Let's put sleeplessness and stress to bed for the night

"If you do fight against your country's foes, cares keep you awake." Shakespeare, King Richard 111

Shakespeare was right, cares do keep you awake.  Many insomniacs and troubled sleepers list red meat issues like health, relationships, jobs, taxes and finances as the cause behind not falling asleep, not staying asleep, waking up frequently throughout the night and generally tossing, turning, teeth grinding and greeting the morning tired and unrefreshed.

After Shakespeare, many scientists and researchers in our industrialised world have provided copious quantities of research proving that sleep deprivation affects our health ranging from poor quality concentration to fertility problems and heart disease. And if you are tired during the day, cannot concentrate on your job and your relationships are suffering, guess what?  The cycle of poor sleep continues.

There comes a time in the life of any insomniac or poor sleeper when he or she becomes tired of trying and failing with all the established advice of well meaning gurus.  We have all stood in the supermarket checkout and browsed those popular magazines that every week seem to have yet another article on how to sleep, all of which contain words such as no caffeine, aromatherapy baths, no electronic stimulation, eat turkey and the rest.  You could just take the easy route and go to the Doctor and become addicted to pills and live with the mental and physical side effects of the medication.

I am a long time meditator and characteristically have such a laid back personality I am almost horizontal yet I had sleeping problems after a long stay in hospital.  No one could give me an explanation for my sleep distress that made any sense to me.  While living in New York, I was drawn to a sign for a Sleep Retreat conducted by Michael Krugman who is the founder of the SOUNDER SLEEP SYSTEM®.  I had found his name through the Feldenkrais world in which I am a Practitioner and Michael Krugman was a Trainer who had insomnia and then developed this system through his own research and experience.

This retreat was my last resort.  It was a three day workshop and Michael is brilliant with his intelligence, research and knowledge behind the science of sleep and sleep disorders and for me, it was the first time someone had offered a proven explanation as to why some of us just cannot sleep.  We learnt about the brain and the central nervous system and how the Sounder Sleep System® exploits the two fundamental, opposing principles of the human nervous system, excitation and inhibition to produce its sleep inducing effects.  The Sounder Sleep System® uses small, slow, gentle bodily movements to initiate and amplify the inhibitory process resulting in natural, restful, sleep whenever you need it.

My introduction to this Method gave me the most relaxing weekend that I have ever experienced and as I practised the Methods over the following weeks, my sleep returned to perfection.  I could fall asleep and stay asleep without waking up at three in the morning and staying awake.  I became a devoted fan and trained to be a Teacher of the Sounder Sleep System®.

"The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep."  W. C. Fields

I am now teaching classes and workshops here in England, and I can teach the lessons via skype for those of you in far away places.  Speaking of far away places, I have been contacted by folk in South Africa - yes insomnia is rampant and refreshing sleep is so necessary to us all.

The Sounder Sleep System® can be learnt as I said before in a Sleep retreat or workshop, or over a course of five sessions, with homework in between.  There is a 100% success rate - providing you practice the homework every day.  Yes that Dominatrix thing from my personality comes in now because your success depends on doing the homework, so I am strict and the advantage of a skype relationship or a visit to a class is that you will receive encouragement to practice!!  The Sounder Sleep System® can work alongside medical advice as it will be a powerful ally in your healing process.  In addition to enhancing sleep it is a great self help, self nurturing practice for anyone who suffers from worry, tension and anxiety from living in the modern world.  Why not be pro-active and learn the methods just to keep you worry free and less anxious during the day, even if you can sleep?

Oh....... and mine is a double expresso.  Thank you.

Tibetan Yoga

"It was the first day in June and the sheep shearing season culminated the landscape, even to the leanest pasture, being all health and colour.  Every green was young, every pore was open and every stalk was swollen with racing current of juice.  God was palpably present in the country, and the devil had gone with the world to town." Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd

Before I describe sKu-mNyé (pronounced koom nyay) or simply Tibetan Yoga, let me relate an incident.

Another lifetime ago I was living in a remote house in the exquisitely beautiful Marshwood Vale of Dorset, England.  The countryside remains untouched by our century and it is a place where you could easily experience the time of the Romans or Thomas Hardy just by being present on the land.  Also it is the most heavily haunted part of Britain.  Our house and garden stood isolated in amongst the rolling hills, a perfect location for practicing Meditation and Yoga in the garden.

I would go horseback riding every day and my friend Jo told me that the people in the villages were talking about me, discussing my religion.  I happen to be an Ordained Buddhist but apparently the local arguments revolved around a lack of knowledge of Buddhism so some pretty weird and inaccurate opinions were arising but also some villagers were arguing as to whether I was a Buddhist or Muslim.  I laughed about this.

