I wrote a blog post with the following paragraphs that I want to highlight and bring attention to. It is in an article on aging. Through the experience of working with an age range focused on the interconnectedness of mental, emotional and physical behaviours with the intent to increase functions this topic plays out in one’s abilities for tolerance and flexibility. When people age it is presented in one’s appearance to those who have a trained eye.
Here goes:
What makes a common person an authority I wonder. It demonstrated their limited worldview and yetthese people would normally consider themselves fair-minded, non-judgemental, non-racist, ​and societal leaders in the community through their careers and interests. These outbursts on someone else’s character due to the comparisons destroyed the self-image they were portraying in their communities.
This is an experience ​I have in real-time with real interactions in a state of being conscious of it while it is actively being enacted out. I can choose to disengage fully and pull energy back or engage on some level of connection between the​s​e ​stages in states of aloofness or full-on engagement. As a healer, teacher, coach and mentor I have learned to become selective in whom I engage with and the effort I put in. It has become an inner sensing of whether the interactive experience will be life-enriching or life-draining. My objective is to cultivate awareness and learning opportunities so I usually choose to move away from life-draining conditions when there is no opening for change. When there is an openness for change the effort is stimulating and enhances life, however, when there’s a lack of openness based upon corrupt and hidden views and actions the effort carries a struggle that creates diseased thinking, emotions, bodies and spirituality (cults).
As a somatic and empathic practitioner, teacher, coach and mentor some patterns have shown themselves over 25 years that are relevant to include in the cultural soup for consideration and future development. These have my unique perspective as they mirror the dominant somatic, empathic heart-centered filter I have for interpreting incoming information of environmental stimuli.
This perspective has been a focus of attention in the integrative studies in learning groups and sessions. It is a topic that will be featured more in-depth through the mentoring programs @ Inside Awareness and in conversations and articles. Subscribe to stay InTouch and connect to new material and opportunities, or follow Renee on social media. Hit like if you enjoy content.
Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, and Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America. Feldenkrais Method®
Here are a few points that are relevant to this year’s experience. So much so that I thought I would bring attention to them. So let’s get started.
The number 8 in numerology reflects a cycle of balance as in the infinity symbol. It contains both spirituality and the materialistic states of being.
The number 8 is associated with the stability between the material and immaterial worlds.
I wrote:
For this writer, coach and mentor, the numerology of 2024 reflects the fame and recognition area of the Nine Life Areas grid. I expect that the ego will be a bigger influence in 2025 as the spiritual and material worlds balance. There may be an opportunity in this energy to balance out the dominant outside ego focus with a more correct inner use of ego. Incorrect use of ego creates conflict and disconnection that can be destructive to self and others. Correct use of ego creates self-confidence and power in one’s world that contributes to self and others productively and abundantly. This writer believes that one’s connection with values is the correct use of ego.
The life area of fame and recognition can be constructive or destructive.
When I read this I thought how relevant it was to the major events we have experienced this year that are still happening in the world ego-related.
At the beginning of September, I shared that 2025 is a number 9 in numerology in a post. I suggest 9 brings prosperity, happiness, and good luck in life. With this in mind, I wrote:
For this writer, coach, and mentor 2025 numerology reflects the wealth area of the Nine Life Areas grid. The wealth corner of the nine life areas reflects abundance for this writer. Abundance is a state of being reflecting qualities of character and life balance. It is the shift of transitioning into a lifestyle of living a life through gratitude and appreciation. Number nine reflects a completion and a new beginning, not an ending. It’s a transformative time from greed into one of living in abundance. An abundant life is one with equal giving and receiving.
In late September ’24 I posted this suggestion on my social media pages:
This suggestion is to reflect on this before the current calendar New Moon on October 2nd this Full Moon Phase is associated with clearing clutter in preparation for considering goals for 2025. Instead of cleaning the house or the office, clear the mind.
This perspective has been a focus of attention in the integrative studies in learning groups and sessions. It is a topic that will be featured more in-depth through the mentoring programs @ Inside Awareness and in conversations and articles. Subscribe to stay InTouch and connect to new material and opportunities, or follow Renee on social media. Hit like if you enjoy content.
Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, and Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America. Feldenkrais Method®
Health & Wellness, Knowledge & Learning, Wealth & Abundance, Fame & Recognition, Relationships, Past, Future, Community, Career
Aging Neck from weight loss Deep Line’s in Forehead from Squinting
Starting off using myself as a model for reverse aging using natural self-care techniques
Last year an aging celebrity had plastic surgery and when she came out into the mainstream she received harsh backlash that was based on people’s opinions, beliefs and perspectives. This does not normally trigger me to respond however I experienced people I knew in my community who objectified her with their criticisms based upon diagnosing and assessing a person they did not know personally. They had no grasp of that person’s process and need to make the decisions they did. Rather they focused on comparing themselves to that celebrity. The only problem is that they did not have a comparable life experience. They were speaking to their limited belief system and life experience.
I had been considering delving into aging as a topic and resource for teaching using career experience that encompasses behaviour from early childhood through aging into the dying process, and my aging process. The surprise of this trigger was the incentive to act on it and begin to engage with it through the energy of learning and education. This first-hand experience is partnered with decades of providing educational programs in local community centers with ranges in the age of participants, yet dominantly focused on seniors.
While engaging in these community centers I eventually began to recognize the learning opportunities it provided in the exact process I am interested in exploring. I would not have labeled this interest as aging yet it appears so.
In the criticism of the celebrity I opened this post with what I observed based upon my life exploration of somatic movement, appearance, process and response is a lack of full understanding of themselves. ​They were misinformed in drawing their conclusions. Let me share what this means for me​ starting by writing that my intention is for educational purposes only. Also, I am older than those who criticized this celebrity and look ten years younger than them. I believe it is in the lifestyle choices I have made as​ if I hadn’t made the choices I did I would look differently due to a difficult life beyond the normal range of experience. It is a personal choice and free will. I have not altered my appearance in any way other than using a range of self-care techniques.  ​What I have learned from empathy coaching and teaching is that care is a step that is not taken by many. Admittedly it’s zero for zero of those seeking support from me in all age ranges​ over the experience of the past 24 years.  It’s a missing critical step in mental and emotional health and well-being not just the physical.
As people age their inner process is reflected in their appearance, thought processes, abilities and belief systems. Aging in this explanation begins in early childhood, yet evidence of it in later years cannot be disguised like it can in younger years. It is observable in physical appearance and recognizable to a trained eye, however, it also shows up in the patterns of speech through the selection of words that mimic the belief systems of self and others. The word choices one hears someone say outs them. It exposes their true nature and intention. They are indicators of how people perceive the world such as status and where they place themselves and others on it in terms of having value. Generational conditioning may have left them with a belief system mirroring that scale of importance and categorized value assessment that compares self with others which is isolating and a separation from reality.Â
If not generational conditioning, another source of influence is current societal trends such as in reality TV.​  If one researches the first reality TV shows it demonstrates the creation of false reality and the resulting corruption such as in ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8’. Many years later stories of abuse are surfacing and the corruption that was taking place behind the scenes. I never watched any reality TV or games due to being a dominant somatic and empathetic experiencer in the world, I need realism. Realism defined by qualities of authenticity and integrity, neither of which can be identifiable in these reality and game shows.Â
​Another example of objectification that goes beyond a shift in appearance into devaluation of humanity in men, women, and children of all colours having a current global impact is that of the imprisonment of Sean Combs. The false illusion of status he projected is being unveiled which has shone a light on other people who have assumed positions of grandeur, power, and control.  It is the same position of authority as those had over the celebrity who changed their appearance. It’s the same origins of the assumption of having authority. One is through individual comparisons, and recent facts emerging of Sean Combs and how he used people’s bodies, minds and creative material for personal gain. Each scenario is for personal gain to feel better about themselves. Â
When the celebrity came out after surgery that altered their appearance those who spoke out against her character did so without a complete circle of understanding themselves and the person they were morally judging. These criticisms came from comparing themselves to that person and they spoke from that one-sided position​ of authority.Â
What makes a common person an authority I wonder. It demonstrated their limited worldview and yetthese people would normally consider themselves fair-minded, non-judgemental, non-racist, ​and societal leaders in the community through their careers and interests. These outbursts on someone else’s character due to the comparisons destroyed the self-image they were portraying in their communities.
This is an experience ​I have in real-time with real interactions in a state of being conscious of it while it is actively being enacted out. I can choose to disengage fully and pull energy back or engage on some level of connection between the​s​e ​stages in states of aloofness or full-on engagement. As a healer, teacher, coach and mentor I have learned to become selective in whom I engage with and the effort I put in. It has become an inner sensing of whether the interactive experience will be life-enriching or life-draining. My objective is to cultivate awareness and learning opportunities I usually choose to move away from life-draining conditions when there is no opening for change. When there is an openness for change the effort is stimulating and enhances life, however when there’s a lack of openness based upon corrupt and hidden views and actions the effort carries a struggle that creates diseased thinking, emotions, bodies and spirituality (cults).
Sean Comb’s community put themselves into false categories of power underneath him and over him. If you look at those with presumptive backgrounds​ of power you will learn they have no discernable status going back one or two generations. It’s one family member’s good luck or hard work building using their character and skills that is nontransferable yet has conditioned future generations into false beliefs of themselves.
Anyone who attacks another person through words and actions, in the light or the dark, lacks self-esteem, self-confidence, skill sets, maturity and finesse. Their life may be a pursuit of trying to fill the void of loneliness, love and self-love, connection and self-connection, beauty and inner beauty, peace and inner peace, confidence from within that is courageous and outwardly to take right action and more. This imbalance that creates a void has the potential pattern for acquiring things, people, status and lustful deceit to manipulate. It lacks the inner sense of abundance. I witness a lack of connection to the value and quality they place in their acquisitions in these circumstances. There is a disconnect and this is the point that corruption can enter.
Imagine perceiving people and community groups with the ability to sense the scale of self-connection they have to inherent characteristics that have been beaten out of them by social conditioning that they have never acknowledged or pursued to change through their own volition. Rather they continue to make others enemies​ and blame and shame them instead of taking accountability for their lack of action or reactions. ​I connect to that level of perception in people, places and things. Then I am faced with choosing to assimilate into it or pull back. Learning this skill of pulling back opened me to a deeper skill set in observing the long-term effects of behaviour that defines or describes one’s aging process. Â
This is the clarity that I have committed to focus attention on for demystifying the aging process and cutting through the spiritual materialisms of the ego-minded and unprofessional analysis of other people’s choices.
I have been testing this out on my personal Facebook page, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok. You can subscribe to my website or these other social media sites to follow along on the aging journey that will focus on health and well-being for aging. It is a subcategory of Health and Wellness. It influences all life areas in one’s interactive lifestyle.
Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America. Feldenkrais Method®
Integrating abundance through felt senses of luxury deepens self-connection
A beautiful facial for softening and tightening skin, and reducing wrinkles. Reverse aging technique is a lovely way to reduce stress and connect with the self—a mindful moment. Origins activity for tapping into the Divine Feminine.
Somatic Perception & Empathy Responses
This writer has dominant senses of perception in the high range of somatic integration and empathic responses, therefore self-connection activities are high on the list to remain balanced and aligned with inner qualities for experiencing life through the lens of it as an opportunity and quest, and not a burden.
