A Physical Pose for Your Steady Persona

Even when you're feeling insecure or life is "rocking the boat," your Steady Persona, or the part of you that always remains firm amidst the turmoil, stands on that boat straight and tall and seems to find the perfect amount of gravity to keep a perfect balance.

When you're feeling unsteady in life it's important to reintroduce yourself to your Steady Persona. To reacquaint yourself with her practice a simple physical pose that focuses on grounding the femur bones.

What? Ground the femur bones? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

You'll see many proficient yogis ground their femur bones (Note: It may take someone a year or several years to do this proficiently. It does not always come easy!) They do this in a forward fold position. The hips must be centered over the feet in a true forward fold. The knees may bend as much as necessary. The four corners of each foot must be in comfortable contact with the ground.

Now....Ground the Femurs!
To ground the femurs, which are the large thigh bones, flex the quadriceps up and move the front of the thighs (also the quadriceps) into the back of the thighs. When this happens you may feel a slight tilt upwards of the sit bones and your low back may become slightly more concave (arched). At this point you may also feel (and this is what we're going for) a push of the calf muscles downward into the feet and a push of the feet downward into the ground. This downward motion provides a deep grounded feeling which will put you back in touch with your Steady Persona.

Work with a Teacher or Use a Prop Such as a Small Ball to Help
You may need to work with a teacher a few times before mastering this sensation. One thing that helps is to place a ball or a yoga block between the inner thighs and press in on the prop and press it slightly back as you perform the forward fold. This should help you to automatically lift the thighs up and back.

Start holding this pose for one minute and then work up to a longer amount of time. Ideally, to achieve steady results and reacquaint yourself with your Steady Persona you should hold the pose for at least two minutes (no longer than five) and breathe steadily making your exhale twice as long as your inhale.

As always, consider doing something spiritually or mentally steady to really support your Steady Persona from a deeper level. If your Steady Persona needs to lead one of your current projects you will need to support her on multiple levels.....not the physical alone.

[[[[WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE THE EFFECTS AND BENEFITS OF GROUNDING THE FEMUR BONES]]]

Disney's Movie "Inside Out" - Taking the Lead with the Right Persona

I watched Disney's "Inside Out" last night for the first time. I was enchanted by the movie. As per Pixar's "usual" the amount of observation and creativity that went into the making of the film are outstanding and clever.

The basic concepts of the film reminded me of my own program, The Personified Physique, because it focuses on the varying aspects of one person.

It also reminded me how important it is to decide which persona (or emotion in the case of "Inside Out") will take the lead on a project. Sometimes "Joy" needs to be in charge and sometimes "Sadness" is best at leading the way.

At the end of the movie all of the emotions get a place at the control panel together and I like that metaphor as well. As we come to accept all of our emotions we become more whole ourselves.

A Sense of Lightness

Today is Thanksgiving and I'm counting my blessings. I'm even trying to count the disappointments in life as special blessings. Today for example I've been thinking about a continual sense of heaviness that I've carried for a good deal of my life and how I can count it as a blessing.

Yes, I've struggled with weight loss to some degree but mostly the sense of heaviness has been a spiritual burden. I've realized though that a sense of lightness is more or less free. To feel light and free all you need to do is recognize the insignificance of most burdens. As the saying goes "choose your battles," and I would add "choose your burdens."

It may be uncomfortable to quit a job that offers no joy but in the long run and perhaps even in the short run it will be worth it because it, like most jobs without love, are insignificant except to teach us what is significant.

I remember one of the initial scenes in the movie "Wild" starring Reese Witherspoon. In the scene, her character is in her motel room packing a large hiking pack. To make the process easier she straps the large backpack on while lying down but when it's time to stand up she can't do it! I feel like life is similar....some of us for reasons I still don't understand choose to carry many burdens, and must learn sooner or later the lesson of "letting go" and the lesson of holding onto the things that are most valuable and hopefully not too heavy.

How to Change Yourself: A Focus on Viewpoints Through a Persona's Eye

Even though I don't really believe we can truly change ourselves at the deepest level of our beings I do believe most of us have, since a young age, disguised ourselves and hidden ourselves so well that when our true selves do come out from time to time even we are surprised. Once in a while, for example, I'll have this incredibly happy, dramatic and sparkly little personality just burst out of me which is always a surprise after more than a decade and a half of corporate life, depression, physical sickness, etc.

It would seem that those who have learned to change in the most dramatic ways and in the least amount of time are aware of a few little "secrets."

Here's a few of these secrets:

1) The kind of change you want the most doesn't happen because other people change you.
2) The kind of change you want the most doesn't happen because you change other people.
3) The kind of change you want the most doesn't happen (at least not completely) because you start to change your habits.
4) The kind of change you want the most does't happen (at least not completely) because you change your environment.
5) The kind of change you want the most happens when you decide who you want to let into your life based on your own boundaries, when you change your habits, when you change your environment AND when you change your viewpoint of everything around you (including yourself, your environment and other people around you).

