To contact Gika Rector, call 713.213.7643 or send e-mail.
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Date and time
3-Week Series on Thursdays
May 30, June 6 and June 13, 2013
9:15–10:15 a.m.
Description
Whether at work or play, learn better ways to move………
Bones for Life® (BFL) promotes healthy bones and improved alignment – making your movements easier, safer and more fun. Ways of moving to sustain life and maintain health have well served many of the world’s traditional cultures for centuries. Some of these ways have been lost in our modern, comparatively sedentary life.
Learn through Bones for Life lessons how to move better through out your day, improve your posture, and improve or maintain bone health. Bone health is critical for a vibrant and active life.
Join Cathy Wright, certified BFL Teacher and Teachers in Training, Gika Rector and Mary Grimord for this introductory series and add a new bounce to your step.
For more information see www.movementintelligence.org
Fee
• $45 for all three classes pay by May 28, $55 after.
• No single sessions offered.
• You are encouraged to commit to all 3 sessions to receive the biggest benefit.
Date and time
Beginning Monday, June 3, 12:30 – 1:30 and again 5:00 – 6:00
Description
Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) lessons give your movements not only strength, but also ease and grace. As a black belt in Judo, an athlete and a scientist, Moshe Feldenkrais (founder of the Feldenkrais Method®) understood how to develop strength, efficiency and elegance in human movement. Bringing attention to how we organize our movements, we can move with greater strength and power-and with less pain and effort. Classes are suitable for almost all fitness levels. Willingness to lie on the floor, and an interest in moving more easily are really about all you need.
Fee
$15 drop in or packages of 6 for $75 or 12 for $120 available.
Registration is closed for this event.
Location
Pilates Place Yoga Space of the Woodlands
30420 FM 2978
The Woodlands, TX 77354
Never.
Ya never
hafta
shoulda
woulda
coulda
on yourself
or others.
Ever.
Always.
This is always true.
Except when it’s not.
 Finding yourself with no room to breathe? It’s especially challenging during this time of year, when we’re rushing around, fighting the traffic, ticking off our list of things to get—hurrying up so we can sit around the hearth, expressing our gratitude, with people we love, but don’t always enjoy.
Here are a couple of simple suggestions.
Breathe.
Take a moment to breathe. Sit or stand still. Exhale deeply. Exhale a little more. And a little more. Hold the breath out. Pause. Wait until it’s time to inhale. Let the air in and notice where the air goes. Pause. Repeat. And repeat again, as often as you like.
A thoughtful client recently reminded me that I’d told her that it’s nearly impossible to feel negative emotions and breathe deeply at the same time. I love my clients. We learn so much from one another.
Smile.
If you’re around other people, look someone in the eyes and smile. Watch the response. Turns out the smile is contagious. Scientists might call it “activating the mirror neurons.” Thanks to Mel Robbins for this idea—it really works! If you’re alone, try smiling anyway. It’s good for you.
Happy Thanksgiving. I wish you much abundance, wonderful people to love and enjoy, and some breathing room.
P.S. Please leave comments to let me know how these exercises work for you, or to share other strategies you use to find breathing room.
Bright and shiny objects are great for diversionary tactics. Don’t want someone to notice a few flaws? Surround them with bling, and what people will mostly see is bling. Don’t want anyone to notice that your dining room needs painting? Turn the lights down low, and set the table with cut crystal and candlelight. The tone becomes romantic in a sparkly kind of way.
 You probably do the same thing in your life’s work. Got something really important to do, but you’re not sure where to start? Got something that you really want to have or be or achieve, but you’re not sure if you’re smart enough, good enough, deserving enough? You can distract yourself with bright and shiny objects—bright ideas and shiny enthusiasm for something that’s easier, simpler, and probably not as important as what you’re avoiding.
How do you distinguish the real stuff from “fool’s gold”? The real stuff keeps coming back. You might get nervous about it, avoid it, approach it, circle around it, whatever—but it keeps coming back. The real stuff makes your heart sing, makes the world a better place for you, and when you’re in the middle of it, you’re unselfconscious and have no sense of time.
There’s nothing wrong with fool’s gold. It’s bright and shiny, fun and entertaining for a while. There’s nothing wrong with it unless or until it gets old and boring, and you get resentful and realize that it’s distracting you from what you really want to be and do.