Somatic touch enhancing the Origins of the Devine Feminine
Facials from the pantry are activities at home therefore they are personal and private moments to become mindful of one’s own felt touch and sensation. Going to a salon or retreat is an outwardly focused action and lends itself to a different experience and need. For someone who experiences and expresses the world somatically going to a salon means taking in all the environmental stimuli and qualities of the providers and experiencing their levels of consciousness. While it may meet other’s active needs for being cared for by others and for community connections, for this writer it is a distraction to her current needs of peace and harmony. It also meets a personal intention that became a concrete goal in 2022. This goal was to tap into divine feminine qualities and express them from an integrated experience versus a false self-image of societal interpretations. Sensuality can be expressed authentically through exploring personal self-connecting activities that create this quality. The unique benefit of this personal exploration is that as a connection is made to the felt sensuality this expression expands into one’s relationships in a more empathetic way. It also increases the unspoken communication between primary partnerships that support a peaceful and harmonious approach to intimacy and connection replacing the mundane to-do list and ticking off the boxes and expressing achievement before vulnerable intimacy. Vulnerable intimacy is from the inside in one’s origins of health and well-being and not from a partner’s social status and finances. They are two separate life areas. The focus on the to-do list and achievement are conversations and cultural conditioning agreements better had before getting in the environmental felt sense stimuli for potential between the sheets. At least from a divine feminine perspective. The integral divine feminine qualities come from inside origins, not from a masculine. A masculine will enhance the feminine qualities through their contributions, they are not the source of it. A masculine will be an environmental stimulus to the integrity of a divine feminine’s qualities and it’s expressed authenticity.
Core Origins of Health & Wellness
The higher knowledge of a Feldenkrais Practitioner is that one’s health and wellness aligns with an inner self-image and the lack of mental, emotional and physical health is aligned with a focus on outside influences and definitions of self-image concepts.
Essential Connections with Actions Taken
A facial recipe from the pantry can increase the quality of connection. An example is in cooking from scratch. This experience is integrative and will shift the inner experience differently than if preheating a frozen meal. One is deepening the human and ethos connection through the activity, the other is meeting a need that lacks mindful functional integration of mind, body and emotions. It’s missing the process of slowing down through bringing a recipe together that stimulates a somatic integrative experience with active mindfulness of the ingredients, touch and movement of the hands, to mouth, chewing and swallowing. Precooked or takeout is a strategy for ease. It is this writer’s opinion it’s perceived ease. It meets a need to satisfy hunger while not being distracted from another activity. Running to the store for pre-made, or ordering in, is a time waster which takes effort and is more costly, mentally, emotionally, physically and financially. It also lacks ethos. Going out for facials is also a strategy to meet a need where there is no personal investment other than time, money and effort. However, it does meet a need. Not everyone is looking for a deepened self-connection. People need distraction to take their minds off of their environmental conditioning in the moment This writer has dominant senses of perception in the high range of somatic integration and empathic responses, therefore self-connection activities are high on the list to remain balanced and aligned with inner qualities for experiencing life through the lens of it as an opportunity and quest, and not a burden.
Yesterday I introduced a theme that compared food choices that mimics the same effects of Ozempic. Ozempic is a current trend for weight loss. It has some sister pharmaceuticals that mimic the results. It is an expensive pharmaceutical that eliminates the person’s appetite. Someone injects themselves in the tummy about once a month and afterward experiences a complete loss of appetite and I am told this includes interest in food.
As an empathic practitioner focusing on behaviour, I notice that people absorb Ozempic-type products as a strategy, and that it is not only their appetite that is altered. There are observable appearances in one’s physical expressions and emotional behaviours. The physical expression and the emotional behaviours filter one’s thoughts. Thinking shifts under any influence. Influences are environmental stimuli. This includes healthy foods. These are an environmental influence on physical, mental and emotional function. Someone taking Ozempic-type products is someone wanting ‘rewards without effort,’ and they are unaware of the full range of influences altering their experiences.
In this post, the phrase ‘rewards without efforts,’ means one is turning a faucet off, rather than retraining their brain function and physical, mental and emotional behaviours. It just shuts down eating. This means it is also shutting a function down. It just happens to be a function that feeds all functions needed to experience the ultimate potential for optimum function. From my perspective only, it is reducing mental health and wellbeing and will have long-term effects. One that is immediate as their is no nutritional values to function. The second is that it will have the same physiological type behaviours that long-term addictions have. It will be another addiction to detox from. Only one will be rapidly gaining the weight back as there have been no conscious, unconscious and subconscious shifts in behaviours. The only change has been a strategy injected into the body to turn a switch off.
