Friday, November 28, 2008

Eating and Finishing



Thanks giving
is a sweet
and wonderful
chance to see:

ah, I can stuff myself.

And then:
how do we sleep.

How do we feel
the next day?

A possible
switch:

do all stuffing before 2 or 3
in the afternoon

and then stop eating
until
the next morning.


Dali Llama does it
Ayuruvedic recommends it

when I do it:
I sleep better
wake up fresh
and untired

a nice shift of
habit
I'm looking forward
more and more

to making


Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Essentials of Real Health and Healing:

My Take


nasturium


1. Meditate Full Time
Not on your butt, though that twice a day 10-20 minutes
would be nice.
All the time, while living.

2. Spend a couple hours a day outside.
Do walks.
Talks.
Writing.
Gardening.
Thinking.
Commute on your bike or feet.
You figure out how.

Enjoy these minutes/ moments.
Meditate in them.

3. Re-learn to learn how to move
with ease, grace, pleasure,
creativity and awareness.
Deepen sensing, body comfort, skill
and learning.
Vitality and learning at center of life.

4. Eat only raw foods.
(If you want to stop getting sick
or heal something
or lose weight
or increase radically overall vitality.)

Raw fish, meat, cheese, milk, keffir, eggs
okay/ good.

This puts you way out of social norm.
Oh, well.
Doing morning and evening raw
is fine wonderful great, too.

And being present,
you can love
those around you,
even as they look at you
like you are some sort of scary freak.

When you start to glow,
lose huge amounts of weight,
stop getting sick,
and look ten to twenty years
younger,
they might get a little more interested
and respectful.

Then again,
they might not.

Their business: see Work of Byron
Katie, below as stress undoing
part of real health.)

5. Write three pages a day.
Dreams, wishes, ideas, wondering,
exploring, undoing, investigating,
letting go, diving in, loving, gratitude,
creative ideas.

6. Undo all grudges, resentments, regrets.
All of them
The Work of Byron Katie
is supreme for this.

7. Care for and be of use
to
Other People
and
the Earth.



This is a lot.
This will do almost anything.

Again:
my opinion.


Friday, November 14, 2008

Maybe Raw,
Maybe healthier,
Maybe more greens,
Maybe healthier



You can read
books
saying to eat this,
eat that.


One of the set of books you can read
is some fun stuff
that lets up
know about losing weight

or ending sickness

or even stopping heavy hitters
like cancer
and whatnot

by eating raw



me,
I don't know

think it's fun
easier

easier to digest
food tastes
better

simple

if I don't eat too much at night
have tons
of energy
even with little sleep

who knows

might work
for you

and if you do it
go
all raw

messing around
with "trying"
it

really isn't going
to give you the glow

so
go slow in your breathing
your eating

but,
make the shift
all the way

if you want to try
an amazing experiment

Friday, November 07, 2008


failing, learning, loving

What is Real HEALTH????



health
could mean:
never get sick

and a good path
toward that is two of
the things Mom should have told us:
get good
sleep
and
go outside and play

and the third
and this is to
NEVER
get sick:
eat raw
foods

Mom probably didn't tell us that,
though she hopefully pushed
bananas and carrots and celery our way


Anyway:
another version of health
is
a Feldenkrais definition:
springing back from setbacks

can be physical:
get sick
then get well fast

can be emotional:
get whacked by someone's unkindness
or insensitivity
or just plain forgetting that we
want to be as important as we want to be

and springing back


can be
life path:
setting out to do a business
or a project
and various
rejection/ failure along
the way:
and picking ourselves up and
going
do
with the show

good


and spiritual:
setting out to be present
or loving
or whatever
failing
and getting back to it
instead of trashing ourselves
for "failing" "again"

la,
la

easier
to write/ give
this advice

than
sometimes to remember it,
myself

see today's essay at
slowsonoma.com

love
and happy
ungradings
to
you,


Chris

Friday, October 24, 2008


Friday and the Week ending



Everything ends

Weeks end

Life ends

Relationships end,
either by death
or parting

Tomato season ends

Winter ends

Summer ends

This blog
entry ends



I bet you knew that,
and breathing in,
that ends,
pause,
breathing out,
that ends,
pause.


