Lumen

This is a recording of a class I taught as an opening class to the winter Foundation Training series of 2024. I talk about why I have decided to start the 2024 winter courses with a class purely on self-regulation tools before getting into any of the physical practices. I share personal stories of self-regulation in some heated moments, all about each practice, and how these practices can really increase our window of tolerance, help shift us from being primarily in sympathetic nervous system into the parasympathetic where healing can happen, and how they can put us at the center of our own health, healing, and journey. In the end there is a guided experience through three practices.  I share three practices:  Orienting  The Felt Sense Resourcing I hope you enjoy this! Please reach out to let me know if these practices impact you positively or if you have any cool experiences with them!

This is a recording of a class I taught as an opening class to the winter Foundation Training series of 2024. This episode starts with the class settling in and getting all the comfy blankets and supplies out to really sink in together. Then I talk about why I have decided to start the 2024 winter courses with a class purely on self-regulation tools before getting into any of the physical practices. I share personal stories of self-regulation in some heated moments, all about each practice, and how these practices can really increase our window of tolerance, help shift us from being primarily in sympathetic nervous system into the parasympathetic where healing can happen, and how they can put us at the center of our own health, healing, and journey. In the end there is a guided experience through three practices.  I share three practices:  Orienting  The Felt Sense Resourcing The one thing I didn't say about resourcing in this recording, is generally not to use another person or an animal as a resource beca

In this episode I talk about what the structure of a Shiatsu treatment is currently like when you come to see me!  Check in - What's alive in life right now? Coming into the "Felt Sense" Resourcing Reflecting back: What I hear from an elemental perspective What organs / channels I think I may treat and why Getting comfortable Guided meditation to settle in Holding diagnostic areas Working the channels    

In this podcast I link our ability to let go with our relationship to uncertainty and our sense of self worth.  Where we are in the cycle of 5 elements Uncertainty The nightmare Bringing consciousness to the unconscious Worry Fear and anxiety Becoming present Opening up to possibility Letting go Past Failures, rejections, abandonment Value Good enough Re-defining failing Re-defining winning Kobayashi Maru Open up to next layer of evolution  

TRANSFORMING RESISTANCE TO STABILITY: In this podcast I talk about the opportunity inside of feeling resistance. How resistance can be a door opening instead of a door closing. The role of the nervous system The breath Creating a bullet-proof nervous system The process of training ourselves to allow and to relax into discomfort Working with fear. The parts of ourselves... the part that is sort of hysterical and the other part that is present, open, curious about what will unfold and creative / working with what each moment brings.  Developing willingness... not forcing or oppressing ourselves but being curious and open, willing to feel Letting go of preferences Getting out of the way of our life moving forward The process

IN THIS PODCAST I TALK ABOUT: – Our difficulties are our best teachers, but only if we know how to learn from them.  – Wounding in Childhood, being disliked – Conscious engagement with our pain – The heart and the mind – How to use experience as fodder for the work – Taking the lessons from our practice out into life – Resistance, preferences, acceptance, allowance, process & the pillars of practice – Enduring the long journey – Opening up to our true nature   NOTE: Near the end of the podcast I talk about two students who are confronting resistance to difficulty.  When I listen to myself, I heard irritation in my voice and I took the podcast down, worried they would hear that instead of the passion I have for the pivot point they are in. I took the podcast down to edit it and make it right but through great urging, from those who had a chance to listen, to put it back up, un-edited and raw, I am re-posting it without any edits. I want everyone who listens to know that the moment these two students are in

DISEASE: IT'S AN INSIDE JOB. In this podcast I talk about realizing that the locus of control is on the inside and how we can affect our health and life through emotions /  internal conditions. I explore how we can affect things like cancer, disease, and sickness through emotional processes by linking emotions to cellular health. I explore the importance of developing a practice and a process to develop a relationship with our emotions and the power of that. 

In this Podcast:  Feelings have a beginning, middle, and an end. Exhaustion can come from a feeling that hasn't been fully felt. Our body is our unconscious, any good practice will reveal what is there.  When the unconscious comes up to the surface it is an opportunity for healing. We often experience resistance to feeling this stuff and develop strategies to avoid it. We can also develop a process of being in engagement with the encounter and through that, heal and develop a sense of stability that is not dependent on the outer world of circumstances. This is a special type of strength. Stories to illustrate the transition from resistance into acceptance and allowance. What we resist persists. Developing a process and what a process is.

CRISIS AS OPPORTUNITY:  In this episode I talk about working with resistance in a way that can put us in touch with the feelings that keep us stuck and feeling dead in our lives. These feelings can keep us stuck in suffering or they can be a flood gate into coming alive. Learning to feel things we "don't want to feel" can put us in touch with our truth and living in alignment with ourselves.  In the Chinese language the word for crisis has two meanings, one is crisis and one is opportunity. 

