Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle Washington

There is much talk about Unity Consciousness among those who are choosing to co-create with the evolution of the Gaian Web of Consciousness. Among those who are actively working with Carl Calleman’s unfolding of the Mayan Calendar. Even among those who just recognize that our world and particularly the human species’ place in it is in a place of huge transformation.

To me Unity Consciousness means acting from my particular place with complete service to the bigger whole. With harmony, equality, and reverance for All That Is in the Gaian Web of Life. Recognizing the complexities and polarities that exist in service to the bigger whole. Honoring the diversity within the harmony and equality.

The River of Unity

As I write this, I am sitting at the edge of the West Fork of the Methow River in the North Cascades on day two of a five-day backpack. Unity Consciousness could not be more clearly represented. All around me, there are cycles and fractals of complexity and diversity within Nature’s Unity.

The light is waning near sunset after a day filled with early morning raindrops, high clouds mysteriously playing peek-a-boo with Mt. Ballard and plenty of glorious sunshine for miles along the Pacific Crest Trail. What a difference there was at this time last night. It was cool and misting on and off with low hanging clouds and frequent high winds. Twenty-four hours later there is a completely opposite polarity feel. A complex cycle within Unity.

The gentle giggles of the river as it flows by couldn’t exist if not for the rain. I couldn’t survive on a backpack if it wasn’t for the many mountain creeks and rivers that so graciously provide water. The huge diversity of flowers, trees and shrubs couldn’t exist without the same water, clouds and sunshine. The marmots, chipmunks, bears, bobcats, squirrels and countless varieties of birds couldn’t survive without the amazing diversity of flora. This complexity within Unity IS LIFE.

In the distance, a flock of birds flows, dives, moves in Unity above the river. Each is individually swooping, curving and moving although they move as one synchronous form. THIS is complexity within Unity, once again.

Night is beginning to fall. The temperature cools. The melting water off the snowfields and glaciers slows down to a much more gentle pace. Just like the pace of the deer who slowly stops nibbling and looks for a place to lie down on the forest floor. Then tomorrow the cycle will repeat in a similar, yet different way. All does their part in service to the greater whole of Nature. Complexity within Unity. This is Unity Consciousness.

The cycles continue........

Enter the human. We have had thousands of years of practice of living as if we are separate from the integral interconnected Gaian Web of Life. Living from Duality. Living from Complexity. Getting more and more complex. However, not having that duality, diversity and complexity be in service to our greater whole that we are an integral part of. Keeping ourselves separate.

Unity Consciousness means our species will be able to live WITH our Gaian Web of LIfe and not try to control or conquer it. Live much more simply. Supporting the dark and the light, the rain and the sun, the snow and the melt, and the continuing, changing cycles between them all. Supporting also those cycles in ourselves, in our interactions with others, and how we treat all of the species in our GaianWeb of LIfe.

Taking full responsibility for ourselves while simply serving the greater Whole. As the light wanes and darkness arrives, I observe the river, the Douglas Firs, the ferns, the deer, and the ground squirrels just let the darkness arrive. They welcome it. I offer my own welcome to the vibrant quiet of the night.

I know this moment will just move on……..to the next……..and the next……and the previous……and the always……..and the never. Holding it all, right here at the intersection of day and night…..this is Unity.

As Gary Snyder said in a poem we read on the summitt of Crater Peak a few days ago….

This present moment,
which lives on
to become
long ago.

Join Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle for an upcoming class or workshop. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, (206) 459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.

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How is internal power created? The type of power that arises from within and serves the inherent wholeness of the system? This type of power is not hierarchical and is recognized by us as a sense of grace, resilience, and an easy adaptability to the continuous changes that come forth.

Do you have a powerful walk? Just pause for a moment with this question. Pause and notice inside. Notice if a felt sense feeling or ‘image’ arises inside of you as you ‘imagine’ the inner sensation of your walk. Can you sense if you are having to ‘do’ something inside in order to feel yourself walking powerfully? Do you sense a contraction somewhere in order to ‘hold yourself up’ or ‘walk forward with strength?” Or, can you notice if there is even a subtle contraction or closing in of your mind into some sort of a ‘should’ of how a powerful walk has to be?

