MEDITATE. Do I Have To?

Truth 1:  not all things are for all people.

Truth 2: we are living in a very compressed world at the moment.  And as I've said in prior posts, our central nervous systems (CNS) are on overload (guaranteed).  Physiologically speaking, a taxed CNS means lower immunity, and a much higher susceptibility to disease.  Of course, one's mental health and overall well being is drastically effected, impacting one's personal life and work performance.  Personal and cultural interventions are required.

Meditation in the last 15-20 years has been the trending panacea for the ills of stress.  And I'd be the first one to promote it, (mostly) enjoying a 38 year meditation practice, having taught meditation and having had it at the center of my work with others for over two decades.  I've been around long enough to find, meditation (as we think of it, sitting on a cushion in a quiet room) definitely is not for everyone.  I wish it was.  But it's not.

So, let's think.  What does the CNS require to stay my body healthy during trying times?  What is it about meditation that covers this territory?  What are other options if meditation is not for me?

A little physiology lesson to start:  The CNS is made up of the SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System, "flight or fight" response") and the PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System, "rest and relaxation" response).  Ideally, these are in harmonious relationship.  But, in today's world it's rare this is the case.  The SNS is on overdrive related to this earlier mentioned cultural compression most everyone is experiencing, added to the electromagnetic over stimulation of technology and media, added to the often poor food/fluid intake, laced with GMO, pesticides, overprocessing, toxic air and environment conditions etc, added to the high anxiety of family, neighborhood, community, country, world events.  And if you aren't experiencing any of these at the moment, just get in your car and go for a drive (all that stop and go and the traffic!) or open the paper and your SNS will do what it does, kick in.  It's on overdrive.  Believe me.  The PNS can't get an impulse in edgewise.  It doesn't have a chance.  Even the rest periods at night, we're still expected to have, are not restful.  Insomnia is a huge problem.  People today sleep 20% less than they did 100 years ago, more than 30% of the population suffers from insomnia, including 40% to 60% of people over the age of 60, 90% of people who suffer from depression also experience insomnia, and approximately 10 million people in the U.S. use prescription sleep aids.  We have a sleeping problem, we are not getting the rest we need.

Our relaxation is not relaxation in the least.  For many, it's vegging on the couch watching a movie.  Or hanging on Facebook for a few hours after work, playing phone games or obsessing over word puzzles.  This is just more electromagnetic stimulation and mental gymnastics.  We never stop going; and many of us wear this like a badge of honor. It's not.  It's distracting foolishness.  It's wearing our body's systems down, creating conditions for disease to move in.

So, back to what does the CNS require to stay my body healthy during trying times?  We need to give the SNS a break and allow the PNS to deploy.  Meditation is a wonderful groundwork for this.  It brings stillness to a series of moments.  Helps us see and experience the separation from the busy mind and other parts of myself.  It slows the SNS down and encourages the PNS to do its thing.  It's a great practice-- if you can do it.  If you can't, other tools must be used.

Rest and Relaxation can be found in a lot of places, meditation doesn't have a corner on the market here.  Playing is a supreme place for some r&r.  Playing for adults is very individual.  How do you have fun (good, clean fun not involving substances)?  Engaging in a creative process is not only fun, but often elicits a meditative response.  Again, this is very individual.  Creativity doesn't necessarily require art supplies.  It can be making a garden, re-thinking a use of an empty room, fooling around with a recorder (musical instrument or auditory machine).  Writing an entertaining letter (do people still write letters?), decorating a child's stool, even scrapbooking.  Six of the top 20 books selling on Amazon are adult coloring books.  Coloring is a great decompressor and it's immediate and they say, it's a contender with meditation for getting into that still, quiet place in oneself.  Pull out those watercolor pencils and go to town!  Let go of control and illusions of a perfect product, just enjoy your senses.  Explore. Risk. Fail. Triumph.

Handwork like knitting, crocheting, sewing and needlepoint are rhythmical and repetitive, hence meditative in nature.  They bring the energy down into the middle of myself (unless the patterns are tricky and require a lot of mental attention).