Someone says something to us.

What about a pause.
A breathing.
An opening.

What if we spoke and responded from emptiness,
rather than the old chatter tapes.

Ah, wouldn't that be interesting.

Giving life
our minds
our lives
a pause

some space

after one thing
ends

and the next begins




And what, to do with yoga, weight loss, tai chi,
and health,
has this to do?

Actually a lot,
and I'll pause
and maybe you will, too,
and then you can pursue how yoga and stop pause
tai chi and stop pause
health and stop pause
even weight loss (take a bit, and stop pause)

can be great and wonderful
ways
to improve the sweetness
and now-ness
in your life.


Ciao,
Chris


Friday, October 03, 2008

3 L's for a good life


saliva ug

Laughing
at ourselves,
especially when we have taken ourselves
into unhahttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifppiness by
our hatred/ anger at/ annoyance at
other people.

Why laugh?
Do The Work
and realize:
we do the same damn thing
that bugs us in them.

Learning,
something new,
about moving with more ease,
about plants,
about the person we live
with and might be taking
for granted
about the
joys of silence


Loving:
this is big.

Find something "hard" to love,
and see
what's stopping you.

More to come


Friday, September 26, 2008

What to Say on Friday?



flowers

I got up early today

usually wake up way early
and getting out of bed
is another story,
usually wait for the sun

but friends
at the Sonoma Ashram
like to meditate at 6:30 AM

so got on the sweet bicycle
still dark

went and meditated

good:

here is
what I
want
to be
and assist others to be
in life:


happy,
present,
loving what is,
learning,
healing of our moving, our thinking, our hearts, our Earth


Earth
love
happiness
learning
awareness


there was something more

real health

okay:

happiness
being present
real health for me, others, and the Earth
love, and letting for all unlove (forgiveness)
learning to move, think, breathe, live with Ease

ease
awareness
love
happiness
healing
health

good

fine,
that's enough

good


Friday, September 19, 2008

How to Eat Better,



It's an easy
step this one
and helps the Earth
have less junk
and your body
have less sludge:

Don't eat anything
from a package.

Get it in bulk,
get it at the butchers,
get it from your garden
and your farmer's market.

Sometimes I slip
on this, usually
sweetners:
Agave in a plastic thing,
and organic free trade brown sugar
to feed my kumbacha

and chocolate raw
in plastic

and raw milk
in containers


that's a lot,
and still
it could be more
lots more

do the best you can

and see how much better
you feel

oh, yeah,
and the stuff
you do get:
organic


Friday, September 12, 2008

Lose Weight:
Eat Less, Eat Better,
Eat Different



flowers roses

losing weight
is easy:

stop
the stuff in packages

stop
the sugar
and refined flours

only have grains
if soaked
over night

only have organic food

eat a couple
or all your meals
as raw foods

don't mix protein
and grain

better
yet
stop all grains

and eat less at night
and
a lot
as much as you want
in
the middle
or
middle-ish
of the day


Friday, September 05, 2008

roses

happiness and heat



it's hot today
and
often
hot
around here

what are you going to do?
go out into the heat a little, with
a hat
walk
ride a bike
don't stay too sheltered

and still:
nice to cool
the house
off at night
by opening the windows,
and then
keep the house
more or less
cool
by
shutting the windows
in the day

everyone knows
that

some still use
air conditioners

oh, well

global
warming:
we all try
to do a little bit

and what is good
for our health:

loving what is
always
takes the stress
way
away

so:
some way to love
the heat
seems a grand idea

I say:
plant tomatoes

then even when we are hot,
at least they are charging forward
into something delicious
for
us
to eat


Friday, August 29, 2008

sunflowers and barn

Friday, hot Friday
Undoing Stress
and
Real Health




the news yesterday:
Marlie and I are going to work
toward moving apart

this could be stressful

this could be sad

this was "hard" yesterday

and to "deal" with stress
is one of the great gifts
of the Byron Katie work

to have stress
means to be at war
with What Is.

