Using Space To Avoid Nagging - #234

There needs to be space between blog posts that nag you to change how you occupy your body and blog posts that inspire you.

I think we can now agree it is a lot of work to occupy our bodies in ways that promote well-being. 

I hope you now know that commitment to "Bodywork" pays big dividends.

Rabindranath Tagore* also speaks of space. He marvels at how well the Japanese use it:

"When I took my seat at early dawn on a mat by the window, I realized that not only are the Japanese master-painters but they have reduced the whole of man's life to an art. 

"They know this much, that a thing which is valuable, which has worth, must be allowed a sufficient amount of space around it. Emptiness of space is most necessary for fullness of perception."

Make space for your body to be vertical and make space to experience something new this weekend. Let me know how it goes!

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

* Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1961) Tagore was a poet, traveler, diarist, short story writer, novelist, and commentator on international affairs.

Will she have the nerve to write about posture again? - #233

"The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change."*

                                                   Anthony de Mello

Yes, I have the nerve to ask: Did you know that posture (aka channeling vertical energy), necessitates perceiving our inner environment?**

According to Chris Meinecke, yoga practitioner and longtime member of the frequently featured Friday group, checking her body posture multiple times every day is part of her routine. 

I doubt Anthony de Mello had body alignment in mind when he wrote happiness is related to frequent change, but I think he knew how difficult change and maybe even good posture is for most of us.  

When you give someone a compliment on their hair, did you ever wonder why they frown and say - "I don't like my hair, I just had it cut." 

That person hasn't adapted to his/her different hair style. Our refusal to celebrate change is ubiquitous.

Expect to hear more about vertical energy!

Notice in the coming week how you manage change and if you are aware of your body.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

*Anthony de Mello, Inward/Outward is a project of the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC..

Sep 19, 2016

Visit us on the web at http://inwardoutward.org

**Idea from Carol Welch's article, "Soma: The Body Perceived From Within" - given to me by Dottie Jackson. No identifying publication information available.

Don't Use Word Posture Around Here! - #232

When I reported to Dottie Jackson that a person in my discussion group said he doesn't hear the word posture used anymore, her response shocked me:

"Don't use the word posture!"

I didn't expect her answer and internally climbed on my high horse or as shown above, on my high elk.

"What do you mean don't say the word posture? Isn't posture what we've been working on since December 21, 2014?"

Luckily, before I expressed my reaction verbally, Dottie explained:

"Posture implies a static pose. What we are aiming for in our work together is 'vertical energy'. We want you to have a body that finds comfort in being upright and in being flexible, not a statue that could stand on a pedestal." (This is of course a paraphrase.)  

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, is a book I would recommend and is one that our discussion group is now reading. Harari speculates that humans began to stand upright in order to have hands.  The first evidence of tool production dates from about 2.5 million years ago.*

Since we haven't always been upright, I'm speculating that we may still be developing what structural form our species is going to take. If you look at a room full of humans who are peering at computer screens, heads out in front of torsos, would it be too outrageous to picture future humans with necks similar to giraffes? Could this be our next development?  

Do you hear the word posture in conversation very often? Please let us know what you think of the "vertical energy" idea.    
If you feel grounded to the earth, some say you can feel the earth's energy in your feet. Do you?  What does energy feel like in your body? Where does vertical energy originate?

Who knew there could be so many questions? I hope you share with us your thinking!

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

*Sapiens, page 10.

Science of the Imagination - #231

Wednesday, walking down a wide-windowed hallway after first Tai Chi class of the autumn session, my weary legs weren't cooperating. My mind remembered seeing Dottie Jackson demonstrating how to walk by using her hips and by moving her whole torso. My body loosened up a bit. 

At that moment, so quick I almost missed it, was what I'll name an apparition of my mother. My mother was shuffling ahead of me! 

Mom broke her ankle at age forty-four when she stepped into a hole in our front yard.  Walking for Mom after that was a frightening activity. She didn't enjoy movement unless she was grasping Dad's hand or leaning on one of her five children.  

Her mother, nicknamed "Little Gram" by fourteen of us grandchildren, drove a red Pinto while sitting on a catalog. As the oldest grandchild, I was undoubtedly the first to measure my height by standing back to back with her.   

In my memory, Little Gram didn't move or drive fast either. Perhaps she modeled the shuffling, ambling gait for her oldest daughter.  

The flash experience of my mother I experienced in my body after Tai Chi class, might be a cousin to what Cynthia Bourgeault labels  the "science of the imagination".

I'm imagining that Cynthia would tell me that the energy I asked readers about last week is not something to be rationally measured or explained; energy is something to be felt or imagined. 

This means flashes of imagination are not absurd or meaningless but rather that they are another way of knowing.  

Have you ever felt the energy of your ancestors? Please let me know of your experience or if you haven't, what you think of these ideas. 

Thank  you for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

Back From Break With Elevated Mystery - #230

My brain was beginning to cogitate on this blog post when my eyes lit on a wrinkled-quote-filled scrap of paper hovering on my bedside table. There was a faint notation near the margin. It said, "page 6."  Luckily page 6 was easy to locate. The book that contained the correct page 6 was also on bedside table.  

During my blog break, one of my goals was to feel vertical energy in my body; that is to get support from energy to help me stand up straight. If my somatic therapist, Dottie Jackson, told me to feel the energy pulling me up once, she told me a hundred times.  

When I discovered the words on the scrap were: "gravitation from above," I was gobsmacked.  

The book: The Wisdom Way of Knowing by Cynthia Bourgeault. You will hear more about it in future posts. I also have asked Dottie Jackson to share her wisdom on the body and help us understand vertical energy. 

So until next time (which will be next Friday evening, I publish on Friday evening and you receive Saturday morning) see if you can feel vertical energy or gravitation from above.  Please let me know your thoughts about posture and wisdom.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall