How to "Lose" Weight

stop waiting
to
be present
and
pay attention
to
the eating

the food
the tastes
what you put in
how fast
how you chew
shallow
what do you love about eating

how do you
know
when to stop

that's the start
and then:

eat lots of raw foods
maybe all

and then:
eat most
in the middle of
the day

and then:
combine starches with greens
and proteins with greens
and fruits alone or with raw protein

go slow
eat less
wait
and have
a snack
that has no
flour
no sugar

oh yeah:
drop flour
and sugar from the eating

lots to change

discover the thrill
of changing

why
wait???

Sufia Yoga Class

(no longer offered on
Mondays
instead:::
on Friday afternoon
and Saturday mornings
at the new
Waking Up
Cottage
on Carriger Road:

call for location
and times
and to reserve:
707-996-1437




Sufia Yoga=
Strength
Unification
Flexibility
Intelligence
Awareness & Anti-Aging

A new invention
an evolving and wonderful
combination of
yoga (I was certified at the 200 hour level this summer)
Feldenkrais (I have trained 183 days, not hours, beyond the required 160 days)
Tai Chi
Pilates
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

Following the patterns of life:
expansion and contraction
Rotation and lengthening of our spine
Balance, coordination, and novel patterns of moving and learning
Discovery as intrinsic to a spontaneous, joyful and creative life
Loving now as intrinsic to a peaceful, rich, creative and loving life

Just show up.
Please bring a mat, and one (or more) for a friend(s), if you have extra.
Thanks.

Questions???
707-996-1437
or
email me at: chriselms@sbcglobal.net

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

Living Life is Good,
Even when you are tired

written by a tired
chris,
oh
well


to be healthy

walk

to be healthy

smile

to be healthy

try something
that you think is "hard"
to do

this could be:
being present when
unhappy

this could be:
making a phone call you are
afraid,
or reluctant to make

this could be:
loving someone who is
giving you a hard time

even yourself
if you are giving yourself a
hard time

this could be:
going to bed when tired

this could be:
taking a walk when
tired

this could be:
walking in silence
when you are wired

this could be:
writing
in the present
following the breathing
your breathing
me breathing
anyone's breathing
while writing
or reading or
reading (that's a hard one,
every tried it:
if not,
hey:
another hard thing to try)

why try to hard things:
like to breathe
and know you are breathing
when your chatter mind
wants you unhappy?

because
life is a rising up
through the muck
an exploration
of possibilities

any moment
in the
real
now
kind of place:
is impossibly wide open

even
this
silly
wonderfu
one

wonderful
one

won der full
one

one dear full
one two three

there you be

Waking Up Now

Friday Night wake up Group:


for some folks, Friday night
is pizza
or flake out
or party
or all three

for others:
what a grand party
to gather with others

and stay present

talk in the present
listen in the present
move in the present
sit in the present
to be silent
in the present

nothing fancy
everyday
magic
of waking
up to now

as we get "advanced" we will
talk of the immense topic:
How to Heal the Earth
and
staying present
as we speak and
listen,
we will experience
this discussion at a whole different
level than the usual
feeling frantic, cynical, distraught
or whatever emotional
habits grab us
when we aren't present

and,
it's possible to feel "bad"
when present
except
except that underneath
that
there is always a feeling of peace
and supportness

impossible?
no.
difficult?
perhaps.
Come and give it a try
of easy effort,
attention,
and delight
in the
Now.


Friday nights:

7-8:30 PM

$10-15 per person

$15-25 per couple


call for location
and to clarify
your wishes for yourself
in such a group

707-996-1437

Waking Up
in the New Year

January 5
First Saturday in
the "New Year"
2008
Saturday
1-5 PM

every moment is "new"
if we are "now"

easy to say
to write
to blah, blah about

easy to "do"
easy to forget
a delight
an absolute delight to
be there
and stay there
as long as we can

yes

Come together
to sit in silence
to speak from the present
to move with awareness
to learn about learning
to be present
to find the peace
that is
always there
when
we are now

$50 before Jan. 1
$60 after

Modified Head stand

Upside down
and the legs off
to the side.

Does this look
fun
or
hard
or both?

Yes.

