I loved the honesty in this post, about yoga, the ego, and damaging your body. I think he must be referring to Paul Grilley’s Yoga Anatomy video, which shows clearly how skeletal structure varies from body to body.
“Going deep” should never mean trying to emulate another person’s yoga without taking into account your own unique body. As meditators know and as Patanjali knew, you can “go deep” without moving.
Thank you, James MacAdam, for sharing your story.
via James MacAdam
I read this article, The New Humanism, in today’s New York Times. It’s an op-ed piece by columnist David Brooks about how our culture’s predominant way of thinking and viewing the world, through the lens of reason, has led to major policy errors, such as invading Iraq, the financial collapse, futile efforts to improve the educational system.
Brooks writes:
I’ve come to believe that these failures spring from a single failure: reliance on an overly simplistic view of human nature. We have a prevailing view in our society — not only in the policy world, but in many spheres — that we are divided creatures. Reason, which is trustworthy, is separate from the emotions, which are suspect. Society progresses to the extent that reason can suppress the passions.
Of course, we brain geeks know that it’s the glorification of the left brain at the expense of the right.
He continues:
Yet while we are trapped within this amputated view of human nature, a richer and deeper view is coming back into view. It is being brought to us by researchers across an array of diverse fields: neuroscience, psychology, sociology, behavioral economics and so on.
This growing, dispersed body of research reminds us of a few key insights. First, the unconscious parts of the mind are most of the mind, where many of the most impressive feats of thinking take place. Second, emotion is not opposed to reason; our emotions assign value to things and are the basis of reason. Finally, we are not individuals who form relationships. We are social animals, deeply interpenetrated with one another, who emerge out of relationships.
These points bear repeating:
Got that? Good. That’s thinking with an integrated brain.
Brooks goes on to write about the difference this makes in what we pay attention to:
When you synthesize this research, you get different perspectives on everything from business to family to politics. You pay less attention to how people analyze the world but more to how they perceive and organize it in their minds. You pay a bit less attention to individual traits and more to the quality of relationships between people.
Then he lists the talents this new paradigm requires and develops:
Attunement: the ability to enter other minds and learn what they have to offer.
Equipoise: the ability to serenely monitor the movements of one’s own mind and correct for biases and shortcomings.
Metis: the ability to see patterns in the world and derive a gist from complex situations.
Sympathy: the ability to fall into a rhythm with those around you and thrive in groups.
Limerence: This isn’t a talent as much as a motivation. The conscious mind hungers for money and success, but the unconscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or the love of God. Some people seem to experience this drive more powerfully than others.
Which of these talents have you developed? Which do you want to develop more deeply?
This article is not about Buddhism or NLP or ecstatic dance, by the way, although given my history, I couldn’t help but make those connections.
It’s about how thousands of researchers in multiple displines are coming up with a new view of what it means to be a human being. Brooks concludes:
It’s beginning to show how the emotional and the rational are intertwined.
I suspect their work will have a giant effect on the culture. It’ll change how we see ourselves. Who knows, it may even someday transform the way our policy makers see the world.
Let’s hope so. Let’s do our parts to make it so.
Okay, people. let’s get to work changing the world! One savasana, one trance, one meditation session, one ecstatic dance, one meta-position, one moment of transcendence at a time.
I’ve mentioned several times that when I’ve done the trauma releasing exercises, that my left arm and shoulder would tremble, shake, wave, jerk chaotically, releasing deeply held tension that I was previously unaware of.
Today I did the exercises, and finally, my right arm and shoulder began to release.
Also, my neck released more than usual. At one point my head was rolling from side to side.
Nice.
I had a longer releasing session, 20 minutes, today. Besides the new right arm and neck movements, the usual places released: legs, hip joints, spine, left arm and shoulder.
I noticed afterward that my breathing was deeper and more satisfying.
All this while lying on the floor in my roommates’ living room, while they were listening to this YouTube video of interviews of people all over the world talking about what progress means to them.
I listened to people speaking many languages while I lay on the floor and trembling moved through my body.
Then I did yoga, a couple of long, slow sun salutations, and my body totally loved it after doing the TREs.
~~~
And soon I’m off to the Kite Festival, and then to teach my restorative class and wind down my weekend.
My posting has been infrequent lately because (1) I’m working full-time on a three-month technical writing contract and (2) I just moved after selling my home of 10 years.
I thought I got rid of a lot of stuff when I got the house ready to list back in November, but when it came time to pack and move all but some basic necessities into a storage unit, I discovered that I still have way too much stuff. Gonna need another weeding when I move into my trailer.
Moving has been disorienting. I lost my little red Canon camera some time between Saturday afternoon, when I had someone take a photo of Judith Lasater and me (she created restorative yoga, would have loved to put that on my yoga page) and Wednesday morning, when I wanted to photograph some spectacular clouds and discovered my camera was not in my purse.