to have stress
means not to be comfortable
now

it usually means being
lost to
now

and on the contrary:
to be now
is the end of the Byron Katie work,
usually

and to be now
is to
re
turn to a state of ease
and clarity
a feeling
an experience
of our being-ness
right now

and so,
the Marlie and Chris
thing

what a nice story
and she's wonderful
and I'm wonderful

and "it" was hard yesterday
and will probably be hard
at times in the future

and here's what we did:
talked
talked with one talking
the other listening,
five minutes at a time
no interrupting

if someone interrupted,
they had to finish out the time
period

talking
listening

and then
for me,
two sets of 22 minutes
doing
the work:

the beliefs:
"This isn't a good time for this to be happening"

Is that true?
I don't know.

How do I react when I hold to the thought/belief that
"This isn't a good time for this to be happening"?

Hell, is how I react. Feeling bad, sad, mad,
victim, cheated, fooled, afraid
and more.

Who or what would I be without the thought that
"This isn't a good time for this to be happening"?

I'd be someone sitting here
now
breathing
and curious:
how is this going to play out?

I'd be alive
and grateful
to have a friend I can talk
while we work
out what all the stories
say is a "hard thing"

I'd be in love.
In love with Marlie,
and excited to have a love
that rises to the occasion of loving
her when she wants her path and my
path to go different directions.

I'd be in love.
In love with me,
and excited to love me, even in
the scary place of wants my path
to go in a different direction
than someone I deeply cherish
and love.

Good.

And the turn around to the statement:
"This isn't a good time for this to be happening"

This is the best time for this to be happening.

A weird
wild
wonderful world.

Over and over the choice:
control
or
love.

Over and over the choice:
going into War with What Is
or
Loving What Is.

Ah,
life.
a hot Friday,
a future that will go ????
a love that is here,
right now.

this is one
way
one amazing way
out of so called "stress"


Monday, August 25, 2008

rose

Classes for the Fall




Increase Skills and Enjoy Life More

  • Think more clearly

  • Anti-Aging

  • Move with more ease

  • Re-discover how much you love to learn
    and
    be alive

  • Decrease and Make Irrelevant Various
    Aches and Pains

  • Recovery faster from Surgery

  • Perhaps avoid surgery

  • Recover from Strokes and falls and accidents

  • Rediscovery how much of you there is



Starting the Second Week in September
(on the weekend of September 6
and running for 5 weeks,
to end the week of October 4-9)

Group lessons
Monday and Wednesday
11:30 AM Discovery and
Anti-Aging Yoga
5:30 PM Backs, Necks, Shoulders
and Anti-Aging

Thursday
5:30PM Musicians, Surgeons, Hands
6:30 PM High Performers

Saturday
9:30 AM Discovery and
Anti-Aging Yoga
10:30 AM Rolling & Relationship
11:30 AM Backs, Necks, Shoulders



Based on my 127 days of training
in the Anat Baniel Method,
including certification in her Mastery Programs for
Special Needs Children
Vitality and Anti-Aging
and
High Performers

as well as
200 days of training
in the Feldenkrais Method

These lessons
can appear to be "movement lessons"
and are really
brain lessons,
anti-aging lessons,
regaining vitality lessons,
regaining our skills lessons,
and rediscovering discovery lessons




Costs:
taking one five week series
(Monday 5:30 PM Backs, Necks, shoulders and Anti-aging, say)
$100

taking two series:
$160

taking three series:
$200

drop in $30


yoga series:
one class a week for five weeks: $80
two classes a week for five weeks: $140
three classes a week for five weeks: $180

yoga teachers: add 50 %

drop in for yoga classes: $25


high performer series:
five week series: $200
drop in: $50

enjoy
learn
love each moment
and
smile


Friday, August 08, 2008


Something to say for August.

August has been hot.

August has been cold.

It rained a bit the other night.