Walking is one of the most complex activities we do as humans. We can’t control or make ourselves feel more powerful in our walking by holding a fixed belief in how we ‘should’ be. We also can’t create a powerful walk through strengthening a muscle or group of muscles without relating to the pattern of how the whole body is used relative to the ground and gravity during this dynamic activity. Power and grace are a natural state that occur when a system is unified. Unified between intent and action.

Natural Power From Within

This requires a complex and engaging sensory loop for monitoring when effort may occur. When effort is able to be sensed, a new possibility can arise. This requires a lightly structured, yet highly playful sensory foreground/background relationship that changes. Add engaging curiosity, non-judgmental attention, and reduced speed to the feedback loop of noticing and new possibilities begin to emerge. Thus, ease and efficiency may be accessed in a novel way. If we want to create an opportunity to learn how to feel a different experience in our walk, being able to notice a sensory difference is required.

As noted, walking is highly complex. There is a dynamic spiraling movement occurring at all moments. This is dynamic partially due to a continual changing dance between our relationship to gravity and our inherent vitality to remain upright and alive. At any given moment in time, we are unaware of the millions of small incremental changes and dance moves our nervous system is making to keep us walking on our intended path.

THE WALKING SPIRAL

Continuously unfolding through walking is a spiraling movement made up of dynamic action within all three planes at the very same time. From one moment to the next, there is an infinite number of ways our nervous system can arrange the trillions of muscle fibers moving our numerous bones. Of course these changes are always relative to gravity and our intended path. One way to become more clear about any unintended effort in walking is to bring each one of these senses into the foreground of our noticing….. while walking. This allows for a felt-sense comparison to arise. Effort and unease can begin to get recognized as a felt-sense.

With practice, the noticing system gets more clear in it’s ability to differentiate ease versus effort relative to the intended path. The effortful pattern gently changes to a fresh and easier pattern which can serve the inherent whole in a more effective way. This shows up inside as a sense of smoothness, grace, and a natural power.

NOTICE WITH A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Here is an analogy. Take a triangular shaped object and paint each corner a different bright color. We’ll say blue, red and purple. Imagine placing it in a vat of some type of clear and moderately thick oil. Imagine how the triangular shaped object may turn over spontaneously in many different types of pattens as it slowly descends through the oil.

For a moment, as you gaze upon the scenario, you can see a blue-red pattern. In another moment a red-purple or a purple-blue pattern as well as many other more complex patterns. These pattens can interchange from moment to moment, all dependent on how your system is perceiving the unfolding movement. With each individual pattern noticed, you may label the overall movement with a different ‘name’ or quality. Could be fast, slow, smooth, easy, jerky, etc….Or you may just step back and observe one whole pattern of the object moving through the oil—just a continuous whole.

Each combination of noticing (say blue-red) is analogous to a shift in your awareness. This allows you a certain perspective on the whole. The same thing happens in a walking ATM®. We may explore a lesson about one pattern within walking (like the blue-red pattern). For example, there could be a lesson exploring how your arms move relative to how weight is transferring across your feet. This allows any effort anywhere in this pattern a chance to be noticed by you.

As time goes on and your noticing feedback ability gets more subtle, smaller amounts of unnecessary effort within that particular pattern will stand out. When effort is noticed with curiosity and a ‘not trying to fix’ awareness, then your system inherently will begin to discard the pattern of effort– as it is less efficient. Over time, this letting go leads to more authentic options arising for how you walk. These will arise from a state of dynamic, adaptable and changing sense of inner wisdom and power. Maybe better stated as ‘powering.” Alive, vibrant, changing and ever-present to your requirements as you walk through life.

Join Carrie’s 10th Annual Walking ATM® series at Greenlake Park at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle. She can be contacted at (206) 459-1773, feldychi@comcast.net or http://www.movementfromwithin.net.

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It had been a high snow year with lots of snow in the mountains and several snowfalls very late in the season. This can make for treacherous conditions on early season hikes. It was the 4th of July and we chose Vesper Peak off the Mountain Loop Highway. The view from the top is incredible and even on an easier snow year the challenges along the way are many. This particular year the level of challenge was even more significant. We had our ice axes and we needed them. It was on a section about 2/3 of the way up the peak. There is a very steep and narrow gully that had seen little to no sun yet that year. The snow was mostly hard-packed or ice. The angle to get up this gully to the pass below the summit was close to vertical with the snowpack as it was. The run out at the bottom was big sharp boulders or partially melted out areas with deep openings to the very cold creek below.

