Body Brilliance: Body Mind Spirit Training

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
Strictly Ballroom

HOUSTON, Summer 1987: A silver film filtered the glare of the grueling Houston sun as I stared out at busy Richmond Avenue. Like a mirror, the reflective glass revealed my blue eyes and my six-foot, four-inch frame, tanned and fit from my years at the landscaping company, curled into an uncomfortable chair. But my eyes didn’t linger on my reflection long, darting nervously around the room, as opposed to my foot tapping the floor and my hands gripping the arms of the chair.

As I sat and waited at The Montrose Clinic for the results of an HIV-AIDS test, I sensed the very walls around me thrumming with fear: the fear of all the other men and women who waited here for the news that they might be sick, that they might die. Once I understood that a virus caused AIDS I assumed I too would die of it one day. And why not: I tended bar through the wildest nights, and until recently injected speed directly into my veins.

The past ten years had disappeared in a fog of drugs, booze, and parties. My grandmother remembered me as a quiet and polite child, and I was still shy when I entered El Centro Junior College in downtown Dallas during the late 1970s. College introduced me to psychology, philosophy and the human potential movement, and I loved what I heard. I dropped premed in favor of psychology. I also experimented with methamphetamines: “uppers” or “speed.” Certain I had life figured out, I danced away from the chairmanship of the student council, from selection as a prominent student of the year, and a potential scholarship to Southern Methodist University, eventually dropping out entirely to deal drugs.

Drugs and alcohol reduced my shyness. For the first time I felt I “belonged,” and all it took was a few hits of speed to join the “in” crowd. I failed miserably as a drug dealer, giving away more crystal meth than I sold, but I had fun, laughs and good times.

My popularity soared when I moved to Houston and became bartender to the fabulous. Everyone knew me; I was famous (or infamous). I was also a mess. I caught hepatitis B at a cocaine “shooting party” and shared needles with friends who had already died from AIDS. Finally, in early 1987 I hit rock bottom. Unable to trust the love of friends and family, I succumbed to self-imposed isolation and became desperate with fear and loneliness. I knew I needed help or I would kill myself.

Fortunately, my friend Gary D. took me to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and the hope I heard there gave me the courage to make some changes in my own life. I began life anew, clean and sober. The next step was facing the truth about my HIV status. My roommate at the time, Dr. Wayne, kept assuring me that I seemed too healthy to be HIV positive, and so I finally surrendered to a test. Hoping against all odds to hear good news, I sat anxiously in the clinic and waited, looking out the window.

Then, a miracle. Despite all the bad choices I’d made, I am HIV negative. Stammering my thanks to the counselor, my mind cleared as the anxiety drained from my body. Relief flooded my senses with a rush of energy. I felt ecstatic, bristling with energy. I knew I experienced a miracle, to be healthy in the face of so much sickness and death—I’d been given a reprieve from the executioner. I walked into the Houston sunlight not noticing the scorching heat.

Many of us have had these moments of crisis, instances in which a split second determines the course of our lives: waiting for the results of a biopsy, the fracturing news of divorce, the cold certainty of death, selection for a favored job, a hair’s breadth from termination. The “coulda, woulda, shouldas” crowd in to remind us of our choices. In these moments we are naked, vulnerable to absolute truth. Blessedly, not all of us have faced the executioner as I have. But life is a choice. Day in and day out we are pelted with options, some of them harsh, each with its own consequences. So I left The Montrose Clinic that day knowing that Mystery had placed her hand on me. That the gifts I’d been given in this life should no longer be squandered. The choice offered me was to live, to use my knack for talking and writing and healing to make a difference in my life and my world. I have felt that fierce burning of purpose ever since.

Flash forward a few months: I was waiting impatiently at the information desk of Whole Foods Market, an organic grocery store. To pass the time I picked up a brochure for a local massage school. I read about the benefits of massage and a career in helping other people. As I stood there the Voice from deep within me said, “You can do this.” I was surprised at the Voice’s clarity. As a child I knew things before they happened. I often felt and understood things that other people didn’t seem to notice. As I grew up, the more I trusted and followed my hunches, and the more I relied on them for guidance. Eventually my intuition evolved into a voice deep in my mind, encouraging me to overcome my doubts and believe in my capabilities.

Sobriety agreed with me. The dull fog I lived in for so many years lifted. My original plan was to return to college and finish my undergraduate degree in psychology, then obtain a Master’s in social work and start a counseling practice. Yet here I stood in the grocery store, hearing the Voice and knowing my life had taken a new twist.

After checking out the local massage scene I enrolled at the Winters School. Over the next six months Nancy Winters and her friends, Joe Lindley, Debbie Starrett, Don La Guarta, Pete Lidvall and Dr. Liang, introduced me to the wonderful world of massage. For them massage was not just therapeutic touch, it was a spiritual practice. I explored the place where my body (long ignored), my mind (long indulged), my feelings (long buried), and my spirit (long denied) were interconnected. I experienced how touch called forth forgotten memories and soothed my mind, so that my body could heal and my heart could open. As my mind relaxed I began to unlock the shackles of fear that confined my life. Through massage therapy I learned how to awaken my body and call forth all the dormant energies at the center of my life, how to discipline my mind, to express and acknowledge my emotions—in brief, how to caress my spirit and let it soar.

Our yearning for the answers to questions like, “Who am I? What is the meaning of life? How can I be happy? What’s my life purpose?” (or as the song asks, “What’s it all about, Alfie?”) calls us to explore and seek the heart of our relationships, to understand the mystical experience of truth. We are all taking that journey together, and occasionally our paths cross. Simply by reading this book you have signaled your willingness to stretch and reach for happiness and healing. I hope I can reinforce that resolve by encouraging you to move your body and thereby hear your own inner voice, for the best teachings in the world are useless without action.

We are often victims of our conflicting desires, and how we reconcile those desires defines the path of our happiness. For instance, I have always believed in monogamous relationships, but once I lived with a man who believed in open marriages. It was never about who was right or wrong, but what was important to me. On the one hand I wanted a life with him, but such a life went against my convictions. After much struggle I chose the way that was true for me, realizing that my deepest beliefs were more important than any of the other gifts we shared.

Fear no longer paralyzes me but instead serves as a warning signal that I have a choice. I wrote Body Brilliance as a testament to love and healing: that by sharing the story of my journey to overcome fear and pain I could offer you the exercises and practices that continue to inspire and sustain me. I sincerely hope that they will give you the courage to embrace a fuller, richer and happier life of your own.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Make Your Body Mind Spirit Meditation Easy and Enjoyable

What if you had a tool that made it much easier for you to meditate on a regular basis?
We know that meditation can help us to reduce our stress, calm our minds, relax our bodies, and even increase our developmental progress. With all of these benefits available to us, why don’t most of us meditate every day? Well, if you are at all like me, you either feel that you don’t have time or it’s just hard to motivate yourself even when you do.

Before I tell you about this easier way to meditate, I’d like to talk briefly about how it works. As we meditate, we are accessing an expanded internal state (in the upper left quadrant). This state has corresponding activity in our brains that can be measured (in the upper right quadrant). There has been much research conducted on long time meditators, where specific brain wave patterns have been correlated to states of deep meditation.

Based on this research, an audio technology has been created that can effectively induce these same brain wave patterns of experienced meditators, in anyone using it. So if you stimulate these same patterns in your brain (in the upper right quadrant), you can access these same deep states in your consciousness (in the upper left quadrant). Pretty cool!

This revolutionary tool is called Holosync. I first came across it when Fred Kofman wanted us to use it for meditation practice during our inaugural seminars at Integral Institute. I, along with many of our seminar participants, got hooked by how easy it was to meditate while listening to Holosync.

And not only is it extremely helpful for beginning meditators, even very experienced practitioners find it useful. Here’s what Genpo Roshi, the creator of the Big Mind process, has to say about it:
“When Bill Harris first sent me Holosync, I loved it. In fact, I found it to be the same as sitting in Big Mind/Big Heart. Then I found that many of my students were already using Holosync, including Diane Hamilton and her husband, Michael Zimmerman, and were also big fans. Holosync and Big Mind compliment each other perfectly. I highly recommend Holosync, whether you're a beginner or have been meditated for 30 years.” Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi
If it’s good enough for a Zen master, it’s good enough for me…

As part of our Integral Life Practice program, we recommend engaging in the four core modules: Body, Mind, Spirit, & Shadow. Within the Spirit module, we particularly recommend the practice of meditation because of its many benefits. In fact, it is the only practice demonstrated to significantly accelerate growth through stages of development.

And even with the clear value of establishing a regular meditation practice, it can still be one of the most difficult practices to maintain. So why not make it easier and do it more often?
I don’t use Holosync every time I meditate, but I find that it is a great tool to help me keep a regular practice. When I am particularly busy and my mind is racing, it makes it much easier to settle into a meditative state. I even use it when I need to focus or be creative at work - like right now, as I’m writing this.

