| Articles
Probiotics & Enzymes
by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop
Enzymes, probiotics and multivitamins are common things you'll see in any health food store today. People continue to get them because they work and they feel better with them. That's interesting: you have over 400 different types of flora in the intestines, and supplementing with a mere 8 or 9 strains makes a difference in health. They must be really important!
So it's probably a good idea to be aware of how to make your own probiotics and enzymes. This can be easily accomplished through fermentation. Fermenting food will create the enzymes, probiotics, B vitamins and other nutrition on a massive scale. There is one particular aspect about fermented food I would like to discuss, which are the antioxidant qualities.
After the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, the nuclear radiation alone was destroying lives. There were some people who did much better than the others with the radiation sickness. The common thread was that these individuals ate red miso. The director of St. Francis Hospital in Nagasaki, Dr. Shinichiro Akizuki, was so impressed with it that he said: "I believe that miso belongs to the highest class of medicines, those which help prevent disease and strengthen the body through continued usage." Massaging miso over radiation burns became a traditional therapy. And it isn't just miso. It's all fermented food. In the U.S we have had doctors look at the abilities of nutritional yeast (a fermented food) to detox radiation.
We get exposed to a lot of interesting stuff nowadays, from air pollution to chemotherapy. Eating something that can handle radiation poisoning will help you feel better about the air you breathe. Being able to have such an accessible, potent remedy at hand allows us to live free in a polluted world. I can't think of a simpler fermented food than rejuvelac, the sour elixer discovered by Anne Wigmore.
Rejuvelac is made simply by fermenting grains in water for 2 or more days. Variations of this bubbly, cloudy drink can also be made with beans, seeds or nuts, with a different taste for each. It will also make the enzymes specifically for what you're fermenting. For instance, the enzyme amylase is made when wheat is fermented. This makes sense, because the wheat is starchy, and that is the enzyme used to break down starch. Other foods break down with different enzymes. So if you have a hard time digesting garbanzo beans, fermenting them and drinking the liquid will give you the enzymes used to digest them.
A simple recipe would be to fill a jar 1/3 of the way with wheat sprouts, then the rest with water. Cover the jar with a breathable cloth or paper towel, and let it sit for 2 days. After that, drain the liquid off, and drink or refrigerate it. The longer you let it ferment, the more potent it will get. The strongest I've let it ferment was for nine days. I think anything past that would be both unpalatable and hazardous. It does have an odd taste. The closest I could come to describe it would be lemon juice. It does enhance the flavor of other foods, surprisingly. Nut cheeses and the like taste much better made with the sour beverage.
I have done many different kinds of fasts. The most energetic I have ever felt on any of them was with rejuvelac, which doesn't even have maple syrup in it to give you a sugar boost.
The truth is you could really ferment anything safe and organic, and get antioxidants, B vitamins and friendly flora. If you had to, you could ferment the grass on your lawn. From the best days to nuclear fallout, we will always have a simple, potent tonic at hand.
Find Dr. Christopher's Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher's Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.
Did you miss an article? You can find all previous articles at http://drchristophersherbshop.blogspot.com.
NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.
My Personal Probiotic Food - Kimchi!!!
Kid/Family-Friendly Kimchi Recipe
by Carissa Leventis-Cox
Chop into bite size pieces or slice: 1 big or 2 small Napa Cabbages, cored
Use Weights: 2 mason jars filled with water Place in big glass 2QT or larger mason jars. Massage cabbage pieces all over with:
1/4 cup sea salt
Cover with water, place a plate with a weight on top (I used 2 mason jars full of water) or bamboo sticks fixed to the top of a jar to make sure all the cabbage is submerged in water. Leave overnight. The next day, drain the water and rinse the cabbage.
Place the cabbage back in the container with: 1 tsp ginger, minced
1 tsp lemon juice
Kimchi 1 clove garlic, mince 2 tbs sea salt 1 green apple, grated 2 green onions, sliced 3 large carrots, grated 1/2 cup raw local honey 1/2 cup raisins 1 cup water add chilli peppers if you prefer spice
Mix together well. Make sure there are no air pockets by pushing the vegetables down. Again, place a plate with a weight on top or bamboo sticks fixed to the top of a jar to make sure all the cabbage is submerged in liquid. Cover with a towel and leave for 3 – 4 days. When done, place in mason jars and refrigerate. How To Eat Kimchi with Raw Food
Eat it with other foods being served: salad, vegetable noodles (carrots, zucchini, squash), vegetable ‘rice’ (process in food processor cauliflower, sweet potatoes, parsley), and more! We really enjoy a Great Big Kimchi Salad: spinach, lettuce, avocado and kimchi with juices. Mix all together with your hands. Yum! With Sesame Veggie Noodles (photo above), recipe from We Like It Raw.
14 signs
that the collapse of
our modern world has already begun
Monday, May 02, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) (NaturalNews) A lot of people believe the world as we know it is going to end on December 23, 2012. Nonsense, I say. The far more honest answer is that the end of the world as we know it has already begun. And it doesn't mean the end of the world; it means the closing of one era and the birth of a new one. It is a transition between the ages. This particular transition, however, promises to be the most tumultuous and costly transition humankind has ever seen.
But don't wait around for December 2012 to look for the signs. Here are 14 signs that the world as we know it is unraveling right now. We are living through the end of one era and the birth of a new one. In the future, they'll look back and call this all one moment in history, but when you're living through it, it seems to move forward at almost a snail's pace. But make no mistake: We are living through the opening chapters of the end of the world as we know it, and on the other side of all this will emerge a new world that's very different from the one we know today.
#1 - Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis - At first it seemed like a fluke; but now it's a pattern. The weather is becoming increasingly extreme. Over 120 tornadoes recently struck the U.S. Midwest. Texas is on fire and suffering through an extreme drought. And where there aren't fires and droughts, there are floods. This is only the beginning... watch for more freak weather over the next 18 months.
#2 - The silence of the bees - Colony Collapse Disorder continues to accelerate across North America. We already know it's being caused in part by chemical pesticides (and possibly worsened by GMOs), but the chemical industry is engaged in a full-on cover-up to deny this truth while the pollinators of our world suffer a devastating population collapse.
#3 - The failure of nuclear science - The Fukushima catastrophe proves one thing: Scientists are dangerously arrogant in their planning of large-scale projects, and they fail to account for the awesome power of Mother Nature. Nuclear science promised us clean, green energy -- but now it has delivered a silent, invisible poison that's infecting our planet.
#4 - The vicious pursuit of Wikileaks - In an age of such rampant deceit, there is no room for the truth. So those who tell the truth (Wikileaks) are viciously pursued as if they were criminals.
#5 - The rise of the medical police state - The armed SWAT raids on Maryanne Godboldo in Detroit are only the beginning. The truth is that the medical system uses guns to force its vaccines and chemotherapy onto children and teens across America. The medical system has become so utterly useless, corrupt and dangerous that it must actually invoke guns in peoples' faces just to "convince" people to take its medicine. This is a gunpoint-enforced medical monopoly that exists as a threat to our health and our freedoms.