I’ve contacted Yoga Yoga and looked under the car seats and in the most obvious places. It will probably show up at some point. (Apparently the police found my laptop that was stolen in December! Will get that back next week!)
I also can’t find a box with my supplements in it. I take most of the supplements recommended in the book Buddha’s Brain. I’m glad I posted about them, because I may need to go buy replacements, and that book is deep in a box in storage.
Yesterday I completely forgot the PIN for my debit card. Proof that nourishing those neurotransmitters makes a tangible difference!
Adding to my feelings of disorientation and insecurity, I’ve been having car problems since Dec. 23. I took it back to the shop twice for problems; then when it overheated, I took it to a different shop, and that shop discovered it had a blown head gasket, which none of the previous shops had discovered.
I’m ready for my car to be fixed completely! And I hear myself whining and know that I created this. Well, maybe not all of it, but I wanted a change. And here I am. Livin’ in the suburbs, drivin’ a rental, camera-less and supplement-less. Oh well!
A couple of positive notes: Mango handled the move really well. This was our first move together. I bought him a top-loading cat carrier — much easier to get him into it. I moved him with the last load, and he meowed most of the way. He’s been super affectionate and hasn’t even tried to go outside yet.
And…he’s been behaving in a frisky manner! Running and jumping up on furniture with a goofy look on his face! I think he likes this place — a big house with three people to give him attention.
The other note: Saturday, in the midst of moving, I took a restorative yoga workshop with Judith Lasater, who created restorative yoga. I’m so glad I did. I’ll post about that separately.
Anyway, here I am living in Wells Branch with Katie and Keith and Mango, while I work on this contract job and purchase, get transported, and set up my next home, a vintage trailer. Stay tuned for more adventures!
I got off track on my month of doing the trauma releasing exercises every other day. I’m back now.
I was sick with the flu Feb. 19-21. I tried doing them in bed on Sunday, Feb. 20. I just did Exercise 7a, where you lie on your back, soles pressed together, raise your sacrum two inches, and hold for one minute.
Just that was enough to start my legs trembling, but I just didn’t have the energy to continue it for more than a couple of minutes.
Then I was just overwhelmed with too much to do — working at my temp job and moving out of my home of 10 years.
I just did TRE again tonight after a week. I used shortcuts.
I don’t recommend using shortcuts until you have done these exercises often enough to know that doing them the prescribed way will reliably produce trembling. You need to make sure your body “gets” these exercises, that the neural pathways for inducing trembling are in place.
That said, once your body is accustomed to them, I don’t see why you need to go through all the exercises to induce trembling if you can get there more quickly.
The point, after all, is to release tension through trembling, not to do everything “perfectly” or “right,” which can induce a lot of stress in itself!
Caveat: I’m a long-time yogi, so this may be easier than for non-yogis. No matter what, please do not use shortcuts until you’re really familiar with the conventional, prescribed method of TRE.
Here are my shortcuts:
The shortcuts probably cut about eight minutes off the exercises, and I spent that time doing more trembling. I probably spent 20 minutes trembling with my soles flat on the floor.
I noticed a lot of release from my quadriceps. Probably stress from moving, from lifting and carrying boxes, being on my feet all day. I had some rocking and some left arm trembling but nothing too wild.
I also had a conversation with Katie going on for the last half of my trembling session! I just trembled as I talked and listened.
Now. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I believe having done these exercises every other day for half of the month released a good measure of chronic stress from my body, and that made my experience of the flu milder and shorter than most. I had two days of fever, aches, and chills, and no respiratory or digestive distress, at a time when the emergency rooms were packed with flu victims.
Of course, this is my opinion and I could be full of shit. But after reading how beneficial trembling and shaking are for recovering from injuries, providing pain relief, increasing coordination between musculoskeletal and nervous systems, increasing metabolism, and increasing lymphatic circulation, I believe they were helpful in speeding my recovery.
Came across this awesome graphic this morning that shows the development of yoga over time. Bravo to Alison Hinks for creating it!
If you’ve ever wondered about the many different types of yoga and where they came from, this chart shows them very nicely.
Almost all my yoga experience has been in the Krishnamacharya lineage through Iyengar, although I have taken a class in Sivananda yoga in the Bahamas and took classes for a couple of years from a teacher whose background was in Integral yoga.
One omission I see is Shiva Rea. I understand she has studied with Krishnamacharya’s son and associates Desikachar, Mohan, and Ramaswami. (Maybe it was too difficult to show that!)
I’m unfamiliar with Babu Bhagwan Das, who is shown to have influenced Krishnamacharya. I haven’t encountered that name in my readings about Krishnamacharya. When I googled it, I got links to Bhagwan Das, the follower of Baba Neem Karoli who met up with Richard Alpert in India and took him to meet his guru. (Richard Alpert became Ram Dass.)
