Tag Archive for: alignment

Choose YOU

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We all want to be chosen, but choosing ourselves can be riddled with judgment and uncertainty.

We get a break from this internal scrutiny when someone else approves of us. This distraction offers belonging… but WITH CONDITIONS.

How do you know when self-love overrides the habit of satisfying outside expectations to get love from others?

You feel Peaceful belonging.

From the start, I was a bouncy baby. I found being in my body’s movement and strength a refuge. It was a place where I felt like my own person; and a place I could improve myself with practice and discipline. So, what I didn’t have yet, I could develop. Dance and athletics offered me peaceful belonging WITHOUT CONDITIONS.

How does peaceful belonging show up in your life naturally?
Infuse that place into other aspects of living and you up-level your life!

I didn’t experience delight in belonging with family relationships or any intellectual study, until I was introduced to Tao Philosophy. So, it was clear that, peaceful belonging came from a small niche of interests.

Later in life, when the tension of competing for Broadway dance jobs started to put CONDITIONS on my physical refuge, and I let the FEAR of not being good enough chip away at trusting my personal safe place, I entered Tao seminary for 4-years.

What I learned there was, delight is a discipline; and self-love is choosing delight. The discipline of delight leads to self-love.

That understanding continues to inspire me to share my BodyLogos Method as the mind body strength training practice that helps you let go of needing outside validation and open up to loving yourself.

Tao see’s our Original Natures––essential selves––as Nature’s way to establish wholeness. Each of us is appreciated as a spoke in the wheel of life. What delight’s you in you, is what makes you love you, because it’s what the world needs from you to flourish.

There are 3 requirements to activate self-love:

  • Exercise your mind toward who you want to be.
  • Become aware of your emotions with curiosity, not judgement.
  • And, energize your body’s strength.

Exploring what delights you in these daily practices will reclaim the self-love you were born with. And, they’re all integrated in the BodyLogos Practice.

Self-Love is: a self that has the courage to see and appreciate all parts of you; and, a love that trusts the being-to-becoming journey as a magical journey that insists on self-mastery.

To belong to your Original Nature is to invest in your purpose.

A baby’s gaze reminds you of your Original Nature’s peaceful belonging, but with NO AWARENESS. And that Original Nature is what you are learning to reclaim as an adult, WITH AWARENESS.

This is life. Self-love is a way of life. Having the discipline to follow delight toward self-love is the way to choose you. And in that choice, you experience belonging for the world… NO CONDITIONS.

Please share a comment about your Original Nature.

My Vaccine Experience: Relax into a New Strength

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I got my first vaccine yesterday.

Relieved to be half way to freedom, I left Mt. Sinai Hospital with a swift and energized stride. Off to Riverside Park to workout with my next client.

As I neared the park, about a half mile distance, I started to feel an urgent need to sit down. I began to hope that I’d beat my client to the sand pits, so I could just sit for a minute before getting started.

I wasn’t sure if I felt physically or emotionally tired. My energy level just quietly descended. Joy was still my emotional expression, but suddenly I didn’t want to move or think.

This morning I woke up with a cry of pain! I can’t lift my arm. It’s like when I got a tetanus shoot. Although I’m not sleepy, I feel fatigued, like I’ve already done a day’s work.

Resting every free moment throughout the day, I widen back to get present with myself. I ask my body what is going on? Am I OK? Is this vaccine a good thing? I want my body’s answer, not my mind’s reasoning.

I could feel my body’s nature more serious than usual. Not tense, not worried, not afraid… just serious.

Both mind and body are busy. Its attention entirely inward, not outward.

This sensation is different from feeling a cold coming on, where my mind still wants to plug into something outside myself and my body can’t keep up.

Instead, I’m aware of my mind and body working together as a team inwardly.

Between moments of quiet inner teamwork, I witness myself suddenly swimming while lying still. I feel a little queasy in these moments, it’s as if that inner team would shift to a new location inside me. Then the deliberate teamwork would begin again and the nausea would subside.

