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April-May 2005
Sense Intelligence: Touch and Life New Song by Eve Kodiak Events in Review Looking Ahead Doctor's Corner with Ann Szaur, ND View Musings on the Web You are reading the first issue of Musings, a bi-monthly newsletter focusing on ways of integrating mind and body. Kinesiologist/Musician Eve Kodiak plans to write a new article and song for each issue, and to bring you up-to-date on past and future SOUND INTELLIGENCE events. Doctor's Corner is guest-written by naturopath and child development specialist Ann Szaur, adding a health professional's perspective. In future issues, we'll add a "Letters" and a "The Doctor is In" section, for your comments and questions. If you'd like to continue receiving this newsletter, just sit back and read on! If not, send an email to eve@evekodiak.com, and you will be taken off the list. Sense Intelligence: Touch and Life According to Rudolf Steiner, philosopher/creator of the developmental Waldorf curriculum, the traditional five senses are augmented by seven more. These twelve senses form a developmental progression, mirroring both the seasonal cycle, and the growth of the human being. Springtime brings the first two: the Sense of Touch and the Sense of Life. Walking out my back door in March, I saw a white world. Gradually, bare patches of ground appeared. The stream, visible only as a few dark holes after the last snowfall, became a little torrent, pushing away stones and roots in its path. As the snow melts, it is as if the earth itself begins to experience the touch of spring. And we, in turn, are able to touch the earth, as we walk with our feet and dig into the soil with our hands. The plants, too, come into the world with the sense of touch. The sprout that cracks through the seed casing cannot see or hear, but it can touch! It does not know what dirt is, or gravel, or water; but as it touches these things, it begins to know its world. Babies enter the world through touch. One of the first infant reflexes — active at one week in utero! — is the Touch Reflex. The embryo's first response to experiencing the boundaries of the uterine walls is to move away. But, in the space of a week or so, the embryo begins to move toward this touch. Through this primal touch, we experience the first glimmerings of self-awareness and relationship with others. While touch is one of the familiar five senses, the life sense is new to many. Basically, the life sense gives the organism the information it needs to maintain its health. The sense of life is like the little stream running down the mountain. The rhythm of flowing waters lets us know that our earth is alive, nurturing us and our plant and animal neighbors. Like the earth, we are nurtured by the rhythms of our own life-giving fluids. Our life sense tells us when these rhythms are blocked. We feel logy, sick, unfocused, sore, angry, sad. When we are in touch with our life sense, we know what to do to return ourselves to harmony. A couple of weeks ago, my nine year-old announced, "I need chicken soup!" Although he constantly tells me that he is hungry, I had never heard him us the word "need" in relation to food before — and chicken soup is not a usual request! The next day, he had a fever. His life sense had been speaking to him. In my work with individual clients, I often use the technique of CranioSacral Therapy. This modality is a perfect combination of the touch and life senses. Through a light touch, we read the rhythms of the fluids flowing through the body. We especially track cerebrospinal fluid, which flows from sacrum to cranium, cushioning and feeding the Central Nervous System. Through touch, we can release obstructions in the flow, and restore the system to harmony. Of all my clients, babies are my favorites. They are still completely tuned into their life senses, and "show" me exactly what they need to restore their internal balance. Babies are cosmic instruction manuals and fountains of unconditional love. If we all spent enough time really listening to babies, with hands and hearts, the whole world would change. Eve Kodiak
About the Song and Movements Touch the Ground helps to bring awareness of the Touch and Life Senses. We reach out and touch the limits of our world, feel the movements of the life forces within the world, and "rock the baby," nurturing both ourselves and others. The motion described by word and body is mirrored by the shape of the melody. Movement In Educational Kinesiology, we work with the three axes, or dimensions, of movement: back to front, up and down, side to side. Each of these movements has a different kind of integrating effect. Back-to-front helps us create a basic sense of safety, and engages the will. Top-to-bottom organizes us around our feelings, allowing us to be loving and playful. Side-to-side integrates the thinking capacity, and helps us communicate to others. Moving across the midlines of these three axes helps us to experience ourselves as whole. In Touch the Ground, we move through all three of these dimensions. As we Touch the Ground and sky, we move all the way up and down. As we move our arms in the lemniscate, or "lazy 8" pattern, we integrate side to side. As we turn around, we integrate front to back. Mountain streams actually do flow in lemniscates! This motion aerates and purifies the water. Since we, too, are mostly made of water, moving in these "lazy 8's" has an especially profound effect upon us. We slough off impurities, and become clearer in thinking, feeling, and action. While playing music for children's classes, I have noticed some children start spinning out of the circle — usually counter-clockwise. I see this as motion out of relationship — to the class, to the