Another thing is that since it makes it easier to meditate, I find that I have more time for it. Isn’t that interesting how we find the time to do the things we enjoy?
Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Body Mind Spirit “This Is How to Do It.”

The Peaceful Warrior’s Way. Body Mind Spirit “This Is How to Do It.”

with Dan Millman

Many of us have been told about the spiritual life, but how do we begin to actually live it? Author Dan Millman has devoted his writing career to exploring this very question. Here he shares his own personal story behind his impulse to develop a "ground-up" approach to daily life, a wonderful reminder of how simple and practical an Integral Life Practice can be....
Dan Millman is the best-selling author of The Way of the Peaceful Warrior—now a major motion-picture starring Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, and Amy Smart—and 12 other books, published in up to 29 languages. Ken Wilber is the founder of Integral Institute and is widely regarded as the leader of the Integral movement, explored in detail in his own 25 books, which share the same kind of worldwide readership as Dan’s work.

Many teachers tell you about the spiritual life, but Dan Millman shows you how to do it, in your own life, day-to-day—and how you can start right now. Many of us are familiar with Dan's first book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior—which has at least 2 million copies sold, and probably 6-7 million readers. But what many people often miss is that Dan has spent the twenty-five years since Peaceful Warrior’s publication writing 12 more books, and it is in these books where Dan lays out how you can actually take the inspiring impact of Peaceful Warrior and put it into practice. Do you want more than just inspiration? Do you really want to change your life? Dan will show you how, in literally twelve different ways.

As Dan mentions to Ken, “Spiritual life, by whatever name, begins on the ground, not up in the air.” Ken goes on to note that what Dan and Tony Robbins (another Integral Naked guest) share is an emphasis on taking physical action right now as a practical means to seeing actual change in one’s life. Further, Ken mentions that Dan is “one of the masters of mastery,” which can be seen not only in his incredible body of work, but in the fact that Dan was a world champion in trampoline gymnastics at only the age of 18. However, as Dan is quick to make clear, none of this would have happened without four radically different mentors he worked with over the course of two decades, who he refers to as The Professor, The Guru, The Warrior-Priest, and The Sage. Now, Dan is a full-blown mentor himself: accessible, practical, and always moving towards a more complete, comprehensive, and indeed integral approach to living a deeply awake life.

Why Integral?: The reason an Integral Approach is so valuable is because it explains why “taking physical action right now” actually works, and it explains it with more depth, and in more detail, than any other known system. The whole idea behind an Integral Approach is finding “the patterns that connect,” and one of the things that connects directly to the way Dan works is the Tantric traditions, and particularly Buddhist Tantra. As Ken elaborates, Vajrayana Buddhism understands the notion that, “get your body to do something, and your mind will follow.” But in Vajrayana (and also Vedanta Hinduism), you have at least three bodies, not just one: a gross body, a subtle body, and a causal body. Each body literally carries and supports the three major states of consciousness: waking (gross body), dreaming (subtle body), and deep sleep (causal body). And to round out the picture, there are also sheaths of consciousness, or actual developmental layers or structures of consciousness surrounding one’s primordial Self (and these also are supported by the gross, subtle, and causal bodies). But in the same way that you can choose to make your gross-physical body respond to practice and intentionality, you can make your subtle-energy body and causal-emptiness body respond as well—and if you change the body, you will change your state of consciousness. That’s the secret Tantra has known for ages, and that’s the secret—or rather, one of the secrets—that Dan is adapting and evolving for today’s world.
Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

A Well Intentioned Body Mind Spirit Pause

Katy was tired, her body exhausted and her mind scrambling to keep up. Refugees from Hurricane Katrina teemed through her doors like hordes at the gates. The world watched as walls of wind and water ravaged cities from New Orleans, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes and the worlds they knew. Some lost their lives. The Gulf Coast reeled from the one-two punch of the killer storm and the flooding of New Orleans. The whole country jolted as rescue efforts spiraled into mayhem and chaos. The botched response from the ill-prepared and devastated city governments and the achingly slow federal response shocked hearts across the globe.

Katy, the Director of The Montrose Clinic, was stretched thin in the best of times. Her clinic served Houston’s swelling indigent, uninsured, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) communities. For twenty-five-plus years, they’d provided sexually transmitted disease care and were at the vanguard of responding to the HIV epidemic. New Orleans’s gay, lesbian and HIV community swarmed to the clinic. Katy was in hyper-drive. Far under the radar screen of the relief efforts going on across town at the Astrodome, suddenly, patients at the Montrose Clinic, with no medical records, no homes and no funding, needed care, and more importantly, expensive medications. The clinic’s dedicated doctors and staff welcomed patients over the Labor Day holiday. Katy scrambled to find the money for their meds. Two weeks of this kind of pressure had taken its toll on Katy. She came through the door needing a spa get-a-way to unkink her body, soothe her anxious nerves, and calm her ricocheting mind. She was already looking forward to next month’s birthday gift to herself—a spa vacation to rest and relax.

These are extraordinary times. Spiritually committed people around the world are feeling the call to excellence in all avenues of life: loving and raising families, success and respect in business, human values and relationships, nurturing the natural world, and the realizing of truth in our everyday lives. We are called upon to stoke the brightest light of our selves and to shine brilliantly into the world, especially into the darkest crooks and crannies of our human condition. We are called to vision the very best that humanity has to offer and live fully into that vision. We spiritually minded, values held firmly in hand, stride into the day with our best intentions.

But the task of lifting the world from darkness can feel daunting. The specter of every ism known to society: sexism, racism, classism, poverty, hate, and greed can zap the energy, along with all the good intentions, from many a spiritual activist. The evening news is a steady stream of war, tragedy, horror, and violence. The environment and our precious resources are under siege; offered on the world market at discount prices to the highest bidder; a too high percentage of our human family scramble for enough food to eat or safe shelter to sleep the night. If life is a school than surely times like these are our mid-term exams.

Yet we are born for such times. We are called to fortify our truest selves, to marshal our physical, emotional, mental, moral and spiritual energies and direct them for all that is right and good in this world. And in the scope of all the work needing to be done, it’s easy to exhaust ourselves in the process; to run on fumes; or worse, flat out of gas. This is where practicing the simple “Power of the Well Intentioned Pause” comes in handy.

The very nature of energy is to expand and contract. It’s one of the few constants in the universe. The stars and their moons rise and set, waves of water crest and fall, electricity pulses, hearts contract and then pulse, lungs rise and fall, orgasms come and go. Energy may be constant but it oscillates. The energy keys in our bodies are the same.

Physically we have times of effort and times of rest and sleep. Emotionally we balance our sense of individuality and our need to connect with the people around us. We can be mentally muddled and confused or focused and clear. We can pursue lives and ideals we don’t truly want for ourselves or we can live our deepest values in the world. Spiritually we can remain dormant or we can sparkle and thrive. There is a fine line between efficiency and burnout. The fulcrum that makes the difference is respecting your body’s need for pause and rest. This simple directive sounds, well too simple. But in these times of over stimulation, hyperactivity and multi-tasking, our bodies consume tremendous amounts of energy that we simply must restore. If we are to continue to thrive we must learn to balance performance with pause.

A prime example comes from the laboratory of pro sports players. For thirty years sports psychologists Jim Loeher and Tony Schwartz have helped professional athletes define what it takes to succeed at the most competitive levels under the highest pressures. Beginning their work with tennis pros, Loeher set out to determine what separated the top-ranked stars from the rest of the pack. He was frustrated during his studies. He couldn’t separate much difference between the peak performers and the other players during points: their strokes, speed and strength where often similar. He discovered the key difference when he focused on what the players did between the points, not during the points. The topped ranked players, each and everyone, had a personal ritual for calming their breath and heart rate, sharply focusing their attention, and preparing for the next point. These rituals might last only ninety seconds between points, but practiced often were highly effective. It gave the players the extra stamina and focus to leap ahead of the pack.

The importance of a “work-rest” ratio was first introduced by Flavius Philostratus almost two-thousand years ago. Flavius, a trainer of Greek Olympic athletes, understood that after intense training, his athletes needed time to rest and recover their energy. Modern science calls this “compensation. As Jim Loeher states in his book The Power of Full Engagement:
After a period of activity, the body must replenish fundamental biochemical sources of energy…Increase the intensity of the training or performance demand, and it is necessary to commensurately increase the amount of energy renewal. Fail to do so and the athlete will experience a measurable deterioration in performance….Balancing stress and recovery is critical not just in competitive sports, but in managing energy in all facets of our lives.

“A well intentioned pause” is an extension of Loeher’s discovery with tennis players. A strategic pause becomes a practice for everyday life. It is simply remembering, on a regular and consistent basis throughout the day to completely unplug from the all-consuming tasks at hand: a chaotic workday fraught with calls, meetings, and deadlines; demanding children, navigating the stresses of family and relationships; driving in traffic; balancing the demands of personal life and community service, or fighting for social justice.

It is our focused intention that sets this kind of pause apart. The power of our intention is source of tremendous energy in, and of itself. When I turn my intention to rest, restore and refuel my energy; when I turn my intention to calm and soothe my feelings and mind, life naturally responds. Possible pauses can be just about anything that unplug us from the consuming thoughts of our day and refuel our energies. Anything you consciously do to disconnect from the intensity of your day and nourish your energy will make a big difference. They include:
a few minutes of breathing or meditation, a set of stretches, sit-ups, or push-ups going to the gym,a dance, yoga, or aerobics class,reading a juicy novel, a phone call to an inspiring friend or a loving family member, a walk outdoors in nice weather is mighty helpful, a nap, savoring a healthy meal.

A well intentioned pause can last ninety seconds, ten minutes, one hour, a day, or a week. Don’t underestimate the power of a deliberate ninety-second pause. Remember the tennis pro’s in Loeher’s study. Between points, they each had a ritual that rested their energy, calmed their breath and heart-rate, and then focused their attention to the next point. It was this consistent rest and recovery, brief as it was, that separated the top-ranked players from the rest of the pack. The key is to train your mind and body to relax and restore energy in concentrated pauses. Our bodies respond quickly when these ritual pauses become a well trained habit.
The ten to twenty minute pause is a good place to start for beginners. This is ample time to unplug from the demands consuming your attention, soothe frazzled nerves, and to refuel spent energy. Ten minutes of focused breathing is excellent. Train the people around you to respect your pauses. A ten minute pause interrupted by a phone call and an officemate poking their head through the door is barely a pause at all. You’d have to be as skilled as a tennis-pro to get much benefit from such a pause.

Your lunch break can be a strategic pause. Simply savor a healthy meal, sit by your self or with friends. The key is not to read or work—enjoy your food. Go to the gym, take a dance, yoga, or aerobics class that both challenges you and gives you pleasure. Take a walk outdoors in nice weather is good, reading a juicy novel, or a nap if you can (I take a ten to fifteen minute nap most every day). Find the pauses that work best for you, but take the time to stop. Do something that you enjoy. Pleasure refuels our energy tanks. Anything that feels like work or effort drains our fuel tanks.

A day long pause sounds easy enough, but how many of us really take a day off? In our hyper-drive world, it’s easy to cram two days worth of “home” work and repairs, seeing friends and family, shopping, and errands into the weekend. There’s little left over for fun and play. I love taking a day trip to the beach or to the Texas Hill Country. We pile the dogs into the Ford and head out of town. Another great pause is a romantic weekend away. What a gift to myself and to my lover to travel away from our world and just enjoy our time together, exploring some place together.

A week long pause can be more than a vacation. How many people come home from their vacations needing a vacation? I asked Deepak Chopra what he did to sustain the momentum of his life and teaching. To my surprise, in addition to service and charity work, working in a community of like minded people, and studying the world’s scriptures, he said, “Principally through meditative discipline… every 3 to 4 months, I go into a week of total silence where I have no communications with anyone, not even my family, not with phone or fax or a book or a magazine or a radio set or a television set; total silence for about 5 days to 7 days.”

I used to run myself ragged. My days started between 5 and 6 AM writing at the computer, shift to teaching yoga and Nia dance classes, and then I worked giving massages till 8:30 PM. I would come home exhausted with barely enough energy to eat and say hello to my husband. With my strategic pauses built into my day, I arrive home ready for dinner and a good conversation. I have the emotional energy to listen, share, and engage. And I’m happier and healthier for it (Jim likes it too).
Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com ,
author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs),
owner of Essential Touch

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Body Mind Spirit PRACTICES FOR THE 3RD CHAKRA:

The Hindi Squat—Dr. Stone writes, “This posture is ideal for the release of gases, constipation, excessive abdominal fat, and toning the walls of the abdomen by the muscular exertion and squeezing of the thighs.”

Relax, standing straight with the feet about hip’s width apart (or a little more for comfort). Relax the neck and allow the chin to gently drop to the chest. Slowly let gravity pull your head down towards the floor, one vertebra at a time. When you are bent over at the waist, gently rock front to back and side to side to relax the shoulders and neck. Pause and take a deep breath. Bend the knees and slowly drop into a squat. The feet should remain flat on the floor, pointing forwards for the best results. If this is not possible, you may use a small pillow under the heels until you master this posture. Bring your elbows to the inside of the knees. Bring your hands together in prayer position over the heart. The pressure on the knees will stretch them out. Rock gently from front and back and side to side. Relax and take a deep breath.

To stand back up, place your hands upon your knees. Get a sense of your tailbone pointing backwards. Press the tailbone up first as you come to standing. Pause, take a deep breath and notice the sensations of your body.

The Fire Breath—Sit comfortably cross-legged on the floor. The spine is straight, the body relaxed. This breath is done through both nostrils. One breath, or round, is a relaxed inhalation with a forced exhalation. A slow pace is 60 rounds per minute; a moderate pace is 120 rounds a minute; a rapid pace is 240 rounds a minute. If you are a beginner, stay with a slow breath. This breath over oxygenates the body, reduces carbon dioxide and encourages energy flow through the chakras. This is a very invigorating breath.

Aromatherapy Bath—
1 cup Dead Sea mineral salts
1 cup baking soda
½ cup apple cider vinegar
20 drops total of any of these essential oils: juniper, vetiver, rosemary, sage, lemon, clove, peppermint, spearmints.

All of these oils support self-esteem and self-confidence. They inspire making decisions and taking action. A word of caution: don’t use rosemary, peppermint or spearmint before bed as they are energizing oils.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Working Through the Body Mind Spirit:

The subtle energies of the body, Polarity Therapy,
Tantra and cultivating sexual energy

Empirical science has yet to prove the existence of the subtle anatomies. Yet the mystical traditions have articulated them for millennium. The Sepherot of the Kaballistic Tree of Life, the meridians of the Chinese acupuncture system and the chakras of the Ayurvedic system are examples. They all convey the knowledge of a subtle energy which they assert is the link between the spiritual realms and life as we know it. Each uses their unique language and concepts to describe the precipitation of the mind of God into energy and into physical manifestation. The Chinese call this is energy ‘chi’, ‘ki’ by the Japanese and ‘prana’ by the Hindus. The Kahunas of Hawaii call it ‘mana’; Christ called it ‘light’.

The system of Ayurvedic medicine has evolved over the past 5,000 years. It is based on the Hindu scriptural Veda’s, which are the world’s oldest documented spiritual writings. Ayurveda offers a highly specific description of the subtle anatomy. It recognizes five sheaths, or layers of energy through the body. They are described from the most dense to the most subtle. The first and outer most layer is the bones, muscle and skin. The next, more, subtle sheath is respiration. Next in subtlety is the sheath of cognition, associated with the nervous system and the thinking mind. Next is the sheath of discretion, which relates to our moral choices and their consequences. Most subtle of all is the chakra system; the interface between the cosmic vibrations of creation and the grosser anatomical systems of the physical body.

Chakra, from the Sanskrit, means ‘wheel of spinning light.’ The ancients taught there are seven chakras in the body. They are located just in front of and along the spinal column. These generators and reservoirs of energy are also areas of consciousness. The first five chakras are associated with an element of nature (earth, water, fire, air, or ether) and with one of the senses (smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing). All of the chakras are associated with a tonal quality, a numerical and alphabetical value, and a color. When the chakras are in tune the body, mind and spirit experience harmony. Charles and Caroline Muir offer an analogy:

Consider the chakras as the strings of a guitar. Each string vibrates at a different frequency and gives off a different note. Over time the strings may resonate sharp or flat, and they require tuning. When they are in tune, the sound the guitar produces is harmonious. Similarly, when the chakras are in tune, one achieves harmony.


· The Base chakra is found at the coccyx bone at the tip of the spine. It resonates with the earth element, the adrenal glands of the endocrine system and the sense of smell. It rules the organs of structure such as bones, muscles, and connective tissues as well as elimination. There is a correlation between the earth element and our need for structure and safety in the world.
· The second chakra is found at the sacrum. It resonates with the water element, the reproductive glands and the sense of taste. It rules the fluids of the body such as blood, lymph, sexual secretions and tears. It correlates to sexuality and all creative energies. There is an interesting link between the sense of taste and sexuality in this chakra. Mantak Chia, in his book Taoist Secrets of Love, states:

Many people confuse the hunger for food and sex as being similar biological desires that are both necessary for survival. Clearly they are connected, as many people feeling sexual frustration turn to food for gratification. An imbalance in ching (sex) energy ranks as a major cause of obesity---when you are sexually frustrated, food is the easiest substitute.

· The third chakra is found at the solar plexus. It resonates with the fire element, the Isle’s of Langerhan (which produce insulin in the pancreas) and the sense of sight. It rules the organs of digestion and metabolism. This chakra correlates to the assertion of and the abuse of power.
· The fourth chakra is found at the heart. This is the center for the Air element, the thymus gland and the sense of touch. The heart chakra rules respiration and immunity. With the arms it addresses how we bring the world to us and how we share ourselves with the world. It correlates to a sense of altruistic love in the world.
· The fifth chakra is found at the throat. It rules the Ether element, the thyroid and para-thyroid glands, the organs of speech and the sense of hearing. The throat chakra correlates to “speaking one’s truth” and to taking action based on that truth.

The last two chakras transcend the denser elements and senses. These are the subtlest energetic harmonics.
· The sixth chakra, often called the 3rd eye, is found between the eye brows. It relates to the 6th sense of psychic and paranormal experience. It is associated with the pituitary gland of the endocrine system and is the source of spiritual vision.
· The Crown Chakra is found at the top of the head and it relates to the pineal gland. This is the seat of mystical experience. It is the place where the mind releases all boundaries and concepts and experiences life in its full unity.


· There are a number of energy therapy systems such as Reiki and Therapeutic Touch. In my own journey I have found Polarity Therapy to be the most effective way to effect the chakra energy system. Polarity Therapy is the life’s work and teachings of Dr. Randolph Stone. Dr. Stone was a doctor of osteopathy, a doctor of naturopathy and a chiropractor. He would treat clients for symptoms and then notice that they returned with the same chronic pains and illnesses. As well trained as he was he felt he was missing something. His curiosity led him to study mystical healing modalities across the world. Richard Gordon describes Dr. Stone’s search:

In China and France he studied acupuncture and herbology. In the orient, he learned reflexology and other eastern massage techniques. In the course of his work, he stumbled across the ancient Spagyric art of healing as taught by the great Doctor Paracelsus von Hohenheim, who had studied in Arabia. This provided Dr. Stone with essential knowledge of subtle electromagnetic fields of the body. Over the course of sixty years, Dr. Stone integrated this wealth of knowledge into a system he named Polarity Therapy.

Dr. Stone realized that successful healing must take place on the energetic fields as well as the physical level. That’s why chronic pain and illness often return when treatments just address the physical symptoms. Polarity utilizes gentle touch, rocking and deep pressure point work to release blocked energy in the energy fields. Dr. Robert K. Hall, MD teaches it this way: the work calls forth the spirit found at the very core of an individual. The essence of that core is Love. To experience true healing all the trauma and fear that is layered over that core of love must come out. That’s what we at the Lomi School call ‘working through the body.’ Many therapeutic models do their work ‘on’ a body, or something you ‘do’ to people. Working through the body calls forth the very essence of spirit.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Body Mind Spirit Nutrition

We are Physical Matter and have a physical body:
What we eat and drink, we become physically.
We are Emotion and have an emotional body:
What we feel and sense, we are emotionally
We are Mind and have a mental body:
What we think and dwell upon, we are mentally.

Dr. Randolph Stone


Nutrition is not often mentioned in the field of somatic’s. The emphasis of somatic work tends to the energetic, psychological or structural aspects of the body. Somatic’s is defined as “the living body in it’s wholeness,” or mind, body, and spirit in unity. A holistic view of the human organism must include diet and it’s effect for maximizing our human potential.

I associate the nutritional aspect of somatic work with the Third chakra. The third chakra relates to the element of Fire and the sense of Vision. The third chakra is found at the solar plexus, just beneath the sternum. Its color is yellow and with the fire element affects metabolism. The solar plexus chakra is sometimes called our seat of personal power. It’s about self-assertion, courage or cowardice (in astrology, Leo, the lion is a fire sign). It relates to the use or abuse of power. I think a constant theme of this century is the balancing of this ferocious power of fire. Thomas Edison’s harnessing electricity for the light bulb and Laser light used for surgery are beneficial examples. The ovens of Auschwitz, the atomic mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, the clouds of smoke over the desert of Kuwait and the burning of the rain-forests are examples of the extreme abuse of power this century has seen.

Our sense of vision is also out of balance with our other senses. Aries, another fire sign, rules the eyes (He is also the Roman god of war). We are a visually stimulated people. Carolyn Myss states that 80 % of our daily decisions are visually motivated. Terence Mckenna, in his lecture series History Ends in Green, suggests an interesting theory for this preference. Prehistoric people were nomads that followed the wild herds of cattle across the savannas. One of the foods found near herds of cattle are the hallucinogenic mushrooms that grow in their feces. Mckenna asserts that prehistoric peoples often ate the mushrooms; which stimulated the visual centers of the cerebral cortex. This expanded visual acuity assisted in hand-eye coordination; which in turn helped the hunters in killing their game. The mushrooms helped the evolution of the species with better nutrition and by strengthening the visual centers. As the human race has become domesticated we have maintained our dependence on visual skills. We, now, rely less on our sense of smell and hearing and more on our visual senses.

As I begin my discussion on nutrition let me remind you of the quote by Carols Chastened:

“Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone, one question…. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good. If it doesn’t, it is of no use.”

There are many opposing opinions on how, what and why to eat. You need only go to the book or health food store to discern that. When creating an eating program you must rely on your own mind and heart to find the balance that works for you…and you alone. I like the example of Mahatma Gandhi. He experimented with diet until the time he died. He believed that your body, including how you nourish it, should be your laboratory for your experiments in self-realization.

One of the primary ways to maximize the natural vitality, prana or chi of your life is the consumption of “Live Foods.” Eating live foods utilizes the natural energy of enzymes. Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Institute says, “ You are alive only because thousands of enzymes make it possible. Every breath you take, thought you think, or sentence you read, is a result of thousands of complex enzyme systems and there functions operating simultaneously…They are the active construction and demolition teams that work 24 hours a day to maintain health and balance in your body.” Under a microscope an enzyme appears to be a protein. In reality protein is not the active agent of enzymes, but merely the material which stores the life energy of enzymes, just as a battery stores energy to light a flashlight.

Technically enzymes are globular proteins that promote specific chemical reactions within the cell. There are three distinct types of enzymes. Metabolic enzymes, which run our bodies; digestive enzymes, which digest our foods; and food enzymes from raw food which begin digestion. No mineral, vitamin, or hormone can do any work without them. Enzymes are found in fresh fruits, vegetables, nut and grains. Sprouted grains are the most potent with enzymatic life force as they contain all the energy a plant will need to thrive. Each raw food has its own hermetic seal, such as a peel, skin or shell, which protects the fragile enzymes. When the seal is broken the enzymes begin to immediately break. All cooked or processed foods are considered de-natured which means that all the enzymes are dead. There may be vitamins or minerals left for absorption, but there is no longer any life force left. The average American diet is deficient in enzymes. A diet of “dead” foods means that our own bodies must operate on an imbalance of declining enzyme levels. Decreased enzyme levels lead to poor digestion, illness and disease. That’s why eating a diet rich in raw foods and high in enzymes is vital. You absorb the life force of the plants you eat to maintain your own vitality.

The third chakra is the energetic correlation to the endocrine system’s production of insulin. Insulin affects metabolism by its conversion of sugars into available energy for the body. The Islet’s of Langerhan, which are found in the pancreas, produce insulin. Much has been made lately about the affects of complex carbohydrates and their effects on diet. The dietetic emphasis over the past decade has been on a low fat, low protein diet with a higher percentage of complex carbohydrates. Recent studies show that complex carbohydrates like pasta, bread, potatoes, peas and bananas create a surplus imbalance of insulin in the blood stream. This insulin imbalance adversely affects the body by im-balancing the rest of the hormonal system. Surplus insulin also distorts energy levels and directs the body to store extra glucose as fat rather than burn it for fuel.

Dr. Barry Sears, author of The Zone, has done excellent research on balancing the insulin/hormonal system through food. He says, “Food is far more important than just something you eat for pleasure or to appease your hunger. Rather, it is a potent drug that you’ll take for the rest of your life. Once food is broken down into its basic components (glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids) and sent into the bloodstream, it has a more powerful impact on your body—and your health—than any drug your doctor could ever prescribe.”

Drinking coffee is another food factor that imbalances the hormonal system. Uptown Health & Spirit recently printed a report from a Duke University Medical Center study of 72 habitual coffee drinkers. Participants produced more adrenaline and noradrenalin on days they drank coffee than days when they abstained. The study states, “People who drink four to five cups of coffee throughout the morning have slightly elevated blood pressure and higher levels of stress hormones all day into the evening, creating a scenario in which the body acts like it is continually under stress.” James Lane, associate research professor of psychiatry at Duke says, “If you combine the effects of real stress with the artificial boost in stress from caffeine, then you have compounded the effects considerably. The increase in blood pressure and stress hormones is elevated till bedtime even if coffee consumption stops at 1 p.m..”

Drinking sufficient water is another component of maintaining maximum health. Water is the single most abundant substance in your body: 70 to 90% of each cell’s weight is water. The average adult loses 2500 ml, or 76 ounces, of water each day through urination, feces, sweat and respiration. Your daily intake of water must equal your daily output. You must drink approximately 45 ounces of water. The balance of your daily requirement comes from eating moist foods and the metabolism of various nutrients within the body. It is important to drink pure, filtered water for the body’s use. Most public drinking water carries contaminants, heavy metals, and unhealthy bacteria. It is important to refrain from drinking much liquid during meals. The extra fluid decreases the effect of the digestive enzymes and hydrocloric acid of the stomach. It is also suggested to never take iced drinks during meals as the stomach works at !05 degrees F. The cold liquid lowers the temperature and slows digestion.

Personally, eating is the one area of somatic work that poses the most difficulty for me. Body weight and image is something I’ve struggled with as long as I can remember. I use the metaphor of meditation as my guide for eating. In meditation I know to focus on the breath. As human beings we loose focus and begin to think, and think, and think. The skill of meditation is to come back to the breath. Come back over and over again. Then the skill becomes a pattern and eventually a way of life. There are times when my eating program is better than others. I just regain my focus and come back to the eating principals that I know deliver the most benefit to me.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Healing Body Mind Spirit by Cultivating Sexual Energy

The Eastern traditions recognize that sexual energy can be a potent source of spiritual energy. The Kaballist’s have their ‘Sex Magic,’ the Taoists have their erotic rituals and the East Indians and Tibetans have Tantra. Tantra is the art and science of cultivating sexual energy and directing it to spiritual transformation. Deepak Chopra says,

“Tantra is the closest you can get to magic or alchemy or transmutation. Tantric rituals are basically spiritual disciplines that allow you to trap and transform power. When properly understood, tantra is one of the most dynamic and consistent paths to enlightenment. Of course, sexuality is a component of it. Tantra acknowledges that sexual energy is the most powerful energy in the universe because it is the creative energy in the universe.”

I think exploring the concepts and practices of Erotic rituals are important for westerners. We have a deep sexual wounding from our Judeo-Christian heritage. Our sexual natures were first denied when Adam and Eve “saw their nakedness” as they were evicted from the Garden of Eden. The teaching of original sin is a body centered, sexual one. Erotic rituals teach us to hold our bodies as sacred. To experience sexual energy as the cosmic creative gift that it is.

A primary key in Tantra is an ability to be present with your partner; to focus with eye-contact, to match the rhythms of the breath, or meditate together. Tantra also teaches the importance of mastering the orgasm. Women have four levels of orgasm: the clitoral orgasm, the vaginal orgasm, multiple orgasms and the amrita, or divine nectar. Men are taught to master ejaculation. Rather than lose their sexual energy out through the penis the orgasmic energy is directed up the chakras. Thus men become capable of multiple orgasms.

Tantric rituals are most effective in committed long-term relationships. The defenses and barriers of our personality are healed in the safety, intensity and intimacy of our primary relationships. My friend Sean Michael used to say, “Intimacy means In-To-Me- See.” Keith Hennessy defines intimacy as, “An un-armed encounter between two individuals.” Both of these describe the expression of a self without the armor of defenses, a vulnerability of just being with another person. Commitment is needed to create the container that allows all the personality defenses to present themselves. Safety and vulnerability come as those defenses are consciously healed. Mastering erotic energy has two primary results. As the art of love making it creates ecstatic satisfaction. It also generates intense energy for healing on all levels of body, mind and spirit.

As a teacher and a professional body-worker, I think it wise to add: a spiritual and body-centered transformation can be a personal journey and/or work with a teacher or professional. The practices that involve a teacher, a therapist or facilitator are not to be used for cultivating sexual energy. Healthy, consensual sex is defined as sex between two individuals who share an equal balance of power. This excludes professional relationships such as Doctor/Psychotherapist and patients, Lawyer/Massage therapist and clients, or teachers and students. Sex between a client and professional is abusive. Erotic rituals invoke powerful energetic experiences. Utilized unconsciously they negatively effect relationships and spiritual evolution.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Sacred Sex: The Body Mind Spirit Connection

Sacred Sexuality

I sing the body electric:

In a room high above SMU, serenaded by Donna Summer, I discovered a whole different way to be sexual ... and to be myself.

I lift my head up to look around the room and think, "This is decidedly weird."

I'm in an old hotel ballroom, in downtown Dallas, with 21 other men, giving and receiving Taoist Erotic genital massage. Then an intense wave of sensation undulates from my groin, obliterates my ability to think of such mundane things, and I relax once again into the massage. The ministrations of my masseur, the intense breathing techniques, and the music combine to create a sustained level of pleasure I never imagined possible. The music fades. The leader calls for the masseurs to move to the next table. New hands caress my body and the first strains of Donna Summer's I Feel Love pound through the speakers. I smile, remembering the fun of dancing to this song in the '70s. With a flash I gain a moment of insight. Ms. Summer is not just singing about the thrill of being gay as I had imagined, or "hot sex;" which was most of my priority during those times. Suddenly that '70s classic is saying so much more to me; it includes the love I feel now, on this table, vibrating with pleasure. It reminds me that conscious sex includes a love that dissolves shame and fear and instills courage and pleasure.

In the immortal words of the beloved teacher from Kung Fu, "Ah, So! Grasshopper." This is what sacred sex can be.

Western religions teach us that our bodies are the source of sin. They teach us that celibacy is the only path to God and that sex outside of marriage is a one-way ticket to hell. (Well, what if all the fornicators who have ever lived are in hell? Maybe there's a wing just for gays and lesbians. It could be a fun place to spend a couple of millennia....). Fortunately Eastern religions hold a broader concept about sex and spirituality. They teach that sex, when used properly, can be one of the most dynamic paths to God. Why wait for hell, live now!

The mystical traditions recognize that sexual energy can be a potent source of spiritual energy. The kaballists have their sex magic. The erotic rituals of a sect of Chinese Taoism cultivate transformative energies which are used for great benefits for self and community healing. The East Indians and Tibetans have Tantra. Tantra, which gave us the Kama Sutra, is the art and science of cultivating sexual energy and directing it to spiritual transformation.

Deepak Chopra says, "Tantra is the closest you can get to magic or alchemy or transmutation. Tantric rituals are basically spiritual disciplines that allow you to trap and transform power. When properly understood, Tantra is one of the most dynamic and consistent paths to enlightenment. Of course, sexuality is a component of it. Tantra acknowledges that sexual energy is the most powerful energy in the universe because it is the creative energy in the universe."

I believe exploring the concepts and practices of erotic rituals are important for Westerners. We have a deep sexual wounding from our Judeo-Christian heritage. Our sexual natures were first denied when Adam and Eve "saw their nakedness" and were evicted from the Garden of Eden. Original sin is the philosophical and psychological wedge that denies us the pleasures and experiences of our physical bodies. Healing erotic rituals allow us to experience our bodies as sacred, to experience sexual energy as the cosmic creative gift that it is.

I am standing in a circle of men. This is my first Body Electric seminar. I am anxious about what this weekend will hold. I know soon we'll all be naked and that at some point I'll be giving a complete stranger a genital massage. Not that that's never happened before. Just not in broad daylight, in a room full of other men overlooking SMU. (That's a cosmic joke in itself which gives me great amusement). I had heard of the Body Electric School before. It's based in California and offers sex-positive experiences for men who love men and women who love women-as well as for some especially brave straight people. They offer a variety of weekend seminars and longer retreats which facilitate sexual healing, intimacy, and exploring a variety of erotic pleasures.

With my own fears and insecurities about my body and sexual performance, I discounted the Body Electric School. Years passed while I explored other spiritual practices and slowly matured emotionally. I practiced Tai Chi, chanted the OM, discovered yoga and insight meditation. I went from being bartender at Rich's to becoming a massage therapist and teacher. As a massage therapist I am fascinated by the subtle physical energies that animate the grosser tissues of the body. I explored reflexology, polarity therapy, and deep-tissue somatic massage, which all have a spiritual component. However; my dream of a committed, intimate, sexually potent, life-changing relationship still eluded me. I had studied Tantra, but not practiced it. I was feeling inadequate about my sexual skills. My friend David called to share his own extraordinary experience with Body Electric. He assured me I'd love it. The emotional and psychological payoff (not to mention sexual payoff) of the class was well worth the risks he'd taken. I remember David as one of the more sexually modest members of our old group. If he could do it, I knew I could too. Insecurities be damned.

As the workshop unfolds I realize something quickly. This weekend is more about intimacy than sex. I have spent years moving through spiritual communities learning about intimacy. Much to my regret I rarely found much emotional depth with other gay men. The Body Electric work emphasizes connection over technique. And there are great techniques. John, our seminar leader, explains the penis is the part of a man's body which "gets the most amount of massage with the least amount of imagination." There are opportunities to reveal ourselves and to share; to look deeply into the eyes of other men ... or not. The thing I notice is the respect that each man is given. No matter where a man's at physically, emotionally, sexually, mentally, or spiritually, he is honored. There is a constant celebration of the male body and we are encouraged to embrace our erotic selves. For all my insecurities over the shape of my body or the size of my genitals I have never felt more welcome in a group of gay men. That is a gift I will take to my grave.

A primary key in Tantra is the ability to be present with your partner; to focus with eye contact, to match the rhythms of the breath, or meditate together. Tantra also teaches the importance of mastering the orgasm. Women have four levels of orgasm: the clitoral orgasm, the vaginal orgasm, multiple orgasms, and the amrita, or divine nectar. Men are taught to master ejaculation. Rather than lose their sexual energy out through the penis, the orgasm is directed up the spine through the energy centers of the body (called chakras in Tantra). Thus men become capable of multiple or "full body orgasms." As a friend recently observed, "If both partners are capable of multiple orgasms, how do you know when to stop?" What a dilemma.
Tantric rituals are most effective in committed long-term relationships. The defenses and barriers of our personality are healed in the safety, intensity, and intimacy of our primary relationships. My friend Sean Michael used to say, "Intimacy means Into-Me- See." Keith Hennessy, a San Francisco-based performance artist and spiritual teacher, defines intimacy as, "The ability to be naked with another person and relax. Naked in all its connotations." I explain intimacy as an undefended encounter between two or more individuals. Each of these describe the expression of a self without the armor of defenses, the vulnerability of just being with another person.

Trust is necessary to create a level of intimacy. I was having coffee at Starbuck's with my friend Joe the other day. He jokingly asked me for my definition of trust. I didn't readily have one. After some soul searching and contemplation, I came up with this: If I trust you, it means I've put my confidence in you, relying on your character, your strength, your truth. I believe trust is earned and sustained over time. There are levels of trust, as with trusting someone with my respect, my home, my dog, my money, my life, my heart. I also come back to something Keith Hennessy said about trusting in relationships. "Once I determine that the other person is not a psychopath or going to overtly abuse me, the emphasis of trust changes from them back to me. It's not an issue of whether I can trust them, but can I trust myself enough to take care of me in the relationship."

Once trust and intimacy are established, commitment is needed for that maximum healing. Especially with the intensity that tantric relationships generate. Commitment is needed to create the container that allows for all the personality defenses, or character armor, to present themselves (and they do!). Character armor is the defenses we habitually use to protect ourselves from being hurt. For example, when I feel vulnerable I may try to cling or grasp onto my partner for reassurance. In the brilliant way that the world works, I generally choose partners who feel smothered by that clinging and they retreat. Which usually creates a spiral of more grasping and retreating. A solid commitment and good dialogue skills can diffuse that spiral and allow real healing to begin. Dissolving those defenses does create more safety and vulnerability, which is the true measure of spiritual strength. Mastering erotic energy has two primary results. In the art of lovemaking it creates ecstatic satisfaction. It also generates intense energy for healing on all levels of body, mind, and spirit.

As a teacher and a professional body-worker, I think it wise to add: Spiritual and body-centered transformation is a personal journey The practices that involve a teacher, therapist, or facilitator are not to be used for cultivating sexual energy. Healthy, consensual sex is defined as sex between two individuals who share an equal balance of power. This excludes professional relationships such as doctor/patient (or psychotherapist/patient), lawyer/client, or teachers/student. Sex between a professional and his or her client is abusive. Erotic rituals invoke powerful energetic experiences. Utilized unconsciously they can hurt relationships and spiritual evolution.

It is the final afternoon of the weekend workshop. For the past two hours I have received erotic massage from six masseurs. I have breathed, thrashed, shuddered, moaned, and sighed. After 40 years I have experienced myself in a totally different and unique way. I am also delirious from the session. The music fades and John leads us in a minute of deep rhythmic breathing, then three deep breaths followed by a sound. We are instructed to begin the Big Draw which directs the accumulated erotic energy throughout the body. I tighten all my muscles, including my breath, and hold them as long as I can. I finally collapse onto the table. I am wrapped in the sheet from the table which gives me the sense of being shrouded. A stream of total relaxation spreads from my belly, through my legs and arms, and to my mind. I continue to breathe as the first strains of The Mission soundtrack begin. It is a most beautiful piece of music and one of my favorites. The next thing I realize is that my consciousness is floating above the massage table. I'm looking down on my body. I'm having an out-of-body experience. I am peculiarly comfortable with this event. I feel perfectly right with the world and my place in it. I am once again reminded that conscious sex, intimacy, and connectedness make something else possible: a way of being human that transcends the limitations I often place on myself. For a rare moment I feel free!

Ah, So! Grasshopper. So this is sacred sex.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder ofwww.ThroughYourBody.comand author of Body Brilliance:Mastering Your Five VitalIntelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance MovieDedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Exercises for the Structures of Body Mind Spirit:

Grounding—Stand with your feet hips width apart. Relax your body and feel your feet on the floor. Feel the actual sensations of pressure, temperature or vibration as you stand. Notice how you body weight is distributed upon your feet. Now raise one leg and stomp down. Stomp the other foot. Gently bend your knees and notice the change in sensations in your body. Repeat three more times. Noticing the sensations of the stance after each stomp.

Step the feet two to three feet apart. Place the heels of your hands just above the knees. Drop your tailbone. You should feel your whole upper body pressing down onto the heels of your hands. Look over a shoulder and exhale. As you breath out make a guttural sound in your throat. Visualize energy moving from the tip of your tailbone up along the spine and out the throat. Look over the other shoulder and repeat the exhale, the guttural sounding and the spinal visualization. This exercise increases vitality.

Breath—Sit comfortably with your spine upright. You may sit in a chair or cross legged in a meditative posture. Settle into the sensations of your body and breathe for a few minutes. Begin to breathe in through the mouth and out through the mouth. There is an emphasis on the exhalation. Breathe like this for 10 minutes. This breath builds the “earth” energy in the body. Return to breathing in and out through the nostrils for another 10 minutes. Notice any changes in your awareness or body.

Aromatherapy Bath—I call the base for my baths “the soup.” I combine
· 1 cup Dead Sea Mineral salts
· 1 cup baking soda
· ½ cup apple cider vinegar
· 20 drops total of any of these pure essential oils: Myrrh, Frankincense, cedarwood, vetiver, or patchouli.

Each of these oils is grounding. Vetiver is distilled from the roots. The rest are distilled from woods. The myrrh, frankincense and cedarwood also activate the psychic centers of the brain adding an expansive edge to the sense of being grounded.

The salts and vinegar help to neutralize any static electricity in the system. The soup is excellent to use after a deep massage as the salts will draw the toxins out of the muscles. The essential oils help to ground the consciousness; purify the energetic field and build the earth energy in the body.

In the next issue I will address Polarity Therapy, the energy currents of the body, Tantra and cultivating sexual energy for spiritual transformation.



Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Structure of Body Mind Spirit

“The strongest, surest way to
the soul is through the flesh.”

Mabel Dodge,
Leonardo in Taos

Massage is well known for it’s therapeutic and relaxing benefits. The gentler, more superficial massage techniques like Swedish have a subtler effect on the life force. The deep tissue-structural modalities like Rolfing, LomiWork, HellerWork and Body Therapy can have a significant impact on vitality. The deep tissue work is called structural because it effects the alignment of the skeletal system; the connective tissues called fascia, tendons and ligaments; and the adhesions, or “knots”, in the muscle tissues. Another way to think of structure is your posture. When your posture is good your skeletal system is perfectly aligned. The muscles are strong and relaxed and the joints flexible. Your body is effortlessly balanced and your movement graceful. Balance is the interaction of gravity and the skeletal alignment. Joseph Heller says, “ Balance is not a static condition, but a process of constant flux, a fluid expression of wholeness and ease.” Chronic stress, illness and injury distort the bodies’ posture by contracting the muscles and tightening the joints. The skeletal alignment then becomes skewed. The bodies full range of motion becomes limited and less efficient.

All the tissues of your body are interconnected by a living matrix. “The matrix inside the cells, known as the cytoskeleton, is directly connected to the matrix outside the cells, classically known as the connective tissue.” Connective tissues line all the body cavities and envelop all internal organs. Microscopic strands of connective tissue envelop muscle fibers. Muscle fibers are banded together by connective tissue to create the muscles themselves. The muscles are then covered by larger sheaths of connective tissue called fascia. The muscles are attached to bone by connective tissues called tendons. Joints and bones are stabilized together by connective tissues called ligaments. The entire body is a network interconnected fibers.

The living matrix is very important for a number of reasons. The connective tissue is flexible. Once contracted it can be stretched out again. It records all our physical experiences. That’s why deep tissue touch can release long forgotten memories and feelings. Long held stress, trauma and illness have the greatest distorting effect on the body. Skeletal imbalances can be corrected by deep touch. The connective tissue network conducts vibrational impulses. When one area of the body is touched the vibration ripples through the matrix. Creating change in one area generates subtle changes throughout the system. Robert Hall MD teaches that the microscopic level of connective tissue is the interface between our thoughts and our physical bodies. This is how repetitive thought patterns show up in our tissues. If the thought patterns are fearful and contracting the connective tissues will contract, which distorts the carriage of the skeletal system. If the thought patterns are open and expansive, the connective tissue is fluid and flexible. The body remains balanced and poised. Caroline Myss puts it this way, “Your biography (how you feel about your life and personal history) becomes your biology.”

I recommend structural body work as one way to maximize your quality of life. Structural Integration, or Rolfing, is the most famous of the deep tissue alignment schools. Rolfing is a series of ten bodywork sessions. Photographs of the body are taken at the beginning of the first session. An assessment of postural imbalances are noted. Each session focuses on different parts of the body. Initially the therapist works to re-establish a solid ground of support with the feet, ankles and legs. Once these are stabilized the pelvis is worked to create a solid base for the torso. Later the head is “put on straight.” The relation between the body and the unconscious mind is often dramatically revealed during these sessions. Memories and emotions can flood the mind. Important shifts in thinking and behavior are also reported due to this work. Final photographs reveal the changes in posture. You can see for yourself the physical benefits of this work.

There are two issues to consider when choosing a deep tissue bodyworker. Their ability to be present and their respect of your pain threshold. Presence of mind reflects a clarity in the practitioner. They are practicing consciousness in their own lives. A safe place for emotional work is created more easily. They have an increased ability to accept any and all of the emotions and experiences that might arise during a session. Presence mirrors a higher vibration of inner-vitality, or chi. Remember the capacity of the living matrix to conduct vibrations throughout the entire body. If your therapist works in presence then the frequency of their touch is greater. You experience more benefit. Richard Strozzi Heckler writes,

“What we actually have to offer another is the simple but daring contribution of our genuine presence. Techniques and theories abound and we can learn half a dozen in an hour, but it is the pulsing contact between living things that healing and beauty take place. Presence is being present—a state pregnated with an open-ended curiosity, relaxation, and power that comes from seamlessly knitting together one’s mind, body and spirit.”

The deep schools of touch have a reputation for being painful. Some of the sessions are intense, there’s no doubt. A gifted therapist will work to the edge of your discomfort and pause. With attention and conscious breathing the muscles and fascia will often “melt” to allow a deeper touch. Real emotional and psychic transformation is found at the interface of the pain threshold. If a therapist attempts to slam through the painfully tight muscles the inner core of the body contracts and the psychic and emotional energies are traumatized. There’s no way for the tension already held there to be released. It is in respecting the pain threshold that safety is experienced, emotions are freed and expressed and the muscles truly release their tension. Many Americans have poor boundaries. We don’t know how to say this is enough at this time in this place. This hurts. We endure more than we can tolerate. Practicing an honoring of the pain threshold can have immediate and life long benefits.

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Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Lomi School: Body Mind Spirit (Somatic) School, part 2

The Lomi School was the first to synthesize different approaches of body mind spirit centered therapies into one curriculum. The importance of attention, or focus, lay at the center of Lomi proficiency, but the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, Fritz Perls, and Asian training in meditation and aikido also influenced the method. Additionally, Lomi co-founders Robert K. Hall and Richard Strozzi Heckler borrowed from Randolph Stone’s Polarity Therapy and the structural massage work of Ida Rolf.

Besides the above therapies, the Lomi curriculum featured the Asian ways of aikido, Hatha yoga and Vipassana sitting meditation. Aikido, developed by Morihei Ueshiba, is a Japanese martial art for self defense that harnessed universal love to heal conflict, create fluidity of the body, and strengthen personal energy. Aikido was often translated as “the way of spiritual harmony.” This translation pointed to a practitioner’s skill at controlling an attacker by redirecting his energy rather than by blocking an attack. (See the anecdote about aikido and emotional brilliance in Chapter One of Body Brilliance: Mastering Your Five Vital Intelligences.)

To understand this skill, visualize the way a flexible willow bends with the storm, whereas the stout oak breaks if the wind blows too hard. Ueshiba taught that the principles of aikido should be applied to every aspect of one's life, and he once remarked that he was teaching students not how to move their feet but how to move their minds.

In the West, the term yoga was associated with the stretching postures of Hatha, one branch of India’s classical body mind spirit disciplines. Most Western yoga classes had little or nothing to do with Hinduism or spirituality, but were simply a way of keeping healthy and fit. Traditional Hatha yoga was a complete yogic path, including moral disciplines, physical exercises (e.g., postures and breath control) and meditation, encompassing far more than the yoga of postures and exercises practiced in Western physical culture.

Yoga lovers see daily practice as beneficial in itself, leading to good health, emotional well-being, mental clarity and joy in living. Yoga adepts progress towards samdhi, a high state of meditation and inner ecstasy. For the average person still far from enlightenment, yoga can be a way of increasing one's spiritual awareness. While the history of yoga strongly connects it with Hinduism, yoga lovers claim that it is not a religion itself, but contains practical steps which can benefit everyone.

Vipassana, which means “insight,” was a body-centered meditation technique attributed to Buddha. Vipassana, often called mindfulness meditation, focused on the many sensations and feelings of the body. Meditation calmed the mind and strengthened concentration. The mind was able to “stop and see” (remember the power of a well-intentioned pause in Chapter Five?), ready to receive the spirit’s insight. In this calm centeredness, the practitioner gained knowledge of whatever disturbed his mind, which led to pure wisdom and eventual healing. Followers of Vipassana eliminate the desires and emotions of greed, anger, and ignorance that corrupt the mind.

The last century of the millennium ushered in a valuable shift in the way we humans experience our bodies, yet in many ways our physical “self” remain a mystery. For many women, the intricate interdependence of their complicated systems remains uncharted territory. It is a recent phenomenon for women to demand control of their physiology and anatomy. But for men or women, our bodies are the only concrete reality we can know. They are always with us, constant, living and breathing in present time. Our bodies never lie, and with careful stewardship they will reveal all the secrets leading to truth. And when we work to achieve body brilliance, mastering our five essential IQs, our bodies shine.

As Lomi founder Robert Hall noted to me, “Enlightenment is, after all, a bodily process.”

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Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

www.ThroughYourBody.com
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

The Lomi School: Body Mind Spirit (Somatic) School

Somatics (body mind spirit therapy), on the other hand—the focus of study at the Lomi School—is a body-centered approach to living. The Greek word soma means “living body.” In ancient India, Brahmin priests drank a hallucinogenic concoction called soma, named after the Vedic god Soma, in rituals to expand consciousness. Richard Strozzi Heckler defines “somatic” as “the living body in its wholeness; or mind, body and spirit in unity.”

The tenets of somatics can be summarized as follows:

· Vitality, in the form of energy currents, flows through every body; when that vitality is fully realized we experience a natural state of health and well being. If our vital energy becomes clogged or blocked we experience disease.

· Somatic exercises, principally concentration or attention, strengthen the body, charge the spirit and relax the mind.

· A relaxed mind is interested and engaged in the present moment, with a tender attention to subtle change—not just differences in the body, the ebb and flow of emotions or fleeting thoughts, but to the laws of change that govern life and the world we live in.

· The primary goal of somatics is the union of body, mind and spirit: to achieve harmony outside oneself by finding harmony within.

The idea that the body itself had value—alone or in concert with the mind—resurfaced in the 20th Century. In particular, the relatively recent blending of Western psychology and medicine with Asian philosophies dramatically shifted the way we viewed and experienced our bodies. In traditional Western thought, the connection between body and mind was “psychosomatic,” which referred to health problems caused by distress or other manifestations from the mind (it’s all in your head). Many Asian cultures, on the contrary, saw the body as the very foundation of health and spiritual life.

The Lomi School was the first to synthesize different approaches of body-centered therapies into one curriculum. The importance of attention, or focus, lay at the center of Lomi proficiency, but the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, Fritz Perls, and Asian training in meditation and aikido also influenced the method. Additionally, Lomi co-founders Robert K. Hall and Richard Strozzi Heckler borrowed from Randolph Stone’s Polarity Therapy and the structural massage work of Ida Rolf.

Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

www.ThroughYourBody.com
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

BALANCE: Essential Body Mind Spirit

BALANCE

In Search of the Lost Sense.

By Scott McCredie.

Illustrated. 296 pp. Little, Brown & Company. $24.99.

In the early 1860s, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., then a brash Harvard undergraduate, wrote an essay criticizing Plato, whose classifications of ideas he found ''loose and unscientific.'' Holmes sent a copy of the essay to Emerson, whose books, he later said, had ''set me on fire.'' He soon received in return a nugget of stern wisdom. ''I have read your piece,'' Emerson replied. ''When you strike at a king you must kill him.''

I recalled this bit of advice recently while reading Scott McCredie's spirited first book, ''Balance,'' which opens with the gutsy Holmesian salvo ''Aristotle was wrong.'' The error in question is Aristotle's contention, advanced in his treatise ''De Anima'' in the fourth century B.C. and perpetuated ever since by kindergarten teachers around the world, that there are five, and only five, human senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. McCredie has made it his mission to crack this bit of dogma by elevating balance into the sensory canon, on the basis of its evolutionary antiquity (540 million years, give or take), its necessity for well-being and survival (it is likely impossible to live without), and its surprising relationship to human cognition. Balance, McCredie argues, ''may prove to be the most primary -- as in primordial, life-sustaining, essential -- of all the senses.''

Broadly speaking, McCredie is right. Scientists now agree that the classical five senses are not the only avenues through which we gather information about the world around and, equally important, inside us. Aristotle failed to specify proprioception (the sense of how our body parts are positioned in space relative to one another), equilibrioception (the sense of linear acceleration and head position), thermoception (the sense of heat and cold) and nociception (the sense of pain). Some scientists include hunger and thirst on the list of senses, so that the matter of how many we have, while undoubtedly more than Aristotle suggested, remains unclear.

Should balance be added to the list? McCredie, a journalist, makes a vigorous case, but he never answers the question of just what a ''sense'' is anyway. Whereas a conventional sense like hearing relies on a fairly straightforward chain of events -- the transformation of molecular movement into nerve impulses -- balance is a ''multimodal'' faculty. Indeed, it is perhaps best thought of as the sum total of other senses. In order to keep track of our bodies in space and counteract the substantial force of gravity, the central nervous system is constantly gathering, integrating and coordinating information from three separate sensory inputs: specialized cells in the joints and alongside muscles that tell us how our limbs are positioned, the vestibular organs of the inner ear that tell us how our head is moving and, of course, our eyes. This three-part scheme is necessary because two-legged creatures are rather awkwardly engineered. As McCredie puts it: ''The act of balancing a mass as large as a human body over a base as small as two human feet is exceptionally demanding. It's roughly equivalent to trying to balance a triangular object on one of its points; the natural tendency is for gravity to push it over.''

If in the end McCredie fails to convincingly argue for balance as a distinct sense, he deftly sketches the scientific terrain, pulling together information from topics as far afield as marine biology, Galenic medicine and aviation. The outsize star of his book is the celebrated tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, who ''possessed arguably the most precisely honed balance of any human in the 20th century.'' The centerpiece of the Ringling Brothers circus in the 1930s and '40s, Wallenda began refining his skills as a child in pre-World War I Germany, eventually performing tricks for money in restaurants and bars. In 1970, at the age of 65, he traversed a 1,000-foot-long tightrope across the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia, performing two headstands in strong winds before a crowd of 20,000 people.

To read the rest of this article, go to:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E1D91330F93AA2575BC0A9619C8B63

Daniel B. Smith is the author of ''Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination.''
Love your way, ad

Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Forza: Body Mind Spirit Martial Art

Diet By the Sword

By MARY TANNEN

I am trying not to think what Freud would say about this roomful of mostly women brandishing big sticks. At Equinox on Broadway and 19th Street, we stand in rows facing a mirror, eyes trained on our wooden swords as well as on our leader, Ilaria Montagnani. Moving to the beat of music that sounds like rhythmic jackhammering, we squat, lunge, slice and slash. The class is called Forza. The footwork is simple, and there are only 13 sword moves. The difficulty comes in making each cut precise, putting the whole body behind the swing and controlling the stick.

Montagnani’s weapon and body move as one. Although I try to mimic the harmony and economy of her motions, I can’t help noticing that my stick is on its own trajectory. There’s an alarming amount of flailing, and I even strike some shelves behind my head. Montagnani has cautiously taken aside the neophytes before class to watch as they practice. There are no “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” acrobatics in this class, I was disappointed to discover. Montagnani explains that the movie featured an intricate Chinese style that extends over time, with much jousting. The traditional Japanese swordsmanship, iaido, on which Forza is based, is “linear, precise — one stab and it’s over,” she says. “It’s very calm, and then quick.”

Forza, Italian for “strength,” is the creation of Montagnani, who is in fact Italian. That said, there is no dolce far niente in her demeanor. With her fair hair, hazel eyes and military stance, she looks like a small, feminine Prussian officer.

“I’ve been a martial artist since I was little,” she allows, but since she was a proper Florentine young lady, she was not sent to karate lessons but for ballet and piano instruction. All that she learned about martial arts came from books until she left for the States at age 19 to study. “I was driven,” she says. “It was the entire focus of my life.” She earned her black belt in karate, then took up the sword, attracted by its “beauty, grace and power.” She had to train with a wooden sword for 11 years before graduating to the real thing. “And then you inevitably cut yourself,” she says. Because of the terminal nature of this kind of fighting, you do not practice with an opponent. You judge your skill by the sound of the blade as it slices through the air.

As her training in martial arts required that she spend hours executing the same moves over and over, Montagnani hit upon the idea of setting moves to music and of fashioning the moves into aerobic routines. She hatched Powerstrike, kickboxing against an imaginary opponent, which is now registered all over the world. Forza came next, with the idea that students could begin with one-pound swords and graduate to heavier weights. (Montagnani trains with a four-pounder, but after an hour of lifting and swinging, I felt one was plenty.)

In addition to teaching 20 hours of classes a week, Montagnani trains instructors worldwide. The sport is a hit in Scandinavia: “They’re good athletes, not soft. They like regimentation. South America and Italy don’t have the correct frame of mind. It’s not for everyone. It requires focus.”

Montagnani has made a DVD, and the wooden swords, called bokken, can be obtained in Chinatown, so theoretically you could become a sitting-room samurai (after carefully clearing the area of bric-a-brac and kids). But there’s nothing like being with other grunting, sweating, slashing acolytes to keep your mind on message.

Outside the glass studio at Equinox, people are trudging on StairMasters and lifting weights. They probably think we are the frivolous ones, but Forza, if done right, is supposed to burn 500 calories an hour, while working arms, legs, back and abs. And you can imagine lopping off heads and disemboweling enemies, which adds a certain passion you can’t bring to weightlifting.

Later, over cappuccino, I tell Montagnani that if accosted in a dark alley, I think I’ll be able to defend myself, as long as I have access to a big stick. Looking a trifle discomfited, she confesses that she was accosted by a man in a crowded subway recently. Though armed, she did not use her sword: “It would have been devastating for him.” Instead she yelled and shoved like any civilian, and no one even looked up.

Well, at least I am burning calories; I’ll be able to eat a doughnut. But Montagnani, who has no discernible body fat, is drinking a small skim and looking wistfully at the pastry selection. “I’m in training,” she explains. I’m beginning to see that it will take more than a couple of hours a week of stick waving to get to look like her. You must live by the sword.

Be Brilliant; body mind spirit brilliance.

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Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923

Centering: Essential for Body Mind Spirit Integration

Centering is a key element of all the martial arts, from Aikido, Tai Chi, to Tae Kwan Do and the second foundation of body mind spirit integration (see yesterday’s post, “Sensation” for the first foundation). This simple, yet profound, practice asks us to drop into our center of gravity. The Asian traditions call this part of the body, about two inches below the navel, the tan ‘tien in China or the hara in Japan.

Start by resting your palm against your “center.” Really sense the warmth and gentle pressure of your hand.

Slowly move your body weight to the right; shifting as far as you can without falling sideways. Come back to center. Sense your body.

Slowly shift your body weight left as far as you can. And come back to center. Sense your body. This is centering right-to-left.

Slowly lean your body forward as far as you can without falling. Pause and sense the unusual sensations of tilting in this way. Come back to center. Sense your body.

Slowly lean your body back as far as you can without falling. Pause and sense your body in this unique pose. Come back to center. Sense your body. This is centering front-to-back.

Rise upon he balls of your feet and clench the muscles in your feet and ankles. Stretch your legs and torso up, squeezing your leg, belly, and chest muscles. Clench your shoulder muscles, tighten your jaws, and squint your eyes. Walk around a bit all tightened up like this. Stop.

Completely relax your body. Soften knees so they are relaxed over your ankles. Soften hips so they are resting over your knees. Drop your shoulders so they are aligned over your hips. Relax your neck and head so it floats over your shoulders. This is centering op-and-down.

You have just centered in the three planes of movement; right-to-left, front-to-back, and up-and-down.

With your palm resting on your center/tan tien/hara start to walk easily; sensing your body centered as you move.

As you sit or walk or rest in this place of centering let your mind relax into not knowing. Trust your body to move easily, organically. It’s what it is created to do.Our physical and mental IQs are not meant to be stripped apart from each other. If we separate them - keep them at a distance from each other - we must live a short distance from ourselves - as the Dubliner, Mr. Duffy did. If we work to bring them into unity with each other - it is like a golfer hitting a golf ball in the "sweet spot."

For you non-golfers , a golfer loves it when they hit the ball on exactly the right spot on the club. It feels and sounds really great and it flies to exactly where you want it. It is called the "sweet" spot and it is something golfers are always practicing to get. And, like getting the sweet spot in hitting a golf swing - we can't hold onto to the unity of our Five IQs at all times. We lose it and have to find it again; Sense and Center, Sense and Center, Sense and Center, over and over again. We have to keep practicing.

Be Brilliant.

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Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

Dedicated to our healthy, happy, and prosperous world through the full enlightenment of every human being.

Through Your Body
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923