On gloriously sunny June day I was meditating in my wild flower paddock, I was alone except for my Jack Russell Terrier named Tangle who wanted to catch and kill rabbits but he never disrespected my meditation time with actions of such an impermanent nature so he remained still.  After a while I decided to practice some Tibetan Yoga, so I took my clothes off.  Yes, it was warm and sunny, I was on my own except for Tangle who did not mind, and a requirement of this solitary practice is no clothes.  I will explain later.

I practiced a few exercises (with names relating to lions, vultures, tigers, eagles and garudas), meditating between the sets of exercises and when I was enjoying one of my favourite exercises named Stalking Tiger which involves standing on all fours, buttocks higher than the shoulders and the pelvis rotates clockwise in a circle horizontally while the nose rotates in a circle horizontally in the opposite direction, (have I lost you?).  Never say I don't have a sense of humour, but I began to sense that I was being observed.  You know that feeling?

My paddock was surrounded my 1000 year old hedgerows so I did not think it was possible to be seen, except I was mistaken.  There was a small gap in the hedge and I saw the face of one of my neighbours who lived a few fields away and today he was walking his gun dogs.  He was dressed from the BBC Costume Department in Plus fours and he sported the most enormous handlebar moustache.  He was watching me.  I stopped mid rotation to stare back at him and at this point without embarrassment he shouted, "now I can see you are a Buddhist."  Go figure.  I understand his observation of me had solved  the argument about which religion I belonged to.  Only in England, folks, only in England.

I have practiced Tibetan Yoga with a lot of humour, for twenty years ever since I was taught the practice by my Buddhist Teachers, Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen who are the lineage holders of a Tibetan Yogic Lineage called the Aro gTér.  This is a rare and unique strand of non-monastic Buddhism within the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism.  The lineage emanates from Yeshé Tsogyel, the female Tantric Buddha and consort of Padmasambhava through to Aro Lingma, a visionary genius of the early 20th Century.

Although I have enjoyed and taught many movement practices all my life, Tibetan Yoga carries all the components of a fully inclusive exercise system with a meditation practice.  It employs a number of varied exercises requiring strength, balance, coordination, flexibility that all develop into various levels of aerobic activity.  It is a cardiovascular exercise system and encourages bone density, joint mobility and overall strength and flexibility.

"lose yourself" Eminem

Now for the interesting part.  The Meditation practice concentrates on physical sensation resulting in opening and invigorating the senses.  This is achieved by not wearing any clothes, employing a distinctive use of the eyes, the hands and disorienting moving postures (as described previously with Stalking Tiger).  I jokingly said earlier that it requires a sense of humour to practice it, but interestingly with regular practice, experience of the senses becomes enlivened and increasingly vivid and people become livelier, happier, less depressed as their world becomes more potent.  The routine of alternating exercises with meditation allows the benefits of interval training, so weight loss occurs and fitness developed rapidly.  One of the initial and welcome side effects of practicing is an increased sex drive as well as an increase of awareness of sensations.  Simply put, better Sex!

Tibetan Yoga also ameliorates mental conditions such as depression, because it is entirely concerned with physical sensation rather than any form of mental re-programming.  If you exercise and want to meditate and stop paying for gym membership, this is the system for you and it is so much fun.

Over the years while living in New York I have taught Tibetan Yoga to hundreds of people all of whom loved and welcomed it into their daily exercise and meditation practice.  By the way, in the teaching environment we always wear clothes! but this is a solitary practice to engage in at home on your own.  I only mentioned briefly about the exercises encouraging sensations.  This is also an unusual occurrence but you can only find out more about this by receiving the Theoretical Transmission of the practice, so I will not say anymore at this point.  All my Tibetan Yoga clients noticed the benefits of this amazing system very quickly including my class of teenagers who apart from losing weight and exercising for fun, discovered the practice also improved their concentration at school.

Now due to the wonders of the internet, I am teaching Tibetan Yoga through Skype, for those in far away places, but also there are workshops available.  Please feel free to contact me through www.enlightenedmoves.com

Method behind the Moves

A few years ago I had the pleasure of reading the beautiful, visionary and magical book by Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.  'Listen to your Heart', 'Read the Omens', 'Follow your Dreams', 'Embrace Change' all sound bites from this delightful parable.

I began to think about the word Alchemist and the practice of Alchemy and I started to read other books on the subject.  One of the books I chose which was highly recommended was also highly boring but I persevered and read about how to become an Alchemist.  Half way through the book, the Author suggested that if one were a Tantric Buddhist, one was already an Alchemist.  Yipee!!  I'm a Trantric Buddhist, but why couldn't the Author have said that at the beginning to save me reading the book.

One of the first things I learnt from Buddhism is that you cannot be a Buddhist without a willingness to change.  Every breath, every meditation is change.  Life circumstances constantly change and change us whether by choice or design.  Change will happen so why not embrace it.

