The Moment Posture Transformed My Life

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Inspiration creates a oneness with Spirit. You are fully awake and at ease as energy courses through you. I call it relaxed strength, but describe it as grace.

The first time I experienced this phenomenon it was kind of an out-of-body experience. You could call it a trans-state. But truth is, I was literally frightened out of my body’s tension into mind-body alignment. In this aligned trans-state I became a human antenna, a lightening rod that seemed to channel all-that-is through me.

I am reminded of this energy channel when creating art, in love or lost in honest labor. My body connects my know-how and spirit with that of a larger Universal Intelligence.

So now I practice daily, I deliberately surrender tension, to access spiritual intelligence.

As I give up the fight to prove my rightness and relevance I surrender into a relaxed stretch that energizes my body’s natural antenna. The strength that channels through me stretches my bones between earth and sky, dissolving all uncertainty. I feel plugged into a source energy that aligns me with all that could be.

We are led to believe that good posture is something that we do (or should do), but in my experience good, or bad, posture does us. Paying attention to our posture as a guide to feel connected, relaxed and strong is its gift.

Posture expresses what we are carrying inside. It is our story trying to attract or distract our attention.

The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind, my book/3D-video learning system guides you toward relaxed strength, introduces you to the energy serge of mind-body alignment, and offers a way to translate your posture’s meaning and byway, transform your life.

Our Bodies’ Plea to Our Minds Align with Us

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There are power struggles in every partnership. Our relationship with you, an arranged partnership for life, is no exception.

When you ask us to participate in your plans, one of three things happens: Either we jump into physical labor (call to action), dispute the request (communicate our resistance), or share an intuitive insight (Divine intervention).

We feel significant when united with you in a call to action, but that quickly flips to insignificance when we communicate our resistance to, or limitation in, a request.

Too often our value decreases with each limiting belief when, really, the truth meter should rise.

When up against new challenges, old experiences can interfere. You rehash  unresolved fears like: I’m not good enough to be loved! or I haven’t done enough to be valued! The emotional condition that initiated these fear-filled beliefs took root deep inside us as physical tension, laying silent but toxically charged. Triggered by a similar real-time event, this flood of toxic emotions explodes out of its firewall of tension. We, the physical antenna to Divine intelligence, become mute in the event. You’re on your own to choose between buying into the negative belief and emotional upsurge or searching for our muted voice.

Rather than searching for what is hard to hear, too often, you act on your misaligned and toxic beliefs. Our plea to you is to search. Search for significance rather than accepting insignificance. Disentangle the firewall of tensions that smother our connection with Divine intelligence.

It’s understandable how beliefs can be so loud, and tension can be so suppressing, that the calm nurturing truth of Spirit is drowned out. Intuitive, Divine, insightful knowing gets lost in the frenzy. Spirit’s authentic voice can be silenced for so long that we lose touch with who we are, and the tension that insists that we should be something else, better, or more significant dominates lives.

From this severed state, people become robotic, rebellious, or ultra-responsible rather than authentic; and without outside affirmations and accolades, they feel invisible.

These tension patterns continue to feed your beliefs well after an initial incident formed them. Your need-to-be-right mental nature would keep this exchange between emotions and beliefs going forever if we allowed it. But our quest-for-the-truth physical nature has the potential to challenge your toxic beliefs.

The Spiritual guidance that constantly flows through us as Divine energy can soften our tension to permit a change in your perspective. The search for this spiritual guidance, and the practice of listening, needs your attention to be neutral. The power of neutral attention allows for us to align peacefully.

The inner power struggle between mental and physical natures could actually be seen as a power outage. We don’t know how to distinguish right from true once in the throws of being triggered.

Divine intelligence is unaffected by the fears and beliefs that destroy the quality of our relationship. The truth discerned by this voice is calm no matter what the outcome is, unlike the turmoil you experience when insisting misaligned beliefs are right.

