Evolution

Dr. Bigelow: What can I do for you?
Louie: Uh, well, I hurt my back today really bad. Uh. Can you help me with my back? I mean...
Dr. Bigelow: What's wrong with your back?
Louie: It hurts.
Dr. Bigelow: My professional diagnosis is your back hurts.
Louie: Well, what can I do about it?
Dr. Bigelow: Nothing.
Louie: Nothing?
Dr. Bigelow: The problem is you're using it wrong. The back isn't done evolving yet. You see, the spine is a row of vertebrae. It was designed to be horizontal. Then people came along and used it vertical. Wasn't meant for that. So the disks get all floppy, swollen. Pop out left, pop out right. It'll take another. I'd say 20,000 years to get straightened out. Till then, it's going to keep hurting.
Louie: So that's it?
Dr. Bigelow: It's an engineering design problem. It's a misallocation. We were given a clothesline and we're using it as a flagpole.
Louie: So what should I do?
Dr. Bigelow: Use your back as it was intended. Walk around on your hands and feet. Or accept the fact that your back is going to hurt sometimes. Be very grateful for the moments that it doesn't. Every second spent without back pain is a lucky second. String enough of those lucky seconds together, you have a lucky minute.
Louie: Okay.
Dr. Bigelow: Come see me when you have something fun like a blood disease. That's what I went to school for.

HA! This again via Mrs Rebecca Ketchum cus it make me giggle...

spiral motion

“When a person loses his way in the forest or in snowstorms or fogs he goes around in circles as long as he keeps on moving, until in some way or other he finds his way again. The same is true of foxes, rabbits, antelopes,’ and doubtless other animals, when hard pressed in the chase. Going down lower in the scale of organisms, where there are only poorly developed guiding senses, as in some of the crustacea, or none at all as in the protozoa arid the flatworms, one finds these creatures going in circles all the time that they are in movement, hut with a ‘drift,’ making the path a loose helical spiral. In all these animals and, in fact, in all motile organisms whatsoever, there is a deep-seated spiralling mechanism which leads an animal to go in a series of circles of spiral form when there are no guiding senses, as in the lower organisms. or when the guiding senses do not function through fear or for other reasons, in the higher. A tendency to spiral locomotion is inherent in all moving organisms. An examination of biological literature shows, as is well known, that the lower animals : flagellates, ciliates, rotifers, and the marine larvae of echinoderms, molluscs, worms, and crustacea swim in spiral paths, as well as some of the zoospores of algae and a few spermatozoa. So many organisms, in fact, swim in spiral paths that the negative aspect of the question is the more practical form for purposes of investigation : Are there any motile organisms which do not move in spiral paths when guiding senses are absent or not functioning?”

from here: “Spiral motion in man”

Lucy's Daughters

the long body

The long body is a Native American term which refers to the individual body plus the life support systems around it. It is a much bigger conception of the human body than we have in western culture, and considers the body continuous with the larger environment.
The perception of our bodies as isolated units is dangerous because it doesn’t take into consideration that organisms live in context. We co-evolve with our habitats over many millions of years.
We think we have nervous systems to regulate our bodies- and we do- however the nervous system has other functions- for humans in particular -  it's purpose is to learn habitat and our social environment too.

-- Frank Forencich over at Liberated Body

Evolution

Dr. Bigelow: What can I do for you?
Louie: Uh, well, I hurt my back today really bad. Uh. Can you help me with my back? I mean...
Dr. Bigelow: What's wrong with your back?
Louie: It hurts.
Dr. Bigelow: My professional diagnosis is your back hurts.
Louie: Well, what can I do about it?
Dr. Bigelow: Nothing.
Louie: Nothing?
Dr. Bigelow: The problem is you're using it wrong. The back isn't done evolving yet. You see, the spine is a row of vertebrae. It was designed to be horizontal. Then people came along and used it vertical. Wasn't meant for that. So the disks get all floppy, swollen. Pop out left, pop out right. It'll take another. I'd say 20,000 years to get straightened out. Till then, it's going to keep hurting.
Louie: So that's it?
Dr. Bigelow: It's an engineering design problem. It's a misallocation. We were given a clothesline and we're using it as a flagpole.
Louie: So what should I do?
Dr. Bigelow: Use your back as it was intended. Walk around on your hands and feet. Or accept the fact that your back is going to hurt sometimes. Be very grateful for the moments that it doesn't. Every second spent without back pain is a lucky second. String enough of those lucky seconds together, you have a lucky minute.
Louie: Okay.
Dr. Bigelow: Come see me when you have something fun like a blood disease. That's what I went to school for.

HA! Thanks Miss Rebecca Ketchum for finding this!

take a step back

Try not to think of yoga as bricks and mortar, a monument to be preserved, but as something in the course of it's own evolution - and don't hold back from contributing to that evolution! 

(image: Erwin Blumenfeld, 1944 via thesphinxandthemilkyway)

Inspiration

What inspires YOU to move?

This blog (and my other one) is a rolling sketchbook of the things that make me think, laugh and inspire me to do more. 

 

I think taking inspiration mostly from within the field you are immersed in often just results in repackaging rather then an evolution of ideas so i'm always looking, as much as possible, outside of my own yoga realm. 

Since my number 1 intention when moving is always freedom and function there is alot to be learned from all 'movement specialisms' and i'm only just beginning...

For my last week of posts this year I thought I should concentrate on what inspires me the most (at the moment anyway) Curiosities for the year ahead, if you like...

(image by Lee Jung)

Ido Portal

"Live life dynamically. MOVE MORE."
Ido Portal: Movement Culture

This guy is interesting...check him out in interview here.