Each of us is a moving center, a space of divine mystery. And though we spend most of our time on the surface in the daily details of ordinary existence, most us hunger to connect to this space within, to break through to bliss, to be swept away into something bigger than us.

As a young dancer, I made the transition from the world of steps and structures to the world of transformation and trance by exposure to live drumming. The beats, the patterns, the rhythms kept calling me deeper and deeper into my dance.

Being young, wild and free, it didn’t dawn on me that in order to go into deep ecstatic places, I would have to be willing to transform absolutely everything that got in my way. That included every form of inertia: the physical inertia of tight and stressed muscles; the emotional baggage of depressed, repressed feelings; the mental baggage of dogmas, attitudes and philosophies. In other words, I’d have to let it all go — everything.

At the time, I was teaching movement to tens of thousands of people and, in them, I began to witness my own body/spirit split. Between the head and feet of any given person is a billion miles of unexplored wilderness. I yearned to know what was going on in that wilderness, not only in me, but in everyone else as well.

And so, movement became both my medicine and my meditation. Having found and healed myself in its wild embrace, I became a mapmaker for others to follow, but not in my footsteps, in their own. Many of us are looking for a beat, something solid and rooted where we can take refuge and begin to explore the fluidity of being alive, to investigate why we often feel stuck, numb, spaced-out, tense, inert, and unable to stand up or sit down or unscramble the screens that reflect our collective insanity.

The question I ask myself and everyone else is, “Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?” Can we be free of all that binds and bends us into a shape of consciousness that has nothing to do with who we are from moment to moment, from breath to breath?

Dance is the fastest, most direct route to the truth — not some big truth that belongs to everybody, but the get down and personal kind, the what’s-happening-in-me-right-now kind of truth. We dance to reclaim our brilliant ability to disappear in something bigger, something safe, a space without a critic or a judge or an analyst.

We dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things, to wipe out memory or transform it into moves that nobody else can make because they didn’t live it. We dance to hook up to the true genius lurking behind all the bullshit — to seek refuge in our originality and our power to reinvent ourselves; to shed the past, forget the future and fall into the moment feet first. Remember being fifteen, possessed by the beat, by the thrill of music pumping loud enough to drown out everything you’d ever known?

The beat is a lover that never disappoints and, like all lovers, it demands 100% surrender. It has the power to seduce moves we couldn’t dream. It grabs us by the belly, turns us inside out and leaves us abruptly begging for more. We love beats that move faster than we can think, beats that drive us ever deeper inside, that rock our worlds, break down walls and make us sweat our prayers. Prayer is moving. Prayer is offering our bones back to the dance. Prayer is letting go of everything that impedes our inner silence. God is the dance and the dance is the way to freedom and freedom is our holy work.

We dance to survive, and the beat offers a yellow brick road to make it through the chaos that is the tempo of our times. We dance to shed skins, tear off masks, crack molds, and experience the breakdown — the shattering of borders between body, heart and mind, between genders and generations, between nations and nomads. We are the transitional generation.

This is our dance.

“Shed the past, forget the future and fall into the moment feet first”

Why do we dance? We dance because it’s the fastest, most direct route to the truth — not some big truth that belongs to everybody, but the get down and personal kind, the what’s-happening-in-me- right-now kind of truth. This is not always easy for us to access — we have to navigate some very deep past, as well as the probable futures we drum up to feed the fear that drives us round the same circles, day in and day out. We dance to hook up to the true genius lurking behind all that bullshit — to seek refuge in our originality and our power to reinvent ourselves; to shed the past, forget the future and fall into the moment feet first. You remember being fifteen, possessed by the beat, by the thrill of music pumping loud enough to drown out everything you’d ever known. Of course you do.

We dance to reclaim our brilliant ability to disappear in something bigger, something safe, a space without a critic or a judge or an analyst. The beat is a lover that never disappoints and, like all lovers, it demands 100% surrender. It has the power to seduce moves we couldn’t dream. It grabs us by the belly, turns us inside out and leaves us abruptly begging for more. The beat is bad, wicked, sick –whatever the word is now.

“Dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things”

We dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things, to wipe out memory or transform it into moves that nobody else can make because they didn’t live it. It’s a sacred thing, the beat. We love beats that move faster than we can think, beats that drive us ever deeper inside, that rock our worlds, break down walls and make us sweat our prayers.

We dance to survive and the beat offers a yellow brick road to make it through the chaos that is the tempo of our times. Chaos is the way of the mind when it is free-styling , winging its way back to an instinctive, intuitive intelligence, the kind we need to survive — not only the real shit going down, but the massive amount of stuff we insist on making up to insure our suffering. God provides, and god don’t need no help. God is the dance and the dance is the way to freedom and freedom is our holy work.

