I’ve not been a viewer of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, though I understand it is a very popular show. And frankly, meeting my first cross-dressing friend was not on the radar for what I expected to experience at this International Conference of neurologists, doctors, physical therapists, research scientists, somatic therapists, and other practitioners in one of the world’s preeminent universities - La Sorbonne.

WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT THEY FEEL HURT, THAT YOU HAVE HURT THEM, THAT THEY ARE IN PAIN….

I viscerally remembered reacting to this woman’s menacing approach to pinch my cheek.

I’d like to make a case for mindfulness in the parking lots of the world. I believe that mindfulness in parking lots (throw in a little kindness, while you’re at it) could greatly enhance public harmony and improve safety in these under-monitored driving locales.

Even just living one day in these kinds of terrors is dramatically disabling, but most forms of abuse or war don’t just take place in one day, they take place over a period of time. The nervous system becomes habituated, patterned to the situation in order to do its job of survival.

Anger is defined as a strong feeling of annoyance that is hostile, displeasing or negative in nature. And in the nervous system, it is a state which is demonstrated by the activation of the SNS.

The therapeutic process named “somatics” was so called by Thomas Hanna, PhD (1928-1990) to recognize any therapy that uses “movement” as part of its mechanism.

It happens first by approaching with a new mindset, preferably what the Zen Buddhists call “Beginner’s Mind” or something that I refer to as presence.

… This sequence of gestion, ingestion, and digestion happens not only with food, but with every single operation that we engage in….

I wonder if I can take greater comfort in the slowness and let go of the urgent desire for straight lines and neatly tied bows?

You know that feeling when you are traveling on the turnpike, you’re in the fast lane? You’re zooming along. You’re going faster than you want because there is someone on your tail that is pushing.

If you engage completely with your Somatic Practitioner, the results you will get from the work will astound you! If you want to create notable change in yourself, in your body, in your life from the yoga you do, from the work you receive while on the table, to the somatic education and movement practices, learn the art of being present.