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November 15, 2004
First day of class, part deux!
Well, much to tell. Of course it starts last night, as I lay in bed for hours in that "between" state, finding all the normal techniques I use for shutting down my mind failing and the thoughts just running and running and sleep remaining ever farther away. You know I was pleased when my alarm clock went off at 5:30.
I found myself resistant to yoga class. I tried to just witness my thoughts running by; ridiculous things. Hugh Prather wrote, "The ego is always making up signs of defeat just so it can tell itself it was in a fight." Mine was on overdrive.
I coped with the hour long class, and did manage to learn something... or rather, feeling something more deeply I previously only grasped intellectually. I found myself feeling self-conscious during part of class, and then the knowing came, "If someone's busy looking at me, they'll be missing out on paying attention to their self." Of course I've heard and said that multiple times in the past, but I had never experienced it, especially from this perspective.
This quarter's modality class is called "Massage Theory & Techniques". Calling it "Swedish" would not, it turns out, do it justice (especially considering that we get two weeks of Polarity). Of course, calling it "Neo-Reichian" would just be inviting trouble... although we apparently will be getting into material that draws from Reich's work.
So after listening to Amy talk about where she's coming from and a bit about what we'll be doing, I'm able to be excited about the class. To be frank, traditional Swedish bores me. What can it do that other modalities can't do better? That's not actually a rhetorical question. If there's a valid answer, I want to hear it.
Of course, I was excited to be back in a circle in the Kiva with Amy and my fellow students. I'd be excited to be in, say, auto shop class with them. I can only imagine Amy teaching auto shop. Some people do do reiki on cars though...
We talked about bellies in class. About proper breathing versus America's Cult of Thinness and the body image dysfunctionality we're socialized into. And I was reminded of the allure of the belly. I love when people take an outer layer off and stretch their arms up and just briefly a sliver of belly becomes visible. Flat, round, hairy, smooth... even female... perhaps I was supposed to be Japanese. Supposedly they're all about the hara.
Monday's this quarter (or at least the first half) are Community Lunch with Surya for any interested. One thing we talked about was intentions for the quarter. I set intentions for continuing to learn to be in my own power, to learn how to better maintain my desired ways of Being while off the mountain (I find myself too chameleon like), and to continue to hone my time management skills (to that end, I brought my copy of The 7 Habits with me from Sacramento.)
Next up was Kinesiology... studying the way the muscles and bones move, posture, gravity, and suchlike. As Soyka described the course contents, I found myself growing more excited. Of course I pretty much like learning anything new. Well, anything out of a book that is.
Apparently muscle testing is beyond the scope of a basic kinesiology class. From what she talked about, it seemed different than the muscle testing in Applied Kinesiology. Which also is supposedly very advanced. They only teach it to Super Secret Western Medical Club members, i.e. doctors and nurses.
In class I realized I have another intention for this quarter, and that is to shed further layers of old schooling patterns. I did an ok job dropping old high school patterns. This quarter I should be able to go a few levels deeper.
I'm excited about random events that will be happening this quarter. Soyka should be teaching Reiki II. Kassy is teaching me how to make bone marrow soup. I may actually teach an EFT seminar. And I'm set on doing group reiki circles.
I find our Monday schedule so irritating. We have exactly two hours of free time during a day that starts at 7:00am and ends at 9:15pm. And one of those hours could be occupied by Tai Chi, if one were so inclined. I am, as Paul is teaching the Yang form this quarter. But I don't know that I'll go. I need that hour.
Supervised Practice took place after dinner. Of course we don't have anything to practice yet. We did "body exploration", which translates to, "Here, try to give a massage even though you've received no formal training!" So shoulder rubs in the dorm hallway during finals week, or naked foreplay in bed at 3am, are one thing... having someone properly draped on a table in front of you with a bottle of "massage lubricant" holstered around your waist is another.
Add 12 exhausted students and stir.
Posted by Josh A. at November 15, 2004 09:26 PM