Relax & Unwind August/2010

Learning to Flow
 
Life is fluid, not linear. We are able to stay fluid by listening to the pulses and rhythms of the world, and ourselves, and paying attention to the wisdom being communicated.   Like my very wise 93-year-old grandfather always tells me, "Just flow with it."  And trust me,  you can see he's lived by this principle his entire life. This is the same truth that King Solomon spoke about in Kohelet,  that there's a season or time for everything..... "a time for war, a time for peace, a time for love, and a time for hate, etc."
 
Our bodies are fluid as well - our heart expands and contracts to keep our blood moving, our lungs expand and contract for our breath. There is also a filling and emptying that flows through our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that creates what is called the Cranial Wave.  But blood can't flow through bodies without the pulse.  There's no movement without the expansion and contraction.
The Jewish calendar teaches us this important lesson. During the brightest and hottest part of the summer we have a 3-week mourning period culminating in T'sha B' Av.  A very dark time of the year smack in the middle of the summer, which is a bright and expansive part of the year. And smack in the middle of winter we have Chanukah.  In the middle of darkest, coldest part of the year we light the Chanukah candles. It is the same with the Cranial Wave. Even during the expansion stage, there is contraction, and even during contraction there is some form of expansion. Eventually both stages reach neutral, an equilibrium.
 
Take my grandfather's advice, just flow with it.  If things turn dark and life is hard, flow with it and ride it out. Don't fight it....it will resist and push at you even harder.  Things will turn, that is the nature of the world. 
 
And stay tuned in the next couple days for the first of our Jerusalem Massage Health Interview Series that you will be able to listen to online, download or watch on YouTube. We will continue discussing this very interesting topic of Pulses and Rhythm's.  
 


 
Matt Gleicher, CMT

Jerusalem Massage