"The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us"
“When we were one or two years old, most of us had 360-degree personalities. We were literally balls of energy radiating from all parts of our body and psyche. But as time went on, we noticed that our parents didn’t like certain parts of that ball. “Can’t you sit still?” Or, “It isn’t nice to hit and bite.”
“To keep our parents' love, we started an invisible bag, and we put in that bag the parts of us our parents didn’t like. By the time we got to school, our bag was quite large. There, we added our teachers’ comments. “Play nice with others, don’t be bossy, don’t be so self-centered, and don’t get angry.” So we take our anger, our sense of self-importance, and put it in the bag.
“As teens, we do an extraordinary amount of bag-stuffing in high school. This time it’s no longer the evil grownup that pressures us, but people our own age...
“I so maintain that out of that round globe of energy the twenty-year-old ends up with a slice...
"We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again...”
~(A Little Book on the Human Shadow, Robert Bly, HarperCollins 1988)
“To keep our parents' love, we started an invisible bag, and we put in that bag the parts of us our parents didn’t like. By the time we got to school, our bag was quite large. There, we added our teachers’ comments. “Play nice with others, don’t be bossy, don’t be so self-centered, and don’t get angry.” So we take our anger, our sense of self-importance, and put it in the bag.
“As teens, we do an extraordinary amount of bag-stuffing in high school. This time it’s no longer the evil grownup that pressures us, but people our own age...
“I so maintain that out of that round globe of energy the twenty-year-old ends up with a slice...
"We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again...”
~(A Little Book on the Human Shadow, Robert Bly, HarperCollins 1988)
Other Beloved Quotes
"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls." - Joseph Campbell
"Your body is your subconscious mind." - Candace Pert MD
"Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flame." - Mevlana Rumi
"Run my dear from anyone and anything that does not strengthen your precious budding wings." - Hafiz
"Better games would empty entire wings o' (our) mental hospitals." - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form...perhaps the most common form...of its innate violence." - Thomas Merton
"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. " - Maya Angelou
"What does your heart tell you?" - Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau
"The heart's deepest purpose is to balance." - James Burgess
"The heart's memory is stronger than death; the mind's memory is not." - Steven Forrest
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
"Any extreme suggests the opposite." - John Heider, The Tao of Leadership
"Why worry? What is meant for you is always meant to find you." - Lalleshwari
"So far no one has succeeded in singing an epic of peace. What is it about peace that keeps its inspiration from enduring?" - Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire
"...devoted discipline and grace will bring ye knowin's and powers everywhere, in all your life, in all your works if they're good works, in all your loves if they're good loves." - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
"The grace of God is a wind that is always blowing." - Sri Ramakrishna Math
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost
"Stand at the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way lies, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls." - Jeremiah 6:16
At the end of his life, Sigmund Freud said "Thank God I'm not a Freudian." - (a willingness to grow, evolve and change)
"The fish will be the last to discover water." - Albert Einstein
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"It's worth a nickel if I say it, a dime if YOU do." - John Heider (meaning insights we discover about ourselves from within are almost always more potent than when pointed out to us by others.)
"To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven." - Ecclesiastes 3:1
"I can't see you but I know you're here. I feel it." - Peter Falk in Wings of Desire
Thoughts on Invisible Helpers - Robert Louis Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams "My Brownies" (Scottish name for nature spirits who work only for the joy of it), "God bless them! who do one-half my work for me while I am fast asleep, and in all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well, when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do it for myself. That part which is done while I am sleeping is the Brownies’ part beyond contention; but that which is done when I am up and about is by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies have a hand in it even then. Here is a doubt that much concerns my conscience. For myself—what I call I, my conscious ego, the denizen of the pineal gland unless he has changed his residence since Descartes, the man with the conscience and the variable bank-account, the man with the hat and the boots, and the privilege of voting and not carrying his candidate at the general elections—I am sometimes tempted to suppose is no story-teller at all, but a creature as matter of fact as any cheesemonger or any cheese, and a realist bemired up to the ears in actuality; so that, by that account, the whole of my published fiction should be the single-handed product of some Brownie, some Familiar, some unseen collaborator, whom I keep locked in a back garret, while I get all the praise and he but a share (which I cannot prevent him getting) of the pudding. I am an excellent adviser, something like Molière’s servant. I pull back and I cut down; and I dress the whole in the best words and sentences that I can find and make; I hold the pen, too; and I do the sitting at the table, which is about the worst of it; and when all is done, I make up the manuscript and pay for the registration; so that, on the whole, I have some claim to share, though not so largely as I do, in the profits of our common enterprise."
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act V, Scene 1
"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends"
"Your body is your subconscious mind." - Candace Pert MD
"Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flame." - Mevlana Rumi
"Run my dear from anyone and anything that does not strengthen your precious budding wings." - Hafiz
"Better games would empty entire wings o' (our) mental hospitals." - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form...perhaps the most common form...of its innate violence." - Thomas Merton
"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. " - Maya Angelou
"What does your heart tell you?" - Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau
"The heart's deepest purpose is to balance." - James Burgess
"The heart's memory is stronger than death; the mind's memory is not." - Steven Forrest
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
"Any extreme suggests the opposite." - John Heider, The Tao of Leadership
"Why worry? What is meant for you is always meant to find you." - Lalleshwari
"So far no one has succeeded in singing an epic of peace. What is it about peace that keeps its inspiration from enduring?" - Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire
"...devoted discipline and grace will bring ye knowin's and powers everywhere, in all your life, in all your works if they're good works, in all your loves if they're good loves." - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
"The grace of God is a wind that is always blowing." - Sri Ramakrishna Math
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost
"Stand at the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way lies, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls." - Jeremiah 6:16
At the end of his life, Sigmund Freud said "Thank God I'm not a Freudian." - (a willingness to grow, evolve and change)
"The fish will be the last to discover water." - Albert Einstein
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"It's worth a nickel if I say it, a dime if YOU do." - John Heider (meaning insights we discover about ourselves from within are almost always more potent than when pointed out to us by others.)
