Saturday, April 21, 2007

Relationship, Learning, Moving and Transformation.



RELATIONSHIP AND LEARNING
The easiest way to wake up the brain to the learning mode is moving with attention. This, if you think about it, was the brain's job when we were young geniuses, i.e. babies. We lay there, and explored the world, and learned about gravity and our evolutionary gift of the human body and put the two together in ways that allowed us to roll over and to bring our hands and feet to our mouths, and to sit upright and to crawl, and finally, to walk.

We learned talking, too, which moved the tongue and the vocal chords, and involved a ton of experimentation and play and discovery.

This is key to a good Feldenkrais lesson: discovery.

This is key to a good Wake Up Feldenkrais lesson: being present and enjoying the discovery.

This is key to the work I do with couples, or with parents and their relationship with their children: discovery.

If things are going great, fine.

And if there are areas you wouldn't mind improving, then hey: let's discover some options to what we usually do.

Like in Feldie work, there is no "bad," there are just habits that aren't getting us as good a result as we wish.

Let's try some new habits.

One of the key habits that wrecks parent/ child communication, and couple's communication is the habit of defending ourselves.

This defending ourselves often comes in the wake of another relationship wrecking habit: interrupting the other person before they have a chance to finish what they have to say.

What is common to both these habits is: not listening.

And: Not being in the understanding of what the other person is about, which is really what good listening is about.

So, in a workshop on improving relationship, whether it be from poor to fair, fair to good, good to great, or great to greater, we'll work on waking up the brain/ body/ whole self to learning and discovery through movement lessons.

And then, having gotten into the learning and having fun mode, we'll learn new and enjoyable ways to listen to our partners and our children. We'll get real and happy.

These workshops will always be with a money back guarantee if you don’t' feel liberated and transformed in your life and in your relationship.

Ciao.
Chris




Monday, April 09, 2007

WONDER FULL RELATIONSHIP


Improvement can be delightful
and clear
and wonder
full,
as can you.

The goal of the Feldenkrais way, is to help people, in Moshe Feldenkrais' words:
"Make the impossible, possible;
the possible, easy;
and the easy, elegant."



COMING IN APRIL
SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 12-6 PM
WORKSHOP IN WONDER-FULL RELATIONSHIP,
WHETHER SINGLE OR "IN RELATIONSHIP"
$120 per person, $200 per couple before April 20
$150 per person, $240 per couple after.
10 person minimum.


How is this done?
The goal of Wake Up Feldenkrais, is to include all the wonder full ideas and pathways and experiments of the Feldenkrais Method, with an ongoing commitment to happiness and being present.

This is what the workshop will be about:

  • Being present to yourself, in each instant.
  • Liking yourself in each instant.
  • Coming free from our stories, stories about the partner, or stories about the potential partners.
  • VERY IMPORTANT: COMING CLEAR OF OUR STORIES ABOUT THE EX-PARTNERS.
  • Getting free of stories about the wrongs we've suffered.
  • Moving in easier and fresher ways.
  • Thinking in easier and fresher ways.
  • Breathing in easier and more pleasurable ways.

  • To listen without interrupting.

  • To say what is going on in us.

  • To end the putdown and criticism thing.

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

  • To be happily engaged in life.

  • To be at peace in the moment.

  • To exchange "hard" things to say,
    without the usual meltdowns and blowups.

  • To use conflict as a chance to change oneself, not the other.

  • A sense of humor.

  • The Work of Byron Katie in order to clear up the past,
    clean up relationships,
    get clear inside and outside.
    (See thework.com)

  • A deeper and more pleasant connection to yourself.

  • Improved breathing and happiness.

  • Happier and more clear thinking.

  • An appreciation for each other.

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




Individual work may be scheduled by phone at 707-996-1437
Or email at Email me

Sessions are $120-250 per hour, with a 2 session initial commitment.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

HEALTH



Health is our wealth and it come from within. There is a lot of fuss around town about the new hospital, and if people really want to be healthy they could be walking and riding a bike to all these meetings.

