Revisiting the fine art of making bread, and all that involves, I was remembering years ago when I was learning from a macrobiotic teacher how to make seitan.  

(Seitan, or 'wheat meat' being  the spongy gluten left behind after all the bran of the wheat has been rinsed away...in case you didn't know)

Seitan-making, like with bread, requires kneading of the dough. The trick for getting the lightest end product, this teacher was showing us, was to put in less time kneading and more time for the rest in between.

Interesting. And how utterly metaphorical!

We're so kneady.

While we are pretty convinced that it's the action we're putting toward something that gives us results, often times it's the inaction that brings on the magic.

So many times I've reminded people (to the point where I've put it in print) that the effects of a shiatsu session may only unfold in the hours and even days after a session.

And how often do I forget this myself...plugging away at a stuck place in a receiver's body in hopes of seeing instant release, while I know that often it takes time and rest for the tissue to respond.

Daydream believer.

Unschoolers recognize this too. That continual input into a child's brain is not necessary for learning to happen.

In fact, it's the long periods of processing (often mistaken for daydreaming, or the 'doing of nothing' which drives parents batty) that not only allows for retention but for true integration and understanding to unfold.

The common wisdom is that only persistant focus and attention to a task will bring you success, rather than a meandering and distracted path to achieving it.

But there's a lot to be said for the expansive and yin side of things, and only so far that the focused concentrated yang direction can take you.

If you love it, let it go.

While having the concept of sustained effort preached to me as the only path to success, I have to say I've found some positive and interesting results with the occasional abandonment or neglect of a project, goal or task.

Some things just bloom more readily without my hovering and interference.

Call it procrastination, or offering it up to the divine, (or justifying my occasional laziness) but when I'm not mucking things up with an emotional or otherwise attachment to an outcome,  stuff happens much more effortlessly and miraculously than I could have ever imagined.

I see two similar but hidden processes here:

1) The internal: the subconscious simmering, fermenting, connecting-making, intuitive prioritizing, awaiting the epiphanies (aka: time out for some shiva nata..)

2) The external, and perhaps a little more woo-woo, depending on which explanation you subscribe to: going with the flow, divine intervention, synchronistic path-crossing, decisions made by default.

Either one, though, requires trust... patience, humility (letting go of the belief that things that can only manifest if I'm intimately involved and controlling the show), detachment, and did I mention trust? And a willingness to allow outcomes to unfold that maybe you didn't consider but could actually turn out be better than what you were striving for.

The actions, if we must define them might take the form of: getting away from a task, or delaying it when it's not flowing smoothly, or allowing time to stew, or rise, or ferment, or as I often joke, putting it off till it becomes irrelevant (because in my experience, there have a number of things I've delayed on that actually managed to resolve themselves - and usually more beautifully than if I had responsibly acted on them immediately. Granted, that sort of thing has required a cultivation of intuition on my part regarding which tasks to meander around.)

I could also chalk it up to being one of those people that seeks merit in any outcome, especially if it's one that I could be kicking myself over for not being being more proactive. I prefer that over feeling regret and disappointment. And it makes every experience an educational one.

"Life works out in the process of Life Itself. All you have to do is trust that it will, and allow it to." - Neale Donald Walsch, 'Conversations with God'

Shall I dare put forth a metaphysical observation that I think this is where our collective experience is going? That less individual physical action and effort is required to move forward, and more can be given up to the unseen Flow of Things guided by our own pure intention?

Here's one I discovered yesterday (and only caused me to chuckle a little):

"Can I make a living being a shiatsu practitioner?"

My first snide and unhelpful response would be:

"Define 'a living'."

My second would be:

"I'll let you know when I get there."

But seriously. Here's my advice .. ala' Rilke:

Dear Shiatsu Practitioner Wanna-be,

I would suggest first asking yourself why you're considering this as a livelihood.

Is it just something that sounds to you like a cool and glamorous way make some money? (It is, and what follows is not meant to be discouraging, but...)