Exercise is the number 1 stress buster.  Catch two fish with one net (two benefits from one activity) and do QiGong, TaiChi or Yoga.  All 3 practices are meditative in nature, work with creating deep breath work (meditation!) in the movement sequences.  Imagination is key in especially yoga and Qigong.  Poses in yoga have imaginative names that inspire more of me to participate (i.e. Warrior I, Pigeon pose,  Downward Dog) and Qigong integrates imagery as part of layered sequences.  The third fish is they're all really fun to do, once you relax into it. These are "low impact" exercises, so your cardiologist and physical therapist will love you for doing them.  Swimming is low impact as well.  Doing laps gives you the opportunity to get into "the zone" (meditation!). Again, it's rhythmical and repetitive, it's exercise (!).  A lot of fish with one net.....

Many people say Great Nature is their church, their temple their 'resting' place.  If this is so for you, surround yourself with trees, get a fish tank or table-top water fall for the office.  Enter the magnificence that is nature.  If this is where you find your breath,  resonating with the slowness of the Mother in your midst, than here is where you must be a good deal of time. Not just weekends, not just holidays-- several days a week.  Nature's impact is fast, but its penetration is slow; unless you give yourself some generous time there.  Nature works in layers (like meditation).  But you have to give yourself time there.

Yes, giving oneself time.  This is the key in all these practices, including meditation. This is the obstacle.  All of these practices require a discipline, a commitment.  They require a shift in perspective.  Do you have to meditate? Shrugging off instituting a meditation practice because it's not your thing is one thing.  But we can't shrug off the connection that is inherently right in myself that I'm missing.  Choose your rest and relaxation path, your direction and embrace it.  Your health and well being depends upon it.

The Peace of Wild Things,  Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.  For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Emotional Competence and Autoimmunity

In his illuminating book, When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection, Dr. Gabor Maté, introduces this interesting concept of emotional competence in relation to autoimmunity and stress-disease.  His clear and simply spoken statements of the workings of the psycho-immunology-endocrine system is refreshingly understandable and straight forward.  This book is definitely worth a read for a better understanding of the physiology of this system's relation to disease and the stress response.  Also, an additional bonus is his erudite position on the now-rampant autoimmune disorder problems that have evolved in western culture and their possible holistic management.

Such a great descriptive phrase:  emotional competence.  What does it mean?

Mate describes the four requirements for same being:

1. the capacity to feel our emotions, so that we are aware when we are experiencing stress.

2.  the ability to express our emotions effectively and thereby to assert our needs and to maintain the integrity of our emotional boundaries.

3.  the facility to distinguish between psychological reactions that are pertinent to the present situation and those that represent residue from the past.  What we want and demand from the world needs to conform to our present needs, not the unconscious, unsatisfied needs from childhood.  If distinctions between past and present blur, we will perceive loss or the threat of loss where none exists.  and

4.  the awareness of those genuine needs that do require satisfaction, rather than their repression for the sake of gaining the acceptance or approval of others.

Mate claims the absence of any one of these criteria, disrupts homeostasis, leading to ill health.

What are autoimmune disorders?  There are almost 200 identified autoimmune disorders ranging from mild to lethal.  Most people who have one, ultimately will have a few others in addition. The most familiar to the general population are:  Addison's disease, Grave's disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis,  Alopecia Areata, Aplastic Anemia, Cardiomyopathy, Celiac, Chron's, Fibromyalgia, Raynaud's, Psoriasis, Ulcerative Colitis, Schlerodema and Restless Leg Syndrome to name a few.  An autoimmune response is when the immune system recognizes healthy tissue or cells as invasive and attack, creating inflammation and damage to tissue/muscle/bone/organ.  It's an error message to our (psycho)immune (endocrine) system and it results in havoc to our health.  There are no exempt systems.  Mate suggests it's base is in emotional incompetence: learned, suppressed responses possibly believed to be needed for survival (especially at a young age) carried into adulthood as a habit leading to a physiological dysfunction.  Mixed messages swallowed, a turning away from one's truth in order to live.  Some examples of these emotional burdens are, "the (always) good/compliant/cooperative girl",  "the perfect son", the child never allowed to have or show anger for the convenience of the adult (avoidance of rejection).  A common mixed message is: "you can do anything in life you want to/you can't do anything in life you might want to, you're not good enough."  According to Mate, the messages are often subtle, insidious, originally related to survival, remaining long after survival is a moot issue.  They become a modus operandi, a way to live a life; hence the chronic dysfunction becomes embedded, ultimately becoming dis-ease.  The body becomes confused and attacks/eats away at itself.

Some reminders may be needed here before we erroneously jump to the conclusion that autoimmune disorders are purely psych/emotional based.  No disease has a single cause.  We are complex organisms influenced by DNA, social and environmental input.  All three aspects running amok creates a 'perfect storm', insuring disease outcomes.  As we don't have much influence over the DNA aspect, it is possible we can impact the social and environmental factors. 

Stress is a disturbance of the body's internal balance in response to perceived threat, including deprivation, a disruption of psychological harmony or emotional nourishment.  The word "healing" has an ancient derivation of the word "whole".  It's a phenomenon of finding balance and harmony.  Looking at disease as a cause-and-effect model of science is incomplete and erroneous, because it's not one cause, not one effect, but a myriad of influences on this sensitive and complex organism.  Perhaps viewing disrupted homeostasis or disease from a biopsychosocial model is a more whole approach.

Mate says: "Life is possible only within certain well-defined limits, internal or external.  We can no more survive, say high-sugar levels in our bloodstream than we can withstand high levels of radiation emanating from a nuclear explosion.  The role of self-regulation, whether emotional or physical, may be likened to that of a thermostat ensuring the temperature in a  home remains consistent despite the extremes of the weather conditions outside."  He goes on to say, "Children and infant animals have virtually no capacity for biological self-regulation; their internal biological states-- heart rates, hormone levels, nervous system activity-- depend completely on their relationships with caregiving grown-ups. Emotions such as love, fear or anger serve the needs of protecting the self while maintaining essential relationships.  Psychological stress is whatever threatens the young creature's perception of a safe relationship with the adults, because any disruption in the relationship will cause turbulence in the internal milieu."

We see the importance of the four foundations of wellness:  optimum nutrition, adequate rest, connection to the creative/divine, and exercise.  As I mentioned in my post Social Beings, nourishing social relationships should be part of these foundations.  Western culture at large is set up to be nuclear, stressing hyper-independence. In another scenario, family/dear friends are in possibly far-away places. A connection with those you love and whom love you is a marker to good health.  Conversations that make you feel connected, affirm you as valuable, that reinforce one's life purpose is an absolute requirement for keeping our psychosocialimmunity strong and intact.  The "error messages" received earlier in life, with awareness and courage can be healed working through a creative process, engaging in a healing with a bodywork practitioner or with traditional psychological professionals.  But the day to day love connections we have is what sustains us, even can correct that which has been undermining both in our past indoctrinations and our health.

The pursuit of self awareness, self care and a more mindful approach to the daily details of our lives positions us in a place of availability.  Availability in recognizing patterns that serve and don't serve us and a prayer of a chance of healing the patterns that work against our wellness and wholeness.  Emotional competence may not be a (present) given, but it can be earned and developed.

Magnesium: The “Original Chill Pill”

A young friend of mine last year had a trauma in a foreign country.  She was treated with magnesium (not a sedative, anxiety or muscle relaxant prescription – standard of care in the US) to help calm her shaken self and bring her emotional state back to homeostasis.  Using magnesium for this purpose is not standard of care in this country--- maybe it should be.

Physiology:  The effect on the body and mind

Magnesium helps maintains nerve and muscle function (including the heart), maintains endocrine function (immune health) and keeps our bones strong.  It also aids in regulating our blood glucose levels and the subsequent production of energy.  99% of our magnesium is located in bone, muscles and soft tissue.  It is a Cofactor for over 300 enzymes, oxidizes fatty acids, activates amino acids, synthesizes and breakdowns DNA. In the brain it is key in neurotransmission.  Magnesium is essential for other minerals to be effective, such as calcium, potassium, phosphorous and vitamin B.

Magnesium deficiencies are related to anxiety and depression.  Deficits in magnesium increase physiological stress and stress reduces magnesium; a lose-lose cycle. Magnesium impacts each biological action related to depression, which is linked to systemic inflammation.  Magnesium repletion can be instrumental in reversing irritability, depression, headaches and moodiness.

An insufficient Magnesium level effects other mineral levels in the body.  Without magnesium, calcium cannot be properly used or absorbed by the body. (Read more about how calcium and magnesium work together.)  