Clear Skies
and the Waters of Inner Peace

Gurdjieff once said that most people's idea
of happiness

was to eat themselves
into a stupor

well,
tomorrow's a
good chance to do that

or to
go for the real gold:
awareness as we eat
awareness as we open
our mouths to yap, yap

awareness as others speak
and we are tempted to fill our
mind with what we are
going to say, "next."

all that next
stuff
next thing to say
next bite to gobble in

and food,
yum,
one of the few moments we
are
now
when that tastes hits our nervous system
yum
yum
and hey,
one bite
needs
another
and another
and another
and
the tastes in the mouth,
and that social permission to plunge
in
and take it in my the shovelful

and soon the now
of tasting
the deliciousness
has gone into the glog
of stuffed
stupor

ah, happiness

of a sorts

oh, well
it's a sweet life

wonder ful
to wake
up
any
moment

even
now

Healing and Enhancing our Relationships

From poor to good
from good to great

it's always fun to improve

Relationships are core to a happy
and sweet life

and we sometimes
either
go numb in them
or get so busy we don't see the other
or get locked into combat
or suffer in silence
or act in ways that are highly "asleep"

This work is for anyone who wants to
wake up to now,
to live with more pleasure,
awareness,
and love.

For themselves
and others.

Couples,
parents and teenagers
grown adults with issues still with their parents
anyone holding a grudge and having forgiveness hard to come to
anyone estranged from someone they once loved:

this work is
for you.

Sessions
last from one to two hours
and cost $60-120 per hour,
you chose the amount.

Eating Less

To become a sweet and fine
weight
just for you

sometimes
you have to wait
until you eat
again

do a little
something first
a Feldie lesson
a twenty minute walk
or yoga
or tai chi,
or meditation

it's good
to do
a little something
when we think
we "have" to have
something
just now

breaking fasts
means
to explerience
the joy
of letting the stomach
wait
a little bit

no big deal
to our body
huge deal
to our robot
mind

don't believe me?
Okay.
don't believe me

or come in
for hereandnow
consultations
and see
remember
learn what you once
knew as a child:

there is a food
much
dearer
and deeper
than
food

and
of course:
enjoy the heck
out of your food

and
of course:
eat slowly
enough
to
WAKE UP
whilst thou eat

What is Health

Resiliancy
and the
ability
to thrive
when setback
or set forward
or set down
or set up



love
is always
around the corner
and bursting
out of
real
health,

or so it seems
and
at any
moment
we
can be
healthy
and now

or something else

why not
be healthy

ciao
chris

Clarifying Standing on One Leg, #1

Human beings can do a lot of things,
many of them fairly stupid,
and some
marvelous and we don't even know it:
such as standing on two feet.

Lo and behold,
why stop there:
How about standing on one leg?

Turns out
yoga
in its quest to help us clarify what this
body thing
body mind thing
focusing and attention thing
is all about
has a bunch of one legged postures.

And great:
every time we walk
we are one legged
for a little while.

But
in yoga,
we hang on one longer.

So, let's take the simplest
and make one set of clarifications
this week
and some more next week.

The pose:
Tree
Vrikasana

How to do it:
You know,
but just in case:

Stand on one foot,
bring the sole of your other foot
to your ankle
or your calf
or your thigh,
or bring your ankle of the up foot,
across the standing up leg thigh.

Anyway: there you are on one foot,
and the hands?

In prayer pose:
at heart
or above your head.
Or arms parallel above your head.

Okay,
then you stay there awhile,
and if you want to get fancy,
close your eyes and stay there.

Good:
the affirmation:
"I am calm. I am poised."

Fine.

And to clarify:
try this.
First experiment with your two legs
and discover which side does Trikonasa better.

Then do it on the "second best" side again,
and see how it is,
and specifically notice:
where is your hip joint.

Then lie down.
Stand the foot on the ground/ floor,
of the "second best" balancing leg.
Leave the "first best" leg lying straight and
it will just do nothing for awhile.
So we'll call this "second best" leg,
the Leg.

Now: imagine where your hip joint
is for the Leg.
Hint: it's not at the outer edge we
call our hips.
Nor is it in the crease where our pants
make a fold, in the groin area.
So where is the hip.
Find out.

Move the Leg, with foot in place,
the knee to the right and left.
Slowly.
Search for where the hip joint is.
Really slowly.
Take rests.
Do this again.

Let the Leg down, and rest like that.

Now bring the foot of the Leg
to standing again, and do this interesting
movement:
once breathe out, and lift that knee, and bring it
closer to your head
and then breathe out,
and push your belly out and
press that foot into the floor/ ground so that
side of the pelvis raises a little.
Go very slowly.
Search for the hip joint
in all this.

Take another rest.

Do that again.

Take another rest.

Now combine:
Bring the Leg to standing,
and rotate that knee in a circle
in such a way that sometimes the belly
is going out and the knee is going away
from your body
and sometimes the knee is to the right,
and sometimes the knee is coming toward you,
and sometimes the knee is going to the left.

Slowly circle.
Rest.
Slowly circle the other way.

Search for the hip joint.
Rest.

Come to standing.

See now which leg stands
more easily in tree pose,
and what knowing about
your hip joint
has to do with helping this.

ciao,
chris

Marvelous Marlie

plan B

don't need one
yet

will post here
if we do

Yoga on a Monday:

Tadasana

This one is
"simple"

and oh, so beautiful

Stand with your feet firmly planted
on the ground

bring your eyes to the horizon
go a little below
and a little above


see if you can find a position for your neck
that leads your eyes to being directing parallel
to the Earth

horizon
horizontal
spine up and down
eyes at right angles to that

search
and
if you want:
play

play a little with eyes and nose:
eyes up as your nose goes down
nose down and eyes up
and then find the two together
and pointing to the horizon

horizon
horizontal,
directions we learn and learn and learn
as babies
and then forget about

how are we doing now
at the computer:
is the screen such that our backs
can be upright
and our eyes looking neither up
nor down at the screen????

okay
back to tadasana:

feet
rock a little forward,
feel what happens in your back


rock a little back
feel what happens in your front


notice the tension in your back
when you rock forward,
the tension in your belly
when you rock back

find the middle ground
neither forward nor back
(minimum tension, front and back)
and then
come back to your eyes and neck
and let them line up with the earth

this is good

try this, too,
which is a bit like the above
and a little more advanced,
and very toning to the brain
and the nervous system:
pull your belly in just a little
and rock your pelvis so the top goes back
and your tail bone (the bottom of the pelvis, in a way)
tuck under

alternate that with pushing your belly out
a bit (this can be done to sweet effect
at our chairs in front of the computer)
and rolling the pelvis so the top part comes forward,
and the tail comes back
as if lifting your butt in the air

back and forth

then make it bigger,
letting the arms come up and back when your
belly goes forward,


and the arms come a up and a bit forward
when your belly comes back


feel the rocking on your feet as you do
this

what is different
if you do this with your eyes open
and with your eyes closed

search for the middle in
all this
the place neither forward
nor
backward



and you'll have a sweet
tadasana

The affirmation here is:
I stand ready to... connect with my Highest Self
or
I stand ready to obey Thy least command
or
I stand ready to live in the Here and Now
or
I stand ready to live life to the full

you pick

enjoy

Parenting, and Love in Action

PARENTING: A GUIDE TO LIFE
Parenting is not something our children ask for. It’s something we do, and they live with. They suffer with, they put up with, they thrive with. Parenting is our job. In some systems, the soul decides to come back, chooses the parents, blah, blah, and maybe yes, maybe no, and most children have the complete right to say, “I didn’t ask to be born.”

So what’s our job as parents?

Easy.

To love.

That’s it, and on the “good days,” this is easy, and on the rest of the days, it’s a job.

A good job.

The best job in the world.

Have you stayed with me: on the “bad days,” parenting is the best job in the world. Why? Because when they are being little turds, then we have to get our …together and learn what loving really is.

You know the thing from the bible, where Jesus, almost with a sense of humor, says “Anyone can love really groovy people, but can you love them when they are sinners.” Something like that, and He has to drag in the old sinners thing, or maybe it’s just the translators. Over the eons.

Doesn’t matter.

The point: when they are good, they are very, very good, and when they are “bad,” they are horrid. (Little curl in the middle of the forehead, and so on.)

And when they are “bad,” we get to discover that “bad” is in the eye of the beholder, even if they are breaking our really great stuff, or hitting their innocent angle little sister/brother, or saying “No,” for the ten thousandth time to our Wise and Reasonable Rules, Demands, Requests, Pleads, and Barks.

