|
Serving a community of private individuals and professionals
who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion,
and creativity. Your feedback is encouraged. Please
contact us at seishindo@seishindo.org.
|
Workshop Announcement
"Balanced
Structure, Dynamic Movement, Endless Flow"
The heartfelt expression of thoughts, emotions, and
actions
Washington D.C.: October 31 - November 2, 2003
This workshop will offer you significant value if...
- You desire a deeper sense of calmness and meaning
in your life.
- You seek a heartfelt understanding of who you
really are, once you take away the stories about
your life.
- You are a therapist, coach, social worker, physical
therapist, or bodyworker, looking to add to your
current professional skills.
- You want to help others live a more fulfilling
life.
Learn how to identify and shift the somatic underpinnings
of limiting beliefs, health concerns, and debilitating
habits.
Please click on the title to find out more.
|
1. Starting Line
I am fifty five years old and my daughter is nine. For my
daughter, particularly being a member of a bi-cultural family,
learning is taking place constantly. It is my feeling that
my daughter is learning how to live in three cultures all
at the same time. Japanese culture, American culture, and
a third culture where she and my wife and myself all meet,
live, and share our love for each other.
Being with your children is often very much like looking
in the mirror and seeing yourself for the first time. Sometimes
this experience is humbling, and sometimes very joyful. I
can look at my daughter and begin to remember how I was curious,
frightened, loving, and angry when I was a child. Being with
my daughter helps me to better understand my own childhood.
If you have been reading this newsletter for the last couple
of months you will know that my wife's grandmother died recently.
This has led to many wonderful discussions with my daughter
in regard to living, dying, old age, and eventually the concept
of "evolution." We discussed how her great grandmother
had recently died, and yet all four of her grandparents were
still alive. We talked about how she might have children some
day, and if so, how her children would likely have children.
We also discussed the concept of fish evolving into amphibians,
and cave men evolving into human beings as we are today. Furthermore,
we discussed how one could think of typewriters evolving into
computers, land line phones evolving into mobile phones, and
the internet changing the way that mail is delivered and read.
Lots of interesting discussions, and a lot was learned by
me in the process.
During this same time period I gathered together a group
of pictures of myself. I showed my daughter the pictures one
by one, without telling her who was in the pictures, I asked
her what she thought about the one year old boy in one picture,
the eighteen year old high school graduate in another picture,
and the twenty three year old Naval officer in a third picture.
Needless to say her comments were VERY interesting and revealing.
Finally I said to her, "The guy in all of these pictures
is the same person."
"Really?!" she said "He doesn't look like the
same person, he looks very different. Are you sure?"
"Yes" I said, "I am sure, because all of these
pictures are pictures of me!"
Well, my daughter did not come anywhere close to believing
me when I first told her this. She looked at my wife and in
an offhand manner she said "Ha, da-da is trying to convince
me that all these pictures are of him. How funny!" It
was only after my wife told her several times that indeed
all of the pictures were pictures of me, that she began to
believe that this was even possible. She looked at all of
the pictures several times. Sometimes looking at two pictures
together and sometimes staring at one for a long time. Finally
she slipped onto my lap and looked at me as only a loving
child can look at a parent. She said, "Da-da, if all
of these pictures are you, then surely you must be evolving!"
I looked at her with deep love in my heart and said, "Marina,
if indeed I am evolving, the only way I can really know is
to look at you, and understand what an amazing daughter you
are!"
My daughter and I found evolution to be a fascinating topic,
and I hope that you will too. The "Main Course"
today is a broad perspective look at the topic of evolution,
and how it relates to you and me. All of life is intelligent,
all of life is learning and evolving, and all of life is adapting
to change. It is quite fascinating to think about how the
learning that you do is not all that different than the learning
of an ecosystem, or a baby bird.
2. Main course
I find it invigorating to consider how creativity, and the
ability to learn and adapt, is a natural capacity built into
all living systems. The ability to learn is an instinctive
and primary trait that is a sign of life itself. Human beings,
companies, forests, the ocean, the entire environment of earth,
and the solar system. All are living systems, all are intelligent,
all are learning, and all are adapting to life... And in the
process of all this "living" each system will radically
change over time.