Magnesium Requirements

•   14 - 18 years old (boys): 410 mg

•   14 - 18 years old (girls): 360 mg

Adult females: 310 - 320 mg

•   Pregnancy: 350 - 400 mg

•   Breastfeeding women: 310 - 360 mg

Adult males: 400 - 420 mg*

Magnesium’s action

Magnesium acts on the hormonal axis and aids in regulating the stress response in the central nervous system.  It can suppress the release of cortisol and ACTH.  It also acts on the blood brain barrier, preventing stress hormones into the brain.  Hence, it has been called “the original chill pill.”

photo credit:  Lalu  Danzker

Food/Supplement Resources

Most dietary magnesium comes from vegetables, such as dark green, leafy vegetables. Other foods that are good sources of magnesium:

•   Fruits or vegetables (bananas, dried apricots, and avocados)

•   Nuts (almonds and cashews)

•   Peas and beans (legumes), seeds

•   Soy products (soy flour and tofu)

 Whole grains (brown rice and millet)**

Foods grown under industrialized farming conditions are typically grown in depleted or chemical-fertilized soil, further decreasing micronutrients, vitamins and minerals in the foods we ingest.  It’s imperative to have ideal agricultural conditions when trying to get your vitamins from food: organic whenever possible.

Soaking in an Epsom salt bath is another way of absorbing magnesium.  When taking supplements, enteric-coated magnesium supplements are not as effective as non-enteric coated pills; they absorb 67% less effectively.  I use drops.  Two squirts in 3 oz of cranberry or sour cherry juice (low sugar, vitamin rich) makes the mineral taste bearable going down.

How do we deplete Magnesium further from the foods we eat?

•           Dry roasting nuts removes the highly nutritious oils, which contain magnesium.

•           Milling flour from grains strips magnesium from the grain.

•           Sugar in anything uses up magnesium.

•           Fluoridated, softened, and distilled water depletes magnesium.

•           Carbonated beverages and some processed foods, like lunchmeat, contain phosphates that bind to magnesium molecules and flush it out of the body.

•           Alcohol blocks magnesium, especially if you have three or more drinks a day.

•           Coffee works like a diuretic to flush magnesium from of the body.

•           Some foods—like raw or roasted nuts and seeds, soybeans, spinach, and chard—contain compounds called phytic acid and oxalic acid, which can cause magnesium to be eliminated from the body.

According to the Physician’s Desk Reference, these common drugs can create a magnesium deficiency:

•   Common diuretics and cardiac drugs

•   Birth control pills

•   Insulin

•   Digitalis

•   Antibiotics

•   Cortisone

•   Antacids***

In these winter months, when we all are more susceptible to lower immunity and may be struggling with altered moods, consider upping your magnesium intake, “the original chill pill.”  60% of us lack this important component in our diets.  For optimal physiology function and well being, increasing our leafy vegetable intake and taking a supplement gives us the best chance of getting the Magnesium our bodies require.

*http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002423.htm

**http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/magnesium-mineral-deficiency

***http://blog.wellnessfx.com/2013/07/31/three-main-causes-of-magnesium-deficiency-part-2/

Present to Death

Death and dying and contemplating this passage for oneself is a sobering reckoning most of us visit privately and with others at least a few times in life's journey.  A recent experience of this topic discussed among friends stayed with me for several days, and I feel compelled to write about it.

We all die.  And, if we are honest, we are afraid to do so.  If we had a chance to choose how to die, it would basically come down to a choice of the least unpalatable means (wishful thinking) for most of us.  What interested me in the aforementioned conversation among friends was the general insistence felt among the many in the conversation that they be present to themselves and the experience of dying; they wished not to miss the process, not to be in a drugged stupor nor apparent absence of dementia, but to experience their life to the fullest right up to the end.

As a nurse, all I could think was, "may the angels not be listening to this."  This human existence is an endless series of rounds of suffering (and joy).  There is no avoidance of pain.  It's our birthright and payment we make as human beings.  Experiencing our thresholds of pain in different layers is a valuable, even an illuminating materiality that can bring a richness to one's life.  That experience is something we take on willingly, especially if we know there is an end to it, a reprieve in sight (i.e. childbirth, brief uncomfortable procedures, a really bad headache, a divorce with a court date).  Pain medications are a god send when you need them.  Our pain thresholds decrease as we age.  The more frail we become, the more acutely we feel pain.  Pain medication and adjunct therapies that address pain receptors in our bodies/brains (clinical aromatherapy, bodywork, energy work, acupuncture, qigong) should be freely accessed if possible.

\

A question came to me when discussing this idea of being fully "present" right up to the end:  How could we not be present to this cataclysmic event, same as the impossibility of not being present to our birth?  We are born as Whole selves.  Seemingly our purpose is to find how to live this wholeness in the time we are given.  We don't spend a lot of time knowing or experiencing this.  We don't know how, but (hopefully) spend a lifetime working toward being in relationship to the Whole that we are.  But despite this lack, we are still One.  A muscle is still a muscle even if it is atrophied.  We can't miss our passing because we're in a coma, or in a medication-induced delirium.  To imply this, is to believe Presence is a cognitive state.  It is not.

The body is an incredible dimensional, layered and impossibly complex organism.  Some type of life is going on in a person living in a coma. Arnie and Amy Mindell have proven this in their studies of coma patients.  You just have to hang 
around people in these altered states for a period of time to sense this is true.  We on the outside are 
not privy to this passage they are moving through.  But there is no mistake the experience of moving 
toward a death is not passing them by.  In the case of quick, usually violent deaths (it is my opinion), 
the layers of ourselves (body, energybody, spirit, soul) are separated.  And there is a need to re-assemble 
before a passing is complete.  There is a presence in this, an actual energetic movement toward the 
Wholeness we are in body on earth, and probably beyond.

So, we may have these temporary distractions of suffering, agony, trauma, violence which ultimately leads to our death, but our innate divinity is always present.  It's the thing that leads us Home, through this important transition.  We seemingly are in preparation our entire lives for this moment, are living this truth in small ways almost on a daily basis; through our system changes, relationships, the almost inconsequential letting go and acceptances that is our daily bread.  The cultivation of a deeper understanding of the layers of presence possible to be earned in a lifetime, is a support to an actualization at (bodily) death.  It is impossible not to be present to one's own death.  The cells, the energy fields within our body system are constant cues, despite our denial variations or momentary circumstances that seem to remove a consciousness from the equation.  The reality of the breath and depth of consciousness sinks in.  Consciousness... Presence are not cognitive activities.  They are a fuller, deeper, more whole experience, connected within, connected without.

Witnessing: Attention, Intention and Healing

When we think of healing ourselves, the thoughts and focus revolve around me, myself, I-- my needs alone, and what is necessary to become whole.  Antennae should sprout up whenever a concern or effort becomes self-centric, because that type of concentration isn't healing, it's actually antithetical to healing.  That type of focus is small, cramped, without space or breath.  And a healing is not possible when I am living in that compressed space.

\Counter intuitively, holding someone or something fully in your attention is an act of self-healing.  This is so because your energy is in flow, moving from inside to out and back again. It's not a masochistic "you come before me", but more an inclusive acknowledgement that a universal love flows in and outside myself, connecting, interconnecting.  A salve completing the Whole.  In physical terms, this might resemble the infinity symbol, the horizontal figure eight.  In that act of interconnecting, we allow ourselves to let go of ego's narrow agenda and we enter a universal connection.  Because of this unconditional attention to someone else, paid attention becomes a prepayment I benefit from.  This paid attention benefits the environment, myself as well as others.

\ I've written about materiality and energy in space (Place, Space, Materiality and Health), wherein I speak about the influence of energy on space, humans and nature.  We all have felt an environment or space blessed by a smudge stick, prayer or meditation.  And alternately, we have felt the tensio\n in the energy of a space that has had a recent argument or violence in it.  We don't consider the vitality of this energy, how it supports or undermines a flourishing.  Similarly, we don't consider the energy of a full attention on an other or on a space.  Humans are designed to connect.  It is in this connection, these exchanges of energy that create a healing.

How could it be that this simple act of observing another (without an agenda) could be so nourishing to another and oneself?   Giving attention, to be a witness is to be in a relaxed, tension free place in oneself.  Our bodies and more whole self relax into the rightness of the Self in this state.  This unto itself is a healing.  It rights (normalizes) hormonal releases (endocrine system), the neurotransmitters that dictate hormone releases from our central nervous system, it hosts a more relaxed, stress-free environment from which to act from, to Be in.  In this state, one creates a slower, more accepting self environment that impacts relationship.  This type of energy nourishes the atmosphere around it, as mentioned above. One can feel the difference; this ripples out.  And as indicated above, it circles around and cultivates the same within.  Mutuality.  Healing is never singular, but always exponential.

