How can this be? As Dr. Coca explains: the local effects of “food-allergy” are often seen to consist “…in an abnormal outflow of fluid (dilute plasma) from the small terminal blood vessels into the tissue where the fluid is prevented from a normal return to the circulation — through the lymph channels — by some obstruction, which is an essential part of the allergic process.” As a result, “swelling under pressure” develops in an affected area. If the affected area is your sinuses, you have sinusitis. If it is in your eyes, you have glaucoma. Outflow of fluid might also take the form of a runny nose. Remove the stimuli that provoke an allergic response and you immediately begin to relieve obstructing pressure in the area. Fluids begin to dissipate and the symptoms fade.

This is as technical as the book gets. Not all allergens will reveal themselves in the standard skin test. However, there is a detection method that is free, harmless, and only takes time and detailed observation to try out: check your pulse.

Step #1
According to Dr. Coca, all items that provoke an allergic response in your body will affect your pulse. The method involves getting familiar with your pulse. Making a chart is most helpful. This is the time-consuming part. For at least five days, record your pulse 14 times per day: in the morning before getting out of bed; before each meal; 30, 60 and 90 minutes after each meal; and just before going to bed. Except for the “before rising” check first thing in the morning, all the others should be done while sitting quietly. Also record everything you eat and drink.

• Is your highest pulse-count more than 16 beats per minute faster than your lowest pulse-count? If so, you likely have an allergy.
• Does your minimum pulse-rate regularly occur “before rising” in the morning? If it’s usually lower later in the day, you might have an inhalant allergy to something in your bedding or bedroom. (Allergens can be food or things you inhale: dust, smoke, perfume, etc.)
• Take a pulse-count in standing. Is your pulse-count taken standing greater than that taken sitting? If so, this is a positive indication of present “allergic tension.”

* If you are a smoker, you must stop smoking for the duration of Step 1 and 2. According to Dr. Coca’s research, 75% of the population is allergic to tobacco. When you get to Step 3, you can test to see whether tobacco accelerates your pulse. But you must be off of it entirely for a few days in order for this test to be meaningful.

Step #2
Look over your chart. Find your lowest pulse-count. Add 12 to that number. Call this new number your “provisional normal maximum.” Now look at the meals that did not raise your pulse higher than this provisional max. For five days, limit your food intake to ingredients that your chart indicates will not take you above your normal max.

Continue keeping a chart — the same 14 pulse-counts per day and noting what you eat. If you stick to these foods, you may find that your pulse-counts drops several beats per minute giving you a new low and a new max.

Step #3
Check single ingredients. You’ll want to look in the book for clear instructions on how to do this. The goal is to expand your diet while avoiding anything that provokes pulse acceleration in you.

For the sake of charting, don’t worry too much about what else is going on in your days. From Dr. Coca’s clinical observations, “the normal pulse is not affected by ordinary physical activity nor by the psychological influences, nor by digestion of nonallergenic foods.” Indeed, one of his patients had such a stable pulse that his normal range was 2 beats per minute. His pulse-count was routinely 60 before rising and went up to 62 when he got out of bed. His pulse-count remained at 62 throughout his busy work days and after his meals as long as he stayed away from his “pulse-accelerating” foods.

My Experience
Personally, I am in Step #2 of this process. Last week, I made careful notes of what I ate and recorded my pulse. This week I am restricting my diet and continuing to record pulse-counts. What can I report so far? It’s a pain in the neck. I feel tied to my kitchen timer, for sure. But I think it’s worth it. There’s something to this.

Given my ongoing health challenges (Hashimoto’s, restoration after several years of abdominal parasites), I am in the habit of taking my body temp every morning before I get out of bed. Body temp can be a good indication of metabolism and physical stress. So far the pulse-count correlates with this. On mornings when my pulse count is accelerated, my body temp is below normal. When my pulse count is at my normal low, my body temp is comfortably toasty. I notice that I feel calm and productive when my pulse is low and am more irritable and foggy-headed when it is above my normal max. I’ll report back in another month or so when I have a good sense of my pulse-accelerating foods and how I feel when I avoid them.

