It has been called the reflection of the soul, the barometer of emotion, a dynamic canvas that is constantly in movement.The human face speaks a language far more complex and expressive than any verbal communication. For the newborn child, the mother's face is the first mirror it sees of its own self. What's contained in that face - love, joy, anxiety, disinterest - will have a profound effect on the infant and on the adult it will become.Through our faces we reveal important truths about … [Read more...]
Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy
Get ready to fall madly in love with two of the most remarkable women ever to be immortalized on film. Kathy Conour has cerebral palsy and her caregiver for the last 37 years has been and remains Diana Braun, who has Down syndrome. No, this is not a sad story. It is actually much more like a female version of Neil Simon's hilarious Odd Couple, with Kathy as Felix and Diana's wonderful sense of humor ruling the day as Oscar. Not to be outdone, Kathy has a sign on her wheelchair that says: … [Read more...]
The Uprising: Our Task is to Nurture the Children of Today
Such an experience it is to be a child, aware of unlimited energies and, yet, so very aware of the limitations of the human experience. Many young people forget the expansiveness as time goes on. Their blind hope is erased by a more pessimistic group mind. Their wonder is eroded by the bleakness outside their front door. The sparkle in their eye is dimmed by rejection and abuse. As a sensitive young boy, a pacifist at heart, I was stung by name calling and alienation. Instead of rejecting … [Read more...]
The Purpose of Fitness and Fitness of Purpose: A Yogic Perspective
"This life is not for enjoying sense gratification. It is for realizing God." - Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna ConsciousnessMy Aunt Nancy is 78 years old. Two years ago she developed PSP, a degenerative cousin to Parkinson's disease. At first her loved ones thought she had had a stroke, because her facial muscles became lax and her affect was slow-mo and slurred. PSP causes its prey to lose balance and control over body muscles, including a … [Read more...]
Living and Learning in the Moment
My job as a Therapeutic Coach® and facilitator is to guide people to a point where they can choose to live in the moment. A point where they realize that asking "why" or "how" is not important or necessary, because they experience both when simply staying present. Often we knowingly or unknowingly hold restrictions that prevent us from living in the moment. These restrictions are boxes that were created to structure our lives, and they are generally no longer necessary. … [Read more...]
Yoga for the Rest of Us
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Several years ago I discovered yoga. I didn't mean to; it really was just by chance. What I really wanted was to learn how to meditate. I thought that would fix everything in my life that needed fixing. I found a place in Uptown that said they offered meditation workshops on their website. I gave them a call and was told that they didn't have any workshops coming up, but they had yoga classes going on and he encouraged me to give it a try. I tried to explain to him that I couldn't do yoga. I was … [Read more...]
May 18: Conscious Kids expo
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Our children are our teachers. The New Children - often described as Indigos, Crystals, Rainbows and others - are being born with awakened consciousness and awareness that earlier generations have not experienced so regularly as children. They are wise beyond their years, visionary in their thinking, more enlightened, intuitive, creative, psychic - and yet they also have their challenges of feeling frustrated with the "normal" world. Many of these children are mislabeled as … [Read more...]
Discovering Deep Peace, Tranquility and Healing through the Practice of Classical Yoga
In the fast-paced world we create for ourselves, scurrying here and there, trying desperately to get all the stuff done and feeling drained in the process, I believe at some point we come to this understanding that we're really not living at all. Our minds, like untamed monkeys, are constantly in motion, often dwelling on the past or fretting about the future. It begs the question: When are we ever really living in present time? Let's face it, being in a state of frenzy does indeed affect … [Read more...]
The Joining
The term "yoke" implies two animals connected to one another side by side with some kind of mechanical contrivance so that the animals, whatever their own desires and aspirations, pull together in the same direction. It didn't used to bother me when the word Yoga was translated as "to yoke" or "to yoke together." When I began taking Yoga classes, it made sense to me in terms of Hatha Yoga that we yoke body and mind together so they pull together in the same … [Read more...]
Plant Spirit Aide in Healing, Water Prescription for Health
Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul, by Ross Heaven and Howard Charing (Destiny Books, Rochester, VT, 2006), $16.95.The effects of Western medicines last only as long as the course of drugs continues, "whereas plant medicines lead to a permanent change through the relationship you establish with the essence of the plant." Shamans explain the reason for this difference: "It is the spirit of the plants that matter, not their chemical properties." … [Read more...]
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