V’GER and Bodywork

Rambles of the day…

The brain on improv has been studied. Charles Limb put jazz pianists and freestyle rappers in the fMRI chamber. When doing a memorized piece, the memory centers of the brain fired. When improvising, the expressive communication centers of the brain lit up. Yeah, I do believe that directly applies to our work, enhancing the non-verbal dialogue of bodywork… It becomes direct communication between two nervous systems.

Touch is both direct and indirect. Only the skin makes direct physical contact. Read a 2009 study on the tensegrity principle. They massaged distal muscles and showed mechanical activity and sometimes both mechanical and electrical activity in proximal muscles. Touch part of the tensegrity structure, you indirectly touch the entirety. The hands are merely a point of contact… The joy stick… The game controller.

Old man on the back porch…

The rustle of the leaves, as the wind picks up and dies. A crow call in the distance. And, a song bird somewhere closer. The wake of traffic in the further off. The bark of a dog two blocks away.

Every moment is full of sensory experience, from every direction.

What do you notice here? In the moment? In this breath?

Let your eyes glean a little brighter up to the top of the nearest tree. Let your gaze take in the texture of clouds, for just this imperfect moment.

Let your breath fall a little deeper. Let your smile lift ya from your ears down to your feet. The yoga of consciousness is of the gentlest grace.

Here, in the eddy of a thought… Breath out of the occlusion and into the really real. Where we are bathed in information. A world of sight, hues and smell. Of shape and texture. Of dream and imagery.

Not such a bad way to spend a cloudy day.

Listening to the leaves rustle. And watching the clouds and thoughts meander overhead.

Ah, seventeen raindrops on the iPad screen… Must be time to scoot!

Snuggled up with a pup on the couch. Sofie has finished hurling herself on me again and again, trying to squeeze her way into my skin. The soft hair of animals serves to help rewire pain. Pleasant stimulus disrupts the positive feedback loop between the body and the amyagdala of the brain.

Word to yo mutha! Photography by Hamid Shibata Bennett.

The stream is a bit random today. Pay no mind, pay no mind… Whatever ever flutters…

So, Star Trek Quotes from the top of the brain pan:

“Logic, logic, logic… Logic is the beginning of wisdom.” – Spock

“What does god need with a starship?” -Kirk

“The haggis is in the fire for sure.” -Scotty

The other day I was able to bring up the exploration of the inner mechanisms of VGER by the Enterprise crew and equate it to the unwinding of the guarding in the body. I’m not saying it was a good analogy. But, the Klingon brute force approach didn’t bode well for 3 warships, as observed by Epsilon 9. There should be few times when we need to take that approach in our bodywork, instead listening and observation saved the planet from certain doom.

Seriously, still one of my favorite space battles of all time…. Klingons vs VGER.

Geek.

Hamid : )
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