Category: Mind Body Awareness

Dance Improvisation: Connecting to Source through Magical Arteries

This weekend I’ll be teaching my first workshop in NYC of 2018,

Connected to Source: Deep Listening & Freedom of Expression through Dance Improvisation.

And for the first time in the three years since I moved away from NYC, I feel really excited and energized to be heading in to share my work in the city. As in, not secretly dreading or deliberately avoiding NYC (a la 2016 & 2017), but sincerely looking forward to working and playing there.

Why? Because I know it won’t suck me dry.

I know that even with all the crazy paced running around to get anywhere, the dulling sea of myopic gazes and the drowning noise of lights and sounds and advertisements, I’ll be shining on. That is to say, I don’t expect to be leaking too much energy.

Not too much. Maybe just a little, because there’s no use wasting as much on the effort of guarding it in as I would on letting it out. Some energy out means space for energy in after all, and strict orthodoxy of any kind is a dangerous form of militarism in today’s world. But even with those little leaks, I’ll be motoring through the streets to teach my workshop, dropping in on favorite classes and jams and reconnecting with dear friends fueled by confidence that the energy balance is in my favor.

It’s not my clairvoyance I’m relying on to know that, unlike the past, this time I’ll be coming home with more energy than I expended…

Wasting clairvoyance on seeing into the future and holding on to a specific image of how things will be is a surefire way to cut yourself off from your creative energy.

I have no idea if things, and the workshop especially, will go well. People, the studio, and even material I’m sharing will be new, so lots of unknowns await. And I’m not relying on a game of low expectations to keep my balance and protect me from the drain of disappointment. I have a fair share of expectations, but they’re not really about outcome, they’re about what I’ll treat my life force to: surprise, stimulation, intimacy and perspective.

In part, I can be sure that I’m in a very different place because I gave myself the time and space to fully integrate a deep transition.

When I closed my beautiful Brooklyn studio 3 years ago and moved upstate to Newburgh, it felt like a free fall at times. But I was aching to be more fully invested in my art work, dance improvisation at its core, and walking my holistic talk was motivating me to find a more quiet and balanced life. Permission to do less and observe more helped facilitate a seismic shift in my inner world.

Now that I’m easing back into doing more, the quality of my doing is very different.

Still, my confidence in riding the energy of the city with mastery and grace is not so much about the past or the future. It’s about what I know I can do in the moment.

This is what dance improvisation is all about, and this is what it’s taught me about myself:

I know I can keep myself grounded. And balanced. I can find great pleasure in falling and satisfaction in resistance. I know I can soften in an instant to avoid a hard blow… or to welcome a warm embrace. That I can articulate what I feel with great clarity and bring a sharp focus to the small details splitting my attention. I’ve learned I can release a thought or a plan that’s weighing me down and catch inspiration from a random sideways glance. And that I can listen with patience and curiosity to the subtle shifts of my energy and take a pause when I need, or even pause just because.

To pause in NYC! And just because, no less!

If that’s not art, it’s sorcery. Or rather, Sourcery: because doing it on a whim comes from a deep connection to the inner flow of your impulse, blood and breath. It’s Artery too! Because cultivating your pathways to that deep connection is a matter of artful craftsmanship, fueled by passion and imagination and informed by patience and technique.

Dance improvisation is the practice of cultivating arteries to your life force.

It is a magical, powerful craft that teaches you to connect to the deepest sources of your energy. You can use it to create art if that’s your thing. You can use it to create more healthy resilience to your every day if that’s what you need…

And once you’ve experienced the connection and know how to get there again and again, you have much more agency to actively and consciously choose how you use your energy. That in itself is an act of great resistance and activism in the demented political climate we’re living in. Add that to healthy resilience and creative flow and watch things change.

There you have it: to be Connected to Source through the magic Arteries of Dance Improvisation – that’s our destination for this weekend’s workshop. Details and RSVP below – check it out and join us on the adventure!

Here are the details:

Connected to Source
Deep Listening & Freedom of Expression through Dance Improvisation

Sunday, March 18

1 – 3 PM

CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
White Room
124 4th Avenue, New York, New York 10003

*A Fundraiser to Support The Dragon’s Egg Artist Retreat Center*
$30 Suggested Donation (all proceeds go to The Dragon’s Egg)
RSVP to attend forthedragonsegg@gmail.com

Workshop led by Ophra Wolf from Force and Flow Integrated Bodywork

Dance improvisation can be one of the most direct and profound ways to communicate with your soul and give expression to the subtle movements of your heart. When you’re able to drop down into a deep state of listening and connection with the very source of what moves you, you experience a sense of freedom and innate knowing that will fuel every aspect of your life.

In this 2-hour introductory workshop we’ll explore pathways for entering this state of deep listening and embodied awareness, and draw on knowledge and techniques from the worlds of Qi Gong, bodywork, authentic movement, and Tuning Scores. Expect to move energy, find new possibilities for expression and discover thrilling satisfaction in free and mindful movement.

