Brain Shaman

This is a conversation with Feldenkrais practioner and dance coach, Paul Pui Wo Lee. We talk about Feldenkrais and how it can be a kind of gateway into new possibilities -  new ways to dance, make art, love, connect, think, feel, sense, move, and be. I reflect on my first Feldenkrais experience (episode 40) and how it changed my self-image, confidence, thinking, perception, and even my voice.

Feldenkrais is not just about movement. It is about discovering new possibilities for how live as a human being in this world, both alone and with others. It is about re-learning how to move, think, sense, and feel in more free and natural ways. It is an unlocking of old habits and patterns and unleashing of new possibilities for action, art, and identity. It is a tool for resurrecting the homo sapien, restoring human dignity, re-opening in your body and brain a world of endless options and possibilities, a feeling of "I can."

Some of the topics we discuss include: dance, art, learning, memory, culture, society, self-image, falling, and making mistakes.

-  Paul's website:  www.paulsfeldenkraisprojects.com
- Instagram: @paul_moves
- 13 free bonus lessons with Paul (on YouTube): The Wisdom of the Feet - Feldenkrais Lessons with Paul Pui Wo Lee

RESOURCES

BOOKS

• Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation, and Learning by Moshé Feldenkrais
• The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
• The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge

PEOPLE

• Marie Kaae
• Moshé Feldenkrais
• Nastya Madstate
• Norman Doidge
• RuPaul

To learn more about Feldenkrais, you can visit the Movement and Creativity Library or google "Feldenkrais" and find a provider near you.

Paul Pui Wo Lee is a dancer and Feldenkrais practitioner. And today he's about to give me my first Feldenkrais (Awareness Through Movement) lesson. This is an action-based episode, an audio-guided experience - learning through doing. So, lie down, listen in, and slowly gain self and bodily awareness through movement.

The post-lesson reflections and interview will be in the next episode (coming soon!)

Connect with or book a private lesson with Paul: www.paulsfeldenkraisprojects.com
Instagram: paul_moves
MORE lessons from Paul (on YouTube) here.

My brother Jason joins the podcast. We talk about how to optimize our communication and connection with all of life - birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and the wider animal kingdom and human species. We discuss art, music, women, beauty, attraction, design, and how to be the best you. 

Homelessness is also a theme that runs in the background, as that is the world that my brother is living in. Learn about what it's like to be without a home, dancing on the border between nature and society, feeling and rationality, animal and man.  By experiencing things from such a raw and wide-open perspective, you can begin to rethink your ideas of success, money, beauty, friendship, love, possibility, good and evil, happiness, and what it means to be a homo sapien living in this modern world. 

Reconnect and play with the vast world of creatures inside of and around you, and re-enter life.  Wake up from the hypnotic trance of society, merge deeper into your authentic self, full of deeper relationships and a deeper connection with everything around you.

Richmond Heath is a physiotherapist and the founder of TRE Australia.  Join us on a story-filled adventure through death, pain, suffering, and grief, and into a beautiful vibrant land where trauma and pain are verbs and you are fully feeling, pulsating, and alive. By going into the darkness, you can reconnect with yourself, others, and reality.

Learn more:
- TRE Australia website: treaustralia.com
- Free online TRE course: trecourse.com

RESOURCES:

GROUPS:
 - Menergy

PEOPLE:
 - Alia Crum
- Anna Lembke
- Carol Dweck
- David Berceli
- Deva Daricha
- Jonah Robins
- Peter Levine
- Stephen Porges
- Tony Fitzgerald

PLACES
- Linga Longa Aboriginal Philosophy Farm
- Grantville
- Phillip Island 

Let's talk about free will, why it is an illusion, and how by stop believing in it, you can finally set yourself free.


RESOURCES

PEOPLE

•   Benjamin Libet
•   Daniel Dennett
•   Daniel Wegner
•   John Searle
•   Joseph LeDoux
•   Michael Gazzanaga
•   Robert Sapolsky
•   Sam Harris
•   Susan Blackmore

In this episode, we talk about how to get rid of all the average or good junk in your life and fill it up with greatness. 

