Reframing

Reframing my internal conversation by “thinking in paths” opened things up for me, and allowed me to participate in the chanting in yoga. In yoga, the chants aren’t about the literal meaning of the words/sounds. The sounds themselves are intended to connect you to the world. 

In a non-yogic sense, this made sense to me. One of my favourite TED talks is by Jill Bolte Taylor, where she (as a brain scientist) describes her first hand experience of a stroke. She describes the bit of the brain that allows you to realise that you are separate from everything else. She describes how her stroke stilled that part, and how she had a magical moment where she felt deeply connected to everything and everyone. Which is basically what yoga is about. Our interpretation of reality is both the way we connect to people, and what separates us from people. 

I had fond memories of all the songs and singing at church even though I didn’t believe the words. I like the sound of the Sanskrit chants and I was able to use the music rather than thinking about it. That allowed me to go deeper into my yoga rather than feeling like a spectator because of a niggle. I was working long hours. I would get home from work just before the yoga class started at 8pm. After the 90 minute class, I would finish the day with some yogi soup.

Frame Makers

Working to See

We can live very different lives, and have such varied values, that massively competing worldviews can lead us to conversations where it becomes clear we are struggling to see what the other person is seeing. If the two sets of decision-making framework have little in common. The two people might even be very close. They may even be in love. Yet they do not see the same thing even when it is in front of them. 

Hello in isiZulu is Sawubona. Directly translated, it is “I see you”. Seeing someone means you are sufficiently interested in them to do the work of understanding the building blocks of how they construct their world. Through curiosity and care, deep relationships gently unpack what words, sentences, tone, chunks of meaning, triggers and backstories, create the exchanges each person has with a shared reality interpreted differently. 

Money is a blunt tool for this. You don’t have to do the work if you measure your respect for someone by how much they charge, get paid, or own. Instead of relationships where people see each other, they can become job descriptions and conspicuous expectations. Mapping life through things you can count. Success as a life CV of achieved milestones... houses, schools, job titles. 

In truth, a really well-lived life might be difficult to express except to the person who walked with you. Except to the person who saw you.

Armenia's Symphony of Stones

Foggy Window

The relationship between price and value is a signal. It is a powerful signal that allows us to communicate with each other. Personal value cannot be expressed in a number. We express it anyway... through decisions and price. 

Our values change. Our bodies change. Our bodies regenerate every 7-10 years with new cells replacing old ones. We learn based on what we experience. Our value set changes based on the evolving relationships and the connections we have to the world. Our interactions evolve with the environment around us. 

The way we communicate is complex. We grapple with issues. We reflect on our past. Heroes rise. Heroes fall. New perspectives raise uncomfortable questions and interpretations of our stories. The relationship between price and personal value becomes a tool in value creation. 

The problem is we set up that communication in a hand-to-mouth way. We, as living evolving stories and bodies, become productive assets tied to blunt price tools. Our egos, sense of respect, and self-worth get tied to “what we will be when we grow up”. Society used to create blunt roles, castes, and classes, providing repugnant clarity. When you were confused about a situation, authority would instruct you. 

Now it is more complicated. We are unpacking, and figuring things out. 

Another blunt tool for self-definition is money. We never earn enough. We want more. Valuable actions that don’t make money, get lost in our ability to communicate if we live very different lives... with money the foggy window between world views.

Unclear Price

Flour for Grain

The temporary problem that you are solving is not the point. If you need to switch grain for flour, why? Flour does not define your life. It is just the immediate exchange that is happening. That is why we need to talk about money. It is one of the topics we typically avoid because it feels dirty. Avoiding uncomfortable conversations like sex, religion, and politics. We end up carrying the baggage packed through a stuffed relationship with money. The sense of not having enough. Envy. A sense of too much. Guilt. A sense of it controlling us. Frustration. Of it controlling others. Jealousy and neglect. Of not understanding it. Confusion. Money as a hovering external presence. There are basics you just learn. That you copy till you understand. If you fear numbers, you must not fear learning. You must not fear unpacking your fear.

