My 2 Cents about “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” | Leslie Kaminoff’s Yoga Anatomy.
Leslie Kaminoff, author of Yoga Anatomy, responds to the recent New York Times article via video.
To equate yoga with asana practice, is a very deep and false connection.
There’s a lot more. The video is 10 minutes and the best response I’ve seen so far. I’m happy to say I will be doing a workshop with him next month.
New York Yoga: How Yoga Can Lead to Pure Happiness.
Here’s another really great response to the recent, rather fear-mongering New York Times article about yoga that I blogged about in The dark side of yoga.
I liked this clarity:
…let’s not forget why we all practice in the first place: to attain yoga. What is yoga?
Yoga is one of the six orthodox philosophical systems of the ancient Indus civilization that was codified by Sage Patanjali some time around 2500 BC. The entire yoga philosophy is summed up in 196 short statements, the Yoga Sutras, that describe techniques as to how to attain the state of yoga, a state of being when the mind is still and silent by arresting its modifications. This leads to freedom from unhappiness. Using specific, technical terms, Sage Patanjali describes the transcendental experience that is yoga.
And this:
But, the most important thing about practicing yoga is that, just like any other activity, … it requires practice and familiarity with the fundamentals of that activity. Therefore, it is the job of the yoga student to become a teacher. That does not mean everybody has to go to a teacher’s training. It means that every student needs to find the teacher within, the teacher who is determined, who is clear about what they are doing, who is organized, who listens, who pays attention to what is going on around and inside them.
It’s about practice, dedication, and awareness. Best injury-prevention methods in the world.
Follow Your Heart, it is Smarter Than You Think_ | | Oddly_EvenOddly_Even.
Neurophysicists have been astonished to discover that the Heart is more an organ of intelligence, than (merely) the bodies’ main pumping station. More than half of the Heart is actually composed of neurons of the very same nature as those that make up the cerebral system. Joseph Chilton-Pearce, author of The Biology of Transcendence, calls it “the major biological apparatus within us and the seat of our greatest intelligence.”
The article states that the heart’s electromagnetic field is the strongest in the body. An EEG designed to read brain waves can read the heart’s frequency spectrum from three feet away, without electrodes!
I was really fascinated by this image of the shape of the heart’s energy field:
The Heart’s electromagnetic frequency arcs out from the Heart and back in the form of a torus field. The axis of this Heart torus extends from the pelvic floor to the top of the skull, and the whole field is holographic, meaning that information about it can be read from each and every point in the torus.
I love learning about the heart’s energy field. The heart chakra is central among the seven chakras — three chakras above and three below. It includes the arms.
The human energy field has often been described as oval or egg-shaped — is it really the heart’s energy field? And while some descriptions have that egg-shaped field extending below the feet, at least one that I know of (Castaneda) describes it as encompassing the body from the pelvis up, excluding the legs.
(My biggest wish for a Kindle or Nook is to be able to search the Castaneda books electronically for references I remember reading and compile some of the body wisdom contained in them. Here’s a passage on this topic I found on the web.)
The spine and spinal cord of Western anatomy/sushumna nadi in yoga/conception vessel and governing vessel in TCM extend from the pelvic floor to the top of the skull.
I love it when the ancient traditions and science come together.
More on the holographic aspect:
The Hearts’ torus electromagnetic field is not the only source that emits this type of electromagnetic field. Every atom emits the same torus field. The Earth is also at the center of a torus, so is the solar system and even our galaxy…and all are holographic. Scientists believe there is a good possibility that there is only one universal torus encompassing an infinite number of interacting, holographic tori within its spectrum. Because electromagnetic torus fields are holographic, it is more than likely that the sum total of our Universe is present within the frequency spectrum of a single torus.
This means that each one of us is connected to the entire Universe and as such, can access all the information within it at any given moment. When we get quiet and access what we hold in our Hearts, we are literally connecting to the limitless supply and Wisdom of the Universe, thereby enabling what we perceive as “miracles” to enter into our lives.