What does intention have to do with an attention that heals?  For many, an intention is a mental formation directed.  An intention might start with an idea, but if it is true, it is surrounded by feeling.  It is something that does not wince at not knowing and uncertainty.  Feeling supports intention in a language with non-words the cognitive self cannot understand.  It is a connection to this type of feeling that allows the Witness to suspend the monkey-mind's goings-on, permitting a deeper attention, which saturates an atmosphere with a more relaxed openness.

\

MAKING WAVES: Alexander Technique and the undulating self

Aileen Crow, is a woman whom I consider one of my "mothers", and whom has been an invaluable mentor (and friend/"playmate") to me for over twenty years.  In my mind she is the quintessential "maverick", who has modeled and taught credibility through self-ownership; that is, when one is true to oneself, there can be only rightness (in relation to bodywork and everything else).  Aileen is someone I have worked and played with with the greatest of intensity.  She meets you.  She matches you.  Brilliantly.  Even when the vibration is extremely (unbearably?) deep or profound.  Aileen is a Master.  For me, she is a model of love, gratitude, appreciation and most of all Joy.  She walks her own truth and is absolute in her permissiveness that you walk your own. It is my great pleasure to print here, respective writings she produced in 1992 (Inner Flow and the Spiraling Spinal Wave) and for the Alexander Technique International Conference on Consensus, (Making Waves), 1996.

"We all know that the Alexander Technique [AT] leads to expansiveness and lightness. Once we attain that, what do we do with it?  If we just maintain an expanded shape or a state of expansion and lightness, it is static.  Oscillation and inner movement define control of movement impulses and its torso held in one piece sometimes looks like an elegant empty suit.  In our desire for "good use," we must be careful not to eliminate the fluidity of movement that allows torso rotation and undulatory, spiraling movements of the spine.

To make contact with the flow of inner movement impulses is essential for actors, dancers and singers--- for anyone who wants to make emotional contact with others.  The inner movement impulses communicate emotions.  Often involuntary and spontaneous, they may not suit our self-images, but they have their own reason for being and if they are ignored they will reappear in symptoms or in dreams until their wisdom is received and integrated into our lives.

In a cross-cultural study of movement styles, the Choreometrics Project (1) demonstrated that the world can be mapped into areas defined by two different body attitudes.  One is a one-unit torso, associated with patrilineal control of sexuality.  The other is a two-unit torso, with twisting and undulating, from matrilineal cultures in which sexuality and fertility are valued. FM Alexander lived and taught within a Northern European one-unit torso culture; the limited range of movements used in his teaching and in most Alexander teaching today reflects the attitude toward sexuality inherent in that culture.

If Alexander's principles are cross-culturally valid, Alexander lessons should include movements that use three dimensional torso twists, spirals, and spinal waves; and not be limited to those that maintain a straight spined, one-unit, flat torso that only folds and unfolds at the hip joints (as in 'monkey').  Unfortunately, many people see that carefully maintained (if high class) limitation as a cliched 'Alexandraoid' look.

Every bone, muscle and organ in our bodies have a three dimensional spiral to it; there are no straight lines.  Even our DNA spirals.  From conception, living tissue is formed from spiraling, flowing plasma.  Anything that flows, spirals. (2)

The design of the human body is that of muscles in a double spiral pattern - left and right twin spirals - around the bony structure (3,4) with its wave-like spine.  And or bodies move in complex spirals and waves, if they are not culturally conditioned otherwise.

Any such influence that restricts the  natural fluidity of the body also tends to isolate the individual and distort emotional communication within their human relationships.  We naturally move in synchrony with each other on a micro-movement level (5). People with communication disorders are out of movement synchrony with themselves and with others.

In parts of the world characterized by a two-unit torso (such as parts of the Middle East, Africa and India), undulating movement promotes communal harmony.  In the Middle East, it is a way of passing on the skills that inform sexual communication; women wave/dance together in unison, forming harmonious support groups for themselves; and women wave/dance around a woman as she gives birth, to encourage her.

I personally feel that the relationship problems within the Alexander community are related to a mistaken idea of what 'good use' is.  Carefully maintaining an ideal body state or shape restricts fluidity and sets up a hierarchical mind-over-body relationship within the individual because of the constant need to control inferior, non-ideal body impulses.  Maintaining the Alexander ideal of good use necessitates inhibiting any movement impulses incongruent to that ideal.  Those incongruities may very well be the body wanting to speak its mind, perhaps expressing dissatisfaction at having 'one right way imposed on it by even a benevolent director.  The unwanted bodily impulses may be offering another point of view, or counter examples to the ideal, or even new discoveries and new connections that could benefit the total person.