If you’ve been paying attention to this review, you will have noted that the book really only goes as far as identifying and avoiding pulse-accelerating allergens. For right now, I think this is quite enough for me. My hope is that by avoiding allergens I will take some stress off my body. Between that and continuing to re-mineralize with RBTI, I will heal my digestive system. At that point, I would like to re-test some of my allergens in hopes that I can handle them better. If not, there are techniques for eliminating the allergic response and I might look into implementing some of those.

Get Your Own Copy
There’s lots of information in the book: interesting case histories as well as more instructions on how to do and interpret the test for yourself. I highly recommend it.

The Pulse Test: The Secret of Building Your Basic Health
Arthur F. Coca, M.D.

You can get the original, 1956 edition as a FREE pdf download:
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020108.coca.pdf

You can get the 1994 revised edition from Amazon and other book sellers.

What about you?

Any personal allergens you have discovered and learned to avoid? Results?

Have you tried to implement what you learned from The Pulse Test? Any tips for others on how to do this more efficiently or effectively?

Any other allergy comments you’d like to share?

Author and medical doctor  Tom Cowan’s evolution into a holistic practitioner was heavily influenced by the work of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian mystic. Steiner taught that the human being has four “bodies” or spheres of activity. Humans enjoy good health when these four spheres are in harmony. Each sphere requires a different form of support: (1) a healthy diet for the Physical Body, (2) beneficial medicines or therapies for the Life-Force Body, (3) healing movement and exercise for the Emotional Body, and (4) effective meditation and thinking activity for the Mental Body.

Here are a few of Tom’s words about medicine and patients:

My main disappointment with conventional medicine is not that we don’t have the answers to all of today’s illnesses, for this is a daunting task, but that we have stopped looking for solutions that truly heal instead of just managing symptoms, and that we have confounded emergency action with long-term healing.

Most physicians… do not believe that it is possible to educate the patient in such a way that he can actually overcome his illness. Instead, doctors begin with measures that suppress symptoms and even deny the possibility that patients engage themselves in the process of education and restoration….

We have lost faith in this amazing organism, the human being, to overcome its own illnesses, and we have forgotten that true healing involves education and change. In the process, the joy has gone out of the practice of medicine, and patients have been relegated to the status of mere victims, rather than pilgrims on the path to health.

– Tom Cowan, MD

Consider this a valuable guidebook for your own pilgrimage to health. Part 1 articulates the general outline of the Fourfold approach and is enriched with contributions by Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and Jaimen McMillan, founder of Spacial Dynamics. Part 2 includes individual chapters on fifteen different health issues including arthritis, cancer, chronic fatigue, diabetes and heart disease. Each chapter provides practical suggestions on diet, therapeutics, movement and meditation support for the patient in this situation.

If you are fortunate enough to not be facing a health challenge, this book is still a great investment. In addition to helping you maintain your good health, it is also the only currently published material on Spacial Dynamics. This is a fantastic body of work and you will greatly enhance your ease, comfort and sense of well-being if you practice some of these very enjoyable activities on a regular basis. After a brief introduction, I joined the Spacial Dynamics professional training program. It has enriched my life tremendously and my weekly students love the Spacial Dynamics activities and approaches that I have brought to my movement classes.

The Fourfold Path to Healing: working with the laws of nutrition, therapeutics, movement and meditation in the art of medicine is available thru New Trends Publishing and major booksellers.

New Trends Publishing presents an annual conference featuring the three co-authors. Here are the details for this year:

The Fourfold Path to Healing Conference

Baltimore, MD     February 3-5, 2012

An incredible weekend of dynamic discussions, presentations and lectures with Tom Cowan, MD, Sally Fallon Morell, Jaimen McMillan, authors of The Fourfold Path to Healing.

click for information and registration

What about you?

Any comments from your own pilgrimage to health that you’d like to share?

Have you implemented any of the approaches in this book? Observations?

Have you attended past Fourfold Path Conferences? Any comments?

You might not aspire to be this capable with your own feet, but you might begin to look for opportunities to give your feet some challenges. I’ll have some suggestions for you in my next post, Feats to Challenge your Feet.

