Feldenkrais® + Yoga + Tai Chi + Awareness
= SUFIA YOGA

Strength
Unification
Flexibility
Intelligence
Awareness & Anti-Aging

A new invention
and
an evolving and wonderful
combination of
yoga (I was certified at the 200 hour level this summer)

and
Feldenkrais (I have trained 183 days, not hours, beyond the required 160 days)

and
Tai Chi
(studied five years in Berkeley with
Lenzie Williams)

and
core work

and
turning on the learning switch
(see Anat Baniel Method,
where I have studied for 92 days)
applying body brain learning
to golf, tennis, baseball, skiing,
eliminating back, neck and shoulder pain,

and
More

......

Anti-Aging?
Yes, using our brains
as we did when we were first learning
to walk, roll over, talk and crawl,
reactivates a youthful and discovery
oriented approach to being
that brings us younger in feeling, movement and spirit

Strength of many sorts:
arms, shoulders, backs, abs, legs
and most of all:
brains, awareness and delight

Not just stronger,
but :
Get
Smarter ( using your brain, learning new and non-habitual ways of moving, and problem solving)
Sexier (connect to vitality, to the pelvis, to breathing, to loving yourself, to Life)
Stronger

Following the patterns of life:
expansion and contraction

Following the human construction:
rotation is what we are built to do most easily
being on two legs makes us uniquely unstable and capable of all sorts of mobility

Following the world in which we swim:
the ocean of GRAVITY: pelvis, legs, rooted, grounded, balanced, strong, back muscles to hold our head up

the ocean of AIR: torso, breathing, open hearts, rib basket not rib cage, flexible and aware ribs and sternum

the ocean of LIGHT and sound and smell and taste: free and mobile neck so we can turn easily and see the world

P.S.
We won't do this:


But if you could
this yoga would help you be even better at it



THREE TYPES OF CLASSES:

One: this mix:

Yoga, Feldenkrais®, Tai Chi
“Smarter, Stronger, Sexier;
More flexible, more aware.”
Fri 4:30 PM, Sat: 9:30 AM

Two:
tai chi, as I learned it in Berkeley
though
as it's never been taught:

Tai Chi (the Feldie way): Sat. 8 AM

Three:
on the floor,
easier movements
for greater learning,
ease
and pleasure,
though,
not strength
building

BRAIN ACCESS MOVEMENT
“Smarter, Sexier;
More flexible, more aware.”
Monday: 7 PM Fri 3:30 PM, Sat. 10:30 AM




see Current Class Schedule

SUFIA YOGA

Strength
Unification
Flexibility
Intelligence
Awareness & Anti-Aging

Fun, Expansion,
Learning, Love,
Ease and Clarification:

Move better
Feel Better
Think Better

Combining
Feldenkrais (10 years study, 165 days training beyond the 160 days required)
Yoga (7 years learning, 200 hour yoga certification)
Tai Chi ( 5 years studying with national push hands champion)
Pilates (not trained: this is code word for : Core Strengthening, back, abs and sides,
near the pelvis)
Plus ( strengthening the real core: Our Brain)

To understand the essence
of yoga
as a movement system
to connect to
Now
to connect to
Learning
to connect to
Joy
to connect to
Ease
to connect to
Power and Ease


Taught as group sessions
(see Current Classes and Workshops or call 707-996-1437

Private sessions at my
house
or yours.



Benefits:

Increase flexibility
without strain
or efforting

Increase awareness of
your body

Increase pleasure
in moving
your body

Increase
pleasure of
being in the present

Make "regular"
(i.e. non-discovery, Do it Right Yoga)
easier

Access your brain

Make learning central to
yoga
and to your life

Increase skills in other areas:
dance,
walking,
sitting

Heal and transform
back pain,
shoulder pain,
hip pain,
neck pain.

Learn to learn

Increase abilities
to slow down
to pay attention
to go inside

Connect with your higher self

Connect with nature

Connect with now

Connect with your humaness

Enjoy your life

Breathe better

Be happier

Improve creativity

Discover areas of yourself
that delight
and amaze you

Move as you
did when
you were
young
and
frisky

Discover how delightful
going slow
and aware
can be

in everything

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

FOOD AND FAT
Life is good, and then we think we should weigh a different amount. This is a funny issue, because it needs to be looked at in terms of how we really want to live versus how we think we "should be."

Sometimes people don't like their weight because it's a social thing: they don't like how they imagine other people are perceiving or judging them. This, of course, is one of life's great lessons: how to be who we are without caving in to the pressure of the herd.

And then sometimes people would like to weigh less because it might feel better, or be more fun to move, or put less stress on their various parts. They might want to do things that it's hard to do unless they were less heavy. Okay, that seems different, doesn't it?

How to separate the two?

Make a list of all the self-disliking reasons you have about your weight. And then do the work of Byron Katie about them. Just the good old : write down your judgments, ask four questions, write down the answers, examine the turn around.

And then look at the life enhancing reasons that might be left. If they still make sense to you, then there are some habits to break that can help lose weight.