teacher, even to the physical body. In Touch the Ground, we turn in the slow, clockwise movement of the seasons. The goal is to bring us in to the body, able to relate to ourselves and to others. Rocking the baby is another side-to-side motion (although for the baby being rocked, the rocking is experienced front-to-back — creating a sense of safety). By being fully present ourselves, we can nurture and protect others. And we are reminded of the comfort of being rocked! Music Touch the Ground is built on a pentatonic scale. During the first part of the 1900's, educators Carl Orff, Zoltan Kodaly, and Rudolf Steiner all converged upon this scale as the best way to begin singing with children. This scale contains intervals that are easy to hear and mimic — minor thirds and whole steps — and there are no real dissonances in it. All the notes sound harmonious, in every combination. The words and the motions of Touch the Ground are described in the shape of the melody. On "Touch the Ground," the melodic shape moves downward, and on "Touch the sky," it rises. The tune for the flowing river and the blowing wind has an undulating pattern. The returning motion of seasons and rocking are mirrored in the returning tone groups of the melody. Sound Intelligence™ CD's Books, & DVD's available at evekodiak.com Events in Review Publication: The March 2005 Issue of Brain Gym® Journal includes a new article by Eve Kodiak called High Vibrations and Children's Voices, and a review of Rappin' on the Reflexes by Ann Szaur, ND (guest writer for Doctor's Corner). Check it out! March 19 was my piano debut in "Moving With the Masters," as part of the Manchester Community Music School Family Concert Series. There was great participation from all ages, promenading to Byrd and "driving" a Bach Invention. My personal highlight was playing Scenes from Childhood, as Robert Schumann himself (Gene Faxon in antique morning coat and cravat) narrated the story. Link to MCMS in Manchester, NH: www.mcmusicschool.org March 20 was the spring equinox, and a group balance at the Mariposa Museum. This was notable in that my oldest-ever participant walked through the door — aged ninety-nine! and still full of energy and willingness to grow. There's a picture of us all at www.evekodiak.com, click on Workshops. Link to the Museum in Peterborough, NH: www.mariposamuseum.org April 9 and 10, I was privileged to present at the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association annual conference at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. It was a great weekend of sharing information and music with educators from all over. ECMMA's next conference will be held in San Diego in August 2006, and the local chapter has events in the Boston area year 'round. Watch for a daylong workshop shared by myself, a musician being trained in "Floortime" (a therapeutic modality) and a speech therapist. Link to ECMMA: www.ecmma.org We ended on Sunday with a Libana concert. This transformative group sings and plays and dances women's music from all over the world — and performs all over the world as well! They're celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary with a concert at the Somerville Theatre on April 30. Link to Libana: www.libana.com April 18. Mount St. Mary's School in Manchester was rocking to Rappin' on the Reflexes! Over a hundred 1st - 6th graders came to an assembly to learn integrative raps, songs, and Brain Gym® activities. We ended with everyone — including teachers — "writing" on each other's backs to "X Marks the Spot." It was great to see so many kids working in harmony together. This assembly was part of an ongoing federal grant, working simultaneously on curriculum, study skills, and anger management, through movement. Link: www.mtstmary.org Looking Ahead May 21, 2:45pm, Unitarian Parish Hall, Peterborough, NH. If you missed Moving with the Masters in Manchester, here's a chance to enjoy it — along with an entire day of other performances, parades, and exhibits at Children and the Arts Day! Link to Festival: www.childrenandthearts.org June 19, 3:45 PM, Mariposa Museum, Peterborough NH. Balance for the Summer Solstice . We'll celebrate the longest day by clarifying our intentions, and moving through a kinesiology series called From Fear to Love. For all levels of ability (remember the ninety-nine year-old at the last balance!) Adults and teens only; childcare provided for small fee (but let us know in advance). Museum admission gets you in. Doors lock by 4:15, so arrive on time. Link: www.mariposamuseum.org July 21, 7pm, Four Points Sheraton, Ventura, CA. Dancer Dana Luebke and I are opening for Dr. Paul Dennison's keynote address for the 2005 annual Gathering of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation. Dana will be premiering a piece he's choreographed to a Bach Sarabande — and the audience will get to do an "infant reflex" dance to a Bach Invention. The Gathering includes presentations and movement from practitioners from all over the world. Link to Gathering: www.braingym.org July 28-30. Three days of Eve Kodiak workshops at the Claremont Community Music School in Claremont, CA. One day of music workshops, and two days of Rappin' on the Reflexes. Check evekodiak.com for more details. Link to CCMS: www.claremontmusic.org Bring SOUND INTELLIGENCE™ to your neighborhood! Workshops, residencies, concerts, private sessions. Contact eve@evekodiak.com. Coming Attractions Watch for a July release of Rappin' on the Reflexes: Live! This DVD is from a workshop at the Mariposa Museum, demonstrating all the Rappin' material with an audience. Many people have asked me for songs I've used in workshops that aren't part of Rappin'. These will be out in July as a piano/vocal CD called Feelin' Free.
