Monday, March 31, 2008

river waters

Eliminate Pain (Emotional)
Improve Skills
Love Yourself more,
Wake up to Now



What could be more?
Ongoing enjoyment of all the "ups"
and "downs" of human existence.

Is this possible?

Of course.

Combining what I consider the most
powerful tool
for emotional change
improvement
and happiness,
The Work of Byron Katie

and good old
connecting to now
(see many essays at
SlowSonoma.com Now essays)
and
connecting to Nature
via gardening
and
walking
and
breathing

and
connecting
to now
via
the WakeUp Feldenkrais work,
which is a method
of knowing
how wonderful it is to
learn
and to
have a nervous system
and
to
move
and
to improve
moving and learning and being
present

we'll combine that
with Gestalt
and active listening
and communications skills
and

clean up relationships
with Mom, Dad, kids, ex-mates
and so
on

and get
back to
what you were meant to be:
alive
knowing you are alive
happy
and loving
of yourself
and others
and
the Earth

good


Sessions are $120 per hour the first day
and $90 per hour on the second consecutive day
if you wish to up the speed of learning
and $60 per hour on subsequent days of learning
and
change
and
transformation

enjoy
even
the idea
of more
ease
calm
peace
love
and
happiness
in your
life

starting,
of course,
right now

love,
chris

and call me
at 707-996-1437
if you wish
to begin
now
changing
for the even
sweeter
life



Saturday, March 22, 2008

Tai Chi for Non-Dummies




Tai Chi is good for you.
Right?

Isn't that what everyone says?
And if everyone says it,
doesn't that make it true?

Well,
no.

And Tai Chi could be good for you
and it could be a nice way of doing
something better than sitting around
on your couch
and it could be a way of obsessing
one more time
with "getting it right"
and thus hurting your spirit
while perhaps improving your body.

So: what would the intelligent way be
to go about learning and practicing and enjoying
Tai Chi?

What would be a way of Tai Chi-ing,
if that is a word,
which it now is,
tai chi-ing yourself to improvement in
body, mind, spirit and breath
and
brain?

Well, for readers of my various blogs,
it will come as no surprise that I will
recommend a Tai Chi that blends in the awareness
and playfulness and experimentation
and discovery of the Feldenkrais Method
and my own take on that
which I call, Wake Up Feldenkrais.

And how would this look?
Well, best to come to classes,
on Saturday mornings at 9:30 AM and Thursday at 5:30 PM.

But here's a hint:
Tai Chi
is about moving the weight intelligently
and gracefully from foot to foot.
All the hand stuff is nice
and a way to pay attention to two legs
and two arms at the same time.

What's in between?
The spine.

Find two or three tai chi moves,
really learn the feet and pelvis
and arms and hands.

And then:
let the pelvis move in the opposite
of "supposed to."

Let the hands move in the direction the
head isn't moving?

Let the weight sometimes shift the same
way the pelvis is moving,
sometimes the oppostie.

This is a lot harder to describe than
to do.

and so: begin
to experiment and learn:
when am i learning
and when am i just being
a mechanical robot?

This could be
an amazing learning.


Monday, March 10, 2008

Recovering From Surgery



We all of us live lives that could be a lot more aware.
Sometimes, through habit and accident, we move in clunky ways that are inefficient, and sooner or later, even painful. Human nature is not to slow down and learn how it is that we are moving and being that is creating this pain. Human nature is to

One: just want the pain to go away. Or:

Two: ignore the pain, and learn to work and live and function around it. Or:

Three: plow through the pain, get the think of how rough and tough we are and actually get to enjoy the agony, if nothing else, for the bragging rights.

And here’s the neat thing: with the work of Wake-Up Feldenkrais and the Anat Baniel Method, we can have the pain become irrelevant. It will not only disappear, but we will become organized in our brains and bodies, so we move in ways that keep this pain from coming back.

For those who take the surgery route, many are surprised at how traumatic this is to our system. And many are disappointed at how little actual improvement takes place, though sometimes we have literally “cut through” the problem. Even so, our bodies need to mend, and the easier and more graceful our movement can be, the easier and quicker will be our healing.

This work is premier in helping us to learn again as we did when we were infants, and hadn’t a lot of muscle, how to move in the easiest and most useful way. This work appears to be “body work,” but is brain work.

This is about reorganizing and upgrading our nervous system.

It’s fun.

It works.

And if we can create pathways in our brain and in our functioning of moving in easy, efficient and pleasurable ways, we can set up a life for ourselves where we won’t need another surgery to patch up the complications we create in our reaction to the last one.

So, if you want to heal without surgery, or if you’ve had surgery, and want to recover in the easiest and a smartest way, come try this work and discover how good you can be at learning. Learning to live life with more ease, more pleasure and more discovery.

You’ll like it.
Your body will like it.
Your life will like it.

Yes..


Friday, March 07, 2008

soul and soil



what is the soul's purpose
on this planet?

what is the soil's purpose?

what is the purpose of organic
life?

what is the purpose
of our life?

there is a certain glory to life,
and the soul's purpose
is to find
and dwell in that glory.

This,
I think,
is real health.

Many people think of health as the absence of sickness.

Others think of it as a certain vitality, an ability
to get out and live life fully.

Others think of it as the ability to spring back
from stress and setbacks. (This was how Moshe Feldenkrais,
a judo dude from a troubled country clawing its way onto the stage
of world history) saw health.

I see health as that sort of glow
you feel inside when you eat an apple
or a carrot or a piece of celery
and that was just what you wanted and needed to eat.

Or maybe I see health as that sort of glow
when you are working in your garden,
and that feels like life's great gift
to you
and your gift to life.

Or maybe i see health as all those moments
when,
peaceful
and alert
and happy in
the present,
we go about making our lives
and the Earth a nicer
place to live,
and certainly that can mean,
just smiling at someone
as they pass us on the street.

Lordie,
lordie,
what am I talking about in here?

Health,
I guess.
Or a good life.

Somewhere in here,
by the title,
I "should" talk about soil,
and the dirt that becomes soil
when it is left alone,
or favored with attention and care
and good organic nutrition,
a little manure, a little bit of leaves,
some straw, some old rotten food, some new
young worms, some bright wild seaweed, some
happy seeds,http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
some smiles,
just like for our friends and neighbors,
maybe some paper
and cardboard,
so many ways to feed
the soil.

is that good,
feeling the soil?

Probably.

And how do we go about feeding
the soul?

Ah, maybe that we'll talk about tomorrow
at Slow Sonoma dot com.