Massage and Movement

April 1, 2012

Stone Ridge, NY @MaMA, Marbletown Multi-Arts

"We start with the body, your Body, tuning into its connection with the earth the sky, and the space around you. Feel your feet on the floor, sensing through your crown the space above you. Feel your heart beating--coming more inside, strengthening your ability to embody, to be in this body. To sense through it, perceive/propreocept via it...to smell, see, hear, sound, and touch. These senses that we are blessed to have alive and functioning...the information that we glean through them is helping us to use different parts of our brains, and shifting how we experience the world.

Remember to Breathe! Here's a great tip I learned from Thich Nhat Hahn, Zen Monk and teacher extraordinaire: next time your phone rings, instead of answering it right away, take a breath in and out. Then answer your call on your next exhalation. Use your phone ringing as an Awareness reminder. Be Present. Take that moment to breathe, and you may find that you have a little more space to bring to that phone conversation.

Especially in NYC, when your bag, is, often literally, your trunk--what bag do we wear?

  Sometimes a backpack will do--the equal force of weight coming down through the body, ensured by the straps being on either shoulder, can make it the more comfortable choice. But a backpack is cumbersome, especially if one has a big coat on. It is difficult to reach wallet and metro card when doing errands and public transporting. Also, it makes you sweat!

Then there are courier wear/biker bags. These bags are easy to wear, easy to gain access to, and its nice to be able to shift them around to different positions. I've used one of these on and off since 1998, but if I wear it across my body, as it is meant to be worn, I usually get sciatica, or some other kind of back pain, or shoulder ache. It's asymmetrical wear, means your muscles and other tissues will respond asymmetrically. Your whole alignment (level of hip etc) will respond in an unbalanced way. Depending on who you are, this may not matter so much in the moment. But my body responds fairly quickly with signals of pain.