Open to all levels and backgrounds – whether you’re a dancer, a creative from another field, or simply someone who’s ready to move more freely, there will be treasures waiting for you. Bring comfortable clothes to move in, water, and a notebook.

PHOTO CREDIT: CRAIG CHIN

March 13, 2018
What if the Key to World Peace Is Your Personal Relationship to Your Body?
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Hello dear friends and lovers of pleasure, health and vitality!

It’s been over two years since I published a blog post and I confess I’ve missed the conversation with you very much.

But OH! I’ve taken such great pleasure in the freedom from forced screen time.

I promised myself that when I came back to sharing reflections and lessons from my journey with you, it would be without an ounce of pressure, and wow, do I take my promises seriously.

Hence the hiatus and hopefully also your confidence that whatever I write, no matter how simple or strange it may land, is coming from my heart with lightness and a love of life eager to be shared.

I invite you to take it as poetry rather than science. Or just the opposite! As proposals for scientific experiments in search of personal laboratories like yourself. You are the scientist, your life the laboratory, and this a place to share your observations and results… comments and private messages are welcome!

[spacer height=”10px”]Here’s an experiment to try on yourself…[spacer height=”5px”]

…though, I confess it may take a lifetime and requires serious dedication. (Serious, by the way, is one of my best and worst traits, it’s the secret to my health and also to my sickness. So take serious with a grain of salt and do it your way.)

The hypothesis is simple, it’s written in the headline and goes like this:

[blockquote]The answer to world peace is to be found in you and you alone, and the key is in observing and transforming the way you relate to your physical organism, aka your body.[/blockquote]

Underlying this hypothesis are three fundamental philosophies:
1. Your body IS your mind
2. The outer is a reflection of the inner is a reflection of the outer (aka the part reflects the whole, microcosm=macrocosm)
3. Love is the answer and you are the Source (click the link for info on an upcoming workshop!)
[spacer height=”10px”]Peace is a way of being, not a way of thinking. It’s an action, not an idea.[spacer height=”5px”]

You can think you want peace all day long, but if you’re waging war against your own impulses, habits and desires, or even worse, against the very essence of who you are, then your actions are violent and you’re living in battle mode.

That’s not to say that you should give in to every habit you’ve formed or act on every desire and impulse that arises. Peace is not submission.

Peace is acknowledgement, dialogue, and a willingness to be transformed.

That last one – that’s the kicker. There’s a difference between seeking transformation and a willingness to experience it. When we’re seeking, we can have a sense of what we might find and a feeling of being in control.

But to be transformed? You have to let go of who you think you are and what you think you want and open yourself to the experience of seeing and feeling from an entirely different perspective.

You may as well call transformation death. And who in their right mind goes out seeking death?!

Death is not for the faint of heart. But neither is birth, and here you are born and living, and as sure as you are born you will die – at least your body will.

Peace, I propose, begins when you acknowledge and make space for death in your life.

And I further propose that how you choose to eat, sleep, spend the greater portion of your time, exert yourself and care for yourself (or not) has more to do with your relationship to death than to health.

[spacer height=”10px”]Health is just a byproduct.[spacer height=”5px”]

I assure you that if you enter into a more peaceful dialogue with your incredible body that’s bound for death, your health will flourish.

For women, peaceful dialogues with our body can be especially challenging. I’ll skip the discussion of sociopolitical and religious reasons for this at the moment and simply refer you to guiding philosophy #2, i.e. as without so within… I’ll be back in another post with more to say, that’s a promise. Meanwhile, look to mother nature and the environmental crisis we’re facing for clues of what we’re individually facing within.

Women aren’t alone here. We’ve all been trained to look for our sense of self-worth in the image we project out to the world and we spend a lifetime waging war on our multi-dimensional, embodied being trying to beat it into submission and create a flattened image we think will earn us a place in the world. No wonder we feel stiff and tired, heavy with pain and bruised by our own emotions.

[spacer height=”10px”]When you’re working too hard and resting too little, when you’re eating without pleasure and moving without feeling, when you’re ignoring your pain and silencing your emotions, you’re in the war zone.[spacer height=”5px”]

On the flip side, when you’re giving yourself the rest you need, sacrificing productivity for some play, taking time to acknowledge and attend to your pain, making safe space in your life for feeling emotional, you are doing nothing less than contributing to world peace.

You’re also cultivating peace at home and at work and giving health the right conditions to crop up as a byproduct you didn’t have to struggle and toil for.

So remember to eat with pleasure! Because, you know, death. And peace!

[spacer height=”10px”]And as for moving with feeling…[spacer height=”5px”]

You may be wondering what the hoo ha that means? Maybe you’re even sensing a longing to know more?

This is where the work of coming into a more peaceful relationship with your body begins, and this is the exercise I’ll leave you with:

Beginner: Whenever you notice that you’re moving (ha ha! that’s a joke!) try to also notice what you feel. For example, can you feel the floor? Or your clothes? Certain muscles moving (or hurting)? Certain bones? Are you making contact with objects or people? What are you sensing? Notice sensation, but don’t lose track of noticing that you’re moving. Also, don’t shy from pain or ignore pleasure, they’re both calling your attention! Think of them as your personal mindfulness coaches.