#6 - The increasing frequency of food shortages and crop failures - Notice the spike in food prices? That's just the beginning: Food prices will continue to skyrocket in the years ahead due to extreme weather, the loss of pollinators and the global contamination of crops by GMOs. Real food is becoming increasingly scarce in our world. You might want to think about starting a home garden...
#7 - The runaway destruction of the world by energy companies - The radioactive fallout from Fukushima isn't the only way in which energy companies are destroying our world: Don't forget about the Deepwater Horizon and the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- a spill that isn't over, by the way. They're still spraying Corexit in the Gulf one year later!
#8 - The continued GMO contamination of our planet - This may be the worst chapter in the coming collapse: The widespread genetic pollution of our planet through GMOs. This is a crime against nature and against humanity. It is a "gene spill" that may never be contained as it spreads its deadly DNA across the world's food crops, leading to crop failures and starvation . The use of GMOs is the closest thing to "Satanic" that you'll find in modern agriculture. The agenda behind this is pure evil.
#9 - The tyranny and criminal crackdowns targeting real food (raw milk) - When you can't even sell honest farm food to your neighbors without being targeted and arrested by the cops, something is terribly wrong with the world. But this is happening today, all across America. Now the feds are even targeting the Amish!
#10 - The escalation of the counterfeiting of the money supply - In a failed economic system approaching collapse, the moronic leaders can only think of "solutions" that actually accelerate their own downfall. The runaway counterfeiting of money by the Federal Reserve (with its "quantitative easing" and other counterfeit methods) is a classic sign that the end of our current system is fast approaching. The economic insanities are obvious to anyone who can still do math.
#11 - The plummeting intelligence of the masses - One of the most disturbing signs that we're already in the collapse is the great dumbing-down of the masses. The drooling, CNN-watching television zombies who dominate our landscape offer absolutely nothing of value to the world. They are the "mindless consumers" who get vaccinated, watch television and eat processed, pasteurized junk food. They're on psychiatric meds and believe everything the government tells them. Most of these people, of course, won't make it through the collapse.
#12 - The complete and utter fabrication of the mainstream news - Much of the mainstream news is now utterly and completely fabricated these days: The reporting on Obama's long-form birth certificate; the news about the war in Libya; the coverage of the economy and the U.S. debt... it's all so utterly false and unbelievable that an intelligent person watching the news can't help but explode with laughter. It is a sign of this collapse that the information sources relied upon by the masses are unable to report the truth anymore and must resort to weaving politically expedient fictions on everything from health care and medicine to the fate of the U.S. dollar itself.
#13 - The ongoing pharmaceutical pollution of our world - Beyond the GMO contamination and the radiation contamination of our world, we are also experiencing the mass pharmaceutical contamination of our planet. It's not just the pharma factories that dump their products into the rivers; it's also the fact that well over half the population is now taking drugs almost daily, and those drugs pass right through their bodies and end up in the water supply where they contaminate the fish. Even beyond that, the drugs end up in the human sewage sludge that's packaged and sold as "organic soil!"
#14 - The radioactive contamination of the global food supply - Here's one that's really insidious: The global food supply is now contaminated with the radioactive fallout from Fukushima. We're told the levels are "low," but we're not told the truth of how radioactive cesium isotopes persist in the food supply for centuries. How is the human race going to survive its exposure to CT scans, radioactive food, chest X-rays, TSA body scanners and even the secret DHS mobile X-ray vans that can penetrate your body with X-rays as you're walking into a football stadium? The total radiation burden on the human race is now reaching a point of mass infertility. That may be the whole idea, actually.
It's accelerating, too
December, 2012 may be a useful date as some sort of mid-point in the crisis, or perhaps as a trigger date for some further acceleration of society's rapid unraveling. But make no mistake: We are already living in the collapse of our modern world. And you have a front-row seat! (Exciting, huh?)
Think about what's happening around you these days. These are the signs of the last, desperate clutches of a civilization built on utterly unsustainable practices that don't value life on our world. These are the End Times of the corporate oligarchy; the monopolistic for-profit corporation machine that destroyed everything in our world in exchange for a slightly higher quarterly earnings report.
In the quest for more money, humanity has sacrificed its food supply, its pollinators, it's oceans, forests and soils. Greed-driven humans have used other humans as medical experiments and cannon fodder. We have created wars to sell more bombs, and we've invented disease to sell psychiatric chemicals.
These are the practices of a failed civilization... and one whose days are numbered. Watching it all crumble is far more interesting than watching it continue its destructive ways, of course, because those of us paying attention realize a future civilization must rise up in the place of this one after the collapse.
Say goodbye to the false power of institutions
It would be nice if our future leaders remembered the importance of liberty and personal responsibility, of course. The answer to all the world's problems, it turns out, is freedom -- freedom in medicine, freedom in economics and freedom from government tyranny.
Because, let's face it: The root cause of most these problems that are bringing down our world right now is bad government. It is bad government (Big Government) that approved the GMOs. Bad government enforced the medical monopoly and allowed the pesticides to kill the honeybees. Bad government drove us into inescapable debt and costly foreign wars. Bad government outlawed health freedom and protected the monopolistic practices of the food companies, drug companies and chemical companies.
The downfall of modern human civilization is, as you probably guessed, also the downfall of the very idea that Big Government creates a better society. Because if there's one idea that needs to stay dead after the collapse, it's the idea that We the People somehow need another group of people (government workers) to live off our hard work while hounding us with their false authority, directing every little detail of our lives.
What we need in our world isn't more government, but more freedom. If we had freedom, integrity and personal responsibility, we wouldn't even be facing the global collapse that has already begun. But alas, the human race is an infant species and it must learn some lessons the hard way, it seems.
This lesson should be long remembered: If you let the corporations, the banks and the governments run your economies, your farms and your lives, they will enslave you and steal your future while you sleep; they will inject silent poisons into the very world around you until you awaken one day to find that all you created has been destroyed. They will promise you paradise but deliver only death. Beware of any entity that is not a living person -- no government, no institution, no corporation has a soul, nor a heart, nor a conscience. They are forces of organized destruction that decimate those things we hold dear while delivering to us things that will only enslave us or harm us.
Beware the corporation; the government; the non-profit institution working as a front group for private industry. Never allow yourself to be ruled over by any institution which exists only as a fictional construct organized from the projection of human greed.
And be ready for the acceleration of the collapse. Because if you are reading this, you are the future of the human race. You have a duty to stay alive, keep your genes intact, and be around to help create the Next Society after this one crumbles into history.
