happiness in the morning against the chattering brain odds in Austin

I "should" be less happy
according the the usual thought
suspects
me of "not making enough money"
"not moving the business forward"
worst of all,
not even being "enlightened"
yet

and yet,
i'm happy
and i can keep coming
coming
not that kind
but kind of like that kind
the release
of ahhhh,
it's ahhhh llll
right, right now

yes, just me
and YOU,
the big
you
the all
is here
in the
sweet old  always now new awaking game:

the bones hold up the head
the feet
on the ground
the eyes taking in the sky

light coming in the
eyes
sound in the ears
breathing
the air
in
letting the air
out

erring on the side
of simplicity

no need to explain
and label
and say
it

just feeling
sensing
understanding:
under
standing:

WE ARE OUR EXPERIENCE NOW

at a youth hostel now
not a youth
(is that true???)
I am my experience
now

that creates
almost impossibility
to not be happy

what is your
experience
right now


good

For the Glory of God and our own Awakening

( health food store shining bug; friend after one sided lesson, can you tell which side?)

Life goes like this:

we are born
hmm
strange new world
air, breathing
gravity, we can fall, we can rise
light, we can (usually) see

sound we have been
having

and it's all
a fig tree
all a gift
all a lark

and on the computer
can we breathe?
sense bones and up
and down
and gravity

love the light
coming in

joy
to the sound
sounding along?

if so good.

if not, good,
but not as glorious
me thinks.


what about you?

A sweet way to present the Feldenkrais Method

A Feldenkrais Class by Baby Liv from Irene Gutteridge on Vimeo.

112: To be present to eyes and legs and feet and gravity, hmm

What does it mean to be a human being?

Some people say that we are never our “real selves” except when we are in the present.

This may be true, or true for you, or not true, or not true for you.

And surely there is a difference in the quality of your experience when you are in the present.

So this could be one aspect of what it means to be a human: we can be present and aware of that, or we can be lost in the past or the future.

This can be our experiment today: to be present and feel what the difference is, and if, in this difference, we feel something more like “our real self.”

And to be present, I’ll suggest a top and bottom approach. We have two legs and two feet and they carry us around the world, baring accident or disease or some in born problem. The legs and feet carry us from one place to the other, and as we walk or sit, or even lie down, we can feel how our legs are interacting with the world via gravity.

And these feet and a pelvis and a spine carry a head at the top of us. Two eyes in this head, looking out, letting light in.

Play with being present to feet and legs and head and eyes and light today. A big game.


Feel, sense and notice the difference when you are present this way.

Day 109: We have a spine

We have a spine.


This is good. And how often are we aware of this amazing piece of our architecture?


Think about the two ends to this flexible stick of ours: the head at the top, up high to see things and hear better, and at the base the pelvis, rooted in our legs, with Seitz bones on which to sit. Either way, standing or sitting, the pelvis is there, here now, at the bottom of 24 vertebrae, holding up our head by giving the base to our back.


The back is a collection of muscles and ribs and our spine.


Can we play today with noticing whether our spine is more in the rounding position, or the arching?


Can we feel the shape of our spine, and feel how it is holding up the head. In sitting, is the push from pelvis up through the spine, or is a back of a chair propping up part of our back, so the weight is somewhat down into our pelvis, and somehow down and back into the chair?


No right or wrong. Just notice: spine more as if stomach in, or spine more as if stomach out? Spine somewhat upright, way upright, curled in, or arched deeply?


This is a big part of being human, the pelvis spine head thing. Let’s notice it, sense it, aware it as much as we can enjoy today.

Day Twenty-Four: Sensing the Floor, our Constant companion: Gravity

We can be in reality or not. A basic and wonderful and ongoing and usually forgotten aspect of the Reality on Earth is gravity. We can sense our relationship to gravity right now.

This now. This one and only.

Are we standing. Can we sense and get the understanding of how our feet are pressing down into the Earth as the Earth pulls us towards its center, and whatever surface we are on presses back up.

Sitting. If we aren’t leaning back, and don’t have armrests, we are sitting on each Sitz/ sit bone, our ishiums (or is it ishii?), and we have weight probably little on one or both feet. If you are sitting check this out.

If you are leaning back, feel how that turns “sitting” into something like “lying down,” and notice how back and bottom and thighs on the chair and maybe feet all are pressing into whatever is holding you up.

Pay attention to whatever is hold you up.

Shift a little to get more clear about this. Shift left, shift right, shift forward, shift back: wake up to the moment and your ongoing relationship to gravity.

Tomorrow we’ll get a little fancier in sitting, and clarify the pelvis some more, but for today, pay attention to your butt, when you sit. If you have judgmental words in your head about it’s size, drop them.

Sense is about real experience in the real moment.

Now.

This now.

Read these words and add on awareness of gravity.

If that is “too easy,” add on awareness of your breathing.

If that is a delight, add on awareness of awaring as a central gift and birthright of being a human.