Health comes from a balanced and happy life. Lots of time in the present. Lots of time outdoors. Lots of time doing what we like and love. Lots of time learning and loving.

And moving.

A life of sitting around all the time and driving around the rest, with standing just something to do at shops and waiting in lines for the next place to sit down: that's not really a life to me.

Our bodies were designed to move.

If we've forgotten, that's what Feldenkrais and yoga and tai chi and dancing and walking and sex are for. Get out there and experience the joy of being a human being.

If not sex, go for hugs. If you have no one to hug you, ask a stranger. Say, "I'd like a hug." We'd all like a bunch of hugs a day, a bunch of laughs, a bunch of learning.

To live in the present, to connect to nature and to love, I call these three the core of happiness, and that's one of the core's of health. Happy mind, happy body, connection to nature, we can live wonderful lives. The only thing that might be in the way could be some habits.

So we experiment.

We come to the present so we aren't bustling around like a robot.

We try new things, we learn how to learn again from Feldenkrais and from our own joy in discovery.

Life is wonderful.

In that frame, it's almost impossible not to be healthy.


PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.




Friday, March 30, 2007

pineapple spinach tuna pumpkin seeds

EAT IN SEASON (OR ON SALE), AND HOW ABOUT LIKE A CAVE PERSON WHILE WE'RE AT IT?



Here's some yummy food that was on sale a couple of weeks ago at Sonoma Market. By far the best way to eat, is what's in season, which means now: cabbage, greens, celery, and whatever fish is being caught just now.

The sale food had an item that might have been in season in Hawaii, the pineapple. It also had some delicious sushi grade tuna wild caught from Alaska. Spinach, is in season. And the pumpkin seeds, well, what can I say, they've been in storage since the fall, though, since they have a preserving mechanism that keeps them fresh unless they get wet, they should have all their oomph. ( The preserving mechanism, once again, is an enzyme inhibitor for unsoaked seeds, which is why we can get so much more value from the raw seeds and nuts we use in various sauces and dressings and dips if we soak them overnight before using them).

So here we also have a nice cave person diet: some fish. Some vegetable. Some seed. Some fruit. Stick to those four groups, add some olive oil and lots of spices and you'll grow leaner and stronger and healthier, the more so the more raw you can keep it all.

If the food is fresh and yummy, and you aren't eating out of boredom, your body will be so happy when you just give it simple and good and organic and raw and seasonal (or sale) food.

Ciao
Chris

Monday, March 19, 2007

computer on books, close


Save your back.
Help your neck.
Breathe easier.
Raise your computer to eye level.



Bring the center of the screen to the middle of your eye level,
so you can sit straight,
and look ahead of yourself as you type
or read.

computer on books, mid range


And remember the
ten
ten
ten rule:

every ten nimutes
look at least ten feet away
for at least ten seconds.




ONGOING POSSIBILITIES:

THE TWENTY TWENTY TWENTY PROCESS
Combine 20
Functional Integration® Lessons
( Amazing, Gentle, Transformative
Individual Lessons)

+
20 Minutes a Day of HomePlay ( not Homework)
=
Move, Think and Feel
TWENTY YEARS YOUNGER!


COMING WORKSHOPS

WONDERFUL RELATIONSHIP
April 29, 12- 6 PM


Amazing Parenting
May 20, 12-6 PM


• Improving Backs, Necks, Shoulders
Sports, yoga, health and Learning
June 17, 12- 6 PM



More Details
at
Workshops and Classes, Coming Up




INTRODUCTORY CLASS:
For the brain
for the "body"
for moving with more ease
for healing
for learning
for fun.

Monday lunch break class
12:30-1:20 PM

$20
includes touch guided and movement lessons
come wishing and willing for transformation
SONOMA BALLET CONSERVATORY
off Broadway
around the corner from the Post Office
and the Art Museum,
the little side street between.







For amazing and transformative
and gentle
one on one lessons,
called
Functional Integration®
seeIndividual Lessons




More Details
at
Workshops and Classes, Coming Up





PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.






Wednesday, March 07, 2007

greens plus synergy

GREEN DRINK PLUS FRUIT
Here's one way to start the day that keeps the fluids going: lots of fruit and a green drink with a little bit of seeds and lots of protein care of the Synergy (See notes at link on sidebar).

Fit for Life has a whole program based on starting the day with just fruit. This is a great way to go.

Also great is to have a raw green drink: water, and ginger and spinach and kale and good weeds if you've got them, some pineapple and enzymes and maybe an apple.

You can see it all in the picture.

Of course, everything is organic.

And all raw: no dairy, no soymilk, no juice that you get in some container. Start it all from fresh ingredients, raw ingredients, water and sun saturated ingredients, then you are pouring health into yourself in the morning.

Good.

Saturday, March 03, 2007


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.

food, kiwi, mango, spinach leaves and grapefruit. 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.


P.S.




Wednesday, February 28, 2007

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?

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

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.

Monday, February 26, 2007

What is Wake Up Feldenkrais?





In Wake Up Feldenkrais,
I add
to the Feldenkrais Way
my knowledge and skills in the fields of
human learning,
happiness,
group and family communication,
permaculture,
ecology of systems,
and general processes of change,
to include the transformation of
poor to fair,
fair to good,
good to great,
and great to greater,
to ANY ACTIVITY
in which people wish to change.
any pathway,
via which people wish to
improve and make their
life more wonderful.

    This could be organizing
  • a change in a business,

  • clearing up a decades' old family issue,

  • assisting people in losing weight

  • or achieving life goals,

  • organizing land on Permaculture principles,

  • fascilitating businesses and groups
    and families
    and parent/ child relationships
    to be happier,
    more creative and functional together,

  • assisting people in admitting and defining new and sweeter life goals,

  • and just old fashioned: being happier.

  • And the somewhat esoteric:
    being more present and awake to our lives.





And now:
HOW IS WAKE UP FELDENKRAIS AVAILABLE?

This is available as personally designed programs
to meet your needs and the needs of your organization.
It could include clearing up old family issues,
becoming happier with your weight,
learning to discover how to reinvent yourself for the next part of your life,
building teams that function happily and organically
(in the growing, and changing and adapting sense of the word),
to "simply" discovering how to
be happier
and
more creative
in your ongoing life.
This work with always include elements of my passions:
the Feldenkrais Method,
the work of Byron Katie
(and other amazing communication tools),
and team building creativity work,
and
connection to nature.
.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

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.



Tuesday, February 20, 2007

CURRENTLY OFFERING THESE CLASSES





Back from becoming Certified as a Yoga Teacher,
200 hour Yoga Alliance Level,
in Ananda Yoga.

No classes scheduled,
just yet.





Monday, February 19, 2007

Get in Shape. Race on a Bike


Racers today slogged against strong winds up the coast from Saulsalito
to Coleman Valley Road,
then up the long grade,
then
down into Occidental
turning a speedy left,




and then
Occidental Road on a
20 minute sprint (from Occidental)
into Santa Rosa.

A 93 mile day.

Tomorrow,
Tuesday,
they take off on Bennett Valley Road,
zoom through Glen Ellen
up another killer, the Trinity Grade,
over to Rutherford,
and then over another grade
at Lake Berryessa
and down into Sacramento,
a 115 mile day.

Then then go Stockton to San Jose

Then Seaside to San Lous Obispo

Then a round down race near Solvang

and then Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita;

then some sort of deal in Long Beach.
(Official scoop at Amgen the Race )

These guys get around.

Wonder where's a nice flat town
to get down
with some bicycling in beautiful weather?

Friday, February 16, 2007

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER


hillside in blue and green and gray

Today was a beautiful spring day, though it is not yet May. Nor even March. The winter months march on and the rains don't come and life is strange, and then each day is a gift.

Can we allow ourselves to accept this gift of a beautiful day. Some other day we will have a challenging gift of a cold and stormy day. And then our job will be to love that day.