 Helping To Heal Naturally
By MidWeek Kaua'i staff on Apr 13, 2011
Business Round Table
By Alison Grabel, Owner of Ali G Body Harmony
 Tell us about your business. I offer people a solution for healing and restoring balance in their lives. I specifically work with the Rolf Method of structural integration, or Rolfing, which is therapeutic body-work. It’s an amazing scientific process developed by Ida Rolf, a scientist and researcher who came up with a way to work with the body to best align it so it can function with ease and grace, and have a vertical line. It works with the connective tissue of the body. There are 10 sessions to the massage-like recipe, working from head-to-to and front to back. It’s a hands-on therapy, so we work together. It’s really a self-help tool, and participation is required on the part of the person receiving it. So it’s not like massage, where you just fall asleep. We’re working together doing movement. It’s a re-education.
What is the typical outcome? All that energy previously being used to hold yourself up now becomes freed to expend in other areas. I worked with a woman who suffered from fibromyalgia, and after 18 years of not being able to move she is doing Ashtanga yoga every day – it changed her life. It enhances the whole person. You feel lighter; things feel easier.
Why do you do what you do? This was a life change for me. I used to be a business executive – a human resources director at an advertising agency in New York City and San Francisco. But I always liked helping people. I do this because it was a calling, a path that I traveled on after having my own personal injury. I first became a licensed massage therapist, and through that work I really wanted to help people rehabilitate and heal themselves, and that was when I discovered that the Rolf Method worked.
What’s the most challenging aspect of your business? It keeps me in check. I need to personally always be in my best physical and emotional state. It’s a discipline. But I’m really enjoying it, so I wouldn’t say it’s a challenge. It’s been more of an adventure, and I’m somewhat enchanted with this recipe because it works and the execution differs from person to person, but the results are always transformative. 
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your business? Just watching people blossom and watching them restore their vitality when they were otherwise feeling the pain they thought was something they would have to endure the rest of their lives. To help people heal naturally, I love it.
What are your plans for the future? I want to continue offering this wonderful remedy to as many people as I can. I’m also working on a separate business idea, which is a community resources center in Kilauea for affordable wellness services, like massage and acupuncture.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? I’d be a teacher. I taught for a few years at Kilauea School and love children. 639-0394. aligbodyharmony.com
Rolfing, Excruciatingly Helpful
 Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times - Rey Allen tries to get a body in alignment.
By AUSTIN CONSIDINE Published: October 6, 2010
A FORMER dancer of 14 years, Anna Zahn is in touch with her body. To gain more flexibility, and to counteract some of the strain from dancing, she has tried a number of remedies: Reiki, acupuncture, yoga.  But she still felt tight, her body tense. So she started getting Rolfed — a kind of deep-tissue bodywork that can be so intense that some jokingly liken it to masochism.
“It’s not going to massage and lighting aromatherapy candles,” said Ms. Zahn, a 20-year-old student at New York University, who gets a Rolfing treatment every week or so. “It’s tough to go to these sessions. It’s painful, very painful, emotionally and physically. But you feel such a relief when you leave that it’s just the most amazing feeling.”
Others are feeling it, too. Popular in the 1970s, Rolfing once evoked hairy-chested, New Age types seeking alternative therapies — perhaps most famously spoofed in the 1977 football movie “Semi-Tough,” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. But today, Rolfing is experiencing something of a resurgence, especially among younger city dwellers for whom the novelty of yoga has worn off, and who are now seeking more intense ways to relieve the stresses of modern life.
“Back in the day, Rolfing’s growth was word of mouth,” said Rey Allen, a Rolfing practitioner in lower Manhattan, who has noticed an increase in its popularity. He attributes the rise partly to the Internet, which has introduced the treatment to a new generation.
“Over half of my clientele are in their 20s,” he added. “Since I opened my practice in the city a few years ago, the average age of my clientele has always been 35. But that has drastically changed since the summer.”
Could Rolfing be one Madonna endorsement away from becoming the next Pilates?
Rolfing is named after its creator, Ida Rolf, a biochemist from New York City who studied alternative methods of bodywork and healing beginning in the 1920s. She died in 1979 at the age of 82. Dr. Rolf developed a theory that the body’s aches and pains arose from basic imbalances in posture and alignment, which were created and reinforced over time by gravity and learned responses among muscles and fascia — the sheath-like connective tissue that surrounds and binds muscles together. Rolfing developed as a way to “restructure” muscles and fascia. The focus on manipulating fascia is part of what distinguishes it from chiropractics, which deals with bones, and from therapeutic massages, which works on muscles.
That also explains why Rolfing has a reputation for being aggressive, even painful at times. Fascia is stubborn material, particularly if it is marked by knots and scar tissue. Rolfers gouge with knuckles and knead with fists, contort limbs and lean into elbows to loosen tendons and ligaments. Patients, meanwhile, need the fortitude to relax and take it during the hourlong sessions.
Russell Poses, a 39-year-old international equities trader on Wall Street, who started getting Rolfing treatments after injuring his back, likened the experience to “paying $150 an hour for an Indian burn.” But the benefits, as far as he’s concerned, are well worth it. Chiropractors and years of physical therapy couldn’t accomplish what two or three Rolfing sessions did, he said. Plus, he said he could still feel the results two weeks later. “It’s something that actually lasts,” he said. It is hard to find reliable statistics on the prevalence of Rolfing. But the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, which was founded by Dr. Rolf in 1971 to educate and certify practitioners, says it has noticed a rise in student enrollments at its Boulder, Colo., headquarters.
Kevin McCoy, a faculty member at the institute with a practice in Milwaukee, said he had seen annual class sizes swell to 100 from 75 students in recent years. In the mid-1980s, he said, the school graduated fewer than 50 a year. Despite the bad economy, he said, “our numbers have been maintaining or growing.” An endorsement in 2007 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” by the cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz certainly didn’t hurt. Now the host of the syndicated daytime program “The Dr. Oz Show,” he says he sees the growing popularity of Rolfing as “a general perception by the public that taking medications for discomfort is not giving you the panacea benefits that you would desire.”
In that regard, he said he viewed the treatment as an extension of practices like yoga, which also offers relief without drugs. “Yoga is in many ways analogous to Rolfing because it takes tendons and it stretches them into a position of discomfort,” Dr. Oz said. “They’re just doing it for you without your doing it yourself.”
Rolfing practitioners say they have also noticed a shift that may explain why younger clients are seeking out their services. It’s not just to treat injuries, but also stress. “Health is one area where we can find a sense of control,” said Mr. Allen, who has been practicing for about nine years. “The real trend is that people are starting to look within the boundaries of their own skin for meaning in their lives, and to find a sense of security in the world.”
As with other holistic practices, Rolfing seems to leave the door open for a certain mysticism. Even those who have little use for New Age-type practices like meditation can verge on the metaphysical when discussing Rolfing.