PAIN AS A BRIDGE: WAKING UP Reacting and responding What's under the story Inside and outside Experiencing the pain Becoming sensative Resistance and Acceptance Pema Chodron on Warrior Slogans Ezra Bayda on the "Substitute Life" Sealskin / Soulskin  Using pain to bring ourselves back home

In this podcast I talk about developing the kind of strength that makes us consistent, dependable, and gives us integrity as human beings. It is the strength to keep on keeping on. It involves mastery as well as stability. You become like a rock or a mountain. You feel grounded in the world because you are grounded in your own self. A quality that indicates this in your life is the presence of rhythm, daily rhythm. The power that comes from this rhythmic existence is a kind of balance, harmony, and wholeness. It gives us the strength to handle both success and failure. It is the strength to balance and harmonize our individual needs with the needs of the group.   Note: The recording quality isn't the best but I felt like what I said was so important to share, so here is the imperfection :) 

THE PATH OF THE WARRIOR:  In this podcast I bring the work of Foundation Training for Posture together with Chogyam Trungpa's work on The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Talking: Posture, Breath, Science, Emotions, and Being a Fully Human Being Make a transformation or die Vipassana 10-Day silent meditation retreat life lesson Foundation Training with Eric Goodman The impacts of compression on the body Connecting posture to physical heath and emotions The vagus nerve, lungs, digestive organs and more... 70% of bodies waste products are eliminated through the lungs The link between the lungs and the immune system, metabolism, and all the other organs Breath-work patterns as a warm-up to practice, as a tool to change the state of the nervous system / process emotions, to get into prime state for learning, and create freedom physically in the body Space for digestion, enteric nervous system, sense of well being The Vagus nerve The imbalance in our bodies Coming out of compression Re-define core (posterior chain) Th

IN THIS PODCAST:  I cover the story of the 5 elements, what each element is associated with psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually, and how that relates to life.  I also cover traits of each element as they are found in ourselves and the people we know. This is very storyteller style with personal experience of living the elements. Yay!  Water Wood Fire Earth Metal  

CHANGE AND COMMITMENT: GOING BEYOND GOOD ENOUGH, VALUE, WORTH, RIGHT & WRONG   IN THIS PODCAST: GIVING YOURSELF THE SPACE TO GO THROUGH CHANGE INTROVERSION & EXTROVERSION IT GETS SO BAD WE OPEN UP TO MAKING A CHANGE CLINGING TO SAFETY BUT BEING DEAD INSIDE VULNERABILITY INITIAL STAGES OF MAKING A CHANGE COMMITTMENT WHY MAKE A COMMITMENT THE ISSUES THAT ARISE WHEN WE COMMIT EMPOWERMENT VERSES DISEMPOWERMENT BELIEFS WISDOM METAL ELEMENT & LETTING GO VICTIM-HOOD AND LETTING GO OF BEING A VICTIM BOUNDARIES AND EARTH TAKING RESPONSIBILITY  HEALING MOVING FORWARD BELONGING TO OURSELVES, COMING OUT OF LONELINESS STEPPING INTO THE UNKNOWN, MYSTERY, AND WILDERNESS   BOOKS I READ FROM:  "Daring Greatly" by Brene Brown "Conscious Loving" by Gay Hendricks & Kathlyn Hendricks "Claim Your Power" by Mastin Kipp "The Goddess Oracle" by Amy Sophia Marashinsky "Braving the Wilderness" by Brene Brown "Shadow Yoga" by Shandor Remete

IN THIS PODCAST:  Water Element Wood Element Comparison & Measuring Sticks Monkey Experiment  Giving Others Power Inner Critic Alignment with our Heart Shame  Sharing our story Healing is Strength / Power Developing Equanimity Faith Money Abandonment & Existential Loneliness Inadequacy and Unavailability Oneness Willingness to take risk Opening up

This podcast covers: Knee Dislocation The ways we get stuck Getting clear on intention Working with pain Trusting yourself more than "experts" Working with Despair Recovery capacity greatly increases when moving forward with heart "Demon Voices" Recognizing it in ourself Gaining capacity to work with bigger and bigger traumas Trauma Letting Go Attachment / Aversion The Leg Chakras Taking The Leap Opening to Mystery Yoga Sutra 1.12

LIFE TAKES PRACTICE: SUTRA 1.5   THIS PODCAST COVERS:  Sutra 1.5: vrtayah pancatayya klistaklishta There are 5 states of mind, some create suffering and some are born of insight and they culminate in liberation Definitions of each sanskrit word Specific feelings that tell us we are either using detrimental or liberating thought patterns The Five Klesas, from which all the detrimental mind states come from The Five Hinderances from Buddhist Philosophy Karma, it's definition, generation, and it's relationship to Klista thoughts What the five types of thought are A process from Byron Katie of learning to discriminate between detrimental thoughts and liberating thoughts Learning to turn the detrimental thoughts that lead to suffering into moments of insight that lead to freedom Shifting Patterns Life Takes Practice

This Track Covers: - Getting to the Roots of Beliefs - Equanimity - Faith - Shenpa, Getting Hooked and Our Ego - Samskaras - "Wrong" Mind Frame - Leaning In, Instead of Avoiding Pain - Using Triggers as a Doorway / An Opening - Yoga Sutra 1.4 - Understanding Yoga Philosophy on how the mind works - Beingness - Identifying as Awareness or Identifying as the Ego and Sense Data - Using Non-Violent Communication System to identify limiting beliefs - Critic Verses Cheerleader - Reflecting on Mastery - Live Life as an Experiement

Talking about Impermanence before class last night PLUS beautiful John O'Donohue Poem.        

This is an excerpt from classes this week on both the water element, fear, letting go into the unknown, and loneliness, as well as the role of the heart, connection, boundaries, and being held by the universal group heart. "Your heart has a great connection to the universal group heart, way bigger than the small personal circles of humans. Letting go of the vine does not mean disconnecting from source. Only letting go of that one attachment to the physical connection through the stem. Once free of that, you are in relation to all source, all essence, all heart." - Nini Melvin