Intermediate: Next try to notice how you feel while noticing how you’re moving. Doing one without the other doesn’t count, so pay attention. And be careful of controlling or shutting down the feeling, even if it’s “f’ing tired” or “like shit”. If your mind is doing it’s job trying to notice everything at once, it should be too busy for judgement. I can write this in a sentence, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. I suggest trying this step when you’ve remembered to do the first exercise at least three times that same day.

Advanced: This is really ninja, but go ahead and try – notice that you’re moving, what you’re feeling as you move and how you’re feeling as you move. Actually, this isn’t ninja at all, this is Dance. But don’t let that stop you!

[spacer height=”10px”]The exercise is not an answer…[spacer height=”5px”]

…it’s a way of posing a question and listening to what comes up.

Take some time with it, and while you may not come out the other end considering yourself a dancer, you’ll certainly emerge with a better picture of how peaceful or not your relationship with your body is. You might even find clues as to where you’re ripe for a change in dynamic – if you need help picking them out, I’m here to help. In any case, try it out and please report.

[spacer height=”10px”]And one last word for those of you whom are feeling especially ripe for change![spacer height=”5px”]

I’m also ripe and now ready to re-open my private practice to a few select new clients. If my way of working with your body and cultivating health in your life is speaking to you, let’s speak us two (or three, I also work with couples)!

What makes you one of the select?
1. You’re serious, in your own special way of course, but enough to commit to a process and not assume that dropping in now and then at your convenience or only when crisis looms is the way forward.
2. You’re hungry for peace, thirsty for pleasure and willing to sit at the table with your pain and look it in the eye. I’ll create and hold a beautiful and safe space for the feast.
3. You’re not only open to transformation, you’re haunted by the thought you might die without experiencing it. And while you understand that no one can make transformation happen for you, you know that you need to be witnessed, held and sometimes guided in the process to move forward.
Contact me using the form below and we’ll start with a conversation.

Love,

Ophra

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Contact Me! (or leave comments below)
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February 9, 2018
October Breathe Deep Workshop in Brooklyn focuses on Stress Relief
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Breathe Deep

Sunday, October 11
The Grand Room at South Oxford Space, Brooklyn
138 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
6:30 – 8:30 PM
$40
Register Now

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Breathe Deep is a workshop in ways you can use your breath to relax and release tension from your body quickly and effortlessly, so you can avoid stress build-up, stay out of pain and manage your energy levels with ease.

This month’s Breathe Deep workshop is focused on [spacer height=”10px”] Stress Relief ~ Register Now [spacer height=”10px”]

Learn to tune into and access your breath as an effective strategy for improving your comfort, energy and focus throughout the day.

Your sharp focus on detailed tasks and bright screens invites shallow breath, and your days require so much focus it’s easy to miss that you’re hardly breathing at all. At the end of the day when your head hurts or your back and shoulders are killing you, it’s tempting to berate your body for failing you and look for a pill to fix the malfunction. Unfortunately this rarely works for actually feeling better.

This workshop is here to offer you a far more effective strategy for actually feeling better, quickly and easily, and simple tools for easily applying it to your everyday life.

Discover the secrets of full and connected breathing and catapult yourself to a new level of comfort and performance.

The gentle movements and guided meditations of the Breathe Deep workshop make for some of the simplest, most practical and effective techniques for significantly improving and maintaining your health and wellness, not to mention your focus and stamina on a daily.

For lovers of immediate gratification, come see just how quickly and pleasurably you can energize and relax your body, mind and spirit. And then do it again and again with the fancy skills you pick up.

[spacer height=”10px”] Small Groups means there’s lots of space for your personal questions and feedback. [spacer height=”10px”]
It also means Space is Extremely Limited! Register Now [spacer height=”10px”]

All of which make this workshop by far one of the most valuable experiences you can give yourself.

But what makes it over the top great is the the small group size and intimate setting that Ophra creates, making sure that every individual can benefit from her incredible store of knowledge and warm care in a personalized way.

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Which means that SPACE IS EXTREMELY LIMITED!!!
If you can’t afford to miss this workshop, make sure to Register Now

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Sunday, October 11
The Grand Room at South Oxford Space, Brooklyn
138 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
6:30 – 8:30 PM
$40
Register Now

Next Breathe Deep: Thursday, November 19

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Enroll Now

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[alert color=”white” background=”#FF7E00″ border_color=”#FF7E00″]Register and pay using a credit card or paypal account:
[paupay_cart id=”14816″ trans_type=”variable_purchase” pretext=”Enroll Now” text=”Select Payment”][/alert]