Beau Buffier, a 35-year-old partner at a corporate law firm in New York, says he started Rolfing treatments after he injured his neck and shoulder in a fall. Despite three M.R.I.’s, surgery, physical therapy, a chiropractor, acupuncture and deep massage, the pain remained. Stress from his high-stakes job didn’t help.
But somehow Rolfing did the trick. “It’s dealing with the physical manifestations of something that’s kind of emotional or spiritual,” Mr. Buffier said. He has since gotten in touch with his body in other ways. He began exercising more and eating better. He lost 20 pounds. His blood pressure dropped. “It’s almost as if your body locks up emotions,” he said.
A version of this article appeared in print on October 7, 2010, on page E1 of the New York edition. Madonna Stays in Shape With Ashtanga Yoga Workouts Source: Madonna Stays in Shape With Ashtanga Yoga Workouts | Eastern Health and Fitness http://www.motleyhealth.com/eastern_health_and_fitness/madonna-stays-in-shape-with-ashtanga-yoga-workouts#ixzz0uHv2h6ez
 “Yoga is a metaphor for life. You have to take it really slowly. You can’t rush. You can’t skip to the next position. You find yourself in very humiliating situations, but you can’t judge yourself. You just have to breathe, and let go. It is a workout for your mind, your body and your soul.” Madonna.
Madonna practices Ashtanga (aka astanga) yoga, which is a style which encourages more dynamic movements and transitions between the postures. Ashtanga yoga can be an effective cardio workout as well as a isometric bodyweight bearing exercise. Madonna began to practice ashtanga yoga (the Vinyasa style) to get back in shape after the birth of her daughter, Lourdes, in 1996. At this time she was with fitness trainer Carlos Leon who became her personal trainer. He may have been the source of her inspiration to adopt yoga as a way to stay in shape. Now almost 12 years later, she is still in great shape, and has recently started a new world tour. For a 49 year old (50 years old this August) she is doing very well. So, what does Ashtanga yoga involve?
Ashtanga yoga practice consists of six progressively difficult series of linked postures, each requiring between 90 minutes to three hours to complete. Each sequence typically begins with 10 Sun Salutations and the standing poses. This is referred to as the “opening sequence”. The student then moves to either the Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A, B, C, or D, depending on his or her skill level, a back-bending sequence, finally closing with a set of inverted postures, referred to as the “finishing sequence”.
Ashtanga Yoga is traditionally taught in Mysore style (supervised self practice), where each student moves through the practice at his or her own pace and level. So, astanga yoga is not like the average yoga class you are likely to find in your local gym or village hall. It is much more dynamic, and requires a greater level of strength, coordination, balance and flexibility than other styles. This is why this form of yoga keeps Madonna in such great shape. 
Madonna’s enthusiasm for ashtanga yoga has since appeared in her work; Madonna chanted the opening ashtanga chant on her Ray-of-Light album, and also played an ashtanga teacher in the movie The Next Best Thing.
However, she does not limit herself to yoga. She also enjoys horse-riding and gyrotonics, which is a set exercises derived from swimming, yoga, gymnastics, and tai chi, and is intended to improve flexibility and balance as well as muscle strength, and to increase overall flexibility and mobility in joints. It has been compared to and contrasted with Pilates but offers much more flexion. So, if you wish to look slim, toned and sexy like Madonna when you are 50, you need to make a fitness routine, like Ashtanga yoga, a daily event.
Learn more about yoga. Get fit practicing our Ashtanga Yoga Workout.  YOGA & ROLFING
A Dynamic Duo
Have you ever wondered if Rolfing is right for you? If you are like most people, you heard a few things about Rolfing - You may have heard it hurts. Yes, there can be some pain; much like the beginning of adopting a regular yoga practice - lengthening the tendons, and muscles and tissue is at times painful - But for many including myself it has helped deepen my inner-space exploration, ultimately allowing me to move into this new space with more ease and grace.
 For the last 30-some years, yoga and The Rolf Method of Structural Integration also commonly known as “Rolfing” have enjoyed a unique and vibrant relationship; teachers and practitioners from one discipline immersing themselves in the other, in order to magnify and deepen their bodily transformation. This is because the two combined, create a synergy that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Together, Rolfing and yoga create a dance of rich somatic opening; sharing the same fundamental principles and goals, only their methods differ.
Both yoga and Rolfing emphasize structural alignment and whole-body integration. Both involve balancing the joints in the body, creating space in the joints (rather than compression), and differentiating the various bodily segments. In general terms, yoga and Rolfing are both about freeing-up, opening-up and lengthening the body. Both disciplines result in expanded range of motion, increased circulation and energy flow, more grace and fluidity of motion, and a body that's more resilient to injury.
Yoga actually had an early influence in the birth of Structural Integration. Dr. Ida P Rolf, the biochemist who researched and formulated the Rolf Method, studied yoga and drew upon its principles along with those of osteopathy, homeopathy, and the Alexander Technique. Dr. Rolf believed yoga was the best exercise system ever devised if done with the right teacher. She also believed that hands-on manipulation was needed to fully free the structure and to achieve ultimate length and separation in the joints.
In yoga, you move through precise postures with full consciousness and intent. In Rolfing, the practitioner’s hands directly release restrictions and unbind myofascial tissues in your body, while you participate with full consciousness and intent. Rolfing can lengthen, release and reorganize tissues with a specificity that even years of yoga cannot approximate. And yoga delivers many benefits that no bodywork system could ever accomplish.
Yogis have long been noticing the effects of Structural Integration as they find they are able to reach new depths and levels of ease both in mind and body. At the same time yoga is one of the best ways to support and maintain the benefits of SI. Rolfing, like yoga, simply brings you more and more deeply into the experience of lush, resonant embodiment. Coming to live more fully in the body allows a silent but dynamic stillness of mind and a relaxing out into life. The combination of the two is a rich opportunity to broaden your sense of self thereby allowing the chance to transform limiting patterns of movement, thinking and behavior.
As a Rolfer, I work mindfully and reverently with the fascia; the connective tissue that wraps every muscle, organ, nerve, blood vessel and bone in the body and which, like living packing material, literally gives us our shape. I listen with my hands as I lengthen tissues, soften bodily armor, unwind patterns, and overall integrate and align the body in gravity. Simply put, the same natural laws that inform yoga inform my work, as well. Combined the two reinforce each other – a real Dynamic Duo!
Ahimsa & Food: Hand-Made Food By Sri Swami Mayatitananda 
Karuna was a twelve-year-old girl who developed an aversion to food. Her parents tried all kinds of therapies but could not get Karuna to eat, and she was wasting away. In desperation, her mother attended my food sadhana workshop and remained afterwards to seek my help. Having helped many people to recover from eating disorders, I understood that aversion to food is a sign that we are feeling separated, alienated from joy, love, and life itself. I inquired about the foods that Karuna once liked and advised her not to force the child to eat, but to demonstrate, instead, the simple art of eating with the hand.