Operation of a Ball Mill

Financial Yoga

The Om symbol used in Yoga is divided into 5 parts – three curves, a semi-circle and a dot. The curves represent conscious, unconscious and dream states. The semi-circle is the illusion of reality (Maya) that separates these three states of awareness from what is real (the dot). I interpret Maya as “World View”. We see and understand the world based on what we have seen. Meaning layers on meaning. Context matters. Our controlled hallucinations of the world only bump into each other. Vusi Thembekwayo did a great talk on the stages of freeing your identity from money making which resonated with my study of Financial Yoga. Yoga is stilling the waves of the mind. We can also still the financial waves. In the talk, Vusi describes the process of going from being employed (selling your skills and knowledge to the employer), to being self-employed (selling to the client), to being a business owner (Managing other selling their skills), to being an Entrepreneur (stepping out of the business yourself). Money making is not about you. Part of stilling the waves is letting go of the Maya. Gradually extracting yourself from the containers in which money is made. Reducing your dependence on your earning ability.

First Kiss

On Saturday I had my first kiss on the lips. From Bees. My Father-in-Law is a Natural Bee-Keeper and for the last few years I have watched him gently chat with, and calmly hold space for, the swarms of which he is a peer. The previous Saturday, I had been attempting a Virtual Comrades Marathon. Stuck on the other side of the globe, this Soutie had the goal of 9 Shire laps of 10kms. On the initial laps I would run into the middle of the road (head twisting to check for cars) to avoid the strange post lockdown group walks (that didn’t happen before). By the later laps, legs dying, my inner donkey belligerently thought, “stuff it, they can move, I don’t care if I get Covid”. I threw in the towel at 71km after promising not to end up in Hospital. I did care about Covid. Fast forward, I did approach the bees calmly and gently. What I didn’t know was where I was standing mattered. I was in the way of the entrance. Honey laden virtual comrades were pissed off that I was in their way. So I got stung (kissed). No malice on either part. Just a lack of knowledge because of a different world view, and a little education needed.

Kiss (Sting) on the Lips 

Obstacles

A significant obstacle to us finding each other in public debates is we aren't coming from the same base. The words we use don't mean the same thing. We haven't read the same books. We haven't had the same conversations. We haven't had the same experiences. Then people come out guns blazing without the vaguest attempt at first establishing a baseline. I believe that understanding builds. You can't jump straight to the conclusion unless you just copy and paste your opinions from someone else. Unless your opinions are just blindly those of your side. There is only one side. Let's do the work. That starts with questions.

Rubik's Trev

I lived in London for 8 years before moving to the Shire. Most of it was spent with a normal job, until I decided that was overrated. Normal jobs give a "no need to decide" structure to days. The normal 5 days a week, and two-day weekend, loop. A physical place to go. Perhaps, new problems each day, but within a known category. My blog gives my days that structure now. Most days, that is the thing I know I will do. In the beginning, I used to keep a little log of ideas for blog posts. Gradually, it just became something I did automatically. Within themes. I carry on exploring, but the paths are less surprising. Perhaps I explore a new country, city, or language on Wikipedia, or learn aloud a little more about Universal Basic Income. Or I follow up on a conversation I have had with someone.

The "loopy place" I physically go is more flexible. In London, you can have a degree of anonymity. There are so many people and places, that I could find a little hidey hole and not be noticed. Places open. Places close. To get some recognisability to my loop, I went to my "Artist's Lunch" on Wednesday. Colleagues become the very human part of our loop. The idea of separating work and play is bizarre when we spend so much time at work. Leaving the normal working world meant, in a big part, leaving a group of friends. The Artists from the Wimbledon Art Studio which I was a part of for four years, became my point of consistency. 

Now that I live in the Shire, I still venture back to that Artist's Lunch as often as I can. I like feeling part of something bigger. Even though each Artist is doing their own thing, it feels like you have a degree of 'shared mission'. Similar to separating work and play, separating Competing companies is also rather unnatural. Professional or Trade groups and associations remind people that we aren't defined by the company that we work for. They would do well to have Artist's Lunches.

A "Buhr" was a small fortification. A "ford" is a place that crosses a river. I live in a small medieval town called Burford. Slowly, this Donkey is becoming a local. The South African guy with long hair who is either walking, on his kindle, computer, phone, or playing with a Rubik's cube. As much a part of the furniture as Lady Diana and her mobility scooter. When you regularly cross the river, the river becomes a part of who you are, and you become part of the river.

We like to identify with the thoughts in our head. With our decisions. More and more, I believe our decisions are loopy. "Narrative Therapy" is a form of psychotherapy that helps people create stories about themselves that are helpful. It helps people by "Co-Authoring". You identify the characters, themes, and plots. The backstories, and events, that create the way we respond to the twists. Rather than autonomy over each fork in the road, it helps people step back and look at the road. It helps people identify their knowledge, skills, and values. Choose your road.

