are gone.

And then again
we can do all that by
meditating
by being present
by doing movement lessons
by joining our awareness to now in nature
by love of another, or our work, or some sweet activity
like dancing or swimming or making love

So, here's a funny place I've come to:
one way to "die before we die"
is to live fully in activities that bring us so much
joy
and require enough attention
and even better create opportunites to play
into new areas we didn't even know we could explore
that we
"die" to all the nonsense that makes life such a drag

Here we are back to the old Buddhist thing:
suffering.

I don't want to explore that much,
now,
except to point out the obvious,
for those who have done the Work of Byron Katie,
almost all suffering that doesn't involve physical pain,
is about our story about reality.

Her (Katie's) question number four
is an ongoing invitation to test out what life
would be like if we just let the story die.

So death of the story is a way out
of suffering.

And deeply immersing ourselves in life
is a way of dying
to the junk with which we often clog our lives.

And I don't think "being busy"
is the same as deeply immersing ourselves in life,
unless we can be busy and present
at the same time.

As I could have been while typing/ thinking this up.
And wasn't much.

However, immersed in the flow of ideas,
I certainly wasn't suffering,
it's just that another layer/ dimension/ gift
would have been had by following my breathing
and sensing my skeleton, spine, arms, fingers, feet on the
floor,
as I went along.

And then again:
returning to the now
of doing that now
and I'm free,
even freer of anything that would be/ could be called suffering.

So death:
a one way street
that comes to us all.

Nothing to get too tweaked about,
if we like falling asleep at night,
unless we have a story about:
"how it's supposed to be."

And Lord, oh Lord,
don't we have lots of stories about "how death should be."

Basically:
it's okay if you are old
and aren't in too much pain
and have lots of loved ones around,
and all the other kinds
are bad/ wrong/ unfair
and so on.

This seems a story worth examining on
any death,
even a death of a relationship,
which seems, almost always at least to one of the people,
to be
"at the wrong time."

So, life goes on for the living.
For the dead, we don't know.

We can think of the dead
and feel badly if we want,
though I'm almost certain if they had a say
they'd want us to be loving life as much as possible,
cherishing every moment.

Back to where we started:
the Feldie world
and the importance of rests
between actions,
the importance of as little as possible,
the importance of something like a death
to our old patterns,
or at least this:
a death to our being stuck in just that one pattern
that isn't working so well.

It's about expansion.

One of the wonderful things Anat brings to this work
is the idea of
emotions as actions,
and in that we can create variation:

feeling bad?

okay: how long do you want to feel bad?
how big?
where is you is the sensation?
can you make parts of that sensation more?
parts less?

can you feel that feeling and add on another?
(she doesn't say that, I do,
I've found huge breakthroughs can be made
by
allowing and sensing a "bad feeling"
say
and adding
on feeling happy as well
and adding on:
sensing our fives lines
and following our breathing

so now the "bad feeling"
(like a shoulder pain,
for which this could work, too)
is a subset of a huge and miraculous deal:
we are alive,
with awareness
and choice )

alright:
buy my book if you want daily experimentation
with ideas and paths to newness

or don't buy it
and go through this day
with a joyous
and curious
and amazed attitude
to how much joy and learning
and awareness
the fact of death
and the story of death
and the thrill of "dying before you die"
can bring to you

good luck
good awakening
happiness and usefulness to you and your day

ciao
Chris

Day early, and powerful information for Parents of Autistic children, and fragile X

At my special Needs Children Blog
I have a posting that consolidates some feedback from an Anat Baniel Practitioner
and mother of an autistic boy
and some of my beginning understandings.

Just for pictures sake,
here's a link to a book that's crucial to what I have to say.
I think you'll love it and be inspired by it, as well as realizing what we,
of the ABM and Feldenkrais world, have to offer beyond it's amazing insights
and grand hearted efforts and glorious results.

Son Rise

A day late, and a dollar short

Water to heal the soul

Change of impressions to move our lives forward

My "excuse" for "missing" yesterday's blog posting

What does that mean?
"A day late" I get,
a dollar short, I guess it's a kind of poor me thing.

I'll skip that sentiment,
the poor me stuff,
and say:
rich me

a day late because I played hooky
on my birthday

a dollar short
and a smile breath soul
long,
since I grabbed my
time
which is my life
and did something I haven't done since I
moved to Texas:

got out of the amazing and thrilling
town of Austin.

Yesterday was my birthday
and I was whisked away from exciting
yet noisy and polluted Austin to a state park
full of quiet and oaks and cedar and a tree I didn't know
and
WAter
WATER

not the ocean,
but a river,
and at places a swim in able river

my gal friend and I

ate, walked, water painted,
talked, slept, lolligaged,
paddles around in the water
and had a grand time

And what's that got to do with ABM or FM?

Well, what's it got to do with the importance of a
"day of rest" in almost every spiritual tradition?

lots.

To slow down is to find ourselves, and
going to a new place,
and giving ourselves a new pace,
and seeing things we don't ordinarily see,
and doing things we don't ordinarily do,
this is
Good.



At least according to me,
and I guess that's one function of blogs:
to spout off one's opinion.

So, this can be,
as always a model in
our going about our days.

