Love your body is March’s focus for Through Your Body News.

There are many ways to sense and know our bodies; just as there are many ways to touch, care and heal our bodies. This issue explores some of my favorite techniques for just that. The primary focus of deep structural massage is the muscles and connective tissues. PSYCH-K focuses on the clearing of negative beliefs from the subconscious mind for rapid change (I'm having extraordinary results working with clients and PSYCH- K): Polarity Therapy, developed by Randolph Stone, accesses and balances the energetic grid that animates all of our body/mind/spirit. I am integrating all of these techniques into sessions I call Body Brilliant Balances. So far, the feedback is DYNAMITE! And of course NIA, my favorite way to work up a spiritual sweat.So sense and LOVE! your body. It's the best friend we have.

We intend to give you a monthly source that is useful, inspiring, beautiful, informative, and funny. How best can we serve you? If you have ideas about articles or creative criticism, we'd like to hear from you. If you like what you read here please share it with your friends.

Love your way,
Alan Davidson

• The Artist's Way--Alex Grey's Sacred Mirrors
• Working Through the Body
• The Rolfer’s Touch
• PSYCH-K: The Power Behind Thought is the Unconscious Mind
• An Admittedly Opinionated Attempt at a Unified Theory
• Polarity Therapy
• Traversing the Sacred Web
• What Is NIA?
• NIA Retreat in Costa Rica
• Your Monthly Astrocast by Michael Lutin

The Sacred Mirrors series is a totally unique work of contemporary sacred art created by Alex Grey. This installation of 21 framed images, consisting of 19 paintings and two etched mirrors, examines the anatomy of body, mind and spirit in rich detail. Each painting presents a life-sized figure facing viewers and inviting them to mirror the images, creating a sense of seeing into oneself.

The life-sized representations of the human body, portraying its physical and energetic systems, are both rigorously precise and vividly visionary. The Sacred Mirrors dramatically reveal the miracle of life's evolutionary complexity, the unity of human experience across all racial, class and gender divides, and the astonishing vistas of possibility inherent in human consciousness. Alex Grey has combined ancient wisdom, anatomical accuracy and post- modern eclecticism to produce elegant, universally accessible, eternally relevant and resonant symbols.

To view The Sacred Mirror Series: click link below; click sacred mirrors/click view Sacred Mirrors.

See the Sacred Mirror series...

Working Through the Body
by Alan Davidson

Western civilization, as a whole, has not been kind to the human body. The past 2,400 years have seen the body worshipped, debauched, vilified, denied, ignored, and mechanized. Things started well enough for the body with the Greeks. They worshipped the body. The Greek word soma means “the living body in it’s wholeness” or mind, body and spirit in unity. The Olympic Games were the ideal test of physical strength and endurance and mental and spiritual purity. With the dawn of the Piscian Age the shift of power moved to Rome. The Romans took their worship of the body and sensual pleasures to the extreme. The orgies of their Wine God, Bacchus, were notorious for their debaucheries. These drunken festivals would be the fodder that the Christians would rail against.

The Christian Church has taught for 1,700 years that the body is carnal; riddled with sexuality and given to crude pleasures and appetites. The final blow came when De Carte declared, “I think. Therefore, I am.” The Age of Reason saw the body as inferior to the superior mind. The body became the object which transported the brain. The advent of modern medicine has, at the very least, viewed the body as a magnificent machine.

Full article

The Rolfer’s Touch
By Craig Ellis, Certified Rolfer

I often talk to people who, when they find out I am a Rolfer, say, "That’s really painful, isn’t it?” Rolfing® has been associated with invasive and painful bodywork since the 1960’s and by some accounts, that reputation was at one time well earned. Apparently some early Rolfers mistook Ida Rolf’s encouragement to “go deeper” with “go harder”. The two are in no way synonymous, and the results were unpleasant for some. Times change, however, and the vast majority of Rolfers working today do not subject their clients to intense pain. We have learned that effective bodywork involves working with the client, not on them. Receiving bodywork from a Rolfer is a unique experience, and is typified by what some have called “the Rolfer’s touch.”

Full Story

The Power Behind Thought is the Unconscious Mind
by Richard Schultz

Henry Ford said, "If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you're right."

For years now, we've been hearing about the power of positive thinking. A question we might ask of those who make this statement is where does this power come from and how do we practically harness this power and knowledge to bring greater health and balance into our lives?

