The Power of Feldenkrais Plus Ananda Yoga


The Feldenkrais Method, and Wake Up Feldenkrais
is superb at this:
allowing us
to come to the moment,
allowing us to train
and improve our awareness,
our brain,
and alongside that:
our grace and ease
in moving.

Yoga, of the traditional sort,
is pretty good at giving us
a guiding path of
how to place of bodies
in positions
that allow us to feel more full
of life,
a little more flexible,
more in tune
with how great it is to be in a body.

Ananda Yoga,
with an emphasis on affirmations
that accentuate and hone the poses
into arrows of direction,
directing our energy in
and up the spine
to our brain,
directing our attention
to higher emotions
(One, for example is,
"I radiate love and good will
to soul friends everywhere.")
and to
the Higher Nature in either ourselves
or some Higher Spirit (God??)
in the Universe.
(for example:
"With calm faith,
I open to Thy light.")

So with Ananda Yoga,
with not only have the body
and mental awareness of most yoga,
but we have a deep confirmation
and accenting of
the emotional
and spiritual basis of yoga.

And with a Feldenkrais companionship,
we have a deepening of
the immensely easy
and pleasurable
improvements in
awareness
and thinkng
and moving
that can come from a system based
on learning and discovery
rather than that old trap
of "Doing it Right."

What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient system of self
evolution,
that involves mental, physical, and emotional
development.

What we in the West often call yoga,
is the body physical part,
sometimes called Hatha Yoga.

Well, usually called Hatha Yoga.

A really sweet way to cut to the core
of what yoga is,
is to go to the second sutra
of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras,
196 short and often very tense
statements on how to come to
the highest human states.

The second sutra
goes like this

YOGAS CHITTA VRITI NIRODAH

yoga is the stilling
of the fluctuations and whirlpools
(of emotional likes/dislikes/attractions/repulsions)
of consciousness.

so: yoga is coming to the quiet place
in the center of all the fuss.

And then again,
some people like to explain yoga
with the idea of YOKE,
as in that thing that ties two oxen
together,
or even wedding vows perhaps,
but yoga here can mean union.

Union with what?
With your Higest Self.
Or Union with God.
Or Union with the Biggest Quiet at the Center of Life.

Or union of feet and head,
front and back,
left and right,
outer involvement and inner awareness,
movement and stillness.

Once you start going for harmony
and union,
the possibilities are almost endless.

Isn't that nice?

Ciao
for now,
Chris

Weight Loss and Gout undoing Diet

GOUT DIET, LOSE WEIGHT DIET, GAIN HEALTH DIET
Core to this way of eating is to replenish and wash ourselves clean. We are 76% water and we need lots of water in our food. Gout is a condition of huge amounts of uric acid in the system, according to books. The cure: lots of cherries and strawberries and less or no meat. I’ve modified this so, you can stay super healthy, lose weight and wash the system in huge amounts of water.

Here goes:

Breakfast,
and all eating before noon:
Only fruit, ORGANIC FRUIT, fruit in season. Which now means strawberries, cherries, peaches, apricots and so on.
Tea, herbal tea.
Water, filtered (not bottled, let’s get beyond plastic) water.

Lunch
1. Main option: huge ORGANIC SALAD, at least 80% of the meal.
Along with the huge salad 20% of high omega three animal protein: hardboiled organic egg; salmon; buffalo.
(Cook the fish or buffalo as rare as you can stand it.)
2. Or: just a salad.
3. Or: just fruit, some more.
4. Or: any raw meal, get a raw foods book and find a recipe you like.

Afternoon snack:
1. Carrots, celery, any veggies
2. Or: A seed smoothie, and always first soak the seeds (okay kinds: pumpkin, and sunflower; hugely good kind: flax, though put them in fridge after soaking a couple of hours, they getting slimy don’t be scared) or a nut smoothie, with only almonds, again soaked overnight first. Add a little stevia to sweeten, or a small amount of honey.
3. Or: Plain fruit.
4. Or: Tea or water.
5. Or: Nothing, exercise and breathe.

Dinner.
1. All the lunch options.
2. Or:, 80% salad with 20% whole grains. Not whole grain bread (no bread, pasta, bagels etc, nothing from flour on this diet). But the whole grain of rice or millet or quinoa or buckwheat. With a little raw butter. A little.

Salad dressing:
All organic: cold pressed olive oil.
Raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s)
Flavorings: unpasteurized miso, garlic, ginger, Celtic sea salt, Dulse (seaweed, really good for you), turmeric, any other herbs,
Make your own though. Anything that isn’t crap is way too expensive and not as fun as making your own.