In this episode, we talk with Srini Pillay - a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, brain researcher, technology entrepreneur, author, speaker, musician, and much much more. We talk about the non-dual nature of the our mind, body, life, the world and how by reconnecting with the nonlinear patterns (of nature, technology, and ourselves), we can melt down the previous limits to our reality and discover new ways to think, experience, learn, and live.

Some topics we get into include: perception (vision, embodiment, imagination ...), geometry (shapes, lines, fractals...), math, movement, technology (VR and AI), nature, distraction, identity, art, symbols, music, creativity, education, energy, life, subjectivity, discovery, and more. It's all about the rhythm and patterns of your thinking, perception, behavior, and therefore life. Let's adventure into the non-dual and non-linear spaces of reality, and, by doing so, feel more alive and rediscover and recreate who we are. Join this conversation to discover how to find those spaces and thereby enter into your new identity and reality.

RESOURCES:

BOOKS
 - Yoga Sutras of Pantajali

CONCEPTS:
 - confabulation
- default mode network
- dharana
- dhyana
- epigenome
- exposome
- meaningful coincidence
- methylation
- mirror neurons
- proteome
- psychological halloweenism
- samadhi
- samyama

PEOPLE:
- Carl Jung
-  Joseph LeDoux
- Krista Kim
- Marianne Williamson
-  Marsha Angell
-  Martin Heidegger
- Michael Gazzaniga 
- Patrick Candela

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LEARN MORE ABOUT SRINI:
- personal website: drsrinipillay.com
- Reulay: reulay.com
- NeuroBusiness Group: nbgcorporate.com

CONNECT:
- Instagram: @drsrinipillay
- Twitter (X): @srinipillay
- Facebook: /SriniPillayMD
- LinkedIn: /drsrinipillay

Here are 5 more portals into the unconscious world of neverending possibility and imagination: mouth, posture, space, time, and identity. If you find more, please leave a comment. And also leave a key or magic spell to help open it.

This is an episode about how to unfocus your eyes, ears, nose, breath, and movement in order to tap into your unconscious, that inner land of imagination, where you can discover new possibilities and create a new you. Change how you use your body, and you can change your perception of what is possible. 

In this episode, we talk with Alex Greene about how to reconnect and align with our bodies and the energy of the universe, and how all that affects our being and mind. He's body worker, somatic coach, TRE provider, nervous system therapist, zen priest, and the host of the Red Beard Embodiment podcast.

We dig into a lot of interrelated topics, including: Taoism, Zen Buddhism, breathing, hara, muscles, trauma, stress, tension and trauma releasing exercises (TRE), physical habits (sitting, posture, walking, etc.), polyvagal theory, the Feldenkrais Method, Rolfing, gravity, early childhood development, bodily awareness, speed of movement, neuroplasticity, massage, touch, memories, connection, disconnection, dissociation, the nervous system, perception of possibility, modes of focus and attention, Eastern vs. Western art, language, fluidity vs. rigidity, sense of self, parenting, learning, communication, voice, and martial arts.

Connect with Alex Greene:
- personal website: www.alexgreene.com
- podcast: Red Beard Embodiment (also available on Spotify, Apple, etc.)
- therapy practice: www.redbeardsomatictherapy.com
- Youtube channel: @AlexGreeneTRE

RESOURCES:

BODYWORK PRACTICES:
- Feldenkrais Method
- Rolfing
- TRE

BOOKS:
- A Zen Approach to Bodytherapy by William "Dub" Leigh
- Stalking Wild Psoas by Liz Koch
- The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Sōhō
- The Vital Psoas Muscle by Liz Koch

CONCEPTS:
- dantien (丹田)
- dissociation
- hara (腹)
- mushin (無心)
- qi / ki (气 ) / 気)
- samadhi (समाधि)
- tao (道)
- zazen (座禅)

PEOPLE
- Bodhidharma
- Everett Ogawa
- Ida Rolf
- Moshé Feldenkrais
- Norman Doidge
- Tanouye Roshi

PLACES:
- Chozen-ji (Zen temple & dōjō  in Honolulu, Hawaii)

PHYSIOLOGY:
- iliacus (muscle)
- iliopsoas (muscle)
- motor cortex (brain region)
- psoas (muscle)
- sacrum (bone)
- sensory cortex (brain region)