[alert color=”white” background=”#3A1A45″ border_color=”#3A1A45″]POLICIES
- Your spot in the workshop is not guaranteed until we’ve received your payment.
- We will issue a full refund minus a $10 processing fee for all cancellations made within 7 days of the workshop.
- We will issue a 50% refund for all cancellations made 2-6 days prior to the workshop.
- Cancellations made 48 hours or less prior to the workshop are non-refundable.
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[one_half_last][alert color=”white” background=”#7E9245″ border_color=”#7E9245″]WHAT TO BRING
- Yoga Mat, if possible
- Comfortable shoes and clothes to move in.
- A bottle of water.
- Optional: a notebook, drawing pad, camera… some kind of mneumonic aid.
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[alert color=”white” background=”#7E9254″ border_color=”#7E9254″]If you have questions or concerns, use the form below to leave us a note. Your spot is not reserved until we’ve received your payment.[pauf id=”workshop_registration” text=”Workshop Registration” width=”200px”][/alert]
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October 2, 2015
Thoughts on Setting Course for the New Season

Photo by Craig Chin

Your body is the portal to your deepest wisdom.

As you step into this new cycle, consider that rather than using your body as a means to meet the demands of your mind, you can learn to use your mind to listen and become present to the wisdom embedded in your body.

It’s as simple as exchanging fear of your pain for curiosity about the nature of your state.

Nature is the key word: when we learn to make this shift for ourselves, imagining how we can heal and improve our relationship with the natural world quickly and effectively becomes tangible. There’s no time to waste!

Simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy, and we’re all tasked with learning to distinguish the histrionics of our mind from the wisdom of our body and spirit. There are many ways to do this – for me, listening to the body and learning to use it as an instrument of deep communication has been the most potent and direct, and it’s my privilege to share what I’ve learned along the way with you.

I’m rarely available for group classes these days, but this Sunday, September 20th at noon is a special opportunity to join me in Brooklyn for my popular Breathe Deep workshop, where you’ll learn to use your breath to reduce and avoid chronic pain, manage stress and fatigue, and improve your focus and stamina throughout the day. Space is limited and filling quickly, so make sure to register ASAP.

If you’d like to talk about working together privately to help you regain control of your health, get out of pain and support your healing process with efficiency and ease, email me and we’ll make a time to connect by phone.

Shana Tova to those celebrating the New Year, and wishes for a joyous and fruitful season to all!

Love,
Ophra

September 15, 2015
Love After Brooklyn (a story in Dance)

I left Brooklyn three times in the past year, each time more definitively. By the time I’d officially given up my beautiful space on Dean St at the end of February, the heartbreak was so tangible that I was actually diagnosed with a broken heart by two cardiologists.

My 11-year love affair with Brooklyn was deep and passionate. That’s the longest I’ve lived in any one place my entire life, and it’s the first place I truly created a home for myself in.

But in order to make life in Brooklyn work, I increasingly had to sublimate my deepest passion – my fiery longing to dance. Worse, part of me started to believe that it was a doomed relationship, that dance was a lover I would never be allowed to hold, and I buried my sadness in busy-ness.

Moving out of Brooklyn was really moving towards that fire again, pleading with it to come back to me. I put my business aside and for several months didn’t see any clients or bother with many computer tasks, while I gently went about rekindling my love affair with dance.

I’ve had to be careful not to smother my fire with expectation or bury it under the weight of the past. And I’ve also had to fan the flames of the fire by investing precious resources without any demand for results other than a deepening connection to the longing to be together, dance and I.

Throughout all of this, there’s been one particular Rumi poem that I’ve found myself turning to over and over again (from Birdsong, translated by Coleman Barks) ~

TRF2W Long Dock – by Craig Chin

The way of love is not
a subtle argument.

The door there
is devastation.

Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?

They fall, and falling,
they’re given wings.

I’ve written before that I’m a professional faller, I teach people how to fall with grace and thrive in dynamic situations. So I took the leap myself and fell into the fire of my love for dance.

If the journey hasn’t been entirely easy or comfortable, it’s been a deeply moving and sometimes ecstatic lesson in the power of surrender.

Connection and Surrender have been the at the core of my dancing since April. The lessons and gifts along the way have been overwhelmingly beautiful. Here’s a truth I now know with every cell in my body:

Remember to keep moving towards what you love, no matter how fast or slow, with ease or difficulty – it’s the greatest contribution you can make towards a better world.

And here’s a glimpse of my rekindled love affair with dance, through photos & video, starting with an upcoming performance this Sunday and working back to April:

This Sunday, 8/23 – if you’re up for a summer adventure in the Hudson Valley, Craig and I (aka The River Flows Two Ways – dance & ambient guitar duo) will be doing a unique site-specific performance at the beautiful and haunting St. Margaret’s Orphan Asylum in Red Hook, NY this Sunday, 8/23. This abandoned historic home for girls will be full of art and life at this weekend’s pop-up event, Dog Dayz organized by the Red Hook Community Arts Network.

It’s family friendly and free. And there’s a great ice cream shop next door! We’ll be performing hourly, on the half hour, between 12:30 – 3:30 PM.

