Ramblemuse^SM Annotated Bibliography for Massage Practitioners

Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. The book's co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, are themselves both working artists, grappling daily with the problems of making art in the real world. Their insights and observations, drawn from personal experience, provide an incisive view into the world of art as it is expeienced by artmakers themselves.

Part psychological study, part self-help book, "Finding Flow" is a prescriptive guide that helps us reclaim ownership of our lives. "Finding Flow" contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between tow extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, while during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. The key, according to Csikszentmihalyi, is to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment.

This comprehensive guide introduces Body-Mind Centering, the internationally recognized field pioneered by dancer and occupational therapist Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Devoting thirty-five years to a systematic investigation of the relations between bodily experience and the anatomical maps of science, Bainbridge Cohen independently discovered many of the principles that underlie Feldenkrais work, cranial osteopathy, Rolfing, dance therapy, and Zero Balancing. Experienced BMC practitioner Linda Hartley demonstrates the basic philosophy and key elements of Body-Mind Centering. Drawing on animal and infant movements, she takes readers through the wondrous realms of Bainbridge Cohen’s pantheon—from the “minds” of the skeletal and muscular systems to the quite different inner lives of digestive, lymphatic, urinary, respiratory, vocal, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive organs. Her choreography ultimately brings us into the states of consciousness of skins, cells, blood, fat, cerebrospinal fluid, nervous system, and brain. Hartley’s explorations of the images, feelings, sensations, and intuitions of the diverse organs and cells lead to exercises that gently guide students in ways of discovering and integrating their bodies’ multidimensional aspects.

Relevant insights on teaching the body and learning from it from a noted aikidoist. The body’s innate capacity for feeling, intuition, and compassioni can enable us to heal our physical and emotional wounds. In The Anatomy of Change, Richard Heckler draws on Aikido and Lomi Body Work to demonstrate how a set of practices can bring new awareness and choice into our daily life.

As in all his books, Heckler draws from personal experience: training his horse, cultivating presence in aikido dojos, consulting with business executives, raising children, A masterful and encompassing book, Holding the Center develops from the fulcrum of the self in the natural world. Many of Heckler’s lessons arise from his life as a householder and father. Community is a larger family—we make alliances to “take care of what matters to us.” But that takes listening to others with an open heart, and learning what the needs of others are, so Heckler teaches. The world can be a sanctuary, if we find a balance between instinct and choice. Richard Strozzi Heckler sounds an important call about the interplay between power and generosity in these subtle and luminous essays.

John Jerome, a veteran runner and writer, means this book to be the fitness analogue to Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style", which is considered an indispensable guide to writers and those who aspire to write. It's hard to say whether or not "The Elements of Effort" will prove equally valuable to runners and those who aspire to run, but it's sure fun to read. Jerome combines information on exercise physiology with commonsense advice on how and why to train, and with whimsical thoughts about which running injuries sound most impressive at parties. It's a short book, but if you're a runner, you won't find a more engaging and enlightening two-hour read.

A sensible and compassionate book that will help those involved in any form of therapy make the best possible use of their time, effort, and money. "A fascinating blend of Eastern spirituality, Western psychotherapy, feminist consciousness, and real caring. "—Riane Eisler, author of "he Chalice and the Blade"

This book is a collection of writings on principles and techniques by the pioneers of bodywork and body awareness disciplines. Together, they represent a historical record of the field of somatics. Ranging from hands-on workers like Ida Rolf to phenomenologist Elizabeth Behnke, their lives span this century. In these lectures, writings, and interviews, editor Don Hanlon Johnson has sought to revel the unbroken lineage, theoretical differences, and major similarities of these originators.

Touched by the Goddess takes on the difficult and critical issues facing therapeutic touch. What happens to children when no distinction is made between beneficial and harmful touching? Why do we continue to fear pleasurable contact, despite the proven necessity of touch to human survival? Could it be that learning to touch each other in healing, positive ways is indispensable to productive change in society as a whole? On the sociological as well as the biological lever, this book is a primer for conscious living by the author of the world-renowned Job's Body: A Handbook for Bodywork.

In undertaking a spiritual life, we must make certain that our path is connected with our heart, according to author and Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield. Since 1974 (long before it gained popularity in the 1990s), Kornfield has been teaching westerners how to integrate Eastern teaching into their daily lives. Through generous storytelling and unmitigated warmth, Kornfield offers this excellent guidebook on living with attentiveness, meditation, and full-tilt compassion.

Jack Kornfield, one of America's most beloved teachers of meditation, assures us that enlightenment does occur on the spiritual path but warns that it is not the end of the road. Bringing his thoughts to a personal level, Kornfield looks up many of the notable spiritual teachers of our times (Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Sufi, etc.) and presents extended quotations of their trials and epiphanies. These anecdotes are woven together with fables and ruminations from Kornfield's own decades-long experience as a practitioner and teacher, creating an image of the spiritual life as challenging, multidimensional, rewarding, and, yes, mundane.

You have within you unlimited capacities for love, for joy, for communion with life, and for unshakable freedom—and here is how to awaken them. In "The Wise Heart", one of the leading spiritual teachers of our time offers the most accessible and illuminating guide to Buddhism’s transformational psychology ever published in the West. Trained as a monk in Thailand, Burma, and India, Jack Kornfield experienced at first hand the life-changing power of Buddhist teachings: the emphasis on the nobility and sacredness of the human spirit, the fine-grained analysis of emotion and thought, the precise techniques for healing, training, and transforming the mind and heart. In contrast to the medical orientation of most Western psychology and psychiatry, here is a vision of radiant human dignity, and a practical path for realizing it in our own lives.

