à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Ritual
Stripping Away Clothing and Illusions in a Marrakesh Hammam
A handful of us “Unsettled” adventurers in the Medina of Marrakech decided to visit a public women’s hammam (bathhouse), to experience it like the locals. Unlike its upscale counterparts, this hammam is BYOB (bring your own bath gear) so we shopped for supplies. One of our local helpers led us a short distance from our riad to some … Continue reading
Am I “Turning Japanese”?
A thought recently hit me over the head: many of the things I do, practice and love are Japanese. These include the Konmari method of decluttering with its emphasis on simplicity and joy, my practice of Zen meditation, my ongoing lust for sushi, my habit of drinking green tea and, most importantly, my recent foray into Aikido. The thought … Continue reading
Bringing Passover Consciousness to a Dojo and Finding More Freedom
Perhaps the desire to turn everything inside out and upside down, like religious Jews who remove every last crumb of hametz before Passover, is in my DNA. The impulse still arises even though, as an adult, I have never followed Jewish law impeccably around any holiday. Having wandered from Jewish observance, preferring to focus on essence rather than form, I wasn’t sure … Continue reading
Of Feldenkrais, Goldsworthy and Forging New Pathways
We act in accordance with our self-image – Moshe Feldenkrais I first learned about the environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy from a life coach many years ago. At the time, I was about to leave a consulting job in a toxic work environment to do….well, I wasn’t sure what I’d do next. I just knew I … Continue reading
Feldenkrais Off the Mat: Awareness Through Mushrooms
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust It’s quite easy to live somewhere and stop seeing it. If a person is distracted, preoccupied, rushed, or hyper focused, or if their mind has told them that “there is nothing to see” or “they’ve seen it … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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