i could watch this every day and still cry. amazing.

Cedar Lake dancers in Orbo Novo, photo by Julieta Cervantes

Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Orbo Novo (New World), created for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, made its New York City premiere last week at the Joyce Theater.  The piece was inspired by “My Stroke of Insight”, a memoir by the neuro-anatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who suffered a stroke at the age of thirty-seven.  Weaving together flowing movement and text that is both humorous and analytical, Cherkaoui attempted to illustrate distinctions between the past and the future, the left and right brain hemispheres, the old and new.  In spite of seamless dancing, the result lacked texture and variety, never revealing a world more intriguing or complex than our own.

The stage created boundaries and constraints for the dancers with a set design of four red, metal grids on wheels, created by Alexander Dodge.  When Acacia Schachte climbed the lattice structure, hung gracefully at the top, and then slithered to the floor – where she excelled at Cherkaoui’s undulating movement before collapsing – the audience saw the first of many literal portrayals of Taylor’s memoir.  This clear illustration of a stroke was followed by spoken text – accompanied by slow walking and myriad arm gestures – that elaborated on Taylor’s thought process as the stroke occurred.  Speaking matter-of-factly and at times humorously, the dancers conveyed the experience of mentally persevering while physically struggling to go through the motions.

Cedar Lake in Orbo Novo, photo by Julieta Cervantes

More compelling was the series of solos, trios, and ensemble dancing – filled with moments of calm stung by aggressive, tumbling spurts of adrenaline – that set the dancers into eternally-moving journeys that only came to an end because of confinement within the metal structure’s walls.  When the dancers were trapped, their limbs dangled lifelessly through the grid, and suddenly they would glide through and come to life.  Freed or contaminated, however, there was little variety in Cherkaoui’s choreography.  It was just one undulating movement after another.  And although watching their supple bodies ripple and curl was mesmerizing at times, the eyes tended to glaze over because of so little change in movement quality throughout the eighty-minute work.  Szymon Brzóska’s meditative score, played by the Mosaic String Quartet and pianist Aaron Wunsch, was similarly unvarying with the exception of a few vibrant, fast-paced sections that infused the piece with energy.

Cedar Lake’s dancers are undoubtedly a talented, disciplined group, but in Orbo Novo they appeared unmoved by the content of the work, and sections of their speaking were forced and insincere.  While they beautifully achieved the illusion that their physical beings were pushed and pulled by external forces, their performances lacked the emotional and psychological depth that the piece required.  Perhaps this has more to do with Cherkaoui, who never shared his own voice in the piece, instead relying solely on Taylor’s memoir for direction and interpretation.  The result was a one-dimensional, unchanging world that was more bland than peaceful.

During one of our anatomy sessions in teacher training, Neil was telling us about Jill Bolte Taylor and how she’d watched herself have a stroke. Jill is a brain scientist and curiously was conscious of what was happening during her stroke so she was able to watch her own brain switch between the left and right hemispheres. This had the peculiar effect of giving her the experiences of Nirvana or bliss at times and logical individuality at others.

Here’s her story:

(photo by Jordan Ayan and used under the Creative Commons license)

(Sorry, for some reason I’m having trouble embedding the video. For now, please click on the link to view the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html)

“We have the power to choose moment by moment who and what we want to be in the world.” Amazing if we could only consciously decide to switch between our left and right hemispheres.

“I am…These are the sides of me. Which would you choose? Which do you choose and when?”

“I believe that the more time we choose to spend running the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our world would be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading.”

I do too.

Dice David Armano en este post sobre Visual thinking una frase célebre:

“<Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand>. Visual thinking equates to “show me”, and that’s the bridge between telling and understanding”.

(Dímelo y lo olvidaré, muéstramelo y quizás lo recuerde, hazme parte y lo entenderé. El pensamiento en imágenes equivale al “muéstramelo”, y es el puente entre “decir” y “comprender”).

Luego, Dolors Reig escribe este post donde adelanta algo de lo que enunciará durante su presentación en VirtualEduca Buenos Aires 2009 y vuelve a hace foco en el protagonismo que tendrán las imágenes en la Web 3.0.