So, how to do that?

Well, the Work of Byron Katie is the way to go at night, later, when we aren’t on the battlefield and we need to get clear about where IS the obstacle to love: in the little horrid child’s behavior, or in our mind that doesn’t know how to unconditionally love?

Loaded question, eh, and the Work, never posits one right way. It does allow us to get into our mess (Judge your neighbor/child), and slow down the mental mess (Write it down), and sort out the mess (Ask four questions), and bring the wisdom on home to our own hearts and minds (Turn in around).

But no rules: Thou Shalt Unconditionally love the little angels/beasts.

Nope, it’s all about understanding our suffering when we don’t love.

And then: back to the battlefield. What to do there, when we are ready to blow our stack, or at the very least, throw away love and get into Boss gear?

Same thing: Know what our habit is. Listen inside our minds to the voice and the words we are about to hurl out. Notice the habitual actions we want to take.

Slow down. Which is kind of already required, isn’t it: since we’ve slowed down enough to notice, instead of charging ahead in the old habit.

So, maybe way near the beginning is this: knowing we are going into the judge, anger, reaction mode. Then watching it.

Then, without the questions, raising the idea of the results of the questions: we have options. What else could we do than what we usually do.

But here’s the key, or one of the keys: follow our breathing. Look at the child without a story of how they should be different. Come to a calmness inside our own bodies, and look, look, look. And wonder: what is going on? Wonder, if I were this child, what steps could the Giant make that would make it easier for me to shift out of my doo doo? Wonder, about what the child imagines the world is and should be at that moment and see if you can help the child make sense of it’s anger or fear or stubbornness.

“If I were you, I’d want to stay here all night, too. You are really having fun. And it makes you angry when I take you away when you are having fun. And you really don’t like me when I take you away and you don’t want to be taken away. And it doesn’t seem fair that I get to tell you what to do all the time. Is that pretty much how it seems to you?”

Something like that.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, this wouldn’t be a bad way to be if a mate or parent of co-worker or friend got angry with us, would it? (Notice or don’t notice, that I stay out of the non-truth land that NVC gets you into when it starts talking about the “needs” of another. The child/ mate/ coworker doesn’t “need” to stay, or to feel in control, but they certainly “want” to.).

So, anyway: if we slow down, find peace in our own bodies, look at the child as someone who has real and valid and deeply felt reasons of their own. Maybe these reasons are understood, probably not, and that’s our job, too: to help them make sense of why they have good and righteous reason to hate us for a moment or a day or an hour.

So love is….

Something to learn. And learning how to slow down, give them their fury or “badness,” help them see what’s going on, work from a framework of listening, and paying attention and deep concern for “their side” of the deal: wow, that’s a long way toward love in action, isn’t it.

And if love isn’t in action, it’s probably not love.

Ciao, for this Wednesday’s parenting essay.

Yoga for a Monday

Warrior II
or Virabhadrasana II
or
Vira 2:

Ah, hello Monday,
and how about a little Vira 2
to start the week.
Let's skip the warrior name,
just go for the gusto,
eh?
Strength,
down and into the ground,
open heart,
up into the sky,
looking forward,
rooted backward,
tooted
to
life
and all its wonders.

And so,
yippie,
let's go:

slowly
and with depth
and exploration
and joy
and discovery:

DNA yoga, Discovery, Nature, Ananda/Awareness

In DNA yoga,
we are up to all sort of variations:
lean "too far" forward,


lean "too far" back



arch you back "too much"


fold and round your back "too much"


try it out
find what feels real
and good
and strong
for you

find the power of connecting to the ground
find the freedom and joy in the upper arms,
feel them floating free,
whether palms are oriented up


or
down


try different depths of the pose,



find what's right
and good
and strong
and happy for you,
for YOU,

find the power and the joy
and affirm
while in this pose
and then
in a resting pose before
the next one:

"I joyfully manifest the power of God."
or
"I joyfully manifest the power of Life."
or
"I joyfully connect with the power of my Higher Self."
or
something else
of your own chosing

have fun
go deep
be strong
clear
and present

that's yoga

you are yoga

Cow, belly down, ready to Moooo about:
Yoga for a Monday

Cat and the Cow

Cats, when they hiss, round up their backs, raising up their belly
and creating something like a half circle from
front feet to the back.

