Wednesday, April 15, 2009

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






Thursday, March 26, 2009

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.




Saturday, March 21, 2009

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

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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







Monday, March 16, 2009

Special Needs Children and Learning Challenges

Update from a posting of October 17, 2006:

garden


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



    Friday, March 13, 2009

    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

    Tuesday, March 03, 2009

    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

    Wednesday, February 18, 2009

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

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






    Saturday, February 14, 2009

    why not be happy?

    heidi's house
    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?????





    Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    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




    Wednesday, February 04, 2009

    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

    Wednesday, January 28, 2009

    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


    Tuesday, January 27, 2009

    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.





    Wednesday, January 21, 2009

    travel, heal, learn, love, contribute

    boat

    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

    Wednesday, January 14, 2009

    why move with awaeness and learning?

    suk party
    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
    anat baniel class

    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.

    Thursday, January 08, 2009

    "tucking the pelvis under"

    rain stuff
    "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


    Friday, December 19, 2008

    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.


    Wednesday, December 17, 2008

    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


    Wednesday, December 10, 2008

    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.


    Saturday, December 06, 2008

    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