In all the fitness and wellness practices I teach, change is inevitable and there is nothing more delightful than meeting a new client who comes in and wants to change from a lack of fitness, bad movement habits, bad sleep patterns, a client who wants to reinvent themselves, look different, think differently and behave differently.  I have never met a client who has not had a dream or motivation to change.

When a client comes to see me for the first time, I don't see them as their bad back, or their 20lbs of excess weight, or their tight hamstrings, high blood pressure, painful knees, I see them as their potential.  My job is to help them reach their potential, to help them realise their dream, to train, encourage, motivate with the knowledge and experience that I have accumulated over the years through realising my goals and dreams.  I like to light the fire under their butts and watch them take up the challenge of demanding from themselves the complete determination to succeed.

I love the quote from Rumi, "We Alchemists look for talent that can heat up and change.  Lukewarm won't do, half-hearted, holding back, well enough, getting by? Not here."

How do we do it?

"Movement is life, without movement, there is no life", Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

We design personalised fitness regimes which have the flavour of Feldenkrais/Pilates/Yoga/Martial Arts/Dance and bodymind practices to teach people to emerge from pain or lack of fitness, lack of confidence to complete physical health.  All of us are individuals, with different needs at different times of our lives, so we don't cookie cut our workouts.  Feldenkrais can bring the injured athlete to health quickly and can develop his existing skills, a personalised workout can bring that same athlete to a high fitness level to perform and recover in between performances or competitions.  That athlete may want to learn to meditate to improve his concentration and focus.  That athlete may need dietary advice, learn to sleep or maybe learn to have fun (eat well, drink well and play well).  All of these lessons could apply to anyone whoever they are, the-want-to-be pregnant woman, the soon-to-be-bride, the busy and stressed stockbroker, the sanitation worker with a bad back, the ex soldier with sleep, stress or mobility issues.

We understand movement and we know how to teach a client to use their minds and brain to fulfil their physical and mental needs.

ö-Sel Nyima, on a beautiful Spring Day in England.

Enlightened Moves The Beginning Part 2

I came to meet ö-Sel after stumbling about various Pilates’s studios looking for a great teacher.  I had just moved back to NYC from Seattle where I had the great privilege to study Pilates with some very well known and accomplished Master Instructors.  And I had just spent many months in physical therapy due to an accident where I had been a pedestrian and was struck by a truck. 

I vividly remember the EMTs and the subsequent doctors and therapists I worked with all saying that if it hadn’t been for all the Yoga and Pilates I had been doing, I probably would’ve broken my back.  Instead, I got up and limped away.  That accident changed my entire life.  It changed many of my personal relationships, for a time it changed my daily activities and it changed my view of fitness and health forever.  Up until that point while I had been very fit, having been a long time student of Dance, and Yoga and Pilates, I had never lifted a handweight in my life and I had only ever briefly belonged to a gym.  And even though I had completed the Yoga Alliance teacher training course…I had only half-heartedly considered teaching. I never took any of these physical gifts I had very seriously. Once I had my accident those words I kept hearing from all of my physical therapists rang repeatedly in my head.  I knew it was true and I wasn’t going to take my body for granted anymore. 

I gave up smoking.  I changed my diet.  I began a serious Pilates-based physical therapy regimen.  I was back at Yoga. And I was longing to start taking dance classes again but wasn’t quite strong enough. Once I was cleared for take off and back in NYC, I began looking to take my fitness to the next level.  One problem: no one wanted to touch me…everyone kept treating me like a victim and wouldn’t let me progress.  It was very frustrating.  I was gaining weight.  I was becoming depressed and anxious. Then one day I showed up to a private Pilates session and this beautiful English woman was reading my chart/client history. She looked up at me with such clarity and light in her eyes that I knew something was different about her. To this day I laugh because it is such a dichotomy for someone to be so serene and proper and English and yet be such a bitch of a trainer!  Needless to say, we clicked immediately.  She understood exactly what I was having trouble with.  She completely put me back together again.  I was getting stronger everyday with a combination of Pilates and Feldenkrais treatments from ö-Sel.  Eventually we began to work together in my home.  I had no idea what was in store for me.  I had never had a “personal trainer” it sounded so masculine, like something a bodybuilder would have.  We really began to create these amazing workout sessions together. And I say we because she was instructing me but I kept wanting to be pushed further, in fact I’d try so hard not to grimace if something was difficult because I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing it was a challenge so we could keep going further.  We actually had a lot of fun together and it felt like old friends hanging out and sharing advice and bonding over Clint Eastwood and James Bond movies rather than another dull workout on the treadmill.  I lost weight.  And while my body was changing, so was my mind. I felt calmer in situations that I used to find stressful. I felt like I had a glow. A friend I hadn’t seen in a long time jokingly referred to me as “Benjamin Buttons”. And I was literally getting stopped on the streets and asked what I did to get those arms or that butt.  And I’d try to explain the workout to people but it was really personalized to me so it was hard to sum it up…it was different every week.  I remember telling this one stranger that I was doing Pilates and Tibetan Yoga and that it’s these exercises my trainer has me doing and she said “oh, you must be an actress” like it would be unheard of to have a trainer otherwise! And all I could ever say to people was you have to call ö-Sel…She’s a witch, a healer…call her immediately!