Sleeping outdoors, Marlie and I got some raindrops
on our faces.
In the eye and it's kind of a zinger.
Still, we fell asleep with the rain,
and it was light,
and didn't last long,
and the next day things were damp
but not down to our layer.

Why mention that.
Rain in good, I think.
Sleeping outside is great, I think.
I'm getting more and more jazzed on eating totally
raw,
having had just one meal at the local Ashram on Guru Purnama
of cooked food
and gotten first cold
in a
long,
long
time.

What you do.
Up to you.

Though if you want to stay
slim
and have extra energy
and not
get sick,
this,
combined
with not eating much if anything
at night
and being
present
and moving
with awareness
and joy
and ease

all
are great
anti-aging
pathways

hope
you find one for you.


Friday, July 18, 2008

Have a wonderful day....
it's good for your health


Here's Marlie
we're back in the digital cam nonsense,
fun nonsense



and now
let's have some words...

i like visitors
to come here
on a bike
and with the intention
of working in a garden
and following
their breathing

could that lead
to a wonderful
day?

well,
less visitors and more peace
and quiet
in the garden
for me

what creates a wonderful day
for you?
maybe you like a bunch of folk
around
or maybe you like
some time to yourself
or maybe both

maybe you like time
with your kids
or your pet
or your garden
or your feet
or your yoga
or your tai chi
or your music
or your walking

and
dancing
singing

and
hey
what about
eating

and all this can be done mindfully:
and then the real health can come in

eating slowly and with awareness
will lead to real nourishment

eating in the yum yum stuff
it in mode
is fun
at the time
and then...
sometimes the consequences aren't that
sweet

and if we are
here
right now
even reading this

then the possibility
of ongoing happiness
is available

and ongoing happiness
as opposed to thrash around
happiness

is what we were meant to
have
as living beings

happiness
and helping
others
and discovering the truth
of what a life
is

lots of possibilities
for a
wonderful day

wouldn't
you
say???



Friday, July 11, 2008

Friday and Alive
and what a morning

a bee sting
a little way into the morning
after some fun times in the garden
transplanting this and that

transplanting
is one of the secrets to health:
having a garden and taking little bits of
this plant and spreading it
out somewhere else fun

healing:
the garden
being outside
puttering and experimenting
co creating with nature
taking a chance on something new
going for even more wonderfulness

and then the bee
in left hand
palm side, near where left thumb articulates
ouch
took sticker out
watched it
had idea of "sending love"
which seemed too vague:
so sensed the area
with interest
and curiosity
which is pretty close to love: attention, interest, curiosity
even a little fascination

didn't go off into emotional
poor me
didn't get worried about the sensation
which could be called "pain"
but as pure sensing
just was what it was

a stinging and a heat inspired me to walk to plants
that seemed cooling:
a basil leaf
a mint leaf
a purslane leaf and press them easily to the place

for awhile
then
since i'd alread made juice
and had the hand juicer out,
juiced the leaves and a little more
drank liquid

looked at the place
realized,
as i had earlier: temptation
to close everything down
and not move the ouchy part
so did little moves
like in the neurological work i do with others
and myself
if painful,
slower
find another route,
make it a path of ease
keep things moving

got into a whole nice game
with how the thumb moves
and how it moves with and in relation
to the other fingers:

try to touch your thumb and first finger
and have them together make circles
and then try this with the thumb and second finger
interesting puzzle

so looked at
loved
leafed
learned about
my left hand and the stung area
and
then
an urge to rip up some more of the
plant i'd been transplanting
and go the "wound" all nice and dirty
(oh, somewhere in there,
as playing with moving thumb and other fingers,
taking a walk down to check of recycled garbage
at bottom of driveway)

so anyway
using the hand as if it was okay
which is was
and dirty
and planting
and having fun

and then making some phone
calls
and a sister calling
with falling apart Mom stuff
and
i get to do
loving what is
work on that one

a grand morning
of this
challenge
and that
and rising to seemingly
enjoy
and go
with life

life is well worth
going with
it seems

and when i started this essay
though i've had bee stings that hurt and swelled
for several days,
i had to search to remember where
this one, a few hours ago, was

la
la

life
and learning
and staying
soft an loving:
worked today

who knows
about the rest
of the day


Friday, July 04, 2008



what is love?

and can it help
to make us healthy?

yes to last question,
and the first one.....

love is....

write it down on a piece of paper

look at the paper without words in your head
for five or ten minutes,

take a walk
and vaguely have the question in the back of your mind

and come back
and write
for a page or two,
without punctionation
or perfection
or even total clarity

just write to explore
and see
what love
is
getting to mean

for you



Saturday, June 28, 2008

Life
Upgrading
Sessions:

Action Coaching
in
Loving More,
Moving Better,
Functioning with more Ease,
Doing even better at anything
in which you
are already skilled and amazing





Sessions
combining

Talking
to clarify and improve

Writing
to clarify and expand

Neurological Upgrading Lessons
to move, think, feel
better

and

Movement with Awareness
to consolidate learning, joy
and a pathway
of creative life opening

2 hours or more per session:

$250 per hour


4 session minimum



give a call
to set up
an appointment:

707-996-1437


Thursday, May 08, 2008

Lose Weight, Get Smarter, Be Happier




Lose Weight:

eat mainly stuff with lots of
water in it:
veggies and fruits
uncooked

eat high quality meat
that has been range feed
or is wild
and is organic

maybe cook
it
maybe not


don't eat after six
in the evening

better
don't eat after five
in the evening

no fat after five

no flour
no sugar
no junk


okay:
how to get smarter:
learn five new ways
to do everything
you do:

come from sitting to standing
roll over
walk
talk
listen
write
worry
smile
eat
brush your teeth
and
so
on





okay
how to be happy:

breathe
learn to be present
learn to forgive
(the Work of Byron Katie
will take care of that.
i'll hire out to do that,
or you can do on your own)


basically:
if we are awake to now
we are real

if we aren't
la
la
either
high functioning robot
or not so high functioning robot

oh
well


Friday, May 02, 2008

Tai Chi, Yoga, Health, Weight Loss



Life is good.

In Tai Chi, you move slowly,
from foot to foot,
and move your hands and arms, too.

Most fools
teach it in a very strict
and anal way:
do just this,
do just that.

Boring.

Bad for the brain.

Good for getting people up off the couch,
and out of the car,
and away from the computer
(yeah, this one, right
in front of us!!!!),
and
still:
boring.

Think about moving your weight,
from foot to foot,
when do you do that?

When we walk, eh?

And Tai Chi is fun
or should be fun
because we change directions
as we are pretend walking
and waving our hands
into this shape
and that.

But it's still this:
using the pelvis to rotate,
shifting the weight from one foot to the other,
noticing our breathing,
noticing our spine.

This is
or could be
way fun.

Fun to be present.
Fun to notice two arms and two legs
and gravity
and breathing
and moving from foot to foot.

Balance.
Awareness.
Rotation.
Shifting.

Fun.

Okay,
and what about yoga?
There you don't get to move
around as much.

Oh, well.
It's more popular in the West,
it would appear, by the vast number
of yoga studios "helping"
and torturing vast numbers of people,
most of whom are desperate to like
themselves and their bodies more,
torturing again
with the same old:
do it "just right"
stuff.

Boring again.

And, truth, to be told
beautiful when you "get it right,"
and sometimes
fun
to try for the various contortions,
like crow, or Warrior 3,
good for balance,
good for figuring out how
we work.

And still:
how to make these two
potentially ahttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifmazing activities
and turn them into learning
and enjoyment and discovery.

