allan

In the cold weather or if I handle cold objects my hands often will feel chilled.  A good way to make use of them is my Winter meditation.  Lie back in my recliner and place one hand on my forehead and the other on the back of my neck. Relax.  Let go.  For 15 or 20 minutes (maybe more) there is no place to go and nothing to do.  Eventually the hands warm and the head cools, all directions for meditation, relaxation, stress relief.  AllanRead More →

If you have wandered through a good magazine shop lately or bookstore you might have noticed all the titles of both books and magazines with the word ‘mindfulness’ in them.  I must have seen half a dozen magazines at our local Barnes and Noble with that word on their cover as either the name of the magazine or the lead article.  ‘Mindfulness’ is part of our culture now and is probably more acceptable than ‘meditation’ which is what it used to be called. Mindfulness is  calm reflection;  enjoying some peace, quiet, stillness;  relaxed awareness;  dispassion.  It might be the antidote to what ails us and thatRead More →

Work gives purpose, meaning and value to life.  Some people never want to stop working for those reasons.  And unless you are born rich and inclined towards idleness you will need and want to do something.  We have to be motivated.  The notion of having to work needs to be planted in our conscience early on, prodding us to go to school for 15 or 20 years and then to work for another 40.  The luxury in retirement is that there are times to lose the motivation and the notion of having to work.  You can rest and relax.  There is no place to goRead More →

Being all tied up is no way to spend a lifetime.   Yoga and meditation are good for what ails us and give us relief.   Jan does her version of lazy woman yoga every morning;   it is part of her daily maintenance program.  The Hip StandRead More →

I have been tallying up the benefits to aging and growing old. (And yes there are benefits despite all the propaganda that we need to stay young at all costs, botox injections anyone?)   Benefits to aging: We can be more settled, take our pleasures closer to home or at home.   We can rest and relax more and take naps and do little or no work.   Our obligations shrink, if we want to let them, and we can do what we want more often if we want to do anything at all.  If there is a time for more peace, ease, and rest this is it. TheRead More →

How “easy” can you stand it?  Deep relaxation can be scary and downright catatonic.  Find yourself immobile and liking it.  Comes with the conviction that you might not ever move again.  Blessed and blissful stillness.  Eventually the spell is broken and you find yourself moving but only for something to eat or to go to the bathroom.  Then back to bed or the recliner.Read More →

Subject: art and science of reclining This is what a recliner jockey looks like.  This is total indulgence and you have to be in shape for it.   What is particularly satisfying is this is how you get into shape for it.  I am completely conscious but  it might not look that way. Read More →

  The story of Mohammad’s epiphany interests me.  He would go off to a cave and meditate on a regular basis.  One day he felt the breath being squeezed out of him and was told to “recite”.  He resisted; he was not a scholar but a simple man and perhaps even illiterate.  He called the squeezing out of his breath wrestling with an angel and I think he was feeling his own difficulty breathing, a deep physical kind of awareness.  His release was also his liberation and his inspiration.  Most of that inspiration went into the Koran and the religion he established.  There is no denying theRead More →

  Lazy Man Yoga.  5 postures in 5 minutes on a roller.  No strain, no pain, no exertion.  Let gravity do the work.  Learn to surrender and let go.  Find your capacity for Peace, Ease, Rest.  Read More →

 It is Interesting that early researchers into our physiology should have called and named the stress inducing aspect of our nervous system “sympathetic” which usually has a positive connotation in our language.  It is the strong emotional side to our functioning; what is usually referred to as “the fight or flight response”.  It is the basic strong stress response that energizes and mobilizes the body for action and exertion. Unfortunately in our civilized world the response is still the same as it was for our distant ancestors, but without the usual physical exertions that it prepares us for.   It tends now to create tensions andRead More →