You can find directions and more information here.

This past Tuesday, 8/18, I hopped on the train to NYC to take part in this beautiful and loving tribute to the great Anna Halprin, who turned 95 this year. Nine of us met at Washington Square Park in the early evening to take part in a score organized by Laura Colomban and featuring dancers from Los Angeles, Europe and South America.

The beautiful video below was filmed and edited by Alysia Mazella, from our July 25 performance at the FAST.BACK. exhibit at Newburgh Last Saturdays. Jane Rigler, a dear friend and an incredible flutist, joined Craig Chin and I for the first and second of three sets.

https://vimeo.com/136833904

If you’re curious to see more, follow these links:
1st set, short: https://vimeo.com/136833903
1st set, long: https://vimeo.com/136315715
2nd set, long: https://vimeo.com/136318826

I spent a good part of the Spring and early Summer up at Minnewaska, at the gorgeous Awosting Falls, exploring movement and connection to nature with Teresa Smith’s Earth Body project. The project started in May and culminated in three public showings on the weekend of July 17. It was nothing short of cathartic to be rehearsing and exploring amidst such beautiful and majestic nature, and my other collaborators were sensitive and inspiring in so many ways. (Photo by Teresa Smith)

In June I snuck into Brooklyn one Saturday evening to perform an excerpt from my Duchamp-inspired piece that’s been in the making for over a decade now. I called it “The Bride Loosens Up”. Around 10PM, in the backyard of a house somewhere in BedStuy, with dance performances unfolding in fits and bursts outdoors and in in support of my colleague Rebeca Medina’s upcoming dance project, I came out in a white dress, took the silk handkerchief out of my mouth and let my voice rise from my belly before sliding into a big hole in the ground. It was dramatic, and funny, but it was entirely undocumented. Until the Bride rises again…

And finally, here’s a short video from the April performance that started it all, at the Art About Water event, my first public collaboration with guitarist Craig Chin under the moniker The River Flows Two Ways. You can find more videos on our YouTube channel:

Love,

Ophra

August 21, 2015
When I Looked Death in the Face, This is What I Saw

This article was originally send as a newsletter to my list in May – to join the mailing list, use the field on the right.

A lot has changed since I wrote you two weeks ago – flowers have come and gone, temperatures have climbed and worlds have shifted internally – but I haven’t forgotten my promise to follow up and tell you more about what I learned when I took time to face death.

If you read my last email, you know that just over two months ago I was (mis)diagnosed with a heart condition that could cause me to suddenly die at any moment, and precisely two weeks ago I was told, based on extensive testing by a carefully chosen doctor, that I was just benignly irregular after all.

I could and probably should be pissed at the first two doctors who were so quick to send me to the operating table, but the truth is that I’m increasingly grateful for that crazy diagnosis precisely because it brought me so close to death and forced me to ask some difficult questions.
Here’s one that proved to be especially fruitful:

If I die today, what would I regret?

There was a lot of tuning in to my heart happening at this time. The answer it gave me changed my life profoundly.

I’ll tell you right away what the answer was not: even though I would have loved to see such and such a project take off, or to taste this or that kind of success, and to make one or the other dream come to life, none of these things would have stopped me from going to my grave feeling that I’d lived the best life I could live.

And that’s not because I haven’t had my fair share of challenges, pain and disappointment, it’s because I’ve never let failure or hardship stop me from following my dreams.

But there’s one thing I hadn’t given myself, something that no one but me could possibly give me, and when I thought of dying without experiencing it, I tasted regret:

I had yet to live a single day in which I accepted myself fully, as I am.

In the quiet of my new home, in the abyss between the life I’d been living and the life I was seeding – and hoping intensely to be able to grow – I was alone with myself. That open, quiet space allowed me to see so clearly that the source of most of my stress and worry wasn’t “life in the city”, or “financial strain” or “professional challenges”, it was ME.

My self-identity was completely tied up with my need to pressure, berate, and cajole myself to do the “right” things in the “right” way at the “right” time. And my willfulness to succeed in this task was stealing my chance at life away from me.

This became my prayer, and my one and only goal:

To just be. And for that to be enough.

Whether I’m being productive or useful in any way, or not,
Whether I’m doing something “well” or “messing it up”,
Whether I’m making the right choices or heading in the wrong direction,
Whether I’m saying the right things or pissing someone off,
Whether I’m in a great mood or feeling like shit,
Whether I’m full of energy or not feeling much like getting out of bed,
Whether I’m feeling limber and juicy or hunched over in pain,

To live in the state of knowing I am enough, precisely as I am, faults, blindness, weaknesses and all.

And at least for one whole day, or even a few sweet hours, to taste life from a place of inner peace, knowing that I’m part of a much, much bigger whole that needs nothing more from me than to just be.

That was and still is my burning desire. The longing it’s woken up in me has given me a taste of strength beyond anything I’ve known… and I’ve known strength!

I want to say more about this strength, because it is something you can train for, and you can cultivate it most efficiently in and through your physical presence. So I’ll come back to it in the next newsletter, but for now I’ll leave you with a resounding message that came through for me from my meditations on death:

Your judgment means so very little in the big picture. Whereas your presence to things as they are, and most of all to your experience of life as it is, is your best chance at living fully.
Presence is far more passive than you imagine. In order to be truly present and available to life in its unfolding, you have to have two things:

The courage to do less.

And the longing to be more.

Neither one is necessarily comfortable, but together they are the key to your magic powers.

So I’m grateful for your courage to long and be uncomfortable on the way to greater things. And I’m sending you love and joy on your way there,

Ophra

May 27, 2015
What the experts diagnosed me with and what it says about my health

Helloooo

I’m over here. Looking over the Hudson, marveling at the late April snow.

It’s been a while since I’ve written, the break in my blog flow was as unexpected as today’s snow, though I’d call what triggered it more of a massive earthquake than a little flurry.

It’s a good story, I’ll give you an outline for now since I have a feeling I’ll be sharing a lot more in months and even years to come…

On February 28th I said a heartfelt goodbye to the studio on Dean St. in Brooklyn that served as my home base for many years with one last Breathe Deep workshop, the biggest the studio has ever hosted, and a late night dance reverie whose energy is still reverberating in the Brooklyn ether. Here’s a pic of us at 2AM, dancing to the amazing grooves of Salieu Suso on Kora and Kevin Nathaniel on Mbira (photo by Fred Hatt):

I packed the moving truck the next day, unpacked it the day after, and flew to Israel to visit family the day after that. That’s me, a gal on the move.

And the movement didn’t stop once I got to Israel, with a year’s worth of skipping and twirling to catch up on with my nieces and nephew, dance events and family visits galore.

But I did take a pause out of my busy schedule to go see a cardiologist.

I’ve had an irregular heart beat for a long time, and there’s no denying that the past two years were ones in which I pushed myself to my limits. My partner Marcel had been nudging me to get my heart checked out for a while now (what with a sibling with a history of heart issues), and I finally agreed. In Israel I had my mom’s help in getting a private appointment with a top-notch cardiologist, and that’s how I found myself hooked up to an EKG.

Oh my first EKG, how you changed my life forever.

So. For reasons beyond my technical understanding, the renowned doctor diagnosed me with a very serious congenital heart condition that puts me in constant risk of sudden death and requires an immediate implant of a pacemaker.

Said doctor suggested that I have the surgery immediately, before leaving the country the following week. When I politely declined and said I’d like to look into the matter further, he assured me that I was not only misguided, but a threat to everyone around me, as I might faint and push an innocent bystander into traffic at any moment. I tried to explain that I’m a professional faller, I’ve mastered forms of dance that are based on managing disorientation, and that since I haven’t fainted on my feet since I was a wee baby I was quite sure I’d be alright. But there was no one listening.

I went for a second opinion a few days later, another renowned cardiologist, the head of the department at the other big hospital. He asked me who gave me my first opinion, looked at the EKG, and quickly confirmed: I was seriously ill and in grave danger, my only hope was a pacemaker, ASAP.

Needless to say my life was thrown into a tailspin.

Luckily for me, I really am a professional faller, with a penchant for balance even in the most disorienting circumstances. And dance has always been my magic spell for sprouting wings when I need them, so I kept dancing.

Meanwhile, back home – a new home, not yet entirely familiar – I began organizing health insurance, researching cardiologists, and most importantly, contemplating death.

Contemplating death brought me some serious epiphanies, I’ll share the most poignant one with you next week. For now, I’ll stick to the guts of the story.

It took a month to get an appointment with the cardiologist of my choice (more soon on the importance of proactive choice in navigating our health care system@!) That appointment was last week. My stress test was this week. And my follow up conversation with the doctor was just now, as I was writing you this note.

In between, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my hands in the dirt, walking along the river, and resting up. It’s amazing what a little rest and nature will do for the heart, mine kept whispering to me, you’re just fine, even better than fine.

Turns out it was right. Or more importantly, it turns out the experts in Israel were wrong, very, very wrong. I just received confirmation that I don’t have a congenital heart disorder, I have athlete’s arrhythmia, aka a benign irregularity (yup, that’s me, benignly irregular :).

Apparently the doctors who looked over the results of my stress test were downright impressed, I’m in excellent condition and along with my echocardiogram, my heart is officially healthy.

Hurray! And here’s why I could have told them that:

Just look at the amazingly diverse, creative, sensitive and absolutely brilliant community of people I’m surrounded by, with so much love and mutual respect amongst us!

And then there’s my ability to constantly generate energy to invest in the people and projects I’m passionate about, to lead the life I choose even in the face of significant challenges and resistance.

And most of all, I’m not just moving around a lot, I’m moving into greater awareness and alignment and always towards change and personal growth.

If that’s not a healthy human, what is?

What exactly is it that our culture deems healthy?

And are you accepting the criteria and the diagnoses without question?