If you thought
http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI might mention the Feldenkrais Method
and the Anat Baniel Method
you are right.

and that's all
for now.

they are mentioned.
plenty of other essays,
especially in Wake Up Feldenkrais blog
to shed light on these
amazing ways
to improve
thinking
feeling
learning
knowing
discovering
and
moving

and what about health
and weight
loss??

maybe tomorrow
or the next post,


ciao
for now

chris


Monday, April 21, 2008

the cottage

Classes Happening


Would you like to
Upgrade
and Transform
Your Level of Ease,
Vitality
and
Creativity?


to say nothing
of improving

Thinking,
Relaxing,
Sleeping,
Anti-Aging,
Posture,
and
Breathing











SEPTEMBER CLASSES


Classes Happening
cactus flower




Group lessons /
September and first week of October



Friday 4 & 5:30
Vitality & Anti-Aging


Saturday 9:30 & 11 AM
Backs, Necks,Shoulders, Hips

Sunday 1
Musicians, Singers

Monday 6:30
High Performers









Most classes,
for all levels,
and you can make amazing
changes in each session.

$20 per class if doing a series
$30 drop in, most classes

First Saturday class
and High Performers
will be more involved, complicated lessons
cost $30 per class by series
$40 drop in





Each class will contribute almost as much as a day's
workshop
in any other method.



marlie yoga








chris pseudo yoga






We are at 19262 Carriger Road
near Solano

long gravel driveway going towards
the hills in the West
second driveway south of Grove

if it's light out:
park at top of
Solano
walk north on Carriger to first long gravel driveway
on left
(sign might say 19260)
fields on both sides
small palm tree across from driveway:

walk up the driveway to your class:

one: less car noise for people here

two: you integrate your lesson by walking back
to your car for five minutes or so after the lesson

three: you get in the habit of
doing things in ways other than your habit

p.s.
don't bring a cell phone to the class




Phone:
707-996-1437

email
is chriselms@vom.com

thanks

and these classes
will
transform
your life

hope
to see you there

Monday, March 31, 2008

river waters

Eliminate Pain (Emotional)
Improve Skills
Love Yourself more,
Wake up to Now



What could be more?
Ongoing enjoyment of all the "ups"
and "downs" of human existence.

Is this possible?

Of course.

Combining what I consider the most
powerful tool
for emotional change
improvement
and happiness,
The Work of Byron Katie

and good old
connecting to now
(see many essays at
SlowSonoma.com Now essays)
and
connecting to Nature
via gardening
and
walking
and
breathing

and
connecting
to now
via
the WakeUp Feldenkrais work,
which is a method
of knowing
how wonderful it is to
learn
and to
have a nervous system
and
to
move
and
to improve
moving and learning and being
present

we'll combine that
with Gestalt
and active listening
and communications skills
and

clean up relationships
with Mom, Dad, kids, ex-mates
and so
on

and get
back to
what you were meant to be:
alive
knowing you are alive
happy
and loving
of yourself
and others
and
the Earth

good


Sessions are $120 per hour the first day
and $90 per hour on the second consecutive day
if you wish to up the speed of learning
and $60 per hour on subsequent days of learning
and
change
and
transformation

enjoy
even
the idea
of more
ease
calm
peace
love
and
happiness
in your
life

starting,
of course,
right now

love,
chris

and call me
at 707-996-1437
if you wish
to begin
now
changing
for the even
sweeter
life



Saturday, March 22, 2008

Tai Chi for Non-Dummies




Tai Chi is good for you.
Right?

Isn't that what everyone says?
And if everyone says it,
doesn't that make it true?

Well,
no.

And Tai Chi could be good for you
and it could be a nice way of doing
something better than sitting around
on your couch
and it could be a way of obsessing
one more time
with "getting it right"
and thus hurting your spirit
while perhaps improving your body.

So: what would the intelligent way be
to go about learning and practicing and enjoying
Tai Chi?

What would be a way of Tai Chi-ing,
if that is a word,
which it now is,
tai chi-ing yourself to improvement in
body, mind, spirit and breath
and
brain?

Well, for readers of my various blogs,
it will come as no surprise that I will
recommend a Tai Chi that blends in the awareness
and playfulness and experimentation
and discovery of the Feldenkrais Method
and my own take on that
which I call, Wake Up Feldenkrais.

And how would this look?
Well, best to come to classes,
on Saturday mornings at 9:30 AM and Thursday at 5:30 PM.