Cows, when they stretch out for a big old loud mooooo,
arch their backs, so the belly gets lower,
and the head gets higher.

Now, if a person did that,
we could have something like this:

1) For starters. Come to your hands and knees. Do this the normal mindless way, and then, hmmm, what would it be like to do it with awareness? Just how do your hands feel on the floor or Earth, and your knees? Are your feet flat to the ground or do you have your toes bent, in what they call the “for running” shape? Where are you looking? How does your spine feel? Are your hips over your knees, your shoulders over your hands? Fool around, play around, shift around, find what feels right for you today.

2) Breathe easily. Notice your breathing. Notice a happiness in breathing. See if there is any way that this simple act, the act of breathing can be easier and more pleasurable for you.

3) Now begin to arch your back and push out your belly as you breathe in. As you do this, lift your butt toward the sky, by tilting your pelvis so that your tailbone, too, is lifting. Do this each time you breath in, let yourself push forward with your belly, arch your back and tilt your butt to the sky. On the out breath, just come to “normal,” whatever that is.


4) Now try the opposite. As you breathe out, pull up your navel, lift the middle of your back toward the sky and tilt your tailbone under, as if you are going to tilt the front of your pelvis ( your sex) toward your face. Look down as you do this, so you are becoming nicely folded, with the center of your back being the high point of the curving you. This is the cat.


Cat, belly in, ready to hiss and ???strike


5) Alternate cat, with belly pulled in and back toward the sky, and cow, with the belly pushed forward and back arching so that shoulders and butt are the high points. Notice the tilting of your pelvis as you do this, and allow your head to come up when your butt comes up (the cow gives a big Mooooo), and allow your head to come down, looking between your legs when your pelvis tilts the other way.

6) Rest on your back and feel how you feel in your whole self. Notice your spine. Notice your breathing. Once again concentrate on being present and the happiness that comes from simple being at the moment with yourself.

Waking Up to the Call of Health in the Moment

to be healthy
is wonderful
and often
neglected
until
something
"goes wrong"

probably way before Ben Franklin
people knew
and forgot
that an once of prevention
was worth a pound of cure

and how
can
waking up
to the moment
help us with real health

in the moment
we can notice:
ah,
i'm a bit sluggish:
time to move

instead of the habitual:
i'm a bit sluggish,
grunt,
throw in some food
or stimulant

and again
in the present
when
we are eating
we can go slow
enough to follow
our breathing
while we eat
to taste slowly
while we eat

that way,
the meal
almost each bite
will be a feast

and we won't be
shovelling it in
and doing something else:
thinking
reading
talking
watching tv
while we
treat our bodies as mere
machines
needing a fueling stop

and this now:
if we sense
and breathe
and get honest
and clear:

what would
feel healthy and fine
to do
with ourselves
right now??

listen
listen
the answers are within

Season's Changing?
Or just a little early rain?

Now it's wet,
time to love water.

Now it's getting cooler
time to eat more fat.

Now's it's going to be darker
earlier
time
to eat more light,
or the
lighten
up
or en
lighten
up
or all three
or just
two

Now's it's Saturday
and that means....
whatever it means to you.

What do you love,
now?

What do you like,
now?

What would you do,
now,
if you didn't do
what you usually do

inside
outside

what habit
would it be fun
to explore
the shifting and undoing
and new variations on?

what is
it about now
that will
always be
and is
gone
even as
we notice?

ciao,
now,

chris

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

Eating Less

In Ramadan
people eat
only after sundown

the stomach rests
all day

they don't even
drink water,
the Muslims,
following
the dictates
of their religion

resting the stomach is good

fasting from dinner
is another way
to give the stomach a rest
make break-fast
a really amazing meal

and gain
an new appreciation
for how
much
we get pushed around
by our sensations
and our beliefs about
what we have
to do
the minute
the "hunger"
sensations
come

Nine Eleven,
did the bad guys
get to Heaven?

Six years ago,
some "bad" guys,
flew some planes,
they wanted to stir up
a hornet's nest,
they did.

They wanted to kill some people
and themselves,
they did.

