Author Archives: MaryAnn Reynolds

About MaryAnn Reynolds

I practice advanced bodywork in Austin, TX, specializing in Craniosacral Biodynamics and TMJ Relief.

Esoteric acupuncture: a recommendation

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I’m making a recommendation. If you get acupuncture treatments and you already maintain a yoga and/or meditation practice, ask your acupuncturist about esoteric acupuncture.

I went to the AOMA student clinic last week. It was Acupuncture Week — appointments were free for new patients, half-price for existing patients. (I paid $15. Friend AOMA on Facebook to find out about specials like this.)

I wasn’t feeling badly at all — but that’s no reason not to get acupuncture! It’s highly preventive medicine, balancing the energy body before imbalances show up in the physical body as illness/disease, and I learned, it can also help you on your spiritual path.

I told the students attending me that I was a meditator. They asked about my concentration. I said it could use some work — monkey mind is still a fairly frequent visitor during my meditation sessions.

The students asked me if I’d ever heard of esoteric acupuncture. Nope.

They explained that it was developed by a California acupuncturist named Sankey, and it combines traditional Chinese acupuncture with the yogic/Ayurvedic chakra system, sacred geometry (which I’m not familiar with), and other practices of the energy/spiritual body.

What the heck! I was game. They consulted with their professor, who approved it.

I put on a gown and laid face down on the table. The needles start at the crown and go down the back. I rolled up my pants so the backs of my knees were bare.

The student acupuncturist was consulting his iPhone to see the points in which to insert the needles! They have to be inserted in a certain order, as well. I hardly felt any of them enter. The pattern felt surprisingly symmetrical.

Then he left the room.

For the next 25 minutes, I was in one of the most deeply relaxed states I’ve experienced. My consciousness faded in and out as I slowly wavered along the borderline between awareness and nonawareness. (Part of me wanted to witness the experience and kept coming up into awareness, noting how deep I had gone, and then going back under; otherwise, I might have been completely out the entire time.)

When the treatment was over, I was so relaxed, it took me awhile to “come back up” and be able to interact well and be really present with people. Fortunately, they’re used to this at AOMA!

The next morning, my meditation session was one of the best I’ve experienced. I felt more focused on whole body awareness than I ever have, with much less monkey mind.

Needles(s) to say, I’m planning to do it again!

A note: It may not do much for you unless you have already done some significant “awareness work” through yoga and/or meditation. My regular, long-time acupuncturist says:

it’s a japanese style that works great when you have already “arrived”- so yes, congratulations are definitely in order!

Contemplative neuroscience: how meditation changes your brain

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Today I ran across a link to CNN’s Belief Blog, about how meditation changes the brain, complete with images of brain scans.

The article cites Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin and research on the limbic system and development of concentration and empathy, and also the left anterior region and positive emotions (available after only a few weeks of meditation). He’s the most well-known contemplative neuroscientist, being a friend of the Dalai Lama’s, who has given him access to Tibetan monks who are among the most highly experienced meditators in the world with over 10,000 hours. (At one hour per day, it would take 27 years to accumulate that much time meditating!)

It also cites (new info to me) Andrew Newburg’s study of the prefrontal cortex and attention, and the superior parietal lobe and lack of orientation to time and space. Could this explain the experience of oneness and presence in meditation? Makes sense to me.

The National Institutes of Health is funding more research in contemplative science, an encouraging sign.

Still, the nascent field faces challenges. Scientists have scanned just a few hundred brains on meditation to date, which makes for a pretty small research sample. And some scientists say researchers are over eager to use brain science to prove the that meditation “works.”

“This is a field that has been populated by true believers,” says Emory University scientist Charles Raison, who has studied meditation’s effect on the immune system. “Many of the people doing this research are trying to prove scientifically what they already know from experience, which is a major flaw.”

But Davidson says that other types of scientists also have deep personal interest in what they’re studying. And he argues that that’s a good thing.

