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Author: Jacqueline Rubinstein

Welcome to our newest practitioner *Eliana Miranda* ~ Health & Wellness Coach

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Welcome to our newest practitioner!

Eliana Miranda, MPH

Multidimensional Wellness
Sessions

Eliana Miranda, MPH,  is a certified health and wellness coach, lifestyle medicine coach, yoga teacher and energy worker. Her study of health began at a young age when she was diagnosed with a chronic auto-immune disease, and has since devoted her life to understanding the dynamic relationship between the mind, body and soul. By immersing herself in various avenues of healing, she cultivates a practice that ebbs and flows with the cyclical patterns of our modern day life. She has come to understand that optimal well-being is achieved by working with the many different aspects of being human, and isn’t subject to simply being free of disease.

With a master’s degree in health promotion and behavioral sciences, an in-depth study of ancient Ayurvedic lifestyle treatments, and an unwavering devotion to teach, learn, and connect with others, Eliana is committed to empowering her clients to be their best selves so they can live their very best lives.

Eliana offers Multidimensional Wellness Sessions: weaving her practice and study with the client’s own goals to create a unique experience that supports their future.

This work is for anyone feeling disconnected, and looking for some intuitive guidance to rediscover their own power to make change…

To feel better in the body: have more energy, feel lighter, or simply come into relation with their physical frame.

To feel freer in the mind: experiencing true happiness, passion, and zest for life.

To understand the greater picture. To define questions, understand why’s, and come into awareness of the greater purpose.

If it is one of these things, or all of these things, this work can help to connect the dots.

In person appointments on Mondays.
Virtual appointments available Tuesday- Friday.

*Free 30 minute consultations available*

To learn more about Eliana’s offerings and to schedule an appointment: https://somaspace.us/practitioners/#eliana-miranda

Touch of Sound Journey 2019

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

January follow up & February introduction

by Ryan McLaughlin, L.Ac.

Our community is expanding!
Thank each and every one of you for your participation and dedication to the evolution of your being through mindful presence, thoughtful inquiry, and embodied exploration. It takes courage to delve into the depths of your internal landscape, and even more courage to acknowledge what you discover. 

January’s Touch of Sound explored the capacity that we have for courage, and the importance of aligning your heart center before taking the initiatory steps towards your goals. We focused our curiosity on the Gallbladder meridian,  getting in touch with the yang energy stirring underneath the Earth’s surface following the winter solstice- Nature’s energy rising. Such hopefulness can come from the returning of the light. Clear perspective coming forth from our eyes, the ability to truly listen with our hearts to the wisdom within, the deep breath of courage that expands from our rib cage- all building our ability to initiate movement from our core, through our hips, down to our feet, taking the first step toward our chosen path.

What are you moving closer to this year?

February 1st, Touch of Sound continues our exploration with the Liver meridian. The wisdom within the Liver meridian teaches us how to persevere through any obstacles in our path, including our own mental game, and continue moving forward toward our goals. The Liver meridian is more about the long-term investment of your energy and the ability to carry out your goals through time, whereas the Gallbladder we spoke of this month speaks the story of initiating movement. 

If you are wanting to connect more deeply with the ability to think strategically, maintain a plan, and take control of your forward trajectory- please, come join us for Touch of Sound on February 1st! Let’s strengthen our ability to stay strong in the face of diversity, and rise up together!

Liver medicine can also help to strengthen our detoxification pathways of our physical bodies in addition to old patterns no longer serving our highest selves. Women have the beautiful opportunity to shed these physical and energetic patterns with their menstrual cycles each month- also governed by the Liver!  Come explore with us!

