Your Mind – Body Relationship Can Become Your Greatest Ally.

Here is a Transformational 4 Step to live life on the vital side.

1. Become more aware of your body.

Body awareness is not a given. There are many parts, places, areas and relationships within your physical self that may lack awareness, so there is no conscious feedback loop to work from.

2. Become aware of a mind-set related to a posture, or to the way you move.

If you pay a little attention to your body you may notice that adjustments in your posture and physical organisation relate to changes in perception. They relate to the way you may be subconsciously thinking about a situation. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to become aware of how you are viewing something via awareness of your posturing / gesturing???

3. Change the Loop.

Posture is mind set, and mind set is posture. One can reinforce the other, and most certainly does at times. Create change in the patterns by re-organising the relationships within your physical body. The fibers of your body need the opportunity to open and align around a new sense of your self. This is what Body Harmony® does. Make a little adjustment to your way you hold your head while in conversation and see what happens. Or locate your feet more directly underneath you or STAND ON BOTH FEET evenly.

4. Go Along Your Merry Way.

Options, – this is all about creating behavioral options for yourself. Imagine opening the doorway to a new stream of responses, – a liberation from the obligation to respond as you always may have. The door is open, and as many people are experiencing, this kind of change becomes positively reinforcing because it feels so right.

A Most Outstanding Opportunity Is Almost Upon Us

Spring is here and so is the 10th One Month Body Harmony Retreat. It’s held in our seminar room on our 42 acre property in the Noosa hinterland, Alaya Verde. We are just over 15 minutes from Noosa. And once again we are pleased and inspired to have who we consider to be THE greatest manual therapy magician of our time, Dr Don McFarland. Don is not only a remarkable practitioner, – his teaching skills are quite exceptional. Thousands of individuals and practitioners from around the world have been the beneficiaries of new life and bodywork skills as a result of his teaching. And Don – the founder of Body Harmony®- is joined by 3 of the most experienced Body Harmony teachers in the world, Linda Haxby-McFarland, Gina Carruthers and Duncan Hogg.

Participation Options Are Flexible

You can now choose from 2 days of class right through to the full month program. New participants are required to commence from the beginning. To see what is available take a look below.

October 15 & 16 – Saturday & Sunday – An Introduction to Body Harmony® with the founder, Dr Don McFarland. Start here and you can continue on with other parts of the class for people new to Body Harmony®.

October 15 – 20 – Saturday through Thursday – Towards A Healthier Physiology – Learning the art of Body Harmony® – bodywork applied consciously. AUD$1350.00

October 22 – 26 – Saturday through Wednesday – Block 1 of an 11 Session Sequence covering the entire body. AUD$3125.00 for 15 days or pro-rata for 5 day segment*

October 28 – Nov 1 – Friday through Tuesday – Block 2 of an 11 Session Sequence covering the entire body.

Nov 5 – 9 – Saturday through Wednesday – Block 3 of an 11 Session Sequence covering the entire body.

Nov 11 – 13 – Friday through Sunday – This 3 day class specifically presents the information to help you reorient your perception towards the wondrous, and the miraculous. Learn to use your relationship to your body to ‘see the cup half full’.

Camping On-Site Is An Option

If you would like to enhance your experience and minimise your costs, camping at Alaya Verde is an option. Previous campers would drive to the beach for a swim before class! Camping costs: $25/night.

Why Participate In This Class

1. You want to learn about bodywork and develop a hands-on aspect to your skills.
2. You are interested in healing.
3. You need a break and don’t realise that this is an outstanding opportunity to revitalise.
4. Your body is tired and carrying excess stress detrimental to your health.
5. You’ve always been interested in psychology and are wondering how it relates to your body.
6. You’ve recognised behaviors that do not appear to support your goals, desires and intentions and would like to change them.
7. You’re a previous participant and remember how valuable the class is.

Pay Your Deposit by October 5 and receive a 5% discount.

Connect with the Body Harmony One Month Retreat on Facebook.

Email Duncan to discuss your participation.

* 5 day segments for new participants must be undertaken sequentially ie you have to start at the beginning.