If you are interested, here are a few of the best:

1) After 5 in the afternoon, either eat nothing, or only eat vegetables and fruits that are raw, and organic and without fat. That means salad after 5 doesn't have oil in the dressing, nor do you munch on avocadoes or figs or dates. Lots of teas, or nothing, or carrots, or kiwi. Only fresh: no canned, packaged or frozen stuff. If you eat a nice big meal in the middle of the day, and go slow, you won't be that hungry, though the habit will still be interesting as something to change, for awhile at least.

A Night Snack. Kiwi (Ed at Farmers' Market), grapefruit (friend), spinach (Laguna Farms at Farmers' Market), mango (on sale last week at Sonoma Market). With green, no fat, high potency smoothie, of cilantro (F. market), Synergy, ginger, cabbage (Oak Hill Farms at F. market) and stevia.


2) Eat one raw foods meal a day that has lots of raw fat in it. This raw fat, will be full of enzymes that will help dissolve the extra fat in your body. If the meal is a salad, make it all raw: and have lots of avocadoes and olive oil, and a nice smoothie dip alongside full of soaked nuts and seeds. Enjoy having a feast in the middle of the day.

3) Learn to eat without hiding or hurry. Look at the food. Look at the sky. Look at the people around you. Breathe while you eat. Smile while you eat. Stretch out your meals and take a lot of time between bites.

4) Find some outdoor exercise you love, and do it, or even better, just go from point A to point B on your feet or on a bicycle, then it isn't "exercise," it's just moving around and living life. That's enough for a start.

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P.S.

EATING IN THREE LEVELS
We sit down to a meal. Our belly is hungry, and that is a good reason to eat, though oftentimes we are really thirsty instead of hungry, so that's worth checking out.

And, if we eat mainly raw foods, the foods themselves will be full of water, so we'll quench our thirst for water as we eat.

At this basic level, we bring food into our organisms.


If we go slow, and taste as we chew, we can sense and feel if this food is really nourishing us.

If we go slow, we can be aware of our middle level as we eat.


We can breathe in air, and feed our lungs, and our blood. If we eat slowly we can follow our breathing as we chew and taste and feel our food turning into wonderful nutrition inside of us.

Breathing and aware, tasting our food and aware, we have two level active while we eat.


And then looking and listening. Are we near someone we like, and are we being free enough from chatter to look at and enjoy that person? If we are eating alone, do we have something pleasant at which to gaze, a candle, a view out into the sky, or best of all: sitting outside and watching trees and sky and birds and flowers as we eat.

What are the sounds? If someone is talking, can we hear the melody of their voice and free ourselves from the urge to speak up and tell our oh, so important little bit of whatever yammer we just "have" to get out?

Can we have music in the background, or the wind, or some soft pleasant sound of life to feed our minds, our selves, as we feed our bodies?


Eating food.

Eating air.

Eating impressions.


Can we make them all slow and aware and peaceful and happy to be alive as we eat?

WALKING IN THREE LEVELS

Our feet walk along the ground. Left and then right and then left.

Can we notice and love the touching, the pressing, the shifting, the lifting and the leaving of each foot?

---

Our breath goes in and out and has pauses.

Can we notice the going in and the pause and the going out and the pause?

---

Our eyes have sky and earth and path and clouds and people and stuff to see.

Our ears have birds and cars and wind and trees and planes and voices and music to hear.

Can we notice the light and sound coming in and can we smile at all these gifts?

---

Ah. To take a walk. Yes.

WALKING

Many steps to heaven, all waiting to be taken.


What is Tai Chi if you boil it down?

Paying attention.

Slowing down.

Moving with so called "relaxation."

Rotating your center, your pelvis when you change direction.

And, at the core:

Moving from weight on one foot to weight on the other.


And what is that like?

Walking.

Walking is so good for you, especially if you do it with love and awareness.

There are many ways to do that and I hope you have at least three that you really like/love for yourself.


Here's another possibility:

Walk outdoors, and look at the sky. Walk with enough speed so your arms swing and you can notice how the left arm goes forward as the right foot does and vice versa.

Walk slow enough to pay attention to which foot, right or left , is pressing into the earth.

Follow your breathing.

Time your breathing to your steps and have some spaces between your breathing.

Huh?

Four steps, breathe in, four steps no breathing, four steps breathe out, four steps no breathing.

This is what works for me.

Any number of steps with any of the above will be yours to enjoy and experiment with.

Enjoy your walk.

Enjoy your life.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAPPINESS

Happiness is how we like to be, and yet many of us spend big chunks of our days, and hence our lives, either unhappy, or in some sort of busy trance where we are neither happy nor unhappy, but mainly just "busy." On the way to the market, thinking of what we will buy. In the market, thinking of what we'll make for dinner. Eating the dinner and thinking about wishing we didn't have to clean up afterwards. After dinner some sort of event to rush off to, or perhaps a time to blotto the mind with television.

Oh, well.