I marvel at the subtle knowing my body exhibits. And feel the most peaceful when my full attention is inward with it––where I don’t split my mind’s attention between inner and outer tasks––to align my mind’s witnessing with its regulating of my body’s know-how, to create what it needs within.

It was clear that the best way for me to maximize, support and align with myself was to relax into a new strength. Plug into this inward task, rather than a typical outward responsibility.

I realize that this heightened sense of subtle energy––mind body alignment––is an opportunity to awaken more deeply to mind body alignment.

Subtle energy, is as its name implies, subtle. It’s like a whisper. But the serious effects of the vaccine, and the work it’s asking of my life force, adds volume to the subtle synthesis of mind and body. It’s easier to hear right now.

For those who want the peaceful, self-aligned, confidence of mind body alignment. Use this heightened experience to feel your subtle inner alliance. And without judgment, follow its wisdom toward self-aligned strength.

I’ve heard that most folks normalize after 24-hours. So, I will use this day as a gift to listen to what’s inside me… to learn and recognize my inner voice more intimately.

It’s so easy to think that the body alone needs to rest for your antibody defenses to grow strong. But, from my experience, your mind and body are in this together, combining their skills to reinforce itself as a whole for the world we now live in.

Observe this day of heightened awake-ness.
Be well; stay well.

 

 

When You’re Aligned, You’re Never Alone

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Search For Nothing and Find Everything

 

Do you experience your body as a spiritual instrument or a mechanical frame?

If we recognize “spiritual” as a connection with the greater whole––Creation––and the body’s relationship with gravity as a connection with the Universe, then our physical relationship with gravity is a spiritual practice. Our physical posture is a part of Nature’s spiritual artistry.

This has been my experience since childhood. When I’m aligned I’m never alone.

As a young girl I was traumatized regularly and would regularly disassociate—leave my reality without warning—into an altered-reality. I would find my self rescued from my tension-filled curled up body and suddenly be ease-fully stretched between Earth and Sky. I experienced myself as an energy-body, bones in a relaxed stretch and muscles surrendered to accommodate this stretch.

This altered-reality felt safe, connected and relevant. So, when I realized chasing those feeling in my reality was futile, I set out to find them through my body’s ease-filled stretch between Earth and Sky.

Embodying, what I now call, Neutral Alignment became my life’s mission.

Alignment asks our bones to be neutral—central—in our muscles’ intricate cocoon. Neutral by definition is resistant-free and the absence of resistance is sensation-free. Because of this we experience Neutral Alignment as nothingness.

But in this nothingness there is an energetic exchange that makes us whole.

Our bones, when aligned with gravity, become an energy antenna that channel’s gravity’s force through its structure, conserving and strengthening our energy’s flow. This channel of force is Source energy that recharges our resources––our mind and body––and it connects us to all that is.

This energy exchange is the REAL World Wide Web!

This energy exchange introduced me to a spiritual life without setting out on a spiritual quest.

Strength training has been the most influential game-changer in establishing Neutral Alignment. Even more than ballet class! I witness how my physical relationship with an outside resistance mirrors what I emotionally resist in my life story. This emotional resistance being the root of my body’s tension and misalignment.

For example:
• When I catch myself trying to dominate resistance in the gym, I realize I’m trying to trump uncomfortable feelings with physical aggression, in the hopes of restoring my self-worth or rightness. I may be able to dominate a dumbbell, but I’ve lost myself in the process!

So instead:
• I connect to resistance like a handshake. Rather than focusing my attention on dominating the challenge, my primary concern is to align my bones ease-fully between Earth and Sky. This connects me to me first! Then, to maintain my alignment through a challenge, I connect with the outside resistance with equal degrees of muscular contraction and muscular release. The places I struggle to release muscularly make me aware of the places I’m reactive, so I can break the pattern. Strength training challenges become tension releasing opportunities.