To ensure we are focusing on the things that really matter. That we know the things we are becoming part of.

Leave Space

The way we experience the world is, at best, an overlay on reality. A tool to engage with something we don't have the tools to fully understand. The Yogis call this Maya, and the Enlightenment calls this a World View. If we have learnt anything from the unintended consequences of historic Civilising Missions and Revolutions, it is that "Burning things down" normally results in chaos, wars result in us putting basic emotional intelligence aside, and ideology results in spirals and loops of turmoil. If we are hooked on Drama and Rage, we won't see the links between our worlds. We won't be able to communicate. We need to rediscover tolerance. Have fewer opinions that don't leave space for those who disagree. As the speed of change increases, the quality of our breathing needs to improve.

"Maya - The Mirror of Illusions"

Davies (1910)

Sharing Stories

'All advice is autobiographical'. We can only see the world from the perspective of the life we have lived. When we act, no matter how much homework we have done first, our conviction that we are right will always be partially based on overconfidence. The world isn't made up of clear choices between one and zero. The fuzziness, uncertainty and creativity allows us to make decisions rather than being stuck. The stories we tell ourselves help us act. When we share our learning, we are sharing our story. It won't be the same story for the listener. If the advice is a good story, perhaps they will assimilate some of the characters and plot twists.

Emotional Cocktail

In Yogic philosophy, the three Gunas exist in everything. It is just the proportions that are different. Like an emotional cocktail with common ingredients, the specific mix can create a wide range of reactions to the same situation. Sattva (e.g. Constructive, Creative, Balanced, Harmonious), Rajas (Passion, Activeness, Confusion), and Tamas (Anxiety, Delusion, Apathy, Ignorance) are part of every interaction we have. Our food, sleep, relationships, environments, spaces and the objects we engage affect us. The concept is lost in translation, but 'quality' of being is close. Our influence on what happens is a combination of the path we are on, the choices we face, and both our intellectual and emotional responses. When it comes to emotions, the mix matters.

Possibility, Decisions and Randomness

What happens is only one version of what could have happened. A combination of what is possible, the decisions we make, and randomness. What can happen is largely determined by our world view and our path. Our world view is determined by where we are born, our genetics, and the experiences that present themselves.  The decisions we make are based on the way we have seen the world. Our memories. Our relationships. How we piece those memories together to build a story to describe who we are and what we want. Throw the story together with our emotions, and we deal with what the world throws at us. We cope. Our emotions dance with the world - affected by what we eat, how we sleep, the space we make, the support we get and how we deal the the story we are one small part of. We take the next step.

 

Beneath the Surface

I have had a series of conversations with my former Youth Pastor. They started because he was trying to understand why so many of his former flock had left the church. Many of these had moved to the United Kingdom. This made him feel heart sore given how closely he was involved in our lives at their most tricky parts. I was ‘under his wing’ from about the age of 13 till I was 17. This was at a time when my world was at its most wobbly. My brothers had left home and my parents had gotten divorced. I had moved from the home I grew up in. Things were rocky and I was questioning everything. Rich did a lot of listening. 

Personal Story (with Rich)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

I left home for England after I finished school. I worked as an assistant teacher at a school in Chichester. England is far more secular than South Africa. Although the church and state are still one. The Queen is the head of both. The Church of England is much more deeply entwined with schools and there are lots of beautiful, very old, churches. Despite all that, I did not find a similar world view to the one I had left behind. The bubble I grew up in was rather British. An English speaking area that considered itself liberal(ish). Almost everyone went to church of some sort. Until Apartheid ended, we were exposed to almost no Hindu or Muslim ideas. This despite the fact that Durban has the biggest Indian population of any city outside of India. Like the UK, the majority of religious people in South Africa were Protestant. The Afrikaans community in a large part were formed from people fleeing religious persecution in Europe. The French Hugenots were given a few years to leave their homes or become Catholic. Like the history of America, much of the migration to South Africa was from people looking for a place to be allowed to believe. 

At the airport, leaving South Africa for the first time

I didn’t find a church community in Chichester. The few churches I visited were full of much older congregations. Not the youth groups of which I had been a part when I was in Westville. So my Friday nights and Sundays stopped revolving around the Church. I also started reading more widely. While many people were nominally religious, it wasn’t something that was spoken about as openly as in South Africa. In South Africa, many sportsmen will thank God first in post-match conferences. The 1995 Rugby World Cup team fell to a knee to pray as the final whistle blew. This new world I was in kept their faith much more privately. 