And what is it about happiness that is so good for us?

When we are happy we are not striving and complaining and wanting for something else. We are here, now and in a state of fullness and joy about being here and now. This is good for our health, and good for our soul, and good for the people around us, and good for the world.

Let's bypass all the arguments that might say you can't be in bliss all the time, and just think about this: when was the last time we were just here and now and happy?

And when were we happy today?

And when were we happy yesterday?

And what did those moments of happiness feel like? And what did we do, or forget to do, that helped create those moments of happiness?

You know, so much of psychology, so-called, is pouring over our unhappiness. What if we just took the other approach and put awareness on recalling and increasing our moments and times and hours and days of happiness?

Wouldn't that be a step toward a sweeter life, a life that would be nicer for ourselves and easier on those around us, and also, since we wouldn't need to rush and buy so often, much kinder to the Earth as well?

FITNESS, HEALTH, AND WEIGHT REDUCTION

Photo: R. Dale

When you are fit and healthy you feel good, you enjoy being alive and in your body and moving around. You like how it feels to be you and you like how it feels to move.

You rarely if ever get sick, you can walk a couple of miles and enjoy the heck out of it, you love to get outdoors, you can skip and dance and act in new and spontaneous ways. You are alive and happy to be alive.

Fitness and health require not much, but they are more or less absolute requirements:

• To eat in a healthy and joyful way
  (Whch means lots of food,
  but nutrient and water rich food,
  and at the right times.)


• To get healthy and happy exercise.


• To spend time in nature.


• To be at peace with oneself and those we live with.


• Which includes a sense of humor, and


• An ability, and desire, to experiment, and explore and discover
  outside of old habits and patterns


• To practice and cultivate AWARENESS
  (See posting Weight Loss and Wake Up Feldenkrais)


All of this leads us:


• To be happily engaged in life.

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---

---

To change habits,
wake up to the present
and to be present while eating,
and to lose weight:

We'll include examination of habits.
The ways to eat even more and lose weight.
Patterns of exercise and making that more fun.
A commitment to being outside each day at least twice.
Drinking water.
Getting free of emotional baggage with the wonderful work of Byron Katie.
Comminicating in joy.
Maybe more, if we have time.

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---

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Change your self
Upgrade your health
Upgrade your vitality
Lose Weight:
10 week Radical Health Improvement and Weight Reduction Program.

And what are some components of eating in a "healthy way." Well, one is to trust your intuition,
so don't get too hooked on anyone's rules, including mine.

And then, here are some hints,
and some essays that begin to reveal these hints:

1) Involve wheat grass in your well being. Super Wheatgrass for Your Health

2) Think about raw foods as a chance to radically live non habitually for awhile: Raw Foods and Feldenkrais

3) Begin to re-evaluate the whole eating thing: Raw Foods and Feldenkrais

4) Start to think of food as God: Food is Good

5) Find a way out of the sugar thing: Beyond Sugar: Raw Fat plus Raw Sweet = Great Taste, Great Health

6) Understand getting refined flours and sugars out of your eating world: Food and Health

7) Experiment with nutrient rich, raw food meals, as in a smoothie breakfast: Start the day off right with a Super Smoothie

8) Learn food combining, and consider lunch as the main, big meal: Food Combining, Healthy Lunch, Main Meal

9) Make supper in the old meaning a time of a light "soup:" Supper to end the day, as in... making it light.

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The health and weight loss program consists of 10 one on one meetings over 10 weeks. The meetings are about an hour. We deal with emotional issues, gradual shifts in eating habits, the creation of and enjoyment of a program of engagement in using yourself, which could be yoga, walking ( the BEST program for human beings), tai chi, gardening, bicycle riding.

Feldenkrais movements and one on one touch guided ( fully clothed, gentle, miraculous= Functional Integration®)lessons will be part of this,
as will the work of Byron Katie to undo all the myths we use to hold ourselves back.
Meditation and art and hypnosis all could be part of this.

Here are the possible parts to this joyful and wonderful opportunity:

Weight loss if you so desire.


Radical improvement in your diet, if you so desire.


A clearer path of moving.


A deeper and more pleasant connection to yourself.



Improved breathing and happiness.


Happier and more clear thinking, if you so desire.


Trying new eating habits and patterns.



Undoing mental and physical stress.


Undoing emotional stress.


Having fun with / embracing change.



Getting clear on what you are "waiting' / "weighting" for.


A deeper understanding of yoga and tai chi as possible everyday health friends.


A deeper and clearer commitment to being outside and in touch with nature.



The Work of Byron Katie: clear up the past, clean up relationships, get clear. (See thework.com)


The Work of Byron Katie: stop being mean to yourself sessions,



Body Talk™ or EFT sessions.


Feldenkrais lessons.


WakeUp Feldenkrais lessons.



Setting up "exercise" that's fun. ( Walking, rolling around, sex.)


Ericksonian hypnosis, if you so desire.


Raw Foods, if you want to leave almost all, if not all, sicknesses behind.