"Caillois ... called stones l’orée du songe—the shore of dreaming—and he amassed a wonderful collection, which he left to the Museum of National History in Paris where you can go and look at them; he also wrote two luminous books about stones. These are not about precious stones such as diamonds and rubies but about dendrites, agates, Chinese scholars’ stones—pebbles and rocks that look like nothing much at first but can open up wonders under contemplation ... They lead him to understanding the physical make-up of the world, its 'algebra, vertigo, and order.' He exults in their inscrutability and their lack of affect, their silence, their sheer stoniness. "

Marina Warner, "The Writing of Stones." Cabinet, Issue 29 Sloth Spring 2008.

myth is terrible for dietary rules

Head over to The Atlantic archive to read James Hamblin's talk with Alan Levinovitz about the intersection of religious thought and nutrition, storytelling and motivational psychology, and how it all informs faith in science.

Myth is great for talking about where everything came from. Or what happens after you die. Or whether there was something before nothing. What is free will? We don't have great scientific accounts for these things. I think there are religious narratives that help people deal with really important but as-yet unanswerable questions. But myth is terrible for dietary rules.

Ideas about religion can be so powerful that people can't endorse them without giving up a part of their identity. It's the same thing with diets. If you've adopted a diet and it's become part of your identity, asking someone to reconsider something as simple as eating sugar or gluten is kind of like asking someone to give up their faith. To admit that the core of their identity is fundamentally mistaken. The pointy-head scientists and the people affiliated with Big Agriculture couldn't possibly be right because they are demons. -- Alan Levinovitz

the benefits of being cold

Even on the hottest nights, I feel like I need the weight of a blanket, or at least a sheet, to sleep. But like eating sweets or turning up the heat, he sees sheeting and blanketing as acquired habits that can be changed. He was able to wean himself from blankets gradually, by learning to sleep with them first folded down partway, and then folded further, and then, eventually, all the way down to his feet. Cold really isn’t that miserable, he insists, once you’ve gone through withdrawal and adapted
to it.

Cronise said that when people tell him they need a blanket to sleep, he asks them, “Do you walk around in a blanket all day?” (Given the choice, some of us would.) But Cronise is more affable and reasonable-sounding than his anti-blanket rhetoric might suggest. The mild cold exposure he advocates might be as simple as forgoing a jacket when you’re waffling over whether you need one, not layering cardigans over flannels despite the insistence of the fall catalogs, or turning off the space heater under your desk

James Hamblin for The Atlantic. Read the article in full here.

In the stampede to defend and extol western values – whatever they are – against the onslaught of barbarism, it should be recognised that the principles of freedom and equality have never applied to all in the west except in the most formal sense. The criminalisation of communities of colour (and the Irish in Britain) long preceded the war on terror and will, unfortunately, survive it.

Fascism is once again a mainstream ideology in Europe, and Muslims are among its principal targets. Knowing what the odds are for black and Muslim people to be stopped and searched, the ramifications of a “don’t stop, just shoot” policy do not bear thinking about. “Terror,” explains the anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, in Fear of Small Numbers, “opens the possibility that anyone may be a soldier in disguise, a sleeper among us, waiting to strike at the heart of our social slumber.” If such an atmosphere prevails, every brown skin will be just a “cleanskin” (an undercover terrorist not known to the police) waiting to happen – and the #blacklivesmatter slogan will shift from an issue pitching civil rights advocates against local and federal US law enforcement to one of global, geopolitical inequalities.


Those who might insist that racial sensitivity is a luxury we cannot afford at such critical times should realise that it is precisely the trust of black and Asian communities that is most needed to combat this particular fundamentalist scourge. Moreover, if unity against terror is genuinely what we are aiming for, it cannot be achieved by forcing some to live in terror of the state so that others can enjoy the illusion of security – we’re either all in this together or we’re not. Finally, the murder and humiliation of innocent people abroad at the hands of western forces is partly what has brought us to this point, helping to mobilise large numbers of disaffected Muslim youth. Being as callous and careless at home as we have been abroad will hurt, not help.

--Gary Younge for The Guardian. Read the article in full here.

