Massage and Movement

• *Stand on some real earth (vs Sidewalk) for a few minutes, barefoot is ideal, but it still works with shoes on. This is part of why you see folks practicing Tai Chi etcetera outside in the parks--these practices connect with the elements, and help facilitate our balance, harmony, and connection with our bodies, the earth, and the world around us.
• *Make a conscious connection with that Earth, by, on each Exhale, visualizing/feeling a cords going from your head, down your spine, to your sacrum, down each leg, thru your feet, and down into the earth. Try increments of 10 feet at a time until you are 80 feet down. On each Inhalation, 'drink' in the nourishing energy of the earth.
• *Eat Rice and/or root vegetables (yam, potatoes, carrots, daikon.....)
• *Do activities that put you in your body more: walking, stretches, yoga. If your energy is low, gentle yoga or simply being aware of your body can help alot (ie: as you inhale and exhale, feel the breath going down the airways, and notice the movement at your belly and lungs).
• *Splash some cool water on the back of your neck, forehead, and hands

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.

Go to the Rubin. Museum that is, in Chelsea, here in the city. The exhibit on Carl Jung's Red Book is there for a bit longer, and it is special. For me,  the connection between Jung's work and Authentic Movement is imprinted yet again. In seeing the exhibit I am reminded of how related the two are, and am newly inspired to dive into moving/dancing, with Jung's drawings and work with the unconscious, in conscious mind.

Just to see that book, in the glass case, is worth the trip to the Museum. This large (1 and 1/2 by 2 feet?) leather bound book is nearly 100 years old, and full of what many say are the richest words and images in the history of psychology. It has been locked away in a vault in Switzerland by Jung's family, for decades, and was just unveiled, for the first time ever in public, at the Museum, this past Fall. I was there, and it was a momentous occasion.

This is a book Jung wrote, in 2 hour periods if I remember correctly, in the privacy of his office, during a period, when he was in crisis. Some would say he was going crazy. This is what his family was afraid of, and thus the lock and key. But what Jung was doing, brilliantly, was documenting his process. In large, colorfully illustrated drawings he shows us what he experienced in the journey into his shadow side/the unconscious/the underworld/the rabbit hole. The drawings are amazing.