But here's a hint:
Tai Chi
is about moving the weight intelligently
and gracefully from foot to foot.
All the hand stuff is nice
and a way to pay attention to two legs
and two arms at the same time.

What's in between?
The spine.

Find two or three tai chi moves,
really learn the feet and pelvis
and arms and hands.

And then:
let the pelvis move in the opposite
of "supposed to."

Let the hands move in the direction the
head isn't moving?

Let the weight sometimes shift the same
way the pelvis is moving,
sometimes the oppostie.

This is a lot harder to describe than
to do.

and so: begin
to experiment and learn:
when am i learning
and when am i just being
a mechanical robot?

This could be
an amazing learning.


Monday, March 10, 2008

Recovering From Surgery



We all of us live lives that could be a lot more aware.
Sometimes, through habit and accident, we move in clunky ways that are inefficient, and sooner or later, even painful. Human nature is not to slow down and learn how it is that we are moving and being that is creating this pain. Human nature is to

One: just want the pain to go away. Or:

Two: ignore the pain, and learn to work and live and function around it. Or:

Three: plow through the pain, get the think of how rough and tough we are and actually get to enjoy the agony, if nothing else, for the bragging rights.

And here’s the neat thing: with the work of Wake-Up Feldenkrais and the Anat Baniel Method, we can have the pain become irrelevant. It will not only disappear, but we will become organized in our brains and bodies, so we move in ways that keep this pain from coming back.

For those who take the surgery route, many are surprised at how traumatic this is to our system. And many are disappointed at how little actual improvement takes place, though sometimes we have literally “cut through” the problem. Even so, our bodies need to mend, and the easier and more graceful our movement can be, the easier and quicker will be our healing.

This work is premier in helping us to learn again as we did when we were infants, and hadn’t a lot of muscle, how to move in the easiest and most useful way. This work appears to be “body work,” but is brain work.

This is about reorganizing and upgrading our nervous system.

It’s fun.

It works.

And if we can create pathways in our brain and in our functioning of moving in easy, efficient and pleasurable ways, we can set up a life for ourselves where we won’t need another surgery to patch up the complications we create in our reaction to the last one.

So, if you want to heal without surgery, or if you’ve had surgery, and want to recover in the easiest and a smartest way, come try this work and discover how good you can be at learning. Learning to live life with more ease, more pleasure and more discovery.

You’ll like it.
Your body will like it.
Your life will like it.

Yes..


Friday, March 07, 2008

soul and soil



what is the soul's purpose
on this planet?

what is the soil's purpose?

what is the purpose of organic
life?

what is the purpose
of our life?

there is a certain glory to life,
and the soul's purpose
is to find
and dwell in that glory.

This,
I think,
is real health.

Many people think of health as the absence of sickness.

Others think of it as a certain vitality, an ability
to get out and live life fully.

Others think of it as the ability to spring back
from stress and setbacks. (This was how Moshe Feldenkrais,
a judo dude from a troubled country clawing its way onto the stage
of world history) saw health.

I see health as that sort of glow
you feel inside when you eat an apple
or a carrot or a piece of celery
and that was just what you wanted and needed to eat.

Or maybe I see health as that sort of glow
when you are working in your garden,
and that feels like life's great gift
to you
and your gift to life.

Or maybe i see health as all those moments
when,
peaceful
and alert
and happy in
the present,
we go about making our lives
and the Earth a nicer
place to live,
and certainly that can mean,
just smiling at someone
as they pass us on the street.

Lordie,
lordie,
what am I talking about in here?

Health,
I guess.
Or a good life.

Somewhere in here,
by the title,
I "should" talk about soil,
and the dirt that becomes soil
when it is left alone,
or favored with attention and care
and good organic nutrition,
a little manure, a little bit of leaves,
some straw, some old rotten food, some new
young worms, some bright wild seaweed, some
happy seeds,http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
some smiles,
just like for our friends and neighbors,
maybe some paper
and cardboard,
so many ways to feed
the soil.

is that good,
feeling the soil?