Touch of Sound is a collaboration of Ryan McLaughlin, L.Ac. and percussionist Benjammin Lee.  Following the art and wisdom of Chinese Cosmology, we invite you to join us for an embodied exploration of the Chinese Medicine organ networks- through acupuncture, percussive sound journey, meditation, song, and movement. We are thrilled to be offering you the opportunity to dive deep with exploration of your inner landscape- the first Friday of every monththroughout 2019! Gifting yourself the space to deepen your relationship with yourself- one organ at a time.  Each month a different organ system and acupuncture channel will be featured, felt, and loved.
2019
January 4th: Gallbladder
February 1st: Liver
March 1st: Lung
April 5th: Large Intestine
April 26th: Stomach
June 7th: Spleen
July 5th: Heart
August 2nd: Small Intestine
September 6th: Bladder
September 27th: Kidney
November 1st: Pericardium
December 6th: Triple Warmer

SomaSpace Movement and Healing Arts Studio
Portland, OR 97232
4050 NE Broadway
7-9pm
$33

Acupuncture in this healing circle will provide opportunity to attune to the present moment through harnessing the stories and wisdom held within the acupuncture channels.  Ryan McLaughlin, L.Ac. will craft a unique treatment for you using pulse diagnosis to inform and open the doorway into supporting your unique constitution align with the energy of the moment.

The room will be filled with the sweet vibrations of Benjammin Lee– an active percussionist in the Portland music scene- as we journey into the exploration within.

To register: https://www.flourishoflifemedicine.com/touch-of-sound

$33 per session.

Discounted packages available for those that wish to pre-register for multiple sessions. Check out the the link above for more details!

E-mail: ryan@flourishoflifemedicine.com with any questions, or to purchase a Touch of Sound discount package!
Please arrive between 7-7:15pm in comfortable clothing.
(*doors will be locked at 7:15pm*).
Upon arrival, there will be a brief intake form and waivers to complete. Sheepskins, blankets, yoga mats, and pillows are provided for you to create your nest of comfort- but you are welcome to bring any items to
maximize your comfort!

7:00-7:15 Arrival, Intake forms completed, Create your nest & settling in.
7:15-7:30 Opening of Healing Circle: movement, meditation, and teachings.
7:30-8:30 Percussive Journey & Group Acupuncture Treatment with
sprinkles of song and teachings
8:30-8:45 Closing of Healing Circle: space for brief journaling and
optional sharing of observations or questions.
8:45-9:00 Tea Time and Community

Join our social media community for further details about each month’s teaching, offerings, and health inspired ponderings! @flourishoflifemedicine

Many Blessings,
Ryan McLaughlin, L.Ac. & Benjammin Lee

.

Flourish of Life Medicine
ryan@flourishoflifemedicine.com
971.220.8839

http://www.flourishoflifemedicine.com

Discounts on Individual Sessions Ryan McLaughlin, L.Ac. are available to all Touch of Sound Community Members! Let’s dive deeper together!

A Big Welcome to our New Practitioner, Drea Lett!

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Welcome to our new practitioner!

Drea Lett
BodyMind Medicine

Somatic inquiry, nutritional support and shamanic healing to assist womyn in recovering from chronic illness while exploring connection to spirituality and consciousness
Drea Lett is a somatic therapy practitioner, Kriya yoga teacher and medical intuitive. Drea holds a baccalaureate in neuroscience and nutrition and a master’s in medical anthropology with a concentration in somatic psychology. Her primary focus is to assist in others in healing from psychosomatic and chronic illness. Her private practice, 5 Element Therapeutics serves as a bridge for individuals seeking transformation in their physical and emotional health as well as helping others deepen their spiritual connection. It is the 16 year culmination of Drea’s study and experience that has its roots in anthropology, narrative medicine, somatic psychology, ecological identity, shamanic tradition, meditation and breathwork. Drea uses her ability as a medical intuitive and channel to guide people along their path toward a reclaimed sense of wholeness.
“My grandmother taught me how to meditate in middle school, something her and my grandfather did two hours each day. My mother implemented nutrition studies at every meal quizzing me about the various vitamins and minerals in the veggies on my plate. Between the two of them, I have followed nutrition, meditation, yoga and wellness studies ever since. I pursued a medical career, but a near death experience from an illness that doctors could not identify altered my course and brought me squarely back to my roots. To fully recover, I called upon nutrition, meditation and shamanic medicine.

I became a medical anthropologist to better understand what makes medicine medicinal so I could help others heal from psychosomatic and stress related illness. The foundation of my practice is to touch the soul of each person and help them restore balance within themselves. I teach yoga and mindfulness to middle school and high school students now and my core message is about embodied communication. Our one job on this earth is to know, love and accept ourselves fully. I believe self mastery is social medicine.