The reality.  Your income is in direct proportion to your session hours. You work on 15 people in a week, you get paid for 15 people in a week. You only book one or two clients in a week (one of whom decides to cancel) and guess what?

It gets a little tricky concerning financial planning, and knowing when exactly to quit your day job.

"So, then, I just get a bunch of clients. I mean, I work 40 hours in my cubicle job. That's 40 times... (wait, I remember paying $70 for the last shiatsu I got)...  that's like $2800 a week!"

Easy there, friend.

First off all it takes time to build a client base. And by time, I mean hours, days, months tirelessly spent marketing and promoting yourself. Time spent building experience, and trust, and relationships, and a good reputation so others will help spread the word of how fabulous you are.

Time which you don't get paid directly for. Think of it more like ... an investment.

In addition to the 5 year statistic of how long it takes to get a business into the black, (did I mention this would be a business?) I think the rule of thumb is that for every client session hour, you invest an hour and a half of behind-the-scenes time: marketing (because clients come and go like the weather, and you gotta keep 'em coming in) client maintenance, bookkeeping, and quite possibly, learning how to do all that stuff to begin with.

So, good news: yes, it's a full-time job. But perhaps not in the way you thought.

Unless you work for someone else. In which case, they do all the leg work, carry the overhead, and you get paid less. Possibly for more hours. And less flexibility.

And regarding that you-get-paid-only-for-the-hours-you-work-on-people thing? It's physical work. Sometimes even emotionally draining and heavy.

And there's only so many hours you can do in a week if you want to avoid injury and/or serious mind-boggling burn-out.

And you gotta be on. Whether you feel like it or not. Whether you just had a fight with your spouse, or got cut off in traffic, or have PMS or whatever. Your client is counting on you to be there for them... to be their therapist. Not vice versa.

Sure, there are are superhumans out there ... maybe you're one of them.

But for most mortals, I believe, again, the rule of thumb (pun totally intended) is around 15 session hours a week, if you want to keep doing this for a while.

"But still, that's like $1000 a week!"

Yes, it is. Which, if you budget properly and learn good business sense you may then have enough to cover your liability insurance, rent, marketing, advertising, slump times, vacation weeks, sick days, continuing education, utilities, promotional materials, and possibly even some groceries!

Oh, and bodywork for yourself. 'Cause you're gonna need it.

"Okay, so why the hell would I want to do this? Can people actually make a living in this profession?"

Like I said, that was not to discourage you, but to get the point out of the way that it's not all sparkles and sunshine.

It is, however, about making a life, not just a living.

A lovely platitude. Yet this is why I asked the initial question: why are you considering this?

You may not even realize or have conscious intentions of how profoundly becoming a shiatsu practitioner can change your life. But it can.

Choosing this profession has the potential to give you much more than a job. Much more than a career.

It becomes, as the Buddha talks about, Right Livelihood: a trade that not only refrains from hurting other living things, but one in which you are dedicated to their healing and well-being.

You develop a sense of compassion and empathy for the suffering of others. You become aware of your own suffering and find a path by which to heal it so you can be of greater service, and regain your own sense of wholeness.

You enter into a profession that, at its profoundest level, is holy communication of the heart and soul.

You experience the joy of having helped another human being feel relief from pain and freedom from limiting patterns so they can live their lives a little more fully.

You can elevate your own sense of self-worth by what you now have to offer to our human community ... a skill of tremendous value that will never be obsolete, that will never outlive its usefulness, and that can never be replaced by technology (no matter what all those shiatsu chair ads may say.)

And you can sleep better at night knowing that this.... this is what you do for a living.

The monetary compensation is essential, yes, but as you can see, such a small part of the overall fulfillment picture should you choose this path for yourself.

Having said that, it is important that it be a profitable occupation for you, not least of all, so you can keep on doing it.

Once you have allowed your heart and mind to be given over to Shiatsu as a Life Path, you may find yourself making use of other related talents and gifts so as to expand on your practice.