As I have mentioned earlier in this entry I have struggled with depression. I've not always known how to "deal" with depression. I've seen counselors, I've done meditations, I've seen depression as a symbolic representation of the need to try something new and I've done breathing exercises. All of these things were helpful to some degree (except for breathing which is helpful to a HUGE degree! Hah!)

Anyway, besides the things I've already mentioned something else that can be valuable is to visualize a persona. This can be a persona outside of you but I like even more to picture a persona with me that is the "Happy Marci Persona." This "Happy Persona" definitely isn't leading my life when my "Depressed Persona" is but I like to remember what my Happy Persona looks like, what she likes to do and that she CAN be a lead in my life......that it's a possibility. I may not always know how to get her in the lead but I know it's possible. I know it's possible because I can imagine her in the lead of the very circumstances I'm currently living and how things could be different.

Imagining a different persona in the lead of your life doesn't mean you are devaluing your "Depressed Persona." Negative Personas can teach us many wonderful lessons but let's face it.....many of us do want to move toward the positive and if that is your goal try creating an imagination (which is just a different kind of virtual reality) of the possibility of how your life could be different and then if you like what you see then continue to see your counselors, do your meditations, change your environment and do whatever else you like!

Think of change as something that is already there (like the wind) and all that you can do is 1) change your viewpoint of the wind from enemy to catalyst and use the right tools to 2) protect yourself from it by imprisoning yourself or by building windmills or flying machines.

You are free to be you!

How to Diffuse Negative Emotion

As you continue to develop your personas with the Personified Physique method you'll probably notice that negative emotions will surface. These negative emotions often surface 1) because we are trying to move in positive directions and are getting negative feedback and 2) because we are triggered by old patterns which annoy the hell out of us. (Nobody likes a habit they can't seem to give up especially when they are trying to improve their lives.)

Many times we will be triggered by people who we do or do not know well. Often times these triggers will result in feelings of negative emotions. The Personified Physique offers methods for talking to our negative personas to look at the negative emotion from a positive perspective (so we keep moving in a positive direction) but how do we deal with the people themselves?

When people trigger us and we feel negatively about the triggers sometimes we act negatively toward those people but that rarely works well for us since the trigger is about us and not them. So, the next time someone triggers you and you feel negative feelings surface try taking two inhales and two exhales (before reacting) and then try saying the following to that person:

1. I can understand why you feel/think that way. I see the situation a bit differently...would you be interested in hearing it?
2. I can see your point of view. My point of view differs somewhat....would you be interested in hearing it?
3. Thank you for sharing your real thoughts with me. I appreciate your sincerity. My thoughts differ somewhat. Would you like to hear them?
4. What I hear you saying to me is [SUMMARIZE WHAT THEY ARE SAYING] and I can see that you feel [SUMMARIZE THE EMOTIONS THEY SEEM TO BE FEELING]. Would you say I am understanding the situation correctly?

You may feel that it's difficult to see another person's point of view when you try these tips. If you can't authentically see another person's point of view it is very difficult to communicate. If you would like some tips on learning how to see from the point of view of another person try reading this article on "Learning to See a Situation from Someone Else's Perspective."

Personas Outside of Us

One of the valuable things about the Personified Physique is---of course---the concepts of personas. Personas help us to visualize something that we want to develop in ourselves. If we want to be a smarter person we can get clues from those who are the Smart Personas. How do they walk? What is their daily routine? What do they read? Etc.

I've noticed that often it's the people we admire the most who have the characteristics that we want to develop in ourselves the most.

I for example really love Shakira. She reminds me of myself somehow. Most people who know me would never say that the sexy, wild, chest-popping Shakira is anything like me but that's the key. I know deep down that my sexy, wild and chest-popping personas are there.....but how do I bring them out in a way that works for me?



This is really what the Personified Physique is all about.....observing the personas we admire and learning to be self-aware enough to bring those qualities out in ourselves with the talents that we already possess.

Oxymorons

Oxymorons are the strangest things. Here are some examples:

*difficult simplicity
*peaceful warrior
*truthful liar
*thin fat
*crazy sanity

These word pairs aren't supposed to make sense but when you think about them they really do.

I've been thinking about the first word pair above, namely, "difficult simplicity." I've realized how complex it can be to make things simple. The more I try to make the Personified Physique a simple program the more I get caught in complexities and sometimes I just throw up my hands in frustration.

But I guess The Beatles had a point because when I "let it be" and go do something else sometimes I'll have these thoughts come to mind and then I realize "Oh yeah! The Personified Physique is really easy. Just describe it like this. Just do it like this.

But even though it is easy.....getting to the easy point always seems quite difficult.

Oxymoron.