I am writing for the collective of human bodies, to remind you that what we feel, sense, intuit, accept, and resist is what makes us significant. Align us with gravity and together we will align with Divine energy.

Show your commitment to channel Divine energy into your thinking patterns, and we can begin to lean on each other peacefully––contently.

I need you––I need my life partner––in alignment with me.

Although this poem is a plea from our bodies to our minds, this is also a love letter to your body’s inherent alliance with Universal energy. I want to help you visualize your body aligning with this energy, which is why I’ve created 3D-videos to illustrate this powerful phenomenon in my new learning system The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind.  

Get your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind today!

Balboa Publishing
with a 5% gift to Safe Horizons

Amazon

The Connection and Direction of Purpose: More of What You’ll Find Inside The Art of Strength-A Look at Chapters 5 & 6

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The BodyLogos Philosophy: Now In Book/Video Form!

Whether you’re a visual, aural or verbal learner, you’ll discover how to

release tension and build strength.

Order your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind, a pioneering book/3D video learning system today!

The Connection and Direction of Purpose:

More of What You’ll Find Inside The Art of Strength-A Look at Chapters 5 & 6

Have you ever looked up to the sky and wondered, What is the meaning of it all? Why am I here; what’s my purpose?

I’m not a fan of labeling the asking of these questions an “existential crisis,” as I don’t believe this kind of curiosity is a crisis at all. In fact, these moments of inquisitiveness and reflection, of recognizing that there’s something bigger than ourselves out there at play, are absolutely necessary and vital to a meaningful existence.

The Universe has a great deal to teach us about our inner selves and outer world. When we deeply connect to our purpose and regularly make the necessary adjustments to continue to move with purpose in our lives, we are actively participating in Universal well-being.

In fact, a fundamental principle of Tao is that every individual is a microcosm of the Universe.

Like the Universe, you are an energy system comprised of energy orbits and connections that keep you alive and in motion. BodyLogos aims to align the inner momentum of our individual energy system with that of the vast Universe. This alignment connects us to a meaningful intersection—the unique purpose of our human journey.

And that’s what these two chapters in my new book The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind are all about: connection and direction.

They help you dig deeper into the newfound understanding of alignment you gained from earlier chapters and discover balance. You learn that bone stillness and muscle movement manage energy flow. You are guided to experience skeletal alignment and muscular balance as two distinct systems that, when managed separately,  allow holding patterns (tension) trapped between them to dissolve. Furthermore, you learn to create a more complementary relationship between them that replenishes vital energy.

Strength lies in efficiently bringing your energy back to its origin point—your Dan Tien—to synchronize your bones and muscles, and create the same restorative momentum observed out there in the solar system. This universal synchronization joins the relationship you have with yourself to your relationship with the world at large. In that connection, you gain a call-to-action. You plan the direction you want to take in life… and train for it in the gym!

Through chapters 5 and 6, discover:
The book gives you exclusive access to videos that help visually guide you through these exercises.

 

  • How to experience equipoise, the “how-to” to peace of mind, the stillness in the middle of motion
  • How to differentiate between tension and strength and distinguish energy movement from physical movement to replenish and reinforce your vitality
  • How the 5-Element Theory can balance your workouts and help you find your focus and achieve your goals

 

Strength training workouts are your opportunity to practice balanced energy. You lay a foundation that cuts through the negative self-talk and regularly relates you with an inner-authority that strengthens your understanding and commitment to create the life you want. You use your workouts to recognize a life goal and stay connected through its fruition!

My wish for you is that as you experience greater depth within your own vital energy, you will experience greater depth in your connection with the world.

The beauty of BodyLogos is that it involves you in an inner exploration of your own  authenticity as it relates to the world around you. It inspires you to connect with a workout challenge to connect better with a life challenge. It builds a relationship with your Spirit Self that recognizes you are an integral part of all of Creation.

Your efforts to enlighten yourself are efforts to enlighten the world.

 

Get your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind today!