The wanted to stun
the Mightly America.
They did.

And what can that all teach us
about health?

What goes wrong
when love
goes wrong?

We marry someone,
highly in love
(if planning the wedding wasn't
too fractious),
and then x years later,
we can 't stand them.

Where did the love go?

A religion sets out to teach
people
to
"love thy neighbor,"
to
"love thy enemy,"

and then,
down the road,
decides
that it's time for a Crusade,
time to go kill some infidels
and take over some real estate.

The Crusades.
men,
with their big muscles
and reptile brains,
and iron
and steel
and horses,
and ideas of God
twisted into
reason for killing
go
off the War.

Killing, looting,
all the usual,
not very "holy"
these Holy Crusades

and guess
what?

big surprise:
revenge ideas
from the "infidels"
who now have their
own ideas about who
is an "infidel"

To love the Infidel
or kill him,
what a strange question
and to realize,
many, many answer it
is the least loving way


Some people say that all healing
requires forgiveness.

There are fun stories
like this:
woman on death bed,
just about to expire,
has the realization
that she doesn't need to hate
the guy
who jilted her at the alter
on their non-wedding da,
and when she forgives,
she wakes back to life,
is healed,
gets up and walks
into the rest of her life.

forgiveness
of others,

forgiveness of
ourselves.

they haven't been perfect.
we haven't been perfect,
and
ohmygod,
that's perfect.

does that mean we should
stay asleep
to our lives
and the present?

nah,
it's far easier
to love
and forgive
and be happy
in the present,

so we might as well
come on back home
to now
and life
and love
and laughter.

ciao,
chris

p.s.
did the bad guys
get to heaven?

this requires other
prior questions:
what is bad?
who are the bad guys?
is their heaven?
what is heaven?
what is the function of heaven?
what is this idea:
the kingdom of heaven is within (J.C.)?

Red Sun,
Fires, Global Warming,
Happiness

Happiness is one of the reasons
we are alive

Love is another

Find someone to love
say,
yourself,
and then find someone else,
say,
whoever is nearest to you,
spatially

And love
you
and them

And then
try strangers

and then
enemies

enemies?

Sure.

See the essay
a couple of days
ago

in slowsonoma.com

and what about global warming?
take a walk
send out some love
see how little you can do today
and how happy you can be
doing that little

la
la

ciao
chris

Joy to the
World

The Light has come.
The Night has come.
The smile has come.
The breath had come.

The Ford has come.
The Chevy has come.
The Prius has come.
The Lord has come.

What is the Lord?
Something important
inside us.
Or.....you give it your meaning.

And as for food,
I'm interested in the Body Ecology Diet
not to lose weight
don't need to do that,
but the clear up some fiesty
yeast inside
who feast
on the summer fruits.

Alas,
alas:
lots of greens.
Lots of vegies.
Lots of seeds.
Some good meat,
that I like to eat raw: buffalo in the freezer two weeks first,
wild caught Alaska salmon.
Some raw cheese.
Raw keffir made from raw milk.

Lots of water.
Some wheat grass plus power weeds juice.

Some super smooties.

On the BED
she allows three "grains"
millet, quinoa, amaranth,
and does the usual food combining
only grains by selves or with vegies

and meat and protein by itself
or with vegies

who knows
if this would be a way
you'd want to go

she,
of course
has a web site,
and has discovered that all autistic kids
have candida

hopefully i'm not autistic
but rocking back and forth,
with awareness
can be fun
but only as long
as the awareness keeps it fresh
then
time for something else

joy to the world
and this moment

looked at desk trainer lately?
see link to side
it's pretty darn amazing

but then again
you have to get out of the
good old rut
for ten minutes or eight or something

the terror of human life:
billions of people
running around
more or less asleep
to anything but the program
that they are stuck in
and that they
never really got to chose

and this isn't about
"limiting beliefs"
this is about
ongoing sleep

how to wake up

sing
experience now
joy to the world
the .... has come


keep close to the breath
keep sensing
and keep listening for the ....

ciao,
chris

Love, Mindfulness, Humor, Nature

Now, Nature, Love, Laughter

Especially
laughing at ourselves
and how we can make ourselves
so tense and worried
and constricted