“There’s a cadre of grad students and post docs who’ve found personal value in meditation and have been inspired to study it scientifically,” Davidson says. “These are people at the very best universities and they want to do this for a career.

“In ten years,” he says, “we’ll find that meditation research has become mainstream.”

I hope so.

12 states of attention

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Update: This post was originally written in 2010, and it’s now 2023. Some things have changed. I’ve met and taken several trainings with Nelson. He’s a crusty, lovable curmudgeon and very, very smart.

You can find Nelson’s archived Navaching website here.

You can get a new or used copy of his book The Structure of Delight on Amazon.

If you’re a fan of Nelson Zink and in particular his work on peripheral vision and nightwalking, you might be interested in attending a nightwalking training in Taos, New Mexico, with Katie Raver. Details here.

~~~

My most recent post, Refining Awareness, includes some instructions about using your vision to focus down to the pixel level, and then to open your vision and let everything come into your field of vision.

These activities are based on a set of exercises called the 12 states of attention that I learned about and practiced and taught, so that now I seem to have internalized them enough that I don’t consciously think about it.

The three main senses we use are seeing, hearing, and feeling, or visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. NLP 101.

Each of these senses can be experienced externally and internally. For example, I can see the computer in front of me, and I can close my eyes and remember the image or imagine the computer morphing into a piano. That’s Visual External and Visual Internal (remembered and constructed).

You can further expand your sensory acuity by practicing using each sense as broadly and as narrowly as possible. Hence, look at a pixel, then let everything come in. Those states are Visual External Narrow (VEN) and Visual External Broad (VEB).

You can do this with hearing as well. You can focus on one sound in your environment (or in your memory or imagination), and you can focus on all the sounds.

Same with kinesthetic awareness. Internal, external, narrow, broad.

A man I’ve never met but who has been a teacher for me came up with the 12 states of attention. His name is Nelson Zink, and he’s got a pretty amazing website, Navaching. Click here to read about the 12 states of attention. He’s got a lot to say and says it well. (And check out his other pages. It’s pretty fascinating. I also do nightwalking. And read his book, The Structure of Delight.)

The point is that through our conditioning, most of us come to favor some states and neglect others. If you enjoy having more resources, you can practice these states and gain awareness skills. You never have to be bored again, and you will reach more of your potential!

So when I meditate and do a body scan, I may bring to awareness my skin, starting with my head and slowly going down my body to my foot, bringing each area into awareness (Kinesthetic External Narrow).

Or I may attend to how my head, chest, and belly feel (Kinesthetic Internal Somewhere-Between-Narrow-and-Broad).

When I do whole body awareness, I am using the Kinesthetic Internal/External Broad state of attention, including my energy field.

(The convention is that the skin is the boundary between external and internal for the kinesthetic sense. But because my energy body radiates through my skin, my skin is a permeable boundary, and I’m sensing internally and externally at the same time.)

The kinesthetic sense may actually be a lot of senses, including balance, knowing where my foot is in space, temperature, tactile, muscular, and so on. Emotions are usually classified as kinesthetic as well, since we feel them in the body.

Anyway.

Wisdom is a broad state, no matter whether we’re seeing the big picture, hearing the cosmic OM, or feeling connected to Source. Big Mind is a broad state, and that’s a skill gained from meditation.

Check out Zink’s website and practice the exercises given, if you like. It will bring you gifts of knowing yourself and experiencing more of your full potential.

Refining awareness

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What are you aware of right now? The words you’re reading on the screen. Maybe the whole screen. Maybe what’s beyond the screen in your field of vision.

Notice how your eyes can move from a narrow focus on black and white pixels to the space beyond. How do each of these extremes feel?

