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
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Thursday, September 6, 2007
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.
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
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.
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
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
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.”
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
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.”
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
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
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
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
Monday, September 3, 2007
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
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
Sunday, September 2, 2007
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.
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
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.
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
Saturday, September 1, 2007
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.
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
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.
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
Friday, August 31, 2007
Essential Body Mind Spirit: Sense and Sensation
Sensation is the language of the body and the foundation of body mind spirit integration. Sensation is the language many of us have ignored for most of our lives. To feel the sensations of our bodies is to actually experience ourselves; raw, life coursing through us, present in the most immediate sense.
The sensations of our bodies ALWAYS happen in present time. It’s impossible for our bodies to happen in the past, or in the present. That’s why Martha Graham, the great American dancer and choreographer, said, “The body never lies.” It is immediate truth. (The mind weaves the stories about what those sensations mean—pulling us out of the raw experience—and into past or present). Stories never happen in the present moment; they are creations of our thoughts.
Sensing meditations have been around since the Buddha. A fundamental part of Vipassana (Insight) mediation is focusing the mind, gently, on the sensations of the body. This takes our awareness away from the stream of thoughts and thinking and onto/into the present moment. Here’s a very simple sensing exercise.
Sensing
Sit completely relaxed and comfortable. Turn your attention to your feet. Notice the sensations of temperature, pressure, or vibration; the feel of your feet pressing against the floor; the sensation of fabric or temperature on your feet.
Sense your hips pressing against your seat; opening to the sensations of pressure, temperature, or vibration.
Sense your hands resting.
Sense your head balanced on your neck and shoulders.
Sense the air moving in and out of your nose and throat.
Sense your chest rising and falling with each breath.
Sense your belly moving as your breath moves in and out.
If you notice yourself thinking, instead of sensing, very gently focus your attention once again on your feet and start again.
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
The sensations of our bodies ALWAYS happen in present time. It’s impossible for our bodies to happen in the past, or in the present. That’s why Martha Graham, the great American dancer and choreographer, said, “The body never lies.” It is immediate truth. (The mind weaves the stories about what those sensations mean—pulling us out of the raw experience—and into past or present). Stories never happen in the present moment; they are creations of our thoughts.
Sensing meditations have been around since the Buddha. A fundamental part of Vipassana (Insight) mediation is focusing the mind, gently, on the sensations of the body. This takes our awareness away from the stream of thoughts and thinking and onto/into the present moment. Here’s a very simple sensing exercise.
Sensing
Sit completely relaxed and comfortable. Turn your attention to your feet. Notice the sensations of temperature, pressure, or vibration; the feel of your feet pressing against the floor; the sensation of fabric or temperature on your feet.
Sense your hips pressing against your seat; opening to the sensations of pressure, temperature, or vibration.
Sense your hands resting.
Sense your head balanced on your neck and shoulders.
Sense the air moving in and out of your nose and throat.
Sense your chest rising and falling with each breath.
Sense your belly moving as your breath moves in and out.
If you notice yourself thinking, instead of sensing, very gently focus your attention once again on your feet and start again.
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
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Hitting the Sweet Spot by Mastering Your 5 Vital IQs: Body Mind Spirit Integration
"Mr. Duffy Lived a Short Distance from His Body,"
This quote comes from the Irish novelist James Joyce's short story, THE DUBLINERS. In his writings, Joyce examines the journey of the human soul in the modern world. He also shines alight on the importance of Physical Intelligence in Being Human.
I can identify with Mr. Duffy. I have lived a short distance from my body most of my life. I was afraid of my body; the intensity of feeling and sensation. I had no idea how to access the wisdom my body has for me. When I began to realize how my Five Vital Intelligences--physical, emotional, mental, moral, and spiritual--work together, I began to find some real answers to how to live a happy, human life.
Since 1988, when I started massage school, and began my own work with body/mind/spirit integration, I’ve learned to trust and depend on the sensations in my body to guide me to what is truer for me.
I used to depend much more on thoughts and ideas to make sense of my life. I understand now I must use my mind and what I feel in my heart and body. To rely solely on one IQ is to be left using one cylinder in a five-cylinder truck. If we don’t trust our minds and our bodies, hearts, actions, and spirits how can we get the whole picture of our Body Wisdom and how best to move forward into our lives?
In our "modern" world we are asked to do just that - divide ourselves from our bodies - to depend exclusively on one cylinder of being a human - our reason and our thinking mind. We separate ourselves from the wisdom of our bodies - which is nonverbal experiences, highly indescribable in words and largely metaphoric and symbolic in its language.
For instance......You stand looking out over the ocean, or sit in a hot tub with snow falling on your head and you have a feeling in your heart, or you hear an idea whispered in your ear, or you see a picture of an answer to a question you have been pondering. The experience comes and goes quickly, but it fills you with knowing, a moment of recognition, a whisper of truth, a nudge to "Go here now."But in the next moment your mind says, " Oh that can’t be right, or you forget the moment entirely - when really, those are the moments given us by our bodies, in concert with our souls and the spirit of life which are meant to guide us to heal. To change this, we must do other than Mr. Duffy - we must come home to our bodies.
We all have the capacity to peak our Physical IQ and live through our bodies. There are many paths to reclaiming our body’s treasure. You can go to Tai Chi, you can lift weights, you can master Aikido, or you can plant roses in your garden.
The universe is filled with the glittering treasure that is our bodies. As the Sufi poet Rumi wrote many centuries ago:
"It's the man who was looking for the treasure… Don't ever think of him as the seeker, though. Whatever he's looking for, he is it himself. How can a lover be anything but the beloved?"
Our bodies hold a unique place in our lives. They are our oldest and dearest friends. They are our home; the place where we live every moment of our lives. Our muscles and tissues record the passing of time, visible in our very gestures: a gentle tilt of the head, the sway of our hips, the slump of a back.
So, the more we champion our physical intelligence in our daily lives, and in our spiritual lives, the more wise, and kind, we become. There are many practices which we will find to suit our individual souls. I want to share with you two that have the deepest meaning to me; Sense and Center.
More about them tomorrow…
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
This quote comes from the Irish novelist James Joyce's short story, THE DUBLINERS. In his writings, Joyce examines the journey of the human soul in the modern world. He also shines alight on the importance of Physical Intelligence in Being Human.
I can identify with Mr. Duffy. I have lived a short distance from my body most of my life. I was afraid of my body; the intensity of feeling and sensation. I had no idea how to access the wisdom my body has for me. When I began to realize how my Five Vital Intelligences--physical, emotional, mental, moral, and spiritual--work together, I began to find some real answers to how to live a happy, human life.
Since 1988, when I started massage school, and began my own work with body/mind/spirit integration, I’ve learned to trust and depend on the sensations in my body to guide me to what is truer for me.
I used to depend much more on thoughts and ideas to make sense of my life. I understand now I must use my mind and what I feel in my heart and body. To rely solely on one IQ is to be left using one cylinder in a five-cylinder truck. If we don’t trust our minds and our bodies, hearts, actions, and spirits how can we get the whole picture of our Body Wisdom and how best to move forward into our lives?
In our "modern" world we are asked to do just that - divide ourselves from our bodies - to depend exclusively on one cylinder of being a human - our reason and our thinking mind. We separate ourselves from the wisdom of our bodies - which is nonverbal experiences, highly indescribable in words and largely metaphoric and symbolic in its language.
For instance......You stand looking out over the ocean, or sit in a hot tub with snow falling on your head and you have a feeling in your heart, or you hear an idea whispered in your ear, or you see a picture of an answer to a question you have been pondering. The experience comes and goes quickly, but it fills you with knowing, a moment of recognition, a whisper of truth, a nudge to "Go here now."But in the next moment your mind says, " Oh that can’t be right, or you forget the moment entirely - when really, those are the moments given us by our bodies, in concert with our souls and the spirit of life which are meant to guide us to heal. To change this, we must do other than Mr. Duffy - we must come home to our bodies.
We all have the capacity to peak our Physical IQ and live through our bodies. There are many paths to reclaiming our body’s treasure. You can go to Tai Chi, you can lift weights, you can master Aikido, or you can plant roses in your garden.
The universe is filled with the glittering treasure that is our bodies. As the Sufi poet Rumi wrote many centuries ago:
"It's the man who was looking for the treasure… Don't ever think of him as the seeker, though. Whatever he's looking for, he is it himself. How can a lover be anything but the beloved?"
Our bodies hold a unique place in our lives. They are our oldest and dearest friends. They are our home; the place where we live every moment of our lives. Our muscles and tissues record the passing of time, visible in our very gestures: a gentle tilt of the head, the sway of our hips, the slump of a back.
So, the more we champion our physical intelligence in our daily lives, and in our spiritual lives, the more wise, and kind, we become. There are many practices which we will find to suit our individual souls. I want to share with you two that have the deepest meaning to me; Sense and Center.
More about them tomorrow…
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
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Dr. Randolph Stone; Body Mind Spirit Pioneer
Dr. Randolph Stone, the founder of Polarity Therapy, a body mind spirit therapy, emigrated to America as a youngster around 1898. He completed his primary medical certifications in the early 1920s, including Doctor of Osteopathy, Doctor of Chiropractic and Doctor of Naturopathy, but he was a lifelong student, eventually adding certifications in a wide range of topics including massage and midwifery.
His love of travel took him in search of medical insights from other cultures. The good doctor maintained a medical practice in Chicago for over 50 years, where his motto of “Whatever works, works!” established his reputation for taking otherwise hopeless cases, many of whom responded to his unconventional techniques and multicultural approaches.
Endlessly curious, Stone was fascinated by spiritual studies and mysticism. In the 1940s he deepened his knowledge of and commitment to esoteric (body mind spirit) understanding by accepting initiation in a meditation system based in India. His dedication to this yogic path continued uninterrupted for almost 40 years, and he made frequent visits to India to study and develop his inner knowledge.
By the late 1940s Stone had synthesized his collected information into his first book, Energy, published in 1947, theorizing that the polarized fields of attraction and repulsion, as found in all magnetic relationships and in the atomic sub-structure, were the underlying reality of all physical phenomena, especially health. A series of seven books and pamphlets followed, further explaining his basic ideas about energy and providing numerous healing techniques.
In the mid 1950s Stone tried to interest the medical community in his body mind spirit ideas, offering free lectures, writing journal articles and repeatedly attempting to engage his colleagues in dialogue. These efforts were largely unsuccessful, as medical professionals from that era confidently pursued the miracles of drugs and surgery that characterized Western treatment.
In the 1960s, already in his mid-seventies, Stone suddenly found popularity for the first time with a new generation of body mind spirit health seekers for whom his blend of science and spirituality was not so unpalatable. In seminars in California he vigorously preached his message of holistic health. The seed of Polarity Therapy finally found enough fertile soil to survive. Dr. Stone retired in 1974 and moved to an Indian meditation community, where he offered free medical services in a public clinic. He gradually withdrew from public life, dying of natural causes.
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
His love of travel took him in search of medical insights from other cultures. The good doctor maintained a medical practice in Chicago for over 50 years, where his motto of “Whatever works, works!” established his reputation for taking otherwise hopeless cases, many of whom responded to his unconventional techniques and multicultural approaches.
Endlessly curious, Stone was fascinated by spiritual studies and mysticism. In the 1940s he deepened his knowledge of and commitment to esoteric (body mind spirit) understanding by accepting initiation in a meditation system based in India. His dedication to this yogic path continued uninterrupted for almost 40 years, and he made frequent visits to India to study and develop his inner knowledge.
By the late 1940s Stone had synthesized his collected information into his first book, Energy, published in 1947, theorizing that the polarized fields of attraction and repulsion, as found in all magnetic relationships and in the atomic sub-structure, were the underlying reality of all physical phenomena, especially health. A series of seven books and pamphlets followed, further explaining his basic ideas about energy and providing numerous healing techniques.
In the mid 1950s Stone tried to interest the medical community in his body mind spirit ideas, offering free lectures, writing journal articles and repeatedly attempting to engage his colleagues in dialogue. These efforts were largely unsuccessful, as medical professionals from that era confidently pursued the miracles of drugs and surgery that characterized Western treatment.
In the 1960s, already in his mid-seventies, Stone suddenly found popularity for the first time with a new generation of body mind spirit health seekers for whom his blend of science and spirituality was not so unpalatable. In seminars in California he vigorously preached his message of holistic health. The seed of Polarity Therapy finally found enough fertile soil to survive. Dr. Stone retired in 1974 and moved to an Indian meditation community, where he offered free medical services in a public clinic. He gradually withdrew from public life, dying of natural causes.
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
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Ida Rolf: Body Mind Spirit Pioneer
Ida Rolf obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1922. By the mid-1950s Rolf had developed a method for realigning the human structure in relation to gravity, originally called the Structural Integration of the Human Body, but commonly referred to as “Rolfing.”
The Lomi (body mind spirit) School curriculum included Rolf’s bodywork program because it provided an excellent way to break up the emotional armoring in the muscles and connective tissues by employing deep-tissue massage. These techniques realigned the body’s posture, muscles and bones and had the effect of unifying body mind spirit.
According to Rolf, bound-up connective tissue or “fascia” restricted opposing muscles from functioning independently from each other. She claimed she could separate the bound-up fascia by separating the fibers manually through her technique and then re-engaging effective movement patterns. Adequate knowledge of living anatomy and hands-on training were required, Rolf said, in order for a practitioner to safely negotiate appropriate techniques and the depths necessary to loosen the bound-up fascia.
Rolfing involved a series of ten bodywork sessions. The therapist photographed the patient’s body before the first session, assessing posture and imbalances. Each session focused on a different part of the body, with the first session devoted to the chest in order to open and relax the patient’s breathing. Next the therapist worked to build a solid “foundation” by focusing on the feet, ankles and legs.
Once these stabilized the therapist turned to the pelvis to create a solid base for the torso and arms. Later the head was “put on straight.” Final photographs revealed the changes in posture. You could see, as well as feel, the physical benefits of this work. After the muscles, tissues and bones had settled for a period of time, the patient could schedule five advanced sessions or the occasional “tune up.”
As Ida Rolf worked with people, she discovered a link between muscle tension and suppressed emotion. When muscle tension was released, she found that some people experienced "flashback" memories of the original situations that first caused the need to tense the muscles. A sudden release of the trapped emotion cleared the need for the tension to be held by the tissues. As a result, Rolf said, the body returned to a more natural posture. The body mind spirit wisdom could the integrate.
Both The Rolf Institute and the Guild for Structural Integration, continue to teach Rolf’s method, and many other groups which offer deep-tissue bodywork trace their lineage to Rolfing as their source of body mind spirit bodywork.
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
The Lomi (body mind spirit) School curriculum included Rolf’s bodywork program because it provided an excellent way to break up the emotional armoring in the muscles and connective tissues by employing deep-tissue massage. These techniques realigned the body’s posture, muscles and bones and had the effect of unifying body mind spirit.
According to Rolf, bound-up connective tissue or “fascia” restricted opposing muscles from functioning independently from each other. She claimed she could separate the bound-up fascia by separating the fibers manually through her technique and then re-engaging effective movement patterns. Adequate knowledge of living anatomy and hands-on training were required, Rolf said, in order for a practitioner to safely negotiate appropriate techniques and the depths necessary to loosen the bound-up fascia.
Rolfing involved a series of ten bodywork sessions. The therapist photographed the patient’s body before the first session, assessing posture and imbalances. Each session focused on a different part of the body, with the first session devoted to the chest in order to open and relax the patient’s breathing. Next the therapist worked to build a solid “foundation” by focusing on the feet, ankles and legs.
Once these stabilized the therapist turned to the pelvis to create a solid base for the torso and arms. Later the head was “put on straight.” Final photographs revealed the changes in posture. You could see, as well as feel, the physical benefits of this work. After the muscles, tissues and bones had settled for a period of time, the patient could schedule five advanced sessions or the occasional “tune up.”
As Ida Rolf worked with people, she discovered a link between muscle tension and suppressed emotion. When muscle tension was released, she found that some people experienced "flashback" memories of the original situations that first caused the need to tense the muscles. A sudden release of the trapped emotion cleared the need for the tension to be held by the tissues. As a result, Rolf said, the body returned to a more natural posture. The body mind spirit wisdom could the integrate.
Both The Rolf Institute and the Guild for Structural Integration, continue to teach Rolf’s method, and many other groups which offer deep-tissue bodywork trace their lineage to Rolfing as their source of body mind spirit bodywork.
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
Monday, August 27, 2007
God in the 21st Century, Part 2: Body Mind Spirit Skillful Means
God in the 21st Century, Part 2: Body Mind Spirit Skillful Means.
With Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ken Wilber
Who: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Spiritual Center and author of Integral Spirituality.
Relevance: What use is the liberating wisdom of contemplative spirituality, such as Jewish Hassidism and Kabbalah, if those who know the secrets of these traditions don't have the skillful means—the upaya—necessary to communicate those truths to all sentient beings in a way that they can hear? How might a more Integral Spirituality, in any tradition, create a more effective upaya?
Summary: Continuing their conversation about "God in the 21st Century," these two long-time friends and founding members of Integral Spiritual Center bring their attention to the question of what is most essential to the spiritual and integral path, and how best to share those truths.
For an Integral Life Practice, what is most essential is the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow dimensions of any person (with "auxiliary modules" such as sex, ethics, relationship, and more). And yet, as Reb Zalman so eloquently states, even if you know a deep spiritual or integral truth, if you don't have the upaya, the skillful means, necessary to communicate the importance of such a truth—we have a real problem.
Since most traditions agree that spiritual enlightenment reveals the universal Spirit-nature of all beings, those who have come to know their own Spirit-nature have an obligation to help share, reveal, and point out that truth to all those who may not yet have recognized their own True Nature. It is not enough to say that everyone, exactly as they are, is in perfectly union with ever-present Ayin, and Ultimate Reality. That is absolute truth. However, relative truth is that it is necessary for that reality to be a conscious understanding for each individual.
The means by which a spiritual teacher—by whatever name—helps make this understanding truly conscious in another human being: that is the realm of skillful means. As Reb Zalman and Ken agree, skillful means must be adapted to the four-quadrant dimensions (intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social) of any given situation. Such is the nature of a truly Integral Spirituality, a vision with which Reb Zalman clearly resonates. As this wise elder Rabbi has publicly stated, "The Kabbalah of the future will rest on Ken's work."
Why Integral?: An Integral Approach to spirituality is the first approach to explore in detail the difference between states of consciousness and structures of consciousness, and how development can unfold in each dimension of human experience. This is quite possibly the most significant contribution to our understanding of human nature in decades, because the explanatory power of the Integral View as a whole is simply unrivaled.
Integral doesn't change the content of human experience, it helps contextualize and explain the content that is already there. Particularly when it comes to the realm of spirituality, religion, and ultimate concern—even if that ultimate concern is scientific materialism—the possibilities for division and strife are nearly endless. An Integral Approach shows how there really is room in the Kosmos for everyone, and how the Good, the True, and the Beautiful actually evolve and develop into ever-more inclusive, complex, and radiant forms.
To learn more about how an Integral Approach can be applied to spirituality, see the essay "What Is Integral Spirituality," the book Integral Spirituality, and the learning community at Integral Spiritual Center (where Rabbi Zalman is a founding member and teacher).
To listen to this interview:
http://in.integralinstitute.org/whatsnew.aspx
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
With Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ken Wilber
Who: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Spiritual Center and author of Integral Spirituality.
Relevance: What use is the liberating wisdom of contemplative spirituality, such as Jewish Hassidism and Kabbalah, if those who know the secrets of these traditions don't have the skillful means—the upaya—necessary to communicate those truths to all sentient beings in a way that they can hear? How might a more Integral Spirituality, in any tradition, create a more effective upaya?
Summary: Continuing their conversation about "God in the 21st Century," these two long-time friends and founding members of Integral Spiritual Center bring their attention to the question of what is most essential to the spiritual and integral path, and how best to share those truths.
For an Integral Life Practice, what is most essential is the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow dimensions of any person (with "auxiliary modules" such as sex, ethics, relationship, and more). And yet, as Reb Zalman so eloquently states, even if you know a deep spiritual or integral truth, if you don't have the upaya, the skillful means, necessary to communicate the importance of such a truth—we have a real problem.
Since most traditions agree that spiritual enlightenment reveals the universal Spirit-nature of all beings, those who have come to know their own Spirit-nature have an obligation to help share, reveal, and point out that truth to all those who may not yet have recognized their own True Nature. It is not enough to say that everyone, exactly as they are, is in perfectly union with ever-present Ayin, and Ultimate Reality. That is absolute truth. However, relative truth is that it is necessary for that reality to be a conscious understanding for each individual.
The means by which a spiritual teacher—by whatever name—helps make this understanding truly conscious in another human being: that is the realm of skillful means. As Reb Zalman and Ken agree, skillful means must be adapted to the four-quadrant dimensions (intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social) of any given situation. Such is the nature of a truly Integral Spirituality, a vision with which Reb Zalman clearly resonates. As this wise elder Rabbi has publicly stated, "The Kabbalah of the future will rest on Ken's work."
Why Integral?: An Integral Approach to spirituality is the first approach to explore in detail the difference between states of consciousness and structures of consciousness, and how development can unfold in each dimension of human experience. This is quite possibly the most significant contribution to our understanding of human nature in decades, because the explanatory power of the Integral View as a whole is simply unrivaled.
Integral doesn't change the content of human experience, it helps contextualize and explain the content that is already there. Particularly when it comes to the realm of spirituality, religion, and ultimate concern—even if that ultimate concern is scientific materialism—the possibilities for division and strife are nearly endless. An Integral Approach shows how there really is room in the Kosmos for everyone, and how the Good, the True, and the Beautiful actually evolve and develop into ever-more inclusive, complex, and radiant forms.
To learn more about how an Integral Approach can be applied to spirituality, see the essay "What Is Integral Spirituality," the book Integral Spirituality, and the learning community at Integral Spiritual Center (where Rabbi Zalman is a founding member and teacher).
To listen to this interview:
http://in.integralinstitute.org/whatsnew.aspx
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
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Fritz Perls: Body Mind Spirit Pioneer
Fritz Perls, a body mind spirit psychiatrist and student of Wihelm Reich’s, helped found Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt in German means “an irreducible experience,” and Perls adopted the term to name the method he had developed with his wife Laura, also a psychiatrist.
Their approach emphasized the person as a whole—with the mind and emotions equally connected to the body—which differed from the importance of “knowing” stressed in Hans-Juergen Walter’s Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy.
Perls theorized that the exhilarating experience of living fully alive, aware, and in the present was actually derailed by our habitual thinking mind. (“I think, and that gets in the way of who I am”—apologies to Descartes.) Our thoughts about life created a barrier to experiencing life full tilt, and Gestalt therapy emphasized the removal of obstacles that prevented people from maximizing their potential.
The method involved working in real time as opposed to focusing on past experiences, the norm for psychoanalysis. His 1951 book, Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, also featured contributions from Paul Goodman, an anarchist and political writer, and from Ralph Hefferline, a psychology professor and patient. Perls was quoted as saying,
“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”
The key points of Gestalt therapy are:
· Live now, in the moment
· Live here, in the present
· Stop imagining and experience reality
· Stop unnecessary thinking; decide and act
· Start expressing and avoid manipulating, explaining, justifying or judging
· Stop restricting awareness and accept unpleasantness
· Resist accepting “should” or “ought” from others
· Begin taking full responsibility for actions, feelings and thoughts
· Begin surrendering to who you are right now.
Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean-born anthropologist and psychiatrist, organized Gestalt therapy into three basic principles:
· Actuality: nothing exists outside the present moment
· Attention: awareness of feelings, thoughts, body posture, breathing rhythm, physical sensations, sights, sounds, tastes, smells and so forth to enhance day-to-day experience
· Responsibility: taking full responsibility for your own actions, feelings and thoughts.
In addition to his work with Gestalt therapy, Naranjo experimented with mind-altering substances and was a major figure in the Human Potential Movement (body mind spirit) and the Fourth Way.
Perls, meanwhile, became associated with The Esalen Institute in California in 1964. People who had no connection to psychotherapy often recognized Perls as the author of a 1969 quotation described as the “Gestalt Prayer”:
I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.
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
Their approach emphasized the person as a whole—with the mind and emotions equally connected to the body—which differed from the importance of “knowing” stressed in Hans-Juergen Walter’s Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy.
Perls theorized that the exhilarating experience of living fully alive, aware, and in the present was actually derailed by our habitual thinking mind. (“I think, and that gets in the way of who I am”—apologies to Descartes.) Our thoughts about life created a barrier to experiencing life full tilt, and Gestalt therapy emphasized the removal of obstacles that prevented people from maximizing their potential.
The method involved working in real time as opposed to focusing on past experiences, the norm for psychoanalysis. His 1951 book, Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, also featured contributions from Paul Goodman, an anarchist and political writer, and from Ralph Hefferline, a psychology professor and patient. Perls was quoted as saying,
“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”
The key points of Gestalt therapy are:
· Live now, in the moment
· Live here, in the present
· Stop imagining and experience reality
· Stop unnecessary thinking; decide and act
· Start expressing and avoid manipulating, explaining, justifying or judging
· Stop restricting awareness and accept unpleasantness
· Resist accepting “should” or “ought” from others
· Begin taking full responsibility for actions, feelings and thoughts
· Begin surrendering to who you are right now.
Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean-born anthropologist and psychiatrist, organized Gestalt therapy into three basic principles:
· Actuality: nothing exists outside the present moment
· Attention: awareness of feelings, thoughts, body posture, breathing rhythm, physical sensations, sights, sounds, tastes, smells and so forth to enhance day-to-day experience
· Responsibility: taking full responsibility for your own actions, feelings and thoughts.
In addition to his work with Gestalt therapy, Naranjo experimented with mind-altering substances and was a major figure in the Human Potential Movement (body mind spirit) and the Fourth Way.
Perls, meanwhile, became associated with The Esalen Institute in California in 1964. People who had no connection to psychotherapy often recognized Perls as the author of a 1969 quotation described as the “Gestalt Prayer”:
I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.
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
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Wilhelm Reich: Body Mind Spirit Pioneer
Wilhelm Reich is known as the grandfather of somatic (body mind spirit) psychoanalysis, was an Austrian psychiatrist trained by Sigmund Freud in Vienna. In 1922, Reich established a private practice in psychoanalysis as part of Freud’s Polyanalytic Clinic, where he researched the social causes of neuroses. Individual neurotic symptoms comprised the focus of early psychoanalysis.
Reich came to believe, however, that a person’s entire character or personality (body mind spirit in unity) could be examined and treated. Reich’s first book, Character Analysis, outlined his theory, called “ego psychology,” and started a small revolution in psychoanalysis. Reich also discussed what he called “body armoring”: the theory that unreleased emotions, especially those related to sexual energy, actually produced “armor,” or blocks in the muscles and organs, and became stored in seven parts of the body—eyes, jaws, neck, chest, diaphragm, belly and pelvis—preventing the release of energy.
Reich believed that orgasm as part of a healthy, mutually satisfying sex life was one way to break through the body armor—a seemingly simple solution that initiated a great deal of controversy among his peers. During the 1930s Reich also claimed to have found the physical energy orgone (actually spiritual energy), which he said was contained in the atmosphere and in all living matter.
The Nazis banned Reich’s second book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, in 1933. German newspapers branded him a Communist Jew who advocated the dangerous idea of “free love;” fearful for his life, Reich emigrated to the United States to continue his orgone research.
Unfortunately, Reich did not escape harassment in America. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper’s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into Reich's claims about orgone therapy, and won an injunction against its promotion as a medical treatment.
Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. In August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA. He died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, one day before his parole hearing.
this post taken from Body Brilliance:
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
Reich came to believe, however, that a person’s entire character or personality (body mind spirit in unity) could be examined and treated. Reich’s first book, Character Analysis, outlined his theory, called “ego psychology,” and started a small revolution in psychoanalysis. Reich also discussed what he called “body armoring”: the theory that unreleased emotions, especially those related to sexual energy, actually produced “armor,” or blocks in the muscles and organs, and became stored in seven parts of the body—eyes, jaws, neck, chest, diaphragm, belly and pelvis—preventing the release of energy.
Reich believed that orgasm as part of a healthy, mutually satisfying sex life was one way to break through the body armor—a seemingly simple solution that initiated a great deal of controversy among his peers. During the 1930s Reich also claimed to have found the physical energy orgone (actually spiritual energy), which he said was contained in the atmosphere and in all living matter.
The Nazis banned Reich’s second book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, in 1933. German newspapers branded him a Communist Jew who advocated the dangerous idea of “free love;” fearful for his life, Reich emigrated to the United States to continue his orgone research.
Unfortunately, Reich did not escape harassment in America. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper’s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into Reich's claims about orgone therapy, and won an injunction against its promotion as a medical treatment.
Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. In August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA. He died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, one day before his parole hearing.
this post taken from Body Brilliance:
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
Friday, August 24, 2007
A New View of Physical Intelligence and Activity: A Body Mind Spirit Solution
The foundation of any body mind spirit program is the BODY. Nurturing our bodies is essential for the energy needed to thrive and to peak our Five Vital Intelligences: physical, (body) emotional IQ (heart), mental IQ (mind), moral IQ (choice), and spiritual IQ (spirit). Mastering our physical IQ, through our bodies, generates tremendous energy, which we can then channel to fulfilling the promise of our body mind spirit practice. Alan Davidson
A Report of the Surgeon General
This report brings together, for the first time, what has been learned about physical activity and health from decades of research. Among its major findings:
· People who are usually inactive can improve their health and well-being by becoming even moderately active on a regular basis.
· Physical activity need not be strenuous to achieve health benefits.
· Greater health benefits can be achieved by increasing the amount (duration, frequency, or intensity) of physical activity.
THE BENEFITS OF REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY…
THE BENEFITS OF REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY:
- Regular physical activity that is performed on most days of the week reduces the risk of developing or dying from some of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States.
- Regular physical activity improves health in the following ways:
- Reduces the risk of dying prematurely.
- Reduces the risk of dying from heart disease.
- Reduces the risk of developing diabetes.
- Reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure.
- Helps reduce blood pressure in people who already have high blood pressure.
- Reduces the risk of developing colon cancer.
- Reduces feelings of depression and anxiety.
- Helps control weight.
- Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints.
- Helps older adults become stronger and better able to move about without falling.
- Promotes psychological well-being.
- Promotes Body Mind Spirit Integration
To read more...
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/ataglan.htm
_ _ _ _ _ _
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
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Is President George W. Bush Personally Responsible for the Ever-Expanding Waistline, Button-Popping, Couch-Crushing Obesity Epidemic in America?
“America, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility is valued and expected,” said George W. Bush in his Inaugural speech, way back in a previous life, like 2001. He added, “Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience. And though it requires sacrifice, it brings a deeper fulfillment.”
George W. Bush may be personally responsible for Afghanistan teetering as a failed state, Playing the Pied Piper and dashing us all to war in Iraq; there being NO weapons of mass destruction in said Iraq after all (he said there was); and the squandering of America’s fine standing in the world’s opinion polls.
Just as the Pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals—that’s a whole nother Oprah show folks—We Americans expect the United States President to be infallible when it comes to our best interest. The President’s office is not infallible, but it is responsible for policy. Harry S. Truman summed it up quite nicely in the oval office with, “The buck stops here.”
But does that make George W. Bush personally responsible for a nation of couch potatoes? A nation whose idea of exercise is to reach for the remote (and the chips and dip) instead of their running shoes; or lift a tray of super-size me food instead of a barbell? Or make another quick lap around the all-you-can eat buffet instead of walking through the park? Alas, I’m afraid it doesn’t. George is innocent on that count (that doesn’t mean he gets off scott-free for the afore mentioned bucks stockpiling at his door).
These days we live in a numbing state of “But it’s not your fault” marketing blitzes. Commercials for diet pills and gastric bypass surgery scream our innocence. Seconded by a celebrity chorus of “It’s not my fault” guilt free excuses (Lindsey Lohan explodes to mind). I guess her mother made her do it. Enough whining or carping already.
It’s easier to lie to ourselves—and others than face a glaring truth. It’s time to swipe a cue from the slew of Twelve Step programs out there and take a “Fearless Moral Inventory.” Fess up. Tell the fracking truth. Get over your self. Get real.
And when it comes to fat—the latest stats:
58 million American’s overweight;
40 million obese;
3 million morbidly obese.
We, as a collective country, are deluded on a river in Egypt. I mean da’-nile, sister; serious denial.
The math is simple. Too many calories in, minus calories out (the calories burned in a day) = the amount of fat stored in the body. What kind of food we eat does play a part in how quickly blood sugar changes to fat. But all-in-all the easy (and hard) truth is, “It still comes down to calories in/calories out.” The natural consequence of eating too much food is too much fat. You do your math.
Accepting personal responsibility is the cornerstone of peaking Moral Intelligence in any body mind spirit program. Moral IQ hinges on our ability to sense the consequences of an action and to choose best; and when things go south--as they so often do--to fully own up for those pesky unintended consequences, too.
I totally get that obesity is a side-effect from life long habits of emotional hijacking, confused thinking, doing, and being. That’s where peaking Emotional IQ and Mental IQ (unconscious, conscious, and super-conscious) comes in.
So if you’re ready to wake up and take personal responsibility for your perfect healthy body (read…over-weight, eating junk, lean body mass, fat ratio, anorexia, and bulimia, too), try adding this to you body mind spirit program…
Week 1:
Get out the pen and paper. Write down everything that goes into your mouth for the next week. I mean solid, liquid, and everything in between. At week’s end have one serious come-to-Jesus meeting with your self.
Ask, “What ONE thing can I do to heal my eating.” Listen to your body and its unique wisdom—it will tell you what’s best for you (Your mind may hate it—but that, again, is another Oprah). A few months ago I gave up eating white sugar. I lost six pounds in six weeks just by doing that one thing.
Week 2:
Keep writing everything that goes in your mouth. At the end of week two (and another come-to-Jesus meeting with you-truly), take stock. Listen to your body again—(it’s actually a good idea to always listen to your body wisdom. It’s wiser than you think).
Ask, “What one thing can I do to heal my eating this week.” My body feels best when I drink 4 liters of water a day.* I just recommitted to drinking my share. My mind already feels more clear-headed and focused.
Week 3:
Repeat as needed. Trust your body. It will tell you what’s the next best step for you. I’m threatening to slow down and actually chew my food thoroughly. I’ll keep you posted.
I can hear the Buddhist’s moaning about compassion now. Let me remind you that compassion is a two-edged sword—ying and yang. Sometimes the healthiest way to show kindness is to tell the truth-just like it T.I.S (tis). And when it comes to my own weight, George W. Bush, my parents, global warming, the price of tea in China are not responsible for what and how I eat. The bucks, and the pounds, stop here.
Love your way, adAlan Davidson, founder of
www.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.
www.ThroughYourBody.com
1103 Peveto St.Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923
George W. Bush may be personally responsible for Afghanistan teetering as a failed state, Playing the Pied Piper and dashing us all to war in Iraq; there being NO weapons of mass destruction in said Iraq after all (he said there was); and the squandering of America’s fine standing in the world’s opinion polls.
Just as the Pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals—that’s a whole nother Oprah show folks—We Americans expect the United States President to be infallible when it comes to our best interest. The President’s office is not infallible, but it is responsible for policy. Harry S. Truman summed it up quite nicely in the oval office with, “The buck stops here.”
But does that make George W. Bush personally responsible for a nation of couch potatoes? A nation whose idea of exercise is to reach for the remote (and the chips and dip) instead of their running shoes; or lift a tray of super-size me food instead of a barbell? Or make another quick lap around the all-you-can eat buffet instead of walking through the park? Alas, I’m afraid it doesn’t. George is innocent on that count (that doesn’t mean he gets off scott-free for the afore mentioned bucks stockpiling at his door).
These days we live in a numbing state of “But it’s not your fault” marketing blitzes. Commercials for diet pills and gastric bypass surgery scream our innocence. Seconded by a celebrity chorus of “It’s not my fault” guilt free excuses (Lindsey Lohan explodes to mind). I guess her mother made her do it. Enough whining or carping already.
It’s easier to lie to ourselves—and others than face a glaring truth. It’s time to swipe a cue from the slew of Twelve Step programs out there and take a “Fearless Moral Inventory.” Fess up. Tell the fracking truth. Get over your self. Get real.
And when it comes to fat—the latest stats:
58 million American’s overweight;
40 million obese;
3 million morbidly obese.
We, as a collective country, are deluded on a river in Egypt. I mean da’-nile, sister; serious denial.
The math is simple. Too many calories in, minus calories out (the calories burned in a day) = the amount of fat stored in the body. What kind of food we eat does play a part in how quickly blood sugar changes to fat. But all-in-all the easy (and hard) truth is, “It still comes down to calories in/calories out.” The natural consequence of eating too much food is too much fat. You do your math.
Accepting personal responsibility is the cornerstone of peaking Moral Intelligence in any body mind spirit program. Moral IQ hinges on our ability to sense the consequences of an action and to choose best; and when things go south--as they so often do--to fully own up for those pesky unintended consequences, too.
I totally get that obesity is a side-effect from life long habits of emotional hijacking, confused thinking, doing, and being. That’s where peaking Emotional IQ and Mental IQ (unconscious, conscious, and super-conscious) comes in.
So if you’re ready to wake up and take personal responsibility for your perfect healthy body (read…over-weight, eating junk, lean body mass, fat ratio, anorexia, and bulimia, too), try adding this to you body mind spirit program…
Week 1:
Get out the pen and paper. Write down everything that goes into your mouth for the next week. I mean solid, liquid, and everything in between. At week’s end have one serious come-to-Jesus meeting with your self.
Ask, “What ONE thing can I do to heal my eating.” Listen to your body and its unique wisdom—it will tell you what’s best for you (Your mind may hate it—but that, again, is another Oprah). A few months ago I gave up eating white sugar. I lost six pounds in six weeks just by doing that one thing.
Week 2:
Keep writing everything that goes in your mouth. At the end of week two (and another come-to-Jesus meeting with you-truly), take stock. Listen to your body again—(it’s actually a good idea to always listen to your body wisdom. It’s wiser than you think).
Ask, “What one thing can I do to heal my eating this week.” My body feels best when I drink 4 liters of water a day.* I just recommitted to drinking my share. My mind already feels more clear-headed and focused.
Week 3:
Repeat as needed. Trust your body. It will tell you what’s the next best step for you. I’m threatening to slow down and actually chew my food thoroughly. I’ll keep you posted.
I can hear the Buddhist’s moaning about compassion now. Let me remind you that compassion is a two-edged sword—ying and yang. Sometimes the healthiest way to show kindness is to tell the truth-just like it T.I.S (tis). And when it comes to my own weight, George W. Bush, my parents, global warming, the price of tea in China are not responsible for what and how I eat. The bucks, and the pounds, stop here.
Love your way, adAlan Davidson, founder of
www.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.
www.ThroughYourBody.com
1103 Peveto St.Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A Brief History of Body Mind Spirit Integration
Western civilization, as a whole, has not been kind to the human body. The past 2,400 years have seen the body worshipped, debauched, vilified, denied, ignored, and mechanized.
Things started well enough for the body with the Greeks. They worshipped the body. The Greek word soma means “the living body in it’s wholeness” or mind, body and spirit in unity. The Olympic Games were the ideal test of physical strength and endurance and mental and spiritual purity.
Power shifted to Rome with the dawn of the Piscian Age. The Romans took their worship of the body and sensual pleasures to the extreme. The orgies of their Wine God, Bacchus, were notorious for their debaucheries. These drunken festivals would be the fodder that the Christians would rail against.
The Christian Church has taught for 1,700 years that the body is carnal; riddled with sexuality and given to crude pleasures and appetites. The final blow came when De Carte declared, “I think. Therefore, I am.” The Age of Reason saw the body as inferior to the superior mind. The body became the object which transported the brain. The advent of modern medicine has, at the very least, viewed the body as a magnificent machine.
The past century has seen a re-claiming of the human body. The cultural merging of western principles and Oriental attitudes and spiritual practices has generated a dramatic shift in the way we experience our bodies.
Somatics is a body/mind/spirit-centered approach of many therapies which began with Wilhelm Reich. Reich was a student of Freud’s and stated that the clinical treatment of neurosis must include changes in the physical body.
Fritz Perls, a student of Reich’s, helped to found Gestalt therapy. Gestalt in German means an irreducible experience. It has an emphasis on the organism as a whole; the mind and emotions equally connected to the body.
Ida Rolf developed Structural Integration, a series of deep tissue massage techniques which re-align the posture of the muscular/skeletal structure. Dr. Randolf Stone contributed Polarity therapy with it’s emphasis on restoring energy movement through the contracted tissues of the body.
Somatic movement saw such pioneers as Moshe Feldenkrais and Thomas Hanna. They used movement to re-educate the muscular system to find the most efficient ways of moving and eliminating bodily tension.
There are several Asian traditions which are integrated into Somatic practice. These are Hatha, Tantra and Pranayama Yoga, Seva, Vippasana meditation and Aikido. Hatha Yoga is the well known stretching postures. Tantra yoga is the cultivation of sexual energy for spiritual transformation.
Pranayama yoga is the control and direction of breath. Seva is a Sanskrit word which translates to “selfless service”. Vippasana, which means “insight,” is a body centered meditation technique taught by the Buddha. Aikido is a Japanese martial art which teaches harnessing universal love to heal conflict, create fluidity of the body, and the strengthening of ki, or personal energy.
This last century of the millennium has seen a valuable shift in the way we experience the body. Yet in many ways our bodies are still a great mystery. However; they are the only concrete reality we can know. It is our one constant friend. It is always there, moment to moment, living and breathing in present tense. Your body will never lie to you. If you pay close attention it will reveal it’s mysteries to you. If you sit still enough for long enough your body can offer you a path to transcendence. Enlightenment is a body mind spirit experience.
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
Things started well enough for the body with the Greeks. They worshipped the body. The Greek word soma means “the living body in it’s wholeness” or mind, body and spirit in unity. The Olympic Games were the ideal test of physical strength and endurance and mental and spiritual purity.
Power shifted to Rome with the dawn of the Piscian Age. The Romans took their worship of the body and sensual pleasures to the extreme. The orgies of their Wine God, Bacchus, were notorious for their debaucheries. These drunken festivals would be the fodder that the Christians would rail against.
The Christian Church has taught for 1,700 years that the body is carnal; riddled with sexuality and given to crude pleasures and appetites. The final blow came when De Carte declared, “I think. Therefore, I am.” The Age of Reason saw the body as inferior to the superior mind. The body became the object which transported the brain. The advent of modern medicine has, at the very least, viewed the body as a magnificent machine.
The past century has seen a re-claiming of the human body. The cultural merging of western principles and Oriental attitudes and spiritual practices has generated a dramatic shift in the way we experience our bodies.
Somatics is a body/mind/spirit-centered approach of many therapies which began with Wilhelm Reich. Reich was a student of Freud’s and stated that the clinical treatment of neurosis must include changes in the physical body.
Fritz Perls, a student of Reich’s, helped to found Gestalt therapy. Gestalt in German means an irreducible experience. It has an emphasis on the organism as a whole; the mind and emotions equally connected to the body.
Ida Rolf developed Structural Integration, a series of deep tissue massage techniques which re-align the posture of the muscular/skeletal structure. Dr. Randolf Stone contributed Polarity therapy with it’s emphasis on restoring energy movement through the contracted tissues of the body.
Somatic movement saw such pioneers as Moshe Feldenkrais and Thomas Hanna. They used movement to re-educate the muscular system to find the most efficient ways of moving and eliminating bodily tension.
There are several Asian traditions which are integrated into Somatic practice. These are Hatha, Tantra and Pranayama Yoga, Seva, Vippasana meditation and Aikido. Hatha Yoga is the well known stretching postures. Tantra yoga is the cultivation of sexual energy for spiritual transformation.
Pranayama yoga is the control and direction of breath. Seva is a Sanskrit word which translates to “selfless service”. Vippasana, which means “insight,” is a body centered meditation technique taught by the Buddha. Aikido is a Japanese martial art which teaches harnessing universal love to heal conflict, create fluidity of the body, and the strengthening of ki, or personal energy.
This last century of the millennium has seen a valuable shift in the way we experience the body. Yet in many ways our bodies are still a great mystery. However; they are the only concrete reality we can know. It is our one constant friend. It is always there, moment to moment, living and breathing in present tense. Your body will never lie to you. If you pay close attention it will reveal it’s mysteries to you. If you sit still enough for long enough your body can offer you a path to transcendence. Enlightenment is a body mind spirit experience.
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
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Somatic Coaching: The Ultimate in Conscious Body Mind Spirit Cross Training
Somatic (body centered) therapy is the art and science of harmonizing your life. The Greek word soma means “the living body in its wholeness; or mind, body, and spirit in unity.”
It is a body-centered way of living that combines bodywork, breath work, movement, and meditation to bring attention to our bodies. These disciplines are used for creating physical vitality, emotional stability, and personal effectiveness; essentially it’s the harmony of body, mind, and spirit. Somatic Coaching is the ultimate in spiritual cross training.
This simple focus on the body develops awareness and self-acceptance. It allows us to know ourselves more fully—how we stand and breathe, how we express our emotions, how we perceive the world and experience it.
By harmonizing your body/mind/spirit, extraordinary energy is unleashed to expand your limiting beliefs and to find your life’s purpose, one that is both happy and lucrative. Somatic Coaching accesses your own body-wisdom to do this. This powerful perspective allows you to live into the future you desire, or better still, give you dreams you never even realized you had. Coaching is more than just insight gained from our talks together, it works from the actions you take.
Body Mind Spirit Coaching gives you very specific measurable results as you live the effectiveness of our work together. It includes a thorough assessment of your physical, emotional, mental, moral and spiritual Intelligences (IQs) to begin our work. Every ninety days your progress is reassessed to measure the works effectiveness.
Body-centered attention and emotional processes are the primary tools used to explore the edge of our fears and leave the comfort zone of our everyday lives; to share the stories of our hearts; to develop trust and community; and to support each other in self-discovery.
Other tools used are Inquiry, PSYCH-K, EFT, visualization and meditation. Inquiry, the work of Byron Katie, examines the stressful thoughts and beliefs that limit our potential and cause us suffering. This deceptively simple technique dissolves old patterns of negative thinking and self-doubt.
EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, and PSYCH-K, short for Psychological Kinesiology, are both energy psychology techniques. EFT neutralizes high-intensity emotional states and trauma with simple acupressure tapping. PSYCH-K uses muscle testing to gauge negative beliefs nested in the unconscious mind. Those limiting beliefs often wreak havoc in our lives without our consciously knowing they are there. PSYCH-K then uses body-balances to neutralize those limiting beliefs.
Meditation is the science of directing attention and the art of sitting in silence. Visualization taps the imagination, the highest available function of our mind, to energize our potential for change.
Love your way, ad
Alan Davidson, founder ofwww.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs),a brilliant body mind spirit strategy
http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/
Watch the Body Brilliance Movie
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923
It is a body-centered way of living that combines bodywork, breath work, movement, and meditation to bring attention to our bodies. These disciplines are used for creating physical vitality, emotional stability, and personal effectiveness; essentially it’s the harmony of body, mind, and spirit. Somatic Coaching is the ultimate in spiritual cross training.
This simple focus on the body develops awareness and self-acceptance. It allows us to know ourselves more fully—how we stand and breathe, how we express our emotions, how we perceive the world and experience it.
By harmonizing your body/mind/spirit, extraordinary energy is unleashed to expand your limiting beliefs and to find your life’s purpose, one that is both happy and lucrative. Somatic Coaching accesses your own body-wisdom to do this. This powerful perspective allows you to live into the future you desire, or better still, give you dreams you never even realized you had. Coaching is more than just insight gained from our talks together, it works from the actions you take.
Body Mind Spirit Coaching gives you very specific measurable results as you live the effectiveness of our work together. It includes a thorough assessment of your physical, emotional, mental, moral and spiritual Intelligences (IQs) to begin our work. Every ninety days your progress is reassessed to measure the works effectiveness.
Body-centered attention and emotional processes are the primary tools used to explore the edge of our fears and leave the comfort zone of our everyday lives; to share the stories of our hearts; to develop trust and community; and to support each other in self-discovery.
Other tools used are Inquiry, PSYCH-K, EFT, visualization and meditation. Inquiry, the work of Byron Katie, examines the stressful thoughts and beliefs that limit our potential and cause us suffering. This deceptively simple technique dissolves old patterns of negative thinking and self-doubt.
EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, and PSYCH-K, short for Psychological Kinesiology, are both energy psychology techniques. EFT neutralizes high-intensity emotional states and trauma with simple acupressure tapping. PSYCH-K uses muscle testing to gauge negative beliefs nested in the unconscious mind. Those limiting beliefs often wreak havoc in our lives without our consciously knowing they are there. PSYCH-K then uses body-balances to neutralize those limiting beliefs.
Meditation is the science of directing attention and the art of sitting in silence. Visualization taps the imagination, the highest available function of our mind, to energize our potential for change.
Love your way, ad
Alan Davidson, founder ofwww.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs),a brilliant body mind spirit strategy
http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/
Watch the Body Brilliance Movie
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923
Monday, August 20, 2007
Proud Heretic: the art of Politically Incorrect
Are you disgusted with the sickeningly sweet and coddling tone of political correctness? Multi-culturalism, often disguised as political correctness, is that suffocating piece of wisdom that demands that all people are equally talented and smart and should thus be treated equally at all times, in all ways. It’s turning the civilized world in pod people, ala Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Thor Halvorssen is a human-rights activist, a free-speech advocate, an anti-communist, ant-fascist, and a movie producer. He’s a hard guy to pin down. His family is wealthy (half-Norwegian Venezuelan), yet he champions the down-trodden. And he savors a lively argument.
Thor’s also a conservative most often linked to liberal causes. He’s a rebel and heretic to the coma of political correctness that is suffocating the life out of debate, and free-speech…and human growth.
Thor’s founded the Moving Picture Institute to punch-up his controversy-stirring ideals. The latest film, Indoctrinate U points a guilty finger on political correctness on college campuses. In one scene the director of the film, Evan Coyne Maloney, saunters into a Women’s Studies Center and asks directions to the Men’s Studies Center. He is treated with confusion, icy scorn, or snide laughter.
Halvorssen is peaking his Moral IQ. He is choosing to STAND for his well-thought out principles; a testament to doing what’s right…as he sees it. Moral Intelligence is necessary for peaking our Five IQs: physical, emotional, mental, moral, and spiritual. It’s the pivotal core of every body/mind/spirit strategy.
Moral IQ is the skill to realize, as best we can, the consequences of our actions. And with that laser vision, detect our life’s core values—what’s truest for us. Our zeal for an integrated body/mind/spirit life spurs us to ACT on these convictions; to live our moral IQ vibrantly in the world.
The problem is most of us don’t really know what we stand for, much less have the strength, or balls, to stand up for it.
Try this simple exercise with a pen and paper. Imagine you are old and frail. You are surrounded by children, perhaps your own great-grand kids. They ask you, “What are the most three important things you’ve learned in life.”
What do you say to those kids? Write down your answers.
One of my core values, and that of my many friends and clients, is balancing body/mind/spirt. How to live in such away that respects body, heart, mind, choice, and spirit—each of the five IQs? How to consciuosly make a living, raise kids, exercise, eat, love, tend to spirit? When I’m faced with a hard or cunfusing choice, I simply sit very still. I calm my breath and thoughts. I imagine I hold one of the options in my hand.
And I ask myself, “Does this give me more Balance, more body/mind/spirit integration?” If the answer is yes, that’s my choice. If not, what’s the best option that leads gives me balance.
So how does this little core value exercise fit into the maisma of multi-culturalism and politacl corretness? When I get to the root of my passions, vision, and core values I find that place where I am most unique and alive. It is my state of freedom and beingness. It’s a state of being that is often at odds with the status quo. It is quite possible to repect, and dare I say love, everyone without cow-towing to platitudes. To that end I am a proud heretic.
Multi-culturalsim is a necessary stage of human development. It speaks to the progress humanity has made as we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and out of the swamps of hatred, cruelty, and selfish absorbtion. Multi-curlturalism and political correctness are not the pinnacle of our growing up,they are a testament of hope, and a sign post to greater things to come.
Take the time to figure out what stokes your fires. Dig deep to the bedrock of what you believe and ask, “Is it true for me?” And stand…UP, OUT, and LOUD. Rock the boat. Be brilliant.
To quote that great philosopher Michael Stipes, the lead singer of REM, from their song “Stand,”
When you’re confused check with the sun.
Carry a compass to carry you along.
Your feet are going to be on the ground.
You head is there to move you around.
Your Moral IQ is your inner-compass. It gives us guidance to stand up for what we belive is most true for us. It gives us our courage to stand in all that is expedient, or correct, and be a heretic. Be brilliant.
Love your way, ad
Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs),
a brilliant body mind spirit strategy
http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/
Watch the Body Brilliance Movie
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923
Thor Halvorssen is a human-rights activist, a free-speech advocate, an anti-communist, ant-fascist, and a movie producer. He’s a hard guy to pin down. His family is wealthy (half-Norwegian Venezuelan), yet he champions the down-trodden. And he savors a lively argument.
Thor’s also a conservative most often linked to liberal causes. He’s a rebel and heretic to the coma of political correctness that is suffocating the life out of debate, and free-speech…and human growth.
Thor’s founded the Moving Picture Institute to punch-up his controversy-stirring ideals. The latest film, Indoctrinate U points a guilty finger on political correctness on college campuses. In one scene the director of the film, Evan Coyne Maloney, saunters into a Women’s Studies Center and asks directions to the Men’s Studies Center. He is treated with confusion, icy scorn, or snide laughter.
Halvorssen is peaking his Moral IQ. He is choosing to STAND for his well-thought out principles; a testament to doing what’s right…as he sees it. Moral Intelligence is necessary for peaking our Five IQs: physical, emotional, mental, moral, and spiritual. It’s the pivotal core of every body/mind/spirit strategy.
Moral IQ is the skill to realize, as best we can, the consequences of our actions. And with that laser vision, detect our life’s core values—what’s truest for us. Our zeal for an integrated body/mind/spirit life spurs us to ACT on these convictions; to live our moral IQ vibrantly in the world.
The problem is most of us don’t really know what we stand for, much less have the strength, or balls, to stand up for it.
Try this simple exercise with a pen and paper. Imagine you are old and frail. You are surrounded by children, perhaps your own great-grand kids. They ask you, “What are the most three important things you’ve learned in life.”
What do you say to those kids? Write down your answers.
One of my core values, and that of my many friends and clients, is balancing body/mind/spirt. How to live in such away that respects body, heart, mind, choice, and spirit—each of the five IQs? How to consciuosly make a living, raise kids, exercise, eat, love, tend to spirit? When I’m faced with a hard or cunfusing choice, I simply sit very still. I calm my breath and thoughts. I imagine I hold one of the options in my hand.
And I ask myself, “Does this give me more Balance, more body/mind/spirit integration?” If the answer is yes, that’s my choice. If not, what’s the best option that leads gives me balance.
So how does this little core value exercise fit into the maisma of multi-culturalism and politacl corretness? When I get to the root of my passions, vision, and core values I find that place where I am most unique and alive. It is my state of freedom and beingness. It’s a state of being that is often at odds with the status quo. It is quite possible to repect, and dare I say love, everyone without cow-towing to platitudes. To that end I am a proud heretic.
Multi-culturalsim is a necessary stage of human development. It speaks to the progress humanity has made as we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and out of the swamps of hatred, cruelty, and selfish absorbtion. Multi-curlturalism and political correctness are not the pinnacle of our growing up,they are a testament of hope, and a sign post to greater things to come.
Take the time to figure out what stokes your fires. Dig deep to the bedrock of what you believe and ask, “Is it true for me?” And stand…UP, OUT, and LOUD. Rock the boat. Be brilliant.
To quote that great philosopher Michael Stipes, the lead singer of REM, from their song “Stand,”
When you’re confused check with the sun.
Carry a compass to carry you along.
Your feet are going to be on the ground.
You head is there to move you around.
Your Moral IQ is your inner-compass. It gives us guidance to stand up for what we belive is most true for us. It gives us our courage to stand in all that is expedient, or correct, and be a heretic. Be brilliant.
Love your way, ad
Alan Davidson, founder of
www.ThroughYourBody.com
and author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital
Intelligences (IQs),
a brilliant body mind spirit strategy
http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/
Watch the Body Brilliance Movie
1103 Peveto St.
Houston, TX 77019
713-942-0923
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