• ¿A qué viene esto de “pensar con imágenes”?

Pensamiento con imágenes, pensamiento visual o aprendizaje con el hemisferio derecho del cerebro son algunas de las denominaciones utilizadas a la hora de describir el fenómeno de pensar a través del procesamiento de imágenes, es decir, utilizando aquella parte del cerebro vinculada a lo emocional y creativo, con el fin de organizar información de manera simultánea e intuitiva.

Pensar en imágenes es una de las formas ya conocidas de pensamiento no verbal como la (c)kinestesia, el pensamiento musical o matemático. En el ámbito educativo, donde el texto ejerce un notable dominio de la curricula, la incorporación del pensamiento visual pueda abrir un interesante abanico de nuevas formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje.

Para comprender mejor cuáles son los procesos neurológicos que se llevan a cabo en ambos hemisferios del cerebro vale la pena ver el video de la fantástica conferencia que dio Jill Bolte Taylor en el prestigioso TED.

“Siguiendo una metáfora informática, nuestro hemisferio derecho funciona como un procesador en paralelo. El izquierdo como un procesador de serie. Ambos hemisferios se comunican a través del cuerpo calloso, compuesto por unos 300 millones de fibras axionales. Más allá de esto los dos hemisferios están completamente separados. Debido a que procesan la información de forma diferenciada, cada hemisferio piensa en cosas diferentes, se preocupa por cosas diferentes, y me atrevo a decir, que tiene personalidades muy diferentes”.

“El hemisferio derecho trata sobre el presente. Es el aquí y ahora. Piensa en imágenes y aprende a través del movimiento de nuestros cuerpos. La información llega en forma de flujos de energía de forma simultánea a través de todos nuestros sistemas sensoriales para estallar en un enorme collage: la impresión sobre el momento presente aparece. Es el responsable del olor, del sabor, el sonido, de lo que sentimos ante el presente”.
No resulta novedoso decir que nuestro sistema educativo hace hincapié en el desarrollo del hemisferio izquierdo del cerebro. Lo que sucede del otro lado del cuerpo calloso suele estar vinculado con lo recreativo, accesoroio. Formalmente, el hemisferio derecho, sólo es estimulado por materias que permanecen al margen, por fuera del eje troncal de la currícula.

¿Qué sucedería si pusieramos en práctica iniciativas que motivaran la actividad de ambos hemisferios del cerebro por igual? ¿Qué tipo de procesos cognitivos florecerían? Tal y como existen en la actualidad, ¿matan las escuelas la creatividad?

• [La imagende cabecera proviene de acá]
  

Jill Bolte Taylor says that you can tap into the bliss of your right brain by paying attention to your thoughts.  Simply refocus your thoughts on ones that cause you to feel better.  (You can go to her google for her website, which gives you a link to an Oprah Soul Series broadcast).  I tried it today by not refocusing my attention on different thoughts every time I started a negative thought pattern like “I hate work”.  I had a happy day!

Now I’m home and boredom threatens my good composure.  So I am going to focus on planning my lesson for my Japanese English students on Sunday.  Then I’m going to watch a brainless movie ”Wanted” with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, both of whom I think are sexy.

Life is so good!

I have a major affinity for TED talks. That being said, I just had the privilege of watching Jill Bolte Taylor’s 18-minute talk, which was voted Number One in the Top 10 Best TED Talks. I’ve heard a little about her, mainly through advertisements for her book. She seems a little nutty – especially when she talks about her out-of-body experiences. But who wouldn’t after studying the brain’s functions for years and then, in a day, watching those same functions disappear one by one?

Yogi Raves

Cool things to complement your yoga on and off the mat.

VIDEO:

Stroke of Insight:    Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor

I’ve been talking a lot about the Grid lately. Not just the grid of living in a city, using electricity, etc. But the grid in our minds. The attachment and  agreement we make subconsciously that keeps us tied to ways of living that stunt us, that bury the essence of who we are, that make us feel separate and disconnected to the whole. The grid that tells us that inequities, injustice and bureaucracy are “just the way things are these days.”  