Offshoots such as teaching, offering workshops, hiring yourself out for corporate chair massage, writing blogs :) and books. Creating art. Expanding your practice to such an extent that you can hire other people.

There will always be opportunities for expressions of the core healing message available to the creative and passionate person.

So, long answer to your short question:

Yes, it is totally possible.

But spring is still a ways off, and you know that last dreary month and a half of winter can be a bitch.

Winter. The water element. Cold, dark, and always sinking to the lowest point possible. This is useful in its ability to nourish our roots, and to store vital energy for the coming spring, but it can also lead to feelings of depression and stagnation in an unbalanced state.

This time of the year and its attendent downward energy is ideal for going within, minimizing activity, exploring dreams, and replenishing vital reserves.

But like any body of water cut off from its source, it can become stagnated. Ever feel like that on a cold bleak winter day?

In the Five Element Cycle, the dynamic in which each element has a particular nurturing or controlling relationship with another, Fire is one element that can bring Water back into balance when it gets to be too much.

Sunshine, warmth, laughter, relationships that lighten the heart... all of these are Fire associations and complementary to the Water element when it gets too heavy. A small dose of upward and outward energy (in wise moderation, because it is still wise to store up our resources), as well as engaging with whatever you consider to be your Source, can revitalize you and get the stream flowing again.

I'm revisiting a book I started to read a couple years ago, "Eastern Body, Western Mind" by Anodea Judith (aff. link).

It's a lovely explanation of the chakra system from a western psychology perspective. So much information and levels of understanding, and like most books I pick up, a particular wording or phrase will jump out at me and fit an image I've been trying to articulate.

Like this one: "..the body cloaks the invisible soul and reveals its shape and expression."

In and of itself it has little to do with the chakras, but, for me, it speaks volumes on how the body/mind connection is revealed in our forms, as well as giving a perfect illustration of the visibility and nature of chi flow.

The physical body can be seen as a vehicle for our souls, but it is also the densest manifestation of all the energy we are comprised of, and the clearest expression of our energetic make-up.

Opposite of how a container will define the form of whatever liquid is inside, our energy patterns define the shape of our containers.

Judith's statement called to my mind an image of The Invisible Man... transparent and undetectable.. but now, throw a sheet over him. Or even better, spray-paint him. We can now see his posture and features, facial expressions, details. But we know that the spray paint itself, like the physical body, is not 'him', it's simply revealing the state of his energetic formation.

And like the Invisible Man, we are energy contained in a physical structure that takes on the state of how that energy flows, beginning with conception, and to a large degree, conforming to our thought patterns, our emotions, our view of ourselves and the world as we grow older.

The corollary to this is that the energetic system can be affected in turn by actions we take to the physical body.

Some of our energetic expressions are permanent. But our physical bodies have a degree of plasticity as well, and can be molded and reformed with bodywork, yoga, and other work that creates shifts in our emotional and psychological states.

And in Judith's book, she recommends a number of individual approaches for healing each chakra that will not only balance the energy system overall, but positively affect how that energy ripples out through the physical form.

So I am. On January 25th.

I imagine with busy schedules, tight budgets and whatnot, I would have to make this really enticing for you to come out on a Monday night. And I'm planning on doing just that.

I will answer some basic questions about what shiatsu is (and isn't) - how it compares to other forms of bodywork, what are its origins, and what health conditions it can help.

But I also want this to be about more than me just rambling on (disclosure: speaking in front of groups is terrifying for me, yet something I do want to get better at) so...

.. we will also be doing some fun hands-on stuff, such as learning a whole body self-massage routine called Do-In. And another technique called Makka-ho (meridian stretches... with a brief explanation of what meridians are and why you'd want to stretch them).

And bonus!... an introductory assessment of What Element You Are according to Chinese Medicine. All of these will be given out in a nicely presented written form for you to take home.

And another bonus! One of you lucky attenders will have a chance to win a copy of "The Book of Shiatsu", by Saul Goodman (My teacher and founder of the Int'l School of Shiatsu).

Oh, and if you have never been to Creative Healing Arts, you're in for a treat there as well. It's a beautiful space just to hang out in.