Dropping a Knee

Two years later, I arrived at University. I was super keen to be involved in a community but the church communities in Cape Town seemed very foreign to me. Not private at all, I started having a few clashes with individuals who I thought were being incredibly judgemental. To be fair, they disagreed with my choices too. I had one instance where someone actually warned a girlfriend of mine because of my alleged hypocrisy. There was another instance where we were prayed for at a fines meeting. There are photos where a bunch of guys are dressed in silly clothes having far too much to drink, and in the back ground there are other guys with their hands in the air, eyes closed, and speaking in tongues. Although not willing to side with the ‘non-believers’, I was caught in the middle. I believed strongly that there was a God. I believed strongly that I was not him. 

The big turning point never really came for me. It was a slow, traumatic, release of belief. I compare it to the emotional feeling of a horrible break up. The thought of the God I loved deeply, but who had left me. Who had arguably never really been there. Like questioning whether an ex really ever loved you. Questioning the motivation. Questioning everything that held my world together. The world no longer made sense to me if the story I had always told myself was true. Reading Richard Dawkins book, ‘The God Delusion’ briefly convinced me that it was actually something I should turn on explicitly, and aggressively. 

But Christianity is too deeply wired into my world to reject completely. Particularly family and friends who define who I am are too deeply wired in that way of looking at the world. I couldn’t do it publicly. Faith is such a personal thing. Other writers resonated with me more deeply. While Dawkins follows the academic approach of tearing down belief in search of truth, others come at it in what I see as a more human way. I found a path to acceptance of my history and new world view through Yoga. 

Yoga, through Vedantic Philosophy, allows for the variety of ways people see the world. Our stories are completely path dependent. Our biology, our experiences, our geography, our choices all lead us to perceive things in a way that is unique to the world we have danced with. Yoga is more a set of practices or way of life, and not a religion. The way you connect things is up to you. Within Yoga, they talk of four paths that can be followed in varying combinations. Through action, devotion/worship, meditation, and knowledge (Karma, Bhakti, Raja, and Jnana). We are each able to find something to suit us in our quest to create meaning and find peace. 

Looking at things differently

I am the pin on the far left of the ten

I just happen to be one of those people who always asks questions. I like to look at how ideas clash. I like to fight with ideas that can't both be true. I like to constantly chip away at my philosophy of how I see the world to create something that helps me cope. I also try do things I would consider Karma Yoga (washing dishes, cleaning the house, teaching Yoga), Bhakti Yoga (my art and music), and Raja Yoga (Yoga Asana, Pranayama and Running), but I mainly focus on the reading, writing and conversation. This has allowed me to re-engage with people who I may disagree with on the surface, because I don't think it is the surface that matters. 

We each have our own surface. Beneath that, we share the stuff that matters.

Personal Story (with Rich) - Part 3

Rich Erasmus and I have had a series of guest conversations (Part 1; Part 2) of a more personal nature than I normally deal with. This can probably be seen by the tentative nature of us teasing our way to the nitty gritty. In this third part, my childhood youth pastor finally tells me to stop beating around the bush and explain my world view...

Rich: from Last part of Part 2 

Many of my convictions (the ones we used to celebrate) are not yours anymore (I suspect) ... we still connect, love and enjoy each other's company, that hasn't changed ... but some cherished moments cannot be shared anymore. 

---

Trev: 

I think they can be shared. The important bits. I did go through a stage where I was convinced by the idea that it was important to explicitly acknowledge the fact that 'I was an Atheist'. More recently, I have been trying to reconcile and re-engage. If the differences lie in the realm of faith, we have no problem. We can sit still together while you pray, and I just sit. We can sing songs we used to sing. We can celebrate relationships and community. The convictions both of us would work to set aside would be the ones that are unkind. The ones that make the world a worse place. I certainly let go of parts of my early faith with a lot of pain. As we continue this discussion, I will share some of that with you. Hopefully your agitation will still. 

Rich: 

Fundamentally, I guess we are asking can we still "hang together" ... like in the good ol days? This isn't a small issue. (Community, fellowship, dialogue, learning are all keys to living a whole and healthy life). I would say certainly, I will always love a connection with you. Will it be like the old days ... not a chance. The years have changed us, you and I have grown ... facial hair, stomach line and most importantly, in terms of our perspectives on life. I guess the obvious truth is that faith issues do divide ... we can sing together, but I don't think we can worship together. I would love to agree that on the "important bits" we can share together ... but I would suggest, only to a certain point ... beyond that we become strangers to e. o. This mustn't compromise love in anyway ... but the divide exists, doesn't it? 

