Often when we are attempting a new movement, our first reaction is confusion. If the routine is unfamiliar, we feel uncoordinated. When this newness points us toward a challenging aspect of our body in motion, we decide we are too weak or puny and give up – or try to power through it in an attempt to prove ourselves strong and able.

The truth is that our bodymind has simply not yet organized itself around the new information.

I recently took a series of classes from a very skillful Gyrotonic Master Trainer. It was great fun, quite challenging and very humbling. There was one particular move he asked me to do that my body had never done before. The first time I attempted it, I simply could not do it. After several attempts, I stopped and scratched my head and asked, “Where does that come from in my body and why can’t I do it?” He reminded me that it really isn’t about where it comes from; it’s about organizing around what you are asking your body to do.

This is clearly not just an intellectual endeavor. It is a process of patiently allowing the body to explore what is being asked of it so that the movement can unfold in a way that is natural and organic. The mind grasps a concept at lightning speed, part of its astonishing brilliance. The body, however, learns through repetition. This can sometimes put the mind and the body at odds, as the mind becomes impatient with the measured and deliberate way in which the body learns and integrates the movement. And yet, if they work together to contemplate and reiterate the move – it is a thing of beauty! It is through this union, communion and mutuality that deep intelligence awakens and courses freely through our being, quickly able to discern the mechanics, play with the sensations and pulsate with the exuberance of new found discovery. That’s the fun of it! It is in this process of unfolding that movement becomes meaningful, joyful and pleasurable!

A few days later, I tried the same impossible move and amazingly was able to do it! My body and mind, having percolated and contemplated, had organized around the information received through my first attempt. Now I could dive more deeply into the move, discover its nuances and relax into the pure enjoyment of my body in motion.

The next time you are attempting to learn a new move, become more adept in your sport, increase the difficulty of your current workout, acquire a skill that is unfamiliar – notice if there is any impatience, judgment or force in the learning and see if you can switch that to cooperation and curiosity. Let go of over-efforting and ease into the feedback that you are receiving from your mind and your body. Let it go for a day or two and see if that doesn’t bring a greater sense of clarity, ease and pleasure to your learning and to your body in motion.

Deep blessings, Carol

Here’s a great way to Liven Up! Attend the upcoming body rolling class for your feet, knees and hips. After 2 hours of rolling you will feel deeply released, vibrantly alive, fully present,  and at peace. Really! I know it sounds like lofty promises, but this work delivers. Hope you can join me!

Save Your Feet, Knees & Hips!

A comprehensive class where you will be expertly guided
in how to support and release your feet, knees and hips.

Saturday • November 13, 2010
11:00 am – 1:00 pm • Price $45

Join us for this invigorating class that will help you lengthen and tone your feet, knees and hips. This course will supply the basic, experiential information you need to keep these 3 areas unrestricted, aligned and fully functioning. If you have issues with stiffness, pain, lack of mobility or weakness in any of these areas, this class is for you! You will leave with a sense of spacious freedom in your body, a quiet yet awake mind and an overall sense of peace and well-being.

If you feel like you’ve been there, done that – think again. This is all new work from Yamuna’s “Save Your Body Parts,” created to give you ways to keep all your parts in good working order Now and in the Future. She has simplified and clarified this work so that you understand what each body part needs to prevent the common breakdowns.

Please join me!

Taking this time to create length, strength and space in your body will
leave you with a sense of freedom and a feeling
of being quietly energized and profoundly present.

You will feel absolutely fantastic!!!!

Contact Carol for information and registration

The foot, by definition, is at once a foundation – a firm stable base of support – and a flexible, adaptable lever that can maneuver us through irregular terrain. Flexible, viable, strong feet, help us move through life with ease and pleasure. Here are a few ways to explore and free your feet:

• Take a moment to visually connect with your feet (this means you have to take off shoes and socks). Do any of the toes overlap? Do your toes lay flat or curl a bit? Does the arch lift off the ground or does the whole foot lay flat? Is your foot wide or narrow? Do your feet look like your mother’s or your father’s (my little toes are an exact replica of my father’s, thanks Dad!)? If your feet could tell you something about your life, what story would they tell?
• Here’s good news, the feet are readily accessible to the hands! Put your right ankle on your left knee so that you can work with your right foot. With the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, grab your big toe. With the thumb and forefinger of your left hand, grab the second toe. Now scissor them apart, pulling the big toe forward and little toe back, then reverse. Now pull them apart sideways. Do these same actions with the second and third toes and continue through the last pair of toes. Be gentle with this exercise, especially if your toes aren’t used to such attention.
• Still working with the right foot, use both hands to massage all along the foot from the heel, through the arch and all the way through the toes, nice and vigorous. Don’t forget the top of the foot as well.
• The ankle is an important part of foot mobility. With your right ankle still on your left knee, use your left hand to hold on to the ball of your right foot, and your right hand to hold just above the ankle. Use your left hand to guide your ankle in a circle – be sure to roll through a hard flex (a much neglected position). Do this several times in each direction.
• Put both feet flat on the floor. Take a moment to feel the difference between the left and right foot? What do you notice?
• Now do all the above with your left foot, it wants to feel that good too.

If you must, put your shoes back on. If you don’t have to, let your feet be free, just hanging out in your socks or in loose shoes – anything that allows your feet to be less confined, more mobile – free . . .

And, if you’d like to explore the feet and their relationship to the rest of your body, please join me for “Save Your Feet, Knees & Hips,” a Yamuna Body Rolling class, coming up on November 13th. Click HERE for more information.