"To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven." - Ecclesiastes 3:1
"I can't see you but I know you're here. I feel it." - Peter Falk in Wings of Desire
Thoughts on Invisible Helpers - Robert Louis Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams "My Brownies" (Scottish name for nature spirits who work only for the joy of it), "God bless them! who do one-half my work for me while I am fast asleep, and in all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well, when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do it for myself. That part which is done while I am sleeping is the Brownies’ part beyond contention; but that which is done when I am up and about is by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies have a hand in it even then. Here is a doubt that much concerns my conscience. For myself—what I call I, my conscious ego, the denizen of the pineal gland unless he has changed his residence since Descartes, the man with the conscience and the variable bank-account, the man with the hat and the boots, and the privilege of voting and not carrying his candidate at the general elections—I am sometimes tempted to suppose is no story-teller at all, but a creature as matter of fact as any cheesemonger or any cheese, and a realist bemired up to the ears in actuality; so that, by that account, the whole of my published fiction should be the single-handed product of some Brownie, some Familiar, some unseen collaborator, whom I keep locked in a back garret, while I get all the praise and he but a share (which I cannot prevent him getting) of the pudding. I am an excellent adviser, something like Molière’s servant. I pull back and I cut down; and I dress the whole in the best words and sentences that I can find and make; I hold the pen, too; and I do the sitting at the table, which is about the worst of it; and when all is done, I make up the manuscript and pay for the registration; so that, on the whole, I have some claim to share, though not so largely as I do, in the profits of our common enterprise."
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act V, Scene 1
"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends"
"Autobiography in Five Short Chapters"
Beliefs, Values & Assumptions
* Peace and personal growth can be fun 😊
* In this fast-paced-digital age, slowing down and tuning in to the body is needed more than ever.
* The body has a wisdom and memory all its own.
* The body is the "side door" to the deeper self.
* Mindfulness; non-violence; spirit-mind-body holism; unity, organicity, loving presence. - Hakomi principles and practices
* Relaxation, breath, slowing down and a willingness to turn inward and feel - my personal values
* Our unique holistic processes can help bring more of you to life and free up energy from what Robert Bly called "the long bag we drag behind us."
* You can learn more with the body - from the ground up - than just the head and the neck up.
* Our world has a left brain, intellectual, high speed "hare" bias, and typically neglects our "tortoise" side - our slower, deeper feeling/sensation right brain.
* Youth is organically more in "hare" mode, so introducing "tortoise"-like activities to children and young adults is enhanced by alternating it with fun and faster "hare" activities.
* In the LONG run, the slow and steady tortoise wins the race.
* People are generally starved for deeper breathing and right-brain phenomena.
* The inner life is just as important as the outer.
* When it comes to the inner life, safety first, and better safe than sorry.
* In a safe container, relaxed fluid movement, breath and a willingness to slow down and feel can reconnect left brain and right brain, mind and body, muscle memory and heart.
* The better the container, the deeper you can go.
* There are rhythms and other subtle forces in life, and catching the wave at the opportune moment can make all the difference.
* Most people aren't low on energy, it's primarily constricted.
* There are a hundred steps down the ladder of consciousness, and we commonly only access the top few.
* Similar to the difference between the rising energy of male and the sinking energy of female, there's a difference between spirit work (up and out) and soul work (down and in).
* In this fast-paced-digital age, slowing down and tuning in to the body is needed more than ever.
* The body has a wisdom and memory all its own.
* The body is the "side door" to the deeper self.
* Mindfulness; non-violence; spirit-mind-body holism; unity, organicity, loving presence. - Hakomi principles and practices
* Relaxation, breath, slowing down and a willingness to turn inward and feel - my personal values
* Our unique holistic processes can help bring more of you to life and free up energy from what Robert Bly called "the long bag we drag behind us."
* You can learn more with the body - from the ground up - than just the head and the neck up.
* Our world has a left brain, intellectual, high speed "hare" bias, and typically neglects our "tortoise" side - our slower, deeper feeling/sensation right brain.
* Youth is organically more in "hare" mode, so introducing "tortoise"-like activities to children and young adults is enhanced by alternating it with fun and faster "hare" activities.
* In the LONG run, the slow and steady tortoise wins the race.
* People are generally starved for deeper breathing and right-brain phenomena.
* The inner life is just as important as the outer.
* When it comes to the inner life, safety first, and better safe than sorry.
* In a safe container, relaxed fluid movement, breath and a willingness to slow down and feel can reconnect left brain and right brain, mind and body, muscle memory and heart.
* The better the container, the deeper you can go.
* There are rhythms and other subtle forces in life, and catching the wave at the opportune moment can make all the difference.
* Most people aren't low on energy, it's primarily constricted.
* There are a hundred steps down the ladder of consciousness, and we commonly only access the top few.
* Similar to the difference between the rising energy of male and the sinking energy of female, there's a difference between spirit work (up and out) and soul work (down and in).