LOVE

Rather, it is what she calls a "micro-moment of positivity resonance." She means that love is a connection, characterized by a flood of positive emotions, which you share with another person—any other person—whom you happen to connect with in the course of your day. You can experience these micro-moments with your romantic partner, child, or close friend. But you can also fall in love, however momentarily, with less likely candidates, like a stranger on the street, a colleague at work, or an attendant at a grocery store. Louis Armstrong put it best in "It's a Wonderful World" when he sang, "I see friends shaking hands, sayin 'how do you do?' / They're really sayin', 'I love you.'"

Emily Esfahani Smith, The Atlantic 1/24/2013. Full text here.

Wishing you many micro-moments of positivity resonance today.

Recommended Read

Road Warrior

After fifty years, Gloria Steinem is still at the forefront of the feminist cause.

By Jane Kramer  || Click the title to read.

 “I’m an entrepreneur of social change,” Steinem says. “I talk. I write. I tell stories. I want to do justice to the women I meet.”  

(Photograph by Inez and Vinoodh for The New Yorker)

your pillow is an orthotic

We tend to think of human movement only in terms of exercising, but every movement or position you get yourself into is fed into your body’s “adapt to this” file. Your tissues respond to environment whether the environment is “sleeping on this mattress” or “running 17 miles.” The process is exactly the same. The reason NOT sleeping on your pillow or mattress hurts is the same reason running 4 miles beyond your regular running distance hurts. You’re just exceeding the boundaries of your tissue strength and created a load greater than what you body is used to...

Katy Bowman on sleeping without a pillow.
Click here to read on.

Dem Bones: Skeletal Structure and Movement Function

"We should be very wary about anyone dictating to us what proper form is in regard to a particular activity without considering our individual variations in structure."

- Todd Hargrove

Optimal alignment or posture for a certain function is partly a result of having as many joints in neutral as possible at any one time. And the shape of the bones will determine how many of your joints you can keep in neutral at the same time in a particular functional task so considering your own skeletal shape is very important.
Click HERE to read Todd's great piece about why skeletal shape matters when it comes to movement and function.

Once Upon a Time

"Unlike what most people think, storytelling does not begin with inventing, it begins with listening" 

- John Berger

Brilliant article about John Berger and his work here

'Brogis need to recognize...'

J.Brown's latest blog post is a smart, kind and much needed reflection on men, women, sex, yoga, teaching and more...read it in full here.

"There is a lot of conversation in the yoga world these day about the “yoga body” and the empowerment of women through yoga. And then there is a backlash of “Broga” classes being marketed where men can be men and do their yoga without having all those empowered women around. We must bridge this gap. Both men and women need to abandon these unhealthy notions of beauty and gender. Both men and women need to learn how to have genuinely mutual relationship to one another.

But lets be clear, men are more to blame. As Holland so eloquently states: “For we are the inheritors of an ancient tradition, going back to the origins of the great civilizations of the past which have so profoundly shaped our consciousness and fashioned the dualism that lies behind our efforts to dehumanize half the human race.”  It’s up to us to either continue carrying the torch for hurt and dysfunction or be courageous enough to forge a better way."

-- J. Brown

The myth of core stability

Doing some research....

• Podcast with Eyal Lederman from liberated bodies. http://www.liberatedbody.com/eyal-lederman-myth-core-stability-lbp-033/
• and Eyal's original paper... http://www.cpdo.net/Lederman_The_myth_of_core_stability.pdf
• an article from Peta Bee  http://www.qn-alexandertechnique.com/page13.html
• some of Stuart Mcgill's ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=033ogPH6NNE

the tip of an ice berg....

How we taste different colours

"When I think of flavour perception, noses and taste buds primarily spring to mind. Sure, other factors such as texture, temperature and touch sensations play a part, but taste and smell are the dominant senses here, right? Well perhaps not. You only have to consider the insatiable public appetite for food porn masquerading as cookbooks to see there is meat to the old adage: we eat with our eyes...."

Read on here

micro-moments of positivity resonance

In her new book Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become, the psychologist Barbara Fredrickson offers a radically new conception of love ... It is not a long-lasting, continually present emotion that sustains a marriage; it is not the yearning and passion that characterizes young love; and it is not the blood-tie of kinship.

