Feldenkreis Lessons Online-

I have found a wonderful site with downloadable audio Feldenkreis lessons - Feldenkreis-online.biz.

What is Feldenkreis Method? Dr Moshe Feldenkreis was a physicist who developed simple principles and lessons for personal awareness. Drawing on his years of research in anatomy, physiology, neurology, developmental psychology and sociology, he devised a theory of the particular interrelationships between awareness and movement.

“The main effects are a clear improvement in self-awareness and a pleasant feeling of relaxation in movement and repose. Often these two main effects are coupled with a tranquil, almost euphoric mood.”

Awareness through Movement is usually offered by Feldenkrais teachers for groups in evening or weekend courses, but now you can take a class in your own home.

I have always enjoyed Feldenkreis work. My friend T likes Feldenkreis too, I hope she reads this post! I have experienced both Awareness through Movement, where movements are carried out to verbal instructions, and Functional Integration, where movements are learned from the guiding hands of the Feldenkrais teacher.

The Awareness through Movement classes are deceptively simple with profound results. anyone can do the movements. They might seem so subtle that you think nothing is occurring in your body. I have experienced wonderful surprises by the end of a short 20 minute exploration.

You can try out 2 free classes and if you like, you can register for 4 classes to download to your computer @ 8 Euros/class  32 Euros. then of course, you can register for more. I like repeating a class and discovering and rediscovering possibility and ease in movements.

Feldenkrais Method is suitable for anyone and everyone, whatever their age or possible disabilities, who’s looking to explore their real physical potential and extend their personal movement range.

Feldenkreis is used:

• in medicine – rehabilitation, preventative treatment, neurology (polio, MS and stroke patients), dental orthopaedics, physiotherapy etc.
• in psychotherapeutic fields – where opening up to an improvement of physical activeness constitutes an important part of the therapy
• in all fields – working creatively with movement and physical expression such as dance, drama, singing, instrumental music and sport.

Important How-To

Until I saw these videos I hadn’t realized that I don’t boil eggs as often as I might because it IS a bother to peel them. Here are 2 video’s with 2 very easy methods! I guess I could have read these in a cookbook, but it hadn’t crossed my mind to even explore. Let’s hear it for the internet. The first method is obvious and involves slow boiling, cooling 10 seconds in cold water, etc. The second method might not be useful for a restaurant because it involves blowing the egg out of the shell- but it’s FUN to watch. via Camilla

AND

Don’t forget to compost those nutritious egg shells!

I Choose A Healthy Lifestyle

T and me in our new aprons.

I choose a what I believe is a healthy lifestyle. According to some people there is not enough scientific proof that clean air, pure water, good quality sleep, simple, unadulterated, natural food is a better, healthier way to live. I operate from common sense. It makes sense to me to take care of myself by exercising, choosing organic foods. I don’t need a study to tell me that I feel good after a walk in the woods or good night’s sleep or a yoga class or  miso soup and brown rice. I also don’t need to argue about it with anyone. I like my life. There are others who feel the same way. There are many looking for this way.

Perhaps there are not enough independent scientific studies proving that EMF’s from wifi, cellphones and cordless phones are hazardous to my health. Never before have people lived in environments so laden with EMF Pollution. Scientists claim the true health hazards of EMF Pollution will not be known until the current youth reproduces, as EMF Pollution has been known in scientific studies to permanently damage DNA and cause birth defects as well as miscarriages. I’m not interested in waiting for the results.

I have lived most of my life walking to a different drummer than most. It’s a groovy rhythm.

Yoga Headstand

I have had this wonderful contraption for years. There are times when it just sits against the wall and collects yoga blankets or dust and there are times when I use it everyday. I am back into it. It’s a wonderful way to save your neck and shoulders from strain and still receive the benefits of an inversion.

TotalHealthyYoga.blogspot.com has a great article on the benefits of inversions. Some benefits include: calming the mind, enhancing the endocrine system and increasing body awareness. I think it is also wonderful for our internal organs to go the other way for a bit- I am at the age when gravity may be starting to take a bit of a toll…

If you are a beginner and do not feel quite ready to do the upside down thing, a beginner pose is demonstrated through the yogajournal.com site.

This is a great video on how to safely do a headstand, from Gaiam. I also recommend the “Body Lift”. Gift yourself.

The Guest House by RUMI

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

(translation- Coleman Barks)

“We can change the world one bite at a time”

I have just seen Food, Inc. It is a stunning look at the industrialization of our food chain. It is at times frightening, disgusting, deeply saddening and yet the slightest bit hopeful. Hats off to Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, Director and Producer for bring ing this forward in an engaging and sometimes unbearable in-depth look at corporate food culture.

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and  an award-winning journalist and world-renowned food expert gives a relaxed and informative commentary through the film.

Pollan speaks about the illusion of diversity in our season-less supermarkets. The truth is that there really are only a few companies and only a few products most of which are a clever re-arrangement of corn engineered into foods that basically do not age. Only a few companies control our food system. There is a loss of diversity and now people are used to a conformity and uniformity of food. There is a lot people don’t know about what is in the food they buy. People do have a right to know, a right to food labeling and a right to protest.

There are powerful images of meat “factories’ with enormous assembly lines. Hidden cameras take us into places where we see how the animals are raised. Photos of chickens on conveyor belts, who have never seen sunlight.