Toxin Barrels Allergies are not as mysterious as they seem! Our bodies exhibit symptoms of allergy when we absorb too many toxins. Each of our bodies has a "toxin barrel." In this twenty-first century, our toxin barrels quickly fill up with heavy metals, pesticide and herbicide sprays, PCBs, highway fumes and particulates, food additives, and untold numbers of foreign substances inhaled, ingested, and absorbed through our skin. Once its toxin barrel is full, the body wisely tries to heal itself by discarding the gook. Sneezes, watering eyes, coughs, hives, rashes, and abdominal symptoms are some of its tactics. Allergies are more prevalent among fair-complexioned blondes and redheads. We often find "family histories of allergy" among this group, who tend to have smaller toxin barrels than their dark-haired, olive-complexioned neighbors. Stress A largely unrecognized allergic response is hyperactivity. When kids are running around in circles, it's often because toxins have dumped into their nervous systems. Stress can also cause toxin barrels to overflow. Even five minutes of stress — hurrying to work or school, anger at a child or spouse or co-worker, driving in rush hour traffic — produces pure battery acid inside us. High acidity and stress remove myelin, the protective coating made of fats on the nerves. The myelin sheaths on our nerves are like the coverings on electrical wires. When the myelin is missing, our nerves short out. They send incorrect signals, and we tend to get hyperactive, exhausted, or exhibit allergic reactions. All of us, and especially the children in our lives, need to reconstruct our myelin. Food The key to eliminating allergies is detoxifying and alkalizing. Dry skin brushing, exercise, meditating and de-stressing, plenty of alkaline water and green drinks — all of these will take out the toxins and the acids. All vegetables are alkaline, as well as lemons, limes and pink grapefruits. Avoid pasteurized dairy, flour products and sugars, including fruit juices, and hydrogenated oils and food additives. Adding fats, proteins and cholesterol back into our diet helps to draw toxins out that are stored in the fat cells, and re-myelinate the nerves. Choose organic and raw foods, such as butter, coconut oil, avocados, eggs, soaked seeds and honey. Children, especially, are growing the organs, bones, and muscles they will need for life! Healthy fat is essential fuel for developing bodies. Sleep Adults need 7.6 hours of sleep — even those who seem to get by with four or five. Most children need to sleep for ten to twelve hours, if they are to waken spontaneously and feel refreshed in the morning. The hours before midnight are three times more regenerative than the hours after midnight, so getting to sleep early is key. As we empty our toxin barrels, and re-myelinate our nerves, we experience less stress in our lives. Our bodies can repair themselves, and our allergy symptoms begin to disappear. Ann Szaur, ND, M.Ed., is a naturopath specializing in child development and anthroposophical medicine. She practices in California, and is available for phone consultations. She may be reached at 614-477-9272, or on the web at ann@annszaur.com. You are receiving this SOUND INTELLIGENCE newsletter from Eve Kodiak because you have signed a mailing list, bought a book, attended a workshop, or verbally expressed interest! If you prefer not to receive this bi-monthly newsletter, simply send an email asking to be removed. Thank you. | |
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