Image / Goodween 123


I typically send this Fall Update via email, and typically earlier than this. But it's tricky in Texas, especially this year! Yesterday was the first day it really felt as though fall will actually come to visit us, so I'm taking advantage of these cooler days to say Happy Fall, y'all! May the season bring relief and well-being to you and yours!

As I've mentioned in a few emails previously sent to my beloved clients, my intention is to move much of my communication with you here, onto the blog, as a way of reducing both distraction and your inbox girth. This way you can check in and engage when you want to, and can find info when you need it. Now that you're here, have a look around! There are lots of blog posts to check out, and many more to come. There are guided meditations for you to use whenever you need to slow down and check in. There are poetic meditations for whenever you need a little inspiration and beauty in your day. Please be invited to mosey around, check it out, and let me know what you think! And if there's anything you'd like me to address in a blog post - a question, something you've wondered about - let me know! I'd love for this space to serve your needs.

The summer season was a good one for me, full of great sessions with wonderful clients. These days, nearly all of my bodywork sessions incorporate movement education and/or yoga with hands-on bodywork, and the combination of having daily tools to use at home along with hands-on relief during the session has made huge differences for many of my clients. All combination sessions contain an embedded discount, to make it even easier to benefit by receiving both movement education and bodywork in one appointment. I'm so grateful to do this work, and to see the empowerment that comes to my clients from knowing they can tune in and make changes in how they feel, whenever they need to!

This summer was also full of continued training! I spent the summer in another intensive meditation training, focused on the foundations of Mindfulness Meditation, have another meditation study and certification underway, and am ever continuing my education as a yoga teacher and movement educator. If you'd like assistance in working skillfully with your breath, in moving in ways that create ease and energy in your body, in beginning a regular yoga practice, or in beginning a regular meditation practice, contact me today and we'll get you started on the path of greater connection and better movement!

When trying to learn new skills, change movement patterns, or shift tension patterns, regular practice and attention is key. The benefits of regular sessions are clear to me and to my regular clients, and I want to ensure that your efforts and dedication are well rewarded. To that end, Regular Rewards Packages have just gotten a little sweeter! Here are the new options for saving on your regular treatments:

Purchase 5 sessions and get the 6th session FREE
Purchase 10 sessions and get the 11th AND 12th sessions FREE

All Regular Rewards Package sessions must be the same type of session, and are good for 90 days from the date of purchase, so you can choose the package size that best fits your treatment schedule. The 10 session packages are appropriate for those of you who see me once or more per week for the same treatment. The 5 session packages are appropriate for those of you who come every 1-2 weeks for the same treatment. Thank you for your dedication to your goals, and thank you for your regular business!

Last, but not least, how about your fall specials? All available from now thru November 30, 2016.

Fall Special #1: Book your very first Move Well or Private Yoga Session with me, and take $15 off the cost of your session! If you've been thinking about learning more about your body, or learning tools to help yourself feel your very best at any time, then book your appointment online today and type "FALL1" in the notes!

Fall Special #2: Book your first combination session (Move and Relax or Move Into Bliss), and take $15 off the cost of your session AND add a Pumpkin Harvest foot or back scrub (a $20 value)! To claim this special, book your appointment online and type "FALL2" in the notes!

Fall Special #3: Add a Pumpkin Harvest foot or back scrub (a $20 value) to any bodywork session or combination session for $10. Simply book your bodywork session or combination session online and type "FALL3" in the notes to receive your 50% scrub discount, and to claim your fresh-for-fall exfoliation!

Here's wishing each of you a happy, healthy season!
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
http://www.danawyss.com/

Image / olego

Listen to River by Ibeyi

"River Soldiers. Dangerous people in their way, mucking peacefully around in water, stirring up idle love for minnows, mud, and eternity's filaments when there's hard cash to be made. Obeying 78 percent of Christ's love-thy-neighbor order by loving the fluid 78 percent of everyone, whether they believe in Christ or not. Creekophiles. Stone skippers. Aquatic bug lovers. Idlers. Weirdos. There ought to be a law. There are some, actually. But it's hard to outlaw River Soldiering completely without outlawing love and life itself.

We're not out to make trouble for the money-driven - though we do like to remind them that water is essential even to the manufacture of the paper their money's printed on. We're not anti-progress, anti-profit, anti-politics. We just happened to have discovered that once you start spending time in the wet, glimpsing eternity in glides, or being lifted above earth by joys caused by nothing but water's flow, you tend to stop fretting the gross national product...