Rather, it is what she calls a "micro-moment of positivity resonance." She means that love is a connection, characterized by a flood of positive emotions, which you share with another person—any other person—whom you happen to connect with in the course of your day. You can experience these micro-moments with your romantic partner, child, or close friend. But you can also fall in love, however momentarily, with less likely candidates, like a stranger on the street, a colleague at work, or an attendant at a grocery store. Louis Armstrong put it best in "It's a Wonderful World" when he sang, "I see friends shaking hands, sayin 'how do you do?' / They're really sayin', 'I love you.'"

Emily Esfahani Smith, The Atlantic 1/24/2013. Full text here.

Wishing you many micro-moments of positivity resonance today.

Stretching and muscle activity

Jules Mitchell's Yoga blog is a great resource. Go check it out!
As a biomechanist drawing directly from her experience of movement (specifically in the yoga sphere) she is questioning the common aphorisms of asana instruction and applying modern understandings of the human body in movement to this practice. Its fascinating and very useful.

Here's a little piece...click here to read the rest.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) describes a stretching style that recruits muscle activation of the target muscle somewhere during the stretching process, usually right before. There are at least 9 different methods with slightly varying techniques and durations of contractions (concentric, isometric, and eccentric), holding times and subsequent relaxation/stretching procedures. A detailed review of the methods is too much for this post, so just understand the PNF involves muscle contraction followed by muscle relaxation – often referred to as “contract relax”. 

The most common method of PNF stretching that I have encountered in the world of yoga comes in the form of an “adjustment” by the teacher. For example, during a supine single leg hamstring stretch (Supta Padangusthasana or Recline Big Toe Pose) the teacher provides resistance by firmly holding the leg while the student strongly contracts her hamstring for 6 seconds, pushing leg against the direction of the stretch. The teacher then instructs the student to relax and the teacher passively stretches the student into a new and greater range of motion. Everyone is impressed by how effective the method is – the teacher is brilliant and the student is pleased by her sudden flexibility.

Unfortunately, the momentous increase in range of motion is transient. It is temporary. Within hours ROM will be what it was. The acute improvement of ROM during PNF stretching is really just an illusion. No biomechanical adaptations to the tiss ues occured instantaneously. Short tissues did not suddenly become long. So what happened?

'Love is a physical act and kindness is tangible.'

"I was having a Skype chat with my mother on Sunday. She was smiling from ear to ear, pleased that I was clean-shaven for the role I am currently playing. “I can see your lovely face,” she kept saying. She was also trying to share a bowl of peanuts with me by bumping it into the laptop’s monitor every few minutes. She has stage-two Alzheimer’s, you see. In that futile gesture, however, laid a thought. Love is a physical act. Kindness is tangible.

It seems to me that this is a concept that largely eludes many of us nowadays. We talk about the prudence of military action, of participating in the bombing of this faraway place or that. We use terms such as “surgical strike” and “collateral damage”. Anyone who is unsure about the wisdom of war is met with the response “fine then, let’s do nothing and let innocent people die”. But inaction is not the opposite of bombing, and indifference not the only alternative to war. Pointing to actively working to bring about peace as the alternative, in such a conversation, one is frequently met with a look or a comment that implies you live in some dreamworld where concepts like this exist.

Yet it is not so. To the thousands of people who volunteer at home and abroad, to the people marching to preserve a free and universal national health service, to the millions who care for their elderly relatives, to parents staying up with a child who has a fever, to my confused mother trying to feed her son through a Wi-Fi connection, love is a physical act and kindness tangible...."

Read the rest of this article by Alex Andreou at The Guardian 

WAWADIA Update #14: Practicing Yoga in the “False Body”

Do you sometimes have the feeling that there are two bodies on the mat: the body you have, and the body you fantasize about?

Fascinating stuff, this from Matthew Remski really resonated with me...click here to read on.

Embracing the Rain

“Make sure to have a moment of self-reflection in an undisturbed puddle” 

Words by Taylor Stark Photographs by Marcus Møller Bitsch for Kinfolk Magazine

When it rains, it pours. And during these extreme weather days, that means a lot! Here are some ideas for rainy-day activities indoors and out.  
As the long summer shifts into fall, we welcome not only the turning leaves, but also a change in weather. With perpetual sunshine behind us (well, for some of us), we must embrace the crisp air and the coming rain with full force. The right attitude and rainy-day adventures can be the best way to welcome this new season. We have a few suggestions on how to make the most of your next storm....

Take a Stroll
We’ve been fooled in thinking that rainy days mean we must lock ourselves in our houses until the sun comes out. There’s something wonderful about taking a stroll through the park or any natural space in the rain. The key here is to be prepared. First, have an umbrella on hand at home. Secondly, expect to get wet. Oftentimes we dread walking through the rain because we are on our way to work or to meet a friend and we want to look presentable. Instead, the goal isn’t dryness, but rather to experience the beauty of nature through the lens of precipitation. Don’t forget to stick your tongue out to catch some raindrops before heading back indoors.

 Puddle Jump
There aren’t many aspects of potholes to be praised. But when it rains, these traffic maladies turn into glorious pools of amusement. After a steady downpour, slip on pair of Wellies and take to the streets. Jump from puddle to puddle trying to make the biggest splash. Don’t be afraid to bring a partner in crime along to try some cool tricks or to sing songs as you hop around. Before you head back inside, make sure to have a moment of self-reflection in an undisturbed puddle.

 Feed Your Creative Spirit
Gray skies and rainy days bring along an insightful mood. Take the time to feed your contemplation and creativity, no matter what form it might take. For those seeking rest, cuddle up with a book by the fire. For those seeking to make and express, paint, write a letter, journal or simply draw stick figures on foggy windowpanes.

Take a Breath
Right after the downpour has ceased and you have made the most of your rainy day, indoors or out, step outside your front door and take a deep breath. Few things compare to the smell that follows a good rain.

(read the rest here)

Glorious imperfection.

I like this article: How to stop needing how to-do lists. by Daniel Goldsmith at Recovering Yogi
I think you should read it, you might like it to!

"The wisdom to know when something needs to change must be balanced with the compassionate embrace that things are all right just as they are."

-- Daniel Goldsmith

Three-minute fix...yoga hand exercise

A simple exercise can help you to prevent long-term digit damage

Photograph: Graeme Robertson

If you're reading this online, stop. Lift your hand and let it relax with the palm upwards in front of you. Look at it. If you spend hours each day typing you'll certainly notice the palm of your hand is concave, with the fingers curling round. As you get older, this will  happen even more, and can lead to arthritic pain and reduced mobility.

"I remember an architect in one class," recalls Pam Horton, a teacher-trainer for the British Wheel of Yoga. "He said that when he got up in the morning his fingers were curved over. He had to manually straighten them."

Horton recommends a very easy exercise to prevent long-term damage.
"Put your left hand out with the palm facing upwards, separating your left thumb out to the side," she says. "Keep the forearm, wrist and palm out in a straight line from the elbow.
"Now turn your right hand palm-down," Horton continues, "and make a kind of crocodile's mouth with the thumb as the lower jaw, and the four fingers as the upper jaw. Grip the fingers of your left hand in this mouth, with your right thumb forming a supportive beam beneath the four knuckles of your left fingers where they join the hand. Without bending your wrist, gently bend the fingers down beyond the horizontal and hold them there for 12 seconds. Release and then repeat. Now reverse the process and do the same stretch twice on the other hand."

Horton recommends doing this three times a day, although you could do more, or fewer, depending on how much time you feel you spend with your hands curved over.

Article by Leo Benedictus

Via The Guardian, Tuesday 22 March 2011

The Many Poses of Marcel Marceau

"Marceau teaches his students to breathe silently when they move. When we watch fish in water, he tells them, it’s beautiful because they’re completely silent. Watching silence is like watching through glass. Silence has a musicality, he says.

On stage, the mime can appear subject to altered physical laws. He can defy gravity. Among the dancers who borrow from Marceau are Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. The dancer and choreographer Roland Petit decrees that all ballet students must train in the art of mime. Zizi Jeanmaire performs mimes with Marceau, dressed in mirror-image white bell-bottoms, a striped top, a squashed hat, and ballet pumps. Michael Jackson is a disciple of Marceau. His moonwalk is a version of “walking against the wind.”"

 Mime acts move like a dream!
Read the rest of the article by Mave Fellowes in The Paris Review.