Thereisnoseparationbetweenlifeandart

orbetweenthebodyanditsenvironment Musings on the cellular dance of life, art, the body, the environment, and the evolution of consciousness.

[jkottke]

[climateadaptation-deactivated20]

jkottke:

Food and beverages where terroir is a big factor will be the first to be affected by climate change. This is already happening in the world of wine…wine production is happening in Denmark, French wines are changing flavors, and some places may become too hot to grow grapes at all.

As new frontiers for grape growing open up, the viability of some traditional production areas is under threat from scorching temperatures and prolonged droughts.

And in between the two extremes, some long-established styles are being transformed. Some whites once renowned for being light and crisp are getting fatter and more floral while medium-bodied reds are morphing into heavyweight bruisers.

(via @CharlesCMann)

[usnews-blog]

In recent years, keeping the world’s coffee drinkers supplied has become increasingly difficult: The spread of a deadly fungus that has been linked to global warming and rising global temperatures in the tropical countries where coffee grows has researchers scrambling to create new varieties of coffee plants that can keep pace with these new threats without reducing quality.

Buzzkill? How Climate Change Could Eventually End Coffee (via usnews)

[unconsumption]

While traveling in India, Adital Ela came across a chai vendor who sold his tea in small, clay cups that patrons could use and then simply toss on the ground when they were done. These cups didn’t create any waste, because it was earth returning to earth. This sparked a question for Ela: “How can products, like people, come from dust, and return to dust?”

[This set her on] a mission to make products out of compressed earth and agricultural waste. A self-proclaimed designer-gatherer, her title is as organic in nature as her found materials.

Ela’s first product for her line, Terra by Adital Ela, was a stool made from dirt heaps that construction sites had dumped in the forest. …

Making a Terra stool creates no pollution. It requires no energy and uses only local and organic materials. If a stool is no longer useful, the owner can simply leave it in the garden and let it deteriorate back into the earth. Or they can add water and mold it into another functional object.

[unconsumption]

(via Dust to dust: TED Fellow Adital Ela makes products from compressed dirt)

[thereisnoseparation]

This is an example of truly no separation between earth and earth!

[thereisnoseparation]

The microcosm and the macrocosm.  The hands and the head equally have points that affect/correspond with other body parts.  I've recently begun work with chiropractic, as I find the skeletal structure to be the most foundational within the body.  Proper alignment can increase focus and re-calibrate the mind for greater clarity in my experience.

[thereisnoseparation]

Simple wisdom.

[thereisnoseparation]

[thereisnoseparation]

Embodiment and Form

The difficult thing about working with both embodiment and form is that when students get caught up in imitating a form or become preoccupied with doing it perfectly, or (and even worse) in our Western culture, compete to be the BEST at the form, then they lose the practice of being conscious from the inside out.  When I speak about form here, I am specifically thinking about yoga and dance.  Other forms can apply as well of course.

I do believe that yoga can be a vehicle for embodiment, if practiced consciously and instructed consciously.  I do believe that pacing has everything to do with it, as students really need time to go in - to be with the muscle, the bone, the tendons, the breath, the skin.  If students aren't able to sink in, to let go of thinking about sinking in but rather just be in the pure experience of sinking, then I believe yoga can do it.

I prefer a format like Anna Halprin's Movement Ritual, though that is not the only way to go in (see Vipassana meditation for example - though this is a non-movement based practice, other than watching the movement of the breath).  In this practice, students are given plenty of time, and plenty of guidance, to really explore the inside of their bodies, from an anatomical perspective.  Many of the sequences involve least effort - truly letting go and allowing gravity to do the work.   It is relaxing, resetting, easy, and natural.  At times effort is involved, sure.  But in the beginning, it is like movement after savasana.  Delicious.  You would be amazed at how difficult this is for people - for everyone - including dancers!  We are so used to holding ourselves up, to efforting everything on our own in this world, to being strong, to muscle through it.  But we don't have to.  We can work with the forces of gravity in a slow and conscious way, not anticipating the next movement but rather letting the movement move us.  It becomes a lived spiritual practice where we learn to live in concert with 'the universe' (for lack of better terminology), or lets just say in concert with nature and our living environment.  When we can allow our cells to truly open and expand and breathe, we let in more of the world, and its intelligence, to guide us in life.  It is truly humbling and awe inspiring to do this simple practice, and then watch your whole life change. 

[thereisnoseparation]

Mindfulness doesn't mean the absence of thoughts, but rather the awareness of what they are.  Knowing how they connect to bodily sensations is an added bonus, and can help you navigate and move more efficiently through life.

[thereisnoseparation]

Artfully and consciously take in.  Your body and its environment will thank you.

[a-t-o-m-i-c]

[thereisnoseparation]

We are our environment.

[climateadaptation-deactivated20]

Lovely, thought provoking talk on perpetual growth by Icelandic writer and thinker, Andri Magnason. His pyramid analogy is quite the highlight.

[thereisnoseparation]

"The late David Brower, conservationist and founder of Friends of the Earth, said that a California condor is only 5 percent feathers and blood and 95 percent its environment."

And my experience is similar to that of the condor.  After spending several weeks in San Francisco and several days at the Mountain Home Studio in Marin (the studio where Anna Halprin lives and works), I am reminded just how much an influence the environment has on the brain - on we as people.  In a simple performance score that involved touch, I felt the rigid shell I'd built up against the noise and cold of the Chicago climate begin to melt away.  I could literally feel and name the cellular difference - could feel the hesitation, the resistance, the hair-trigger pulling back from people and from the floor, pulling back from true surrender.  But with the permission to lean on another given by a loving mentor of 92 years, the warmed wooden floors of the beautiful studio and the loving embrace of Mt. Tamalpais trees all holding me, I felt the protective shields begin to fall away.  With the surrender to the warmth and safety in the body comes the parallel and metaphoric surrender into life.  What happens in the body happens in our lives.  Greater flexibility can equal greater mobility.  What external environment can assist in providing that for you?

We are our environment.  That is why it is important to chose the place where your cells dance the most, and can rest best also.