Hmmm. Anyway, today was nature's little Valentine to us in the Sonoma Valley, before the grape growers get out with their…. Hey, let's not go there.

Beautiful day.

Thanks.





Tuesday, February 13, 2007


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?





Saturday, February 10, 2007

SEEDS AND NUTS: Soaking a Way Good and Healthy Idea


If you want to eat raw

Or
You want to lose weight

Or
You want to have rich yummy smoothies that are way good for you

Or
You like real protein and fat and want to lessen or avoid animal stuff

Then:
Eating soaked nuts and seeds is essential to great health.

In my opinion.

You, as always, get your own opinion in the food wars/ opinions/ ideas.

Anyway: if you go for seeds:

Soak them before you eat them. How ?, someone asked yesterday.

Like this: get a quart jar (canning jars), add half to three quarters of organic seeds or nuts (they expand when the water comes), add filtered water and let sit overnight.

The next day, pour off and use some of the water and some of the seeds in any smoothie you wish, or eat them straight on, or in salads.

Then keep rinsing them once of twice a day.

If the seeds are sunflower, rinse a lot and start to refrigerate after a couple of days if you haven't used 'em up. They get funky after that long.

If they are flax, refrigerate after the first couple of hours, cause they start to mold.

Why soak? To undo the enzyme inhibitors in seeds and nuts the way nature does: by soaking them and starting them off to being living and sprouting entities.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

PORPOISE OF LIFE, Raw Chocolate, Pleasure Anyone???


This is the food blog, the health blog, the backpages and reference blog. It's the more experimental, in a way, though they all have a great variety of articles and approaches.

If saving the Earth, is one of our jobs in life, saving the earth and saving the oceans, and saving the porpoises for their swims of delight through their lives and their waters, then how we eat has some impact on all this.

Some of the things we do, we have no idea the impact until someone like Bill Mollison, the co-creator of Permaculture starts to talk about cat food, and huge areas of the Gulf of Mexico being denuded of shrimp for the cats. Should we stop having cats? I don't know.

Children will end up taking a lot more of the Earth's resources than a cat will, and an army tank, charging down some desert in some foreign land may consume more than any child will.

So, who knows.

And, back to food: if we eat meat, let's get our meat from places where it got to be on pasture or wild most of its life. If we eat meat let's look at the living conditions and the food these animals were feed.

If we eat fruit, let's see if the fruit is from Earth and trees that haven't been harmed and weirded out by pesticides and other chemicals.

You know all that.

Okay.

Raw chocolate.

You can buy it in the store, raw and organic and sustainably grown. It keeps you up a little at night and is bitter and is a lot of fun.

Here's a high class way to get a hell of a lot of nutrition and still be okay for diabetics or those with Candida.


Raw Smoothie for the Health Nut:


Get yourself a blender or a Vita Mix.

Add some good filtered water.

Add some healthy weeds (dandelion, mallow, chicory) or health greens: cilantro, endive, parsley).

Add some Synergy.

Add some soaked sunflower and pumpkin and flax seeds.

Add some raw, organic chocolate nibs.

Add some Stevia, ginger and any other herbs, like cinnamon, cayenne, maybe do one at a time and see how it's coming.

Blend it up. Make a lot. Drink slowly, outside, standing up and sensing your feet and your breathing and looking at some trees and clouds and blue sky in the distances.

This is good. This is life. Yes.






Saturday, February 03, 2007

Jokes Are Good for Your Health



And your happiness.

And, sometimes, your brain.

JOKE
Jokes, like dreams, if grabbed soon after the experience, can much more readily be kept alive and in memory. Tonight was the joke show on Prairie Home Companion, and if you don't know Prairie Home Companion, 'tis a shame, indeed. But let's see what I can remember after a bit of a doze from eating too much, an occupational hazard of the raw foods world and the Chris Elms mind, I've mentioned before.

Some bears come down from Canada into Minnesota, and they are a bit strange, sometimes very happy and charming and entertaining, and sometimes extremely unfriendly and savage. Bi-polar bears.