There is an idea to keep in mind when snow scrambling or climbing……Don’t go up anything you can’t come down. Coming down is always harder. On this particular day, going up was at the upper limits of challenge for me. Now lunch was over and it was time to down. Still no sun on the gully and the ice/snow seemed even colder, harder, steeper and more dangerous than a few hours earlier. It had to be down-climbed. This means turning around backwards to the direction you are intending to travel and merging with the mountain—your belly facing and very near to the ice. The angle felt completely vertical and in reality it wasn’t too much less than that internal feeling. The pattern—plant the ice axe firmly into the ice/snow sometimes having to chip out a place one chip at a time. Use the ice axe with both hands as a ‘third leg’ and remove an actual leg to step a nearly vertical down-step below. Hopefully into a an already kicked out step. Otherwise having to kick one out first. Step with the other leg below the first in the same way. Three legs, three points of contact, one always moving. Ice axe, step, step. Ice axe, step, step. Some of the steps were too large or tall for me so many opportunities to kick out my own.

The path can be challenging and beautiful at the same time

The elevation descent was somewhere around 1000 feet. Seemed more like 10,000 or even more. There were moments of fear. The tendency to panic was high. The desire to numb out was there. The opportunities for practicing staying in the present moment were endless. I got down that gully one present moment at a time. My partner was there with words of support and connection however each step would only be made by my own moment to moment presence connection with myself and the mountain. Over and over again.

We are on a climb of this sorts as a human collective. We are in this together yet each walking our own distinct path. The gully we are in can seem insurmountable and the conditions are treacherous. The only way out is through. How do you stay connected to the raw, visceral sense of each step?

Our gully of sorts is made up of gargantuan systems that are all connected together in their unsustainable ways. Economic, environmental, educational, philosophical, relational, and spiritual to name a few of the big ones. The conditions that make up these huge systems have arisen from our personal and collective disconnection from our inherent completely inseparable nature with our planet and our Cosmos. Seeking after a way of controlling Nature.

GAIA CONSCIOUSNESS

Teilhard de Chardin calls it the noosphere and James Lovelock calls it Gaia Consciousness. All life is woven together in a very subtle web of interconnection–organic and inorganic life. This interconnection is one single self-regulating system of Consciousness. Our ability as a collective and therefore personally to create a different reality than the one we have created thus far can only arise from remembering and reconnecting to our inherent wholeness and inseparable nature with this wisdom Gaia Consciousness. Becoming one with the moment. Living it, experiencing it in direct sensation with an open, curious wonder. No matter what the moment holds. Staying connected in this way is where all new possibilities, new ways of being and doing reside. These are often called insights, realizations or just new embodied compassionate actions. Staying connected in this way is how I got down that mountain. It is the same way through your own personal moment to moment challenges of life and the collective moments which are one and the same.

Something I experience frequently in my work is the opportunity to sit with another person when they feel overwhelmed. This is often when the tendency to numb out is incredibly strong. It’s all too big. I can’t change it. My small action right now in this moment can’t effect it. It’s easier to just throw up my hands and give up—turn to some reactionary measure to momentarily feel better.

Each moment you draw yourself back to experience only this present moment is practice. When the gully is icy, steep, cold and dangerous, you only have one moment at a time to move through. That is all you ever have. Each chip of ice you move makes a difference. Every action, thought, sensation, feeling makes a difference. None are worthless. They are all equal in presence. Sometimes one chip at a time is the only way up, over, through or down the gully.

David Whyte, one of my favorite poets recommends a question like this: What beautiful courageous step can you take now that your future self will look back and thank you for?

We as a collective have created our disconnection from Gaia Consciousness and feed that disconnection with more disconnection from the very overwhelming systems we have created.

CHOOSE CONNECTION

The only way out is through…..through connection. May you choose curious wonder in each moment–no matter what the moment holds. May you choose courage laced with love when it is required. May we all choose to experience the fullness of life—the raw, intimate moments of connection to what is. May our actions arise form this place of universal connection.

How do you disconnect?

You can find Carrie Lafferty at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle. Join her for an upcoming session or class. She can be contacted at (206)459-1773, feldychi@comcast.net, or http://www.movementfromwithin.net.

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For as long as indigenous cultures have communed with, known their interconnection with, and lived their lives directly in relationship to Nature, an integral part of that connection has been honoring the four directions.

