I had an interesting experience last night, as I was offered a session on the Alexander Technique with Neil Schapera at the lovely Four Winds Academy.

Never having experienced Alexander Technique, I was keen on trying it out after dealing with chronic tension in my back and shoulders... muscle knots so tight that not even massage has been able to alleviate. Although I can credit much of this to stress and physical strain, I knew there was a reason I came to the session when Neil explained to me that Alexander Technique is a method that focuses on changing habits in our everyday activities such as sitting, standing, and laying down. It teaches the use of the appropriate amount of effort for a particular activity, which gives you more energy for all your activities.

Sounded good to me. I could use more energy. And less muscle tension.

Little did I realize that I had been exerting too much effort into simple activities like sitting and standing. I was swinging my arms in a grand gesture, and throwing my weight forward to spring up and to my feet, rather than pivoting fluidly over my center of gravity. After Neil pointed this out to me, I looked a little deeper at what my motions were saying.

I was moving as if I had to motivate myself to perform, to get to the end goal. I believed that anything worth doing took effort and hard work. I questioned myself a bit further... Did I really believe that this was true? Is working harder necessarily smarter?

The truth is, I have connected many times with my Higher Self, thru meditation, energy work and thru my spritual connection. My Higher Self is quite zen. She moves with fluidity and grace. Things come easily to her. She does not need to toil or use excessive amounts of energy to get her point across, to accomplish her goals, or to just be.

So, this lead me to ask... Why weren't my physical body and my spiritual self lining up? Why wasn't I an embodyment of that spirit that I knew so well? The answer: social conditioning. I adopted the belief in my physical body that anything worthwhile took effort. I was trying too hard.

Funny enough, this was the same message the intuitive healer, Tuaca Kelly gave me in a conference call over a week ago, when she explained how to link my physical self to my Higher Self and purpose. "Stop trying so hard," she said. Now I know what she meant.

So my question for you is, how would your Higher Self move? Can you begin to move as your Higher Self in small steps? How about when sitting or standing? Try it out, just for a bit, and see what awareness and change it brings about in your own physical being.

Best,
Jen Salstrom

The other night, I awoke with moonlight in my eyes, channeling something inspired by love and unable to finally rest until I brought my pen to paper and made the words real with the light of day:

In our separation, we change and grow, bringing our newly retained and intricate knowledge of the self back to the whole. Our freedom from the whole, the vunerability and trust we empart brings us the vastness of experience of all that is and heightens the learnings of the whole.

In a sense, an unconditionally loving relationship is a microcosm of that of our understanding of the Universe, of the macro and the micro, that of twin flames. They merge and part, only to re-emerge with a greater understanding of the themselves as a single, as well as themselves as whole.

By parting and taking on new singular experiences, they come together with a heightened closeness and cohesion, as they now know and understand a greater sense of self, and upon sharing this learned sense of self, emerge with a greater sense of whole. Love for self and love for whole are eternally entwined. They never part.

As a child, I remember being in the great outdoors, often times lost in a state of imagination and wonderment. As I would traverse my path, I'd pretend to be a Native American princess, reading the land for signs to guide me on my journey. Sometimes I'd be a great Greek Goddess, exploring the woods in search of mystical creatures and looking at the earth with new, magical eyes that would transcend the everyday appearance of the land. It was with this fresh eyesight that the magic in the natural world was made evident to me.


Perhaps my own imaginative play in my youth was not so frivolous after all. In a world that is constantly bombarding us with ideas on what to believe, what to support, what is true and just, what to buy, where to shop, and what is worthy of our time, immersing myself in nature is one of the few things that brings me back to grace.


When I walk outside, nature speaks to me. Like a storybook, slowly exposing her pages to my soul, I feel refreshed, clear, and strong in my own state of knowingness. With her soft breath against my ear, the wind speaks reminders to me, telling me of her beauty, reminding me of my own. The colors of the landscape change every day and with every step of the journey, and in these subtle changes, Mother Nature pulls at my emotions, subtly shifting my consciousness as I walk.


The scent of eucalyptus trees, blooming dogwoods, chaparral flowers, poppies and lupines have a way of reaching into my soul, with each bringing to the surface different memories, associations, and feelings that color and shape my experience as I walk. The tall Italian cypress trees stand starkly in the distance, reminding me of my own light and power, striving to reach the heavens. The joyous dancing of the tall grasses greets me, lining my path and remind me to remain flexible, to ebb and flow with the very breath of life itself. The starlings beautiful display of symmetry and coordinated movement flying above remind me that we are all one, that we can and do work in balance as a dazzling display of life.


Open yourself experience the beauty and spirit of the natural world. Let your imagination soar and take flight outdoors. You will not regret it. Let Mother Nature reach into your soul, clean off the cobwebs, and bring forth beauty, power and weakness from within. To know nature is to know and learn the story of the world, the story of yourself.

A realization came to me last night, as my son, who is usually a very good sleeper, had a particularly rough night. As I rocked him back to sleep for the fourth time of the evening, thoughts such as "If only the gym childcare center would stop putting him down for a nap to make their job easier, he may sleep through the night" and "If he doesn't fall asleep soon, there is no way I'm going to be able to get through tomorrow" crept through my head.


As these thoughts crossed my mind, chronic tension, which I have tried so hard to alleviate began to creep into my upper back and neck. I believe that our bodies send us signals when we are trapping energy, acting in fear rather than love, and not being true to our real nature. And this was a five alarm fire a burning in my back, letting me know that something just wasn't serving me. And I realized, the cause of my own tension was my way of perceiving the world around me.


In my hoping to make a better world, I had been looking to everything external to my being to change, thinking that these things were obstacles in my path and expecting change within if only the outside world become more perfect and stop fighting me and making my life difficult. And I realized - the only real control I really do have is control over my perceptions of the external world.


No one had been "making" anything occur in my life to combat me or my path... my perceptions and programming were allowing these things to stand in my way. So, in the darkness of that frustrating 4:00 a.m. wake up call, I realized that these irritants are actually opportunities to grow and confront my own fears, beliefs and actions, forming pearls of wisdom instead of standing as obstacles in my way.


I may not be able to change whether or not my son sleeps through the night, whether the sun shines or the rain pours, and I cannot make anyone love me. I can, however, open myself to being vulnerable to the uncontrollable aspects of life. By loving myself and having the courage to look within, free from judgement, and by reacting to external triggers with the most authentic expression of myself, I can begin to change the world as I see it.