A bunch of thieves steal some Viagra and take off with it, hardened criminals.

A man goes into a party and spies a curvy and beautiful woman. He goes up to her, "I'm so glad you are here. What's your name?" "Carmen." "Carmen, that's a nice name? Did you always have that name?" "No, I gave it to myself for the two things I like best. I like cars. And I like men." She smiles at him. "And what's your name?" "Golftits."

Albert Einstein goes to heaven and St. Peter says, "You look like Einstein, but can you prove it?" So Einstein writes a bunch of formulas and St. Peter nods and lets him in. Then Picasso comes, and St. Peter again says, "You look like Picasso, but can you prove it?" So Picasso reproduces one painting after another, and St. Peter lets him in. The George W. Bush arrives ( a stretch, perhaps) and St. Peter says, "You have to prove who you are. Einstein showed he was Einstein, and Picasso showed he was Picasso." George W. Bush says, "Who's Einstein? Who's Picasso?" And St. Peter, satisfied, says, "Okay. You've proved it."

Did you hear about the paranoid dyslexic who was afraid that he was following people all the time?

And the cannibals, who tasting a clown they were stewing up, ask each other, "Does this taste a little funny?"

Now I'll go ask Marlie what she remembers.

The bra that says to the hat, "You go on ahead and I'll give these two a lift."
A snail has an operation to removes its shell. Afterwards they ask it how it's feeling and it says, "Fine, but I'm feeling a little sluggish."

And now, trying to bring up a couple of more. Can't. Maybe they'll come in dreams.

Well, their website is a big help. Here are some I liked: From tonight's joke show:

Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. That's the farthest anyone who wears a dress has gotten since J. Edgar Hoover.

Nancy Pelosi was visiting Iraq. President Bush said he was against setting any timetables for her to return. He said to bring her back prematurely would send the wrong message.
There on my computer are the two buttons representing the things I can never have: Control and Escape.

I'm having a problem with my computer. When I type in my password, all it shows are those little stars.

Right. Little asterisks. That's for your protection. So if someone were standing behind you, they couldn't see what your password is.

Okay, but they show up even when nobody is standing behind me.

The blond got a present from her boyfriend, a cell phone, and the next day, while she was shopping, the phone rang and it was him. He said, "How do you like your new cell phone?" She said, "I just love it, it fits in my purse, and your voice is so clear. But how did you know I was at Wal Mart?"

Two men took the test to qualify for a job and both men answered nine out of ten questions correctly, but they gave the job to the first man: he answered Question No. 10 "I don't know" and the other man answered it, "Neither do I."

I needed some time off from work so I decided to act crazy. I hung upside down from the ceiling and when the boss asked me what I was doing, I said, "I'm a light bulb." "You're going crazy," he said. "Take a few days off." I left and my officemate followed me. The boss asked where she was going. She said, "I can't work in the dark." ---- Did I mention she was blonde?
What's the difference between "Congress" and the "Library of Congress"? n the Library of Congress you can't mess with the pages.

The minister raises his hands and says: "we are but dust..." The little girl turns to her mother and says, "mother, what is butt dust?"

If you don't go to other people's funerals, then they won't come to yours.

Bill Gates died and went to heaven and was given a little cottage in the woods and next door was a mansion on a hill with a golf course and tennis courts, and there lived the captain of the Titanic. "Why does he deserve better?" Bill said to God. "Because the Titanic only crashed once."

How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?
Three, but they're really one.

How many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?
CHANGE?! Did you say "change"?

Third Grade Jokes
Why did ancient Romans close down the Coliseum?
The lions were eating up the prophets.

Is it true that an alligator won't attack you if you carry a flashlight?
Depends on how fast you carry the flashlight.

Religious:
Q: Why did the Unitarian cross the road?
A: To support the chicken in its search for its own path.

The children in the Unitarian church school were drawing pictures. One girl said, "I'm going to draw a picture of God." The teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like. "They will when I get done with my picture."

