Joy to the
World

The Light has come.
The Night has come.
The smile has come.
The breath had come.

The Ford has come.
The Chevy has come.
The Prius has come.
The Lord has come.

What is the Lord?
Something important
inside us.
Or.....you give it your meaning.

And as for food,
I'm interested in the Body Ecology Diet
not to lose weight
don't need to do that,
but the clear up some fiesty
yeast inside
who feast
on the summer fruits.

Alas,
alas:
lots of greens.
Lots of vegies.
Lots of seeds.
Some good meat,
that I like to eat raw: buffalo in the freezer two weeks first,
wild caught Alaska salmon.
Some raw cheese.
Raw keffir made from raw milk.

Lots of water.
Some wheat grass plus power weeds juice.

Some super smooties.

On the BED
she allows three "grains"
millet, quinoa, amaranth,
and does the usual food combining
only grains by selves or with vegies

and meat and protein by itself
or with vegies

who knows
if this would be a way
you'd want to go

she,
of course
has a web site,
and has discovered that all autistic kids
have candida

hopefully i'm not autistic
but rocking back and forth,
with awareness
can be fun
but only as long
as the awareness keeps it fresh
then
time for something else

joy to the world
and this moment

looked at desk trainer lately?
see link to side
it's pretty darn amazing

but then again
you have to get out of the
good old rut
for ten minutes or eight or something

the terror of human life:
billions of people
running around
more or less asleep
to anything but the program
that they are stuck in
and that they
never really got to chose

and this isn't about
"limiting beliefs"
this is about
ongoing sleep

how to wake up

sing
experience now
joy to the world
the .... has come


keep close to the breath
keep sensing
and keep listening for the ....

ciao,
chris

Love, Mindfulness, Humor, Nature

Now, Nature, Love, Laughter

Especially
laughing at ourselves
and how we can make ourselves
so tense and worried
and constricted

Love:
of ourselves
and others
and nature

now
is when our lives take place

nature
is the sky and air we breathe
the earth we stand on
and grow our food in
and the trees
and the flowers
and the oceans
and waters
we
are bones
and two legged
and big brained
and stand and sit
and move in
gravity

gravity
and breathing
now
almost every now

the earth is always here
the sun is somewhere

a laugh
is just around the corner
waiting to bubble up

love is
in our hearts
flooding out
or
wanting to

it's a
good
world

The Ongoing Sleep,
and Weight Loss

In our wonderful world,
there seem to me
to be
three choices
for us
human beings

so called
human
beings

one:
low functioning robot.
always do the same thing,
complain a lot,
in a lot of conflict
unhappy
making others unhappy
not able to do, very often,
what they (we) set out to do

two:
high functioning robot:
almost always do the same
thing
think the same thing
say the same thing
but these things
tend to be more upbeat
more positive
more "happy"
useful to others
and ourselves.
able to do what we set out
to do
some of the time
(or even all the time,
if a really high functioning robot)

and
awake
to this moment
yes, this one right now
and the next
and the next.

no real room for "negativity"
because in the present,
we just see what is,
and if we can make something better,
we ask or offer
a possibility

this is scarier land
this awake
place
because we might not say
the "right" thing,
and might not do
what "others" want us to do

we won't need the drugs
that bond people,
the coffee and
the sugar
and the wine
and the stress adrenaline
and the fear of the Bad Guy adrenaline
and the fear of Something Bad happening adrenaline
and the fear of the Enemy adrenaline

we aren't in a hurry
we are sometimes "late"
we smile when people insult us
we laugh at our own misconceptions

anyway
it's a fun place
and with a story can be lonely
and without a story
is sweet
sweet
peace beyond understanding

and what's that go to do with weight loss:

if we are, say,
eating only fruit in the morning:
and we have a "starving" story,
or an "I have to have what I always eat" story,
we aren't free
to just enjoy the energy
and the freshness
of just fruit in the morning

if we are, say,
not eating after five in the afternoon,
and are "starving,"
we can be present to the "hunger"
and drink some tea,
or take a walk,
or write something that is important to us,
or we can panic
and want to do
have to do,
be compulsively compelled to do
what we always do:
stuff our face
when feeling a little "off"

which might be
when we feel "alive"
and "full of energy"
these feelings might be so strange to us
that they feel "off"

oh, well:
it's a good life
and at
any moment
we can wake up
to
now

any
moment

even,
of course,
now

ciao
(rhymes)

hand juicer plus celery and windfall apples, and hard to see wheat grass

How to Be Healthy, 22

To be healthy
is
to be present.

To your breathing.

To your body.

To your thinking.

To your feeling.

Present
and
in love.

Also:
some practical tips:
find a friend with an organic
orchard.
Pick up the windfall
fruit
wind
fall
free
a little dirt on it
can't sell
it,
take it home
eat it
juice it
talk to it
smell it


and
find a friend
or plant
an organic garden
grow or pick
lots of weeds
mallow
pig weed
dandelion
lamb's quarter

pick them
eat them
juice them
talk to them
listen to them

be healthy

get a hand juicer
put the weeds
and the windfall fruit
and if you've grown some
wheatgrass
through

grind
smile
breathe
sense your feet
sing a song
laugh
juice

drink

and then
walk
or if you can't walk,
take a ride
in your wheelchair
outside
fresh air

breathe
smile
sense
feel
move
be aware
be aware of awareness

this is
a healthy
one
healthy
way
to start
your day

say
hey

love
and
laughter

chris

Shitty Food.

At a lovely meeting
yesterday
of some lovely teachers,
they were busy eating salted nuts,
and crackery kinds of things,
and then those frozen ice cream sandwich
things,
you used to get at roller skating rinks.

