Day Nine: Loving Our Spine

DAY NINE
Loving our spine

Yesterday’s idea: sense your posture all day. How did you do? What did you do?

Did you combine it with sensing arms and legs? And thinking, “this is my life now?” You can keep the previous activities going any and every day you want.

Find your own way in adding as much exploratory wakening into your life as you can enjoy and benefit from. That is a purposefully vague statement.


Today, in as many ways as you can, sitting, standing, lying down, talking on the phone, walking, riding a bike, making love, reading a book, round and arch your spine.

Which means, rounding into a little ball, with your nose coming down toward your belly button, and your pelvis rotating toward your nose. This can be felt as slumping. It can be felt as curling up in the fetal position. (Do this lying on your side. It’s a lot of fun).


And then unfold, uncurl, expand out so that your chest and ribs rise away from the center, your back arches so your belly comes forward and the small of your back comes forward, your sternum (breastbone) lifts, your head tilts back a little, and your pelvis rotates so that your bottom pushes toward the back of your head.

Do this now, in a chair.

Do this now, standing, with your hands on your knees, if you can. Feel as if this may do wonders for your “posture.”


Mess around today doing this while driving the car (just a little bit), while standing in line at the bank (even littler, people will think you are weird). Do it in your room, do it even, somehow, on a walk.

Keep your spine rounding and arching and wake up to its glories, to the lengthening of you.

Day Eight: Getting Straight

DAY EIGHT
Getting straight.

Many of us, at one time or another, get the idea into our head that we want “better posture.” Often this idea was drilled into us in teenage years, with some adult saying, in usually not so pleasant a voice, “stand up straighter,” or “stop slumping.” Or some such commandment.

Whatever the baggage and past conditioning, it does feel better to stand with a fuller and longer spine. Much of yoga works toward this, and we’ll go for a sort of brain yoga as this book unfolds. I am trained in what is called the Feldenkrais Method®, named after a man, Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) who was a physicist, engineer, judo master and student of babies and human development. He wanted to heal something in him that medical surgery couldn’t repair at the time, and he did, discovering along the way a system of attentive moving that awakened awareness and propelled people into all sorts of improvements in their life.

I’m also trained in the Anat Baniel Method, developed by, not so surprisingly, Anat Baniel, a student of Moshe Feldenkrais who has spent 30 expanding and deepening his system.

Be that as it may, stand in this cross of ours, as per yesterday, and begin to roll your arms forward, so the thumbs orient from up, to forward to down. And as you roll your arms forward, bend your knees, and let your whole upper body round toward your pelvis, as if you were curling up in a ball. Then uncurl yourself and rotate your hand and arms backwards, so the thumbs come back to up, and rotate to point to the back.

While this is happening, arch your spine and let your head look up a little and soften your belly and let your belly come forward as your lower back comes in a little.

Go back and forth like this. Read the directions several times, and figure it out. DON’T SKIP IT. DO IT. SENSE YOURSELF IN MOTION, SENSE THE SPINE ROUNDING AND ARCHING.

Breathe as you do this. Sense both arms and legs.

When you finish doing this, sense your “posture” all day.

Day Seven, the Kingdom of Heaven

DAY SEVEN
The Kingdom of Heaven

Is within. The Kingdom of Heaven is within, saya Jesus in the Bible. Within. Not up in the sky. Not some high grade Santa Claus’s reward for being good little boys and girls in our life.
Within ourselves.

Within our own bodies, these temporary shells, in there, right Now, is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Maybe now IS the Kingdom of Heaven. To be explored later. For today, let’s look within our bodies.


Arise to standing. Sense your feet pushing down and your skeleton pushing up. Feel the fullness of being a human being with two arms and two legs and a spine on this planet Earth.

There are a lot of humans, but not many creatures that can stand on two legs, even less that can live and walk this way.

This is your life, right now.

Sense your arms and legs now and stretch your arms out to the side , making yourself into a human cross. Sense your spine in the middle of all this, carrying your arms, carrying your head.

Good.

This is you, a human being in the shape of the cross. Sense the five lines of being human: two legs, one spine (with head on top, pelvis at the base), and two arms. Be in this cross and sense where the horizontal line of your arms, would cross the vertical line of your spine.


Somewhere in the heart region.

Sense the heart region today. See if you can detect something like the “Kingdom of Heaven” in there, especially in times of less talk and inner chatter. See if it’s even more in times of no inner words, though those time are hard to find. (And all the more precious for it.)

Day Six: This is my Life

Looking at this beautiful bark, this is my life.


DAY SIX
This is my life. “This is my life.” This is my life.


Sometimes we have this funny idea, as if we are in some sort of rehearsal, and that later, “sometime,” our real life will start. Almost as if we are in some sort of prison, or suspended animation, and the “real thing,” is going to come along a bit later.