In 1963, Dr. Joseph Murphy, wrote a book called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. This classic Self Help title explains that the power behind the thought is the subconscious mind. Although we really have only one mind, students of the mind typically separate the mind into two functional aspects (conscious and subconscious), each with its own attributes and powers. It turns out that it's the thoughts and beliefs held in the subconscious mind that creates the bulk of the reality we experience and its the subconscious mind that we need to pay attention to if we want to make rapid and lasting change in our lives and reality.

Full Story

An Admittedly Opinionated Attempt at a Unified Theory
By Larry Valmore, MSW, PSYCH-K facilitator

I talk to many people who are using or studying various forms of energy healing, including aroma therapy, sound therapy, acupressure, Healing Touch, Reiki, and many, many more. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed with all the possibilities, and maybe you do, too. In this little article I'm going to describe what I think is the underlying, unifying principle that makes all of these things work.

"We are vibration," said a sincere woman with a beatific smile, opening her lecture on Sound Therapy. Indeed, that is a sound principle (pun intended), if a bit simplistic. We humans certainly are vibrating, at various frequencies: various frequencies as whole beings, and various frequencies within each whole being. The heart, for example, has its frequency, the liver another, and so on, yet my heart frequency is not necessarily the same as yours. The various healing modalities all have their own frequencies, as well, which harmonize with healthy frequencies within each of us, accounting for their healing power. Each essential oil, for example, has a specific frequency. Likewise for herbs, vitamins, foods, tuning forks, music.

Full Story

Polarity Therapy
An Introduction by Will Wilson

THE JOURNEY BEGAN IN INDIA In the late Summer of 1988 I was in Darjeeling, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. There had been what amounted to a civil war going on (the cease- fire had been signed the day before we arrived!). There were no other Westerners around, there was a curfew, and little food around. It was pretty dismal, and then it began to rain. The rain in Darjeeling has to be seen to be believed. For day after day it came down. Everything was damp and cold including our bed. Pretty soon I developed a flu-like illness and chest infection. The roads were flooded, we couldn't get down to the warmth and relative dryness of the plains. By the time we did get down, I had become quite ill, but back in the warmth seemed to recover.

Full Story...

Traversing the Sacred Web: a year on the journey of awakeningby Marla Durden

It all started easy enough. It was a simple encounter at a spiritual workshop that changed the fabric and nature of my being and life. I had come to the Waking Down Weekend after spending an amazing weekend with the founder of the Waking Down in Mutuality (WDM) Saniel Bonder. His approach to embodied heart-centered spiritual awakening had fascinated me from the moment I had heard about it. He promised enlightenment in this lifetime. After more than 20 years of actively seeking this elusive thing called “enlightenment”- a weekend was worth finding a new path to my goal. Our workshop with Saniel was simple yet profound. A new part of me came home and I knew that I wanted more.

Full Article

What Is NIA?
By Kate Murphy

Nia fuses dance movement, the martial arts and healing arts into an invigorating cardiovascular fitness program. In essence, Nia combines elements of tai-chi, yoga and dance. (See http://www.nia- nia.com for more detail).

"Through the expressive movement of Nia, the light body shimmers while shaking up the shadow. This opens the portal into the present moment where the voice of the heart echoes the compassion of the soul. All of this is surrounded by the Light of Spirit.

"In addition, Nia is also a challenging, heart pumping workout. Simply said, Nia is truly a spiritual sweat." According to Jennifer Harvey, "As a psychotherapist, Nia is a vehicle where I can share my passion for growth and for facilitating others toward their own unique transformation.

More about NIA

NIA Retreat in Costa Rica
With Helen Terry, NIA Black Belt and Trainer

July 15 - 22, 2006 Join international Nia teacher and trainer, Helen Terry, and her husband, Joe Terry, for a fabulous weeks retreat at the Blue Mountain Retreat, Costa Rica.

Enjoy daily Nia classes (the dynamic, total body workout)and Nia workshop experiences of Dancing Thru Life, Living Meditation and Life as Art with plenty of "down time" to enjoy R&R in astonishing beauty. There are some terrific "eco tours" like white water rafting, volcano exploring, canopy adventures and more. This is a great way to connect with fellow Nia fans with partners who are perhaps more on the sideline. Singles welcome too :-)

More NIA in Costa Rica

Michael Lutin is the weirdly wonderful, wise and mad astrologer for VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE. He doses your planetary advice with humor and whimsy.

Wisdom of the Month...