Karuna’s favorite meal used to be kichadi (basmati rice, yellow split mung, cumin seeds, and ghee), so I advised her mother to make a pot of kichadi every morning and to imbibe this food with her right hand in Karuna’s presence. “Ahh,” exclaimed Karuna on the first morning, “I love the way you are eating that food.” “Would you like to feel the food on your hands, Karuna,” asked the hopeful mother, and Karuna quickly responded “Yes.” Karuna felt the food on her hands, smelled it, and then tasted it. The next day she ate the kichadi from her own bowl with her hand. This is how Karuna began to eat again. Through the sacred instrument of her own hands she was able to reconnect to the energy of life.
The Vedic people knew the power ahimsa and healing held in the hand. Special hand gestures called mudras (derived from the root mud, “to delight” or “to gladden”) were used to receive and gather the universe’s energy and to seal off negative influences from entering the body and mind. Today, these hand mudras are used in many ways. In Hindu rituals the priests use these sacred mudras to worship the deities. Thousands of Hindus bring the palms of their hands together in front of the heart in prayer (anjali mudra), and utter the sacred word namaste. In meditation, the most commonly used mudra is chin mudra (also called jnana mudra or “wisdom seal”).
The ancient native tradition of eating food with the hands is an ahimsa practice derived from mudra practice. Gathering the fingertips as they touch the food stimulates the five elements and invites agni to bring forth the digestive juices. Each finger is an extension of one of the five elements. Each serves to aid in the transformation of food before it passes on to internal digestion. The sadhana (spiritual discipline) of feeding yourself from hand to mouth enhances your vital memory and strengthens your sense of balance. Once we are connected to the actions of our hands, we cultivate the memory of ahimsa in every action we perform.
An extension of the sadhana of eating with the hands is to use our body as the ruler and measuring cup for all our needs. In keeping with this principle, you need to become comfortable using your hands and eyes for all culinary measurements. In Ayurveda, the term anjali also refers to the volume that can be held by your two hands cupped together. Two anjalis of grain or vegetables from your hands is designed by nature to fill your own stomach. When you are cooking for others prepare two anjalis for each adult and one anjali for each child. Likewise gauge your spices or accents with your own pinch. Like your handful, it is tailored to provide a suitable amount for your own personal body needs. Angula refers to the distance between the joints of each finger. This unit of measure is cosmically designed to gauge spices and herbs, such as cinnamon sticks and ginger.
Use only those tools that are absolutely necessary. As soon as possible, give up measuring cups, spoons, and useless kitchen paraphernalia. These adjuncts are distracting and interrupt your direct energetic exchange with the food. It may be difficult at first to take this conscious step to trust the accuracy of your own physical-spiritual apparatus. With time, you will become comfortable enough to return to the original and most natural system of measurement.
Your hands should partake fully in all food preparation. Knead your energy into the dough, massage your hands with the grains, pat the chapatis and roll the rice balls between your palms. Allow the universal energy to mix with and transmute your own energy. Puree sauces and mash potatoes with your hands. Tear leafy greens gently with your fingertips. When the hands must have a medium, use the grinding stone or mortar and pestle, the suribachi, for the positive energy provided by clockwise motion. This is sadhana. The closer to nature each utensil or apparatus, the more connected the prepared food will be to the energy of the cosmos.
A hand filled with sadhana is a hand of ahimsa –one that will heal others. It is charged with the prana of the five elements, which when used harmoniously is in constant touch and exchange with nature. This exercise gives poignant vitality to our subtle energies, held within the core of the universe’s memory until we are ready to use them. The Rig Veda states, “My hand is the Lord. Boundlessly blissful is my hand. This hand holds all healing secrets. Which make whole with its gentle touch.”
Sri Swami Mayatitananda (Maya Tiwari) is a pre-eminent spiritual teacher who has transformed thousands of lives with her healing presence. She is a pioneer of Inner Medicine healing and Living Ahimsa programs. She is the spiritual head of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, and the founder of Mother Om Mission, a charitable organization taking holistic health education and services to at-risk communities around the world. Mother Maya has authored Women’s Power to Heal through Inner Medicine, The Path of Practice, Ayurveda: Secrets of Healing, and Ayurveda: A Life of Balance, www.wisearth.org. Originally published by Hinduism Today Journal 2004 And by Yoga International Magazine in 2008 
THE VERTICAL-EXPERIENTIAL SIDE TO HUMAN POTENTIAL
An essay by Ida P. Rolf, founder of Rolfing® Structural Integration, dated March 1977
Like so many teachers, some of them very close to home, I complain that people do not seem to understand my basic goals, the fundamental purpose for which Rolfing has been developed. In an effort to lessen this type of frustration, I offer the following summary of Rolfing developments, purposes, and ideas. First, let me reiterate what I have often said before: I as an individual, am not primarily interested in the relief of symptoms, either physical or mental. To hear Rolfees tell of their “wonderful”, “unbelievable” symptom alleviation, it is hard not to accept this assessment as a goal. However, I am interested in human potential, and human potential per se neither includes nor excludes the palliation of symptoms.
As of today, Rolfing is accepted as being one of the most basic, one of the most reliable means of developing whatever potential is latent in any given human, psychological as well as physical. By what route did Rolfing reach this particular eminence? We assume that human beings are, as a species, evolving toward verticality. What are the intellectual considerations which can speed us on our way toward understanding the value of this verticality?
There can be no argument that the bony structure is less subject to capricous change than soft tissue. Rolfers have heard me say over and over that the bones, per se, however, are not the basic determinents of body structure. Bones are where they are and as they are to separate and stabilize the softer tissues which, in point of fact, play the more significant role in physical organization. Nevertheless, bones are fundamental, relatively stable elements of structure. As we observe the blueprint of the bones, it becomes increasingly apparent that the softer tissues need to be in certain patterned relations to each other for the bones to perform their role most effectively as separating and relating elements.
Now, the $64,000 question which I asked many years ago, and to which I am still seeking an answer, is this: What kind of organism will develop if these body parts are appropriately related? What happens when soft tissue and related bone structure actually function in the positions in space which their architectural design suggests as most appropriate and which contributes most effectively to establishing the vertical? The vertical in man’s structure is the outcome of his proprioceptive, sensory appreciation of the gravity pull of the earth. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he feels this pull and responds to it. This is a subtle concept: the intellectual formulation arises out of the sensory awareness.
Man’s appreciation of the vertical evolves from his sense of the gravity pull of the earth.
We as a generation have begun to take this touchstone into all parts of the world of ideas, evaluating the validity of a concept in sensory terms, in the light of information from our senses as well as from our intellects.
Up to this point in time, humans have always developed and still live within the gravity pull of the earth. They must make their peace with this energy field, whatever it really is. To the extent that they fail to make peace and mistakenly carry on a war, gravity wins every time. The energy of this field can enhance or dissipate the energy of the individual man. You cannot change the energy field, but you can change the man.
