Spinach's Hollow Tubes

Harvesting our garden's abundance, I made spinach walnut pesto today.  Since our crop is huge and to save time, I picked a few spinach stalks and quickly snipped the leaves.   I had no idea that the main stalk was just a hollow tube - a marvel that got me thinking.

With my bare feet in the soil, I pictured the hollow tubes inside of me.   Fallopian tubes.  Aorta.  Ureter.  Intestines.  Esophagus.  Colon.   Eustachian tube.  Bones. We are an amazing creation!

Like the spinach stalk, we want our bodies' walls to hold structural integrity.   Allowing free flow and unobstructed exchange of materials - permeable when needed and a barrier at other times.   Our tubular construction allows us to be light.

For the size of the spinach stalk, it, too, is extremely light and the outer walls strong.  I can see all the way up the tube - a soft green light bathes the empty space.  

We are nothing but space.   Scientists continue to prove we are mostly made up of space.   When we look at the smallest building blocks in our bodies - there's lots of space.   Somehow, we have organized into this creation.

Touch your fingers together.  The only reason when we touch our fingers together that they don't just pass through each other or merge is that the atoms are repelling each other.

So, I am thinking - the only thing holding us back from complete dissolution or complete absorption is our repulsion to the idea.

Rehab Corner : Scolio-Pilates: Working in Multiple Dimensions - Balanced Body

Rehab Corner : Scolio-Pilates: Working in Multiple Dimensions - Balanced Body

Respiration Animation - Very Cool!

Thank you to Jenny Otto for finding this animation!  Thanks to Betty Larsen's brother for this translation for the video!  And to John Charping, Betty's husband, for sending the translation to me!  Jenny, Betty & John are my senior teachers.  Each of them are incredibly generous!  Most of all, thanks to the creator of this animation!

1. The total respiration for all (everyone).

2. 7 levels. Hypophyse is the pituitary gland.

3. faux du cerveau is fold of the brain.

4. The cervical diaphragm absorbs and neutralises the tensions originating from the top and the bottom of the body.

5. All of these anatomical parts are probably obvious.

6. The diaphragm nerve plexus is the central part of the diaphragm (white zone).

7. The perinée (inferior part of the pelvic basin between the anus and the genitals) viewed from above.

8. The perinée viewed from below.

9. The viscera follow the movement of the thoracic diaphragm and push from top to bottom on the pelvic diaphragm.

10. The psoas (the two anterior lateral muscle pairs of the second dorsal vertebrae, in synergy with the thoracic diaphragm, puts the lumbar column under tension providing stable support to the diaphragm pillar.

11. The sacrum makes itself vertical and puts the posterior musculature of the spine under tension.

12. The posterior muscles of the spine activate the ribs like the slats of a shutter and places them in position to inspire.

13. Same as #4.

14. The superior ribs have a movement like a pump handle. The inferior like a bucket handle and the middle ones have a movement mixed.

15. The abdominals, active in forced expiration, give support to the diaphragm and to the viscera.

Moving Hearts

We have all experienced our hearts moving.  It's even a cliched saying... google it.   "He/she/it moved my heart."    There's a coming home when we recognize the moments when we literally feel our heart shift.  Maybe it was the flutter of your heart at the moment of a sweet, tender, first kiss.   Perhaps, it was the birth of a child - and you felt your heart move through expansion.   Maybe it was witnessing a disaster story - hurricane, tsunami, earthquake - and another individual's struggles moved your heart to feel their pain.   Perhaps it was your own grief that you felt the ache of holding on or the heart gripping in fear.   Our hearts move all the time - both in beat and emotion.   Our practice is to celebrate the spectrum in the light and the dark.  It's all there for us to know better - to sense and feel the texture of our experience - to see ourselves more clearly.   The full spectrum of the heart's movement is life.    It's not the isolated moments of the kiss, the birth, death, ending of a relationship -- it's the transitions and how our  heart can freely move between these places that is life.  We welcome it all.   This is what we celebrate - that our hearts continue to flow.   Our hearts continue to beat.   And we support each beat of our heart with our breath.   The inhale of infinite possibilities.   Infinite ways to respond to what is occurring right now.   The exhale - letting go and trusting that our hearts truly will "go on."