Enjoy your day on planet earth.

Day 57: Up from Down, playing in the fields of gravity

Up from down

So yesterday, we played with coming down to the floor, hands and feet on the floor, and then spiraling down by putting our knee between the opposite hand and foot.

Today we’ll play with spiraling up from the floor.

So please come down to the floor, maybe the way we played with and (maybe) learned yesterday.

Sit cross legged, so one leg is in front of the other. Notice which foot and leg is the one in front. Then take the other hand (if the left foot and leg is in front, take the right hand; if the right leg and foot is in front, take the left hand) and put that hand on the floor beside yourself and slightly to the side.
If it’s your left hand, to the left side and slightly behind. Right hand, the other way.

Then begin to move your head in a spiral toward your hand as if your nose is going down toward it, and as you do this, do three things: one, put weight on the hand you have down; two: rotate the front foot so it is pressed down and standing on the floor; rotate your bottom up to the sky.
.
From this position, one hand with weight, one foot coming to standing, keep spiraling toward the down hand, and keep your head low and spiral your bottom up in the same direction that everything is spiraling.


This may sound like nonsense or “too hard to figure out.”

It isn’t.

Go really slowly. It’s the reverse of spiraling down yesterday, so you can play with yesterday’s game/ learning to get clarity on this side.

You can learn this.

Do it.


And for the rest of the day, every time you get up and down from sitting to standing, do something like a spiral. And notice your head and pelvis all day. Again. Yes. Again

Day 56: Up and down, for brain and body and FUN

Touching the Earth, or at least, the floor

Stand somewhere, outside if the weather permits and invites in.

Touch the ground. Easily. Realize that if you kept your legs straight, you don’t have to. Bend your sweet knees and touch the ground with both hands and feel yourself in this primitive and “strange” feeling position.

Play around with lifting one at a time, a hand, and a foot.

Then see what pairs of hand-foot work best to lift.

Then rest.

Come down to this position (“four points”) again, and start to walk forward. As if crawling, but with knees not on the floor. Discover the two ways to go about this. Go back and forth between the two many times.

Rest.

Now, back to this position. Get fancy: both feet up, both hands up, everything up. Rest.

Back again. Come down to the ground like this: take the right knee and place it between the left hand and the left foot and let the right leg come to the floor/ Earth. See how that rotates/ spirals you down. Come back up in the opposite spiral. Do this many times, just to this side.

Rest.

Now do it the other side, left knee between right hand and right foot and spiral on down to the floor. Make this kind of fun.

Rest.

Now go back and forth, once to the right and once to the left. Get a feeling for lifting your rear to come up from sitting the way this ends you up when you sit. Get a feeling for lowering your rear when you go down.

Notice head and pelvis and how they are both you throughout the day, feel the connection, enjoy. Wake to more.

Day Two: Sensing Breathing, Too

DAY TWO

This very breath, the one you are taking right now. Can you feel and enjoy it in all it’s entirety? This breath comes, goes, and then the next.

Usually we aren’t aware of our breathing.

Today that will be our focus: to be aware of our breathing, while we sense our two legs and go about our day.

And it was hard enough yesterday, right, to keep attention on remembering to keep attention on our legs and feet and knees and skin and bones and all the way to the hip joints.

And now breathing.

We are alive.

Air and gravity. This is the stuff of life.
This is enough to bring us to awaking.

And hey, it’s hard, isn’t it?

Maybe better to give up ideas of awakening, just keep drifting, just keep doing the best we can. And yes, keep doing the best we can, and underneath that to give ourselves the present of the present, the gift of now.

This is it.

This is the moment, and if we are following our breathing, we can know we are really there.

If we are sensing our legs, we can know we are really here, right where we happened to be, right now.


Where are you?
What does sensing your breathing and your legs tell you about being where you are right now?

This is something that we can do while walking, while showering, while making breakfast, while making love (it will make us a much better lover), while working, while playing, while praying. We can be present in breath and legs. Yes.

balance and the good luck to be heading onward and upward from the discoveries of Moshe Feldenkrais

What if "balance" were to be seen
as what it is,
somewhat of a non-existent
approximation of
not falling over.

Then, would not Judo,
or physics,
or the study of infants learning to sit up,
or even raise their heads,
perhaps be useful to this
action of
not falling over.

Hmm.
We seem to have lucked into a "system"
developed be a man
who excelled in Judo,
was a physicist/ engineer,
and had a profound interest in how
babies move bodies into new
phases of learning.

What a pleasant state of affairs.

And then there is "learning,"
as in gifting another person
with a one sided lesson,
so they are "out of balance"
and get to rise to higher level
of organization.

In their somewhere,
the brain,
what Moshe called the most precious
material in the universe.

Good.
Good.
Good.