So, if you're in the West Chester, PA area I invite you to come on out. It's only an hour and a half, and only $15. Get to know me, CHA, shiatsu, and come away with a few skills to ramp up your own energy and relieve common aches and pains.

Not bad for a Monday night in January.

Click here for more info.

Click here to register...

I've been playing around with the 'body-as-home' analogy, seeing how far I can stretch it.

We live in our bodies. (Well, most of us.) And, while we don't always follow through here, we have a pretty good sense that it needs continual upkeep if we wanna live in it comfortably for a long time.

We also have a fairly good idea of what proper maintenance is: regular water intake, fresh air, exercise, healthy food. But fewer of us are aware that we use our bodies as emotional dumping grounds. The junk drawers that hold the odds and ends we just don't want to deal with at the moment.

You know ... those slights we thought we blew off. Those hurts and stressors and traumas both real and imagined that we shoved under, or 'got over'. The fears we're not facing, the inner conflicts we're not owning up to, the voices we're not expressing -  they're all stashed in the various pockets and crannies and hiding places and junk drawers of our physical beings.

Domestic management goddess, Marla Cilley (aka: Flylady) has helped many thousands of people rescue their homes from utter chaos. She knows better than anyone that this is not a one shot deal... it requires vigilance and daily maintanence to keep an orderly and peaceful house. (Heck, even she gets the home/body analogy, as evidenced by her book, Body Clutter!)

One of her tips involves managing the hot spots (Fire Drills!)... those surfaces in our homes that just magnetically seem to collect crap: the nightstand, the countertop, the table in the hallway, the chair in the bedroom.

These areas are referred to as hot spots, because like a carelessly tossed match, once one thing is left there, it quickly becomes a raging fire... a surface re-buried under a pile that spreads to the rest of the house. Back to chaos.

Our bodies are no different.

Say some small un-dealt-with stressor causes a tension in your shoulder. No big. Maybe even hardly noticeable.

Then you wake one morning with a crick in your neck. Going about your day, probably with more reinforcing triggers, you have to manipulate your body in some kind of odd way to accommodate the stiff neck, now causing tension in your low back.

Still not enough crisis to address it directly, some time goes by and you develop digestive troubles, or painful menstrual cramps. But you don't put it together that restricted back muscles can create a ripple effect in the connective tissue in the low abdomen which can impede internal organ function. So, if and when this gets bad enough, you finally seek help and quite possibly medication... all because of some unreleased tension stuck in your shoulder.

An overly dramatic and simplistic scenario? Perhaps.

But I think it's safe to say that we do have chronic areas of tension. Our junk drawers. (How many times have I heard you say, "I keep all of my tension here....") I do it too. And it occurred to me yesterday that this may never change.

It becomes habit, and it requires constant awareness to empty out and release those places before it becomes chronic pain as well as a spreading wildfire.

I was noticing my left shoulder yesterday, and how it actually wasn't hurting or tense. How free and open and relaxed it felt. And odd. :) But I knew it was only a matter of time. (Hence the inspiration for this post.)

And here's another obvious thing: it's not the shoulder's fault, any more than it's the junk drawer's fault.

It's the crap (clutter) that we keep laying on it. Regular clutter-reduction and awareness is the key,... another self-evident maintenance tip from Flylady. And me.

(How, you may ask, do I reduce the clutter that causes chronic tension? Oh my, well, regular bodywork that addresses both emotions and body can help. I would also recommend mindfulness meditation, and other such 'story-releasing' techniques, like Michael Brown's book,  "The Presence Process", or Byron Katie's "Loving What Is" for starters. Or talk therapy, if that's your thing. PS: Both books mentioned here are affiliate links)

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(In the Chester County, Pennsylvania area and looking to learn more about shiatsu? Register now for my Hands-On Intro to Shiatsu class, January 25th at Creative Healing Arts in West Chester.)

Having said that, yay! Retreat!