Or a lot later.

If we really are in prison, then we could definitely fall into this kind of thinking: when I get out of here, then I’ll start to live. And when out of prison, a person has a lot more options, and still, even in prison, that moment is that person’s life.
This moment in our life.

Right now.

Reading this book, or hearing this book, right now, this is your life.

Say it, if you would like, “This is my Life,” right now.

And as you say it, sense your arms and legs and sense your breathing, and be aware of what is in your visual field. Something out there we are pointing our eyes toward. The words on the page of this book. Notice their shape. Notice the shape of the white in between. Notice your hands holding the book. Notice what’s around as you read the book, or what’s in front of you as you listen to it.


Sensing, looking, breathing, noticing to yourself: “This is my life. Right now.”


That’s the game today, the “this is my life” game. The seeing what’s in front of us game. If we don’t like what we see, maybe we can fix it up a little, a new coat of paint, a new kind of light bulb, a bit of weeding in the garden, a walk to a nicer spot.
And if it’s somewhere we wish we weren’t, oh well: This is my life now, and sense and breathe and at least be true to the inner you in this each and every moment.

Good.

Day Five: Arms and Legs and making Sense of Life

Day Five:More alive: sensing our arms and legs all at once.
This is “hard.”

We’ve spent a day sensing just our legs. If you go something from it, I hope you’ve continued it off and on during all the days.

And now, let’s bring in more of ourselves: let’s sense our arms and our legs all together.

This is a lot, a lot of us, a lot of attention, a lot of pulling back from our usual slavery to the outside world.

Oh, well.

This book is about waking up, to all our moments.


Even this one, right now.

Have a little fun.

Sense the right arm and the right leg. Fully. Follow your breathing, too, as you sense.
Now sense your left arm and left leg and leave the right side out. See what that is like.

Interesting, eh?

Now sense the left side breathing in and the right side breathing out.
Hard?

Yes. Fun? Who knows? Give it a go.


And now, all day, sense both arms and both legs as much as you can.

Don’t worry when you “forget.” Welcome to learning how out of the now we usually are.

Oh, well.
Smile, breathe and come back, come back, come back to now.

And sense both arms and both legs as our grounding and waking up call.

Good.

Day 4: What if God were around?

two versions of God: William, and raw chocolate pie



DAY FOUR
Open the Door:


What if there is a God? What would that or it or Her or Him be like?

If you have a god, or God in your life, spend today connecting with God as much as you can.

Explore how being present to breathing, or to sensing your legs and arms and sensing might calm you and bring you to a place where you are more free to turn toward God.

If you are not a God person, imagine something “like” God, and look for that throughout your day.

Don’t get fancy.

Just what could be “like” God in your life, whether that might be nature, or the smiles on other people’s faces, or happiness, or artistic or musical beauty, or a good cup of soup. Doesn’t matter. Keep your awareness open for moments of that and see what difference this makes in your day.


What if God is too big or amazing for words?

Then what would the wordless big experience of God be like?

What if your God, is a “something really great and good” in the Universe kind of God. What would experiencing that for a day be like?

“By God,” as the saying goes, what would that be like?

Index of Postings (819, so far)

ChrisElms.blogspot.COM archives.