The question remains; to what extent could Rolfers create a small population able to live within the gravity field without an ongoing, everlasting war, without the constant expenditure of precious human energy merely to carry to life within the gravity field? If we could create such a population, what would be its characteristics? I am not interested solely in physical structure, although that is really of basic importance especially in terms of physiological well-being. What will be the psychological characteristics, the behavior both of the individual and of a group composed of such individuals? How would these more vertical individuals compare with the random, less conscious humans who tread the surface of the earth today?
Is it perhaps too far-fetched to wonder whether one of the tap-roots of human aggression and its underlying fear may be the continuous sense of insecurity which random humans unconsciously feel with reference to their environment – the gravity field?
This emotional response is called forth very early in life, probably with the first attempt at verticality (standing). and certainly with the first walking steps. Many psychological and behavioral aberrations arise from causes less basic than this.
Be that as it may, I see no means of gaining an answer to this suggestive and really important question in the abstract. The answer will come when we can create such a population and observe it through a long-term period. At this point, we are justified only in looking with satisfaction at the reports coming in from people who have experienced some approach to the integrating vertical. The appropriate integration of the bodies of man in the gravity field is a long-term evolutionary project. Not even the first page has been turned yet. It is possible that we are seeing the first conscious attempt at evolution that any species has ever evidenced.
Ida P. Rolf Blackwood, New Jersey March,1977
Magic Spots High Leverage Points in the Neuro-Myofascial Net by Robert Schleip 
The following areas are usually bony landmarks where several important muscles attach and which are specially rich in mechanoreceptors. They are high leverage points to influence bigger structural patterns that reach way beyond the local area of this spot. I have included the major lines of influence (i.e. the most direct myofascial connections) from each area.
1. Heel - via gastrocs to back of knee and to thigh
- via soleus deep into calf
- 4 layers of fascia forward along sole.
2. Below med. & lat. malleoli - many tendons wrap around here
- change of direction horizontal/vertical
- affects lower leg & feet.
Both places (1 & 2) are strong focal points to affect the lower leg all the way up to the knee as well as for the whole foot.
3. Medial side of knee - Pes Anserinus:
Three long powerful ropes pulling in three different directions: - sartorius to ASIS
- semitend. to tubs
- gracilis to pubes.
- Interlacing of semimembranosus & med. gastroc
4. Lateral side of knee - fibular head:
- peroneals & crural fascia affecting whole lower leg incl. the foot position
- biceps fem. to midfemur and to ischial tubs (plus via sacrotub. lig. to Fascia thoracolumbalis)
- also down to foot: lat. gastroc. & plantaris
- popliteus to affect knee position (e.g. lat. sideshift of tibia in relation to femur)
- ITB to anterior, lateral & posterior pelvis
Both sides of the knee (3 & 4) provide powerful connections upwards to all sides of the pelvis as well as downwards to the foot.
5. Greater trochanter - affects every aspect of pelvis! (Check out the anatomy for this yourself)
- via ITB to below knee
The greater trochanter can be seen as Grand Central Station in the fascial (train) network system. Almost every long fascial sling (or Intercity train) can be caught here.
6. Coccyx-Tubs-Ramus Line This includes the sacrotuberous ligament (which used to be the tendon of the biceps fem.) and sacrospinous ligament. - Glut. max. attachment (on sacrotub.lig.)
- most powerful point to influence hamstrings
- pelvic floor
- adductors.
7. Multifidus triangle The multifidus triangle has been defined as the area extending from L4 lateral to both iliac crests and then down to the lower third of the sacrum. Except for the muscularmultifidus fibres it is mostly filled with white fascial insertion tissues. The thickest fascial place in the body! - Roots of erector spinae, reaching all the way up to occiput
- deeper spinal musculature (spec. multifdus)
- iliosacral & iliolumbar ligamentous connections.
8. Trigonum Lumbale Between the iliac crest, the dorsal margin of the obliquus abd. externus and the lateral margin of the latissimus there is often a small triangular window, called TrigonumLumbale. It provides relatively easy access to: - quadratus lumborum (check for three different fibre directions)
- affecting diagonal trains via obliquus abd. internus (extending up & forward)
- entry point to abdominal bag (Fascia transversalis bag) via transversus abdominis & iliacus.
9. LDJ The lumbodorsal junction includes here the lower end of the trapezius and of the semispinalis, so it covers T10 - L1/2. - Superficial and deep layers of lumbodorsal fascia
- via latissimus & trapezius to shouldergirdle
- via erector spinae up to occiput
- via 12th rib to:
- quadratus lumborum
- diaphragm
- psoas (indirectly)
- transversus abdominis (& abdominal bag)
- serratus posterior inferior.
10. Dorsal hinge (mid dorsal area around D4-7) - influences shouldergirdle & arms via rhomboids & transverse trapezius
- upper ribcage via serratus posterior superior
- neck & head via trapezius (pars decendens) , splenius (cerv) & semispinalis (capitis).
- spinal extension (via erector spinae) as well as rotation (via deep spinal rotators which are most strongly developed in this area)
- costovertebral joints (here often most effective place to influence wholeribcage mobility). Also most efficient place to affect external intercostals (which are most focused around here).
11. Xiphoid area - diaphragm
- transversus thoracis
- rectus abdominis
12. Coracoid process - Fascia clavipectoralis: thick fascia separating pect.min. & major, also enveloping subclavius & coracobrachialis.
- biceps brachii
13. Spina scapularis - effect on cranium/neck as well as on scapula elevation via trapezius decendens & levator scapula
- on scapula retraction via trapezius transversus
- on arm retraction & abduction via deltoid
14. Lat.& med. epicondyle of humerus Powerful places to affect the whole arm. Work on med. epicondyle tends to affect more the flexors, on the lateral epicondyle more the extensors of wrist & hand. It also affects the upper arm muscles via the lateral & medial septa and the attachments of triceps & brachialis on both septa.
15 Carpal tunnel area - influences all plantar hand structures
- also all flexors in within lower arm
- radial attchements also go up to lat. epicondyle (e.g. brachioradialis)
16. Hyoid sling - infrahyoids incl. omohyoid
- suprahyoids (floor of mouth)
- attachment of pretrachial fascia (which goes down behind clavicle to fascia clavipectoralis)
17. Nucheal lines - Superior nucheal line: trapezius & sternocleidomastoid.
- Inferior nucheal line: suboccipitals, controlling A-O as well as C1-2 joints. These tiny muscles have richest desity of spindles on this planet. V.Janda: their function is primarily to be a sensory organ.
- in between: attachment of nucheal ligament (as extension of lumbodorsal fascia) and upper erector spinae portions (splenius, semispinalis, longissimus).
This area is probably the most powerful of all Magic Spots to affect superficial as well as innermost structures in the upper body.