A woman went into a fabric store and asked the clerk for nine yards of material to make a nightgown. The clerk said, "Nine yards is way too much material for a nightgown." The woman said, "I know, but my husband is Unitarian and he would rather seek than find."

A priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a Rabbi challenged each other to a preaching contest. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and try to convert it. Two days later, they got together to discuss the experience. Father Flannery said, "Well, I read to him from the Catechism and then I sprinkled him with holy water and Holy Mary Mother of God he was gentle a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation." Reverend Billy Bob said, " Well I read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! And I took HOLD of him and wrestled him down to the creek. And I DUNKED him and BAPTIZED him and he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus." They both looked down at the rabbi, who was in a body cast. The rabbi said, "Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start."

Others:
Q: What do you get when you throw a hand grenade into a French kitchen?
A: Linoleum Blown-Apart!

The statistician lay with his head in the oven and his feet in ice, and on the average he felt fine.

Did you hear about the mechanic who was addicted to brake fluid? He said it was no problem -- he could stop any time.

Why did the urologist lose his license? He got in trouble with his peers.

An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?" "Just water," says the priest. The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?" The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"

What did the Earth say after the Earth quake? ----Sorry, my fault.

How can a woman rid her apartment of cockroaches? ----Ask them for a commitment.

Have you heard about the new existentialist breakfast cereal?
It's called Raisins D'etre.

A B-flat, a D-flat, and an F walk into a bar. The bartender says to them, "I'm sorry we don't serve minors here"... So the D-flat leaves and the B-flat and the F have an open fifth between them.

Q: Why do Jewish Mothers make great parole officers?
A: They never let anyone finish a sentence.

Jewish mother sent a telegram: "Start worrying. Details to follow…

An elderly Jewish man was brought to the local hospital. A pretty nurse tucks him into bed and says, "Are you comfortable?" He replies, "I make a nice living...."

Chinese civilization goes back 4000 years and Jewish civilization goes back 5000 years. So what did those people eat for a thousand years?

These two I didn't hear, but are pretty good, which shows how easily I'll take my laughs:

A cop sees two kids parked in a car late Saturday night on the edge of town and he walks over with his flashlight and shines it in the window. The boy is listening to the radio and the girl is knitting a scarf. The cop says, "What are you doing here?" "Just listening to music and she's knitting." "How old are you?" The boy says, "I'm 22." The cop says, "And is she 18?" The boy says, "She will be in about fifteen minutes."

A wagon train got lost crossing the Plains and they're low on food and they see an old Norwegian sitting under a tree. They stop and ask him, "Is there food around here?" He says, "Well, I don't know, but I tell you, I wouldn't go that way ---- there's a big bacon tree over that hill." "A bacon tree?" "Yeah, so I wouldn't go that way."

The wagon train talked about it and a bacon tree sounded good to them so they went over the hill and over the next hill and a thousand Indians were waiting for them and attacked them from all sides and took them prisoner except for the leader who went crawling back to the old Norwegian and said, "There was no bacon tree there, just a mob of Indians who took everybody captive."

The Norwegian said, Vait a minute. He picked up his Norwegian-English dictionary and looked through it, and then said, "Oh, it wasn't a bacon tree. It was a ham bush."

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

CAVE MAN/ WOMAN DIET
In the old days they had no super markets, they had no gardens, they had no farms. We are talking the really old days.

Some people think this is humanity's most natural and healthy diet. As you've seen over these pages, I keep putting out food ideas as alternatives, not givens. This is something to be explored and not turned into dogma. Food is fun and experimenting is fun and trying out non-habitual pathways is fun.

I'll push that, the Feldenkrais Way, as I call it: the way of exploring, and going slower and lifelong learning and transformation and improvement. This I'm clear is good for all. The food thing, is more tentative. What you eat, this is a game that is great to play and to learn.

So anyway, cave people, didn't eat grain. They didn't eat sugar. They didn't eat dairy. They ate meat, fish, nuts, berries, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and insects. Most of the "cave man diet" people don't mention insects, but that was a big part of a primitive diet. Do you want to eat insects? Probably not, though the French eat snails. But that's what the beginning humans ate.