Archetypal representation of the four directions in most ancient cultures is a world tree. The world tree at it’s most basic level is a vertical axis and a horizontal axis making a connection between Cosmos (or Heaven) and Earth (vertical axis) and surrounding to All That Is (horizontal axis). Humans with their basic anatomy in an open posture (standing upright with arms extended to the sides) are a microcosm of that same world tree.

I have studied several indigenous culture’s representation of the world tree and practiced most intimately in the Chinese/Daoist tradition. The embodiment of the specific qualities of each of the directions is an intimate, direct and very personal dynamic process. This comes from a curious, direct intent to explore how the energies of the directions will manifest for you. There are many avenues for pursuing this sort of practice. All indigenous cultures have made their own avenues for this embodiment pursuit in order to find healing, wisdom, spiritual connection, and connection to the wisdom of Nature in order to live in a sustainable and interconnected way.

Very powerful shamanic tree in Tikal, Guatemala

Much of our world’s population has lost their connection to the four directions–lost their connection to Nature. Out Earth, which is a living wisdom consciousness inseparable from the rest of the Cosmos and Nature as well as inseparable from all sentient beings living interconnected with all of her surfaces, is in pain. She is laboring to support the birth of an awakened Unity Consciousness human species. She is not a thing or a process for humanity to control or take charge of.

Upcoming on Saturday, May 28, I will be hosting an event in conjunction with a multitude of other global events to recreate a sacred space for Earth. This will be done by creating a global Medicine Wheel. All of these ceremonies will be occurring within the same 48-hour time period and in specific relationship to a shift in the Mayan Calendar that is pushing forward the sprout of humanity’s Unity Consciousness.

The Medicine wheel is created by honoring the four directions and our intimate and inseparable interconnection to those directions. Every tradition, every ceremony, every event will be creating their Medicine wheel according to their own specific types of practices at the time of the event. All together they will co-create a collective intent to honor, commune with, know interconnection with, and embody within ourselves our inseparable relationship to Earth, Cosmos and All That Is.

Some simple examples of the archetypal qualities of the directions are very obvious to most when considered. The direction east, where the sun rises, is often the beginning of the Medicine wheel in many shamanic cultures. Think of qualities of inspiration and new beginnings. The direction south has qualities of perseverance and strength. The direction west has the setting sun and qualities of transformation and completion. The direction north has qualities of assimilation and stillness.

The May 28 event will be very simple and yet, very deep. Please come with an open heart, a desire to create in your own heartspace and the collective heartspace an embodied connection to Earth. These times we are in are powerfully transformative! Of course, as transformation occurs, old forms, ideas, beliefs, images and systems will no longer be able to exist. Out of this powerful surrender and release a true sustainable, Unity human species can grow. One that lives in complete connection with Earth as a living wisdom and with other sentient beings in the same way. Hope to have you join the circle at the event!

You may reach Carrie Lafferty at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, (206) 459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.

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I know how to do it. That is, load up my backpack for an extended backpacking trip–3-day, 5-day, or like last summer a 7-day trip. We had a route plan in the Olympics for 7 days with destinations that had been longed for…..for years. Then, there was a a fire in the Olympics. You could see the smoke from Seattle for days (even nearly 2 weeks) before our trip. The fire started by lightning and the Forest Service was allowing it to burn on it’s own while monitoring for safety. We knew as we drove to pick up our permits that we may have our route affected by the fire. We were right. Recommendations to close a trail that we were planning to use on our way back from our 48-mile loop were being strongly considered. So—-now what?

Paying attention and allowing the initial gratitude for having this information now instead of once we were already in the backcountry was noticed. Right next to the gratitude was disappointment for the loss of our initial plan. Also wonder, curiosity and excitement for coming up with a new plan. We pulled out the maps, along with an extremely helpful and knowledgeable ranger Cliff and we came up with Plan B.

Plan B was a ‘lollipop loop’ instead of a full loop. A lollipop loop is just as it sounds. Go in on a route and then make a big loop in a clock-wise direction and come out on the same original trail (the stick of the lollipop, so to speak). This route was 63 miles and much more ambitious. The three of us looked at each other, considered our other options, sat with the feeling of the plan and signed up for a new permit. Good thing we had the bear canisters as this route would have us camping more off-trail and they would be necessary. We had 7 days of supplies and now we had a long day in front of us. It was August. It was hot.

Somewhere in the backcountry.....

Backpacking is an incredible experience. It allows you to get to places very, very, few ever roam. Pristine lakes high in glacial basins, amazing stars and moon risings, sun risings and sunsets, cascading waterfalls, old growth trees, all of the amazing abundance of Pacific NW wildflowers, and often, as an incredible highlight, is close-up and afar encounters with wildlife. This trip we saw a herd of about 25 elk on a misty early morning still waking up from their prone slumber, 7 bears in various state of play, grazing, frolicking at a creek with a mother and 2 cubs and a snake that whizzed by us going about 70 mph on a trail as we came upon him in surprise. The sound of silence, the intimacy of the present moment of a cascading river being followed for miles, being so grateful for a warm cup of tea in the early morning cool air, feeling the power of a cold fast moving river on your feet as you ford it (for the fourth time!)…..the list goes on. Mostly I backpack because the experiences allow me to most fully, intimately and clearly access my interconnection with Nature, myself, others and a wisdom of harmony, balance, simplicity, vitality and shear presence at every moment.

Back to Day one: our packs were heavy. It was hot. The river we followed for 7 miles was endless in it’s wild beauty dancing over rocks, chasms and winding this way and that. At about 4 pm that afternoon, we had an option. Stop at a particular camp or go another 3 miles to the next camp. Longer day today or longer day tomorrow? Discomfort, fatigue, heat, some annoying bugs all surrounded by the extreme raw beauty of amazing woods, alongside this continuous flow of wild river. That day, I was the one who was most uncomfortable. Other days at moments of other adventures, both of my friends were ‘the uncomfortable one.” We all had our moments.

What do you do in a moment of discomfort? I had to pause and feel my tired, hot feet, the ache in my shoulders, the hot stickiness of my skin and the full aliveness of the moment. Discomfort is no less (or no more) alive than comfort. Presence comes from fully experiencing the moment—whatever it holds.

What do you do when you are uncomfortable and in a tight place?

We undertook an ambitious and yet fully doable intent in this route choice— for the three of us. We had certain camps on certain days that we had permits for, with full open possibilities in between. We had our passion and love for Nature, the backcountry and what the intimacy of this kind of trip creates. We had years of experience. We had determination to see Anderson Glacier. We had perseverance AND we had some discomfort!

This is not unlike the backpack journey of being human. You carry everything you need on your back except for water (and huckleberries, of course!) that you receive with gratitude from Mother Nature along the way. You run into route changes, fires, annoying bugs, raging rivers that require fording time and time again, more elevation and distance than you ‘had planned for’. All this, contained within the beauty, rawness, and intimacy of the connection and interconnection with All That Is from one moment to the next.

Uncomfortable things happen in life, sometimes we are more prepared and sometimes less. How do you approach uncomfortableness? Do you mourn or complain? This isn’t the way “it should be.” “The way it always is, or isn’t.” Can you open with friendliness to the experience of discomfort within you and just feel? Not get caught up in the content of the details of the moment? Just feel discomfort -the intimate experience within you. Feel the rawness, the intimacy —with a friendly awareness? This will change in a moment–as all sensations do. Widening and allowing the moment with not resisting, forcing, hiding, or ignoring allows the moment to change—to unfold on it’s own.

Then the raw connection to your aliveness can come forth more easily. Raw doesn’t necessarily mean uncomfortable but authentic, intimate, present, basic, uncut, alive wholeness!

There are many uncomfortable things going on in our world–likely in your own personal world also. Can you allow your experience of discomfort to be present and still connect to your aliveness? Can you open with love, compassion and curiosity to your discomfort?

Can you then act with passion with what you feel truly connected to/with? Act with determination to remain present and continue to remain present even in the face of discomfort? And with perseverance? And most of all do all of this with friendliness and curiosity for what is and how what is morhps and changes …..to what is……again and again.

This is what I did as I got to the top of that hill….hot, tired and uncomfortable…..surrounded by the wind in tall old growth trees, a chasm with a wild roaring river below me and a log to rest on. We came to our first camp 3 miles later. Located in a grove of tall trees, next to the river and experienced much gratitude for a dip in the river and warm food and tea.

Remaining present requires practice. Join Carrie Lafferty at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle in an upcoming workshop or event. She can be found at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, (206) 459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.

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