Here are three short clips to get you started. In this one, Sarah Kovac uses her feet to crochet:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sabine Becker uses her feet to apply make up, chop vegetables, type, drive, and use a TV remote:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Barb uses her feet to care for her infant son, go to a Burger King drive thru, fold laundry, shop at a grocery store:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a longer clip about Jessica Parks. It includes footage of her as a toddler, as a high school student in class, and at home. She uses her feet for activities including driving a tractor, putting in contact lenses, and counting money:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This woman in China uses her feet to harvest crabs, make dumplings, thread a needle, play cards, and light a fire.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you are interested in more visuals of people using their feet for “handwork,” look into these links:

Sabine Becker’s site is www.nmspiritdancer.com. She is a motivational speaker and makes 3″ tall sewn and beaded spirit dolls. Her video page has more clips including her making dolls and surfing.

Sarah Kovac blogs and posts videos at: www.SarahKovac.com If you are interested in seeing more footage of how capable legs and feet can be, I encourage you to go to her video page and watch clips of Sarah driving a car, changing her baby’s diaper, and applying make-up.

Rusty Redfern uses his feet to make pen and ink drawings, which are for sale at: www.redfernoriginals.com

In the 1940s, Shirley Ross of Australia uses her feet to work a manual typewriter: go to YouTube clip

What about you?

Any reactions on seeing these videos that you’d like to share?

Have you tried any new activities with your own feet lately? Results?

Restoring body chemistry to proper balance improves the body’s ability to absorb minerals properly and to use them properly as in rebuilding bone and teeth. When the overall chemistry is unbalanced, mineral supplementation will not necessarily help as it is likely that minerals will be mismanaged: cataracts, kidney stones, arterial calcification. If the liver and other digestive organs are mineral deficient, digestion will be poor even if the person eats fabulously nutritious foods.

What body chemistry markers are considered in an RBTI test? Sugar levels, salts, protein, pH, and cell debris. One of the features of RBTI that really appeals to me is its responsiveness to individuals as their bodies change. Far from a one-size-fits-all plan, the RBTI guidelines have the flexibility to address specific situations. For example, recommendations on water consumption are completely different depending on whether your sugar levels are high or low. That said, there are some overall program guidelines that apply to nearly everyone.  Here are the basics:

Rhythm

Breakfast: Make this a carb-lover’s meal — oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, porridge, rice, sweet potatoes. Yes, you can have eggs and dairy at breakfast, but lots of fat and meat protein are generally discouraged. Eat a portion of fruit here, too and have this meal within an hour or so of waking up.

Lunch: This is the main meal of the day. Lunch is where you eat meat and have dessert. Salads, cooked vegetables and a portion of starch are encouraged here, too. Generous portions are fine — eat to appetite, don’t stuff yourself. Aim to finish your lunch by 2pm — no meats or sweets allowed after 2:00.

Dinner: This is a light meal — a small salad, some cooked vegetables or vegetable soup, maybe a little starch. You can have dairy here — cheese, yogurt, a glass of milk — and eggs if you like, but no meat and no dessert.

You don’t want to raise your sugar levels or your body temps before bed. You would like your body to be in general repair mode thru the night, not still digesting supper.

No snacks: Three good meals and you’re done. If you’re having a sugar crash, you are encouraged to eat a bite or two of fruit any time day or night. Otherwise, the main program discourages eating between meals.

Variety: You are encouraged to get as much variety within this framework as possible. Don’t eat oatmeal for breakfast every day. Switch it up.

My Comments: I think getting with this rhythm was huge for me. My eating feels less chaotic, less willy-nilly. Even before I really had a grasp of the No List, I already noticed a big improvement in blood sugar stability — I was off the roller coaster. For the first time I can remember, I had the experience of feeling hungry without the May-Day alarm signals of blood sugar crashes. That’s a big deal. It took me a couple of weeks to get there. In the beginning, I was ravenously hungry in the evenings and my sleep was disturbed. But it has all smoothed out tremendously and feels quite calm and natural now — no great need for willpower, no feeling of deprivation.

If you decide to try this, I wouldn’t worry about no snacks in the beginning. Just start getting with a carb-rich breakfast, a big meal at lunch and no meats or sweets after 2pm. Give yourself a week or two to adjust to that. If you’re impossibly hungry at night, have a light snack of vegetables or yogurt. What I found was that, as I stuck with it, my cravings for many No Foods and for snacks gradually faded.