More to come, but this will change your life.

P.S. The usual medical disclaimers. You have a mind. Use it. If you want medical diagnosis, go
to a medical doctor. This diet will probably make you feel great and far healthier than
you've been in ages. Show it to your doctor, and have him or her come learn from me.

Remember: 4 days it takes to adjust to something new in the eating habit realm.

No: sugar, coffee, and little alcohol (one glass of red wine a day) or none.

No stuff from cans and bottles and boxes.

No stuff with pesticides, i.e. non-organic.

No dairy for awhile, and then only fermented (i.e. yogurt, or kefir, and raw if at all possible,
i.e. make your own).

Shop farmers markets, have fun, eat slowly, taste every bite and follow your breathing and think grateful thoughts while you eat, preferably eating outdoors.

Enjoy, learn.

Change requires change,
but you are becoming a new person.

Enjoy the discovery.

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enjoyment

BE

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

CURRENTLY OFFERING THESE CLASSES

"To make the impossible, possible;
to make the possible, easy;
to make the easy, elegant."
Moshe Feldenkrais.

MOVING EASY
MOVING SMART
FOOD FOR BRAIN
BODY
AND
SOUL.

Mondays until June 18
at the
SONOMA BALLET CONSERVATORY
around the corner from the Post Office

Monday June 25
skipping July 2, and then
Mondays
from July 8 on into August,

at the Field of Dreams,
shady area between upper and lower levels,
(bring a mat or blanket if you don't
want to lie on the grass)
12:30-1:10 PM
Bring a Mat or Blanket
Dressed Comfortably
Be Enthusiastic about Learning, Feeling Better
and Expanding your sense of Enjoyment


Wednesdays
until June 20
OLSEN PARK
(west of W 5th, on bike path,
or on Linda St. just west of W 5th)
10-10:45 PM

Then August 8 on in Olsen
Park at 9 AM.

Cost: sliding scale : $10-20
Seniors (65+) sliding scale: $5-20.
First class: $5-10.

---

---

For amazing and transformative
and gentle
one on one lessons,
called
Functional Integration®
see
Individual Lessons
•

Kefir and Kombucha
in the afternoon sun.
Fermented foods = good for you.
Probiotics that keep making themselves
again
and again
and again.

The Body Ecology Diet

RADICAL HEALING VIA CHANGING THE MOUTH INPUT
I was just recently reintroduced to the Body Ecology Diet, via Acres, USA magazine, a radical agriculture and health magazine. Acres, in and of itself, is a great read, not just on organics, but on a whole movement necessary to take the economy back from the people who make all the profit moving money around and giving back a rightful return to those who work the land. And that’s another story.

The Body Ecology story is a way of clearing on a Candida epidemic, common to many of us who have used antibiotics and not added yogurt and other probiotics at the same time, or who have had too much sugar in our diets at one time or another.

Basically, it’s a great way to get back to the basics and unhook yourself from sweets and grains and sugar and start to radically heal, as well as lose weight.

Here are the key elements:
Eat lots and lots of non-starchy, non-sugary vegetables ( leaving out potatoes, cooked corn, yams and sweet potatoes and beets). This is all for awhile.

If you eat grains, only eat millet, quinoa, buckwheat or amaranth.

No fruits until symptoms clear up. Except lemons, limes, unsweetened cranberries and one other thing. This is the hardest for me, and surprisingly, you (I) just start eating more greens.

No sweeteners except stevia. No sugar, nor honey, nor maple syrup, nor anything along those lines. Only stevia.

If you eat anything, eat organic if you can.

Food combine: veggies with meat and protein, or veggies with the four permitted grains, but not grains with the meat or protein.
Seeds, soaked, and almond seed, soaked, are great sources of protein, as are eggs.
No dairy except kefir, and it a bit into the cleanse and healing.

It sounds strict, and yeah, yeah, it’s the cave woman or cave man diet, basically, minus fruits. It won’t kill you. It’s a great break from habit, and it might save years and years onto your life.

See Body Ecology dot Com
Ciao,
Chris.

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enjoyment

BE

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

CURRENTLY OFFERING THESE CLASSES

"To make the impossible, possible;
to make the possible, easy;
to make the easy, elegant."
Moshe Feldenkrais.

May 7- June 20

MOVING EASY
MOVING SMART
FOOD FOR BRAIN
BODY
AND
SOUL.

