Wednesday, December 22, 2010

INDEX OF ALL the POSTINGS IN THIS BLOG: 130 so far




You might enjoy re-reading some of these or perusing them for the first time.
Good.

MAY 2011

130. May 30, Monday: Mindful Eating, originally in Slow Sonoma,   SlowSonoma.com, over a thousand postings there, if you are energetic and don't mind practicing reading in wakefulness

129. May 18, Friday:  Tai Chi made "harder" and even more amazing with a foot/ toe connection to the opposite finger/ hand
128. May 16: Going beneath "feeling bad," essential to weight loss, and happiness


DECEMBER 2010


127. December 22: Tai Chi and Potency:
Wake up,
push out your belly,
thrust into life
smile, get off the computer: live, it's the solstice


NOVEMBER 2010
126. Weeds and Seeds: Wild Amaranth in issue of Edible Austin


APRIL 2010


125 April 17: movement with attention in a chair


124. April 13: "Getting older" = turning 65, blah, blah
MARCH 2010

123. March 8, Orcas Island and a year later:
every day is a good day to restart everything
How to Be Healthy, a less sure but hopefully useful compendium

FEBRUARY 2009

122. February 5, 2009: back to some thoughts on tai chi and yoga

NOVEMBER 2008

121. Nov. 28, Friday, 2008: Day after Thanksgiving, Time to change Habits???

120. Nov 22, Sat. Essentials of Real Health, My take

119. Nov. 14, Friday, Maybe raw, maybe more greens, maybe healthier

118. Nov. 7: Friday, finally got to it: Learning, failing: Real Health

OCTOBER 2008

117. Oct. 24: things ending is a chance to live more fully

116. Oct 3, 2008: 3 L's for a Good Life

SEPTEMBER 2008

115. Sept 26, 2008, third blog of day: what to say: loving all of life

114, sept 19: how to eat better, simplified:

113. Sept. 12, 2008: losing weight is easy

112. Sept. 5, 2008: happiness and heat

AUGUST 2008

111. August 29, 2008: Health, Stress and Undoing the Marlie/Chris thing

110. August 25, 2008: Fall Classes, Sept 6 thru Oct 9

109. August 8, 2008: Thoughts toward health and anti-aging

JULY 2008

108. July 18: have a wonderful day, it's good for your health

107. July 12: bee sting and sweet healing and the joy of gardens

106. July 6: what is love? an approach to discovery

JUNE 2008

105. June 28: Upgrading Your Life, Private Sessions, expensive

MAY 2008

104. May 8: Lose Weight, Get Smarter, Be Happier

103. May 2: Tai Chi, Yoga, Health, Weight Loss: Beyond Boredom, a beginning

APRIL 2008

102. April 21: Class Times: Wake Up Tai Chi/Yoga Brain and Learning Fun; Waking up to Movement and Flexibility and Learning; Waking up Thursday Nights