The No Foods

This part is harder and it does feel sad to give up many of the following:

• Meats: pork and pork products (including gelatin made from pig), rabbit, frog, duck
• Fish: skinned fish (i.e. catfish, shark), also tuna, mahi-mahi, mackerel, eel (most fish with scales are permitted)
• Shellfish: shrimp, lobster, crawfish, oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, escargot
• Sea salt: no unrefined sea salt (some refined salts are okay in moderation)
• Chocolate
• Tea
• Nuts and Seeds: all nuts except peanuts that have been boiled for 8 hours and coconut (although coconut oil is not recommended)
• Nutmeg
• Hard seeds and hulls: raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc. are fine only if the seeds are removed. Popcorn is a no because the hulls irritate the colon.
• White potatoes and white rice are recommended against – choose yams, sweet potatoes and brown rice in their place.

The “Don’t Over-do It” Foods –  These are okay occasionally:

• White Sugar: White sugar can be used in rotation with other sweeteners — maple syrup, honey, molasses, corn syrup.
• White Flour and Whole Grain Flour: better to have moderate quantities of breads that are a mix of half white and whole grain flours instead of 100% of one or the other.
• Butter and Whole Milk
• Salt
• Black and White Pepper

My Comments: I’m not going to defend or explain these — I don’t know enough now to feel confident doing much of either. What I have read so far indicates that when the No Foods are consumed, the numbers measured in the urine and saliva tests move away from levels seen in healthy people. In some way, the foods on this list are “disrupters” to digestion — to either the chemical or the mechanical process of breaking down, absorbing and assimilating. When these foods are eaten, body chemistry veers away from balance and health — as measured in “the numbers.”

What I can say from my own experience is that unrefined sea salt was recommended to me several years ago for it’s high mineral content and I developed the habit of consuming a lot of it. Within two days of removing it from my diet, my skin felt super soft and moist. Since shifting onto the program, my desire for chocolate has vanished. I’m sad to see some of the other items go, but if waving good-bye to them helps me regain health and vitality and the ability to be active in my life again, then that seems like a fair trade. For now, I aim to be as compliant as I can and see how it makes me feel. Either it will obviously worth my while to follow the program or it won’t. I can’t know until I give it a fair shot.

Distilled Water

For reasons that I do not yet understand, RBTI testing shows a preference for distilled water. As I learn more, I will update this section with more helpful information. If your sugar levels are low (if you urinate frequently and often feel light-headed when you are late for a meal), then you are discouraged from drinking much water at all. However, if your sugar levels are in good shape, then a little distilled water at regular intervals throughout the early part of the day is great. If you have any trouble with sleep or with getting up in the night to pee, then stop drinking water by mid-afternoon.

Wrapping Up

These are the basics and, if you are interested, you can probably try out any of the above fairly safely. If you have any concerns, speak with your own doctor. There are fine-tuning adjustments to diet, water and exercise and there are supplements. However, these are all best handled by getting tested and consulting with a qualified RBTI practitioner. Personally, I have seen enough good results with several weeks on the above guidelines that I scheduled an appointment with a practitioner for later this week. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Further Reading

I haven’t personally read any of the books yet. If you would like to do that, you might start here:

Reams, Carey: Choose Life or Death: the Reams Biological Theory of Ionization –  This is where the acronym RBTI comes from and this is the book by the man who did the original research and got the method going.

Most of the reading I have done so far has been on the internet:

Matt Stone’s blog at 180 Degree Health –  Matt is an independent health researcher. I’ve been following his posts for most of the past year. Reading Matt’s blog was enough to get me started on the basic program.

Tran’s blog at Tran Life Lab –  Tran is several weeks ahead of me in being on the program and consulting with a practitioner. She writes regular posts about how it’s all going and questions she has asked during consultations.

RBTI.info –  A site by some RBTI practitioners and enthusiasts in the Netherlands. It includes a very nice breakdown of all the steps involved in doing the urine and saliva tests at home.

Heavenly Water –  The site of Challen Waychoff, the RBTI practitioner in Wheeling, WV who Matt and Tran have seen. I have an appointment with him a few days from now.

There is also a closed Facebook group intended to support people who are actively doing the program. It is a very lively discussion about the ins and outs of implementation, recipe sharing, and troubleshooting. Drop me an e-mail if you are interested in that.

What about you?

Any experiences with RBTI that you’d like to share?

