Image / Igor Zhuravlov


"There is just the one body—nothing is unrelated to the whole."

- Li-Young Lee


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

Image / Volodymyr Melnyk


"I think that good art is a consolation; I have come to understand it, moreover, as having corrective agency.

Good art certainly serves as a consolation for those who make it—laboring over the wheel, the canvas, the page, the musical score. Beyond this, it is more generally, more broadly, a consolation for those who receive it well. The quiet calm that accompanies our hours in the museum, the gallery, the studio is, at the very least, consoling.

And to the extent that a well-made thing well received quietly insists that we expect that things be made well—to the extent that it teaches us to honor care taken, and teaches us not to be content with the shabby, the hasty, the thoughtless, the narrow, and the glib—the well-made thing bears undeniable power to affect us, inducing our responsive, corrective labors, educing from us actions to accompany and to effect our latent desire for wholeness and reconciliation."

- Scott Cairns



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

Recently while doing a little research on interoception, I looked up the fantastic interview Norm Farb did with Brooke Thomas on the Liberated Body Podcast some years ago. Remembering how much I appreciate Norm's unique combination of serious researcher + playful teacher, I looked around a bit to see what he's been up to lately. Here's an uplifting and timely talk about the importance of choosing our stories, and continuing to do so as life changes (and changes us). Hope you enjoy.

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

When stressed, worried or anxious, our heart and breath rhythms are moving out of sync, continuing to give the brain messages that all is not well. If we can pause as soon as we notice we're experiencing this, we can use our attention and our breath to create coherence. With practice, we can do this quickly, reducing the time we spend in suffering and wasted energy. Here is a simple technique, called Quick Coherence Technique,  that can help to create that coherence relatively quickly. The more often you practice, the easier it will be to create coherence and calm in a jiffy, even when starting from states of high anger or anxiety.

1) Focus your attention in the area of the heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your
heart or chest area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.
Breathe in for a count of 5, breath out for a count of 5.

2) Make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling such as appreciation or care
for something or someone in your life as you continue to breath in and out of the heart area.
You might try to re-experience the feeling you have for a pet, a special place, someone you love,
or focus on the feeling of calm or ease. Continue this for the length of the song, or restart
the song for a longer session.


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

Image / mirabavutti


The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world.
There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor.
But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents.
Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around.
It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.

- Leo Buscaglia (Born for Love: Reflections on Loving, 1992)



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