MARCH 2008

101. March 31: Loving Yourself More, Undo Emotional Pain, Improve Emotional and other skills

100. March 22: tai chi for non-dummies

99.March 10:Recovering from Surgery

98. March 7SOUL AND SOIL, sort of?? Maybe: health is...

FEBRUARY 2008

97. Feb. 24: rains and reality

96. Feb. 20: importance of fresh air to health, mental and otherwise

JANUARY 2008

95. Jan. 5: How to Lose Weight, part 44, or is it 7?


DECEMBER 2007

94. Dec. 31:
how to lose weight and stop waiting for..


93. Dec. 20: Free New Years Day Yoga Çlass

92. Dec. 20: Sufia Yoga: Strength, Unification, Flexibility, Intelligence, Awareness & Anti-Aging

91. Dec. 10: Life is good, even when you are tired

NOVEMBER 2007

90// Nov. 29: Waking Up on Friday Nights

89. Nov. 28: Workshop in Waking, Jan. 5, 2008

88. Nov. 21: Clear Skies and the Waters of Inner Peace

87. Nov. 9: eating, waiting, real food, souls of life

86. Nov. 6: What is Health, and Love is just around the Corner

OCTOBER 2007

85. Oct. 29: Monday Yoga: Clarifying Tree Pose, 1

84. Oct. 22: Tadasana, Mountain Pose

83. Oct. 15: Yoga for a Monday, Vira 2

82. Oct. 8: Yoga for a Monday: Cat and Cow

SEPTEMBER 2007

81. Sept. 28: Waking Up to the Call of Health in the Moment

80. Sept. 21: Season's Change, Now is always

79. Sept. 17: Benefits of DNA Yoga

78. Sept. 12: Eating Less, and Habits, Ahhhhh

77. Sept. 11: Nine Eleven, did the Bad Guys get to Heaven?

76. Sept 6: Global Happiness

AUGUST 2007

75. Aug. 30: Joy to the Word, Joy to the World, Joy to the Weird, Joy to the Now

74. Aug. 23: Weight Loss and the Ongoing Sleep Or, to robot, or not to robot. This is the REAL question.

73. Aug. 21: How to be healthy with windfalls and weeds and a good hearth and mind

72. Aug. 18: Shitty Food

71. Aug. 13: Transformative Yoga, DNA Yoga, Feldie Yoga, Yes Yoga, Yes

70. August 12: Classes for Fall 2007: Transformation and Illumination

69. Aug. 8: An experiment in regaining Break Fast each morning

JULY 2007

68. July 21: What is Yoga?

JUNE 2007

67. June 13: Weight Loss, Water Increasing, Gout routing Diet

66. June 4: Body Ecology Diet for radical healing

MAY 2007

65. May 23:

64. May 4: Real Health is Ours to Be Lived, Each and Every Day

APRIL 2007

63. April 26: FDA up to their usual tricks

62. April 21: Relationship Improvement and Movement Waking Up

61. April 9: Wonder Full Relationship, Workshop, and Private Sessions.

60. April 7: Health is our wealth


MARCH 2007

59. March 30: Eat in Season, or On Sale, and Go Cave Person for the Yum of it

58. March 18: Save your back, save your neck, breathe easier: Raise your computer.

57. March 7: Green Drink, Plus Organic Fruit = Nutrition and Fluid to Start the Day

56. March 3: Food and Fat: Loving Life vs. Self-Dislike, and 4 things to do, if you want to experiment.

FEBRUARY 2007

55. February 28: Eating in Three Levels.... Yes

54. Feb. 27: Walking in Three Levels....Ah

53. February 22: Walking, and the beginings of Heaven

52.5: Feb. 20: Currently Offering These Classes

52. Feb. 19: Get in Shape, Race a Bicycle, or Less, and have Fun

51. February 16: Beautiful Day

50. February 13: The Importance of Happiness

49. February 10: Soaked Seeds and Nuts , a good idea.

48. February 6: Raw Chocolate Smoothie Porpoise of Life

47. Feb. 3: Jokes, Good for Hearth, Health, Soul and Brain

JANUARY 2007

46. Jan. 31: Cave Man/ Cave Woman Diet::: A Possibility?

45. Jan. 28: Differentiation and a Headache 'Cure'

44. Jan. 25: The Joy of Healthy Eating, and Thinking

43. Jan. 22: To be Human, to be Healthy: Make Choices

42. Jan. 19: Enzymes and real Health

41. Jan. 16: On the fear of being cold

40. Jan. 13: Supper to end the day, as in... making it light.

39. Jan. 10: Food Combining, Healthy Lunch, Main Meal = on the way to health.

38. Jan. 7: Start the day off right with a Super Smoothie

37. Jan. 4: Food and Health


December 2006

36. Dec. 31: The Glory of Today

35. Dec. 25: Talking with Jesus on Christmas Day