If you decide to follow any of the basic guidelines, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

Jon Gabriel understands that your body is not a machine ruled by the mathematical logic of calories in and calories out. Instead, your body is a living organism steadfastly devoted to your survival.

What’s it like to try that idea on for size? And what does this have to do with diets?

Well, for millenia, one of the common threats to survival has been starvation. If you begin skipping meals and/or restricting calories, your body gets the idea that food is scarce. In times of famine, your best survival strategy is to lower your metabolism and store any extra bits of nutrients in your fat cells — you may need them later.

Another common threat to survival has been freezing to death. Long lasting cold probably won’t kill you right away. It’s just something uncomfortable that has to be endured until it finally ends or until it wears you down and finishes you off. What’s your best survival strategy in an ice age? Create as much insulation in the form of fat cells as you possibly can between your vital organs and the cold air.

If you have the resources to be reading a blog post on the internet, you’re probably not often in danger of freezing. However, you could have other ongoing stressors wearing you down: a job you hate, a relationship or living situation in which you feel unsafe or unloved. Ongoing unpleasantness that keeps you in endurance mode can be enough to kick start your weight gain programming.

Any environmental stressors that contribute to weight loss? Well, yes. Historically, a third common threat to survival is being eaten by someone else. Okay, that isn’t literally a threat that most of face these days in modern cities, but our bodies have been facing environmental threats for thousands of years and there was a long stretch of time when we were did face the danger of being chased, captured and killed. If you are facing the threat of someone chasing you, it’s actually in your survival interest to be lean and wiry. You need to be light, fast, nimble, able to get away to safety.

How to use this little nugget? Well, a built-in desire to be able to get away from scary others means the most effective exercises for weight loss are not endurance activities, but sprints. You can even do this while walking — set out at a leisurely pace for a few blocks. Then walk really fast for a block or two as though you need to get away from someone threatening. Then go back to your leisurely pace again and congratulate yourself for making it to safety.  This part is important, too — don’t get yourself revved up and stressed out for long periods. Make sure to end in a relaxed state of security and well-being.

Think this whole topic is more complicated and interesting than I’ve presented here? Well, of course. This is a blog post not a book. Get yourself a copy of The Gabriel Method: the revolutionary diet-free way to totally transform your body.

Jon Gabriel struggled with weight for years. At his heaviest, he was over 400 pounds. He tried many diet approaches and consulted with many experts. Finally, he realized that his body wanted to be fat and there was nothing his mind and willpower could do to change his weight as long as his body didn’t want it. He set himself the task of figuring out and addressing the real causes of his weight gain. You can download the first chapter of his book and learn more at www.GabrielMethod.com

What about you?

Have you read The Gabriel Method? Any reflections of your own you’d like to share?

Any other books or approaches to weight loss that you can recommend?

The connective tissue for almost all your body structures is made of collagen. This includes your skin and bones; your muscles, ligaments, tendons, discs and cartilage; your arteries and blood cells; your heart, lungs, liver and other organs; your hair and nails. Typically, collagen production drops off with age. The result is that skin wrinkles and sags, bones lose density, joints ache, some organs enlarge while others get flimsier and weaker, arteries weaken and are less able to resist plaque formation.

So, how can you increase collagen production and support all these wonderful body parts and functions? Gelatin-rich foods.

In traditional diets, people consume much more of an animal than just the muscle meats: chicken-foot soup as well as drumsticks, beef stew not just steaks. As a result, they get a whole-animal balance of amino acids, which provides better support for all sorts of biological processes. According to health researcher Ray Peat, “When only the muscle meats are eaten, the amino acid balance entering our blood stream is the same as that produced by extreme stress, when cortisol excess causes our muscles to be broken down to provide energy and material for repair.”

Here’s the really good news: you don’t have to eat soup all the time in order to get gelatin or to have amino acids enter your body in balance. You can have gelatin for dessert. If you’re going to have a hamburger, follow it up with jello or a cheesecake thickened with gelatin. Cutting down on desserts? Powdered gelatin can be added to juices or tea that you drink with a meal – or before a meal if you’re trying to eat less food and still feel satisfied. Gelatin contributes to satiety.