What are the bright and shiny objects in your life? What’s keeping you busy and distracted? What is it that you really want to be and do? What’s keeping you from being and doing what you really want? Fear, anxiety, old stories about what you deserve? What might happen if you faced those obstacles and moved deliberately and strategically toward what you really want to be and do? Who knows what’s possible? Wouldn’t it be fun to find out?
Tools for Transformation is a series of blog posts about improving your life. The series is about using what you already have—yourself, your community, and your resources—to make a difference, to add meaning and grace, to explore new territory, and perhaps have more fun than you ever thought possible. Let’s talk about change.
Change happens. It happens in an instant, and it happens over time. With or without our direct intention; and certainly with or without our approval.
It happens when we’re young and it happens when we’re old. It happens internally and externally.
What are we to do with all this change? Do we control it or not? Can we channel it somehow to make the world a better place—or at least our lives a little better? Or perhaps even a few moments or aspects of our lives?
How do we initiate or direct change? How can we respond to change, when it’s imposed on us? How can we go with the flow—the ebb and flow—of all that changes and all that stays the same?
How can we take what we are given and make the world—or our own selves—a little better?
That’s what Tools for Transformation is all about: making a difference; making our own lives and the lives of others better, or more meaningful, or more fun; shifting, growing, changing, as the world changes, and as it stays the same.
 So what about these tools? They’re simple, complex, and paradoxical. They’re easy to use and challenging to master. They’re obvious and elusive. They take no effort, and they require careful attention and lots of practice.
The tools are as simple as noticing and as complex as understanding. They work great, except when they don’t—and sometimes even then. We all have tools for transformation, and we’ve been using them since day one. What might be possible if we noticed how these tools work and how to utilize them more effectively?
As with most processes, being and changing—transformation—is enhanced by collaboration. This is the beginning of a conversation. You’re invited to join me in an exploration of our lives: what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next.
We’ll start with noticing. Noticing as a tool for transformation? Yes. It’s the first step in initiating or responding to change. First you notice that something has changed or needs to change.
Luckily for us, we’ve been noticing all our lives. It’s what we’re programmed to do. We notice even when we don’t know we’re doing it. Even when we don’t remember what we noticed.
So for a while, notice what you notice. It might start to change.
Friends help you put your best foot forward.
Don’t you just hate it when your friends are right? Especially when it means you’ve got to dig a little deeper and do what you’re capable of doing. When they see your capacity to show up, to produce, to do great work, even when you are about to settle for good enough. When you are about to be a little lazy and deliver a product that’s not as good as it ought to be.
On our own, it’s easy to make excuses. It’s easy to say there isn’t enough time, or talent, or resources. It’s tempting to hide behind the excuses and play it safe, take the easy route.
But a good friend, a wise mentor, someone who sees you for who you are, will not let you show up that way, any more than they’d let you go out half dressed. They are not oblivious to your faults, but they treasure your talents and won’t let you forget them.
And, oh, aren’t we grateful for those very same friends! They see right through our reluctance and resistance and anxiety. They see our capacities, they have confidence in us when we have doubt, and they encourage us not to settle for being and doing less than our best.
Thank you, friends.
Who in your life has confidence that’s greater than your doubt? Who in your life loves you enough to tell you when you’re holding back? Who in your life cares enough to take a chance on offending you, because they see the larger, better you? Who in your life does this and still loves you as you are?
Go. Find those people and thank them. And be that kind of friend or mentor in someone else’s life.
And, if you don’t have people like that in your life, let’s talk about how to find them, how to find and nurture relationships that help you to be and do your best.
 I was thinking a lot about money this morning. The money I have. The money I don’t have. I went down a few “rabbit trails”—you know, those meandering pathways that wander far and wide, but don’t always end up somewhere that you meant to be. One was the “What would I do if the money were taken care of?” trail. It was a beautiful trail with lovely colors and scenes and lots of fun and creativity. Nice.
Then I went down an unusual trail—”What would I have to give up or leave behind, if the money were taken care of?” Anxiety, fear, excuses, constraints…. Might be nice to leave those behind.
And “What would I do differently, today, this morning, if the money were taken care of?” I’d finish typing this blog, pack my bag, and drive to Baton Rouge to visit some friends and family. Oh, that’s what I was going to do anyway.
What would you do if the money were taken care of? What would you leave behind? What would be different?
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