There once was a sore and achy left hip that wanted to communicate to Command Central (ComCen) that something wasn’t quite right. So the hip enclosed its message in a bundle of neurons, the messenger, and sent it on its way. The messenger found his way to the super highway and was moving along, humming and happy to be in the flow.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, something plowed into his side and sent him reeling and tumbling end over end until he came to rest in a ditch.

The messenger shook himself off and looked around trying to get his bearings. There, bigger than anything the messenger had ever seen, was a massive, oily, sludge-like, black blob. The messenger did not like the looks of that at all and tried to just move around the blob and be on his way. But the blob would have none of it and blocked the messenger’s way. An ugly mouth opened up in the middle of all that blackness, and began to speak. The messenger tried to ignore the voice, but it was compelling, mesmerizing – and he began to listen intently; “You are carrying a worthless, stupid message” it hissed. “No one cares,” it murmured in a whisper that was so loud that it shook the messenger to his core – he didn’t want to hear anymore but the blob was relentless, “Don’t deliver it. The hip is foolish for sending it. It is just a trouble maker, a big baby. Nothing is really wrong.” The blob droned on and on until finally it closed its oily mouth with a nasty grin and slithered away.

The messenger sat immobilized for a long time. He felt woozy and confused. Slowly, he began to recall his journey – he was on a mission to ComCen and even though he couldn’t remember the purpose of that mission, he made his way back onto the super highway and into the flow.

He spent the rest of his journey trying to remember the message he was carrying or even who sent him – blank, nothing – only a sense of some purpose to his mission.

When he arrived to deliver the message, he began to confess that he could not recall why he had been sent. But instead of his confession, a nasty voice he didn’t recognize growled from his mouth, “The stupid left hip thinks something is wrong. But it’s just a big baby that wants to cause trouble. You should ignore it. I was there and I know it’s really nothing. It just wants some attention. So stupid!”

ComCen, confused by the message and preoccupied with the running of the body, asked the messenger to put the message on the desk and turned back to the task at hand. The messenger floated away with a nagging feeling that he had not really completed his mission . . .

Suddenly the whole body was flooded with stress as it began to deal with the day ahead, muscles contracted, the stomach knotted, the mind reeled and the emotional body tensed. Command Central was on full alert; bells ringing, lights flashing, activity everywhere. The message from the hip fluttered to the floor . . . and was forgotten.

A few months later, after many messages – unfortunately usurped and diluted by the black blob – the hip could take no more. Bone scraping on bone, tissue swelling, joint frozen, no longer able to bear weight – the hip failed and the body fell. ComCen was now on full alert to deal with the crisis in the hip.

_____________________________
The moral of this story is no mystery . . .

It is imperative that we cultivate a compassionate awareness of the messages that our body is sending. And that we do not let our judgment, disdain or apathy (the black blob) usurp and distort those messages. If we are able to hear the messages with clarity and concern, then we can respond in a way that is meaningful and relevant – and circumvent a potential disaster that puts the entire body on full alert, stressed, anxious and unstable.

Deep blessings to you and your body, Carol

“Loving oneself is no easy matter, just because it means loving all of oneself, including the shadow where one is inferior and socially so unacceptable. The care one gives this humiliating part is the cure.” James Hillman

Many of us (particularly women) have, at one time or another, been guilty of talkin’ trash to or about our bodies.  You know – words and phrases filled with the judgment and distaste we sometimes feel when we look in the mirror, have aches and pains or find it difficult to maneuver around our physical lives. These rubbish words are plentiful and easily identifiable. You know what I’m talking about – we each have our favorite areas of aversion and ongoing allegations against the body. These thoughts are the easy ones to catch because they are so blatantly mean. And, I trust that you are doing what you can to be aware of that nasty voice and to quiet it with the deep love and acceptance that you inherently have for your body.

What about the more subtle ways you disrespect your body? hold it in contempt?  make unreasonable demands of it? wish it were anything but what it is? hate that it hurts, is sensitive or sick? are disappointed that it is not as resilient as it used to be? ignore its communication and wish it would just shut up?

These subtle messages flow below the surface of awareness, are non-verbal and much more destructive than the obvious ones. Is the answer to go after all those sneaky, subversive ways of judging ourselves, identify and then try to undo each one? Yuk! That sounds overwhelming, exhausting, unproductive, zero fun and potentially depressing.

What to do? Here are a few ideas:

Instead of thinking of the body as an IT, think of your body as SHE or HE. This takes you out of an object orientation with your body and into the possibility of relationship, partnership and mutuality. How is SHE feeling? What does SHE need?  What brings HER joy? How can I help HER? See if you can feel the difference in this simple turn of phrase.

Accept HER as she is, right here and right now. This may seem like old news, a bit trite and overused. It isn’t. The internalized programming that we can only accept her under certain conditions (thin, pretty, pain free, graceful, athletic . . .) must be arrested and put asunder – not by convincing yourself that she already has these attributes, but by letting go of needing her to be anything but what she is. Wanting her to be other than who she is currently,places you firmly in the future, unable to appreciate her or even truly experience her right now.

Yesterday during my errands around town, I practiced deep acceptance – not only for myself but for every woman I saw. I looked at each imperfectly perfect body and sent her unconditional love and acceptance. A sigh of relief moved through me and I felt waves of deep appreciation for women and a softening toward the challenges that we face, as a collective – needing desperately to relax the hardness with which we judge our bodies and nurture a more joyous and pleasurable way of being with her and caring for her.

Deep blessings to you and your body,  Carol

“ . . . God has been here all along. In the noise and in the stillness, in the upheavals and in the rafts of peace. In each moment of kindness you lavish upon your breaking heart or the size of your thighs, with each breath you take – God has been here. She is you.” Geneen Roth