Love:
of ourselves
and others
and nature

now
is when our lives take place

nature
is the sky and air we breathe
the earth we stand on
and grow our food in
and the trees
and the flowers
and the oceans
and waters
we
are bones
and two legged
and big brained
and stand and sit
and move in
gravity

gravity
and breathing
now
almost every now

the earth is always here
the sun is somewhere

a laugh
is just around the corner
waiting to bubble up

love is
in our hearts
flooding out
or
wanting to

it's a
good
world

The Ongoing Sleep,
and Weight Loss

In our wonderful world,
there seem to me
to be
three choices
for us
human beings

so called
human
beings

one:
low functioning robot.
always do the same thing,
complain a lot,
in a lot of conflict
unhappy
making others unhappy
not able to do, very often,
what they (we) set out to do

two:
high functioning robot:
almost always do the same
thing
think the same thing
say the same thing
but these things
tend to be more upbeat
more positive
more "happy"
useful to others
and ourselves.
able to do what we set out
to do
some of the time
(or even all the time,
if a really high functioning robot)

and
awake
to this moment
yes, this one right now
and the next
and the next.

no real room for "negativity"
because in the present,
we just see what is,
and if we can make something better,
we ask or offer
a possibility

this is scarier land
this awake
place
because we might not say
the "right" thing,
and might not do
what "others" want us to do

we won't need the drugs
that bond people,
the coffee and
the sugar
and the wine
and the stress adrenaline
and the fear of the Bad Guy adrenaline
and the fear of Something Bad happening adrenaline
and the fear of the Enemy adrenaline

we aren't in a hurry
we are sometimes "late"
we smile when people insult us
we laugh at our own misconceptions

anyway
it's a fun place
and with a story can be lonely
and without a story
is sweet
sweet
peace beyond understanding

and what's that go to do with weight loss:

if we are, say,
eating only fruit in the morning:
and we have a "starving" story,
or an "I have to have what I always eat" story,
we aren't free
to just enjoy the energy
and the freshness
of just fruit in the morning

if we are, say,
not eating after five in the afternoon,
and are "starving,"
we can be present to the "hunger"
and drink some tea,
or take a walk,
or write something that is important to us,
or we can panic
and want to do
have to do,
be compulsively compelled to do
what we always do:
stuff our face
when feeling a little "off"

which might be
when we feel "alive"
and "full of energy"
these feelings might be so strange to us
that they feel "off"

oh, well:
it's a good life
and at
any moment
we can wake up
to
now

any
moment

even,
of course,
now

ciao
(rhymes)

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

Shitty Food.

At a lovely meeting
yesterday
of some lovely teachers,
they were busy eating salted nuts,
and crackery kinds of things,
and then those frozen ice cream sandwich
things,
you used to get at roller skating rinks.

I guess it's possible to
be healthy
and eat shitty food,
but only if you exercise about
six hours a day.

These lovely
teachers
didn't look like the six hour a day
exercise types,
and so
seemed to be missing
a chance
to have been eating food
that was making them healthy,
instead of food that was most likely
making them unhealthy.

Oh, well.
Who am I?
the food judge?

oh well,
again,
still:
tis summer
apples are just coming in,
tomatoes,
figs,
nectarines,
grow some sugar in
your yard

one woman i once read about
cured herself of breast cancer
by only eating food she grew herself
or bought in bulk.

her rule:
no packages
or boxes
or jars.

one way
to get back to healthy
food,
eh?

Transformative Yoga.
Classes Soon starting.

One way I've started to call it is
DNA yoga.

Discovery, Nature, Aware/ Ananda Yoga

Discovery,
for taking advantagege of my training
(4 years of the "basic" training,
and then another 700 hours beyond that)
as a Feldenkrais Practitioner.

The Feldenkrais Method®,
is a method of learning to
think,
move,
feel better,
via
being more aware,
and taking the emphasis
off of "getting it done,"
or "getting it Right,"
or "making progress,"
and bringing us back to a state
of learning
and discovery,
the state we were in when we were young
and a genius, say from birth to a couple of
years old.

See my
What is the Feldenkrais Method? One word, two word,,, one sentence, two sentence, and so on, brilliant little collection
of ways to look at the method.