First of all Jen is running some blog posts all week about "how to find your voice, your truth, your authenticity – that thing everyone tells you you need to be successful and happy. The last blog post offers a free excellent e-book giveaway."

Cool, right? Go here to check out the first post in the series.

So, then Jen is suggesting that I write a little somethin' somethin' about why retreats are good, how they help unlock your creativity, why I might want to do one, why you might want to do one, and I was like, hmmmm...

Oh yeah! I do have some experience with this!

About nine years ago, when I was 7 months pregnant with my last son, I learned of a women-only retreat being held 10 minutes from my house in this cool little Swedenborgian retreat center nestled amongst wooded hills.

I knew it would probably be my last chance for a solo getaway for a few years (yeah, I'm *that* kind of mom). The hubs was all, yeah go for it, and I'm forever grateful for his willingness to hang with other three sons and do whatever guys do when mom takes off.

The schedule included Friday night and all of Saturday, with an option to stay at the center an extra night, which I totally went for. The workshops held included Dream Journaling, Proprioceptive Writing, yoga, and a drawing hike on which I was gifted with an elusive (and possible illegal) red-tailed hawk feather.

The optional second night, on which no workshops were held, gave me time to lie in bed with a notebook and finish a story I volunteered to write for my mom-in-law's book group... a little piece, (pre-DaVinci Code, thankyouverymuch!), written as Mary Magdalene and her spiritual love affair with Jesus.

I had been stuck for some time trying to get this thing done, and having a quiet night, after a nurturing 30 hours, the writing just flowed, and even the idyllic setting I was in found its way into the story. (And it's with a little thrill that I tell you this was my first published piece of writing!! Not available on Amazon though, sorry...I don't think. Wait, lemme go check. OMG! It is... !)

Anyway. I cherish that weekend, and was so glad I took the time to to do it before plunging back in to baby-land.

My second retreat ever was self-imposed, even closer to home... actually in my home... and inspired by Susan Piver's book, "How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life: Opening Your Heart to Confidence, Intimacy and Joy" which included the 7 Day Freedom from Fear Meditation Program.. the first 36 hours of which involve, well, retreating.

I was fortunate enough to be able to plan this the first weekend my family left for the Jersey Shore for a few days, and so as not to bore you with details here, I've already written about it here. And here. And when I 'returned', here. (And Susan popped by in the comments to wish me well. Bonus!)

So yeah. Retreats. In any form. Go for it.

Highly recommended, and here I am wondering as I'm writing this, why it's been almost two years since I retreated. And why I'm only telling you all to go do this thing with Jen, and not doing it myself.

I'm so obviously due. Join me?

That link again to her blog post series (no sign up necessary to read!:)

Disclosure: links to books on Amazon are also affiliate-related...

If nothing else could be said about 2009 -though, of course, there were a LOT of something elses - I made some great connections and found some great finds over the past year.

Some are people who I'm just happy to see show up in my inbox or twitter stream.

Others have impressed me enough with their Big Things to not only invest a little money, but become such an evangelist for their products that I would enthusiastically convert others to do the same before it finally occurred to me to see if they even had affiliate programs.

They've all touched my life, or inspired me, or stretched me in some way, and if you don't already know them, well, then, let me introduce you...

Jen Louden. I bought her "Couple's Comfort Book" about a zillion years ago. It took me some months to make the connection that this was the same author I had been following on twitter. She is dubbed "Comfort Queen", but perhaps "Retreat Queen" would do as well.

Here's one she's offering in February of 2010. And she is @jenlouden on twitter.

Havi (and Selma). If you've been reading my stuff, and you still don't know who Havi Brooks (and Selma) are, well, I don't know what to say.

Can't say I remember exactly when I became a devout follower (sorry, Havi, you probably hate that term, but there are a lot of us) but I do know when I took the plunge to become a shivanaut.

One of her tweets about Powell's Books sparked my interest, and now I'm a big fan.

She's got a lot of great stuff to help folks Biggify, Unstuckify, and Dissolve-ify. The one thing I can personally swear by is the wild and wacky Shiva Nata practice. My brain will never be the same.

And dammit, I will get to Portland someday! Find her on twitter: @havi

Hiro Boga. What can I say about Hiro? She is simply a radiant angelic ever-positive presence on twitter, which is the current extent of how I know her, though I've been venturing more and more into her Sunday poetic posts.

She is on my list of 'people to get to know better' for 2010. @hiroboga

Darren Rowse.  Problogger's "31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge" was one of the best and inexpensive investments I made in the how-tos of writing a better blog. It's a gift to myself that keeps on giving, and yes, I highly recommend it. @problogger

The Bloggess. I won't say too much about the ever-wigged-out (double entendre there) Jenny, except that I usually go to her site if I wanna laugh till I cry, which is like every day, and I'm just glad she's out there doing what she does so I don't have to. @TheBloggess

Fabeku Fatunmise. Happy-Maker, Chocolate-Lover, Punk-Rocker, Sound-Healing Ninja, is, dare I say, like a soul brother to me... doing with singing bowls what I believe I'm doing with shiatsu.

This guy rocks, and when his little yellow avatar floats down my twitter stream, I know it's gonna be a pleasant hour or two. Check out his free singing bowl downloads for a taste of the awesomesauce. He is @fabeku.

Heidi Fischbach. A massage therapist up 'round Beantown, who will probably be the first stop on my fantasy road trip.

She is also a lover of words, hopeless devotee' of Leonard Cohen, and now, along with her Aardvark sidekick, a Maker of Potions. I just got my stocking stuffer sampling of her divinely scented creams in the mail, and I'm So Grateful she sent me a duplicate jar of "Goodness Gracious" so I could bear parting with it to gift a friend.

Find her at Baba Yaga's Place and @curiousHeidiHi on twitter.

Mark Silver. Another heavy hitter and Kid at the Cool Table, and quite possibly the Bringer of the Most Profound Stuff I got involved with this year.

I had been dancing ever nearer to Mark, through the work of others mentioned here: Havi, Jen, Lisa, Jenn, Fabeku, and I finally had the good sense to go to the source. There's too much to say about this without Mark dominating the whole post, but his Heart-Centered business practice was the missing link I had been searching for without knowing it... and the true test of its power was how applicable it is to the rest of my life.

Click the book for his free eZine and workbook, and follow him @MarkHeartofBiz

Sue Hess. I've known Sue in real life for a long time, and am proud to have been in her very first Homestead Herbalism course, which is still rocking 7 years later. She has a blog with gorgeous photos of her farm, her plants, her girls (chickens) and occasionally her own radiant smiling face.

Just wish she lived about 10 miles closer...  @farmatcoventry

Rob Blackburn.  Ever slowly the interwebz bring us out of the woodwork, and I was thrilled to find another kindred spirit who believes shiatsu to harbor revolutionary potential. Keep an eye on him here, and here: @zensandwhich...

....as well as Helen Robello (@Shiatsu4Life on Twitter) Like Shiatsu Rob, she is on board with the shiatsu revolution as well as being a student of my own teacher, Saul Goodman. We are on a mission to make shiatsu understandable and interesting to the masses! Now, I've just gotta get to the UK so I can meet some of these people! Oh yeah, find her here.

Wee Peng Ho. Found his blog, The Conscious Life down at the Carnival of Healing (a weekly round up of holistic blog posts). Informative, educated and thorough his site is, but what really impressed me was his compassionate, gentle nature which comes through on our interactions in his comments section. And now on Facebook. And ever so occasionally on twitter. It's obvious he cares about what he does and he makes an effort to kindly connect with everyone who finds themselves on his site. I love that. @tconsciosul

Danielle LaPorte, of White Hot Truth, is one of those women that I would give anything to be... intelligent, sexy (in every way that I mean that), and with an ability to write a post with very few words but all the intensity of a flaming arrow shot through the heart. Just linking to one of her posts brought a long-lost client back to me... that's how hot she is. @DanielleLaPorte

Amy Childs. Another gal I love to soak up, a real-life friend and fellow unschooler and mom, Amy  got me back to revisiting my earliest parenting days, and how that's shaping me as a shiatsu practitioner with her gracious interview invitation on her podcast, Whatever Whatever Amen.

Look for my upcoming interview with @Amy_Childs about her Happiness Consulting business.

Victoria Brouhard. Here's a woman who took the leap out of Working for the Man, as documented in real time on her blog and on twitter, into helping others do the same. How very exciting! Her Big Thing was not something I was in the market for, but it's still been a joy virtually hanging out with her, sharing late-night twitter silliness, and just being in her general vicinity.

She is @victoriashmoria.

Christine Lacombe. Also known as @musecrossing on the twitters and blip.fm, Christine is a kindred spirit, breast cancer survivor, wife to a shiatsu practitioner, embodiment of all that's good and beautiful in Canada, and the first person I ever skyped. True! And she has a blog in addition to her day job. Get to know her. She's a lovely human being.

Jen Hofman. (@inspiredjen) Like a sigh of relief, Jen is among some of the beautiful people listed here who gave me permission to break out of the rigid mindsets around organization, or to-do lists, or time management, etc, etc, which had the added benefit of losing the belief that there was something wrong with me if I couldn't stay on top of this stuff. Are you at war with your office space? Lay down your arms. Check out Inspired Home Office.

Lynn Serafinn. Author of "The Garden of the Soul", as well as beautiful person, I was honored to get to know her a little during my joint (ad)venture doing her book promo. My interview with her is here.. her site is here, and she is @lynnserafinn.

Lisa Hunter. This gorgeous gal, like Jen H, brings peace, joy and sexiness to time management for 'go-getting women'. She reminded me that rhythm is far truer than lists and boxes, and she also hosts a monthly Business Girlfriends Diva Day which simply rocks. She's @lisahunter on twitter, and if you wanna get a taste of her other rhythmic talents, go here. (She's the one in plaid :)

Jenn Givler. The first face I saw upon entering Creative Healing Arts for the first time, which is now home to my second office. Jenn and I became fast friends, and she is primarily responsible for pointing me in Mark Silver's direction, as well as enabling my twitter habit. She was working in the capacity of intuitive business coach for holistic healers at that time ... her expertise now lies in helping busy women create a healthy lifestyle. Check her out: @jenngivler

Honorable Mentions. This is by no means an all inclusive list, and the challenge of writing something like this is knowing where to stop.

There are a number of folks and their Big Things that I hope to get to know better in '10, such as; @JessRS, @PaceSmith, @Kyeli, @monagrayson, @Love_Love_Laugh, @evalazza, @gracejudson, @gassho, @lissarankin, @zenmommy,  and on and on and if I've left you out, please accept my apologies, and suddenly I feel like I'm giving a speech for an Oscar....

Several hours later... and Crap! Knew there were people I would forget! Like Tara Burner, whose 'Affordable Minerable Make-Up' I love!! as well as her supportive and inspirational tweets (@taraburner), and Goddess Leonie Allan (aka @goddessleonie) who is expecting a tiny goddess very soon.... (and I'm sure I'll be back again as I remember more..)

I wrote a little about that here, but one thing I was not able to fully get to during our time chatting together was this budding realization of some of the similarities between the unschooling philosophy and the holistic healing philosophy.

Which is kinda cool.

As I'll be going more in the whole unschooling thing on the onlyhuman blog in the months to come, I won't dwell on it here, but here are some key "Parallels I've Noticed" between how humans learn and how humans heal.

Trust.

In education, not to mention parenting, there seem to be two main camps concerning human nature. One is that we are born flawed and must be continually educated, trained, guided, and sometimes cattle-prodded, if necessary, into becoming productive members of society.

Without the extrinsic motivation, and if left to our own devices, we would resort to our basest self-serving impulses, and given the choice, would wile away the hours in front of the xBox.

The other camp believes in the intrinsic sociality of humans, trusting that we come into the world hard-wired to learn all we can in order to fit in to our tribe, and to seek our purpose and passion.

Prodding is unnecessary, perhaps even counterproductive, but positive expectations and healthy modeling are critical and provide all the impetus a human needs to grow into his full potential.

Like this latter perspective, holistic-types tend to trust that the human body in an intelligent, self-healing organism, needing only the right environment, conditions and stimulus under which to regenerate and thrive.

Rhythm.

Contrary to how how public school system and the work world at large is set up, humans, being a part of the natural world, are just as much subject to rhythm -- the ebbing and flowing and what-have-you -- as everything else in nature.

We do not learn naturally in a linear fashion... at least not most of us... and our growth tends to occur in spurts followed by periods of absorption, contemplation, and a great deal of 'behind the scenes processing' (often mistaken for 'daydreaming').

Same goes for the healing process. We have periods of drought, the occasional blessed Aha! moments, movement forward, regression, and then the scaling of new plateaus.

True healing and wellness success sometimes require that we cycle through past experiences, and that we recognize that some things cannot be addressed just through will alone ... losing weight for example.

We would also attain a level of peace with our bodies if we recognized that, like everything in nature, we are subject to environment, seasons, hormones, and age, all of which are about rhythm.

Connection, Relevance and Ownership.

I've lumped these together because I perceive a lot of overlap here. But these qualities are always what provide that magical spark which takes 'learning' into the realm of 'knowing'. This is what makes learning or doing anything really a joy and a passion, even if it's majorly challenging.

The standard educational model has been founded on compartmentalization and seemingly arbitrary timetables determined by educational experts and logical rational.

Has this had any more of a profound effect than the one of totally sucking the joy out of learning anything? Not to mention removing us from the learning process itself.

We are now passive subjects and receptacles, and have to be trained or enticed or threatened even, to do something we would have joyfully done anyway.

I see little difference in the way we approach our own health. We rely on experts to tell us what we need to do, what to eat, what we feel, and even while seeking those professional opinions, we resist acting on them, as self-care has now become an item on the to-do list, much like dreaded geometry homework.

How many people have I have heard say, "I know I 'should' be exercising more... (or eating better, or I always sucked at math, or I don't care for history, or....) but..." Statements like these are usually tinged with guilt, and some degree of self-loathing and a sense of failure.

How is this helpful?

It seems that from an early age we learn to give away our power to those more 'qualified' than we, as well as our autonomy over how and what we learn, and what is best for us and our bodies.

When we are not trusted from the get-go, we learn not to trust ourselves.

There's something about making the internal connections between what we know in our heads as information and what we know in our hearts to be true... what those connections are exactly remain a mystery to me, though I've felt that 'cha-chunk' feeling (as Mark Silver describes it) when heart and mind are in alignment, and even the most daunting challenges lose their, um, daunting-ness.

And, there's something about owning the learning process that makes it stick for us, in no way that prodding or self-discipline ever could.

How is it that a baby suddenly becomes obessesed with the desire to join the ranks of the upright, so determined that will attempt nothing else besides pulling themselves up and falling down day after day until he masters it? And all without toddling classes! (Though I wouldn't be surprised if they do exist.)

A tiny person will defy the laws of gravity unaided, and master complex human speech, but still can't be trusted to learn to read or add and subtract without drills and a timetable.

How did we come to this? How can we get back to reclaiming our own inner knowing?

I suppose I could beat you over the head with this point, and perhaps I will in future posts.

For now, however, the question in my mind is how can the unschooling philosophy better help me support my clients and readers?

*****

PS... After writing all this, I drove my kids to the dentist, where I happened to pick up a recent issue of Time Magazine lying face down next to me in the waiting room.

This oddly appropriate article was featured on the front cover, which I'll leave for you to read, but one line serendipitously seemed to hint at the question I left hanging above at the end of my post:

"...research suggests the brain in its relaxed state is more creative, makes more nuanced connections, and is ripe for eureka moments."

Yeah. Exactly. More to come....