But Babu Bhagwan Das preceded Krishnamacharya, so obviously they are two different people in two different eras with similar names.
Just FYI, from Wikipedia, shramana refers to the belief that salvation is possible for anyone (in contrast to the Vedic caste system) and to monastic, ascetic traditions. It underlies Buddhism and Jainism. Buddha later shed shramanic practices, but Buddhism has a strong monastic tradition in Asia.
I’ve reached day 20. The gratitude challenge ends tomorrow. Today I’m reviewing.
Here’s my parade of gratitudes so far, day by day:
(By the way, as of this moment, this blog has gotten 5,019 views. Thank you again for reading, connecting energetically, commenting. I appreciate you.)
I see from this list a mix of specific gratitudes, for specific people, a video, a book, a company, a sutra, and more.
I also see broad areas of gratitude — insights, awareness, inner bigness, life as it is, no, yes.
Hmmm. I passed my own “chunk size” test! Yay! The object is not to be stuck in the details or in the big picture. It’s to have flexible perspective, to be able to see both the forest and the trees.
I am grateful to have the flexibility to zoom in and out on life with a measure of ease. I believe this skill is something I began developing since my very first day of NLP practitioner training several years ago. I hold the universe and an acorn in the palm of my hand. It helps tremendously with my equanimity — it helps me know I can be ready for anything. That confidence is priceless.
~~~
This 21-day challenge has coincided with selling my house. I had no offers on day 1, and now I have a contract and what looks like a pretty solid bet on closing February 18. Since I’ve often marked eras in my life by the home I was living in at the time, I am in transit, ending one era and beginning another.
It’s also coincided with a lot of attention to my work. On day 1, I was happily jobless, except for my joyous work as a yoga teacher and an NLP coach/change shaman offering free or low-priced sessions to get experience and build a reputation.
Meanwhile, my vision of my future work/identity keeps evolving. My plan had been to start as a full-time student at AOMA in July. I still love AOMA, and now I’m not so sure that becoming an acupuncturist is right for me. Nowadays it is hard to build a full-time practice in Austin, which has two acupuncture schools. I have time to get clear on this.
I believe I could become an exceptional acupuncturist, as long as I can practice “everything else” alongside it. But for me, maybe “everything else” is more to the point. I’m still working on this.
I’m considering getting other training, which may include classwork at AOMA. I have a couple of key words to guide me: blockages and beliefs. These words are about working with the body and the mind, i.e., touching and talking, and came to me during this challenge. That’s the big picture. Maybe massage school is where I need to start, to get a license to touch.
I can do Reiki now, without a license. Thank you, Jonathan, for attuning me.
I can do the verbal changework now under the banner of a coach or consultant, or, my favorite, well-being shaman.
It’s all energy work.
In the practical realm, due to the uncertainties of when I would actually close on my house, and desiring to keep my technical writing skills marketable until I have fully made the transit to self-employment, I updated my resume one day and spent the next day responding to job postings and sending it to recruiters for contract work. I heard from a recruiter that day, had an interview a few days later, and received and accepted an offer the day after that.
Honestly, I didn’t know it would be that easy, and that it was has touched my heart. Thank you, Universe, for showing my humble self that I’m on the right track. I hope to be doing contract work over the next couple of years to pay the bills as I get the training I need.
~~~
I’m incredibly grateful for the freedom I have. Especially when I compare myself to so many people in the world who can’t live where they want or do the work that they want, to people who feel trapped. (Actually, these are the people I want to work with.)
I can sell my house and buy a trailer!
I can quit a “permanent” job and do contract work to pay the bills and keep my skills marketable and have an adventure!
I can teach yoga and offer NLP/changework sessions and do The Work!
I can explore my desired life work and how best to learn and do that!
I can literally change my mind!
I am incredibly lucky and grateful that my life gives me these choices.
This will be a quick post after a long and busy day.
Today I’m grateful that I saw Brannen Temple holding his tiny, one-month-old daughter Najwa, who was sound asleep on his forearm this morning when I dropped Hannah off.
They made a beautiful picture together that just enchanted me — the big man and the tiny baby.
The photo above of Brannen’s hands and Najwa’s feet was taken by Sarah Temple. Love this photo, Sarah!
I found a watch at Target this evening that’s exactly like my description a week ago of what I desired in a watch but had never seen! It has a large round silver analog watch face, big numbers, a second hand, and a skinny black leather band. Found it for only $9.99!
For this I am grateful. They are very handy when teaching restorative yoga. Thanks to Mary Jean for suggesting Target.