Your hearing. Traffic. Heating and air conditioning fans. Insects. Voices. Walking. Typing. Water running. The sound inside your head. The sounds your breath makes.

Your body, probably sitting. Your weight against the chair/sofa/floor. Your feet on the floor. Tight places in your body.

Yes, go ahead and adjust.

Your skin, clothed and unclothed. Warmth, coolness. Your breath, coming and going. Feelings in your chest, belly, head.

Pay attention to those feelings. Are any of them emotions? Even very subtle emotions? Anxiety? Joy? Glee?

Discover how much you can refine your awareness about your emotional state and your body.

This is another side effect of meditation. Awareness just gets deeper and deeper, more and more refined.

There now. Better?

Writing a new chapter in my life

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Just finished 6 weeks of cleansing and flushing my body of parasites and toxins and nasty old stuff that needs to go.

Now it feels ripe to do the same for my worldly goods.

I’m downsizing. Selling my East Austin house where I’ve lived for the past 10 years, making some big changes.

I’m hoping to buy a used vintage trailer in good shape and wanting to find a nice place to put it — on someone’s big lot or country acreage not too far out.

The trailer parks on Barton Springs Road would also be a good location, if I can get in there.

Or perhaps I’ll rent a trailer first and see how I like it.

Releasing, shedding, letting go, removing, reducing, downsizing, lightening up… I have too much stuff. I’m so ready for clean, spare, minimal. I could have so much more free time to do things I love.

So much to do… Prune the branch that hangs too low in front of the house, obscuring the view. Clear the entry path. Clean the house and make it ready for prospective buyers. Take stuff to Habitat and Goodwill and Half Price Books. Sell stuff on Craigslist. Maybe even sell the house on Craigslist!

I’m feeling my way through this, flying by the seat of my pants. Wanting to find a good neighbor for Bruce, someone who will honor the house and remodel, not tear it down and build ugly.

This house has been good to me, and it’s time to move on. I’m preparing for finishing my work at my current job sometime mid-2011. I’ve committed to stay through the session. Hopefully the last day of May will be my last day there.

And… I’ve been accepted into AOMA (acupuncture school). I deferred my entrance until next July, so I can do all this stuff at a pace I can handle.

I’m not 100% sure it’s right for me, but it sure feels like I’m moving in the right direction, and nothing else I’ve found resonates so much with me. Oriental medicine feels right, and it’s daunting. Three and a half years of eastern and western medicine is pretty intense, and it’s been years since I’ve been in school. But how fascinating, exotic, and practical. It will definitely keep my left and right brain hemispheres working!

In many ways, these changes are a side effect of meditation. Questions arise: How am I not living my right life? What is my right life? What do I love to do so much that I would do it for free (and making a living at it is icing on the cake)?

Words, images, dreams, realizations arise. The answers I’ve found so far are: doing/teaching/learning yoga, learning about the subtle body’s energies, learning to think like a Daoist, helping others and myself on the path toward health and enlightenment, being of joyous service. And writing.

I hope you’ll wish me good luck and lend me your support.

Is yoga exercise and/or is it holistic?

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Ramesh Bjonnes argues in Elephant Journal that yoga is holistic, in his review of Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Yoga, by Mark Singleton.

I haven’t read the book. I am still working on a long post about T. Krishnamacharya, who was instrumental in collecting and teaching asana as part of yoga practice in 20th century India. He taught those who brought yoga to the west — Jois, Iyengar, and Devi. Apparently Singleton wrote quite a bit about that, and his book is definitely on my reading list.

If you’re not a yogi, you may not know that what we call yoga in the West is actually one of six schools of Hindu philosophy in India. What we call yoga here is actually asana, one of the eight limbs of yoga, which is a holistic practice with ethical, social, physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions.

My opinion at this time about whether yoga is physical or spiritual: Most of us in the west first encounter yoga as physical exercises that relieve stress and build strength and flexibility. That’s okay. That may be the only way into our culture.