What does that do to your mental map of who you really are?
I was working in the student clinic, doing another intern massage. The client assigned to me was someone I had worked on previously. She works at a desk job.
The first time, she had complained of neck pain, and she had said she didn’t want to be poked with fingers or knuckles. So I rubbed and kneaded her neck quite a bit and didn’t do any of the deep massage strokes that I felt could have been so helpful had she not had this aversion because many involve “poking”.
On the client evaluation, she said I didn’t spend enough time on her neck!
So when I got her again, I was determined to get a better result. I brought her back to the bay and asked her if her neck was still bothering her. She said yes.
I asked her to show me where her neck was hurting and gave a little demo by putting my hand on the back of my neck and asking, “Is it about here?”
She said, “No, more like here,” and she ran her hands across the tops of her shoulders.
Whoa.
Just to clarify, I said, “So you’re not feeling any pain or tightness here?” again with my hand on the back of my neck.
She said no.
And of course, I was professional, but meanwhile I was thinking,
Girlfriend, that’s totally your upper trapezius — the top of your shoulder — and not your neck.
Many people’s knowledge of their own anatomy has big blank areas.
I asked if there was anywhere else she desired special attention. She said her lower back was bothering her. She also said not to work on her abs or her hands.
So I went to work. I spent a lot of time on her back, with focus on her tight upper traps and her sacrum/lumbar area. When I thought I had probably done enough, I leaned down and asked her if that was enough or if she wanted me to work some more on her back.
She said to do what I needed to do. I guessed from that that she assumed that the students in the massage clinic have to follow a routine, and that if she wanted more back work, it was out of the question. Not so.
I told her I could work on her back some more if she liked. I told her I could spend most of our hour together on her back if she liked.
She said she’d love some more back work.
So I worked on her back for about 40-45 minutes of our hour together. I palpated and explored. I repeated strokes, did them slowly, and emulated deep massage with my palms to avoid the poking of knuckles and fingertips.
I pulled her scapula in and up to shorten her tight upper trap and asked her if that gave her some relief. She said it did.
I wrung, lifted and rolled, and kneaded. I rocked her torso. I came at areas from many directions. I even gave her tapotement (like drumming) after asking if she’d like it, which I think is the first time I’ve done it as an intern.
When I finished her back, I redraped it with sheet and blanket and just pressed her glutes and backs of legs and feet. I rocked her body from the heels and had her turn over, asking how she was doing. “Fine,” she said, with a look of bliss on her face.
I like that look.
I pressed the fronts of her legs and tops of feet and rolled her legs, just to loosen up the hips and make the legs feel included as parts of the whole body.
I skipped her abs as requested and just worked on her pecs, giving pressure to her arms so they felt included, avoiding her hands as requested.
Then I did some more upper back work from underneath, rubbed and kneaded her neck, and stretched her neck.
I ended with massaging her scalp and a fulcrum/stretch of the back of her head.
(So okay, I know some of this is massage geek talk, but I’m sure you get the big picture. If not, come get a student massage and see for yourself. $35, no tipping.)
That massage was so off the books from the routines I’ve learned and yet so rewarding because I used my resources to clarify what she really wanted, and then I got to be creative, continuing to ask for feedback and giving her more of what she wanted.
She was very, very happy with it. She gave me a fabulous evaluation, especially for taking the time to really find out what she needed.
The upshot is that questions are very, very powerful tools. If you know what you want but aren’t getting the results you want, ask questions. It’s all in the communication, baby.
There is great personal power to be had literally just for the asking, especially if you ask the right questions, to get the results you want, to get another person to open up to you, to get insight into someone else’s map of reality, to create something that’s satisfying.
It’s so simple, yet almost like a secret. Have you asked anyone a real good question today?
I wanted to post links to several follow-up articles relating to my recent post The dark side of yoga about last week’s New York Times article about yoga and injuries, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body so that if you are following this controversy through my blog, you can keep up.