My work is somewhat unique in that I focus on the biopsychic field and channel spirit in every session, but it is important to me that individuals feel supported with grounded, evidence based skills as well. When we suffer from pain, illness, stress and grief it can be difficult to perceive it as an opportunity to become more of ourselves. The only way out of suffering sometimes is getting through it. Lean in and let love lead.”
One on one sessions explore health and wellness concerns that are or have been particularly challenging to treat using standard of care. Chronic fatigue, nutritional depletion, stress and trauma, digestive disorders, grief, sense of place and identity or life transitions are all reasons people seek this work.

It’s Like Coaching: You are 100% responsible for your own power, health and vitality. You do the inner work, ask the tough questions, set the goals and we use time in session to gain perspective.

It’s Like Counseling: You are guided every step of the way and supported in stepping further into your awareness and sense of self. You are gently held accountable for your choices so you can lean in and rise up.

It’s Like Shamanic Healing: You are soul energy projected into a dimension and density that challenges you and helps you grow.

When: Wednesdays, by appointment

A 30 minute free phone consultation is required prior to booking a session

Where: SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232

To learn more about Drea’s offerings and to schedule an appointment: https://somaspace.us/practitioners/#drea-lett

Welcome to our newest practitioner!! *Jane Ellen Garbisch*

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Welcome to our newest practitioner!

Jane Ellen Garbisch, LMT
Therapeutic Massage

Swedish Massage, Esalen Techniques, Hot Stones, Aromatherapy, Reflexology Techniques  Pre-Natal Massage

Jane Ellen Garbisch, LMT, is a licensed massage therapist with professional experience since 1991. She utilizes a wide range of massage techniques, with her specialty based on a style known as Esalen massage, a variation on regular Swedish massage, incorporating long, flowing strokes, firm kneading, pressure point work, all to a nurturing pace and appropriate depth. Her massages are a smooth blend of learned technique and personal attentiveness, integrating and grounding for the whole human being – an approach that makes her an excellent introduction to therapeutic massage for first timers as well as established clients.After earning a Bachelors of Science degree with a double major in Community Health and Environmental Studies, Jane wasn’t finding her true calling until she decided to pursue Therapeutic Massage as her vocation. Growing up in a big family (Jane is the oldest of 8!), sharing love and responsibilities, taking care of each other, and appreciating the strength of the family dynamic, she is a roll-yer-sleeves-up soul with strong work ethics and a passion for healing help.
Jane believes strongly that massage is an important element of a balanced health care regimen and not just a luxury. She has seen her work make a real difference in the lives of her clients over time; helping to reduce stress, migraines, neck and back tension, joint pain; chronic aches as well as acute problems. Incorporating many techniques including the Esalen and Swedish styles, Reflexology techniques, Aromatherapy, Hot Stones, and Pre-Natal Massage, she will customize the massage session to individual client needs.

With caring, nurturing touch, let Jane help you achieve deep relaxation, stress reduction, muscle tension and pain relief – you deserve it!

 

When: Wednesdays and Thursdays, by appointment

Where: SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232

 

To learn more about Jane’s offerings and to schedule an appointment: https://somaspace.us/practitioners/#jane-ellen-garbisch

Moving from Complication to Simplicity

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Guest Blog with Elaine Pendergrast

 

Like many of you, I can barely keep up with the demands of life: my job, a house with three cats, a social circle of long-time friends and neighbors, a large garden with chickens, bees, and a rabbit (okay, so most of you don’t have those), and my own health and well-being. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and find myself standing in the kitchen with no idea of what to do first, as happened a few nights ago.

At times like that, I know I have to prioritize, but in order to do that, I need to be centered and clearheaded. To help me become more present and available, I turn to the tools that have helped me in so many circumstances, those that I gained from my study and practice of Breema.

One of those tools is body-mind connection. As I stood in the kitchen that night,I remembered what I had read a day before in one of the Breema books written by Jon Schreiber, the director of the Breema Center:

“We need a way to come to reality. Breema starts with the body, because it’s the simplest way.”*

I recognized that the thoughts and feelings that were coming and going were based in fears from the past and on an imaginary future, and were paralyzing me, keeping me from seeing what is really needed and taking the required steps.And I had a clear direction: to come out of the mind of ideas—out of worry, preconception, and expectation—and establish body-mind connection. The easiest way to do that is by bringing the mind to actually knowing that the body has weight, and the body is breathing.