Probably.

And how do we go about feeding
the soul?

Ah, maybe that we'll talk about tomorrow
at Slow Sonoma dot com.


Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Rains and our Inner Well Being



In this part of the world, on many a day, if the year is good, and the weather is kind, we have a good drenching rain. Today and last night has been that way. Last night the wind could be heard wild and whipping and this morning on our wide front porch, even boots and gloves supposedly “protected” by the overhang, were drenched. This cut a little into this morning’s fun, since without the big waterproof boots, I can’t frolic and stomp and work around so easily in the wet and mud and rain.

This, a shame. Yesterday’s pushing of wheelbarrows full of compost and horseshit in the drizzle, not only kept my body warm, and gave me pure and free exercise, but lifted my spirits as well. Who can feel poorly when the full fresh wetness of winter is all around, and you can march and stomp through it in your high boots, like some happy child.

Children know that rain is fun. Adults think it’s a bother, as if the wetness will somehow dissolve us.

When did we learn to be so fussy and frightened of a little discomfort? And is this really discomfort, a bit of wetness in our socks, or around our knees, and even, seemingly the worst of it, dripping down our neck? We can tell ourselves it is a drag, or that it’s yucky, or that it’s whatever we like to label experiences we want to avoid, but much like the emotional discomfort we were examining in the first section, physical discomfort, at least short of real miserable cold or hot, is often a mental story, a set up in our mind to be unhappy about the way things are going.

So we have the dampness, which as an experience is just a little .., well, damp. And then we have the story about the dampness, about how we really are uncomfortable, how we have to get back indoors, how we have to “fix” whatever is happening right now. We use the dampness as an excuse to dampen our own experience, to clamp down on our joy in living.

And now, this now as I write, the sun has come up between rain showers, and the clothes that I washed and hung around the house to soak up extra house heat and dry that way, the clothes beacon: put me on the line, they say. And, of course, the story: that’s too much work. And the story: it could rain again and I’d have to go out and bring them in. And the story: why can’t I just be like everyone and put my wet/damp clothes in the dryer? Well, I could, and prefer not to use the electricity. And anyway, the sport of hanging up wash is one I enjoy.

So rain not only gives me a chance to get outside and learn the difference between the experience of getting a little wet (after all there are coats and sturdy shoes, even when the boots are down and out of commission) and real suffering. It also gives me the chance to play with my clothes, the see if the skies will stay clear of rain long enough for some drying to take place.

And by the time these last two paragraphs have been written, the clouds and grayness has come in again. The wind is still strong, and by the end of this paragraph, the rains could be back. Time to put on my boots and take a walk. Maybe they’ll still be wet inside and my feet will get a little wet.

Maybe it will start to rain on me. Maybe I’ll play part time gambler and hang some of the clothes on the line.

If I’m present, it’s all a gift, isn’t it?


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

the importance of fresh air



sweater on plant
sweater on plant on piano

to breathe fresh air:
our bodies like to do this
and when riding a bike along
a beautiful road today
i saw some people taking happy walks

other people work
outside

still others
do chores
for their animals

others garden

some just go
outside
and sit

this is
all
a nice way to
live

and
does
it make
any money?

ah,
the big question

somehow: you can build gardens
and talk to people
and write books
and think useful thoughts
and think no thoughts in a kind
of enlightened
state

all this
you
we
i
you
us
can do
outside
breathing fresh air


Saturday, January 05, 2008

How to Lose Weight, part 44:



Don't Wait to move around,
not "exercise,"
call it Life

>marlie in head under gap
"half backbend," (head under gap) from Chris' SUFIA yoga (Feldenkrais/yoga/tai chi) mix

Moving is fun

to lose weight:
take twelve to
twenty minutes
set a timer
and dance
or walk fast
or lift rokcs
or do push ups
or all of the above
in some mixed
and awaren
and fun
way

and then
eat

eat slowly
and in
awareness

but earn your food
by joyfully being
in the life
of movement
and awareness,
first