Trev: 
There is a struggle between 'melting-pot' worlds, 'patchwork-quilt' worlds and 'single malt' worlds. I can see the advantages of being in a community where everyone has very similar ideas on the core issues. Where the rules are clear. Where the rules are respected. I do believe there are core principals that will translate across those different worlds. Some people (like me) will look to slowly nibble away at my identity by 'absorbing what is useful, discarding what is not, adding what is uniquely my own' (Bruce Lee). Some people will want to keep their identity but live close to others. Some people want the consistency of a conservative life. The challenge is to build a world where there is some movement between those groups. Where we recognise the good in choices different to our own. 

Rich: 
I guess I fit into the "keep their identity and live close to others category". I am happy with changing my identity ... but not simply out of a respect for the truth that "change is healthy". I guess my basic stance is that I don't think truth is necessarily "over the next hill". Although I cannot claim to have the truth in it's entirety, I don't think a constant fluidity in these things is healthy either. So I guess it boils down to the specifics ... what would you suggest are the core issues on which we can agree? I believe there would be some core issues on which we disagree ... but possibly, that is a later discussion. 

Trev: 
The question of 'the' truth v. 'a' truth that works is important. Megan wrote a wonderful guest post on the art of not choosing. There are definitely benefits to living in a world where an established community is humming along and feels it doesn't want to bump anything. Cumulative wisdom means we might not know why things work, they just do. I don't think people 'have to' look over the hill. I do know that over the hill from the bubble I lived in growing up were townships where people were living in poverty. I don't think that was okay. If Jesus were deciding on the core issues, I think that he would choose love and helping people in poverty. I think he would be far less interested in divisive issues that fall into the 'my truth'/' your truth' category. 

Rich: 
Yeah ... fully (though always room for improvement) engaged with the "over the hill people" nowadays (I'm sure you'll be happy to know). Possibly a link to Megan's post would help ... would hate to be grappling with something she didn't say ... though I have to say, the idea of not choosing leaves me baffled. It's the old circular issue of saying something like that ... and then finding out that that is a choice in and of itself. But ... allow me to read her post first. Choices, imo, are a part of the journey ... in many instances, they add to the beauty of life. You're an artist, when last did you take one of your paintings and slide the frame a little so that it tilted with a decided left (or right) inclination? Nah ... chances are, they have stayed (mercifully) in the same position for a long while now ... that is how it was designed. Fully agree with your picture of Jesus ... loving and helping people in poverty / abused etc ... rather than the bitty issues that tend to divide. It's tricky (though) isn't it? Who gets to decide what "the core" issues are (i.e. those core issues that you just labelled)? 

Meg wrote a guest post in response to Iyengar's book called  - The Art of Non-Choosing 

Trev:

Everything has a framework as I am regularly reminded by Gem (my partner) who is an Anthropologist. She constantly asks difficult questions intended to make you go right back to the basis of why you think what you think. To unravel. To move forward, to ravel, there are always choices that will make it difficult to understand other people as we move further along. I think the bar for the base assumptions we have to agree on should be quite high. John Cleese did an interesting clip on offence. Trying to control other people's behaviour is often an indication of our own inability to understand or control our own emotional responses. I think what we should be working on is the communication channels. How do we attempt as best we can to understand people who think very differently from ourselves? How do we protect minority views? How do we live together harmoniously. I believe this is analogous to what you would call 'God's plan'. What Muslim's would believe is a world Muhammad was trying to build. I don't think divisions need to occur every time there is a new choice. Jew. Christian. Muslim. Protestant. Catholic. Shia. Sunni. We should be able to build communities that care about more than people that agree with them. 

Rich: 
I fully agree that base assumptions need to be few and far between. I suspect (however) that if the right choices are made in that regard; that your list of issues that you mention (living harmoniously, protection of minority views etc) would necessarily find their rightful place. Thing is ... all of us end up choosing our first principles ... whether we like the idea of choice / exclusion or not. All of us have chosen a framework ... the worth of which will be determined by the fruit that follows. When the fruit / results of that choice aligns with someone else ... bliss, harmony etc. When it doesn't ... are we not then called to re-access our first principles? I'm not rushing out to disagree with Muslims (fill in whatever worldview you want) Trev. But on some pretty fundamental "first principles" we differ. More often than not, our actions will align ... but when they don't you and I need to make a choice about the first principles / world view / religion. Bottom line ... we do make choices in that regard ... they are not untouchable ... but they are necessarily in the background of every movement in our daily living. My first principle is found in the person of Jesus. I will revisit the length and breadth of that principle often ... but not much has ever come to me (in my limited life experience) that could add significantly to a life that is based on His view and ministry. "Here i stand ... I can do no other". 