Balboa Publishing
with a 5% gift to Safe Horizons

Amazon

Meditation is a Verb

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Meditation may be seen as a do nothing discipline, but non-doing is by no
means doing nothing.

Traditional seated meditation asks you to be deliberate with your attention. You
focus on a single aspect of being: the ebb and flow of your breath, the inner
space of your heart center, or your non-attachment to thoughts and sounds.
You are becoming conscious. And although the end result is to be able to do
nothing extraneous, in and of itself, it is not nothing.

Becoming conscious is digging the foundation for the life you want.

Active meditation incorporates the deliberate thinking of still meditation into
the act of living. Active meditation asks you to be deliberate with your attention
while in motion. Mind and body are in each moment together, experiencing
your breath, your inner heart space or your reaction to thoughts and sounds.
You are practicing intention. And although the end result is to stay connected
with your self, it in turn, keeps you connected with your world.

Practicing intention is building the desired fortress of your life.

Meditation is a discipline and a lifestyle. It is done in stillness and in motion. It
is becoming and practicing.

The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind is a how-to book/video
package for living a meditative life.

The Psyche-Muscular Blueprint: A Cornerstone of Bodylogos

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BODYLOGOS = The Body’s Divine Wisdom

It is a Practice and a Lifestyle outlined in The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind

The Psyche-Muscular Blueprint:

A Cornerstone of Bodylogos

by Donia Elizabeth Allen ~ Bodylogos Instructor

The Bodylogos practice makes simple, intuitive connections between the physiological roles of the major muscle groups, and their emotional significance.

For example, physiologically biceps are the muscles we use to literally bring things toward us: a free weight if we’re doing biceps curls, or a fork if we’re lifting food to our mouths.

In Bodylogos, practitioners use biceps exercises to envision and meditate on aspirational or emotional things we’d like to bring toward us: a new work project, relationship, or healthy habit.

What would I like to bring into my life at this time?

This simple question facilitates the connection between what we’re doing physically, our mental focus and our emotional clarity.

The transparent blend of the physiological and emotional – call it a psyche-muscular blueprint – is a cornerstone of the Bodylogos practice. It is designed to encourage dialogue and build trust between what your body is doing and what your soul wants to create.

A key benefit of the Bodylogos approach is that because it engages our minds and bodies concurrently, we rarely get bored, or stuck in a rut. It is a practice that creates space for us to contemplate, ask questions and to change as our dreams and needs do. For this reason we can return to Bodylogos again and again without risk of burnout, which is so often what happens with more traditional, one-dimensional exercise routines.

What follows are brief descriptions of the major muscle groups’ physiological roles and questions related to their emotional significance to consider as you work these muscle groups.

ABDOMINALS

Physiological function: Abdominals are the central muscles of the body. All movement emanates from them. They provide essential support for the spine and central nervous system.

Questions to consider: How do you feel today? Can you turn your attention to your quiet center or spirit self?

 

QUADRICEPS

Physiological function: These powerful muscles are critical for forward movement including walking, jumping, squatting and running.

Questions to consider: What do you aspire to move toward? What’s your dream, and are you actively moving toward it?

 

HAMSTRINGS

Physiological function: These muscles connect and motor the knees and hips for backward movement.

Questions to consider: What strength and insights can you draw on from your past experiences and use to create your future?

 

BUTTOCKS

Physiological function: Buttock muscles are the most powerful muscle group in the body. Their strength and padding provides security and comfort. The buttocks are responsible for movement of hips and thighs.

Questions to consider: Are you secure with your own power? What makes you feel comfortable in your personal and professional relationships?

 

CALVES

Physiological function: Calf muscles are responsible for flexing the foot at the ankle joint and the leg at the knee joint. They ground and elevate your weight.

Questions to consider:  What are you determined to accomplish in your life? What grounds and supports your efforts?

 

BICEPS

Physiological function: Biceps muscles control flexion of elbow and shoulder joints to lift and bring things inward.