The physical body is but one layer of our beings. A regular asana practice brings changes to the physical body as well as the other layers. Once your body has gotten accustomed to doing yoga, doing yoga feels good. You miss a few days or a couple of weeks, and you notice the loss of well-being. It is meant to be a practice, and it affects more than just the physical body.

Whether you ever study yoga philosophy or not, a regular asana practice eventually opens you to notice your chakras and understand that you are much more than matter.

And after awhile, you may become fascinated with your subtle bodies, and you will want to meditate.

My yoga page on this blog

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Just letting y’all know… If you’re curious about my yoga classes, look under the banner photo, and you’ll see a row of links to pages. Click “Private yoga classes” to go there. Or just click here.

I just noticed yesterday in my blog stats that it had only been clicked three times.

I’ve finished the class part of my yoga teacher training and have a humongous test to do on my own time, as well as lesson plans for my 12-class series, Beginner’s Yoga, Beginner’s Mind, currently getting ready for the 9th week, to turn in.

I’ll post more about the Oak Hill restorative yoga class when it’s all worked out. Right now I’m focusing on the test and lesson plans.

I’ll let you know when I officially finish my training, and we’ll celebrate!

Emptiness in fullness

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Just because it’s been awhile since I posted about how my meditation practice is going, and that’s the main reason for this blog, here’s an update.

A few weeks ago, something happened that I wrote about in a post, Sitting, Yoga, Oh, Yeah, and Breakthroughs. I experienced something new to me in meditation. Read the post if you like.

That experience felt familiar. Associations popped up about being a young child and having to take a nap (so our mother could take a nap) and lying on my bed awake, aware but not identified with myself.

I had that experience then. Several times. So present, peaceful, open, and unattached! Empty, and yet somehow sparkling with aliveness.

I have yearned for this state to recur.

I’ve tried to figure out how I got there, and all I can say is it seems to have something to do with perspective, like those figure-ground drawings where you see either an old woman or a young woman. You can train yourself to see both.

Or it has something to do with what’s known in NLP as “chunk size.” We all have a preferred chunk size. There’s an expansion into new awareness going on here. Maybe it’s what Buddhism calls “Big Mind.”

Or both of these are happening at the same time. Or something entirely different. Small Mind likes to have something to do!

Anyway, I have no skill with this! I found the state effortlessly and luckily, and then another state arose. And I haven’t returned, either with effort or without, so far.

So after a bit, I just gave up the desire. It will happen again when it happens. Or not.

Much of my experience of whole body awareness has become about experiencing fullness. Adyashanti spoke about this last night in his first satsang in Austin, saying his meditation teacher called it “the fullest emptiness you’ll ever experience.” (That was a very nice event. I hope he returns.)

I don’t know if it’s the fullest emptiness I’ll ever experience, but I recognize experiencing fullness in emptiness. It’s a presence, a way of being, and it seems to be at or near the core of my being. And it doesn’t seem to have boundaries. And awareness of it strengthens it.

And it’s good! Or, rather, it’s goodness!

An amazing surrender process

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Bill Hornback sends daily emails about Eckhardt Tolle’s The Power of Now. I really liked this one and asked him if I could post about it. He said yes.

Bill writes:

Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now – “The pain you create is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is.”  Ouch! This is so true it hurts!  Since resistance to what is does not work, let’s chat about surrender. 

A few years ago, I went thru a surrender process once, and it was . . . amazing.  Until you’ve gone through this process, or one like it, you are just ASSUMING you have surrendered or know what that means. Perhaps instead of surrendering, life has only been a test of your flexibility, perhaps.  Surrendering, especially for controllers like me, is almost too difficult an experience to describe . . . but I’ll try. 

