“It’s not happiness that makes us grateful but gratefulness that makes us happy.” – Br. David Steindl Rast
Why Do Feldenkrais? by Erin Geesaman Rabke Age gracefully I’m so inspired by my Feldenkrais teachers in their 80s. They continue to improve their movement habits even as they age – just as others their age seem to keep declining. Several years ago, one 80-year-old teacher of ours fell off his mountain bike and fractured his…
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Hello, dear human being, reading these words, wherever you might be… Are you comfortable in your skin? Before you read, can I invite you to take 30 seconds to feel your whole self, notice any tiny shifts you could make that might increase pleasure and decrease tension? Toes, neck, face, hands, shoulders, belly, posture? How about…
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A note from Erin: It’s hard to know what to write these days when there are kids in cages, families experiencing such unimaginable tragedy. And when it’s so tempting to numb out because it’s all just so heavy and too much to take. Yesterday’s announcement about Trump planning to roll back the Endangered Species act just slayed me.…
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A note from Erin: Hi friends, Thank you, from my heart, for being a part of our community! There’s a line in a song by Rising Appalachia that I love: “Good people all around me, acting kindly, acting wisely… open your eyes, what do you see?” I’m grateful to see, in addition to heartbreaking news, that…
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I am, as always, so grateful for the poets. Today, for Rainer Maria Rilke, Denise Levertov, Brooke McNamara, Fred LaMotte. And for bells. And for seeds. And for you. xo Erin
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A note from Carl and Erin: We’re thrilled to share with you that our dear friend and mentor Francis Weller is coming to Salt Lake City in November to offer a weekend Grief Ritual as well as a free talk. Our lives and work have been so deeply enriched by the learning we’ve done with…
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A note from Carl: Good day! Because we cannot be reminded too often to pause and return to our direct, embodied, sensory experience, as you are reading this, could you take a moment to feel the support of the ground beneath you? Could you open to receive the sounds around you? What are the smells that…
Read MoreOn Slowing Down
A note from Erin: I had such a laugh when a dear friend told me how much this favorite quote I shared pissed her off a few years ago: My yoga mentor Donna Farhi writes,”The degree to which you do not believe you have time to spend even ten minutes sitting quietly is the degree to which you desperately need to spend ten minutes sitting quietly.…
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A note from Erin: Good day, friends! May I offer some living questions? How might you make yourself a wee bit more comfortable right now? Is there some way you could make what you’re doing less effortful and more pleasurable? Are you feeling the support of the ground, this beautiful, living Earth under each of us,…
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A note from Carl: Dear friends, I am sitting with the laptop at our local Red Butte Garden Arboretum, surrounded by countless blossom smells and birdsongs. It’s so good to be alive! Meditation teacher, Tara Brach, describes three fundamental qualities that she has witnessed in people who have unfolded and matured over years along a path–regardless of the…
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A note from Erin: Hello, friends! We’ve just returned from a lovely trip including 5 days in D.C. visiting family and 5 days in northern California for our Grief Ritual Training. Our family’s been passing around a nasty virus where each of us has been sick twice in a row. I call it the magic-relighting-birthday-candle-cold. I got my round…
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A note from Carl: Greetings from a beautiful morning in San Francisco. Erin and I arrived here yesterday, and begin our grief ritual facilitation training with Francis Weller this afternoon. We keep joking that this is our “grief date” as it is only the second weekend we have been away from our almost 9-year-old son. Really,…
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A note from Erin: these beautiful little seasonal invitations to mindfulness are created by my dear friend at https://wrennarose.com/ Long ago I fell in love with a beautiful little book called I Will Not Die an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova, (who, serendipitously I got to meet and spend time with during our Embodied Life training years later.) I…
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A note from Carl: On Monday morning, Erin and I were sitting together on bench in front of our house, deeply enjoying a cup of coffee. It was the first sunny morning after days of rain, and as the light was beaming in over the top of the Wasatch mountains, a tiny yellow finch feather…
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A note from Erin: Salutations! I’m writing to you on a lively, rainy spring morning here in Salt Lake City. We’re alive! We get another spring! Yippee! A few notes before today’s writing: Local friends – this weekend in Salt Lake City we’re offering a wonderful workshop and Feldenkrais immersion: Improve The Way You Move. It will…