It might just be me, but as human beings it so often seems
that what we want to be able to do is adapt and change, WHILE
staying the same. A feat that is indeed impossible. Learning,
evolution, and change, go hand in hand. We can't have one,
without the other two. In regard to the natural world of living
organisms and ecosystems, evolution is learning on a grand
scale. Evolution is nature learning. Species and ecosystems
adapt, radically change, and evolve over long periods of time.
Nature "learns" what to do in order to maintain
a certain stability, which invariably means adapting to the
change in the status quo.
When we take a broad perspective and view the ongoing process
of the evolutionary change that takes place all around us,
it is clear that nothing stays the same, and also that no
one organism or no one "aspect" of the natural environment
changes on its own. All of life is involved in a marvelous
swirl of co-evolution. Co-evolution is an integral part of
adaptation, an integral part of the relationships we share
with other life forms, an integral part of you and me. All
the learning done by any one species, individual, or ecosystem,
is always done in relationship to the learning of "others".
All of life spurs on the innovative process of change and
learning in all of life. The system known as "universe"
is never static.
The likelihood of any organism or environment surviving and
perhaps even thriving, over the long run, depends on the ability
to adapt to adverse conditions, new patterns of interaction,
and ever changing rules. Evolution is a conservative game
of trial and error. All systems, all organisms, (including
human beings) are in a constant state of evolution, and thus
we are never complete as we are. Evolution is progressive.
All of life evolves from the simple to the more complex. The
learning and change involved in evolution does not take place
in a linear manner, but rather in a highly complex manner
where change in any one aspect of a complex system, in some
way begets change in all and every other aspect of the system.
In the ongoing process of evolution (be it biological evolution
or economic evolution) the environment both causes and selects
the characteristics that are most necessary for successful
adaptation. You might ask yourself "How does 'the environment'
cause and select the characteristics that lead to successful
adaptation?" A very interesting question to ask! With
all of the competition, with all of the seeming chaos, with
all of the never before experienced circumstances, how does
the system itself stabilize and protect itself in order to
evolve and survive? Nature manages to rebalance itself within
certain limits that foster its preservation, the economic
landscape invariably does the same and "you" of
course are also evolving in much the same way. There is an
intelligence doing the deciding, it just is not an intelligence
that we can honestly say is "me" or "you".
In every living system, excess leads to moderation and deficit
leads to short term proliferation. Information is constantly
being exchanged and adapted to. The whole universe is learning
and evolving. How about you?!
3. Practice: "Standing With Grace and Power"
Today's
Practice can help you to feel your place in the world.
You can learn how to feel grounded and strong while remaining
relaxed and at ease. This is a Practice that comes from Aikido
as it is taught by my teacher Koichi Tohei. Read through the
Practice and find a partner or two, and give it a try. If
you are new to the concepts of Aikido, I am sure that you
will find this exercise very stimulating and educational.
4. Links
"Coaching for Leadership"
My friend and colleague Steve Levin is offering a 4-month
program of advanced coach training, November 2003-February
2004. Steve uses small group sessions and 1-1 mentor coaching
(all by telephone) to teach tools for coaching leaders in
organizations. His method features live coaching and instant
feedback to make conversations more powerful. For information,
contact steve@leadingchange.net.
5. Suggested Books by Cindy Franklin
"A General Theory of Love"
by Thomas Lewis, MD, Fari Amini, MD and Richard Lannon, MD
This is a deeply fascinating, affecting, humbling and hopeful
book. It is fascinating and affecting because it explains
how emotional learning takes place, why it is so different
from cognitive learning, what are the different brain structures
involved in different kinds of learning and memory, how we
acquire our temperaments and emotional habits, and more. It
is humbling because it convincingly describes how profoundly
we humans depend on our bonds with each other throughout our
lives. When we are born we learn to regulate our emotions
through "limbic resonance" with caregivers, and
this forms the structure of our brains in vital ways. Without
nurture (play, handling, etc.) human infants die. Even later
in life cultivating limbic connection with loved ones promotes
our wellbeing and its lack can cause illness or death. The
authors explain that when in sync the limbic connection between
people can help them modulate emotions, hormonal status, immune
function, sleep rhythms, internal chemical processes and more.