Eventually ö-Sel moved back to England and I got married and we drifted apart for a short while as she was obviously no longer training me and we were no longer in each other’s living rooms.  As someone who loves being fit, I definitely kept up my workouts but everything was different.  Life happens.  I had a hernia that needed abdominal surgery and a year later I had a baby via c-section…another abdominal surgery. I gained 70 pounds while pregnant with my daughter, and I’m not a huge girl.  I was desperate to lose the weight and get fit but after two abdominal surgeries in a row, my doctors wouldn’t clear me for real exercise for 12 weeks. That’s three months!  I was allowed walking but nothing more.  When the time came, I knew there was only one person who could get me back to where I was.  Yes partly because she knew me and knew what my body had been capable of but also because she is truly gifted at creating unique fitness programs for people.  So via skype and the internet, across the Atlantic she began creating workouts for me once again.  And I’ve lost the weight.  And more importantly I’m feeling strong and confident again. 

And I now have the honor of being her protégé! After years of us talking about doing it, ö-Sel has put me through the ringer to teach like she does. And it is wonderful to finally be able to give back to others what was given to me…healing through exercise. Together with our various disciplines and trainings we’ve created an amazing Method of Fitness that is very whole body and whole mind. And the best part is it can be adapted to any level and can benefit anyone. We hope you enjoy it with us!  

Carolyn DeFir-Hunter @thegirleats @enlightenedmove

Enlightened Moves - The Beginning

Carolyn and I met nearly ten years ago because of a life changing accident.  I was a Pilates Instructor in a Studio in Brooklyn, New York and Carolyn walked in, having been discharged from physical therapy after being hit by a truck in Seattle, and now she wanted to start her real journey back to physical fitness.

Carolyn is a dancer and yoga practitioner and is quite possibly the fittest person I have ever encountered, although not at this time in our shared history.

My story was similar.  When I was twenty-five years old, I suffered a severe road accident that should have killed me.  It didn't but after a year of intensive physical therapy I was signed off as fixed and with my body stitched back together I looked and walked like the Bride of Frankenstein.

I had spent my short life time riding horses, ice-skating, playing tennis and swimming and I was horrified by my broken, physical body and from that moment on I decided to rehabilitate myself. I never allowed being a victim of an accident to prevent me from scuba-diving, boxing, fencing and dancing and over the years I engaged in many systems offered in the world of exercise and complementary therapies.  The ones that I thought worked best for me, I decided to train and become a Teacher of that modality. 

I had been a Buddhist since the age of 15 so Meditation was part of the healing process.  Later I became an Ordained Teacher from a small, yogic tradition within the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism and now I teach Tibetan Yoga and Meditation.  I became a Pilates Instructor and I later a Feldenkrais® Practitioner and more recently a Sleep Disorder Therapist in the Sounder Sleep System®.  All of these methods recreated me to be a person of complete mobility, flexibility and strength with an awareness that the mind plays such an important role in the success of a reinvention.

Carolyn walked into that Pilates Studio still suffering the physical and mental trauma of her accident but she was an incredible student and quite determined to be better than the best.  She was so fit and eager to try anything I threw at her and she never really complained ...well.  Carolyn allowed me to become creative with what I was teaching and her phenomenal ability to learn hard exercises and routines and perform them beautifully encouraged us to begin talking about combining our various talents to hit the world with fun, intelligent exercise routines and movement styles that we had proven to ourselves, could benefit any person of any age at any stage of their life.

All teachers bring their own history and personality to their teaching, and Carolyn and I certainly do that.  With humour, intelligence, enthusiasm, self knowledge and magic we want to provide a client with a complete package of well-being, whatever they need at any given time.  Sometimes that might be rehabilitation from injury, trauma, stress, fitness training to run a marathon, pass a dance audition, get pregnant, get married, lifestyle reinvention or whatever.  We can motivate, encourage and allow a client the strength and space to dream, imagine and succeed in their goals.  We are constantly motivated by our exceptional clients with their inspiring goals that they will achieve or have achieved through their devotion to the challenges of learning to change.
ö-Sel Nyima  @enlightenedmove    @NyimaOsel

Pop the corks!

We're celebrating!  Many years in the making...o-Sel Nyima and Carolyn DeFir-Hunter have created Enlightened Moves together.  A fitness and lifestyle company.  Your new trainers of fitness, food, and fun!