à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Anxiety
Common Denominator: The Vagina Monologues and Feldenkrais
In Eve Ensler’s play, The Vagina Monologues, a character asks, “If your vagina could talk, what would it say? Two words.” “Slow down!” bellowed the cast when I performed in it last February. The audience burst out laughing. It seems that many people recognize that quickies might not be the most pleasurable form of intimacy. … Continue reading
Finding Feldenkrais, or Maybe It Found Me
What happens when you can’t do what you did before? Since returning from the Camino de Santiago with tendonitis, and vigorous, weight bearing exercise off limits, I’ve been asking myself a variation of that question: what opportunities have opened that I wasn’t available to in the past, either because I would have been hiking or … Continue reading
The Vagina Monologues as Spiritual Bootcamp
In December, I heeded an inner Yes! and auditioned for The Vagina Monologues (VM) at Boulder’s Naropa University. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, my Yes! had been about until I received my lines. That I wasn’t assigned very many caused my big fat Yes! to shrink to a more flaccid “Hmm…OK.” Perhaps the Yes! had … Continue reading
New Diagnosis: Post Traumatic Stuff Disorder
Post Traumatic Stuff Disorder: When Cluttered Environments Trigger Anxiety and Dread Each night along the Camino de Santiago, I sorted and organized the contents of my backpack, leaving behind what I no longer needed. Sometimes all I threw away were cheese rinds and Band-Aid wrappers, essentially weightless, taking up little space. Other times I left … Continue reading
Facing Stage Fright at Story Slam Boulder
“The whole world is a narrow bridge, and the essence is not to be afraid” – Rebbe Nachman of Breslav In mid-December I attended Story Slam Boulder, an open microphone event. Audience members could put their name in a hat to share a personal tale by heart, on stage. The evening’s theme? “Naughty or Nice”. … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
Recent comments