à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Awareness
What’s Missing from the NYT Feldenkrais Article? The Elusive Obvious
Acclaimed writer Jane Brody recently published Trying the Feldenkrais Method for Chronic Pain in The New York Times. I read the piece partly as her mea culpa for having “refrained from writing about this method of countering pain because I thought it was some sort of New Age gobbledygook with no scientific basis.” I’m glad she had a … Continue reading
What’s the Feldenkrais Method? A Beloved Spiritual Offers an Answer
People have never thought about how consciousness develops. You’ll see, in the long run, people will have to become skeleton conscious. – Moshe Feldenkrais (Amherst, July 2, 1981) My mother used to sing this tune to me when I was growing up. Perhaps you’ve heard it, too. Toe bone connected to the foot bone Foot … Continue reading
#MeToo: Thoughts on Vulnerability, Victimhood, Secrets and Privacy
During my freshman orientation at Bryn Mawr College, the resident advisor invited us into her dorm room to sit on the floor in a circle and get know each other. To break the ice and build connection, she wanted each of us to share something we were either bad at or nervous about (so I … Continue reading
What’s Scarier than Public Speaking? An Aikido Rank Test
It’s a truism that many people fear public speaking more than death. I can safely say that an Aikido rank test is more terrifying than addressing a group of people. When I began practicing Aikido in early 2017, I sought an intense physical and spiritual challenge to lift me out of a dark place. I … Continue reading
It’s Possible to Drown Out Marching Nazis. What About the Ones in Our Heads?
That 40,000 people marched peacefully in Boston on Saturday against hate groups, including Nazis, gave me hope that civilization would survive, at least for the weekend. While it’s important to starkly delineate what is, and what is not, acceptable in a modern democratic nation, it would be a foolish mistake to believe that everyone on … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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