Mondays
12:30-1:10 PM
Wednesdat
1:15-1:55 PM
Bring a Mat or Blanket
Dress Comfortably
Be Enthusiastic about Learning, Feeling Better
and Expanding your sense of Enjoyment

SONOMA BALLET CONSERVATORY
around the corner from the Post Office

Cost: sliding scale : $10-20
Seniors (65+) sliding scale: $5-20.

---

• Increase moving ease

• Get smarter

• Increase pleasure

• Transform Pain

• Discover Habits,
Learn new ways of
Moving,
Communicating,
Being,
Pleasure,
Learning

• Re-learn to learn again
as you did when you were a child

• Have fun

• Learn ways of being
that bring pleasure
in many aspects of your life

---

To Sign up or get information,
Call 707-996-1437
or Email Chris Elms, M.A.

---

For amazing and transformative
and gentle
one on one lessons,
called
Functional Integration®
see
Individual Lessons
•

Secondary Gain, and the Path to Deep Healing, Happiness and Life

SECONDARY GAIN
My father, blessed his heart, used to work too hard. In his forties and fifties he could not allow himself a vacation. Also, he wasn't very good at the family thing, where people didn't salute and take orders and understand the Hierarchy, with him on top, giving orders and the rest of us obeying. His work was with the famous military industrial complex, making jets and then missiles and whatnot for the great competition with the bad guys things that kept him and many others at work in both this country and the bad guy bloc. And he functioned best in a semi-military, top down world. The family, especially our nutty family was topsy turvy, not top down.

That's a bit of an aside.

The point: no vacation.

Lots of fighting with my Mom.

Not much peace in the family.

Okay: how to solve these problems. Well, one way would have been to take vacations and figure out how to communicate in a listening and give and take and mutually respectful family atmosphere. But that would have required real inner change. That wasn't the route my father took.

He took the route of secondary gain and got heart attacks every several years.

These solved all the above problems temporarily.

He got a break from work.

The family became deeply solicitous and realized how important and wonderful he was.

My Mom and he stopped fighting, and she assumed a Florence Nightingale role vis a vis him. (They met when he was sunburning at a country club pool an d she came to his rescue with sun tan lotion.)


So, this happens a lot. We don't know to sit down or lie down, so a disease comes along and brings us to our knees.

We don't know how to get the attention and gentleness we want so we fall apart and then it's forthcoming.

Or maybe, it's different, less linear: we have been attention starved for years (all the attention to our real arms and legs and moving and breathing and whatnot that we do in Feldenkrais and in slow and conscious yoga is that much less attention we need from outside ourselves.) And we've eaten a diet full of pesticides and sugar and refined flour, the three main elements Western Price discovered in the 1930's were the crucial difference in native cultures health deteriorating into the land of cancer and heart attacks and degenerative diseases. (See my prior essay: Food and Health.) So we come down with something heavy.

The disease is real. And a shift in our stress level and our eating and caring for ourselves has to take place, but we've got the secondary gain thing going, because now that we are the Diseased One, we are suddenly getting the attention and pampering we've been craving forever and ever.


So what's the Way Out?

I have other essays on what to do if you have cancer, which can be a start for those with any serious setback illness. June 24, 2006 essay. And June 26, 2006 essay. All sorts of ideas in there. This is part of the way out. (Reading those essays, they aren't quite as good as I'd like, so next essay in this blog will be a series on Radical Healing, but they are a start.)

And another part is getting a sense of humor about how part of us is a big baby and is using this illness to remain a big baby. Talk to those who are taking care of us and come to realize: they will love and pay attention to us even if we aren't ill.

Get well by shifting all sorts of things. (See the index of all the essays blog, at Health Blog Index.)To change we have to change. And, of course, the rewiring of the brain and improvement of the entire nervous system that comes from the Feldenkrais Way, and the coming to the present that comes from Wake Up Feldenkrais are tremendously useful in this.


Mainly though, we need a commitment to loving life, to being present, and to enjoying the journey of change that we are going to need to take to get healthy again. And part of that journey is going to have to be a humorous and honest understanding of our secondary gains.

Love and healing to us all.

Create Joyous Health for Yourself, Starting Now

REAL HEALTH
In the town of Sonoma, we have a rather big mess with the situation of replacing the existing hospital. One radical solution, and one that takes the responsibility back, is to keep our health in such fine shape that we never need to use the hospital.
How can we do this?
Well, from a discussion at the Farmers' Market this morning, here's some things we came up with:

Do some aware moving. Yoga with awareness. Feldenkrais, which demands and centers around awareness. Walking or dancing with awareness.