I began to shift my weight from side to side, as if doing one of my favorite Self-Breema exercises. As I kept bringing the attention of my mind back to my weight shifting from foot to foot, my thoughts slowed down. As I stayed with the experience of body breathing, my feelings calmed down. The sense of being overwhelmed was still there but faded quite a bit into the background, and as the experience of body-mind connection deepened, I was soon balanced enough to sit down and make a list prioritizing what I needed to do. I had begun to move toward simplicity.

The other Breema tools I use often are the universal principles. Like multiple windows that each provide a unique perspective into a scene, they are simple yet profound guidelines have helped me view events of life or my own state with less identification.

As I went in to the bedroom to get clothes ready for doing the laundry, I kept body-mind connection alive by registering the weight of my body on the floor as each foot stepped across the kitchen and hall. While picking up socks from the floor and putting them in a laundry basket, I remembered the Principle of No Extra. It immediately became clear that all of the anxious thoughts and feelings were “extra,” and that experiencing them drained my energy, when I needed that energy to not only take action toward my real goals but to more fully participate while doing so. Then I remembered No Judgment, and could let go of the self-criticism that was lingering in the background about having been in a state of inertia and having had all that extra. I didn’t need to fix what was imaginary; I just needed to be with how I am, moment by moment.

Throughout the process of gathering clothes and putting them in laundry baskets, I stayed with body-mind connection as often as I could remember: registering my posture as I stretched up and raised my arms to take a blouse off a hanger, and the movement of my hands as I checked the pockets of jeans for items to remove. When worried thoughts came back or I noticed tension increasing, I remembered No Judgment again, and took that as a signal to remain with the process of inhaling and exhaling for as long as I could.

I have practiced coming to body-mind connection and bringing in the Nine Principles for a long time while taking Breema classes as a student, and while teaching classes as an Instructor, to build my familiarity and dexterity with using those tools. Being able to use them to support moving from complication toward simplicity in daily life, so I can be available to what is needed, brings gratitude.

Come join us on Friday, November 2 from 7:00 – 9:00pm at our free Introduction to Breema evening if you’d like to learn more about how Breema can support you in daily life, and to receive a mini-session to get a first-hand taste of the effect of the bodywork. Jon Schreiber, Director of the Breema Center in Oakland, CA, will lead the event and the weekend workshop that follows. For more information, see the SomaSpace events listingor contact Steve Brodsky at 541-914-4162.

* From Breema and the Nine Principles of Harmony.

Why Slow Movements Work!

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

 

I can’t tell you how many times people have said to me, “I had no idea that moving slowly could make such a different!”

In a society that judges worth by productivity, people are constantly urged to do more and push harder. Even when hurt or sick people are taught to push through. The philosophy of ‘no pain, no gain’ is being touted in every arena of life, and yet it’s clear that this mindset isn’t helping with sustainable healing.

So why does slowing down help? Why would I want to roll around on the floor for an hour making small movements?

When you slow down, there is time for something new to happen. When you move quickly and forcefully, the only option is the same old patterns. With speed and pushing, you can only reproduce what you already know. And what you already know isn’t helping you get out of chronic pain or repetitive injuries.

The best way to allow something new in is to slow way down and use your awareness. In this heightened sensing of yourself, and with ample time, you can begin to tease out what it is you are habitually (usually unconsciously) doing and what new more comfortable options are available to you.

In this slower speed, there is time to recognize what is familiar and what is new. There is also time to feel where you are doing extra work out of habit rather than necessity. As you tune in, things are revealed within you and new ways of moving and being emerge.

 

New patterns are the way to sustainable recovery and ease. This class is so powerful because it is not just a temporary reset to your muscles, but rather a way to optimize your daily functioning.

The focus is on functional movement patterns – meaning the things you do a hundred times every day. Through carefully structured sequences, you will gently invite in new ways of moving through the world – walking, sitting, turning, bending, etc., as well as shed light on the old patterns that are no longer serving you.

And the best part is it just takes your focused attention during class time and then your lower brain centers will continue to integrate and use this information without you having to think about it! That means the relief keeps unfolding.