Howard Wills Wisdom http://www.HowardWills.com 
The Roadmap
Your Life Is Your Prayer
As You Live, So You Are
You Are The Maintainer and Creator Of Your Own Health and Reality
The More You Love And Bless Yourself And All Creation, The More Your Self And All Creation Love And Blesses You
Live, Love, Enjoy And Appreciate The Gift Of Life
Love And Bless Yourself And Creation Daily
And Be Filled With Life, Love and Light
Work At It, Achieve It, And Maintain It Through The Practice Of Living
Practice - Practice - Practice
All Day Every Day
Give Thanks, Be Humble Always
And Remember
Life Begets Life
The Gif Of Life Prayer I
Forgiveness Affirmation
I Bless This Day And Give Thanks For My Life
I Forgive Completely All People Who Have Hurt Me (Repeat 3 Times)
I Ask All People I Have Hurt To Please Forgive Me (Repeat 3 Times)
I Apologize To Myself For My Wrongs To Myself And My Wrongs To Others (Repeat 3 Times)
I Apologize For All My Hurts Or Wrongs To All Life Forms ( Repeat 3 Times)
I Apologize For All My Hurts And Wrongs To The Earth And The Life Of The Earth (Repeat 3 Times)
With This release, Freedom, Peace, Power, And New Life, I Bless All Creation In The Entire Universe And I Fill The Entire Universe With My Love
I Love And Bless The Earth, All Life, And All Humanity
I Love, Bless, And Respect, The Visible, And The Invisible
I Rejoice And Give Thanks For My New Life, Power, And Health, And Give Complete Blessings And Love To All Life And All Creation Always
The Vogue Article - Structural Integration
 “Back In Style”
By Heidi Julavits
This past year has been, for me, a period of intense personal searching. I asked myself the hard questions. What Kind of Person Am I? How Do I Want Others to Perceive Me? And Will My Computer Fit Inside? For months, I pitilessly self-scrutinized as I scoured the earth for the perfect handbag.
And then I found it. A faux-reptile, space-age grommetted Marni tote, “a work of art” as the saleswoman said. Righto, but let’s see what it holds, I thought as I emptied the contents of my current Sad Sack (laptop, books, pens, wallet, diapers, wipes, emergency baggie of bread sticks) into the work of art. Everything fit, and the work of art, not only stunning but sturdy, seemed structurally up to the task. Then I tried to pry it over my shoulder for the crucial test drive. I struggled. I contorted. I removed my coat and my sweater. Finally I had to admit to myself: the bag’s straps were too short. Gamely, I held the bag in my hand rather than wedging it into the boney shoulder groove I’d perfected over the years. For an hour I walked around the store, bag in hand, trying to convince myself that this was indeed the perfect bag. But deep inside I knew otherwise. The Marni handbag triggered my toddler-chasing-computer-ogling forward shoulder slump, and the energy required to counteract this slump (in order to keep me upright) meant I’d be exhausted after walking half a block.
I cursed handbags—a sadistic, impractical invention—and then blamed the Marni bag in particular. It was the bag’s fault I couldn’t buy it. I blamed my kid. I blamed gravity. Then, reverting to quest mindset, I turned my scrutiny inward. Maybe the problem was me. Maybe I simply needed to correct my posture. Except, as I discovered when I tried it, “simply correcting my posture” was precisely as impossible as existing for my entire waking life in Mountain Pose. My mind was unable to counteract my spine’s naturally unnatural curvature toward the earth even when the perfect handbag was at stake. My body, in short, was imprisoned by itself.
Worse still was this realization, assisted by the store’s full-length mirrors: my body language conveyed timidity, insecurity, even a tiny bit of self-shame. The inexorable aging process, laziness, a momentarily shopworn sense of self-worth had initiated my downward slide, but now my bones and muscles clung to this new shape like a grudge.
I decided to take extreme measures. No wimpy massages or sweetly encouraging physical therapy sessions for me. It was time to radically renegotiate my relationship with gravity and put the “ow” back in powerful. It was time to explore a reputedly hardcore yet effective bodywork technique created by a woman who, in her heyday, resembled the love child of Eleanor Roosevelt and Yoda. It was time to regain my inward (and outward) delusion of worldly dominance so I could buy that Marni bag.
It was time to get rolfed.
Rolfing should connote a ‘60s-era hell massage administered by a hairy, Big Sur sadist. It should connote the words “torture” and “primal scream” and inspire visions of your muscles being separated from your bones, among other gruesome posture-improving procedures. Even though rolfing’s brutal reputation turns out to be an old hippy wives tale, it’s unsurprising that Michael Bulger, my chosen rolfer, doesn’t call himself a rolfer. Given rolfing’s inaccurately negative rap, many recent trainees of Ida P. Rolf’s methods (developed in the ‘40s and popularized, or some might say primal scream-ized, at the infamous Esalen Institute in the ‘60s) refer to themselves as she did—as practitioners of structural integration.
Bulger’s office is located near Union Square, in an ornate old office building where, rumor has it, Man Ray once kept his studio. With his boyishly messy surfer hair, Bulger might be a rock star I should recognize. Many of Bulger’s clients work in the fashion world: editors, photographers, models, in short, the people who both initiated and embraced the mind-body paradigm shift that’s occurred over the past decade and helped to mainstream formerly fringe practices like yoga, Pilates and acupuncture.
I’ve been told to wear “nice underwear” since this will be my only attire for the next hour and a half (it’s not because of car accidents your mother warned you to wear nice underwear; it was because you might unexpectedly get rolfed). I strip and stand by the wall while Bulger, in jeans and a t-shirt, sits atop a blue exercise ball. I bust out my best mountain pose, but he’s only momentarily fooled by my fake-powerful stance. One look at my legs when I’m lying on the table yields a troubling observation: my right leg is one inch longer than my left. My pelvis is cocked. My ribcage, too, is laughably uneven, with my left ribs protruding further than my right, a problem I’ve long observed from below when in Bridge Pose.
Yoga, in fact, is a logical entry point to structural integration. Rolf, decades ahead of her time, became a yoga junkie in the ‘30s to help resolve her back problems after the birth of her child. Subsequently, Hatha Yoga strongly influenced her when she was formulating her soon-to-be eponymous structural integration techniques. Put simply, her techniques are founded on the following premise: bones, joints and muscles are interconnected by a web of tissue called fascia. Due to injury and habitual use, the fascia—“intelligent tissue,” Bulger calls it—compensates around these hurt or overused areas, and reconfigures the body in such a way that you become literally trapped in the shape of your own bad patterns. The keyboard slump. The shoulder-as-hook for the life-bearing tote bag. The torqued pelvis protecting the ski-injured knee. Since the fascia is plastic, not elastic, it can be reshaped or, as Bulger phrases it, “reeducated” to respond to gravity in a more balanced way. Or as he puts it to me once: “I’m doing yoga for you.”