Questions to consider: What would you like to bring into your life or improve upon at this time? What does it look like, sound like, taste like, and feel like?

 

TRICEPS

Physiological function: Triceps muscles control extension of the forearm to push things away.

Questions to consider: What would you like to let go of or say “No Thank You” to? What do you no longer need in your life?

 

SHOULDERS

Physiological function: Shoulder muscles are the widest part of the human skeleton. They offer arms full range of motion, and the integrity of their alignment frames your posture.

Questions to consider: How does integrity feel to you? What do you need to feel a sense of integrity in your life, work, and relationships?

 

CHEST

Physiological function: Chest muscles sit atop the heart, support spinal alignment, and present your body’s smile to the world at large.

Questions to consider: Do you feel connected to your joy? What causes your heart to lift and express itself, or shuts your heart down?

 

BACK

Physiological function: The back muscles are the most protective of the vital organs, and have the the thickest skin on the body. They help support the spine and allow humans to stand upright and pull themselves up off the ground.

Questions to consider: Do you have your own back – emotionally, financially, professionally? What do you need to feel a sense of protection and safety?

 

Align your workouts with meditations on your emotional wishes and dreams and be amazed by how much progress you make!

Get your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind today!

Balboa Publishing
with a 5% gift to Safe Horizons

Amazon

The Foundation for Focussed Strength Dive Deeper Into The Art of Strength: Preview Chapters 3 & 4 of My First Book

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The BodyLogos Philosophy: Now In Book/Video Form!

Whether you’re a visual, aural or verbal learner, you’ll discover how to

release tension and build strength.

Order your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind, a pioneering book/3D video learning system today!

The Foundation for Focussed Strength

Dive Deeper Into The Art of Strength: Preview Chapters 3 & 4 of My First Book

I’ve got a question for you: How’s your relationship with gravity?

Well, we’re pretty close, Tammy. After all, I’m tethered to the ground at this moment, not floating around in the atmosphere, you might think with a chuckle, humoring my query.

I ask because building a healthy relationship with this powerful force takes much more than just passively carrying your weight around. It involves active engagement with your presence on this Earth and recognizing the Divine arrangement of it all.

Chapters 3 and 4 of my brand-new book, The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind, help you explore our vital connection to gravity so that you can approach any physical or mental challenge that comes your way from, you guessed it, a place of strength.

Here’s a quick anatomy lesson. Your Central Plumb Line vertically aligns your body with the Earth’s gravitational pull—think of it as your personal axis, connecting your North Pole (your crown) to your South (the bottoms of your feet); this is why I also often refer to it as your Vertical Plumb Line. When this line is out of whack, it’s fighting gravity. The negative effects of that battle are both mental and physical: a distorted spine and constricted central nervous system, along with a feeling that your drive to do and be your best is being crushed.

But when it’s in Neutral Alignment, all is well. Then, your relationship with gravity puts your energy, bones, and muscles in their optimal positions. You have a solid foundation for physical strength and focused attention.

So how do you navigate this neutrality? Achieve such alignment?

By getting to know the five Energy Centers that make up your Vertical Plumb Line and the corresponding Alignment Stabilizers that horizontally straddle each Energy Center, you can effectively fine-tune your alignment.

In chapters 3 and 4, I share simple yet profound exercises that help you:
The book gives you exclusive access to videos that help visually guide you through these exercises.

  • Find Neutral Alignment by feeling into each of the five Energy Centers and relating them to one another
  • Access your Alignment Stabilizers to quickly and easily adjust your Energy Centers to form your Central Plumb Line
  • Experience your bones separate from your muscles. Connecting to your bones’ weight keeps your relationship with gravity relaxed; connecting to their stillness keeps you relating to your Spirit Self
  • Go beyond Neutral Alignment to discover Essential Alignment, which stretches your Central Plumb Line and you to connect with life in a vibrant new way
  • And so much more…

With your energy centers and bones aligned, you can move fluidly to meet with outside resistance—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

You learn that alignment isn’t static—it’s constantly in flow. In fact, the difference between tension and strength is that tension is static while strength is fluid. Your alignment liberates you to stretch and move.