Imagine every reference point of your life, everything you know, every tangible object, every dream of the future, all being taken away from you, without any expectation of return . . . and imagine being good with that. Imagine that you’re OK with all that. Imagine it’s because it’s as if your mind has been stripped from you, or at least turned off, and you experience what it is like to just BE.  Perhaps you understand, for the first time, that nothing outside yourself defines you. Nothing outside your SELF establishes or diminishes your Being.  You are, and will Be.  Perhaps for the first time, you KNOW, truly KNOW that you can create what you want to create, and would if everything you had disappeared.  You are thankful, truly thankful, for the relationships you have, because you know those relationships were not created by you alone, they are the other person’s choice too, and they chose you, just as you chose them.  You didn’t control the situation, you were only part of it, and were blessed by the mutual choice.  Imagine understanding that your life starts over from this moment forward.  If you can imagine all this, you may have a glimpse of what it means to “surrender to what is.” My life changed for the better from that moment. One of the first things I did was choose Julie again, and luckily for me, she chose me too. 
I’m sorry if this is seems scattered or incoherent.  I tried, but the experience was, as I said, difficult to describe.  Many changes I’ve made in my life since then revolve around the concept of surrendering control, which is significantly easier to do at this point.

So, will you “surrender to what is” today, or beat your head against that wall time and again?
Intent: I will look for situations where I need to surrender to what is.
Outcome: Everything will become easier, simpler.
Presup: Respecting every person’s model of the world, including my own, is immensely useful.

I’m not sure I have experienced anything like this. In fact, I’m pretty sure I haven’t, except maybe for a few moments in my deepest meditations, when being just comes really alive.

I get that this is difficult to talk or write about, since it is a nonverbal experience. It is awesome to know that this is possible for someone and therefore possible for me.

I’d love to know more about how it’s done — as a guided meditation, perhaps.

Buddha’s Brain: supplements for brain health

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June 2, 2012: I’ve updated this post with links for the supplements if you want to order online. Some of them are not readily available in stores like Whole Foods.

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When I read the book Buddha’s Brain, I was very impressed by an appendix, Nutritional Neurochemistry, by Jan Hanson. She’s an acupunturist who has specialized in clinical nutrition for many years.

I’ve been following Hanson’s suggestions and taking supplements for about six weeks now. I take the minimum amount suggested. I feel better! My memory is better, I sleep better, and I focus better. My mood may be a little better—I wasn’t depressed before, and I generally feel buoyant already.

I haven’t noticed any changes in my digestion (the other area that neurotransmitters affect), but I take great care with my diet, having been tested for food sensitivities years ago and generally following a Type O Gatherer genotype diet. I eat well, going light on grains, beans, and dairy (mostly limited to yogurt and kefir), eating lots of fruits and veggies including green juices, and buying fresh and organic.

I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, just someone in pursuit of health and well-being. I’m going to repeat some of what Jan Hanson says here in the hopes that if you’re really interested in this topic, you’ll click the link above, buy the book, and read it yourself. The world needs more people who are working toward functioning at 100 percent of their capabilities!

Base  your decisions either on testing or on self-observation.

  • If you have problems with sleep or digestion, supplement for serotonin.
  • If you have memory issues, build acetylcholine.
  • If your energy is low, build norepinephrine and dopamine.
  • These last two and serotonin help with mood.

Since supplements are expensive, it seems wise to start with your diet, because you gotta eat anyway. In general, eat lots of protein (a serving the size of a pack of cards at each meal) and at least 3 cups of veggies per day. Protein includes nuts, dairy, seeds, eggs, legumes, and grains, as well as meat, poultry, and fish and seafood.

Foods that are particularly good for brain health: berries, egg yolks, beef, liver, and dairy fats. I prefer grass-fed bison to beef and suggest avoiding liver unless it’s from a really clean source. Eggs with orange yolks from free-range chickens rock!