Well, if you ever had any inkling in the pit of your belly that it doesn’t have to be that way, watching this amazing VIDEO about the grid and how a brain clot became a ’stroke’ of insight for brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor, will reaffirm your knowing that regardless of popular grid propoganda, we have a choice. A choice in each moment to be present, to step into the deep knowing within all of us that we are connected to all things. That separateness is only an illusion from the limited scope of living within the lines of a grid and that each moment is an opportunity to step into the expansion of wholeness.  Wooooo…(insert trippy music here.)

P.S. This video is part of TED. An amazing resource to hear people speak, perform, etc. about the human experience. Check TED out too!

MUSIC:

David’s Birthday by Love You Moon

Boingy and yet a little heavy. Sometimes there is just something about the intonation of someone’s speech that is just kinda slinky and cool. Even when the song is boppy, Matt Embree’s voice makes you feel like he’s singing with one eyebrow up, head cocked and maybe a knowing look on his face just before he turns with a slow wink.

I Want You Back cover by KT Tunstall

One of my favorite versions of this song. It was done long before M.Jackson died. KT Tunstall’s recording her own background while she’s playing live and looping as she performs. It’s cool. 

Beach Town by Le Loup

This song is kind of like how it feels to fall asleep sometimes. Chatter, bumps, tings, thumps in the head, till maybe a rhythm of movement is revealed, then melody lilting, lifting into frenzy that is anchored only by it’s own heavy fullness and finally… silence.

PLACES:

Hostel In The Forest… Brunswick, GA

Speaking of getting off the grid a bit… plan a trip to The Hostel in the Forest and get a little reminder of what that’s like. Affectionately known in these parts as, The Tree Hostel, this place is a must visit. Located in Brunswick, GA, just a couple hours south of Savannah, you feel like you have the space to remember yourself when you are there.

The glass house is great for meditating, yoga, or just chilling out. The center of the (clothing optional) lake has a floating dock that is often the spot of many great conversations with visitors from all over the country/world and a place you can just bask in the sun silently. 7pm is communal dinner. Wholesome, organic and vegetarian. Chickens walking around. Bonfires at night. The Hostel is whatever you allow yourself to experience. 

Cost is $25 per night and 1 hour of your time helping out around the Hostel. Ok, enough talk. Each time there is different, so just go already! Tell them I sent you.

My Autumn Flow Workshop at the Savannah Yoga Center,  Sunday 27, 2009, went swimmingly!  Thank you to all those who helped make it a successful experience for me and for all the tremendous students who attended. Thank you especially, Tara Loughlin, Caroline Daruna, Dawn Tanis, Kai Baylis, Kat Jones, Catherine Moore and Kelley Boyd. And thank you to the all the students who helped to create an amazing space for us all to unfold into. So much gratitude for all of you. 

I showed an amazing video (thank you Tara Loughlin ) during the workshop. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist shares her experience as a brain researcher witnessing and experiencing her own stroke. She shares so movingly, the physical, intellectual and spiritual journey it took her on. It’s a truly powerful video from the TED series, a remarkable resource to witness the the stories of human experience. You can watch Jill’s video either at the TED website or here on youtube and pass it on. It is definitely worth sharing. 

Keep up to date on my current class schedule and workshops in the future. If you missed this workshop, you won’t want to miss the next one! Fo’ Reals!

“Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one. An astonishing story. ” (kiitos S.!)

Aivotutkija Jill Bolte Taylor koki universaalin qi:n aivoverenvuodon yhteydessä. Mielenkiintoista, miten muinaiset itämaiset viisaat ovat olleet oikeassa: tiikeri-qigongharjoituksissa aistii selvästi tuon kaikkialle ulottuvan energian läsnäolon. Eikä kyse ole mistään huuhaasta, vaan aivojen rakenteesta ja toiminnasta …

Linkin lähettänyt nettiystäväni on selvästi oivaltanut, mitä vaihetta elän juuri nyt: olen yhä tietoisempi siitä, mitä valitsen, mihin energiani suuntaan. Kiitos intuitiosta ystäväni (taas kerran muuten malliesimerkki, miten syvästi voi ymmärtää ihmistä, jota ei koskaan ole livenä tavannut)!