34. Dec. 22: Overeating and Choices: Self-attack, self-love, curiosity

33. Dec. 19: Unconditional Love. What a concept, eh?

32. Dec. 16: Full Spectrum Lighting, for Health, Mood and Happiness

31. Dec. 13: Beyond Sugar: Raw Fat plus Raw Sweet = Great Taste, Great Health

30. Dec. 10: Food is Good

29. Dec. 7: Offerings, Classes, Workshops, Fees

November 2006
28. Nov. 26: The Glories of Feldenkrais

27. Nov. 22: Eating Healthy

26. Nov. 21: Functional Integration®: Amazing and Transformative (and feels great, too!)

25. Nov. 18: Raw Foods and Feldenkrais

24. Nov. 17: Learning by Healing, and Healing by Learning: Deep Tutoring for Real People

23. Nov. 15: Healing by Learning

22. Nov. 14: Tai Chi and Feldenkrais

21. Nov. 13: Super Wheatgrass for Your Health

20. Nov. 13: The Imortance of Sky

19. Nov. 12: Enhancing Excellence, Learning Acceleration and Waking Up

18. Nov. 11: Fitness, Health and Weight Reduction

17. Nov. 10: Mindfulness and Stress Reduction

16. Nov. 9: Neck, Shoulder and Back Pain

15. Nov. 8: Gifted and Athletic Children

14. Nov. 7: What is the Feldenkrais Method?

13. Nov 7: Who Was Moshe Feldenkrais?

12. Nov. 6: Longer Lists of Movies and Books

11. Nov. 4: Tuesday Night Mindfulness and Health and Stress Reduction

10. Nov.2: Children and Learning Difficulties

9. Nov.1 : Parent and Teenager Communication

October 2006
8. Oct. 26: Walking is Good for You

7. Oct. 24: Ericksonian Hypnosis

6. Oct. 21: What is Wake Up Feldenkrais?

5. Oct. 19: Ten Week Radical Health Improvement and/or Weight Loss Program

4. Oct. 18: About Marlie Wesner and Yoga and More

3. Oct. 17: Wake Up Feldenkrais Offerings

2. Oct. 16: Byron Katie work, Happiness Work, Relationship Work

1. Oct. 15: More Bio













TAI CHI AND POTENCY
Or: the joy of two arms
two legs
a smile
a spine
a pelvis
ten toes
ten fingers
a belly
two eyes
two ears
and
AWARENESS

On November 22, 2008, I  wrote in my Life Potency blog
about tai chi,
and had some nice pictures
of going through the tai chi form
as a series of tucking in, coiling and rounding
as a pulling in and getting ready to strike

alternating
with
arching the back, pressing from the ground through the
lengthened spine,
uncoiling
striking


Here's the link: Tuck and Coil, then Unfurl and Strike

So what more is there to say?

Tai Chi is fun.

I have another essay on why Tai Chi is grand for you,
with the usual suspects:
going slow,
connecting to yourself,
finding and knowing the use of all four limbs in space,
use of the pelvis,
use of the spine

And here I must interject that tai chi,
like yoga,
is often taught as rigidity
in the sense of demanding a "tucked in" pelvis,
which requires a tightening of the abdomen muscles
which feels like "strength"
and isn't

its a tightness that prevent injury
sort of
by preventing any movement

but, the minor problem
is
preventing movement
is preventing life

(he says, rigidly sitting at a chair
typing into his computer,
okay,
okay,
life
is funny:

and hey you: reading at this computer,
get up now
and do a little tai chi
make it up

any position will do,
just know where your arms and legs are
and then have an idea of the next position of your arms
and legs
and move there

hint:
tai chi is fancy walking
it's always shifting
from right to left to right foot

okay
up,
you and me and all of us and
play the tai chi

game

))))

okay
this is life: moving the legs,
moving the arms

and life is nothing
without being awake

and this is the real trick in standard tai chi
with its obsession with the form

perfection is death in a way
getting better and better and better
even by taking the detour of making it worse for awhile
is life

so how to be awake in tai chi:
feel the power from feet to finger tips in each
pose

feel the coiling in
and preparing for power in each transition

feel the softness in the power
feel the power in the softness

this could be mumbo jumbo
or
it
could be a lot of fun

shut down your computer and do tai chi
or pretend tai chi
for the next half an hour

