Good afternoon and holiday greetings! I hope these longer days are bringing the light of inspiration and the warmth of peace to us all.
I have some news, so I will get to it first. In the interest of your convenience and my continuity, I will be moving my practice into Clayton this winter. As you might imagine, my road gets impassable when it snows, and I imagine we will be getting some snow this winter. I want it to be easy for us to get to each other. I will have the same phone numbers and you’ll simply come see me in a warm office downtown rather than at the cabin for the next few months. This is also an opportunity for me to try out having space in town, so I will decide later if I will move the practice home to the cabin in Spring.
Other news... I am recently back from an amazing workshop with Deane Juhan (www.jobsbody.com) in Florida. This workshop focused on the breath and breathing. We worked on the shoulder girdle, the ribcage and the abdominal area - creating greater breathing capacity and more ease of movement around the structures involved in breathing. You’d be surprised just how many parts and pieces relate to the breath. And Deane is an amazing practitioner and teacher. Interestingly, he got his start at Esalen, in Big Sur, CA, where I recently attended the dream work workshop with Robert Moss (www.mossdreams.com).
Deane studied with Dr. Milton Trager for more than 20 years, and his work is a beautiful combination of Trager’s work and his own resistance/release technique that Deane has developed over the years. Many of you have experienced this resistance/release work with me, and some of the movement I do with you comes out of the Trager style learning I have received from Juhan and other teachers. It truly is amazing how simple movement and vibration can work more deeply into the tissue and muscle than what people call “deep tissue.”
Deeper is not necessarily better. Change can occur in the body more easily when one is in a relaxed and open state, and deep work does not always create this opening, though it is certainly effective where appropriate. Another tidbit I gleaned from working with Deane Juhan is the value of sensation - particularly pleasant sensation. There is an “edge” of opening I experienced with some of the work that felt unique and important to me. It is challenging to describe, but it is like the edge of pleasure, but a pleasure that is unfamiliar - so the nervous system has to learn from it as it strives to understand or make sense of the sensation.
This brings me to the Solstice. I set my alarm yesterday morning, to wake up early and meditate before the sunrise. I meditated a little, drew a mandala, wrote down some simple thoughts and then was inspired to drive down to the overlook in Tallulah Falls to watch the sun rise. It just felt right to do this, and I was rewarded with a wonderful image of the sun rise with a violet crepuscular ray above. And just as the sun broke the horizon some crows flew across, greeting it with me. On the way home, the hymn “Morning Has Broken” came appropriately to mind, and I thought to myself, “this could have been written for just this morning!”
In my writing, I had some simple but profound understandings.
I came to a deeper awareness that we are here on this Earth for a short time, and that the vehicle we have been given for this wild ride is a BODY. Flesh, bone, muscle, organs, viscera, nervous system, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, fingers, toes, hair... We are sensory beings. We are miraculous systems with thousands of cells flawlessly performing complex duties and functions all under our conscious radar (and while we are busy enjoying the ride). And I’m not even going to touch on the Soul or Spirit here (maybe another time). So the piece that I became more aware of is that we are here, in large part, to experience life through our sensory apparatus - our body, our senses.
I can feel my own edges, and there is pleasure in this. Seeing is feeling, using sight. There is pleasure in seeing beauty just as profound as the most sensual touch. Each and all of our senses can be developed and explored, to find more ways to beauty. The pleasure of texture - in sound, image, music, touch, taste - the complexity of flavor, the fullness of breath, the expansion of the heart. How much we sense, feel and know with heart and stomach... remember, always, the wisdom of both of these. My heart tells me what is right. My stomach tells me when something is wrong. The importance of heeding the stomach's message was emphasized for me. Our heads so often get in the way and confuse the matters at hand - especially between head and heart - and we can forget to notice that the gut is there, like a student with hand raised awaiting her turn to speak, trying to tell us something. Or fear gets in and confuses our gut to distract the heart from the truth it is holding.
Our bodies move, sense, feel, work, rest and perceive in so many ways. I want to find where the restrictions are, bring conscious awareness to them and hold space around them - give the body (and mind & spirit) the space in which to reach beyond the restriction and discover where things can feel and move “easier.” This is when we start sensing the mysterious and pleasant new sensations of ease. And the more expansive our experience of sensing and feeling, the more subtle it can be. The most minute shift of light or change of texture can be appreciated. The gentlest touch, the softest sound, the slightest movement - these can create the most profound awareness. These can create profound shift.
Lastly, I am HERE for the holidays. Feel free to call on me if you need to break away and pamper yourself with a massage!
Oh, and... Happy Holidays! I hope you are enjoying peaceful and joyful times with your family, friends and furry critters during these short days and long nights.
There is always so much promise in the air this time of year - folks thinking about ways of giving to and blessing each other. Thinking about what and whom we're grateful for in the passing year. Dreaming what we want to bring into being this coming year. And just resting in the stillness of the great turning, here in the pinch of the hourglass where time seems to stand still for a moment at the solstice.
While we travel to friends and family and host our loved ones, let's remember to care for ourselves, too. Here are a few ideas to consider:
*Find a quiet place - it might have to be a walk in the woods or even around the yard - and listen to your own breath, remembering your own internal rhythm. It's always there. And getting some extra oxygen feeds your cells!
*Take a hot soak with some epsom salts - sure to neutralize stress and slow the world down for a little while. If you don't have a bathtub, a hot shower will suffice, and a few drops of an essential oil - mint, lemon, rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender or fir, these are some of my favorites. The hot water in the tub or the shower will diffuse the aroma and soothe your nervous system.
*Call a faraway friend you haven't seen in a long time or rarely get to visit with. It does the heart good to connect and remember the pieces of ourselves that are unique to particular friendships. AND, studies have shown that our aging process is slowed when we are around people from earlier in life and talk about or focus on younger times.
*ENJOY the indulgence! If you decide to indulge in behaviors or foods that are not in your normal diet or lifestyle, make sure to ENJOY yourself. Give yourself a pass when you need to. I imagine you will digest much more efficiently what you take pleasure in consuming. And I imagine, too, that we overindulge less when we enjoy more consciously what we are eating, drinking or doing.
May your dreams deepen as the light shines more brightly upon you this winter. May your new year bring many blessings and much surprise and delight. May you remember ease, grace, beauty and joy every day!