Weakness is not the opposite of strength, tension is.

Strength is a willingness to feel into the tension that obscures your body’s posture, and to trust the inherent wisdom urging you to surrender it. Strength training is using as much conviction to connect with resistance, as you have strove to dominate resistance.

To dominate—to value only our end goal—is to miss out on what could be learned from our vulnerability. This curiosity about vulnerability is the undercurrent of our strength and unravels the tension causing our pain.

Neutral Alignment introduces me to the resilience and wonder of my strength. It unmasks underlying beliefs so I can consider them and create positive change.

This is why we feel better when we workout. It’s not just about endorphins and oxygenation of red blood cells. It’s about shifting the tension template of our life story into greater alignment with our present lives.

Your workouts can teach you to be competitive and tough; or they can give meaning to your life.

 

Learn more about alignment and strength in The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind

 

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

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

How the Body Aligns You on Your First ______! And how you align it thereafter.

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Malayan porcupine in nature

You meet someone new. Maybe in an interview or on a first date or a spontaneous introduction, and your heart responds openly. Your chest naturally rises, as if your body were smiling; and, the width between your shoulder blades retreats, like a porcupine retracting its quills.

 

More often than not you trust your heart’s message. You, almost without noticing, reorganize your inner self and let this new person into your life. Your passion to create alignment in business, creativity, friendship or love is ignited!

 

Then one day your body responds differently. Your chest contracts and your back widens—you are on high alert.

 

It is accepted in the West that the heart is our emotional seat and that the chest’s carriage expresses our heart’s emotional state. But in the East, it is understood that the heart carries our joy and the lungs carry our sadness, including the back’s carriage in the expression of our emotional wellbeing.

 

… Trust your natural responses;

And everything will fall into place.

                                                                   Tao te Ching

 

Your body expresses a smile of truth through your chest muscles that relate to your heart’s joy. It expresses the need to protect your smile of truth through your back muscles that relate to your lung’s sadness.

 

Cocooned between chest and back muscles the Heart Center’s rainbow of emotions are communicated through your chest and back’s alternating rise and fall. This oscillation acts as your barometer regarding what you want to align with in each moment. Your chest and back muscles take turns aligning with the situation in question.

 

When passion turns to high alert this emotional yo-yo, exhausted by extreme alignment swings, locks into one extreme or the other. Tension is the result—a physical holding pattern—that steals physical strength and mental resolve.

 

Here’s the thing…

Passion leads to purpose. What you are passionate about does not.

 

When what you are passionately aligned with is leading you away from what feels purposeful, a deliberate realignment is being asked of you. The internal alignment that happened initially, without much thought, is now demanding thought.

 

Allow your body to express what you’re feeling before you try to reason through the situation. Restructuring does not mean your more assertive—yang —nature of your back shadows the more sensitive—yin—nature of your chest, or visa versa. This restructuring asks you to meet the conflict as an aligned team that represents your smile of truth.

 

The conflict is about your relationship with the other person, not the other person.

 

Posture is the first thing that cues you in on how you feel about your relationship with something. Dialogue with your body before it shouts out with pain and fatigue. Listen when it gets energized, relaxed and sits upright. Ask yourself:

 

  •      Can passionate choices be, less about the choice and, more about being lead toward your purpose? The teaching tools that ask you to explore your values and value.
  •      Can protecting your passion be training the muscles needed for you to be purposeful? The call to action that asks you to step into unfamiliar territory.

 

What have we turned our backs on because we didn’t know what questions to ask ourselves? Living life in shades of gray offers way more options that living in black or white choices.

 

If you let yourself be blown to and fro.

You lose touch with your roots.

If you let restlessness move you,

You lose touch with who you are.

                                                                Tao te Ching

 

Learn to neutralize your posture and release tension in 8-minutes – Get Your FREE video!