In case you’re wondering, gelatin is the purified protein derived by the selective hydrolysis of collagen from the skin, the connective tissue and/or bones of animals. Gelatin cannot be recovered from hoofs, horn or non-collagen parts of vertebrate animals. There are no plant sources of gelatin. Some gelatins are made from pigs, others are made from cows. There are multiple gelatin options on the market. Here are a few for you to consider:

Gelling: You can find packets of Knox gelatin in just about any grocery store. When properly prepared, these will make solid treats like jello and gummy bears. You can use this kind of gelatin to drink, but you will want to put it in a hot drink and allow it to fully dissolve for 5-10 minutes before consuming. If you decide to go this route and want to order in bulk, one option is Great Lakes Gelatin. They have both pork and beef (kosher) sources and sell one-pound canisters. If you order from their website, you will have to meet a six-canister minimum. But you can get two canisters of the same product thru Amazon.com (free shipping if you buy the 2-pack and add a small item to meet the $25 minimum).

Non-gelling: This kind is great if you would like to take your gelatin in cold drinks (fruit juices, smoothies, etc.). I frequently add 2 tablespoons to 8 ounces of fruit juice and hit it with an immersion blender. I allow the mixture to sit 5-10 minutes so that everything is fully dissolved before I drink it. This kind is also nice to add to hot teas if you would like to avoid the gummy bit of gelatin that frequently ends up at the bottom of the cup when the gelling variety is used. Great Lakes Gelatin sells a product called Collagen Hydrolysate that contains all the same great amino acids as the regular gelling gelatin, but is processed to have a smaller molecular weight for more rapid absorption. This product is made from bovine hides (not pork) and will not make jello.

Enzymatic Hydrolysis: Tim O’Shea sells a form of hydrolyzed collagen made by using proteolytic enzymes instead of heat or acids. He claims very small peptides of highly biocompatible collagen. I have not yet tried this kind and do not yet know anything about this company. I also do not yet know if their source is porcine or bovine. I include the link to this product because I found Tim’s article on collagen to be helpful and the product looks interesting to me.

At the moment, I am personally using Great Lakes Gelatin products. I do not have any financial arrangement with them. I just purchase their products and I am open to learning about other sources. If you have any suggestions, please provide them in the comments. I’ll get a recipe post up soon to get a conversation going about how to enjoyably consume gelatin. Ray Peat asserts that gelatin is anti-stress; promotes sleep, learning and memory; corrects cell damage; inhibits inflammation; and alleviates muscle spasms. That makes a bowl of jello or a tablespoon of gelatin in a glass of juice or tea look like a great investment in health.

Disclaimer: The FDA and mainstream medicine seem pretty convinced that food doesn’t have anything to do with health so they would very likely contradict any of the associations noted above. That’s fine. If you have any complex or dangerous health situations, I encourage you to discuss gelatin consumption with a qualified health practitioner (which I am not).

For Further Research:

Ray Peat: “Gelatin, Stress, Longevity”

Ray Peat: “Tryptophan, Serotonin and Aging”

Tim O’Shea: “The Doctor Within: Collagen”

What about you?

Any information you’d like to share about gelatin — pro or con? Links to other research?

Any favorite recipes you make that involve gelatin?

At the end of one long and happy day, I wanted to watch a little television. Here was a puzzle: what could I find to match my mood? I surfed around a bit in the Netflix Instant options before giving up and going to bed. The next morning I realized I could go back in time. I was Singin’ in the Rain kind of happy. Puttin’ on My Top Hat, Tyin’ Up My White Tie, Brushin’ off My Tails. I made adjustments to my lists in Netflix and Pandora and settled in for pure joyous confection.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was it — not that things were suddenly easy or that the outer circumstances had changed, but I had the sun in my heart and a smile on my face.

Yes, if I went a little further back in time, there was plenty to choose from:

The weather is frightening, the thunder and lightening seem to be having their way.

But as far as I’m concerned, it’s a lovely day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How marvelous of these generous souls from long ago to record sounds and images of joy that still delight so many decades later. As a movement person, I am especially thrilled with the levity and ease expressed by the dancers. What pleasure to see people happy in their own skins, having fun with gravity, the ground and one another. And many, many thanks to Gene Kelly for such a beautiful reminder that  rain can be so much fun if we don’t resist it.