treat it all as a breathing
and skeletal awareness meditation
and
be aware of everything you see
and hear
as you do
all this

good

and maybe this as the final treat

round,
breathe in,
get ready



breathe out
push out belly
push into ground and hands

brush knee this is called,
one hand pushes forward
one by the other knee

Friday, November 05, 2010


Waking up in Austin, One  TURNING AND LEARNING, AGAIN, SURE, WHY NOT??
A bit of bio and a sweet turning while sitting opportunity to “wake up” to spine, life, movement…and more.

From October 17, 2009 to October 16, 2010 I lived mainly on an amazing island in the Pacific Northwest by the name of Orcas Island. I will write about it again in April when I go back for the summer.

Now it is fall, turning into winter. I am in Texas and a supposedly magically part of Texas, by the name of Austin. Austin was reputed to be the Berkeley of Texas, and many people said it would be amazing, and I came knowing two people who couldn’t get back to me and stayed three nights with a wonderful couple who didn’t know me but where willing to take a couchsurfing chance on me. This was Bridgette and John. We liked each other and I weeded their garden and gave the Bridgette “lessons” I teach, a form of gentle and awakening body brain movement from the Feldenkrais Method® and the Anat Baniel Method.

She and her husband found me my next stranger with whom to stay and marvelous raconteur and permaculture activist and Texas good old boy if someone who was an MD and PhD and threw them away because of wanting real healing outside of allopathic medicine can be called a “good old boy.”
Anyway. That was Ted. I cleaned Ted’s refrigerator, a more daunting process than you might imagine, and gave him some lessons and he was grateful and pleased and we turned out to be kindred and brotherly friends.

And Ted led me to Sonora, a bright transplanted star from Missouri, who raised four children in Austin and teaches voice and piano out in southwest Austin right next to the Waldorf school (where she sent all her kids). And Sonoma has room to store me for the winter, a teenagers’ house with the teenagers gone and some land we are going to turn into a garden and now I’m ready to stop talking writing about me and let the focus be on you and how you can wake up to your body and ease and pleasure and learning in the moment.



That’s our life. This being in the moment is our life, whether we notice it or not.
Many enjoy noticing it and find freedom and pleasure and ability to love and forgive and be creative and discover the joy of the new when they are present.

We’re all going to die, and each moment is a gift and a miracle, and moving slowly and with attention can wake us to that miracle. And if the movements are designed to pattern and reawaken natural “functions” that make our life full and vital and easy, as the movements are in the Feldenkrais Method and the Anat Baniel Method, then this waking up can be not only a coming to the present, but an upgrading of your whole nervous system so that we feel younger and taller and lighter and more at home in our “bodies” and brains after the little lesson.

And here’s one.
Here’s a game in which you can begin to come back to you.

What a gift.

One: sit at ease at the forward edge of your chair. Feel your arms and legs and spine and pelvis and ribs and head. Sense yourself. Sense your breathing. Be aware of being alive. Be aware of being aware.

Two: turn your head to the right and to the left, slowly and easily and less than the limit Go for pleasure and learning and awareness. “Range of motion” is a strange and awful trap. Don’t fall for it. Slow into the delicious present of each time you move being brand new. Notice differences in turning right and turning left. Notice differences as you slow and ease into paying more clear and curious attention. Notice the moment.
Notice being alive.
Rest. Feel what slow and attentive movement can do for your mind and body.
It is good.

Three: turn your head, in sitting more or less upright, just to the left and back to the middle. Several times. Each time slowly and with pleasure and learning.
Rest.

Four: put your hands each under the opposite arm pit, so you feel your ribs. Now slowly turn to the left and back to the center. Sometimes just turn “the head.” Sometimes pull the ribs to the left so that your torso and head are a team.
Go slowly. Gently. Pleasurably. With learning.
Notice your spine in all its 24 vertebrae glory.
Notice the difference in “just head,” and head neck and torso and ribs as team.
Rest. In the middle. Eyes closed. Sensing the all of you experience: head spine arms legs pelvis ribs feet hands breathing.

