The view from the back of the room during our event at St. Thomas.
I remember lying in bed. The year was 1993 and I was living in Santa Barbara, CA. I had just broken my femur bone doing yoga. I had pushed past the physical limits of my body. In return, I received a massive lesson about non-violence. While on mandatory twelve-week bed rest, I began dreaming of Mind Body Solutions, an organization that would be dedicated to sharing the benefits of integrating mind and body, albeit the non-violent ones.
In 2002, I remember having to write copy for the inaugural launch of Mind Body Solutions’ website. I wanted to lead with the tagline: “Mind-body integration is not simply a personal health strategy. It is a movement of consciousness that can change the world.” My wife at the time Jen, who was also our marketing director, gave a pregnant pause, smiled, shook her head, and said, “And I married you anyway.”
In 2005, I was in final edits with my editor Leigh Haber for my book Waking. She was worried that it got too philosophical near the end; that the average reader would be left cold. I finally agreed that she was right, but only to a point. I decided to cut the next-to-the-last chapter in which I offered my cursory thoughts about the historical evolution of human consciousness. I refused, however, to cut the essential line of my thinking about consciousness, “The energies of life and death – of movement and silence – integrate within our existence to form consciousness. It requires both a mind and a body. One to open; one to stay present.”
Flash forward to October, 29th, 2013. Mind Body Solutions collaborated with the University of St. Thomas and St. Catherines University to present a public conversation, moderated by MN Public Radio’s Cathy Wurzer. It was entitled Everything In Its Place: A Mind-Body Dialogue. The event was recorded for radio and public television and will be rebroadcast both on MPR and TPT in the coming months. The conversation was with one of my yoga students Bruce Kramer, the former Dean of Education, Leadership and Counseling at the University of St. Thomas. Bruce is living with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), a disease that is taking away all of his physical ability and will ultimately prove fatal.
Wishful thinking planned for 600 people in the audience. Estimates the night of the event put the standing room only crowd at nearly 1200. Think about that, that many people coming to watch two guys with disabilities talking about the universal experience of living and dying within the ever-changing mind-body relationship. The shared humanity unleashed in that room was life-altering.
Of course, moments like these do not coalesce very often. Of course, the practical work to sustain a small non-profit comes crashing back again and again. Never before has Mind Body Solutions been doing more meaningful work in the work. Never before has additional grassroots support been more necessary. But as I write this blog, I can feel that something is changing, something is going right. People are hungry for new insights and new ways of thinking. I know there is work ahead, but people are beginning to care. I feel grateful for my life and the opportunity to help in any way I can. More importantly, I feel a little more in love with our humanity.
If you would like help, please remember Mind Body Solutions in your year-end charitable giving: https://www.mindbodysolutions.org/content/donate