So get down and find out what your hands, your shoulders, your elbows, knees and, most importantly, your hips and feet have to say about it. There is a dance only you can do, that exists only in you, here and now, always changing, always true. Are you willing to listen with fascination? If you are, it will deliver you unto the self you have always dreamed you could be. This is a promise.

Gabrielle Roth
Manhattan on a hot muggy day in July
www.gabrielleroth.com

These days everyone has become conscious of conserving energy.  When we think of energy conservation we think about the best ways to heat our homes or which car is most fuel-efficient.  But how many of us have given any thought to one of the fuels that our bodies use?  I’m talking about oxygen.  To enjoy higher levels of energy, improve our posture, and lower our response to stress, it’s essential to learn to breathe efficiently, to be fuel-efficient.

PEAK EFFICIENCY

Breathing is indispensable and at its best when it is effortless.  Most of us don’t think about the way we breathe.  We usually take breathing for granted; we don’t realize the harmful effects that faulty breathing can have, or the freedom we can gain by improving how we breathe.  Most of us begin life breathing fully and without strain.  As we age, our natural breathing abilities and rhythms become compromised for many different reasons.  Nevertheless we can return our breathing to its inherent ease and maximal flow.  Ironically, the respiratory system reaches its peak efficiency the less we interfere.  In fact, the less you do, the better it is.  So the trick is, how to do less?  How do we get out of the way of our own breathing?

STRESS… AND OTHER OBSTRUCTIONS TO FLOW AND EASE

Breathing is on-going; we are either letting the breath out or allowing the breath in. The air we breathe is the most adaptable fuel you can find.  Under normal circumstances, we never have to worry about our next incoming breath.  Unfortunately, due to unconscious habits and other stresses on the respiratory system, we often lose our natural breathing rhythms.  In today’s world, respiratory complications come from a myriad of causes: environmental pollutants, stress, neuromuscular and skeletal problems, illness such as asthma, headache, backache, the flu, gastrointestinal problems, and last but not least, emotional ups-and-downs.  And then there are the various medications prescribed to treat these symptoms, which often interfere with natural breathing rhythms.

We have an internal landscape which is always in motion.  Food is being digested, blood is circulating, nerves are passing messages.  Breathing actually massages all our internal organs.  When we hold our breath, we hinder much of  this movement.  If we can learn to let go of the breath, we can learn to exhale and create space within the crush of our collapsed, braced bodies.  You know those moments when you tighten or push yourself?  You’re probably holding your breath.  Exploring your own physical and emotional responses to stress can lead to greater self-awareness, and greater freedom and ease.  The breath is a great barometer for recognizing those habits that create road-blocks and constrain our lives.

HOW BREATHING WORKS

Let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of the breath.  First of all, we need to remind ourselves that the body is three-dimensional and that breathing functions all the way around.  The motion of the breath begins with the movement  of  the diaphragm in the middle of the torso, and expands throughout the  ribs and back and a bit into the abdomen.  The diaphragm – a horizontal flexible dome lying just below the lungs and heart, separating the chest from the abdomen – is responsible for the filling and emptying of the lungs.  Its upward movement helps move air out of the lungs, and its downward movement encourages the lungs to fill.

Intercostals, abdominal and back muscles are equally important to the coordination of the breath and the body. The  motion in the back and sides of the ribs, often neglected, is vital to priming the breath.  Mobility in the ribs encourages connection with the lower back and the neck.  Breathing is at its best when it is synergistic and involuntary.

THE EFFECTS OF MUSCLING; THE BENEFITS OF EASE

So, for synergy, for optimal breathing coordination, it’s best not to attempt to isolate any of the muscles of the respiratory system.  It isn’t necessary to suck air in or push the air out.  Muscles will tighten in response to those pressures and may cause physical sensations of a tight chest or a restricted airway.  In fact, the respiratory system is compromised whenever the breath is held or forced.  This is at quite an oxygen cost; when we force the breath with our belly and chest muscles, we weaken our diaphragm — so that it becomes incapable of its full range of movement.

As it turns out, the key to a full and easy inhale, is a full and easy exhale.  (Who knew?)  If a container is going to be re-filled, it must first be emptied.  We’re often told to “Take a deep breath.”  Trying to “take” in new air on top of stale air is like wiping a counter with a water-logged sponge.  When we breathe out, we are letting go of Co2, a known stressor to the nervous system.  Everything depends on how much air gets out, so that a full, easy, automatic inhale can occur.  The new fresh air can arrive without willful muscular effort in response to the full release of the breath.