Since writing this I did meet s student who is using Ozempic responsibility.
During Functional Integrations with students, (Awareness through Movement one-on-one) I would become aware of their nutritional lacks. It was evident in their physical, mental and emotional behaviours. This is where the phrase, ‘the brain is lazy,’ made a big impact. Students would disclose having many supplements and capsules of the nutrition they needed, yet didn’t have the focus to make the effort to take the lids off and take them each day. They may for 2 or 3 days then forget them and before you know it their cupboard is packed with full bottles. The conversation would become a stalemate as I discovered a nutrient they needed from their story would become a statement like “oh yeah, I have that already”, when I made any suggestions. They had become hoarders of the trend in the moment and yet that trend was sitting in a bottle in the cupboard. It had no functional health benefits. It had become and mental and emotional nightmare though.
I came up with a strategy that changed my life. It was for my student’s benefit, yet it became mine personally. I decided to create a garden of edibles, cultured and wild, leading up to my door they entered. They would walk through a pathway. I hoped the influence would stimulate them through environmental influence. It shifted mine! Some pictures below of the environmental influence along the pathway to the doorway.
As an empathic experience, the biggest disconnect in life has been in those who speak with authority yet have none through experience. It’s all in thought only. As an empath, this is experienced as someone speaking who is disconnected. It is an actual experience. Especially when someone reads a book or watches a program and then is the authority. It is a huge ball of confusion an empath must untangle until they understand it. For this reason, I have chosen not to give advice unless I have done it myself. This meant researching nutrition through natural sources myself first with the garden mentioned previously and with cultures and ferments like kefir, sauerkraut, yogurt, pickling, kombucha and apple cider vinegar, etc. Once again the mind is lazy. It doesn’t want to change. It actually resists it. It will spend time, effort and money on a strategy however not put in the effort to transform the behaviours. I put a lot of effort into supporting these students to try and create a spark from creating samples to try, offering to provide the resources to sharing the benefits I was experiencing. It was a big output of energy however without success. The potential was there yet I discovered the majority of people want to complain about things, yet not do anything to change it. (Consider this on a bigger stage of the global conditioning)
This experiment had an amazing result. Transforming the eating plan by introducing a few foods ignited inspiration and motivation. The only way I can describe it is that some nutrition I was lacking through the new food item transformed my mental, emotional and physical states. This was the connection to the shift in inner self-direction. In the connecting to inner self-direction deepening the motivation to increase and add healthier foods and habits came naturally. It wasn’t a strategy based on authority. It was a natural spontaneous development and action. In other words, it wasn’t a thought or through being told to change. I can only describe it as a growing experience of spontaneous change.
Pictured above are three things I eat daily. Small amounts, yet packed with nutrition. As an empath I do not have an encyclopedia-type mind, therefore I can tell you what organ function I am feeding when eating these foods versus giving you a list of their nutrients that have been memorized. For example, the Brazil Nuts pictured above are for my thyroid. It’s a good source of selenium and I used it as a replacement for the bamboo leaves I was growing. The cranberries are for my urinary tract, kidney and bladder and sesame seeds for my bones. I specify this as when I eat them I want to have the thoughts that focus on what part of the body I am feeding. Why? This is the message I want to brain to receive. This is the message I want my brain to send to those body parts. Many shift their focus to the outside and separate from a deeper connection and receptiveness available in the human function. Science took the focus outside to solutions that mimic the body’s potential abilities. Some empaths do not function in the world’s mainstream this way. I happen to be one of them. I never unlearned to separate from the initial learning pattern of absorbing information. However, you can read here that my mind is very scientific through exploration and receptivity. I have seen advantages of both, exploration and solutions, however, the difference for me is presenting learning patterns for an individual to have free will versus locking in on it as the authority.
Here are Google Coles Notes on these three nutritional foods. I get these in bulk through Amazon. They have been the freshest at reasonable prices and in resealable bags. All food is touched by many sources however when I was in the organic wholesale food business the dried goods would arrive in bulk and be handled only by the packager. I trust that is what is happening with Yupik. The differences with a markets bulk section is that their products are touched by many hands on the way to my table.