Some people turn this into a raw meat diet, which is an interesting experiment. There's a lot to be said for raw meat and raw milk and raw cheese and raw eggs. I won't give a long exposition here, but all the earlier comments of raw food having all the enzymes necessary for complete digestion of the food, those comments apply to raw meat and eggs and milk.

I personally, like raw milk that has begun to be digested by fermentation, which is either making it into yogurt (add a little yogurt and let it sit at warmish temperatures, in a sunny window or above the fridge) or kefir (same, add kefir and let it make itself), or sour milk (just let the milk sour with age.). I like to add enzymes (see link at side to Enzymes International) to get the milk to not only go toward yogurt or kefir, but to thicken a little towards cheese.

At any rate, if this seems interesting to you, lots of diets, like South Beach or Atkins, point you toward the cave person diet, and if you have diabetes, and you skip the fruit part of the cave person trip, you can do wonders for your health, and some have said, going raw meat will undo diabetes. So, it's all a grand experiment.

Meat without the greasy cooked smell needs a nice sauce to cheer it up, and it's pretty easy, either with soaked seeds, and some veggies like carrots, and whatever spices you love, like ginger, or turmeric, or garlic, or basil, whatever, to make a helluva nice sauce.

Experiment.

Life is good and so are you. Keep learning and discovering.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

DIFFERENTIATING AND HEADACHE “CURE”
If you have been following the essays in the WakeUp Feldenkrais sections, you have seen that this work is not about "fixing," but about finding greater unities and connections, by bringing back into awareness and actions parts of us have atrophied or been forgotten or never discovered.

We don’t fix.

And yet, when the headache comes on, we want it to "go away."

And, as Anat Baniel made clear in the recent training segment I attended: if we have something going "wrong," the problem is almost always in insufficient differentiation.

What does that mean if you haven't been to a Feldenkrais or Anat Baniel Training of late? It means that things are too simplified and tied together, that there is not enough subtly and complexity.

Say Iraq. Bad Hussein. Good USA. Solution: get rid of bad Hussein. And what has been the result?

Or in a marriage, when one partner gets stuck on some idea that the mate should "listen to me more." And that becomes the mantra, the demand, the complaint. None of the subtlety of when do they listen, when do they not listen, how do I make it hard or easy for them to listen, when do I listen, when do I act closed to them in just the way I complain they are closed to me. The Work of Byron Katie is nothing if not the differentiation of our fixed and enslaving "thinking / feeling" habits.

Anyway, with a headache, differentiation can often evoke amazing changes. This is just something I invented along the way.

The first and amazing idea, is to let the headache be, and get interested in it. This is the first and greatest differentiation: headache as something of which we can be aware, vs. headache as something being imposed on us from Beyond.

So here we go, on an awareness and differentiation parade.

On the in breath sense the headache on the right half of the skull and head, and on the out breath the left side. Then sense the exact contours of the headache while doing that, what is its size and shape. Its exact size and shape and texture.

Then begin to give the left half, now sensed as an exact shape, a certain color during the out breath, and the right half, now sensed as an exact shape, a certain color during the in breath.

And while doing this, sense the larger body and its shape as containing this smaller, two part, two colored, exact shaped headache.

So we have all this differentiation in the headache: right and left. Inside the contours of the headache and outside. The headache itself and the larger body. Our breathing in and our breathing out.

With all these to pay attention to and follow, and become interested in, the pain is often forgotten, and even when it is there, it is just in the headache contours and not in the rest of us, and is half the time in the awareness of one side of the head and in a certain color and shape, and half the time the pain is over on the other side in a certain color and shape.

Under this onslaught of interesting possibilities for attention the "pain" almost always dissolves. Our attention passes from out of our control victimhood, to in charge intentional exploration. We are no longer run by the "headache."

We are free to watch the headache, and to discover the awareness that is much closer to who we really are than this pain. We are the doer and the awarer and the explorer.

This is good.