That's analogous to the political situation in the Alexander community, with its problematic concerns about who's in and who's out, and who gets to approve of and controls whom, etc.

It is also interesting to me that so many Alexander teachers are doing Authentic Movement in which spontaneous 'incongruent' movement impulses are followed and expressed until they yield their indispensable meaning. I hope this ATI conference work on Consensus will help lead the Alexander community to this kind of complementary [alignment] and to a broader cross-cultural identity."

(1)  The Choreometrics Project, Forestine Paulay and Irmgard Bartenieff in Folk Song Style and Culture, Alan Lomax, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1968
(2)  Sensitive Chaos, Theodor Schwenk, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965.
(3)  The Double Spiral Arrangement of Voluntary Musculature, Raymond A.Dart, Human Potenial, Vol. 1, No.2, 1968
(4)  Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, M. Knott and D. Voss Harper & Row, 1968.
(5)  Cultural Microrhythms, William S.Condon, Interaction Rhythms, edited by Martha Davis, Human Sciences Press, NY 1982.

Aileen Crow has been an Alexander teacher since 1969.  She taught at ACAT in New York City until she formed her own AT training program in 1978.  She is a Creativity Counselor in private practice in NYC and in New City, NY, is a Laban Movement Analyst (since 1969) and a Dreambody Process-Oriented therapist.   Her most recent interests are calligraphy, Solo Focusing and transforming trauma.

Aileen's more recent writings have been in A Moving Journal (1993-2006 ),  AuthenticMovementCommunity Blog, and the Journal of Authentic Movement and Somatic  Inquiry (JAMSI) AuthenticMovement.Journal.com.

Unimitable Aileen at Play

Trojan Wurst IV: Sustainable Protein

Like a lot of rational people, I've been on a sustained pause around definitive diets.  Diet methods and a lot of rigidity around whole foods in general always gets my "fake out" antenna up.  I've generally taken a judicious tact toward eating.  As vegetarianism, veganism and unrefined plant food (UPF) trends have been on the rise over the last couple of decades, I've been paying attention, reading the literature and increasing my vegetable intake accordingly.  I haven't given up meat, although I don't eat a lot of it.  I've been a little embarrassed to admit that killing animals for food is not in my mind, a horrific thing.  I've seen it (in my mind's eye) as part of a whole cycle.   But lately, I've had the occasion to see some films on sustainability and I am beginning to realize that what has been in my "mind's eye" has been an old-world European or 1950's image (an "old McDonald's farm" scenario, ei ei ohhh) on how farm animals are raised, treated and killed for consumption.  The worn denim overall'd grandpa chewing on a straw strand isn't out milking the three cows in the barn and wringing a few chicken necks for supper afterall.

There have been several concerns for me as of late around animal flesh.  A few years ago I happened to be visiting FDR's family vacation home in New Brunswick (charming and unostentagious by the way, worth a visit) and wandered down to the little beach on the bay where some fish farms were underway; salmon as a matter of fact, a fish I admire and esteem almost more than any other.  There was a whole description at the beach side as to how salmon farming is conducted, which by the time I finished reading, vowed never to eat farmed-raised fish again.  The methodology is so scientifically calculated it is kind of horrific.  Part of the wonder of salmon (reflected in their flesh) is their vital essential need as a species to do the incredible acrobatics that they need to do in order to spawn and survive.  They are remarkable beings.  These farms are science laboratories that in no way take in account the species essence, and that this essential aspect of the salmon, is contained in the flesh we eat.  It is not considered.  We are eating from an industrialized fishing industry.  The lack of consciousness around the food processing in this environment at a basic level (from cultivating fish eggs to harvesting fully grown fish) that produce our food sources is alarming.

The second cue which happened over the last year, has been practically subliminal for me.  I've had a sense the fish I have been eating is different than fish I was eating 5 or 7 years ago.  There's something not right about it, which I can't put my finger on and which would be easy to dismiss.  The flesh is different. The taste is not ---- alive?(missing the essence of the animal?) Not like it used to be. I've seen, tasted and known this about beef and chicken for over two decades.  One could parallel it to the difference between an organic egg you buy and the one your friend gives you from their chicken coop.  The difference isn't freshness so much (although I'm sure that's a factor), it's something else.  And I'm beginning to believe it's the way these animals who give their life for our benefit are treated prior to being killed.  We are living in a world of high technology, where exponential masses of animals are "processed" at enormous rates with shear brutality and in shockingly short periods of time. (A chicken is ready for slaughter now in 27 days as opposed to the 47 days it was ready decades ago, and weighing often twice as much in present day as in the past making them unable to stand up over their short life span.) There is a subtle but very serious lack of regard (completely discounted as being important at all) in this process, and which must effect what gets to our plate and into our bodies.

