exercise 1

I am sending a series of text exercises out to a list of people on e mail

I want to see what the results are for different people...

here is the first exercise...
let me know if you try it, what happens for you

Lie down
Feel breath and blood and gravity till you are really able to hold all three
(even if it means juggling somewhat- but as much simultaneously as you can)

then engage muscularly…

1) engage around the spine in some way
2) engage from the hands

1) If you are ab;e to maintain blood/breath/gravity and muscular skeletal awareness (even if it becomes more juggling than simultaneous) tell me what happens or what you feel… in general

2) when you engage around the spine, versus the hands
is it the same? different

3) if different- can you describe it?

4) what difficulties did you encounter?

-at the level of the primary action of holding breath, gravity and blood
- at the level of adding muscular awareness
-
5) what other things do you think may have influenced the results?

gravity and performance

I really think the simplest things take the longest to learn. We use terms like-
get grounded, he's in his head, she's riding high, they were off the floor...

The simple act of breathing to stop adrenaline and feel gravity is so easy to do and therefore to forget to do. I asked my chiropractor what I could do to support the work she was doing... she said- if I tell you what you can do, you will think it is too simple- and you won't do it... I asked anyway

what?

Take time to breath and drink water.

And she is right, that is hard to do, because it is so simple.

'I (God) am closer to you than your life vein' says Baha'u'llah

This great gift- gravity- is right there, every moment and I take it for granted... the gift of my heart beating and the sensations in my entire body are right here with the floor... now, anytime I need it, I can feel the floor hold me- not an abstract idea, but real sensation of gravity... my best lover, my most trustworthy and supportive friend... it holds me unconditionally and I ignore it, think I can handle things on my own... SUCH AN ILLUSION!!

falling while standing

I had another short studio session... I am finding it easier to work standing these last two days- as I can now feel gravity so much more easily than in the past while standing.. the ability to switch my awareness into - while standing - with full breath, into gravity awareness is fast and from there I can follow kinesthetic impulses... today I noticed that the places free of tension are just as rich as the dense ones... the ones free of tension I can use longer, they have more range of impulses and the impulses can travel more easily elsewhere. The dense/tense/painful places are 'thick', rich and allow emotional memory and just 'feeling' that is at times emotion and other times may appear as emotion, but is just tension release/tremoring...

I like this idea of seeing these places as different rather preferring one to the other. As I say to my students- that the dense places are gems, your rich library waiting to be researched, uncovered... rather than things to get down on yourself for... as ou limitations make us unique, our pain allows us to learn compassion...

MAr 5

Had a 25 minute session
Began on floor- under blanket- music on

Started really easily into the work… continuously finding that I was hungry to engage muscles- but as typical for me- not balanced with releasing into gravity
So kept moving back and forth- gravity… muscles… blood… gravity

TONS of pleasure… all round

Almost hit ecstasy immediately … sang occasionally- very aware of typical tension in back of neck… slowly was able to release some of it- singing improved…
Awareness of prayer- but only vaguely
Then checked time and saw I had more than I thought
- collapsed- more full release into gravity
- (lying with head/chest on coach, knees on floor- good position for me
really released, sank into right hip… lots of pain… but tolerable
stayed there and decided to try and move it…
felt that slightly nautious feeling that tells me lots of nervous system/emotion/history
simply started there in muscular engagement and tried to move it with nervous system (or whatever I mean by that!) up and out towards my hands… lots of tension
but moving/stretching tension… released into gravity- did this several times and then end with HUGE scream… new sounds for me and then released into BIG breath, holy spirit stuff and release and submission…

felt right, felt healing- not much emotion at all… mostly physiological- even the scream- which certainly had a call the police energy!

Must now remember to watch the hip

I did not have typical shaking after this… (good sign? Bad sign?) I think good sign- as I think I really released more fully than when I shake and I used gravity and breath well to ground the energy…

I now feel so much better and as usual wonder… why I don’t do this every day

I feel alert, ‘cleared’, happy…
And this really only took 20 minutes