Five. Take the hands the same way as above and rotate your ribs to the left, not to the gosh darned “limit,” but over there comfortably, and leave your ribs and torso and sternum facing that way.
Now like this, rotate slowly your head back toward the center, and then a little to the left of where your chest is pointing.
The usual: slow, gentle, pleasure, learning.
Come back to the center and rest.

Six: Take your head and eyes to the left and let them rest comfortably there. And now, hands on opposite side ribs as before, rotate your ribs to the left and back to the center, keeping your head to the left.
Slow, gentle, pleasure, each time new and a learning.
Rest in the center.

Seven. Tilt side to side as you sit, so that your weight is sometimes on your right “sit bone” and sometimes on your left. Enjoy this. Think of the “sit bones” as the two feet on which you stand when you sit.
Enjoy this.
Slow, gentle, etc.
Rest.

Eight: Tilt to the left sit bone and stay there , and with your weight over there, begin to bring your right knee forward, by pushing your right hip forward. Go gentle. If you don’t get it, just imagine something, anything. But go slowly, and keep your right foot on the ground, and slowly push your right knee a little bit forward and then back and then forward again so you feel your hips rotating to the left.
Go really slowly. Go really gently. Don’t demand you “get it” if you don’t. Find the pleasure. Find the learning.
FIND THE PLEASURE. FIND THE LEARNING.
Rest.

Nine: Take your hands to the opposite arm pits and rotate the torso to the left and when there, tilt to the left sit bone and bring the right knee forward, and stay rotated in both hip and torso, and now bring your eyes left and right while your head stays pointing where it’s pointing. Many times. Slow and easy.
Rest.

Ten: sit in ease and awareness. Turn your head to the left with maybe knowing your ribs can help, maybe knowing your pelvis can help, maybe knowing your eyes can help.
Take lots of time to enjoy this.
Take a mini rest.
Turn both right and left and notice the difference.
Rest.

Eleven: stand up and walk around and see if somehow life isn’t lighter and brighter and more clear and happy and easy for you.


Good.

Monday, November 01, 2010

One of the healthiest ways to eat
is to harvest wild greens:

On Orcas,
I had an abundance of Nettles and dandelions

In Sonoma,
pigweed and mallow where in glory

Coming to Austin,
things have been slim
except that one garden plot at the Sunset Valley Community Garden
was full of my old friend:
pigweed,
aka,
wild amaranth

Imagine my surprise and delight to discover a magazine
called Edible Austin
in the summer issue of which
had a full page spread on the glories
of eating wild amaranth;'

Here's the link: Eat Wild


And here's the glorious "weed" itself.


Mix in some soaked sunflower,
pumpkin,
almond,
flax seeds

and a little Celtic salt,
and sweetener:
honey, fruit, stevia, agave

and you have a high powered,
super nutritious feast in your hand,
soon to be in and nourishing
your body

Saturday, April 17, 2010


Dogwood in bloom in Sonoma, Ca, in April


Brendan, my son, at the Anat Baniel Method training, Special Needs Children, Segment 4, as part of some 60 people doing grand learning

Movement with attention
is one grand path to feeling
younger,
to sharpening up the brain,
and
waking up to now


Try this:

1. Sit in a chair. Don't lean back. Feel your pelvis against the chair, and your spine holding up your head. Enjoy that. Close your eyes, and sense two arms, two legs, fingers, toes, breathing, and spine.

2. Do this for awhile, as if a meditation.

3. Imagine doing this sensing and awaring all day long.

4. Now, begin to move the toes of your left foot back and forth,
rotating at your heel. Go slowly. Go so slowly that each time you
do this, and do it many times, you can feel and sense and learn something new about your nervous system and your bones and your feet.

5. Take a rest.

6. Now, move the heel of your left foot back and forth (to the left and to the right),
slowly, pivoting on the front part of your foot. Many times, slowly, pleasurably,
learning.