All this has set me on a new treasure hunt: I now actively seek contemporary representations of joy. Help me out here, please. Where do you find reflections of joy? In movies, music, books, paintings, gatherings — who are the artists and community members of today who infuse joy into the cultural and communal mix? I promise to follow through and look into any resource that gets posted in the comments. In the meantime, I’ll keep dipping into the rich legacy left by previous generations and will continue my own search for expressions of joy in our days. I’m especially interested in real-time, in-person gatherings. Where do people meet to be joyful in company?

On a recent Saturday afternoon, a friend and I were out. We stopped at the library so I could return materials and pick up holds. My friend went to peruse the stacks and I sat at a table to wait. I soon noticed an older man with two young girls. They appeared to be a grandfather out with his granddaughters. The girls weren’t being bad, they were just young. They stopped in the middle of aisles to look at their picture books. They didn’t take turns smoothly at the self-checkout station. The man had a great plan, but it wasn’t being executed as gracefully as he’d intended.

I could see the grandfather’s frustration level rising. Very likely, he was running some of the same self-talk that plagues the rest of us: “Am I all right?” “Why can’t I make things work the way I want them to?” “We must be annoying other people.” I’ve been there. I thought I could at least set him at ease on the last of these. When an opportunity arose, I made eye contact, gave him a thumbs up, and said, “You are doing good work.” His shoulders visibly lowered and he took a breath.

It looked as though his self-talk shifted: “These are not irritations, they are my precious granddaughters.” “We are not annoying the world, we are among friends.” I’m not a mind reader so I don’t know what he actually thought. I do know that what happened next was he guided the girls over to my table and asked if I would like to say hello. So I admired their book choices and their swimsuits. Grandpa was taking them to the pool next and then out for ice cream. I observed that they were lucky to have such a great grandpa.

The whole exchange took just a few minutes. I like to think that it helped. If things didn’t go smoothly again later that day, perhaps the grandfather didn’t go straight into embarrassment. We are social creatures. It matters to us to be accepted by our community — to know that others see us and are glad that we are here. If it takes a village to raise a child, then one aspect is surely to cheer on other adults in the act of caring for children — especially when they bring them into the social sphere.

Anyway, back to my original point: at other times, in similar situations, I have been oblivious or deliberately ignored or felt and expressed annoyance. On this occasion, I had the grace to be present and to connect in a light and friendly way. I like to acknowledge and cheer myself on when I behave like this. I’d like it to become the norm.

What about you?

Any friendly chance interactions that you’d care to share?

Any moments in your own life when you were present in a way that pleased you?

Education

Classroom Teachers
Special Education Teacher
School Superintendent

Engineering

Mechanical Engineers
Chemical Engineer
Electrical Engineer

Health Care

Medical Doctors
Pharmacists
Veterinarian

With only two exceptions, everyone’s work life closely relates to one of the above categories. (Those who have married into the family tend to fit here, too.) Education, Engineering, Health Care. I have long thought myself an oddball at family gatherings — the out-there Yoga teacher in a room full of people with real jobs. But this is not so. I teach people about body mechanics to improve their health. In fact, I am a synthesis of the family interests. I couldn’t be more connected.

I looked a little further: My father worked as a mechanical engineer. From him I have inherited precise attention to detail and a delight for tinkering to make things mechanically efficient in the physical world. My mother worked as part of a support team helping hard of hearing children thrive in mainstream classrooms. From her I have inherited a passion for inclusiveness — making others welcome and structuring activities so that everyone can participate. Could you ask for better foundational traits for a movement educator?

It is a pleasure to bask in the realization that the skills and strengths of my family flow through me. Given my own individual nature and the specifics of my place and time in history, I apply these gifts in areas my grandparents never imagined. What a rich blessing.

What about you?

Any thoughts about your family that you’d like to share?

Try this: Don’t move your hands. Pause for a moment to observe them.

Are your fingers curled or straight? Are the palms of your hands closed or open? Where are your thumbs in relation to your fingers?

Also take a moment to check in with other parts of you: What are tension levels like in your jaw, neck and shoulders? in your arms? What is the tempo and depth of your breathing? (This one is really hard for me — as soon as I pay attention to my breathing, I change it. Try not to. Go for a sense of how you have been breathing for the last few minutes.)

Now try this: Get something flat: a clipboard, a book, a firm pillow. If you don’t have anything handy that you can set on your lap, then sit in front of a table. Place one or both hands palm down on the flat surface so that the fingers and thumbs are easily straight. Allow the heel of your hand to rest on the surface and position yourself so that your wrists are comfortably straight. Just sit like this for several breaths and notice what happens.

