These are stressful times. The world is changing all around us. There has been divisiveness in our nation and within our communities. The world is still in the grip of a pandemic. How can we cope with all this stress in ways that keep us healthy and sane, especially during the holiday season? Resilience is the ability to adapt to change and to also persevere. [...]
Why would we want to roll back the centuries to what may seem to be primitive times in order to find a spiritual practice? Why not use all the discoveries from neurobiology and contemporary research on the evolutionary stages of adult development to support our search for enlightenment? With Ancient Ritual Postures, the more profound question is: why not integrate both? When I shared my [...]
Body-based Spirituality teaches that our physical bodies empower us in making a direct connection with the spiritual world. We are familiar with practices such as ecstatic dancing, chanting or dervish-style spinning. The Cuyamungue Method, based on the teachings I learned from anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, outlines the steps necessary for our bodies to use Ancient Ritual Postures and experience what Dr. Goodman called the ecstatic trance [...]
The Three Centers of Intelligence, based on our innate structure as human beings, illuminates the Enneagram system. These Centers correspond to what neurobiologists describe as three primary focal areas of the nervous system that extends thoughout the body. Every nerve cell communicates some form of energy and information to other nerve cells through the action of neuropeptides. There are three places in the body where [...]
When I first learned about the Enneagram over 25 years ago, I began my study with forays into magazine articles and then a few workshops. At the time my psychotherapy practice was well established, and it was natural to wonder about my clients’ Enneagram types. When they would tell their stories using phrases right out of my Enneagram books, I was thrilled. Clearly the Enneagram [...]
Meeting Felicitas Goodman, the founder of Ancient Ritual Postures, in the winter of 1984 changed my life. My friend Anita had called one afternoon in January 1984 to tell me she had just had lunch with one of her former yoga students. “She’s Hungarian, an anthropologist, and she plays the violin,” was how Anita described her. Felicitas had just returned from Europe where she had [...]
Everyone wants good relationships but it's complicated. We all want strong relationships, but relationships are complicated. My idea of a good relationship isn’t the same as yours. We each have standards for what a good relationship means. What works for me may not work for you. To some degree, what makes for a good relationship depends on how we see ourselves. Who do we believe [...]
Several years ago I worked with a global consulting firm. One of our offerings included a session with a conductor who demonstrated parallels between an orchestra and leading a corporation. A good leader is like the conductor of an orchestra. The conductor knows the overall piece of music and all the individual parts, but does not play an instrument, providing instead the tempo, balancing the [...]
Beginning at least 36,000 years ago indigenous people around the world were creating works of art in the form of ritual body postures. Think Lascaux Cave and the Venus of Laussel. These images were painted on cave walls, carved in slate, and sculpted in stone. We can see them - along with later totem poles, terracotta effigies, and figures in gold and silver - [...]
Here is a simple ritual with all the basic elements for practicing Ancient Ritual Postures. It is what we call the Cuyamungue Method, named after the Cuyamungue Institute that Felicitas Goodman founded. Using this method you will learn to set up a sacred space, calm your mind and let sound and body position awaken your body’s natural ability to experience a shift in consciousness. You [...]