Ashtanga Yoga New York posted an article, How the NYT Can Wreck Yoga. This article cites two reasons for the increase in yoga injuries: overzealousness on the part of students and the yoga industry.
The article states that too much zeal is a trait of a particular type of person “no matter what a teacher may caution.” (I just wonder if some of the people with this trait become bad yoga teachers themselves.)
The second reason is about the $5 billion per year yoga products and services industry and a value system that is based on economic incentive. The author argues that quality declines when the potential for making money is great, resulting in yoga becoming “McDonafied”. Therefore, more injuries occur because teachers and studios are more into making money than teaching quality yoga that prevents injuries.
Some good data are included, and the writer brings up injury rates in other physical activities, like basketball or football.
A balanced, serious, and accurate scientific report on the risks of yoga would have, at a minimum, explicitly stated that no one actually knows the injury rates for yoga, as is actually the case.
Click the link above to read the whole thing and all the comments.
Another article was published on Yogadork’s excellent blog. Is the New York Times Wrecking Yoga? The Community Responds includes the response mentioned above as well as a letter by Roger Cole, senior Iyengar teacher and Ph.D., to the New York Times, setting the record straight:
‘The article incorrectly states that yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar “insisted” that students practice shoulder stand in a manner that dangerously hyperflexes the neck. In fact, he insists on exactly the opposite. Mr. Broad cites a Yoga Journal column I wrote describing a method of “reducing neck bending in a shoulder stand by lifting the shoulders on a stack of folded blankets…” This safer method was invented by B.K.S. Iyengar and he has long been adamant that all of his certified teachers must teach the pose this way. Mr. Iyengar, who recently celebrated his 93rd birthday, still maintains a vigorous yoga practice that includes long holds in headstand (without support) and shoulder stand with his shoulders lifted on a prop.
The column describing Mr. Iyengar’s safer shoulder stand technique, entitled “Keep the Neck Healthy in Shoulderstand,” is at http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/1091. The original version of Mr. Broad’s article supplied an incorrect link.
This is the way I was taught to do and teach shoulder stand by my teacher and trainer Eleanor Harris, as I mentioned in my previous post on this topic.
The third (so far) article was posted by Charlotte Bell on the blog of Huggermugger, a company that sells yoga supplies. In Youch! Yoga Injuries: How Not to Wreck Your Body, this 30-year yoga practitioner says matter of factly that any time you take your body out of its normal range of motion, there’s the potential for injury.
She wishes the NYT had examined modern versus traditional yoga teacher training. Me too. The traditional way has a teacher training students individually.
This is the model I chose. I was one of two students in my seven-month-long teacher training by Eleanor, who trained in the Iyengar tradition as well as other styles and who has over 20 years of experience. The other student, Kandice, and I had both been in Eleanor’s yoga classes for a good period of time before beginning her teacher training. She was aware of our practices and could address our needs individually.
The modern way of teacher training is often one-size-fits-all, for up to 40 students at a time, sometimes in a short amount of time.
Which do you think is going to produce better yoga teachers and reduced injury rates?
Bell also makes the point that yoga is not just poses:
We all know that yoga is not just poses, but asana remains the centerpiece of most Western practice. I wonder if the rise of yoga-related injuries might also be related to the fact that asana has been taken out of its original context. When the physical practice for its own sake becomes the be-all, end-all, it is much easier to become forceful and competitive, which IMO is the source of many yoga injuries. Consider how practicing the eight limbs tempers asana practice:
- Yama: The yamas teach us to approach practice with honesty, generosity and the spirit of non-harming.
- Niyama: The niyamas teach us about contentment, self-study (so that we know how poses affect us), and that our practice is not just about ourselves, that our practice is for the benefit of all beings.
- Pranayama: Giving our breath primacy in asana practice, as Donna Farhi teaches, shows us how to practice with the continuity of our breath in mind, so that we don’t move beyond the limits of our body’s ability to breathe freely.
- Pratyahara: Pratyahara teaches us to not become attached to the pleasant—or unpleasant—sensations we feel in practice.
- Dharana: Dharana steadies the mind so that we can see more clearly what is happening in our bodies as we practice.
- Dhyana: Dhyana refines our awareness of the experiences of each passing moment.
- Samadhi: Gives us a taste of the settling of the mind into silence—the true definition of yoga.
Well said, Charlotte Bell.
i’m typing this post with my right hand, cradling my laptop in my left, because my bee-yoo-tiful purry, furry cat mango has claimed the real estate that is my lap — no room for the laptop.
cat love is so good. mango, i love you! and yes, i know it’s not quite unconditional love like a dog’s love, but i am so grateful for it. the furry orange prince mango comforts and soothes.
i am grateful for every bit of love that has come my way, ever. when i think of all the streams of love energy (affection, attention, positive regard, laughter, eye contact, smiles, support, kindness, help, teachings, advice, loving touch in its many forms, love from a distance, and countless other ways), that have pierced my energy field in all my years of life on this planet, whether i was aware of it or not, i am especially humbled and full of gratitude for being part of this 7 billion strong tribe of odd-looking, ungainly (especially compared to cats) mammals called human beings who love.
maybe not all the time, but we humans do love. we. love. we love.
love rules the emotions. it conquers all. love > fear — someone recently gave me that bumper sticker celebrating her recovery from cancer. thank you. it’s very handy to have that reminder.
when a relationship changes direction, as i recently experienced, i become a guesthouse for all the emotions passing through, the feelings stirred from having taken a risk and opened my heart to someone i really, really liked a lot, and then needing to find a way to change my way of relating.
i’m actually not sure of the distinction between really, really liking someone a lot and loving them. loving seems to be the scarier word for some, so maybe fear is the only distinction. not for me. i use the word love a lot.
i realized early on that i wanted to love this man, that it would hurt me not to open my heart. sometimes you just know that you need take the risk. you see who they are and where they’ve come from and what it took to get here, and it moves you. you look at their face and can see their young self shining through, and you adore that self and the current self struggling to find the light and sometimes finding it.
i’m glad i opened my heart, even though hurt is one of the horde of emotions flooding through the door of the guesthouse today, along with appreciation, respect, admiration, fear, sadness, doubt, relief, grief, dismay, disappointment, pride in both of us for coming to this conclusion and moving through with it, deeply grateful for time and space to process on my own and for him knowing i’d need that, vulnerability, gratitude for having been seen/heard/felt and for all the laughter and loving touch.
and a sudden hindsight about a comment that i puzzled over, more awareness of how i relate, recognition that i wasn’t looking or ready for this and that’s okay because i will be more awake the next time love knocks, that mental penetration to truth that i enjoy so much when it happens, awe that two people can manage to communicate at all about anything that really matters, understanding that he and i have really different values about certain things, recognition of both our foolishness and our bravery.
and feeling shot for unwittingly bearing a message that scared him, a lot of compassion for us both, eye-rolling exasperation about some of his expectations and thinking, some real anger, recognizing a man’s gonna do what a man’s gonna do, seeing foolishness (and not just his), remembering how much i looked forward to seeing him and realizing it wasn’t enough time to really jell, tragic, managed, dogged fix-myself-ology, hope, perspective, acceptance, happiness that it happened.
and excitement and anticipation about what amazing new relationship could possibly come next and what i now bring to the table for having had this experience, great insights into timing, awareness that this experience is cooking me in some great mysterious way, respectful for whatever he might be thinking and feeling during this time, a bit of worry for him, hope for him, a desire for him to succeed too, wanting to let go of wanting to fix anyone or anything, and a beautiful vision of a new and different relationship between two amazing people who really, really like each other continuing to be present and open in a friendship that contributes to each other’s lives and benefits all sentient beings.
i don’t know if that will happen, if that’s my idealism, or if baggage, shadows, or egos will get in the way, or even if there’s mutual interest. but it’s my fantasy, and i get to have it.
i don’t usually post such personal writing, but this topic of love and change is so personal and universal. may this writing benefit you, and all sentient beings.
my heart chakra already feels so much better for having written this, for greeting all those guests, and the traffic through the guesthouse is already slowing to a trickle of visitors whom i can spend quality time with.
as within, so without. here’s the original poem by rumi.
The Guesthouse by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
This article should be required reading for all yogis: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body – NYTimes.com.
I have been lucky in that I’ve never been injured from doing yoga since I started practicing in 1982. I’ve only had muscle soreness, but never severe or lasting more than a day. Doing yoga from a book was risky, but it taught me to pay attention to my own experience.
I’ve been lucky to have had good teachers. Eleanor Harris would never have students do shoulder stand with the neck bent ninety degrees to the torso, as described in this article.
Instead, we would fold blankets and our mat to create an elevated cushioned ledge for the shoulders to rest on with the head resting on the floor a couple of inches below. Afterwards, we would rest on our backs with support under our necks. We also did prep poses before attempting sarvangasana.
Let your awareness of your body’s limits be your primary guide, and beware of any teacher who would override you.
Some people naturally have very flexible bodies. It seems that a lot of these people, to whom yoga comes easily, become yoga teachers and end up setting the bar for the rest of us.
I am fairly flexible but am unable to do lotus pose, arm balances, and several other advanced poses. I’m okay with that. I don’t feel like I have to prove anything by doing advanced poses. Still, after working toward it for an hour (or a lifetime), it is a thrill to finally do hanumanasana. I understand the desire to deepen one’s yoga practice.
I’m happy with the yoga I can do, happy to make small increments of progress, which these days has as much to do with my own body awareness as it does with achieving an external form.
Most of my yoga studies for the past few years have been with Iyengar-certified and Anusara-inspired teachers, who tend to focus on anatomy and form.
I like how yoga keeps me flexible enough, how the poses open up my meridians so that my energy flows with more ease. I simply feel better during my off-mat life because of yoga, and if the day ever comes that I don’t, that’s the day I stop doing it.
Besides reading this article, I also recommend that yoga students and teachers watch the video Anatomy for Yoga with Paul Grilley, which clearly shows the range of flexibility in the bodies of yogis. It will make you feel better if you can’t get your arms straight in wheel pose.
An excerpt is available on YouTube:
I’m a day late in posting this photo from the New Year’s Day Polar Bear Dip at Barton Springs (68 degrees Fahrenheit all year), Austin, Texas, USA. Barton Springs is the soul of this fair city, a natural-bottom spring-fed urban swimming hole. See downtown high-rises to the left in the photo below.
Yes, I did take the plunge! Well, I walked down the steps to acclimate more slowly.
Then I snorkeled a lap, which is 1/4th of a mile. It felt almost shockingly cold getting in, as it does even in 100 degree temperatures. The key is to move. After 30 seconds of swimming with my snorkel and mask, my body heat takes the chill off. After a few minutes, the water actually feels warm compared to the winter air.
The aquatic life is fantastic, and the water feels different from regular pool or tap water. It’s untreated, and vulnerable to pollution. The water quality at Barton Springs is a rallying point for environmental activists in Austin and has steered urban development.
My shoulders need a lot of practice if I’m going to swim a mile in the Danskin Triathlon this summer! I also need to learn how to swim without a snorkel.
I’m wishing you more ways to gracefully expand out of your comfort zone and experience more life in your life, however those opportunities manifest for you in 2012.
I offer bodywork and changework sessions in my Spartan Carousel trailer in the Manchaca area of Austin, Texas.
These sessions combine massage (mostly Swedish and deep massage with a few enhancements, more as I learn new skills) and changework (NLP, EFT, Byron Katie’s The Work, and more as I learn new skills).
If you are a new client, I’ll do an intake on your first visit, and we’ll talk about the changes you might wish to manifest in your life. We’ll decide up front how best to spend our two hours together each time you visit.
I offer two-hour morning, afternoon, evening, and weekend sessions.
While I complete my internship in massage school, there is no charge for massage/bodywork, and you may pay what you wish for changework. After I receive my massage license in February, sessions will be $108 for two hours.
Please email (mareynolds27 @ gmail.com), phone, or text me (512 507 4184) to set up an appointment.
You may view an FAQ on the Bodywork & Changework page of this blog.
This past year, 2011, held a lot of change for me. The previous year, 2010, was a year of sitting in meditation daily, and I very nearly accomplished that. It was a year of contemplation, exploring my identity, waking up, and getting clear.
The changes in 2011 helped my external life — how I live in the world — match up better with how my energy and identity had changed after all that meditation.
Changes to the blog
This blog had gotten 5,000 views in January and is ending the year with nearly 27,000. Readership really accelerated. I felt like I hit my stride in the second year, and I want to keep getting better. I currently have 156 followers, which includes WordPress and email subscribers as well as Twitter followers.
I redesigned and renamed the blog (from The Zafu Report) at the beginning of 2011 and stuck with the same template, albeit changing the photo often, for the entire year. I broadened the topics from mostly posting about meditation and yoga to posting about wellness and aliveness. I began including posts about healthy eating and reviews of movies that I’ve found inspiring and expansive.
My intent for 2012 is to be more personal in my writing. I noticed that those are the posts that get the most views, likes, and comments, not the reposts. I will still share the juicy information I come across, but I’ll also tell you why it’s meaningful to me. I’d love to have more comments from you.
Selling my house and moving into a trailer
My house went on the market in January 2011, and I closed and moved out in late February. I immediately bought the vintage Spartan Carousel that I’d had my eye on online for months. I put my household stuff in storage (what remained after paring down) and moved in with dear friends until I could get the trailer here.
I found my trailer park in March.
But then, I waited to get a title from the state of Washington, and then I waited for flood waters to recede so the trailer could be loaded on a trailer and hauled here from the farmland where it had been sitting for years, unoccupied.
That finally happened in June. We got it set up, repaired, installed cork flooring and an HVAC unit, and I moved in in August. A friend donated a washer and dryer, and I got them set up in my shed in October.
Trailer life is good! I am enjoying living in this trailer park a lot, and it’s great to have a paid-for, portable, recycled, streamlined, mid-century vintage home. I’ve had friends do two house blessings here, and I’ve done some landscaping. I’ve seen deer and a fox in the park, as well as lots of birds. My neighbors have been very unobtrusive.
The only sad part is that my cat, Mango, did not adapt well to trailer park life, and he went back to live with my former roommates, who love him, and we all have joint custody. I see him every week, and he still loves me.
It’s also been a bit of an adjustment, moving from the center of the city to the edge. It’s quieter and feels safer. I do more driving. I listen to music now while I drive.
My intent for 2012 is to install more window coverings, have a deck built, and get a chimenea and some bird-feeders for viewing pleasure. I look forward to doing more landscaping and gardening. I’ll see what my budget allows in terms of further improvements.
Teaching and studying yoga
I taught restorative yoga weekly through July at an acupuncture clinic. Although the class size was small, that teaching experience was invaluable. I worked with private students and substituted at a lunchtime yoga class — the one I took when I was working — and taught a restorative class in a studio for Free Day of Yoga. Did restorative yoga by invitation on a friend’s moving day.
I did two workshops in 2011 with nationally known teachers, Shiva Rea in January and Judith Hanson Lasater in February. In the summer, I began taking classes from Anusara teachers and later picked up a sweaty vinyasa flow class for a more challenging workout. I love working with accomplished teachers — I’m there to learn more about teaching as well as about yoga.
I’m signed up to take Yoga Anatomy with Leslie Kaminoff in January 2012.
I’d love to combine my love of yoga with my love of massage to work on yogis and help prevent and heal yoga injuries.
Practicing changework
I started this year serving as an assistant for NLP master practitioner training by Tom Best of Best Resources/Texas Institute of NLP. That ended in April. I served as program director for the Austin NLP meet-up for a few months and later co-taught an NLP class to women in prison. I attended Metaphors of Money, a workshop with Charles Faulkner, in the fall.