SOUND RIDES THE BREATH

Here’s a natural way to promote a full exhalation….  Let a sound out – such as an easy sigh or a whispered ‘ah.’  Remember not to sink down or collapse your chest as the breath leaves the body.  You can think of your exhaled breath as a column of air, fueling the length of your spine.  Then a new breath can return, easily and fully, just the way you like it.

I have been teaching at Rancho La Puerta, a well known spa in Mexico for the last 10 years. It is a magical place made even more spectacular by great instructors. We are honored to have one of my favorite instructors from the spa start blogging here. Here is a piece on posture by Nancy Parker and a video to go with it.

It turns out that posture is important for a myriad of things. Sure great alignment makes you appear taller, leaner and more confident – and who doesn’t want that? However good alignment also allows you to move with ease, eliminates aches and pains, and can even save you energy in the long run (literally and figuratively).

You see our joints are designed to function best when they are optimally aligned. Think about the tire accidently bumped on the curb which knocks it off kilter from the rest (not that I have ever done that). When it is out of alignment it wears out faster, makes the ride rougher, and costs you more fuel just to go the same distance. The same is true of our joints.

So what can we do to improve our postural alignment and increase efficiency?

Becoming more aware of how you hold your body when you are going about your daily tasks is a great start. Are you sitting at your desk upright and aligned, or are you slouched over with your nose to the screen? Using the headrest in your car ensures you are not perpetuating forward head posture – and the pain in the neck that comes with it – on your commute.

There are many simple tricks to setting up your workspace and assessing your daily activities for opportunities to encourage good spine hygiene to discuss in future posts. In the meantime, use the simple yet powerful techniques demonstrated in the video to help improve the posture of your upper body. These myofascial releases are designed to unwind chronic tension in the body – especially due to repetitive actions like sitting at your computer or swinging a golf club; long forgotten injuries; or simply due to mental/emotional stress.

If you slump or find your shoulders hunched up to your ears, or need to open and lift the chest, these quick releases are a must. The 6″ round by 3foot long full foam roller utilized is a versatile and inexpensive tool that should be in every household. You can find a link for ordering at www.naturallybalancedfit.com. Enjoy!

I am thrilled to have my friend and colleague Jessica Wolf blog for us. I have been working with Jessica for more than 15 years and have also personally experienced her work. She is a remarkable healer whose focus is on the breath. I asked her to share her insights with us.

These days everyone has become conscious of conserving energy. When we think of energy conservation we think about the best ways to heat our homes or which car is most fuel efficient. But how many of us have given any thought to the fuel our bodies use? I’m talking about oxygen. To enjoy higher levels of energy, improved posture and lower our response to stress, it’s essential to learn to breathe efficiently – to be fuel efficient.

Breathing is indispensable and at its best when it is effortless. Most of us don’t think about the way we breathe. We usually take breathing for granted, we tend not to realize the harmful effects that faulty breathing can have on us, or the freedom we gain by improving how we breathe. Most of us begin life breathing fully and without strain. For many reasons, our natural breathing abilities and rhythms become compromised as we move through life. Breathing, involuntary in nature, is something we can influence. The way we breathe supports every system in our body. The beauty of the respiratory system is that it reaches peak efficiency when we don’t get in the way. In fact, the less you do, the better it is.

There is no single way to breathe. Breathing is on-going; we are either letting the breath out or allowing the breath to come in. We never have to worry about our next breath. It is the most adaptable fuel you can find. Unfortunately, the involuntary ease is often not the case. In today’s world, respiratory complications can arrive from a myriad of causes: pollution, stress, neuromuscular and skeletal problems, illness such as asthma, headache, backache and gastrointestinal problems, and last but not least, emotional problems. Increasingly, people are diagnosed with symptoms of anxiety and depression and are treated with prescription medication. In such cases, the medication causes drowsiness, a dulling of the senses and has similar effect on the respiratory system.

The breath is a great barometer for recognizing the habits that create road blocks and constrain our lives. We have an internal landscape which is always in motion. Breathing actually massages all our internal organs. When we hold our breath we stop that movement. We can learn to let go of the breath; to exhale and create space in the crush of our collapsed bodies. Have you ever noticed the moments when you tighten or push yourself? You’re probably also holding your breath. Exploring your own physical and emotional response to stress can lead to greater self awareness which can develop into a sense of freedom and ease.

Let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of the breath. First of all, we need to remind ourselves that the body is three-dimensional and that breathing functions all the way around. The primary muscle of respiration is the diaphragm and it works in conjunction with all the muscles of the torso. The motion of the breath occurs in the middle of the torso which causes subtle changes in the abdomen, ribs and back.