More importantly, are you willing to measure them up to your personal experience and question both your own conclusions and those of the experts for the sake of coming closer to the healthiest, best life you can have?

Those are a few of the questions on my mind, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, .

And of course there’s more to this story, but I’m going to stop here for now.

I’ll be starting to see clients again soon, and if you sense that it’s time to regain agency and create more health and strength for yourself, fill out the form to your left and I’ll be in touch shortly.

For now, I simply want to wish you a very bright and bountiful Spring. Don’t forget to sow the seeds of your hopes and dreams. And know that I’m more grateful than ever to share this precious moment in time with you.

April 24, 2015
Teeth Brushing & the Art of High Performance Living
A funny thing happened on the way to writing you this article about how to use the most banal of daily activities, brushing your teeth, as a supreme exercise in tuning your whole day for mental and physical fitness.

I sat down in front of a blank screen page, placed my fingers on the keyboard, and with no idea where to begin, watched these words type themselves:

Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?

I was as surprised and puzzled as you might be. For one, this is a piece about brushing teeth – a voluntary activity you engage in with regularity – not about sneezing, an involuntary action the body does once in a while. And for two, well, what in the Hoo Ha does Marcel Duchamp’s Readymade conceptual art piece have to do with you and your quest for high performance living?

Hoo Ha indeed, I figured it out! The art of the Readymade, that’s what its about.

Duchamp revolutionized art and culture as we know it with his Readymades, pre-existing objects that simply by virtue of choice and a repositioning of perspective, became art (remember the urinal known as “Fountain”?).

Brushing teeth, my friends, is a Readymade for those of us cultivating the art of living out our highest potential.

If you’re not an art lover, you can leave all that behind and simply consider the practical implications of repositioning your perspective on the daily activity of brushing your teeth for the sake of greater physical and mental fitness.

Unlike a lot of conceptual art, I’m going to give you some clues as to how and why this is so. But before I do that, let me clear the air by getting two assumptions out in the open:
1. I’m assuming that you brush your teeth at least once a day?
2. And I’m assuming that whether or not you confessed to yourself or your world that you had any “New Years Resolutions”, the recent celebration of ending one cycle and beginning the next awakened in you, if only momentarily, that deep seated desire to be better: to yourself, in your work, to others, etc…
Don’t worry, no need to give yourself away. But no need to fear, either! Just because statistics show that you’re almost as unlikely to keep your New Years Resolutions as you are likely to experience tooth decay, doesn’t make either exercise futile.

Here’s how brushing your teeth and resolving to be better can come together to make this year the one in which you achieve the greatest mental and physical health and fitness with the greatest amount of ease. (And maybe even pleasure – I have a client who’s seriously thrilled by the ritual of brushing her teeth, may that juju rub on us all for the sake of our oral health.)

First, there is one prerequisite other than brushing your teeth: you need to be interested.

Now this is no small task – in fact, it’s the whole if it.

Let’s face it, brushing your teeth day after day, year after year, is boring. Unfortunately, so are articles about New Years Resolutions, even if they are about something you know you need and want, like cultivating mindfulness.

Which is why this is actually an article about Readymades and the craft of transforming your life with a little conscious choice and shift of perspective into an artful escapade.

So here we go, Come With Me (for those of you who’ve seen the new Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, please insert his beautiful baritone and beckoning hand gesture here)… [spacer height=”20px”]

Part One: How To Get Incurably Interested in Brushing Your Teeth

If you’re not with a toothbrush in hand at the moment, use your imagination or your incredible memory until you are and ask yourself any of these questions, conveniently broken for you up into conceptual categories:

EFFORT
1. How much force are you using?
2. Can you make it easier and still be as efficient?
3. What would it take? Going slower? Faster? Less pressure? More Pressure? How much effort do you really need to do the job right?
4. Where is the movement coming from? Your wrist? Your elbow? Your shoulder? Your center? Your feet?
GROUNDING
1. Where the hell are your feet, anyways?
2. Are they on the ground? Evenly?
3. Are you standing still? Are you dancing? Are you choosing to stand still or dance?
4. Are you shuffling at the same rhythm as you’re brushing? And does this rhythm suit you today or is it recycled from yesterday?
APPROACH
1. Are you always coming at your teeth from the same angle?
2. How often are you changing angles? Are you aware of when and why?
3. Is your brushing rhythm drone-like, staccato, dubstep?
4. Did you choose this rhythm or are you spinning broken-record-like?
PRESENCE
1. Are you really brushing your teeth or are you actually reading your emails, straightening up your apartment and composing dialogue for later in the day?
2. Are your teeth even there? If so, how do they feel?
3. Can you feel the shape and volume of the individual teeth?
4. Can you feel the spaces between? The gums above and below? The deep crevices behind?
5. And most importantly, ARE YOU BREATHING?!
Now you may be exhausted just reading all these questions, but I assure you that this list is nowhere near exhaustive. Pick just one of these lines of inquiry and watch the questions invent themselves.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s fun. If you’re not interested, notice what you’re really interested in while mechanically performing this requisite task – that may be the most illuminating inquiry of all, especially if you’re feeling the boredom of mechanical, requisite tasks taking over your life for more than just the three minutes you brush your teeth.