I’m also grateful tonight for eka pada rajakapotasana, one-legged king pigeon pose. It just feels so good! It’s nice to use bolsters and blankets and hold it long with forehead on floor as a passive, resting, restorative pose. Ahhhhh!
Thanks to Yoga Journal for the borrowed photo below.
The three things I’m grateful for today (day 10 of 21) are: Tim Ferriss, teaching yoga, and the word YES.
If you don’t know Tim Ferriss, you should. He wrote a groundbreaking book called The 4-Hour Work Week, which was a huge bestseller. He shared how people can get out of the rat race of working long hours for someone else and find a new lifestyle where the work is mostly remote and delegated.
Tim chose to travel, learn tango, compete in martial arts contests, and write a bestseller after setting up a health supplement company that practically ran on autopilot, which allowed him the time and income to do those things.
I haven’t followed his formula, but it inspired me to come up with a business idea that I could do anywhere I have access to a phone for a few hours a day, with fairly low start-up costs. I may do it yet, so it’s a secret!
What I love about Tim is his plain ol’ brashness. He’s incredibly curious and likes to find out for himself. He’s a pioneer, an explorer, an adventurer, a seeker, a finder, and a sharer. He’s got the energy of a barrel of laughing monkeys. What’s not to like?
He blogs about his experiments in lifestyle design, too.
Tim is back with a new book, The 4-Hour Body. I’ve just started reading it, and I can tell you now, I will learn a lot from it. With access to doctors, scientists, elite athletes, and state-of-the-art measuring equipment for his own personal experimentation, Tim has hacked the secrets to losing weight, gaining muscle, sleeping well, increasing testosterone and sperm count, running faster, reversing “permanent” injuries, and having 15-minute orgasms. So the cover says, anyway!
He shows you how to make tiny changes, starting from where you are now, that are the most effective changes. His key question is:
For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?
(No wonder this appeals to me: It’s a Maximizer strategy. See my earlier post about finding your strengths.)
I love key questions and will blog about them in the future.
I peeked ahead to see how to lose 20 lbs in 30 days. His formula is:
And then he gives the fine points.
(Can’t wait until he hacks enlightenment in his next book, The 4-Hour Brain. You listening, Tim?)
Another thing I’m grateful for is that I finally took yoga teacher training and am teaching yoga. It is so gratifying to help motivated people find their way into yoga. Whether they are beginners who want one-on-one personal attention and instruction as they learn, or just want to unwind from stress and experience some deep relaxation, I’m enjoying teaching.
At present, I have one class on Sunday evenings, a restorative class in Oak Hill, and I have a private student who comes to my home after work one evening each week. (Bonus: My cat Mango curled up on top of her during savasana this week! He knows where the good juicy energy is.)
I’d like to teach more. My rates are very reasonable. Private classes are $25 an hour now, and group classes are $10 for 60 minutes, $15 for 90 minutes. If you want a trial session, call me.
You can read more on my Yoga offerings page on this blog.
I am grateful for the word YES. I’ve been getting some very nice YESes in my life lately. Two offers on my house this week, one of which I am getting ready to say YES to — and some folks who were looking at it last night loved it too. Affirmation!
Oh, and according to Patrice,
No is just another way of saying Yes.
So basically, it’s all Yes!
Monday night I didn’t sleep well. My mind was restless with anxiety about selling my house (the fat lady only sings when you actually close), finances, transitioning to new work, the uncertainties of the future.
I discovered that coming up with options is a great antidote to anxiety, and I am full of gratitude for making that connection. The antidote to anxiety is having options. I realized I could seek contract work (and indeed felt some urgency about doing so), and I also realized I could get a roommate (or two) in this nice old East Austin house while it’s on the market.
Today, Thursday, I am grateful that I have two offers on my house. Both of them are in the ballpark of what I’m asking. I feel good that one of them will come through.
I’ve had to come down twice on my asking price. It’s a buyer’s market, and buyers are skittish about interest rates and the economy.
My net will be less than I expected, and I don’t want to deplete my savings. I fear being broke, and the antidote is…having options.
So…Tuesday and Wednesday I spent time updating my resume and getting it to recruiters. It’s been six years since I’ve looked for work as a technical writer. A lot has changed. Facebook, WordPress, LinkedIn, Twitter: the social media didn’t exist. Some software has gone away — PageMaker, anyone? I felt like I could benefit from a crash course in writing a resume for today’s job market.
I needn’t have worried.
It was gratifying to hear this morning from a recruiter that I come across as a solid writer, and that she has three good possibilities for me, working three or six month contracts at three well-known technology companies as a technical writer.
I think contracting is the way to go for me, to have a good income and be able to take the training I want in between contracts!
I continue to draw people and myself toward more well-being as I transition to offering this joyful service full time, earning more than enough to live on.
The Well: bodymindheartspirit 