The life and health of the waters flowing into our lives; the life and health of the same waters as they flow out of our lives: this is the news that absorbs us. Our kind of news doesn't make many headlines, but there's a newsworthy reason for this: eventually there may only be one of us...the river. We call ourselves the River Soldiers."

- David James Duncan, from My Story As Told by Water

When David James Duncan wrote his beautiful and passionate book-length love letter to the rivers of America in 2001, he called himself and others like him River Soldiers. Those who were raised by the river, were taught life's most important lessons between her banks. Those who knew the power and nourishment to be found in the waters of our nation - and their fragility. His book is full of beauties and losses - moments of boyhood wonder and true tales of the corporate devastation of irreplaceable ecosystems. Fifteen years later, much damage has been done, the vulnerabilities of the land remain great, the environmental stakes remain high.

Over the past few weeks, 280 diverse Native American tribes have gathered at the banks of the Missouri River at the Standing Rock Reservation with a common purpose: they are the Water Protectors. Intent on preserving the lifeblood of the land, they have set aside their differences, and their normal daily duties, to collaborate in calling attention to a threat they're no longer willing to see ignored. They are calling for a halt in the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was recently re-routed through tribal lands without the necessary consent of tribal leaders. They have concerns about decimation of lands they consider sacred, and they have concerns about pollution of water, land and wildlife in the event of a spill. The protection of water against corporate accidents is a concern that Native Tribes have historical reason to hold, and it's also a very timely concern. Just days ago, in the midst of this protest, a pipeline spill in Alabama dumped 338,000 gallons of fuel into an ecologically sensitive area.

'“We say ‘mni wiconi’: Water is life. We can’t put it at risk, not for just us, but everybody downstream. We’re looking out for our future, the children who are not even born yet. What is it they will need? It’s water. When we start talking about water, we’re talking about the future generations.” - David Archambault II, Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux

In an age of busyness, in an age of mass denial of the consequences of our consumption and our actions upon the future of this earth, these Water Protectors are doing incredibly important work. Work that serves all of us. Here are some of the many individuals who are standing up to the notion that short-term corporate profits should take precedence over the health of our only planet and the people - living and yet unborn - of this nation. Here is information about the camp, what is happening there, and how you can help from wherever you are. Help, support and solidarity are all needed at this time.

"As water, given sugar, sweetens
given salt, grows salty
we become our choices."
- Jane Hirshfield


Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.

Dana Wyss Healing Arts
http://www.danawyss.com/

Many times I've heard it said "never trust anyone who has given a TED Talk", and on several occasions I've agreed.
But Judson Brewer, M.D., Ph.D. gave a great one and I wanted to share it with you.
Last week I posted about working with craving, and if the topic interested you I think you might find his presentation helpful.

Dr. Brewer developed Craving to Quit, an evidence-based training and smoking cessation program that uses your smart phone, mindfulness, coaching, and peer support to help you successfully navigate your moments of craving in real time.
If you're trying to quit smoking or even vaguely thinking about doing so in the future, you might check it out.

Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
http://www.danawyss.com/

Image Credit: Maxim Ibragimov

That which feels good (or promises to), we do, we seek, we grasp for. That which is unpleasant or which promises discomfort, we move away from, fast as we can. This behavior, which we share with our animal friends, helped us to grow and thrive as a species over time, aiding us in avoiding threats and in seeking and securing food and mates. At the primal level, this automatic craving and aversion can serve us. As humans however, we experience this on more than one level, and not only to our benefit.

Imagine how you react to the sound of nails scraping down a chalkboard. Imagine how you react in the split second that sugar hits your tongue. That's level one. Now imagine how you tend to self-soothe or self-medicate when you're really feeling low, or how you tend to behave towards a partner or close friend when you feel misunderstood or judged. That's level two. In level one reactions, we have immediate, primal reactions of like or dislike. These we can feel and observe in ourselves (usually as strong movements of or sensations in the body) though they remain otherwise outside of our conscious control. The responses we make at the second level, while they can certainly feel as powerful, compelling, and mysterious as automatic primal impulses, are actually strong habits based upon past choices, and are therefore habits we can work with. And change. Really. Before looking at how we can work skillfully with these second level craving and aversion responses, let's take a look at how they come into being and why they appear on the surface to be automatic or intractable.
 
Let’s say that I give a disappointing performance at work, come home feeling crummy, and eat a pint of ice cream. I feel partially soothed and comforted, and some part of me logs this away as “how to feel better on a crappy day”. The next time I come home feeling crappy, I reach for the ice cream, feel a little better, and this relationship between the impulse to feel better and the act of eating ice cream become fused. I may no longer even really notice that I feel sad, frustrated, angry – I may simply think “ice cream!”. This isn’t serving me in a few ways. First, I’m not noticing the true cause of my distress, and therefore cannot create a solution. Maybe I need to ask for more support at work, maybe I really need to find another job, or maybe I simply need to learn how to handle disappointment in more constructive ways. In mindlessly following my craving when it arises, I won’t have access to any of that understanding, and at the same time I’m now gaining weight, which leaves me feeling even more poorly about myself.
 
Not all craving and aversion behaviors are so clearly unhealthy. Let’s say, for example, that every time my partner and I encounter conflict, I go for a run. It helps me blow off steam, clear my head, and calm myself so I don’t escalate the situation or say anything I might regret. This was a very beneficial response the first time I chose it, it helped me feel better and created some peace in the relationship, and I logged it away as “how to handle anger”. The next time conflict arose, I chose it again. And again. Pretty soon, without even considering the needs of that particular moment or the fact that I have other options, I head out the door when the first sign of a conflict arises. Now, important discussions and healthy conflict are no longer happening in this relationship, my exit happens sooner every time, and I’ve lost touch with the fact that there are many alternate responses I could offer (both internally and externally) that could be more appropriate to this moment and might allow for a different outcome. My relationship is slowly disintegrating and I’m increasingly unable to meet my needs for connection, but nobody is fighting and no obviously destructive habits are present.

Every time we choose a response to our internal impulses of craving or aversion, the relationship between the stimulus and our response strengthens. Our experiences and responses literally shape and re-shape our brains over our lifetime. The good news? Our brains are still changing, can still change in ways that better serve us. We can use our attention to change our behavior and our brains. How can we do this? Our meditation practice gives us the tools we need here. We slow down. We recognize. We accept. We investigate. We note what is happening, without identifying with it. Throughout all of this, we extend kindness toward ourselves and curiosity toward our experience. We're in this together: our habits, our minds, our attention. We're a team! That's the spirit from which we begin.
 
Slowing down is key here, so we can take a few deep breaths. When working with habits that seem automatic, allowing time to notice what is happening moment-by-moment is necessary, in order to catch the pattern. When we notice that we’re entering the behavior pattern that we wish to work with, we slow down or stop. We recognize that craving has arisen. This is wonderful! We have an opportunity to work with our pattern, and already we have taken the step of noticing that it’s in play. This, already, is progress.
 
We allow or accept what is happening. Rather than berating ourselves, trying to smash away the truth of the presence of our pattern or trying to distract ourselves away from what’s happening, we just accept that what is happening for us, is happening. This is what is happening right now.
 
We investigate. We get curious. What is happening in the body in this moment? What does it feel like in my body when I begin to crave ice cream? What tensions or sensations are present? What does it feel like in my body when I head for the door? What is happening inside? We might immediately notice bodily sensations, or we might instead answer that it feels like “anger” or “hunger”, “anxiety” or  “emptiness”. If this is the case, we can investigate further – what does “anger” feel like, and where in the body is it located? What does “emptiness” or “hunger” actually feel like, in the body, right now?
 
We stay with our experience, and we remain curious about how this pattern plays itself out within us. We keep breathing and we keep observing. On some days, we’ll be able to stop and watch long enough and intently enough that our old impulse passes without applying our old response. These are moments to celebrate! They're also moments to notice how we feel when we don’t do the old thing. At other times, we’ll be able to notice and stay curious up to a point…and then ultimately do the old thing once again. This may be part of our process. Still, we went into our pattern with greater awareness, and we may have even been aware of the moment of choice. We stick with this process. Perhaps next time, we’ll be capable of even more space, even more patience, even greater curiosity. Whether we’re able to avoid applying our old solution to this moment or not, we allow our experience - whatever it is - to remain in our awareness, and we continue to extend kindness towards ourselves.
And we begin again.

Practicing in this way does not typically change us overnight. We will experience the discomfort of seeing how often we're making choices that cause suffering for ourselves and for others. The beginning stages of working with any craving / aversion pattern can be very difficult for just this reason. But the more we practice, the more we learn about our real needs and desires, our strengths and vulnerabilities, our potential and our options. It may start out feeling painful, but it becomes enormously empowering. We do not need to live our lives on repeat, following the dictates of habits we hardly remember establishing. Today's actions are shaping tomorrow's brain, and we have choice in what that looks like.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/