Check in with the level of muscular tension in your forearms. Check in with your jaw, neck and shoulders. Check in with the tempo and depth of your breath. Any changes?

This simple opening of the hand has been profound for me. If I sit with my hands resting on a flat surface, I feel my shoulders and forearms soften. My breathing becomes easier and more complete. I feel more restful all over. The amount of change has surprised me. Typically, my hands at rest are softly curled. They are not clenched and I don’t experience them as being especially tense. Yet deliberately opening them has been significant.

If you don’t notice anything, that’s fine.  This particular activity might not be very meaningful for you. It is also possible that you are not in the habit of paying attention or experimenting in this way. In this case, changes might happen more slowly and take more time to percolate into your awareness. There’s no hurry. Sometimes I rest my hands on something flat when I am watching television, when someone else is driving, when I am listening to another person speak. There are plenty of opportunities to play.

In standing, the action is a little different, but the principle is the same: opening the hands without adding tension. Stand up and allow your arms to hang comfortably at your sides. Are your fingers curled? If you are really clenching into fists, we’ve got some work ahead of us.

Try this: Imagine tying puppet strings to the tip of each finger and each thumb. Take your time. I’ll wait. Now, imagine attaching a weight to each puppet string. Allow these weighted puppet strings to gently and effortlessly pull down on your fingertips. I can’t see you so I’ll have to guess. My guess is that one of two things is happening. Most likely, you are deliberately straightening and extending your fingers through the use of muscular tension. If this is true, you will feel contraction in the muscles of your hands and forearms. You will also think this is a dumb idea. It is. This is not what we’re after.

We want the other possibility — in which the muscles in your hands relax as though in response to the gentle pulling action of weights tied to your fingertips. In this scenario, you won’t feel your muscles working. However, you may have to keep re-engaging your imagination on this mission to keep up the sensation. That’s fine.

Stand still for several breaths. Notice what happens to the tempo and depth of your breathing. Notice what happens to the tension level in your arms, shoulders and neck. Notice your spine, hips, legs and feet. Do you feel more centered or grounded?

Go for a walk and notice the difference in your experience when you walk with your fingers curled and when you walk with open hands. How do your arms swing? Where do your eyes tend to look? What’s going on with your mind and emotions?

My students have reported feeling more grounded, more stable, and more fluid when they walk with open hands. They have also reported that walking with open hands calms their minds; reducing any tendency to ruminate.

You can experiment: try wearing wrist weights while standing and/or walking with open hands. What is your balance like when you stand on one foot with fingers curled? Any increase in steadiness when your hands are open and your fingertips are pulled by imaginary weights? Try playing along the diagonal — if you tend to wobble while standing on your right foot, then stand on your right foot while really extending through the open fingers of your left hand.

I love little things like this. Our hands are busy so much of the time. Try using a clipboard, book or lap desk to support your open hands the next time you watch TV or a movie. Try standing with open hands the next time you wait in line at a store. You might even take a break from the rush and deliberately choose a longer, slower line.

You can repeat this now and then throughout the day. Don’t be concerned with changing or correcting yourself, just become acquainted with what you do. Of all the myriad possibilities, what shapes do your hands take most often?

Standing with open hands can be especially nice to do in a beautiful nature spot — a beach, a forest, a mountain view. However, the world is always around us and it is always a benefit to be present. You can stand in front of a window, in front of a beautiful painting. You can stand in open presence in a mall or at an airport and witness the passersby.

Gently check in with your hands throughout your daily activities. Do your hands tend to be clenched? curled? open? Since I have begun to play this way, I have noticed that my hand gestures are becoming more open. Perhaps my autopilot has taken note of the positive effects of open hand and is looking for more opportunities to tap into these benefits.

What about you?

What shapes do your hands habitually take at rest?

If you play with Open Hand, are there any observations you’d like to share?

Credit Where It’s Due: This exploration was inspired by the Reflexes: Prisons or Portals training led by Jaimen McMillan and Jane Swain. Jaimen used the image of puppet strings pulling on the fingers. I expanded the idea to rest the hand on flat surfaces out of a desire to move out of the Palmar Grasp.