Foods that are not good for brain health: those with refined sugar and/or refined flour. You probably know this already.

If you think your body may disagree with some foods, either get tested for food sensitivities (chiropractors and naturopaths offer this) or eliminate suspects for a week or two and notice if you feel better, think more clearly, digest more easily, and have more energy. Anything your body is sensitive to causes an inflammatory reaction throughout your body, and inflammation is an enemy of your brain.

Supplements for basic brain health

Hanson recommends multivitamins with 10 to 25 times the daily value of all the B vitamins. For adults, that means at least the following amounts:

  • 12 mg of thiamin (B1)
  • 13 mg of riboflavin (B2)
  • 160 mg of niacin (B3); you may need a separate supplement* to get this much, and I recommend the no-flush kind
  • 50 mg of pantothenic acid (B5)
  • 17 mg of pyridoxine (B6)
  • 24 mcg of B12

Check your multivitamin label and if these amounts are not provided, find one that does. I like Source of Life food-based vitamins.

Vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid play a crucial role in the production of many neurotransmitters:

  • Be sure to get 50 mg of B6 in the form of pyridoxal-5-phosphate (P5P) on an empty stomach in the morning. I have not found this form in a multivitamin, so I take a separate supplement. B vitamins are water soluble; any excess is excreted, so it’s okay if you take too much (at least from what I read now).
  • Take 800 mcg or more of folic acid, which is twice as much as most multis contain, so you’ll need a separate supplement.
  • Get at least 24 mcg of B12, which multis usually have.

Make sure you’re getting 400 IU of Vitamin E, at least half of which is gamma-tocopherol (not the more common alpha-tocopherol, which multivitamins usually contain).

Get 100 percent or more of the daily value of minerals. The Source of Life multi mentioned above includes the minerals below.

Iron plays a big role in brain health. If you think you might be low in iron, get tested, and supplement if you need it.

  • 1000 (men) or 1200 (women) mg of calcium (usually supplements are needed; I like New Chapter Bone Strength Take Care)
  • 20-35 mcg of chromium
  • 900 mcg of copper
  • 8 mg of iron (18 for menstruating women; Source of Life’s multivitamin offers this much iron—see link above)
  • 320-410 mg of magnesium
  • 1.8 to 2.3 mg of manganese
  • 45 mcg of molybdenum
  • 700 mg of phosphorus
  • 4.7 g of potassium
  • 55 mcg of selenium
  • 8 to 11 mg of zinc

Get enough omega-3 fatty acids. The benefits are better growth of neurons, mood elevation, and slowing of dementia. She recommends fish oil containing about 500 mg each of DHA and EPA daily—high quality, molecularly distilled. I like New Chapter Wholemega. It’s from sustainably caught wild Alaskan salmon.

Note: If you want to avoid fish oil, you can take a tablespoon of flax seed oil and 500 mg of DHA from algae daily.

Supplementing for neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitter supplements should be taken carefully. Start with the smallest dosage, try one new one at a time, and discontinue if you have negative side affects. Do not combine neurotransmitter supplements with antidepressants or psychotropic medications.

Hanson recommends building serotonin first. Serotonin supports mood, digestion, and sleep. Take 50-200 mg of 5-HTP in the morning or 500-1,500 mg of tryptophan before bed. If you need help sleeping, tryptophan at night is probably the better choice.

Norepinephrine and dopamine support energy, mood, and attention. Dopamine transforms into norepinephrine, so supplementation is the same for each: take L-phenylalanine or L-tyrosine, and start with 500 mg on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning. The maximum dose is 1,500 mg, which may be too stimulating for some.

Acetylcholine supports memory and attention. Take phosphatidylserine (PS), 100-300 mg per day. Also take acetyl-L-carnitine, 500-1,000 mg first thing on an empty stomach. Take huperzine A, 50-200 mcg per day. Hanson recommends finding which combination works best for you.

*The supplement links are based on the recommended minimum dosages given in Buddha’s Brain. I am a small person, and these dosages work for me. If you are larger or more in need of neurotransmitter supplementation for particular purposes such as sleep, attention, or memory, you can experiment with taking up to the maximum recommended, only making one change at a time and making gradual changes. Many of the supplements may be ordered from Amazon on a subscription basis, saving you money.