By aligning your physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions, you’re free—free to express yourself and live in your truth and in your power.

Get your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind today!

Balboa Publishing
with a 5% gift to Safe Horizons

Amazon

Books are Great Gifts!

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My mom always says, “If you can read you can do anything.”

I’ve come to realize that gift as freedom.

Whether I’m learning to garden, knit or raise my parrots, books are my guide. Even learning to deviate from the page, like when cooking or drawing, the pages taught me to think creatively enough to stretch beyond them.

Authors are experts at something, and if that expertise excites you, let experienced words inspire you into action. Better yet, gift that perfect book to inspire those you care about to take their first steps toward inspired action.

While non-fiction books teach physical skills, fiction connects our spirit to living. In either case, the mind is gathering data for our physical-spiritual selves to flourish and feel a part of life.

Authors share, not only their expertise but also, their companionship. We are no longer alone in our curiosity on a subject. We are challenged to consider new things and stretched to change our status quo. And, because we’re not alone in the journey of a book, change becomes so much easier.

Every book, when well crafted, leaves the reader altered. We get clearer on what we want to be, do and practice.

Thanks for this lesson mom.

The Art of Strength brings you on a physical-spiritual journey that inspires action.

If Our Bodies Could Talk

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Giving Rise to a Revolutionary Voice

We are what people use to attract love and create life.

We are also what people take from each other to feel powerful.

And, we are what people sacrifice to get ahead in the world.

We are bodies.

Bodies with inherent wisdom, born with instincts that protect humans from extinction and intuition that guides their lives toward authentic expression and purpose.

We touch, feel, and dance. We stand in and align with life passionately. We transform the mind’s chase for relevance into a spiritual presence—enjoying our unique greatness. We experience life, feel its nuances, and express what is real and Divine. We connect honestly and fiercely.

Yet, we are used, taken, and sacrificed, because human beings don’t recognize that they access their authentic expression through us. Instead, they rely on the mind’s rant  that we should be something other than what we are.

These beliefs seep into our soft tissues like a virus and plague us with tension. We become the voiceless soldiers of human existence, carrying the weight of unshared traumas and secrets. But we are also the breathing chamber that could give rise to a revolutionary voice.

A voice that is not concerned with what was, but instead with what could be. A voice that is revolutionary because it does not revolve around the mind’s practice of gathering information and analyzing research.

This revolutionary voice is a real-time energy download, gifted from the universe, that channels through our central alignment as a calm, nurturing strength. A transformative energy that positions us into a state of equipoise––a quiet, centered stillness––that our movement pivots and flows around.

Equipoise is found in our vertical center as an energized stretch between earth and sky. Our posture plugs into a relaxed strength that shifts the mind’s attention from future moments to this moment.

Equipoise aligns our inherent knowledge and the mind’s grid of information, giving us a sense of self that replaces the rant, so the mind can question and reason from a foundation of strength rather than fear.

Equipoise fosters the neutral-feeling state that minds crave.

I wrote this love letter to give our bodies a voice and your body a confidant. Now that you are listening to and confiding in your body, let me guide you step by step into the quiet strength of equipoise in The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind.

Get your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind today!

Balboa Publishing
with a 5% gift to Safe Horizons

Amazon

A Sneak Peek Into My First Book–Chapter 1 & 2 of The Art of Strength

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The BodyLogos Philosophy: Now In Book/Video Form!

Whether you’re a visual, aural or verbal learner, you’ll discover how to

release tension and build strength.

Order your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind, a pioneering book/3D video learning system today!

Where to start, where to start, where to start:

A Sneak Peek Into My First Book–Chapter 1 & 2 of The Art of Strength

That’s what was looping through my head as I sat down to begin the oh-so-exciting yet equally intimidating task of writing my first book about the BodyLogos philosophy and program.