2011 One Month Retreat Noosa, Australia

October 15 – November 13

This is the 10th consecutive year of the One Month Body Harmony® Retreat. The dates have changed slightly, we are running from mid October to mid November this year. Recent developments in the practice of Body Harmony® from our international event in New Orleans produced some wonderful outcomes. ‘Ease, Efficiency & Enjoyment’ – these qualities applied to our bodywork practices lead to easier ways of achieving better results. This is a unique opportunity – 150 years of bodywork experience shared between Don, Linda, Duncan & Gina – a wealth of support to assist your learning and realization.

The 2011 program is an opportunity that we think appeals equally in merit to the practitioner (or would be practitioner) and to the individual seeking growth and personal realization. As in past years, our program is available in smaller segments and these options can be viewed in the e-brochure. If you would to benefit from participation in some or all of this event, email Duncan duncan@healthinperspective.org to express your interest. To download the pdf brochure for this event, – follow this link to our downloads page.

Some helpful suggestions – from Gina Carruthers

Getting to know your physical self is subtle but really very simple and one of the greatest things to focus on to bring ease, health and joy. Here are a few suggestions and their benefits:

1) Quiet yourself Down – Get on the ground, in constructive rest, and just be quiet. The benefits include: calming the nervous system, aligning with gravity, synchronizing internal harmony, and releasing your core to something greater than itself – the earth beneath you. Emptying yourself allows for new thoughts and behaviors to take hold.

>2) Centering your Pelvis – Sit, Stand and Sleep with a centered pelvis. The benefits include: calming the nervous system, aligning with gravity, eliminating muscular compensations, and being more aware of what takes you away from ease in your life.

3) Hydrate your Spine – Keep your spine hydrated through micro movements in every direction including curling, arching, and lateral fish movements. The benefits include: efficient nervous system, supportive bones, eliminating tension, and a juicy experience of yourself and life.

4) Support your body with adequate water and minerals. The benefits include having muscles that CAN relax, and reducing the amount of time your body has to revert to a ‘survival response’ leading to physical compensations that reduce your overall efficiency.

Your Basal What?

Have you heard about your ‘basal ganglia’? Most likely not. It happens to be the name for the place in your brain where embedded behaviors are organised, – these are behaviors you don’t have to think about to engage in. Examples include writing perhaps, or walking, or typing, or driving – and also things like how you approach a problem, a relationship, a new possibility.

Imagine, all those things learned and embodied, – your behavioral repertoire ready to engage given the right stimulus. Sometimes that automated response is perfectly matched to the circumstances, and sometimes it is not. At times a behavioral tendency can itself become a burden, a form of self-sabotage, – an unwelcome input. Here is one area where Body Harmony® can be very useful to you.

This is our area of expertise. Body Harmony® is a set of transformational tools to help you make the corrections when a behavior no longer matches your intentions. Body Harmony® is a form of body processing that helps to make a possibility more probable by making the process of becoming aware much easier. The hands-on element of the work brings fluidity to the rigidity of over-used behaviors, that take the form of your physical grievances. Body Harmony helps you to make a self directed change, – the change of your choosing. A life supportive change. Sometimes you have to change your Body to change your Mind.

Finding Realization In The Body…

A newly released book we came across, ‘Touching Enlightenment, Finding Realization in The Body‘ by Reginald Ray, suggests that ‘to abandon discursive thinking – disembodiment – as our primary way of orienting ourselves…. and more than that, that a wave of alternatives to engage where we are living out of the full, unique embodiment that is possible for us all are now becoming more compelling to counter our dissociation.’ We tend to agree. In his 1967 book, ‘Betrayal of the Body‘ Alexander Lowan MD writes that, “To know who one is, an individual must be aware of what he feels. He should know the expression on his face, how he holds himself, and the way he moves. Without this awareness of bodily feeling and attitude, a person becomes split into a disembodied spirit and a disenchanted body.” Becoming acquainted with your first order experience provides you with direct and very useful information. All of the principles expressed through our work aim at realigning your mind and consciousness within bodily sensation and immediate experience. This can be very useful indeed.

And finally a few updates

We would like to thank Sydney based photographer Andre Martin for his assistance in photographing our retreat/B&B.

Check out ‘Your Brain at Work’ by David Rock. Available as an audio download from Audible.com.

For those of you who don’t know our son Kim is continuing to expand his education in all aspects of natural health and healing (check out Kimmana.com for info). As of September 2012 we intend to add cleansing and detox programs to what we offer at Alaya Verde. Also, Alaya Verde is on Facebook. We would be pleased if you ‘Like’ our page…

The next Body Harmony International Conference is anticipated to be held in June of 2012. Granada, Spain is shaping up as the destination and we are currently deciding on venues to host the event. Many thanks to Andrea and Esperanza for helping with the research.

Congratulations to Robyn Barraclough for producing an excellent website for the Canberra Body Harmony School. Click the link to see the site.

Also, Body Harmony® is on Facebook. Click this link and get the updates by choosing to ‘Like’ the Body Harmony® page.

Notes from ATO Posture Presentation

Firstly, thank you for your time and attendance at the talk and apologies for the delay in listing this information. Thank you to Lauren Ashby for the invitation to present. I am offering anybody who attended this talk the opportunity to receive a 50% discount off the regular cost of a private treatment and consultation (the offer is good throughout 2011). Contact me via email.

Notes

The most useful information to be gained about posture will come from you yourself trying on suggestions and seeing how they can work best for you. There is no perfect posture, however there are ways of organising yourself when it comes to sitting that will be easier, more mobile (ie you can move more freely) and have a better outcome for your body over the course of time.

I mentioned in the talk that the collagen fibers of your body will begin to adapt to whatever position they are arranged in after about 20 minutes, so if you sit in a position that compromises your overall alignment and ease of movement you are educating your body to that positioning/posture. (more…)

What A Find !

Thanks to Paul Barraclough for reading New Scientist and forwarding us a remarkably interesting article. It, along with a short reference from the ABC’s program ‘Catalyst’ conveys information directly relevant to the significance of receiving good bodywork. It is certainly very validating and inspiring information and forms the basis of this month’s article. I would also like to thank the ATO. The Australian Tax Office has booked me to present a class on posture next month as part of their well-being program. Please contact us if you would like to take advantage of a presentation in your work-place or area. Educating people in effectively developing and utilising their awareness of posture and movement is part of our area of expertise.

This month’s Body Harmony® update has five items:

A reminder about New Orleans in May. The time is drawing closer and you can still enroll . Call me 0n +61 (0)7 5485 3099 and check out the post at http://healthinperspective.org/general/neworleans2011/

Body Harmony®  – the Gold Coast Sunday March 27 Upper Beechmont – afternoon information session and private sessions with Duncan Hogg. Contact Scott Quilliam for details.

Private treatments with Duncan Hogg for one day on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Monday, March 28. To book, email Duncan.

The One Month Program - is now open to your enrollment. To download the brochure please – follow this link. The event runs from October 15 – November 13 with Dr Don McFarland - the founder of Body Harmony® and a bona-fide legend of manual medicine. Read the article below and find out why this event will be of tremendous benefit.

Genes, Behavior, Movement & Body Harmony®

This article helps to convey a little more light on the value of Body Harmony® and it comes from a brief viewing of an Australian science television program called ‘Catalyst’, broadcast on the ABC network in Australia. This program aired in 2005. It was a study of the link between genes and behavior. In the study psychologist Dr Richie Poulton of Otago University in New Zealand asked the question, “Could there be behavior genes that were triggered by the environment?” (more…)

This Conference Will Rock!

In and out of the conference this event will change your life! First Time in the USA. Join us in New Orleans and discover more about yourself  in a city that knows how to celebrate living. New Orleans has soul, depth, and is the birthplace of jazz and the blues. The magic of Body Harmony® meets the magic of New Orleans. They call New Orleans ‘The Big Easy’ for a reason. Taste it, feel it, live it – Body Harmony® and New Orleans are coming together in May 2011. To download the brochure click here to our ‘Downloads’ page and then click the ‘New Orleans – 2011 Body Harmony International Conference’ link. (more…)

Private Sessions – an exploration into the healing potential of your body.

Every bodywork treatment is designed around you. The art is to find your way towards a more easy and efficient way of functioning. Nothing is imposed upon you. The aim is to work with you rather than on you.

Each treatment offers a different input for your body, so areas under strain – or areas under-used – will get the benefit of ‘fitting in’ to a bigger picture once again. There is a good chance that you will become more aware of what you are doing, how you are doing it, and what you could do differently.

Not all treatments are a revelation, but quite a few of them are. Why is this so? Because people adapt and forget. This is a way of remembering what it is like to feel good. Alignment = feeling good. Fundamentally, there is good science at work!

Treatments are taken clothed, and take about 60 – 90 minutes. (more…)