I guess it's possible to
be healthy
and eat shitty food,
but only if you exercise about
six hours a day.

These lovely
teachers
didn't look like the six hour a day
exercise types,
and so
seemed to be missing
a chance
to have been eating food
that was making them healthy,
instead of food that was most likely
making them unhealthy.

Oh, well.
Who am I?
the food judge?

oh well,
again,
still:
tis summer
apples are just coming in,
tomatoes,
figs,
nectarines,
grow some sugar in
your yard

one woman i once read about
cured herself of breast cancer
by only eating food she grew herself
or bought in bulk.

her rule:
no packages
or boxes
or jars.

one way
to get back to healthy
food,
eh?

Transformative Yoga.
Classes Soon starting.

One way I've started to call it is
DNA yoga.

Discovery, Nature, Aware/ Ananda Yoga

Discovery,
for taking advantagege of my training
(4 years of the "basic" training,
and then another 700 hours beyond that)
as a Feldenkrais Practitioner.

The Feldenkrais Method®,
is a method of learning to
think,
move,
feel better,
via
being more aware,
and taking the emphasis
off of "getting it done,"
or "getting it Right,"
or "making progress,"
and bringing us back to a state
of learning
and discovery,
the state we were in when we were young
and a genius, say from birth to a couple of
years old.

See my
What is the Feldenkrais Method? One word, two word,,, one sentence, two sentence, and so on, brilliant little collection
of ways to look at the method.

Anyway,
working with me
in either DNA yoga,
or "regular" (which means wildly creative and transformative)
Feldenkrais "work,"
or in the Work of Byron Katie,
and Discovery will be there
deep and firm in our joint unfolding.

Okay,
that's discovery.

And N.
NATURE.
I'll be having classes outdoors as much a possible.
All this hiding inside four walls,
cutting ourselves off from blue skies
and real earth,
and grass and
soil
and wind
and the elements:
nonsense.
Insanity.
How can we be sane
in a world
when we are always cut off from the world.

that's part of the NATURE part.
Another part:
Discovering what our human nature is.
To feel.
and to sense.
and what is the difference?
To make sense of something,
what does that mean?
To live in gravity.
What does that mean?
To have breath of which we can be conscious
or unconscious,
what does that mean?


A
is Ananda Yoga
or Awareness Yoga.
Or both.
Ananda yoga
is how I was trained
and certified at the 200 hour level
required by yoga alliance.
(compared to 800 hours for the "basic Feldenkrais" training).

Ananda yoga is about
being relaxed
and sending spiritual energy up your spine.
If that doesn't make sense,
it's about being relaxed,
even in the midst of efforts
and continually bringing awareness inside of yourself.

One way it does this is with affirmations.
For example,
the affirmation in what's called "Child's Pose"
(Balasana)
is
"I relax from outer involvement
into my inner haven of peace."

This not only accentuates and deepens
the posture,
but gives a big hint at what Ananda yoga is about.

Another posture,
warrior 2, Vira II,
Virabhadrasana II,
is a strong and joyous pose.
Its affirmation is,
either
(my version)
"I open gladly to the strength and glory
of being Alive."
or
the official version,
"I joyfully manifest
the power of God."

So
A
could be about Affirmations.

So, come to a class,
you'll love the affirmations.

And between poses
you rest,
and say the affirmations again.
This isn't about getting sweaty
and using yoga like going to the gym.

This is using yoga
for spiritual and emotional strengthening.

Though,
with the Feldenkrais
and awareness emphasis,
A
for
Awareness,
you will get more flexible,
much more readily
and EASILY,
than in normal,
do a bunch of postures
and always fuss with DOING IT RIGHT,
and never slow down
and really learn yoga.

This is yoga to learn,
to transform,
to enjoy,
to connect.

Deeply.
To yourself,
to others,
to the Earth,
to Spirit,
to your Higher Self.

Classes and workshops:

Transformation
Change
Improvement
Fun
Waking up to Now

Back Pain
Weekend Workshop:
May 10-11
Sat and Sunday 1-5 PM
Cost:
$200 on bike or walk
$220 carpooling
$240 in car alone
10 % off if paid by May 3


enlightenment Tai Chi:
Learn a form forward and backwards
and to both sides.
the idea is learning and body brain awareness,
not "doing the form."
The idea is waking up to now.
Four Saturdays,
if at least eight people interested:
May 3, May 10, May 31, June 7
9-10 AM

COST: $50 on bike or walking
$65 if carpooling,
$80 if in car alone.



Transformative Movement Lessons:
Based on my training in the
Anat Baniel Method.
Many uses:
pain transformation
yoga and sports improvment
vitality and anti-aging
fun
curiousity
waking up to now
Four Saturdays,
if at least eight people interested:
May 3, May 10, May 31, June 7
10:30-11:30 AM

Cost as above.


Waking up to Now
meditate
walk
move
doing nothing
talk
all from and in
the present

Thursdays
7 PM






To register for classes and workshops
, call 707-996-1437
or Email Chris Elms, M.A.

Eating and Fasting

We have this word
break
fast,
as in breakfast.

And if we eat at night
the fast isn't much to
break.

And if we don't eat at
night,
like the Dhali Llama,
say,
then the morning
finds us empty
and ready
and able
to truly
enjoy
a break
fast.

Ramadan
coming
up.
A different
kind of fast:
No eating in the day.
No water in either.
Breakfast comes after sundown.
Starts Sept 12.
Maybe this is of interest
as an experiment.

Not eating after 2 or 3 in the afternoon
is an interesting
experiment
for me
just now.

Ciao,
Chris