Heroic farmers speak out in the film.  A strong-willed mother fights for food safety. Big business creates law suits to financially cripple those who don’t conform. Immigrant workers are pawns. It is something out of a sci-fi movie.

The saddest truth is that many people cannot afford fresh food- it is cheaper to buy soda, a hamburger, than it is to buy a head of broccoli. It’s a very skewed system. Carrots should be a better bargain, don’t you think? The film ends encouraging us to vote on the kind of food we want to eat- 3 times a day. Bruce Springstein sings Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” through the closing credits. It is a strong reminder that we must make choices daily to hold onto our uniqueness and to bring nature back into our lives, homes and diets.

TakePart.com/foodinc

 

Unconditional Love

How were you raised? Did your parents set high expectations which you worked to live up to in order to gain their affection? Were you punished, given time-out’s or did they withhold their love from you if you had a failure? How has that translated into your parenting? In an article in the NYTimes , Alfie Kohn explores some child-raising theories and notes a few recent studies with interesting and not so surprising results.

Kohn opens his piece speaking about Carl Rogers, child psychologist, who, more than 50 years ago, supported the idea that children must be loved unconditionally.

Kohn later writes about forms of conditional love that are being promoted more and more lately:

“Some people who wouldn’t dream of spanking choose instead to discipline their young children by forcibly isolating them, a tactic we prefer to call “time out.” Conversely, “positive reinforcement” teaches children that they are loved, and lovable, only when they do whatever we decide is a “good job.”

…the problem with praise isn’t that it is done the wrong way — or handed out too easily, as social conservatives insist. Rather, it might be just another method of control, analogous to punishment. The primary message of all types of conditional parenting is that children must earn a parent’s love. A steady diet of that, Rogers warned, and children might eventually need a therapist to provide the unconditional acceptance they didn’t get when it counted.”

The various studies looked at college students, mothers of grown children with very interesting results. The findings were that both positive and negative conditional parenting were harmful!  “Internal compulsion” was a result of the positive reinforcement and  negative conditional parenting didn’t even work and created negativity towards the parents. That makes sense to me.

I am interested to know how you, the reader, were parented and how you think that has affected you. How do you parent your children?

I remember when I was in high school some of my friends lived in terror of getting a bad grade because of the punishment and verbal abuse that would accompany what their parents considered a failure. And in my own life, although I don’t remember my parents telling I should do well in school or sports I somehow picked up that was what was wanted.

I found it impossible to give my children time-outs. It was barbaric to me and as my kids got older they simply wouldn’t do it anyway. I didn’t see a reason to be angry with them for failures, although I did positively reinforcement their successes. I very much watned my children to grow into who they were as individuals and my husband and I realized that each child needed something different, as they were 3 very different individuals.

I agree with Kohn that we have to look at the results through the eyes of the children, not how the parents think they “did”. I hope I get good marks from my children….

Green Date – Eco Dater!

For those of you who are looking for a green date, here is the site for you- EcoDater.  EcoDater is a free online dating service for people who want to live a eco-friendly lifestyle.  The subscribers are environmentalists, vegans and vegetarians, organic farmers, outdoor enthusiasts, yoga practitioners, activists and much more. the basic service is free and then there are premium services available including

 

A bit unclear is the invitation to join as a Charter member for free lifetime premium membership- and in the same sentence saying that when the Carter membership expires (thought is free, you guys!) you pay $4.95 a month. HMMMMM…….Still that’s cheap. 

In their own words: “EcoDater is primarily a dating site and a for-profit enterprise. But we believe that the only responsible way to make money in this world is to do it for the betterment of the community in which we all live and function. And dating is one of the wonderful ways in which we connect and find each other. The people we meet during our dating days are some of the best teachers we’ll ever have, and one of them will be our partner for life.”

I like the search options:

Friendship

Activity Partner

Just a Date

Physical Intimacy

Casual Relationship

Serious Relationship

Marriage

And I really hope that my sister takes a look at this!

 

Via: GreenTrends.com

Josh’s Birthday Wish

I am so proud of Josh’s 25th birthday wish: for all his family and friends to donate towards building a well with charity: Water .  charity: water is a non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Imagine if you had to walk 5 miles to get a drink of  water.  Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water. It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without. 

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Can you imagine spending all day to secure your drinking, bathing, cooking water? Really?

In the founder, Scott Harrison’s words: “For me, charity is practical. It’s sometimes easy, more often inconvenient, but always necessary. It’s the ability to use one’s position of influence, relative wealth and power to affect lives for the better. charity is singular and achievable. The dictionary defines charity as simply the act of giving voluntarily to those in need. It’s taken from the word “caritas,” or simply, love. In Colossians 3, the Bible instructs readers to “put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Although I’m still not sure what that means, I love the idea. To wear charity.” I want to meet you, Scott!

Watch a video of Scott presenting charity: water

Watch this too.

Honor someone with a donation towards a well! 

Free Yoga

In the winter I loved being at home and having my yoga practice continue with new challenges and new ideas. Now it’s spring and I still don’t feel like leaving home.

There are some great online sources that are free others that are by subscription. Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed lately:

 

 

YogaToday

 

 

 

 

Beginner to advanced 5 minute class or 1 hour. $9.95

My Yoga Online

And of course there are many youtube videos. Choose your level and all you need is your sticky mat- turn off the phone and there you go.

I’d like to hear what classes you’ve enjoyed online. Please do comment.