What is Truth?

this is a good question:

what is truth?

ah.

let's start simple:
somehow we are pressing down
in some part of our bodies
into the Earth, chair, floor, bed
whatever

this is a simple truth,
and the paying attention to it
can get us out of a lot of "stories"
in our head/ heart that make for misery

and we are either breathing in
or breathing out
or inbetween the two

this too
worthwhile to put attention on

okay, so we are breathing

beings

in a world of gravity and arms

and legs

and spine and head

what is a big Truth?

that we can know

we Are/

are what? is more complicated,

but Alive 

is a good start

we Are

we Are Alive

we can be Aware of this

AAA

plus gravity

plus breathing

and: there is a world out there

birdies

and plants

and trees

and billions of other 

people

they 2 are

AA and can be A

maybe we can be of us

to others

or the trees and birdies

and plants

who knows?

Trinity within a trinity

once upon a time
there was a standard
trinity:
father, son, and holy ghost

for some it was great
for some it is great
for some it doesn't really work

here's a trinity I like:

Now,
Nature,
Love

I could write gobs
on how they are almost the same
how they feed
and maintain each other
and
I
won't

inside these are more trinities:

Now:

knowing the now connection to gravity
knowing the now connection to air (breathing)
knowing the now connection to light and sound (free neck, head mobile, where are we oriented, where are we in the world)

Nature:
outside, big earth nature
inside, the small world of our bodies
the nature or Organic Life and that miracle of awareness of It ALL

Love:
loving our real Self (not the image)
loving the Earth
Loving Others (especially when they aren't lovable)

there's more

this can
be
almost everything

and experienced
if way
beyond words

the peace that passeth
understanding

Meaning of Life in Three Layers

Marlie's daughter Sari


today's essay at Wake Up Feldenkrais.blogspot.com

Happy Thursday

we won't do this in Sufia Yoga,
and you can get closer and closer
much more easily and faster if you join the Sufia Yoga fun

cold after the rain
sweet and clear
winter is finally here

and the waters
sweet waters
good for us

and the christmas thing
how slow
can we go

how often
to remember our breathing

how exciting
to sense
our worry or hurry
and come out of that
into noticing
feet and ground and gravity

and ribs and belly and breathing

and necks and heads free and light

all good

all now

all wonderful

---

more on Sufia Yoga,
later,
hopefully a free new year's day class

we'll see

6 awareness days left until Christmas

Ah,
to be aware while
browsing the stores

ah
to be aware of the guilt
obligation
habit
routine
and fear stuff
nagging away to
buy more
give more
do more

ah
to say no
to an invitation
or two

ah,
to say yes
to an invitation
or two

where do we want
to be present
and following our breathing

and remembering the three oceans:
gravity
calling on bones and brain and pelvis
how are we "grounded"
what is our weight doing
right now

and air
our lungs inside the rib cage
or can it be
a rib basket

and light, sound, taste, smell
the joys of a head
mobile and free at the neck
looking left
and right
even now
on the computer
keep the eyes forward and let your
nose
go up and down
and right and left
and following your breathing
and know
about your pelvis
and be
in love
with the you
right now

what else to do?
love others
love the earth

does that have anything
to do with Christmas?
it certainly could have.

and does awareness have
anything to do
with our ability to love?

yes

Now

BEING NOW
I just got through not being present for about the last forty five minutes. Where was I?

I was in the future, wanting something to "go away,' so I could give myself permission to start breathing and enjoying life again. What I wanted to "go away" was a mistake I'd made on my tax form, which had resulted in a letter from the IRS, requesting some money which I didn't owe. But since I'd made the mistake, it appeared as if I did.

What good places to lose attention: money. The IRS.

Just to have them on this page is probably a temptation even to you, gentle reader, to allow your attention to go scurrying away to those little fear pockets into which we drain our happiness now and then.

But now, you and I can come back to simple truth. We are breathing. You can notice your breathing. I can notice my breathing.

We are in a body.

We have awareness.

We are on this beautiful planet Earth, which is in need of our help and our co-operation, and is always there for us. Always there with gravity, and we can breathe and feel that shift when we notice our breathing, and we can sense where we are connecting to gravity, and enjoy the shift in ourselves when we notice the weight of ourselves in our bones, on our bottom, or our feet if reading this standing, or perhaps even on your back if your are mellowed out somewhere and reading this lying down.

At any rate, we can come back to the pleasure of being now. We can look at the sky if we have a window, or visualize the sky if we don't. We can look at a flower or a tree in there is some nature outside our window, or visualize a flower and a tree if there isn't.

But breath is always here, we are always here, gravity is always here. And we come back to now and notice, we spark back into that amazing state of awareness when we know this wonderful truth: I am alive.

This is always a good start.

I am alive.

*** *** ***

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, it is said that Yogas chitta vritti nirodah. Which means, yoga is the stilling of the thought fluctuations of the mind. This is the yoga of coming into the present: Can we use Now as the simplest and most direct way of stilling the thought fluctuations of the mind?

I think so. Let's try, you and I gentle reader, with toes and eyes, and flowers and sky, a whole world of Now and Nature to view with Love.

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enjoyment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.