Ilkka Salmenkaidan kanssa olemme vaihdelleet ajatuksia siitä, miten joskus asiat vain loksahtelevat kohdalleen, löytyy tiedonpala sieltä, toinen täältä – ja juuri silloin kun tarvitaan nopea synteesi jostakin teemasta (nämä hetket liittyivät kirjan Laihdu ilman nälkää uusintapainoksen kirjoitusprosessiin). Ilkka on nerokas ihminen, joka osaa käyttää intuitiotaan, hän ei ilmaisisi asiaa näin, mutta minusta kyse on taolaisesta  wu weista. Minä kuulun siis niihin, jotka ymmärtävät wu wein hetkessä virtaamiseksi. Kun liikkuu energiaportit avoimina ja ottaa vastaan intuitiivista informaatiota, löytää vastauksia kysymyksiin ja oivaltaa …

Ce que Jill Bolte Taylor, neuro-anatomiste américaine, nous révèle ici est phénoménal….. Cela rejoint ce que disent depuis  toujours les Maîtres, il faut absolument écouter son histoire, elle est touchante et impressionnante de vérité

As a coach, one of the hardest things I ask my clients to do is to be in the moment, to notice and observe without judgment the feelings in their body at this very moment. Learning to listen to our bodies gives us the information we need to “trust our gut” instead of relying on information outside of us to make decisions.

Many successful business leaders have learned to trust their gut.  As Donald Trump said, “Leaders are people who can discern the inevitable and act accordingly. When people talk about business acumen, discernment is a big part of it. It’s a bit like gut instinct, but a little more developed.”  Gay Hendricks in his book The Corporate Mystic talks about the importance of leaders learning to trust their gut.

Most of us have been taught to disregard what our bodies tell us. Some of us have even been taught the opposite. That we should never listen to what our bodies tell us but only make decisions based on hard core evidence. Would you like to be more comfortable making decisions? Learning to trust you gut is one of the best tools you have for making reliable decisions.

Just try it for a moment. Start with the more obvious. Do you have a headache? Is you stomach growling because lunch is long overdue? Now, what else are you noticing? Are you holding tension anywhere? Does any part of you feel heavy of constricted or open or expansive? Many of us hold tension in our upper back and neck for instance.

Once we learn to listen to our bodies we can gain all sorts of information. Our bodies receive information even before our brains receive the information. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neurosurgeon, wrote My Stroke of Insight. In her book, she describes how our bodies actually produce chemical reactions which allow us to feel different emotions such as anger, sadness and fear in different parts of our bodies.
Learning to Trust My Gut

Your next question may be so if I listen to my body what do I do with that information.  Great question.   We’ll talk about that another day.

Until next time,

Amy Barnes, Life Coach

Through a sequence of synchronicity, Dave and I are delighted to be joining Hills of Africa on their phenomenal “Soul Safari” in South Africa next month, as the official photographers.

This is a 9-day internal and external journey with celebrated psychic Ainslie MacLeod, author of ‘The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended’. He has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on her “Soul Series”, alongside the likes of Eckhart Tolle, Dr Wayne Dyer and Dr Jill Bolte Taylor – all of whom I consider as exceptionally inspiring, powerful contributors to our collective wisdom.

The “Soul Safari” incorporates 4 nights at Madikwe Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Private Game Reserve and another 4 at the Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa in Cape Town.

As such, the trip perfectly represents the two underlying themes, and tributes, in my novels (see My Books pge of this blog). The first one takes place in Cape Town and centres around the sea. The subject of conservation is African Penguins (being critically endangered). In fact, our group will be visiting their colony at Boulders Beach! The second takes place on a fictitious game farm in the Waterberg mountains. It centres around the African bushveld and Cheetah in particular.

