This is unstructured play...

(note the scissors).

She's smashed up the chalk and seems to be enjoying her space. I love it.

Catching One's Self

Mammogram Mindfulness
by Diana Shimkus
 

     Today, while preparing for a mammogram, I noticed an unusual contraction in my solar plexus, signaling some distress. I entered into inquiry of this body sensation, and was curious about its root source. Before long, I was quickly led to the imaging room by a lovely technician who kindly asked how I was doing. I told her that I was noticing some very slight physical tightness in the abdomen and was guessing that this might suggest some unanticipated anxiety. She promptly offered, "You shouldn't feel that way", and gave me several factual reasons my dis-ease was unfounded.

     I was prepared to "be polite" and to tell her things were fine, but recollected my commitment to wise speech and decided to risk the truth. After a few breaths, I went on to tell her that it was obvious to me that she intended her statement to relieve my distress and that I could see her good heart in wanting my well being. 

     I also told her, that when she said, "you shouldn't feel that way", I had a reaction of more intense body contraction along with a feeling of inadequacy, that was not her fault but rather an old reaction to the old limiting believed thought that I was "getting it wrong".  

     As I relayed my experience, the technician became tearful, which quickly prompted my own welling up in the shared truth of our human vulnerability. After a moment, she shared, "I know I said that to you. When you just shared that with me, I actually heard the words I say to myself everyday. Your distress made me nervous and I didn't want that."  
     This is an example of compassion and mindfulness spontaneously arising from the shared truth of the moment. I am grateful to the technician for her profound willingness to share her real self with me.  May we all be fearless in our pursuit of the reality of our own experience and that of the moment. May we never be separated from this truth, ourselves and each other. May we all be well.

Contact Diana Shimkus @ 760-310-2920 http://everydaymind.com/

Your Brain and Your Gut - Daniel Siegel

Your Brain and Gut Decisions

Posted: 03/20/2014 11:33 am EDT Updated: 03/20/2014 11:59 am EDT 

 

Daniel Siegel Daniel Goleman Brain Science Brain Science Decision Making Science Brain Science Brain Science Gut Decision Science News

What parts of the brain are activated when we make a gut decision?
Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, explained the complex process of how our minds and bodies formulate and respond to a hunch for my video series Leadership: A Master Class.
"There are networks of neurons that serve as information processors. They're like little computers arranged in a spider web-like network called a parallel distributed processor. Unlike the linear computers we have, these parallel processors can actually learn and think.
We have this spider web-like set of connections in our skull, which we usually refer to as the brain. But we also have neural net processors around the heart and intestines that process information in very complex ways.
These information processors of the internal organs of the body, called viscera, are not rational or logical. But it is processing information and sending signals up from the body itself, to the spinal cord in a layer called Lamina I.
Lamina I carries the information from the intestines, heart, muscles and bones upward from the spinal cord. As it comes up, part of it goes to the deepest part of the brain called the brainstem, which influences our heart rate and respiration.
Also a twig of it will go over to an area called the hypothalamus, where it will govern what to do with our endocrine system, and influence your hormonal environment.
Another branch goes to an area called the prefrontal cortex. There are two aspects of the prefrontal cortex that Lamina I data from the body receives. One twig is called the insula. It's a part of what some people called the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.
The other part goes over to the anterior cingulate. It's like a loop that goes frontward and backward. The anterior is the front part of that loop. What's fascinating is people who are aware of their interior, called interoception, or perception of the interior, are people who are more empathic.
People who have more interoceptive ability have greater activity of the right insula, which makes them more self-aware, at least of emotions. One view of emotions is that they're generated from what are called subcortical areas. The cortex is the higher part of the brain. Beneath the cortex are the limbic area, the brainstem, and the body proper.
The subcortical area mixes together and forms states of affective tone, which you could call emotion. They are driven upward through the insula to the cortex where we become aware of it.
When you're self-aware, you get a gut feeling. You have a heartfelt sense. Sometimes those feelings are really important. There's wisdom in the body. Yet sometimes, if we have been traumatized, for example, the gut feeling we get can lead us astray.
If you've been bitten by a dog or hurt by someone who had red hair, when you see a dog or a person with red hair, your gut may say "bad, bad, bad", and may create a tone of negativity that is based on past traumatic experience. So bodily input doesn't always mean you should respond to it directly. You should analyze it."

IRC, Roots Day in San Diego - Volunteers Needed

Roots Community Farm - April 26

The IRC New Roots Community Farm provides growing space for 80 families in the City Heights area.  Many of the participants were farmers in their home countries and this is their first opportunity to grow crops in the United States. 
The New Roots Community Farm is a site for the upcoming I Love a Clean San Diego Creek to Bay Clean Up. 
Saturday, April 26, 2014
9am to noon
Groups are welcome as are teenagers (with accompanying adult supervision).
Space is limited.   RSVP to Kaley.Hearnsberger@Rescue.org

What to bring:
Closed toe shoes
Weather appropriate clothing (i.e. pancho for rain, long sleeves if sunny, sunscreen, etc.)
Gloves
Water bottle
Snack
Gardening Tools
 

Human Trafficking Workshop, March, 2014

YOUTH IN CONFLICT WORKSHOP
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Awareness, Restoration, Prevention, Action
HOSTED BY
Love Bridge Prison Ministry
&
Shadow Mountain Community Church Prison Ministry
SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014
8:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Shadow Mountain “Lower Campus Chapel”
Cost: $15
(Includes Catered lunch & Notebook)
Designed to educate, equip, and bring to action as many as possible to combat the spread of this inhuman treatment of our “at most risk” young people.
************************************************
REGISTRATION
(LIMITED SEATING/REGISTRATION MUST BE RECEIVED BY 3/18/14)


ON LINE:CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK & REGISTER:

http://www.shadowmountain.org/humantrafficking

OR, BY MAIL
NAME: _____________________________________
# OF REGISTRATIONS: ____ HONE______________
EMAIL: ____________________________
CHURCH OR ORGANIZATION: ___________________________________________
Make checks payable to: SMCC Prison Ministry/Youth In Conflict Workshop
Send to: Shadow Mountain Community Church,
c/o Tom Heyer 2100 Greenfield Dr., El Cajon 92019

Ki's Founder Passes Away

The Founder of Ki's in Cardiff, Ki herself, has passed away at the age of 88.

She died Wednesday, in a retirement home, having struggled with Alzheimers for a couple of years and a recent broken hip. 

This woman was really a head of her time. Opening a small organic hand-juicing storefront decades ago, on Birmingham, and working it single handedly for years, with her long red hair piled up on her head. 

Customers would line up outside the small window stall to order, before the restaurant opened to become the large oceanfront site currently.

I spoke with her daughter yesterday. There's a celebration of life next Tuesday evening at Ki's open to the public at 6pm. All welcome.

Picasso

"Good artists copy, great artists steal." 

Pablo Picasso

_________________________________