An hour of slow movement with heightened awareness opens the door to easy movement, a calmer inner state, and new possibilities!

There are plenty of times to rush around and be productive. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an hour to be curious, playful, and slow way down for your well-being?!

Come feel the difference for yourself at my upcoming free introductory class on Monday, September 17 at 6:00pm. Or jump right into an upcoming fall class series.

 

Gentle Movement, Profound Relief! with the Feldenkrais Method

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Hello and Happy Summer to You!

Wow, does it really feel like summer now or what?! This hot, hot weather has gotten me jumping in the pool in town and getting out to hike in the cooler air of the mountains. As I jump into summer gear, I am feeling some aches and pains, like rusty hinges needing some fresh oil to get going for the season. Can you relate?

If you could use some oil in your joints, relief in your back and neck, a reset on your hips and shoulders, and general relaxation throughout yourself in order to make the most of your summer, then come check out this class series. Each class is unique and independent, focusing on a functional movement pattern that will provide surprising insight and delicious relief with very little effort!

Gentle, slow movements gives you time to reorganize yourself in an organic, surprisingly easy, and restorative way. All you have to do is show up, lie down on some comfy blankets, and follow along as I guide you through tiny movements that build into an elegant, biologically meaningful sequence, leaving you feeling looser, taller, and ready to play this summer!

I am humbled and delighted each time a student comes up to me after class to share what a difference this method has made in their lives. In the last series, a new student, who is in constant pain from the moment she wakes up until she lies down at night, found ways to have periods of relief. That’s right! She has times with no pain and is better able to manage the pain she experiences. She has tools to quickly reorganize herself from the inside out in a sustainable way that her awareness continues to solidify into her new norm.

Another student has been taking class with me for the last three series, and he has gone from constant, debilitating pain from herniated discs and stressful compensation patterns to knowing how to relieve his pain in an effective, lasting way. He understands more of the connections between different parts of himself and how the overall patterns are contributing to pain, and now has the knowledge and power to disrupt the old patterns and allow something new to come forward. A new way of moving through the world that doesn’t incite the same old difficulties, but rather allows for freedom and ease!

Sounds good, right? Are you ready to feel the difference, too? I can’t wait to hear your story of transformation from this powerful class series! Let’s get started on Friday, June 29!

Healing Chronic Pain:
gentle movement, profound relief

Summer Series: June 29 – August 31
*No class on July 13 and August 17
(In-person & On-line Options)
Fridays, 10:00am-11:00am
SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway St, Portland, Oregon

With slow, gentle, subtle movement, you will discover a profound realm, where you can change the neural pathways of your brain to have more flexible, fluid, and energy-efficient patterns.

This class is for the movement curious, anyone who is ready to expand your ability to feel and know yourself, while feeling more comfortably in your body.

Are you ready to feel better in an efficient way that utilizes tiny movements, minimal energy, and gets big results?!

In these classes, you will be led through gentle, easy movement sequences, that will give your brain the necessary information to start using new movement habits and get out of the old painful patterns. You will leave class feeling lighter, more flexible, and taller. You will have a sensation of effortless – what a relief!

Learn how to utilize the power of your brain to change (neuroplasticity, that is!) through the natural movement patterns of motor development.

No matter your age, your brain is ready to learn and find ease and improvement for you! The work we do together in this class seamlessly integrates into an improved daily life.

Ready to feel the difference?!

Summer Class Series
In-person and On-Line options available

Dates: June 29 – August 31 (No Class July 13 and August 17)
Time: Fridays, 10:00am – 11:00am*
Location: SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232.

*Also, available for on-line subscription ~ you can take this class anywhere, at any time that works for you!

Cost:
Walk-in to any class: $15/drop-in

8-week Summer Class Series (in-person and recordings): $96
To register: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=4QBMEZDSPFTEU
or bring cash, check, or card to the first class this Friday!
(Checks made payable to: Move with Ease)

8-week Summer Class Pass On-line (recordings only): $58
To register: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=EVL44SLBUEBCU

For more info about this class offering: feldenkraisportland.com/healing-chronic-pain/

A big welcome to our newest practitioner, Barbu Panaitescu!