7. Take a rest and feel the differences, left to right, and before to now.

8. Come back, if you've forgotten, to being present.

9. Lie on your back, and put both feet "standing," which means the foot is on the floor and the knees are pointed toward the ceiling.

10. In this position, a number of times rotate the toes of the left foot to the right and left. Rest. Then rotate the heel of this same foot. Rest.

11. In the rests, come into a deeper meditation.

12. Bring both feet to standing again, and push up your pelvis into the air. Do this a number of times, more and more arching your back, and pushing out your belly.

13. Rest with awareness and pleasure.

14. Again, feet standing, pelvis up, and bring the toes of your left foot as if for running. Toes on the floor. Put your hands behind your head on the floor, and tilt your whole upper body toward the left, and then back to the middle. It is as if the ribs on your right get longer and the left elbow comes closer, staying on the floor, to your left hip.

15. Rest.

16. Do all of 14 again, and use that to get your left hand to your left heel. Once there, rotate slowly your left heel right and left. See if you can feel the toes pressing the floor most clearly between the big toe and the second toe.

17. Rest. Imagine other moves you could make. Imagine being aware of your ankles and which toes press into the ground as you walk forward today.

18. Get up to standing and go forth to a life of slowing and awaring and happying.

Good.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Getting "older"
and
so what?


Life moves along.
We are present.
Or we aren't.


i couldn't do this in my forties,
can do it in my sixties
and
actually: so what?
am I present
the rest of the time

this moment
is my life

and yours
too

really fair
life
is
that way

To me,
being present
is like
four times
more sweet
than not being
so.

How is it for you?

I love the Anat Baniel Method
for Waking up to Now

and true thinking,
which means
creating brain concepts and solutions
of a "new' sort.

New is now.

And no matter how
many years,
the calendar
says we are

And mine says
65
today

we are always as young
as our joy
in life
ability to love
and enjoy others
and our
learning to
be think feel create enjoy serve
in new
ways

even slightly new
is amazingly
potent

good.

Monday, March 08, 2010




Essentials of Health, part two,
coming back to this blog


Today is Monday
and it's March in 2010.

I'm on an island,
far north
and moderated weather by water all around.

Of name, Orcas Island.

One, of my last posts
was a pious little piece
about real health.


I'm in the mood to start this
up again,
having connected with a grand group
of people
who are interested in Nutrient Rich
eating
and deep health
with a lot of help
from the ideas of Weston Price
and the book,
Nourishing Traditions,
and their own
natural instincts.

Based on associating with them,
and some slight humility
in my great, but not perfect health,
I'll play at these "what to do, what to eat fields"
again,
in a little less dogmatic way.

I hope.

Here's the ideas/ opinions of one person
in this day
or this year
this springing season
2010, March.


How to be Healthy:


Spend a fair amount of time
in the present.

Spend a fair amount of time
Loving What Is.

Help the Earth and your own health
by growing the food and meat you'd like to eat.


Eat mainly raw,
if you enjoy that.

Follow the Weston Price logic for at least awhile
and see what high quality fat,
from high quality milk, cheese, meat, fish, eggs
will do for you.

I like to eat these raw.
You discover what's good for you.

So far:
be present.

love what is.

eat mainly raw, and a lot of high quality good raised
on grass.


Adding on:
do something physical each day,
walk
tai chi
yoga
garden

add on underneath
The Feldenkrais Method
or
the Anat Baniel Method
to discover
how to learn
again how to move and learn
and discover
as you did when you were younger

Learn to think and feel
as a chance to have options>

Someone is "mean" to you:
options: fight
feel sorry
feel hurt
feel compassion
feel curious
step aside
fight
write a poem, story, play
put yourself in their shoes
put yourself in the present and see
"who you are without the story"

Thinking:
you have a "problem"
What are five ways to "solve" it.


Do the work of Byron Katie.

Links to all this are readily
available on this and my other sites.


Enjoy.,