Trev: 

That is awesome. You have always struck me as a guy who listens, but finds deep comfort in the philosophy and belief you use as a support for whatever struggles life throws. I don't find many fundamental differences from Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus in the areas I think are the true core beliefs. They (and you?) may argue with that. I think we are doing the hard discussion/compromise required to hammer out those limited agreed behaviours that help us function as a society. I think that is part of why they world is increasingly more peaceful (see 'the better angels of our nature'). For me, I struggled to reconcile the world I saw with the framework I inherited. By reading wider, meeting people and lots of internal struggles, I now find deep comfort in the philosophy and belief I use as a support for whatever life throws at me. 

Rich: 
Trev ... we started this conversation a while back. Maybe it's because we hadn't seen each other for a while (so we've been kindly dancing around each other a little) but I believe we need to get to a few more "nitty gritty" differences between our respective world views. My world view is not alien to you ... you used to share it with me. In many senses that has changed (though ... as we have said a number of times already ... much has not ... mutual affection, respect etc). Your atheistic perspective and my theistic perspective are in many ways miles apart ... this implies quite a journey (for both of us ... though you in particular). Let's spend a few words exploring the differences ... how about it?

--- this is an ongoing discussion to be continued ---

Black Sheep v Swart Donkey

My brothers are both Doctors. When my Dad introduces us, he says, 'This is Dr Black, this is Dr Black, and that's... Trevor.' It's okay because I have lots of family members who are psychologists, so I have learnt to cope. The bit of that about Doctors and Psychologists is a true story. It's true that the bit about how my Dad introduces me is a story.

Often when we make big life choices, people who care about us will have a view on what we have done. It may be annoying at times, but it shows they care. I have been asked what my family thought about my choice to stop working for money. To give up my professional memberships. Was I considered the Black Sheep of the Black family? The truth is that what I am doing now is very consistent with how my family have always known me. On top of that, I am actually a very risk averse person. Stopping work isn't a risk in my eyes considering the various buffers I have built. Worst case scenario of getting another job isn't exactly a risk. My family and friends know that I will be okay. The only raised eyebrows I get are with respect to my lack of shaving, length of hair and type of humour.

Black Sheep v Swart Donkey

I may not be the Black Sheep, but I am the Swart Donkey. The people who know me best know I have have struggled with stubbornness and noisiness over the years. I have strong opinions. Most of them have been shown to be wrong. Donkeys are stubborn, ignorant and noisy and so it seems very appropriate. I also try very hard to slowly chip away at those issues. A little less ignorant. A little better at listening. A little bit changed. Each day.

I am not going anywhere quickly... but I will keep moving without giving up. 

I Am

One of the divisions between Western and Eastern thinking seems to be the way we view the mind and body as a separate things. 'I think therefore I am' and so the I is deeply connected to our thought. Vedantic thinking drops the first three words as redundant and leaves it as 'I am'. By 'elevating' our identity to be linked to consciousness and thought, the body becomes, well, an afterthought. Ken Robinson describes many western academics as viewing their bodies as a transportation system for their heads. A way of getting their head from meeting to meeting.

Sara, a family member I have met in person for the first time, is a dance instructor and so has done lots of thinking on the connection between the body and thought. She has given me a reading list to ponder. I have often thought a standard reading list would be a good thing for all of us to do. Share openly the books we think have affected our world view. Of course, most of us are so busy we don't have time to look at other world views, only time to apply our own, but wouldn't it be great if we did. Here are the books Sara has given me...

 

'Six Memos for the Next Millennium', 'Phenomenology of Perception', 'Self Comes To Mind'

'The Tell-Tale Brain', 'The Meaning of the Body', 'Action in Perception'

At some point we stop prioritising our physical well being, because we need to focus on work or 'more important' mental endeavours. I find it interesting that in Yoga, it is often the other way around. You have to exercise first. You have to be able to have control of the body so you can do something as simple as sit comfortably. It is only once you are freed from aches and pains that you are able to focus.

I move therefore I am?