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Welcome to our newest practitioner!
 Barbu Panaitescu, RCST, RYT-700

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy & Yoga
Barbu Panaitescu, RCST, RYT-700, has been practicing and studying mindful movement, somatic awareness and various healing therapies since 2004, when chronic back and knee pain and psycho-spiritual troubles became too serious for him to ignore. Beginning initially with Reiki, shamanic healing and body-based psychotherapy, Barbu began to experience some relief. A deep curiosity and longing to better understand anatomy and neurobiology led him to Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) training with Franklyn Sills, a pioneer in the field, and to this beautiful form of therapy that integrates science, deep empathy and spirituality, as it is based in both osteopathic medicine and universal principles of inter-connectedness.

This is what he offers today, drawing from a well of personal experience that includes three yoga teacher trainings, many hours on the meditation cushion in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Non-Violent Communication and interpersonal neurobiology, mixed with caring and playfulness. He is available for sessions on Wednesdays at Soma Space.

“I continue to challenge myself to grow, heal and develop maturity, engaging in weekly therapeutic work of my own and ongoing craniosacral treatments. I participate in group work and am committed to ongoing training, study and learning opportunities in various healing arts fields. My personal history has turned out to be the perfect background for learning Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, where I have been trained to tune into something called primary respiration, listening to how it expresses and what healing it would like to bring forward in a session.

I bear witness to the process, ask resonant questions of the client, find stillness in myself and something incredible happens – something shifts, something old releases and the body’s life energy is freed up. A calm, yet energized, state of being emerges. Biodynamic work allows both practitioner and client to experience depths of stillness, quietude and peace that can be normally unavailable to us, as well as a sense of expansiveness and connection to universal forces – called in our work the Breath of Life. Thus it is spiritual as well as medical, practical as well as esoteric.”
BCST is performed fully clothed on a massage table and employs light touch and resonant language to help clients drop into deep states of relaxation, support and wholeness. There is no pressure applied to the body so it is useful in times of injury, activation or inflammation. BCST is helpful for chronic pain, anxiety, depression, PTSD, emotional trauma of all kinds, inflammation, auto-immune disorders, insomnia and general discomfort. The biodynamic approach is grounded in something called Primary Respiration, which is the way that the life force expresses a particular breath-like movement through the whole body.

These rhythms, tide-like in nature, show the practitioner the patterns that are held in the body as a result of trauma, injury and difficult life circumstances; they also make the healing decisions that the body is ready for, session by session. Thus the client’s deepest needs for wholeness and well-being are slowly but steadily addressed, in a gentle and powerful way. BCST is recommended as an ongoing therapy-kind of like regularly changing the oil in a car-since it deeply soothes the Central Nervous System, helping to release somato-emotional patterns of stress and shut-down/freeze/dissociation.

Having weekly or bi-weekly sessions for a period of time can completely alter the way a person lives in their body and create a deep sense of well-being. It is also effective as a form of “first aid,” if there is an injury like whiplash, and is an excellent support for pre-and post-surgical procedures.

When: Wednesdays, by appointment

Where: SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232

Session Costs:

Single Session: $75
5 Sessions: $350
10 Sessions: $650

To learn more about Barbu’s offerings and to schedule an appointment: somaspace.us/practitioners

Currently on display ~ our Spring artist, Brenda Carolan!

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

Divined Art
Cocreated with and from my soul

Brenda Carolan

This art showcase is inspired by my journey back to myself as the sacred feminine, and beyond. My medicine is your medicine. As I heal, you heal.

My expression comes from my intuition, my ability to feel energy and easily access the soul. I blend the tangible with the intangible. By touching the paints, the brushes, the canvas, it evokes intuitive responses and impulses, a way of remembering.

I engage with the unique energy present at the moment of creation, and allow it to unfold organically. My passion is the search for truth, the energetic pull of beauty, the soul made visible.

For me, painting is direct communication with the unseen. An invocation to cosmic forces and beings that inhabit multidimensional realms. The multiplicity of energy and spirit takes shape and assembles into vibrational forms.

Vibrant healing energy is harnessed and channeled into the images. They alchemically shift and heal the energy field of the viewer. They are medicine for the soul.