How amazing to have the opportunity to explore this more fully, both internally and externally. THANK YOU Sandy & Meredith of Hills of Africa for that! Also, my immediate family all live in Cape Town, so I have the added bonus of visiting them again

Incidentally, all of this has arisen from connecting with Sandy and forming a cyber freindship via blogging, facebook and twitter – just one example of the exceptional potential of the internet explosion!

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

        I have not read this one yet, but it is on my ‘must’ list.  Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroscientist by profession who shares her insight into the illness of stroke.  Her book is titled ‘My Stroke of Insight.’

        She knows, and both from a right brain and left brain perspective, because she suffered a stroke herself a few years back.  Like many of us as medical professionals, prior to her stroke she was a left brain human.  Logical, organized, driven, time pressured etc.  I am not judging.  Lord knows I have plenty of ‘Type A’ to go around.

        When she had her stroke she knew it was in the left side of the brain, because she began to lose the use of her right hand, and her speech began to get garbled.  As it progressed, an odd thing happened.  Her right brain took over, and she began to experience an unexplained tranquility.  It was like she was able to step outside herself and look at the situation with near bemusement.  She began to think, “Well, isn’t this interesting?  My, my.  It sure is peaceful over here.”  (Paraphrased)

        The left side fought back.  “What are doing?  You are a scientist.  This is a stroke.  Call 911!”

       She never forgot the feeling, though.  Her full recovery took years, but as her left brain came back to normal, she was still able to tap into the right side and access all those warm fuzzies.  Even after the resolution of her stroke she did not lose that ability.  I think her book is very important.  If we read it with passion we might learn more about how to access both sides of our brain with equal ease.

        I am reminded of the early days when I began to write my book.  Some days I’d come in from work and start to type.  I was still in left brain mode.  I’d send it to my agent and he’d say, ”You wrote this like a doctor.  It’s terrible.  Do it over.” 

        He thought about how to break this pony for a while. One day he called.  “I don’t want you to ever write a word until you have strung your mandolin around your neck and played until you have logged into your right brain.”

        It worked.  In fact, what few times I tried to get speed up the process and get it by him he’d notice right away.  “Tear it up.  Go get out your mandolin.”

        The last time I saw Wayne and Kristin Scott Benson we got into a discussion about Ms. Taylor’s book. I told Kristin that I looked forward to the read, but at the same time I had a notion I understood what the doctor was trying to say. 

        Kristin looked at the mandolin case at my feet and smiled.  “That’s how you get there, Doc.”

        How come woman are so intuitive?  She 100% got it.  The mandolin and writing has always taken me over to the tranquil side.  I just didn’t have to suffer a stroke to get there.  I bet there is a lot to learn from Dr. Taylor as to how to access it with more efficiency.  Or maybe I am just too danged left brain-ed analytical about it all, who knows?

      In my next post I plan to share some about the Wayne Benson left-brain right brain balanced mandolin method.  One time I told Kristin it seemed to me Wayne understood the why of how he played better than any great player I’d ever worked  with.

       She just smiled and nodded.  I’m sure she must have wondered how old Doc could be so slow to understand.  To her, as a woman, an artist, and as Wayne’s wife, that understanding was second nature.  It takes a community to make a right brain artist out of a left brain doc, but with the help of ‘The Mandolin Case,’ I’m getting there.

Dr. Taylor’s web site is:  www.drjilltaylor.com

Dr. B

To follow beautifully on looking at the way we perceive the self through the workings of our mind… Is a talk from Jill Bolte Taylor, that begs the question of choosing how we perceive the world around us, by observing the way in which We (or rather, in this instance, she) function first hand.

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke Of Insight

About Jill Bolte Taylor:

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness…

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the “Singin’ Scientist.”

“How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I’ve gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career.”

Jill Bolte Taylor

Big up Jill… You’re beautiful and we’re very grateful (and very lucky) to have you here with us today to share your amazing, heartfelt story with the world! Here’s to perceiving the world through “love”.

To find out more about Jill and what she gets up to now-a-days on planet Earth, please click here.