The lungs are the containers for the body’s supply of air and are housed in the ribs. The diaphragm is a flexible dome lying just below the lungs, separating the chest from the abdomen. The movement of the diaphragm corresponds to the movement of the abdominal muscles. The motion of the diaphragm is responsible for the filling and emptying of the lungs. It’s upward movement helps move air out of the lungs and the downward movement encourages the lungs to fill.

Of course, we have other respiratory muscles, many of which also activate and support our skeletal framework. Intercostals, abdominal and back muscles are essential to the coordination of the breath and the body. Back motion, often neglected, is vital to priming the breath. When breathing is optimal, all the muscles of respiration work synergistically.

It’s best not to resort to active muscling of the breath. It isn’t necessary to suck air in or push the air out. Muscles will tighten in response to those pressures and cause a physical sensation of a tight chest and restricted airway. In fact, the respiratory system declines if the unconscious habit of holding the breath becomes habitual. And this is at quite an oxygen cost;when we force the breath with belly and chest muscles, we weaken the diaphragm, so that it becomes incapable of its full range of movement. As with any muscle, range of motion increases both strength and stretch.

The lungs are the supplier of the life giving air. So why is the exhale so important? If a container is going to be re-filled, it must first be emptied. We’re often told to “Take a deep breath.” Trying to take air in on top of stale air is like wiping a counter with a water logged sponge. When we breathe out, we are letting go of Co2, a known stressor to the nervous system. Everything depends on how much air gets out so that the automatic inhale can occur. The new fresh air arrives in response to the release of the breath.

A natural way to promote the exhalation is to let a sound out; an easy sigh or a whispered “ah,” remembering not to sink down when the breath leaves the body. I like to think of my breath as fuel, moving up along my spine. Then the new breath returns, easily and fully, just the way we like it.

We take our breathing for granted, usually breathing 12-16 times every minute without being aware of it. This is because whether it is fast or slow, whether we hold it or not, whether it is shallow or deep, the breath keeps going. Most of us don’t pay attention to the breath – the in-breath, the out-breath, how shallow or deep it is, it’s rhythm, how and when we hold our breath, the connection between our emotional state and breathing patterns, and interestingly how hard it is just to pay attention to such a simple thing. The only two times we usually start noticing it are when something happens to prevent us from breathing normally or when we start meditating or being mindful.

Becoming aware of the breath or learning to breath consciously seems to be consistently helpful with myself and almost all my patients.When you start paying attention to your breathing on a regular basis, your relationship to it changes dramatically. Notice how the rhythm of your breathing varies continuously. When we are upset, anxious or exercising our breathing speeds up, when we are relaxed or sleeping, it slows down.

Try this now: breath shallowly and see how you feel – then breath deeply and see the difference.

Benefits of Breathing

When we are aware of our breathing, it helps to calm the body and mind. This calmness helps us be more aware of our thoughts and feelings and not being swept away with them.

• It helps release tension and energizes us.
• It is the perfect antidote to the fight-or-flight reaction.
• It allows us be alive in every moment and leads to better health in general.
• The breath anchors us, reminds us to get out of our minds/thoughts and tune in to our bodies, so we can bring awareness to our experiences.

Breathing consciously is easy and convenient. It can be learned and practiced easily as opposed to other functions like maintaining a slow heart rate or low blood pressure.All meditation techniques will get you to focus on your breathing as part of the process.Tuning in to your breathing brings you in touch with the cycles, pulsation’s and flow of your body and how it changes with different emotional, mental and physical states. It anchors you in the awareness of your body, in the here and now.

The fact that it is a rhythmic process and that it is constantly changing teaches us to be comfortable with change, an essential aspect of stress management. Here are 2 easy breathing exercises you can do anywhere:

Abdominal breathing

1. Find a quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed.
2. Get into a relaxed position whether lying down (better) or sitting up.
3. Put your hands on your abdomen
4. Close your mouth gently and touch your tongue to your upper palate and breath through your nose. If your nose is blocked for any particular reason it is fine to breath through your mouth.
5. Inhale deeply and slowly, being aware of your diaphragm moving downward and your abdomen expanding.  Your hands on your abdomen will feel the expansion like a balloon filling.
6. At the end of the inhalation, don’t hold the breath and your abdomen will fall automatically as you exhale.
7. Try get all the breath out of your lungs on the expiration. The expiration should normally be about twice as long as the inhalation when you get relaxed.

Keep repeating this, keeping your focus on your hands rising on the abdomen with inhalation and falling with expiration.

Breathing to release tension

1. Find a comfortable position.
2. Do 10 abdominal breaths.
3. Then imagine with your next inhalation, breathing into a tense area eg a tight neck or lower back, your head or your buttocks, wherever you may feel pain or tension.
4. With the exhalation let the tension go out the nose with the air.

Keep repeating this until the pain or tension starts to ease.