AVAILABLE NOW!

My approach combines meditation and strength training, joins the best of Eastern and Western fitness, to help create real and lasting strength. It’s about integrating our emotional and spiritual selves into our workouts to become totally aligned. And therein was my answer…

The practice and, thus, my book start with a focus on how our minds and emotions intersect in the body. Its first chapter aims to set you on a path to recognize this intersection and connect you with your Spirit Self.

Tao thought says, your Spirit Self is a “pregnant void” needing only direction.

These pages help you intend a direction to create the life you desire and set you up to live that life from a place of true strength.

You see, a meditation practice properly informs your exercise practice. Perhaps surprisingly, the goal with each is not to focus on the end result, as our culture tells us to do—to see meditation as solely a way to de-stress or exercise as only a way to look good. (aka better than you do as you are.)

Rather, the secret is simply to focus on the journey itself; and meditation is the perfect tool to learn how to do just that. A BodyLogos workout gives both your mind and the emotions that are stored in your body a chance to take a timeout from self-criticism, and instead employ and embrace self-acknowledgment–the act of listening inwardly..

I call this focus on the journey “meditative fitness.”

Meditation is key to ensuring that your strength training does more than align your body, or your human self. When you learn to incorporate meditation into your exercise practice, you create the foundation for being your authentic, integrated, vulnerable, and bright Spirit Self in the world. If that isn’t the definition of strength, I don’t know what is!

In chapters 1 you’ll find:

  • Step-by-step instructions that guide you through a traditional Tao Active Meditation, that reorganizes the body, and BodyLogos Active Meditations, that neutralize your mind.
  • An introduction to the BodyLogos Psyche-Muscular Blueprint. Every muscle group corresponds to an aspect of your Self; when isolated in a strength-training workout, that emotion is stimulated.
  • An overview of posture analysis and ways to help you discern the meaning of your body’s messages.
  • Meditations on the five elements of Tao: fear, anger, joy, reflection, sorrow.
  • And much more, including links to video tutorials for guidance.

For centuries, Taoists have believed that our ability to listen to the body is as valuable as listening to the mind. As this chapter illustrates, they’re inextricably connected.

Using active meditation and the BodyLogos approach to posture, you can pinpoint the root cause of emotional tension in your body. Then, through precise mindful adjustments in skeletal alignment and muscular balance, you challenge your body to integrate those adjustments using strength-training exercises, which the book covers in great detail in later chapters.

BodyLogos helps you stretch away from what you think about yourself and toward what is less familiar in the world—it awakens your innate trust in the Universal Spirit.

Get started on your journey to strength and  well-being!

Get your copy of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind today!

Balboa Publishing
with a 5% gift to Safe Horizons

Amazon

Give Yourself the Gift of Strength

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Live in the sweet spot of your strength.

There are those who believe that pushing their strength to the absolute maximum is the requirement to be strong. Others believe that if they conserve their energy they’ll be strong. The truth is, strength lies right in the middle.

If your strength-training workout is so heavy that you feel yourself as weak, you’re building as much tension as strength. If your strength-training workout is so light that you feel yourself bored or unchallenged, you’re taxing your joints more than building muscle.

So how do you know when your workouts are just the right intensity?

When it comes to strength training there are two principle components to consider: bones and muscles.

  • Considering bones means maintaining your rightful posture, no matter the challenge; no excuses!
  • Considering muscles means balancing a contracting muscle with an equal and opposite releasing muscle.

Together these considerations allow you to connect to a challenge and create a change without compromising yourself. This is strength!

Next time you’re in the gym, let your enthusiasm inspire you to experience feeling strong, rather than chasing or saving strength.

To be strong is to live in it! Feel it in the moment of challenge; feel it in your relationship with resistance; feel it in the temperance to prove yourself.

Stop chasing strength and experience it with ease!