This sounds good to me, a lazy, lazy yogi and chronic keyboard slumper whose shoulders feel most gravitationally at peace when jutting slightly forward of my chin. My first session begins mildly enough, and does not, in any commonly understood way, resemble a massage. Massage is to structural integration as getting your hair washed is to getting your wet, knotted hair combed straight. Bulger inserts his thumb, fingers, even his elbow into the indentations between my muscles and joints. He applies pressure and gently manipulates the rubber band-like bits of tissue under my skin. I’ve signed up for the “Basic Ten Series,” which forms the foundation of Rolf’s structural integration methodology. Manipulating the fascia—separating it from surrounding tissues, eliminating “unnecessary gossamer adhesions” between the fascia and the joints—works like cognitive therapy does on the brain. “Your body remembers that it has a choice,” says Bulger. While the effects can be long-lasting—even permanent—Bulger has a lot of regular clients who, after completing the Ten Series, continue to work with him to help solve their specific issues.
The experience of being rolfed is primarily a painless one, though it feels less soothing and sleepy-making than it does like sub-dermal hygiene. Occasionally it becomes intense. “This is going to hurt,” warns Bulger, before he separates two filaments of connective tissue that have adhered just below my armpit—but in fact it feels wonderful after a few deep breaths, like the good-hurt of the hamstrings during a forward bend. While Bulger is open to methods that combine bodywork with psychotherapy, he believes that a past motorcycle accident is more to blame for his internally rotated knee than, say, his relationship to his father. Still, Bulger remains highly attentive to possible mind-body connections. A woman, say, with a history of bulimia may have an intense emotional response to having her stomach and her digestive system rolfed.
Given my relatively emotionless digestive system, for me the most notable bi-product of a good rolf is this: I am mentally floating when I leave Bulger’s office, lucid, calmly receptive and cheery. I’m protected inside a clear glass bubble that prevents me from reacting to the Union Square chaos with tensed shoulders or a lowered head. I tell Bulger about my post-treatment high; endorphins, I suspect, or maybe my beginning-to-improve posture is already elevating my sense of powerfulness. Both are probably true. Bulger informs me that there’s a link between acupuncture pressure points and fascia. Basically, the acupuncture medians, those pathways for chi, are embedded between the connective tissue he’s manipulating. Which means my chi is flowing readily, and that’s contributing to my heady glow.
A second benefit is this: I’m getting great conversational mileage out of the announcement, “I’m getting rolfed.” I even meet some closet rolfees this way. “Are you talking about rolfing?” a woman asks me the other day in the park. Robin Aronson, author most recently of a book called “The Skinny: How to Fit Into Your Little Black Dress Forever,” tells me about undergoing an arthroscopic hip operation. Afterwards she had the unnerving (and painful) sensation that her femur, which had been pulled out of her hip socket for the surgery, was in the wrong place. Aronson visited a rolfer who observed that her feet were two very different colors, suggesting a circulation problem. As the rolfer worked on her, she said she felt a pump-pump-pumping sensation in her leg; soon her previously blue-ish foot had “pinked up like a baby’s.”
From a power posture perspective, however, I’m not convinced I’m experiencing any noticeable improvements. Bulger’s work is occasionally so gentle as to seem imperceptible. Yes, there are those ooooweeee moments, such as when he snaps on the surgical gloves and rolfs the inside of my mouth or works those gossamer adhesions between my organs and my intestines. But at times it feels as though his fingers are merely hovering between my muscles. Only when he shifts, again almost imperceptibly, do I realize he’s performing a stealth manipulation.
But after my third session I realize that in fact I have changed physically. One day I look down and am amazed to find my handbag is in my hand. A mistake? Clearly. But since my shoulder is no longer hook-shaped, the bag has slid down my arm and come naturally to rest in my palm. I don’t question it. I keep walking. One block. Two blocks. Three. Suddenly I can walk comfortably, and seemingly forever, carrying a handbag in my hand without having to exert myself to maintain a decently upright posture; my body assumes this balanced shape without my having to force it. I look less like my usual slumped sherpa self and more like a chicly confident Cold War spy carrying a briefcase full of money.
I’m sold. Like yoga, rolfing is one of those practices that your body instantly tells you makes a lot of sense. Meanwhile, I keep catching glimpses of this unrecognizably poised woman in glass storefronts; her back, despite the fact that she’s pushing a stroller or weighted down by her office-in-a-handbag, is laughably, even arduously straight. But that power-exuding woman in the window is me, and it requires no effort at all to be her. Green Living
HEALTH Green living: It's easier than you think. Laurie David wants you to save the planet. And when you see how simple it is to go green, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner.
I don't recycle or drive a hybrid, but after interviewing global warming activist Laurie David, I can't stop thinking about the 11 billion new tons of carbon dioxide that get wrapped around the earth like an electric blanket annually. I met the woman who helped make An Inconvenient Truth, the must-see documentary of the year, on an eerily warm day in October. In less than an hour, David shared enough facts on climate change (extreme weather events are becoming more intense) and alarming anecdotes (polar bears are drowning as the ice cap melts) to persuade me to start recycling immediately. David had used her pull as a Natural Resources Defense Council trustee to meet with Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and she persuaded her husband, comedian Larry David, to drive a Prius on his show Curb Your Enthusiasm . And she has written a book, Stop Global Warming: The Solution is You! (Fulcrum Publishing), which, naturally, is printed on 100 percent post-consumer-waste paper. "Scientists say we have 10 years to stop global warming. But I think it's more like five," she says. "Everything we care about—our air, our trees, our water, our children—is at stake. And no one is paying attention." It's a moving plea, and as David wipes away a tear, I notice that even the gems in her wedding band are green. Activism made simple
You may be surprised to learn you can tackle a problem this big by modifying a few basic habits. As David says, "You don't have to do everything, but you have to do something." Try these tips to shrink your carbon footprint. What you can do at home
Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. They consume less energy and last 10 times longer. If every family changed five bulbs, I would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.
Unplug chargers. Devices that are "on" even when off waste energy and account for 10 percent of your electric bill. Put chargers on a power strip turn it off when at work.
Buy energy-efficient appliances. A fridge with an Energy Star label uses 40 percent less power than an older model.
Purchase only recycled paper products. If every household replaced one roll of virgin toilet paper with one recycled post-consumer-waste roll, 424,000 trees would be saved.
Cancel catalogs and shop online. Asking to be taken off a mailing list takes less time than ordering something.
Stop drinking individual bottles of water. The annual amount of oil expended to produce plastic bottles sold in the United States is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for an entire year.
Make your next car a fuel-efficient one. A car that gets 40 miles per gallon emits half the carbon dioxide of one that gets 20 mpg.
What you can do in your community
Join Laurie David's Virtual March. Log on toStopGlobalWarming.org and pledge to help fight the problem. |
|
sign up ali G body harmony e-mail list
|