In a daze of always doing what we always do,
how can we
RIGHT NOW,
take a small mini vacation
and give ourselves a
different set of impressions than
we usually have
plowing away reading stuff nonsense brilliance bile humor and
recepies
on the Internet?

Well,
the eyes
for start.
Let's take our nose in a sweet circle all around the computer screen
looking as far is we can in a circle of directions.

Then let's realize we have a bottom
and are sitting our our pelvis
and turn our head to the left
with the help of shifting to the left side of our pelvis
and pushing our right knee forward
and feeling the look to the left starting all the way in the bottom of
our spine

Several times

and then looking to the right
with a shifting to the right side of our pelvis
and bringing our left knee forward

And that's good,
and
now
our hands

could they say hi
and touch each other behind our backs
and maybe caress our kidneys as our bottoms/ pelvises
do a little hoola hoop circle on the chair below.

Don't get it right,
unless that comes easily
(and there is a "right").

Just go around with your pelvis and let your belly swing in the same direction,
and
have your hands touching each other behind
your back
and kind of caressing your kidneys
as you do this.

Then close your eyes and rest

Open your eyes enough to read this
and
read:
imagine going the other way in your cicle
and then "do it,"
and then imagine again, and then
"do" again, back and forth,
seeing each time if you get closer to your "doing"
in your imagining

Then rest

And imagine getting up from your chair and taking
a
small
or
a medium
or a
long walk.

And then do it,
imagining what you will see,
and then discovering the world of the future
is all fresh and unknown

and have some fun with that

and one your walk
think
(without words)
about a few areas of your life you'd like to take little
breaks in
and how this
could help your over all life of now until 30 years from now

and then the final notes:
this is what i'm seeing as offering people when they come for lessons:
an amazing next 30 years

good

here's some more birthday pictures:

The basic "Swiss Army Knife" movement: for backs, necks, ankles, hips, knees, brains

Last Friday's essay at SlowSonoma.http://chriselms.blogspot.com/com was on "Weird and Strange" and even being the "Fool" all just were about being in a new world other than our accustomed programming.

 Monday's essay in my special needs children blog was about ways of using a child's habit/ wiring of "hand to mouth" as the basis for "connecting not fixing" in action


Today's essay here is going to continue with the movement I find
most useful to recommend to people who are willing to slow down,
pay attention
and get huge benefits from being out of gravity and into awareness.

I call it the "Swiss Army" knife movement,
because it has so many uses.

I've touched on in many times.
Most recently, on Wednesday, March 16, I published in here
an essay on using the foot, foot standing on the table
while you are lying down,
to push into the table
and
rotate your hip
and
arch your back.

Here's the link:  Hip, Back and Brain blog entry

Here's a reminder picture:

You don't see his foot on the table, but imagine it there.

Notice the chain of action:
foot pushes into "ground"
things happen
in
ankle
knee
hip joint
pevlis
back
ribs
neck

So, let's say it like this: this simple movement,
especially if you experiment with how
HARD IT IS IF YOU TIGHTEN YOUR BELLY
and
how sweet and liberating it is
when you release and PUSH FORWARD YOUR BELLY
(which is to say, use your back muscles)
can help ease and clarify all the above "parts" (hip, knee, ankle, back)
and can
help you understand how your back works,
since this movement involves:
1. ARCHING
&
2. ROTATING
our back,
which is two out of the four things a back does.

So, here we go with the rest of the lesson,
the 2 more things that the back does,
which are:
3. SIDE BENDING
&
4. ROUNDING/ FOLDING

Okay: You bring one foot to standing,
and this time you interlace your fingers and put your hands
behind your head

Then as you push with your foot
and
rotate your pelvis
and
push out your belly as you arch your back,
you also
slide your head along the floor, table, ground,
toward the pushing foot.

Feel what happens in the ribs as you do this.
I have a picture here,
taken at night, so it's lousy,
but maybe you'll get the idea,
and later I'll put in a better picture:

Let's try again with a day picture,
noticing the left elbow heading toward the left foot

Two variation are
One: to bring the knee toward the center,

Two:  is more to push the knee away from the head
and keep it as much as possible pointing toward the ceiling/ sky

This second variation creates a more interesting opening
at the hip joint

Anyway:
here's 3 out of four for the back:
arch
rotate
side bend;

Notice here, the ribs on his left (the right as we are looking) are shortening together,
and his ribs on the right side (left as we look) are expanding out.

Imagine his belly pushed forward,
and how the lower back has to rotate more than the upper back.

Now,
to get the final use of the back:
bring the knee that is forward/ toward the sky/ ceiling
toward the head
and the opposite elbow toward the knee,
now using the famous "abs" which are cool,
but only about a quarter of what "core strength"
is really about

Here's the elbow to knee,
ROUNDING/ FOLDING/ FLEXING THE BACK
part of the movement:

Now you know
and I know
you can "crank" through this movement
and it will still be a hell of a lot better than
nothing
or
most yoga,
but
but
but:
if you go slowly,
and really feel the vertebrae
and your ribs
and notice how your ankle
and feet
and toes are working
and really let your back
alternate between using the muscles in the back
and the front
and the sides

discover two ways of breathing with this:
which I won't even describe

take lots of rests

do it "many times"
on one side
and notice the differences

then imagine it on the other side
and just
do it
a few times

with huge
delight
learning
and
awareness


good