I offered NLP changework sessions this past year, and some of my clients had some wonderful outcomes, reaching major milestones and fulfilling long-time dreams. The sessions played a role in their success, which is pleasing, of course, and my clients already had a lot of resources when I worked with them. It was fun.
I attended two weekend sessions with Byron Katie in which she demonstrated The Work. I use her method of inquiry on myself often and with clients.
I did a lot of reading and personal experimentation with two healing practices, the trauma releasing exercises of David Berceli and shaking medicine taught by Bradford Keeney. Each has tremendous value.
I practiced the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) every day in January as I waited for my house to sell and found it helped keep me calm and centered. I’ve since taught it to others.
Going to massage school
In April, I learned about hands-on healing from giving it (I did 3 levels of Reiki training last fall), and that steered me toward massage school rather than acupuncture school (although never say never). I began studying at The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in late June (the same day my trailer arrived!) and finished my academic work in early December. I’m currently working in the student clinic, gaining the required 50 hours of internship to get my license.
Meanwhile, I’ve worked on about 30 friends and family members and about 25 of my fellow students.
Besides my regular classes, I took a workshop on craniosacral therapy and learned more about a modality I received regularly for three years without understanding how it worked, only that it did.
I’ve gotten massages from my teachers as a way of learning, and I’ve been fortunate enough to trade Swedish massage for lomi lomi and reflexology sessions. The learning will always continue.
Once I’m licensed, I’ll officially start my practice.
Continuing my own healing
I continued to do acupuncture with Peach Sullivan and did my usual spring and fall cleanses, which I’ve posted about before. This year I finally cleared my liver and gallbladder of hardened bile!
I continued receiving applied kinesiology sessions from Chandler Collins and hands-on bodywork sessions from Bo Boatwright to free up even more health into my body and life.
I began working with Fran Bell, who gave my walk a makeover. I had been walking as if I was still injured long after my injuries had healed. Sometimes it takes help to change habitual patterns. Now when I walk, my body feels good and has energy.
Also in the past year, I resumed my practice of ecstatic dance, which I fell in love with in 1995. My ecstatic dancing was mostly on hiatus for the past three or so years. My body craved yoga and more silence, stillness, and solitude. It’s good to be back. I feel like I’ve found a good community, Ecstatic Dance of Austin.
In May I had the initial assessment for brainwave optimization, and in June I did 10 sessions with NeuroBeginnings. The benefits continue to show up for months afterward. I feel more centered, more myself, and more content. I imagine 2012 will bring even more health and healing into my life.
Working
I started the year jobless, living on my savings. When I realized I had no idea how long it might take to sell my house, I decided to do contract technical writing. The day I posted my resume, I was contacted by a recruiter. I worked at 3M for 3 months before I started massage school.
I’ve done some freelance work writing and editing website copy.
I’m holding a space for a part-time job in 2012 for financial security while I get my practice established.
Spiritual direction
In the spring, I joined dear Thomas in watching a group of Tibetan monks destroy a sand painting they had constructed painstakingly and then walk in procession to release the sand into Lady Bird Lake. Very moving, a reminder of impermanence. I ironically got a tiny bag of the sand to keep!
On the fall equinox, I realized that I felt as if I had finally fully arrived, or one might say, as if I fully occupied myself, as though I became fully present. Gratified. It’s hard to know that is even a goal until you experience it.
I joined a book group in the fall, studying the 4th way Gurdjieffian path as taught by E.J. Gold. I plan to continue with that in 2012.
I also began dating someone this fall after four years of not dating. I don’t know the future, but it totally feels very sweet and lovely to be in relationship at this time with this man!!
My second Saturn return occurred in December. My astrologer said that Aquarians like me, rather than age, we “youthen”. So far, so good!
So that wraps up 2011, the year of big changes. I don’t do resolutions, but I check in with my intentions, many of which I’ve shared here.
Wishing you all many blessings in 2012.
The Well: bodymindheartspirit 