Eat fresh, organic food.

Grow the food yourself, which is to say: garden.

Get outside, and move consciously: which is to say: garden, or walk, or take a hike, or a stroll, or even a run.

Forgive. Find a way that works for you. If you haven't found one yet, the Work of Byron Katie will enable you to give up and move beyond all your grudges. I use it daily, to relieve the little complaints before they create a groove in my brain, and waste my life, happiness and health.

This we didn't discuss, but I believe it is crucial to health: eat a lot of raw food, preferable one or two or even all raw meals a day.

Go to bed early. Sleep happily.

Do something that is either meditation, or like meditation. This could be gardening, or yoga, or Feldenkrais, or walking. Or sitting and looking at the stars, or lying and look at the sky. Spend some quiet solitude, just you and your sense of being present and alive.

There's probably more. Ah, yes: keep learning. Learning in the way of the most recent essay at WakeUp-Feldenkrais.blogspot.com. Learning that is organic, and easy, not forced and artificial like most book and school learning is. Slow, joyful aware learning.

Slow, joyful, aware living. Isn't that a nice way to be?

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enjoyment

BE

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

FDA Up to their usual support the Big Drug Company Tricks

Real Healing Comes from the Likes of This: Natural Mustard,
Happy in the Sunlight, and
yet, we have the other world:;;;;;;::::

What follows a friend send me
It's a lot of links and the one that works to protest is this one
Protest Email Link

WE HAVE UNTIL APRIL 30, so this says at the end... that is just around the corner !
link to sign petition is at the end.

let's pass this email on... quickly...

go to
www.healthfreedomusa.org

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Press Release

FDA Attacks Complementary & Alternative Healthcare
by John F. Gilbert, Ph.D. - President/NTCB


I just spent three days reading, re-reading, researching and discussing the
proposed FDA guidelines for "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" with
two FDA attorneys. You can download a copy of this proposal for yourself at:
_http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/06d0480/06d0480.htm_
(http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/06d0480/06d0480.htm) .



When I first heard about this FDA attack on complementary and alternative
health care, I considered it another "Chicken Little" rumor. On further study,
I'm appalled at the speed with which the pharmaceutical companies are
implementing Codex Alimentarius in the USA. If you don't suspect the
pharmaceutical companies control the FDA, you may want to research that further by
visiting _http://www.HealthFreedomUSA.org_ (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/) .



This insidious proposal is designed to redefine every complementary and
alternative health care modality and product as "medicine." This has direct
implications on the services and products provided by every alternative health
care professional. There is no facet of complementary and alternative health
care that is not affected. If the FDA adopts this proposal, all natural
health care would be illegal even for medical doctors.
Essential oils, herbs, herbal remedies, homeopathic remedies, minerals,
nutritional supplements, plant enzymes and vitamins are redefined in this
proposal as "medicine." Very simply, medicine is under the jurisdiction of the FDA
and, by law, only licensed medical doctors may prescribe "medicines."
Anybody else who advises, advocates, counsels, distributes, markets, recommends or
suggests anybody use "medicine" is practicing medicine without a license.
This is a felony in the USA punishable by fines and incarceration.
Aromatherapy, auricular therapy, biofeedback, color therapy, homeopathy,
hypnotism, naturopathy, neurotherapy, nutritional consulting, reflexology,
sound therapy and wellness consulting are among the alternative health modalities
being redefined as "Alternative Medicine." This subtle change of vocabulary
from "alternative health care" to "alternative medicine" makes all of these
industries subject to control by the FDA as medicine. Only medical doctors
would be allowed to provide, prescribe and supervise the delivery of these
services. Anybody else who provided any of these services would be practicing
medicine without a license and subject to incarceration and fines.
That's the bad news. The good news is we have until April 30, 2007 to voice
our opinion against this proposal to eliminate complementary and alternative
health care in America. Almost 100,000 people have already filed their
objection. According to Dr. Rima Laibow, medical director of the Natural
Therapies Foundation, we need 50 times that many people to respond by the end of the
month.

Please stand up and be counted. Go to Protest Email Link





Natural Therapies Certification Board

Jackie Olsen

Executive Director

Natural Therapies Certification Board

John F. Gilbert, Ph.D.

President




Natural Therapies Certification Board | 848 N. Rainbow Blvd. #662 | Las
Vegas | NV | 89107

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

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.

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.

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

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.




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.

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.

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?

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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?

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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?

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Ah. To take a walk. Yes.

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.

.

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.

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.

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?