The real crisis in medicine today is not about economics, insurance, or managed care — it's about the loss of the fundamental human relationship between doctor and patient. In this wise and passionate book, one of our most eminent physicians reacquaints us with a classic notion often overlooked in modern medicine: health care with a human face, in which the time-honored art of healing guides doctors in their approach to patient care and their use of medical technology. Drawing on four decades of practice as a cardiologist and a vast knowledge of literature and medical history, Dr. Lown probes the heart and soul of the doctor-patient relationship. Insightful and accessible to all, The Lost Art of Healing describes how true healers use sympathetic listening and touch to hone their diagnostic skills, how language affects the perception of illness, how doctors and patients can cultivate a relationship of trust, and how patients can obtain the most complete and beneficial care through a combination of healing techniques and conventional practices. Lown explains, the art of healing does not mean abandoning the spectacular advances of modern science, but rather incorporating them into a sensitive, humane, enlightened approach to medical care. With its urgent message and poignant, fascinating vignettes, The Lost Art of Healing is a book of vital, universal importance.

In an irresistible invitation to lighten up, look around, and live an unscripted life, a master of the art of improvisation explains how to adopt the attitudes and techniques used by generations of musicians and actors. Let’s face it: Life is something we all make up as we go along. No matter how carefully we formulate a “script,” it is bound to change when we interact with people with scripts of their own. “Improv Wisdom” shows how to apply the maxims of improvisational theater to real-life challenges—whether it’s dealing with a demanding boss, a tired child, or one of life’s never-ending surprises. Patricia Madson distills thirty years of experience into thirteen simple strategies, including “Say Yes,” “Start Anywhere,” “Face the Facts,” and “Make Mistakes, Please,” helping readers to loosen up, think on their feet, and take on everything life has to offer with skill, chutzpah, and a sense of humor.

"Who am I?" "How do I fit in the world around me?" This revealing and innovative book demonstrates that each of us discovers what is true and meaningful, in our lives and in ourselves, through the creation of personal myths. Challenging the traditional view that our personalities are formed by fixed, unchanging characteristics, or by predictable stages through which every individual travels, "The Stories We Live By" persuasively argues that we "are" the stories we tell. Informed by extensive scientific research — yet highly readable, engaging, and accessible — the book explores how understanding and revising our personal stories can open up new possibilities for our lives.

Whether in painting, poetry, performance, music, dance, or life, there is an intelligence working in every situation. This force is the primary carrier of creation. If we trust it and follow its natural movement, it will astound us with its ability to find a way through problems and even make creative use of our mistakes and failures. There is a magic to this process that cannot be controlled by the ego. Somehow it always finds the way to the place where you need to be, and a destination you never could have known in advance. When everything seems as if it is hopeless and going nowhere — trust the process.

The original self is the person "who came into this world full of possibility and destined for joyful unveiling and manifestation," according to bestselling author Thomas Moore. "This is the person who comes to life in us briefly as we get married, start a course in school, or try on a new job—before worry and cynicism have set in". In essence, it is our soul that Moore speaks of, and it is his unwavering conviction that our greatest task is to stay true to our original selves. Using a highly approachable format of brief essays (two to four pages), Moore offers his reflections on how to do just that.

This book is about the inner sources of spontaneous creation. It is about where art in the widest sense comes from. It is about why we create and what we learn when we do. It is about the flow of unhindered creative energy: the joy of making art in all its varied forms. Free Play is directed toward people in any field who want to contact, honor, and strengthen their own creative powers. It integrates material from a wide variety of sources among the arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions of humanity. Filled with unusual quotes, amusing and illuminating anecdotes, and original metaphors, it reveals how inspiration arises within us, how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed or obscured by certain unavoidable facts of life, and how finally it can be liberated - how we can be liberated - to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play, with our own authentic voice. The whole enterprise of improvisation in life and art, of recovering free play and awakening creativity, is about being true to ourselves and our visions. It brings us into direct, active contact with boundless creative energies that we may not even know we had.

"Discipline is freedom," writes Wendy Palmer. She encourages readers to cultivate a new rapport with their bodies through stories, Eastern wisdom, and her own experiences. "A useful, inspiring book for anyone exploring . . . embodied movement, energetic meditation, and intuitive knowledge. " - Yoga Journal

"Senses Wide Open" shows readers how to be at ease with themselves, feel more balanced emotionally, think more clearly, and experience genuine pleasure in their physical connection to others and the world. Through illuminating personal stories, deep movement exploration, bodywork basics, and step-by-step exercises, author Johanna Putnoi shares the knowledge she has gained from her years of experience teaching people to develop a personal awareness of their body's natural intelligence. Senses Wide Open is designed to work on the spot. Several times in each chapter, Putnoi asks the reader to put the book down for a moment and "try this". The author's simple exercises are inspiring and accessible. Her unique synthesis integrates a variety of practices, including analytic psychology, body awareness, sensate awareness, meditation, and centering.

In this inspiring guide, Peter Ralston presents a program of "physical education" for anyone interested in body improvement. Using simple, clear language to demystify the Zen mindset, he draws on more than three decades of experience teaching students and apprentices worldwide who have applied his body-being approach. More of a transformative guide than a specific list of exercises devoted to any particular physical approach, "Zen Body-Being" explains how to create a state of mental control, enhanced feeling-awareness, correct structural alignment, increased spatial acuity, and even a greater interactive presence. Exercises are simple, often involving feeling-imagery and meditative awareness, which have a profound and sometimes instant effect. Where similar guides teach readers what to do, this book teaches readers how to "be".

T'ai Chi Ch'uan: The Internal Tradition is a clear and insightful approach to T'ai Chi, weaving mindfulness and body presence through stages of training and development of technique. Sieh's inquiry into the "fighting" aspect makes the emphasis on the internal or feeling style a powerful tool for bringing more integrity and clarity into our lives.