Brenda Carolan has been a healer, alchemist, and artist for the past 2 decades. She lives and loves from the soul. To learn more about Brenda and contact her: Denderahhealingarts.com

Healing Chronic Pain: The Power of Gentle Movement & Awareness Exercises

Posted on by Jacqueline Rubinstein

~ with Jacqueline Rubinstein, Director of SomaSpace &Feldenkrais Practitioner

The Power of Gentle Movement & Awareness Exercises

It is difficult to mange the amount of stress one is inundated with in daily, modern life. As technology speeds up the world of communication, people are expected to take on more work, engagement, and productivity and there is less time for self-care and less emphasis on truly relaxing. As a result, more people are experiencing bodily difficulties, such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue, repetitive injuries, anxiety, high blood pressure, insomnia, digestive trouble, chronic headaches, TMJ, and the list goes on and on.One of the powerful skills I teach in this class is how to be present with yourself through sensorial experience. This interrupts the mind from spinning its analytical wheels and gives time and direction about how to feel and learn about your body. Not only will this improve your physical experience, it will also quiet your nervous system and allow for new clarity about one’s thoughts and feelings.

All from slowing down and being gentle with yourself in easy movements that I will guide you through.

It is common to get trapped in the cage of your mind and to forget how to feel the rest of yourself. Your emotional and psychological states are directly related to your physical states. Taking time to engage with your body in biologically meaningful, gentle, and self-respecting ways is a powerful tool in changing habits that will affect every realm of your life. Improvements in your well-being can be surprisingly fast if you are guided back into your body and you take some time to feel, move, and learn from within your body through your senses.If you dedicate an hour to this mindful movement in class, the lessons learned by your nervous system will be available to your brain even when you aren’t actively thinking about it. Your awareness in class highlights old habits and re-opens the door of conscious choice, so that new more comfortable patterns can emerge and be integrated into brain centers that control your fundamental functioning. The new information is then available subconsciously and will be drawn upon at the appropriate times, allowing for a general reduction in stress, tension, and pain.

Sounds good, right? Please come experience what I am talking about for yourself this Friday, at 10:00am. All the details are below. And if you can’t make it this week, I hope you will drop-in on another Friday morning and feel how profound gentle, slow, easy movements can be.
Are you ready to feel better in an efficient way that utilizes tiny movements, minimal energy, and gets big results?!

In these classes, you will be led through gentle, easy movement sequences, that will give your brain the necessary information to start using new movement habits and get out of the old painful patterns.  You will leave class feeling lighter, more flexible, and taller. You will have a sensation of effortlessness- what a relief!

Learn how to utilize the power of your brain to change (neuroplasticity, that is!) through the natural movement patterns of motor development.

No matter your age, your brain is ready to learn and find ease and improvement for you! The work we do together in this class seamlessly integrates into an improved daily life.

Ready to feel the difference?!

Spring Class Series
In-person and On-Line options available

8-week Class Series: April 13 – June 8, 2018

(No class April 27, class resumes May 4) 

Time: Fridays, 10:00am – 11:00am*
Location: SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232

*Also, available for on-line subscription ~ you can take this class anywhere, at any time that works for you!

Cost: 
8-week Spring Class Series (in-person and recordings): $96
To register: paypal.com/healingchronicpain
or bring cash, check, or card to the first class! (Checks made payable to: Move with Ease)

8-week Spring Class Pass On-line (recordings only): $58
To register: paypal.com/healingchronicpain

Walk-in to any class: $15/drop-in

For more info about this class offering:
 feldenkraisportland.com/healing-chronic-pain/

 

Jacqueline Rubinstein is dedicated to creative, powerful, healing movement that makes you feel good. She has been a catalyst in the Improvisational Dance and Feldenkrais Method scenes since 2004. She is the proud director/owner of SomaSpace: Movement Arts & Healing Center, and Move With Ease, her Chronic Pain & Repetitive Injury Recovery Practice. Combining her passions for Improvisational Movement and the Feldenkrais Method, housed in the gorgeous SomaSpace studio, is a dream come true! Balancing the gentle, slow, deeply functional movements of the Feldenkrais Method with the limitless, creative, free-form movements of Improvisational Movement has brought great joy and healing to Jacqueline’s life, and she looks forward to sharing her passion with you through her classes, events, and individual sessions.

To contact Jacqueline and read her full bio: somaspace.us/teachers