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A note from Carl: Friends, Before I begin today’s writing, I want to let you know that we still have space for you in next weekend’s immersion in Salt Lake City: Improve The Way You Move. It will be an awesome weekend of embodied learning and we can’t wait!! Details are below. Join us for one or…
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A note from Erin: First, I want to send an ocean of thanks to everyone who donated to our grief ritual training. It’s miraculous to feel so supported and held by a community of generous hearts as we go deeper into this work. We’re deeply grateful. If you didn’t read last week’s newsletter and wonder…
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A note from Erin: Hi Friends, I’m excited to land in your inbox today!! We’ve missed two weeks of newsletters due to my being away on a meditation retreat, then Carl and our boy traveling to visit friends. We’re back, and I’m so excited to connect! I’ve done something new today – I recorded a…
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A note from Erin: Hi Friends, I’m sitting at my cozy warm desk, watching shiny little droplets fall off the numerous icicles hanging from our roof. We had such an epic snow day yesterday! Schools were closed for the first time in years, and we gratefully tucked in with all the hot beverages, lots of…
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A note from Carl: Yesterday, a client was describing her experience in the natural movement and functional fitness class that I began last week. She said “The word that kept coming up for me throughout the whole class was ‘unlearning.‘” I reflected on how essential this observation was to how and what Erin and I teach and what we…
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A note from Erin: Hello, friends! I hope this note finds you having your heart slayed with delight about something, in spite of everything else. Birdsong? Cloudscapes? Someone’s laugh? A stranger’s kindness? A hot shower? A reliable old tree? The tiny pink tongue of a cat? The attentive ears and soulful gaze of a deer? This weekend…
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A note from Carl: I had just finished writing today’s email about Mary Oliver, and was about to hit send when I saw the news that she died today at 83. My heart is raw with appreciation and loss. What a gift her life brought to the world… I love the story of an interviewer asking Mary Oliver how she…
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A note from Erin: Hello, friends! I hope this note finds you having your heart slayed with delight about something, in spite of everything else. Birdsong? Cloudscapes? Someone’s laugh? A stranger’s kindness? A hot shower? A reliable old tree? The tiny pink tongue of a cat? The attentive ears and soulful gaze of a deer? This weekend…
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A note from Erin: Hello friends! I’m sitting here at my desk, reveling in the extra-jubilant bird song that’s happening just outside my window this morning. I think the sparrows, finches, chickadees, and starlings are celebrating the return of the light, as am I, even though it’s a muted gray-sky day. The return of the…
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A note from Carl: A very Happy New Year to you! To begin with today, we’d like to offer you a guided Awareness Through Movement Lesson, Free Your Breathing, taught by Erin, from our 15 Favorite Feldy Lessons Series. After the holidays who couldn’t use a quiet half hour on the floor cultivating inner spaciousness and free breathing? We have…
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A note from Erin: I’m sitting on my red couch, sipping English Breakfast tea as snow falls outside the window. It’s quiet. We’ve just driven home from a family gathering which has been wonderful and wonderfully not quiet. Our boy is thrilled to be romping around with 3 younger cousins; we’ve enjoyed our traditional holiday meal of…
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A note from Carl: A very Happy Solstice to you! Before I begin this week’s writing, we want to wish you the happiest of holidays. We are grateful for your presence in our lives. We are both so excited for 2019 and have many offerings coming, including Erin’s New Year retreat day, Embodied Listening Course (and she’s…
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A note from Erin: I’ve been deeply moved by this perspective since I heard Michael Meade say it in a recent podcast. It’s so true to my experience, though I so often forget and think I need more time. Choosing to pause and lean into the timeless takes courage in this speedy modern culture, yet…
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A note from Carl: I always love it when a particular theme pops up in several aspects of life. It feels like the muses are knocking, trying to make their way in. This last week, the theme has been about service. A couple of weeks ago, we were speaking with Charles Eisenstein for our podcast. At one point in the…
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A note from Erin: Hello, lovely humans. First things first: Are you comfortable? Is your belly soft enough that breath can make its way down? What might like to unclench – your jaw, your neck, your back, your hips, your hands, your toes, your eyes? Can you sense the support of the ground beneath you?…
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