I think I've been able to assuage my alarm over the years around the animal flesh issue because I go primarily organic, free-range, "humanely treated", etc.  I've calmed myself thinking what I was buying and consuming was better.  But organic farms supplying Whole Foods and other supermarket chains conduct their food business practically the same way as the other producers.  Albeit, their chickens are given 3 feet of space a piece instead of being crammed into cages.  But they still discard the male chicks or grind them up for organic pet food since they won't be laying eggs.  "Organic" farms are also generally mass producers of food (3K-30,000 chickens harvested every month).  Organic beef suppliers also castrate the bulls, destroy cows who get utter infections instead of give them rest and antibiotics.  It evidently doesn't pay to appreciate what these animals provide to the masses.  No straw-chewing grandpa there.

King mushroom, grown in Maine, tons of protein!

This mindless approach to food production is of course due in large part to overpopulation.  The market must meet the demand.  According to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, raising animals for food on these huge scales is grossly inefficient and hugely polluting of the environment.  Raising livestock for consumption is a larger polluter than the transportation (cars, trucks) industry. How is this?  To raise cattle for consumption, an enormous amount of energy has to be expended to plant and grow the grain, irrigate it, harvest it, ship it and store it.  (For one pound of beef, it takes 6-10 pounds of grain; one cow drinks 50 gallons of water every day.) To keep cattle, bring them to slaughter, process, ship and store the butchered meat requires a further outlay of energy.  Consider cattle naturally put out large amounts of methane gas (which is 23 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide--whala, global warming) and animal based protein releases much higher amounts of carbon dioxide than plant based protein.  Well, the benefits (and past pleasures) of animal protein begin to be outweighed by the little talked about sustainability downside.  The United Nations concern on climate change has irrefutably made the statement:  "Eat less Meat." It leaves a huge carbon footprint.  If the SAD (Standard American Diet) was replaced with a plant based diet by most people for a year, it would equal the energy saved if everyone drove a hybrid vehicle.  (The SAD diet by the way is 40% animal protein, 50% processed foods (anything in boxes, bottles or prepared), 3.5% unrefined plant food (greens!) and 3.5% starch (potatoes/grains).

Animal consumption is big business.  And big business tends to attract lobbyists and lean toward corruption practices.  Science and public policy around dairy for one, have people chairing committees on the Food and Nutrition Board (sets dietary guidelines) who are also consultants for the dairy industry (it is now recommended we drink 3 eight ounce glasses of milk daily up from two from a few years ago; any correlation?).  This is obviously a conflict of interest which seems to be under the law radar.

More fabulous Maine mushrooms!

As in healthcare, we are approaching the need for a paradigm shift in the way agriculture is grown in this country (but of course, there is a solid relationship between the two).  Obviously, we are not going back to becoming a non-industrialized agriculture society.  Too many people have to be fed.  But the trend to grow part of one's daily intake and use local small farmers for much of the rest is growing, a  more environmentally sustainable possibility for some of us.  It is almost convenient to buy local eggs now and raw milk from smaller farms.  CSAs have expanded to include humanely raised animals which families or individuals can buy a portion of the slaughter (still have to freeze the bulk of that portion, which is more energy use). Personally, I don't think the inhumane, mechanical processing of animal protein is good for my health and soul (or anyone elses?) or the environment.  We need to look at our consumer and eating habits with this in mind, bring more consciousness to the way we purchase, grow and sustain ourselves.  Saying NO to the technology-based food production in this country will in time shift the paradigm (and everything else) on how we feed ourselves and respect the action of self sustenance and planet sustainability.  If we don't do this, but continue to consume food in America the way we do, according to experts, by 2030 we will need 2-5 other planets to feed all of us.  This is 2013, 16 years to go.  Earth is all we've got (at the moment).

resources gleaned from:

Food, Inc - TakePart

Vegeducated - New release on Netflix - Vegan Lifestyle - The Chat .

Forks Over Knives | Official Website