NOVEMBER 2009

819. Nov. 9: Loving our Spine

818. Nov. 8: Standing up Straight

817. Nov 7, Kingdom of Heaven

816. Nov. 6 This is my Life

815. Nov. 5, Being Alive, Sensing Arms and Legs

814. Nov. 4, What if God were around?

813. Nov. 3: Day Three: Emotional Choosing, ? Maybe

812. Nov 2: Day Two: Breathing plus legs, to wake up

811. Nov. 1 Sensing our Legs to Wake to Now



OCTOBER 2009



810. October 23: Benefits of Anat Baniel Method


809. October 16: working to create a sweet space

808. October 7: life is good


SEPTEMBER 2009

807. Sept 24: working too hard

806. Sept 13: soul now

805. Sept 12: What will it profit a dude or dudess ?

804. Sept 10 Go Slow, Joe

803. Sept. 7: new phone #

802. Sept 5: Waking necessary to change

801. September 1, 2009: What's the Problem, inner vs outer worlds

AUGUST 2009

800. August 20: Be happy, or what?

799. August 15: Nice vs real, or "????"

798. August 13, This is my life

797. Aug 11, Tues: Who am I?

796. Aug 10: Be of Good Cheer

795. August 9, Sunday: Be angry, but do not sin

794. August 8, Turning to the left with awareness

793. August 7, for love of love

792. August 7, 108 days of now-ing, day one

791. Aug 4, Hi Sweetie


JULY 2009

790. July 20, Love is good, Morgan some more

789. July 15, hiding behind the mask, or not

788. July 14: yes to it all

787. July 9: I'm in love and so what?

786. July 7 yes life good day ha ha hee hee ho

785. july 2 ten fingers ten toes wake up call, sort of

784. July 1, How to get smarter

JUNE 2009

783. June 30, balance and Moshe and more

782.June 24 loving life a few days after solstice

781. June 19 the porpoise of life

780. June 11, every morning, more chances to love

779. June 4, love, change, awakening

778. June 1, this moment

MAY 2009

777. gone

776. May 19, 2009: Orcas finally, and beautiful it is

775. May 18, Monday: Stuff happens

774. May 16, Arcata fine place, not a place I wish to move to

773. May 15, 2009: Doing Less, sometimes

772. May 2, 2009: Saturday: Arcata, Hello; always a choice: now or not now


APRIL 2009

771. April 15, Now is Easy, Why don't we always go there?

770. April 15, 2009: taxes and death, good????

769. April 10, 2009: Life is good

768. April 5, 2009: Anat Baniel Practitioner, Brendan and his dad, both

MARCH 2009

767. March 31: love is all around

766. March 26, Thursday: Light upon Light, the light verse of the Qu'ran

765. March 20, Friday, what's love got to do with it, 2

764. March 18, Wed, What's good about being alive?

763. March 13, Friday: watch this, you'll be glad

762. March 11: Tuesday: the beauty of today

761. March 9. Monday, 2009: one meaning of the Resurrection

760. March 7, Saturday: Love, Busy-ness, Forgiveness

759. March 2, 2009: What's love got to do with it?

758. March 1, 2009: Sunday in Atlanta: Snow and Love

FEBRUARY 2009

757. feb 27: other people

756. feb 25: poor me, not poor me

755 feb 22: good day Sunday: take advice on alfalfa and car roofs

754. feb 21: good day, Saturday

753. feb 17: who would i be without the story?

752/ Feb 15: Katie and Jesus

751. Feb 10: in Tucson, with and without the story

750. February 5: an exercise from Orage

749. February 4: in a new place it is tempting

JANUARY 2009

748. Jan 30, Friday: Last day, yoga pose, good for life

747. Jan 29, Thursday: the primacy of love

746. jan 24, at 2009:::: sun today

745. jan 23, too much, just the right amount

744. jan 22 2009: baraka and nobility and the power of possibilities

743. jan21 wed 2009: new day, end of an error

743. jan 21, 2009: Barack's speech, print form, let's get to work

742. jan 20, tuesday, 2009: finally, it's okay to have a brain

741. jan 19, mon, 2009: love and not love

740. jan 17, 2009: sat, drink tea be happy

739. jan 16, 2009, friday: for love

738.jan 15, thurs, breathing

737. jan 14, wed, why not be happy

736.January 13, 2009: tuesday, :: for love of morning, life is...

735. January 11, 2009: Sunday: the porpoise of life

734. January 10, 2009, Saturday: boundaries and love and possibilities

733. January 9, 2009, Friday: 'tis grand to breathe and be alive

732. January 8, 2009: So called "tired"

733. January 7, 2009, Wed., If what you are doing isn't working...

732, January 6, 2009, Tuesday: this poem has nothing

731. January 5, 2009: The Peace that Passeth all Understanding

730. January 4, 2009: to be awake is to love

729. January 3, 2009: What can a real person do?

728. January 2, 2009: If another person is a pain in the ass

727/ January 1, 2009: New Year, New Chances to Love, Yes

603-726, INDEX OF POSTINGS, June 18, 2008- December 31, 2008


509-602 , INDEX OF POSTINGS JANUARY 1,2008 TO JUNE 17, 2008


1-508: Index of Postings August 2004, to December 31, 2007

Day Three: A possibility, emotional choosing

As we go through our day, let’s keep sensing our legs and sensing our breathing and noticing along with that: how are we feeling?

When do we feel happy?

When do we feel sad?

When do we feel angry, afraid, worried, and so on.

Can we just notice that and come back to sensing our legs and our breathing?

Maybe we can.

Maybe we can’t.

Maybe we sometimes can and sometimes can’t.

Consider this in a strange and very revealing way. After each emotion, let us all play with the idea, the possibility of ourselves as having CHOSEN that emotion.

Don’t think about this.

Just notice and come back to the now of legs and breathing.

That’s “all,” and that’s a lot, and it is a “lot” to live in this miracle of the present.

Play with noticing our feelings.

Play with the idea of having chosen them.

Play with the coming back to the ongoing reality of legs and breathing. Sounds so humdrum compared to the drama of all our emotional “stuff.”

So what?

Come on back to now, and see how powerful that this really is.

This now, too, always this now as we read, as I write, as we put down the book and go about our life.


And at the end of the day, in bed, before going to sleep, each day review the game/ lesson/ meditation of the day.

Good.