Anyway,
working with me
in either DNA yoga,
or "regular" (which means wildly creative and transformative)
Feldenkrais "work,"
or in the Work of Byron Katie,
and Discovery will be there
deep and firm in our joint unfolding.

Okay,
that's discovery.

And N.
NATURE.
I'll be having classes outdoors as much a possible.
All this hiding inside four walls,
cutting ourselves off from blue skies
and real earth,
and grass and
soil
and wind
and the elements:
nonsense.
Insanity.
How can we be sane
in a world
when we are always cut off from the world.

that's part of the NATURE part.
Another part:
Discovering what our human nature is.
To feel.
and to sense.
and what is the difference?
To make sense of something,
what does that mean?
To live in gravity.
What does that mean?
To have breath of which we can be conscious
or unconscious,
what does that mean?


A
is Ananda Yoga
or Awareness Yoga.
Or both.
Ananda yoga
is how I was trained
and certified at the 200 hour level
required by yoga alliance.
(compared to 800 hours for the "basic Feldenkrais" training).

Ananda yoga is about
being relaxed
and sending spiritual energy up your spine.
If that doesn't make sense,
it's about being relaxed,
even in the midst of efforts
and continually bringing awareness inside of yourself.

One way it does this is with affirmations.
For example,
the affirmation in what's called "Child's Pose"
(Balasana)
is
"I relax from outer involvement
into my inner haven of peace."

This not only accentuates and deepens
the posture,
but gives a big hint at what Ananda yoga is about.

Another posture,
warrior 2, Vira II,
Virabhadrasana II,
is a strong and joyous pose.
Its affirmation is,
either
(my version)
"I open gladly to the strength and glory
of being Alive."
or
the official version,
"I joyfully manifest
the power of God."

So
A
could be about Affirmations.

So, come to a class,
you'll love the affirmations.

And between poses
you rest,
and say the affirmations again.
This isn't about getting sweaty
and using yoga like going to the gym.

This is using yoga
for spiritual and emotional strengthening.

Though,
with the Feldenkrais
and awareness emphasis,
A
for
Awareness,
you will get more flexible,
much more readily
and EASILY,
than in normal,
do a bunch of postures
and always fuss with DOING IT RIGHT,
and never slow down
and really learn yoga.

This is yoga to learn,
to transform,
to enjoy,
to connect.

Deeply.
To yourself,
to others,
to the Earth,
to Spirit,
to your Higher Self.

Classes and workshops:

Transformation
Change
Improvement
Fun
Waking up to Now

Back Pain
Weekend Workshop:
May 10-11
Sat and Sunday 1-5 PM
Cost:
$200 on bike or walk
$220 carpooling
$240 in car alone
10 % off if paid by May 3


enlightenment Tai Chi:
Learn a form forward and backwards
and to both sides.
the idea is learning and body brain awareness,
not "doing the form."
The idea is waking up to now.
Four Saturdays,
if at least eight people interested:
May 3, May 10, May 31, June 7
9-10 AM

COST: $50 on bike or walking
$65 if carpooling,
$80 if in car alone.



Transformative Movement Lessons:
Based on my training in the
Anat Baniel Method.
Many uses:
pain transformation
yoga and sports improvment
vitality and anti-aging
fun
curiousity
waking up to now
Four Saturdays,
if at least eight people interested:
May 3, May 10, May 31, June 7
10:30-11:30 AM

Cost as above.


Waking up to Now
meditate
walk
move
doing nothing
talk
all from and in
the present

Thursdays
7 PM






To register for classes and workshops
, call 707-996-1437
or Email Chris Elms, M.A.

Eating and Fasting

We have this word
break
fast,
as in breakfast.

And if we eat at night
the fast isn't much to
break.

And if we don't eat at
night,
like the Dhali Llama,
say,
then the morning
finds us empty
and ready
and able
to truly
enjoy
a break
fast.

Ramadan
coming
up.
A different
kind of fast:
No eating in the day.
No water in either.
Breakfast comes after sundown.
Starts Sept 12.
Maybe this is of interest
as an experiment.

Not eating after 2 or 3 in the afternoon
is an interesting
experiment
for me
just now.

Ciao,
Chris

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.

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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.

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• Increase moving ease

• Get smarter

• Increase pleasure

• Transform Pain

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

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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,
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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