Seasonal Foods – Changing over to fall foods @insideawareness Awareness through Foods seasonal food shift pumpkinsoup cayennepepper thyme, cinnamon, ginger
If you can’t view TikTok Video – Please see below for original.
Here on the southern tip of Vancouver Island Fall comes early. This year I noticed it began to shift in the last few days of July! It starts with the foggy haze rolling in during the early hours. For some somatic dominant experiences, this may mean a shift in the focus of attention on food choices that came earlier this year. I have observed that somatic experiencers are inherently more naturally in tune with the shifts in nature. In this little TikTok video clip, the food of choice was a can of pure pumpkin.
Pumpkin is low in calories, heart-friendly and great nutrition. Adding spices like ginger and cinnamon becomes a good choice for watching weight. Both spices are well known for curbing appetite and increasing the body’s metabolic rate to speed up digestion. Cayenne is a well-known spice to increases inner heat and is good for rolling into fall.
The recipe for pumpkin soup using canned pumpkin makes it quick and easy to make. The ingredients are probably ones already in the pantry that include; onions and garlic, plus spices and maple syrup. The recipe called for heavy cream which this writer doesn’t use or have on hand. Many will though. A couple of ingredients this writer added though were mushrooms, nutritional yeast and rice dream. The rice milk was a substitute for the heavy cream and won’t be used in future. It isn’t necessary.
This is a lovely soup for the fall and can be added to any meal or be the center of a meal. It’s seasonal and aligns with the current harvest in nature north of the equator. Along the southern tip of Vancouver Island, it is almost time to see fields of pumpkins emerging as the foliage dies back that once hid them.
In this post, the focus is on the seasonal shift in eating patterns that reflects the cultivating of awareness in the Awareness through Eating patterns here @insideawareness. There is also the dynamics of current food costs. This writer has stopped buying soup at the market due to a reaction to the prices. Pre-covid lockdown cans of soup that were a buck are now $4.00 or more. Each can of soup is being sold as a designer brand however they aren’t. This can of pumpkin was the cost of a can of soup and is far healthier meeting more functional needs in the alignment of body, brain and mind functions that generate emotional responses. This recipe is easy and fast and warms the heart knowing it is packed with ingredients that increase health and wellbeing.
Canned pumpkin on Amazon ranges in price from our local markets. One may want to invest time into getting a raw pumpkin, however there is the time and effort that would go into processing it. The consolation is that it makes more soup that can spread over 2 or 4 meals depending on the number of people. The link to Amazon is below. If you come across more economical pricing, do let us know here @insideawareness – contact. What has been of value for this writer to get from Amazon are Pumpkin Seeds. They are usually cheaper and fresher. Once again if you have insight on a cheaper source than you find fresh drop us a line or connect on social media. YuPik is the brand and size I normally choose. Â
Castor Oil is an old remedy for a variety of alternative self care uses. It has been used for:
Arthritis
Headaches
Menstrual cramps
Labor induction
Joint Pain
Skin Care for Hydration and Elasticity
Skin Care to improve Collagen Production
Skin Care to remove lumps and bumps
Skin Care to remove dark spots
Skin Care to remove lines
Wound Healing
Antibacterial
Anti-fungal
Anti-inflammatory
Hair and Nails Health
Laxative Constipation Remedy
Caster Oil Compresses
Liver Cleansing
Caster Oil is a thick sticky oil that comes from the Ricinus communis plant. When applied topical it is absorbed into the skin. Castor Oil has the deepest absorption depth into the soft tissue making it a popular skin care remedy.
It contains ricinoleic acid which supports its laxative influences. This element stimulates the soft contractions to push out bowel movements.
In the article on combining Caster Oil with Baking Soda I mentioned how it softens the soft tissue around joints and bones to increase the range of motion through micro-movements. This inspired my interest I was motivated further when it began to dissolve skin tags when used as a skin oil for reverse aging effects. The exploration continues however it is reducing fine lines and plumping out larger and deeper ones. .
Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning 