Our New Place

The townhouse, or duplex we're moving to mid-June is quite cool. We'll have some great space in the lower level, and the top floor will have a counselling office, computer office, and Bodywork room. And, we'll be adding a meditation room, too, and will likely have times for you to come for Zazen.
This will be a great place for us to live until the big move to Costa Rica.
I'm especially looking forward to decorating the meditation room. Pictures to follow.

Another Tech Example

You know I love tech, and I've found a cool tech site that makes it easy to put a map on a website.
Dar and I are moving to our new place by June 15th, and people need to know how to get there (obviously.) In the past, I've printed directions on a web page, from Toronto and Port Elgin, where I used to have an office. The new tech lets me put an interactive map up, exactly like you'd get going to Google Maps. You can put in your address and get directions.
Click the link above, and have a look!

Manage Your SELF Instead of Your Pain

Instead of Your Pain

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I was interviewed on May 18, 2006, by Helen Dearman. Her radio show is

"Pain Tamers: Living with Chronic Pain"

If you'd like to listen to the show, here is a link to the interview.

I've put together a page of resources that you can have a look at, from mindfulness to meditation to Zen Bodywork to course offered. Have a look here.

I think you'll enjoy the resources available and will find the whole concept of managing yourself and your thoughts and actions a tonic to western pain approaches.

Bliss - the movie

And yet another resource for you.

Bliss is a movie that I highly recommend.

As you know, we focus a lot of attention on Bodywork In the last 2 years or so, (since the tsunami, which nudged the magnetic poles a bit) I've noticed that many clients feel "out of balance." This feeling is often the result of a first Chakra issue.


Almost always, there are also sexual issues, (Chakra two.)


Bliss addresses this second issue. The movie was made in 1997, and concerns the work of a sex therapist, as he helps a couple deal with sexual dysfunction - using a decidedly "hands on" approach that is similar to our own. Here is a review, and the text from the back cover, from Amazon:

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Amazon.com
It may not be a great movie, but Bliss could be one of the greatest marriage-boosters ever filmed. This curious drama fits into the too-familiar form of the "therapy movie," but it's acted with intensity by a committed (and rather brave) trio. Craig Sheffer plays an uptight Seattle husband who discovers his neurotic wife (Sheryl Lee) visiting a radical doctor (Terence Stamp) who has sex--therapeutically--with his patients. After briefly flipping out, Sheffer finds himself buying into the doctor's remedies for a sexual and emotional make-over. The silky-smooth Stamp is perfectly cast: with his enthusiasm for chakras and fine cigars, the doctor is both spiritual guru and the kind of man who reads Playboy. The film veers into ridiculousness at times, yet there is something intriguing about its how-to frankness. Home viewers may find themselves embarrassed and maybe just a little bit liberated. --Robert Horton


From the Back Cover
Craig Sheffer, Sheryl Lee, Terence Stamp, and Spalding Gray star in this audaciously honest look at sexual intimacy and emotional risk. On his wedding day, Joseph (Craig Sheffer) nervously admits that his wife (Sheryl Lee) is not quite like other women. But his beautiful bride is more than just the "impulsive, compulsive, obsessive" woman he thinks he knows. And when Joseph discovers she is hiding troubling secrets, it sends them both on a sexual odyssey that will either destroy or redeem their relationship. Erasing all boundaries between sex, love, and commitment, "BLISS may be one of the most daring and explicit films ever made." --William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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The most intriguing element of the movie is the use of "G-Spot" massage to release past sexual trauma. This fits with Chakra theory, which describes this area plus the root Chakra as holding both sexual and life trauma.

Check it out here!

A Package Deal

New for 2006!

We're pulling together a great deal on several books and additional resources.

We've combined "This Endless Moment," our excellent "Living Life in Growing Orbits" (re-written for 2006) and several supplemental items into one great, downloadable file.

Check it out!

Blonds on Computers

A friend was over the other day, and was frustrated with the sudden appearance of a window on her computer, containing a large-breasted blond. It seems my friend's hubby had been visiting porn sites , and suddenly, there was the blond. She demanded payment for continued membership in her site. No matter what they did, they couldn't get rid of her.

Great was their frustration.

I suggested CounterSpy, a quite amazing and inexpensive spyware remover. I receive Sunbelt's security updates, and of course run CounterSpy myself.

They tried the software (it's free for 15 days) and low and behold, the blond disappeared.

It's important to have adequate protection - in many areas. There are so many viruses and trojans and spyware about, and it's just silly not to use excellent software. Have a look at CounterSpy!

A Healing Commitment

Over the years, I've noticed that clients seem hell bent on taking short cuts, or finding ways to delay dealing with issues. Typically, clients make themselves both uncomfortable and sick.

I'm lately working at helping my clients to notice "a little sick" and "a little distressed" as good points to do something different. This, as opposed to talking things to the extreme of actual physical illness or extreme mental distress.

It's very "western" to put things, including our health, in boxes, or categories. One friend wrote a while back and said she'd had migraines for several days, and chalked it up to exams. I'm like, "You gotta be kidding! Let's do some Bodywork and get past that!"

I've included a Chakra chart today, which is a pretty good guide to different areas of the body that get affected by specific stressors. Hopefully, you'll find it helpful. If you want more detailed descriptions of the Chakras, you can go here.

Yoga for Life

Darbella and I have always done some form of Eastern physical practice - Ninjitsu, Tai Chi, Ki Gong, whatever. Back in September, a friend suggested we check out her yoga class. We'd done some yoga back in 1987, and we loved it, so off we went to a beginner's class.

Not that it means much, but I'd never heard of the style before. Iyengar yoga was an eye-opener. Named after guruji Iyengar, it's "yoga with props." The props are used to get you into the correct position. We absolutely love the class, and the instructor Fay Gascho, is amazing.

You can get a good description of this style here.

Class is this evening, and I woke up with a stiff lower back. As it turned out, the cosmos provided. I subscribe to a daily e-zine from Yoga Journal, which had a decided Iyengar slant. Today's article was on yoga positions for stretching at work. I gave them a try, and poof! My back feels better. Check it out here.

Much on Mindfulness

In my book, This Endless Moment, I make much of the concept, "The Way It IS, Is the Way It IS." Jon Kabat-Zinn is perhaps the best known recent proponent of this idea, and he writes about it in a series of books on Mindfulness.

If you'd like to read a bunch of mindfulness quotes, have a look here.

New Course at The Haven - Maybe Britney Spears will come!

Darbella and I will be leading a course at the Haven this summer, August 14-17.

It's called "Simple Presence," and it's broadly based upon my book, This Endless Moment. Have a look at the course description, and come join us for four days of learning, interacting, and fun.

Oh. And if you haven't read my book, here's your chance. Click here to read about it, then go to our store and enter the code CPN4780722959 and you'll get any version (paperback, audio book or pdf downloadable) for 20% off.

Last but not least, I got a mention in The Star Magazine. I know. How did I ever pull that off? I had a half hour interview with a staff writer... on the state of Britney Spears' marriage!! Rather than explain, just go read the quote…

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Neko Case is THE BOMB!!!

Some time ago, I got intrigued by reviews of the Indie Band The New Pornographers.

Then, lead singer Neko Case released a new solo album, which was available on EMusic. I downloaded it, and have been playing it religiously ever since.

(Zut alors, she's playing Toronto ON April 2, and I can't get tickets!)

Anyway, you need to check out her stuff. Her album,
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood,
is simply amazing. (By the bye, that link is to Amazon CANADA!)
The US site is:
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Amazon US

And, as a plus, she is definitely easy on the eyes.

Her site, (not much there yet, but you can watch a video) is here.

There's a good review of the album here.

Sensuality, Sexuality, Spirituality Entwined

The next issue of Into the Centre will continue a theme I started last week. We'll be looking at how our beliefs about sensuality and sexuality are a guide to our internal state of both awareness and comfort.

What, then, to my wondering eyes should appear, but an interesting article in Thursday's Toronto Star, on the sculptures at Khajuraho, India.

Here's a quote from the article:
"But whatever the reason, the sculptures and the temples never fail to overwhelm tourists with their beauty and their explicit sexual content. The sculptures capture a time in India's history when sensuality, sexuality and spirituality were all entwined, local experts said.
"The same is not the case today, said New Delhi resident Indira Wadhwa, a tour leader for Intrepid Travel, an Australian travel company that specializes in Southeast Asia. The influence of Muslim and Mogul rulers greatly changed the way Hinduism is practised in modern times, she said.
"The connection between sensuality, sexuality and spirituality that is depicted so strongly in these erotic temples has been lost in much of modern Hinduism, Wadhwa said."

We'll be exploring the link between sexuality and spirituality in the next issue of ITC.

The Secret - an amazing Movie

Blogging, Blogging

I've decided to start a blog, as a way for you to drop us a line, and for us to keep you informed about new things we're doing, seeing, and using. In a sense, the links to "stuff" I used to put in Into the Centre are now going to be here.

To begin, I've got a great movie for you to see. One of my good Internet friends, Joe Vitale, is one of the folk on the film, which is called The Secret. To watch it online you need broadband and a PayPal account ($4.95 US)

The movie, in a sense, picks up where What the Bleep... left off. You'll learn the secret to having the kind of life, relationships, health you deserve. I won't share the exact secret with you, but it so dovetails with what I write about in Into the Centre and in my book, This Endless Moment. Self-responsible behaviour is a key to everything.

Anyway, click the link to The Secret, have a look at the trailers, and let me know what you think!