The book is hopeful because it describes how we can shift
our most deep-seated emotional patterns even late in life
- not through book learning, but through deep limbic resonance
with important others.
6. Suggested Music
CD: Keith Jarrett "The Koln Concert"
There is great movement and dynamic tension throughout this
CD. Keith Jarrett is an inspired and inspiring pianist.
I use this CD over and over again with private clients and
in workshops, when I want to help people move in a way that
helps them tap into an "emotional" space, vaguely
similar to perhaps dancing flamenco.
7. Endnote and Invitation
Several newsletters ago we asked: "If you are not a
born in America American citizen, or if you have been living
in another country for quite a while, please tell us what
catches your attention when you visit the States."
Jenifer, a new friend of Seishindo recently had the following
to share:
"I have lived in Spain for the last 15 years. When I
came back, I noticed many things. Some of the more obvious
and easy to put into language are:
1. Many events, feelings,
and human circumstances are now called "disorders"
or "syndromes".
2. There are so many flavors
of specific consumer items like potato chips, yogurt, cookies,
ice-cream, etc, that it seems like the "original"
flavor is now being re-marketed as having the "pure"
qualities of the past, It is somehow "nostalgic"
to buy a package of "The original Lays potato chips!"
3. Many people have a lot more
money than before, and even more people have a lot less money
than before.
4. A great percentage of the
population drives a large, or very large car.
5. Prime time newscasters use
(much more than I remember) colloquial language, slang, and
incorrect sentence structures in their news reports.
6. A good number of cities
in the US have majority populations that are not Caucasian,
but yet this segment of the population is still referred to
as a "minority."
When I go into a supermarket, I am always overwhelmed by
the number of different products available and the number
of items one has to select from for just one genre of food.
I think it would be great to have a counseling service in
the supermarket. 15 minutes of calm talking and active listening
would be just the thing to help me get back out there and
select the exact barbeque sauce that I need."
Thanks Jenifer!
________________________
Elisa Alvim wrote to us:
Answering to the invitation ("what catches your attention
when you visit the
States"), I'm a Brazilian citizen and would like to share
some of my ideas
with you.
1. All the fast-food restaurants,
present in every corner (no wonder why the obese population
is growing so fast);
2. The variety of products
in the stores: there is a pan to fry an egg, another one only
to cook pasta, a special one only for fish...
3. The high price of chicken;
4. Soda drinks are more popular
than water;
5. Few pizza flavors;
6. Standard floor plans;
7. Different cities look the
same (same home styles, same stores, same
restaurants...)
Thanks Elisa!
8. Milestones
This is a new section of our newsletter. We will use this
space to acknowledge and honor various members of the Seishindo
community. Graduations, marriages, births, passings, accomplishments
of all kinds. If you have information that you feel is appropriate
please send it to us at seishin@seishindo.org.
9. Copyright
Unless otherwise attributed, all material for the newsletter
"Pure Heart, Simple Mind"(tm) is written and edited by
Charlie Badenhop ©. All rights reserved.
You may reprint, copy, or distribute "Pure Heart, Simple
Mind” (tm) provided you: a. Receive our written permission
(which is likely). b. Attach the above copyright notice
to our material. c. Do not sell our material to others.
d. Keep the content of our material intact without any
editing whatsoever.
10. Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Delivery
Please
subscribe or unsubscribe here.
Is our newsletter only arriving sporadically? Our "Pure
Heart, Simple Mind" newsletter is meant to come to
you twice a month, on or about the 1st and 15th of each
month. If you aren't receiving every issue it could be because
of the filtering systems your Internet Service Provider
(ISP) uses to keep unwanted messages out of your inbox.
In attempting to block unwanted mail, your provider will
sometimes wind up blocking email like this newsletter, that
you DO want to receive. If you are having delivery problems,
send a blank e-mail to delivery@seishindo.org
and we will send you a list of tips that can help ensure
delivery. You can use these tips for other email as well.
|