You can also make it more interesting by adding a challenge or limitation: brush and inquire while standing on one leg or on your tip toes, use your non-dominant hand, or simply stand still for a full three minutes. [spacer height=”20px”]

Part Two: How To Transform Interest into Strength and Vitality

If you’re wondering what you’ve gained from this exercise other than a new perspective on just how involved (and interesting) brushing your teeth can be, I’ll tell you:

You’ve just gained invaluable perspective on the state of your being today and on the nature of your habitual patterns and how they may be affecting you in the bigger picture of your life.

Take any of the questions above and replace “brushing your teeth” with “working on such and such project” or “dealing with such and such relationship”: are you using too much force? Are you coming at it from diverse angles? Are you grounded and in sync with your body’s rhythm or are you maybe a little more wobbly and likely to step on toes than you realized?

Your teeth brushing ritual can be the best oracle and personal advisor you never knew you had: did you find your sweet spot this morning, the perfect balance between force, ease and efficiency? If so, this might indicate it’s a good day to take on that extra challenging task you’ve been putting off. Were you tired just picking up the toothbrush? Chances are this means it’s a good day to take it easy, move a little more slowly and leisurely.

Did your mind squeak with stiffness as you tried brushing and noticing at the same time? It’s a good day for a yoga class. Did you have so much energy that you nearly brushed the enamel off your teeth? Put your sneakers on and go out for a run or get yourself to the gym or a dance class.

You can even take it one step further than observing and deducing what you need to do be at your best – you can use these three minutes as a high-performance calibration exercise.

Is this a day you need to be particularly grounded? Pay attention to your feet. Do you need to warm up the methodical, detail oriented part of your being for today’s tasks? Brush until you’ve felt yourself attending to each and every individual tooth. And so on.

Just like that.

You don’t have to add any extra activities to your already packed morning, you just need to show up when you step up to the sink to brush those teeth and voila, your capacity for observing and integrating your physical presence and approach to what you do throughout the day is exponentially improved.

Of course, learning how to observe your body’s habitual patterns, how to deduce what you need in order to be at your best based on those observations, and how to do the work of calibrating your body so that it serves your highest purpose from day to day and year to year is truly an art. And like all forms of art, it takes a combination of focus, dedication, guidance and inspiration to develop.

That’s what I’m here to offer you, so you can show up at your highest potential and share your gifts with the world.

This year, I’m opening up a very few spots for those of you who are ready to bust out of mechanical functioning and invest in the art of high performance living to work with me privately, in a deeply supportive and transformative format.

If you’re interested and inspired, I invite you to sign up for a complimentary consultation, so we can discuss your needs in detail and see if working together is the right choice for you.
January 9, 2015
When’s the last time you took a deep breath?
[spacer height=”10px”]Breathe Deep

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The pain in your neck, the strain in your back, the static in your mind and the fatigue in your eyes…

What if all these could be remedied with one simple, free and universally accessible treatment?

[spacer height=”10px”]Transform tension, pressure and rigidity into support, ease and spaciousness by experiencing your breath more fully.

Step into winter with the tools to feel limber and light and start the holiday season off right with secrets for relaxing and releasing tension from your body quickly and effortlessly.

You can look forward to an evening as packed with pleasure as it is with useful tools and information – an introduction and a foundation to discovering how meditative, refreshing and energizing being in your body can be.
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Space is Limited! Register Now

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Learning to tune into and access your breath is the most effective strategy for improving your comfort, energy and focus throughout the day!

Your sharp focus on detailed tasks and bright screens often invites shallow breath, and your days require so much focus it’s easy to miss that you’re hardly breathing at all. At the end of the day when your head hurts or your back and shoulders are killing you, it’s tempting to berate your body for failing you and look for a pill to fix the malfunction. Unfortunately this rarely works for actually feeling better.

This workshop is here to offer you a far more effective strategy for actually feeling better, quickly and easily, and simple tools for easily applying it to your everyday life.

Discover the secrets of full and connected breathing and catapult yourself to a new level of comfort and performance.

The gentle movements and guided meditations of the Breathe Deep workshop make for some of the simplest, most practical and effective techniques for significantly improving and maintaining your health and wellness, not to mention your focus and stamina on a daily.

For lovers of immediate gratification, come see just how quickly and pleasurably you can energize and relax your body, mind and spirit. And then do it again and again with the fancy skills you pick up.

All of which make this workshop by far one of the most valuable experiences you can give yourself this holiday season…

But what makes it over the top valuable is the the small group size and intimate setting that Ophra creates, making sure that every individual can benefit from her incredible store of knowledge and warm care in a personalized way.

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Which also means that SPACE IS EXTREMELY LIMITED!!!
If you can’t afford to miss this workshop, make sure to Register Now

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Monday, December 8

@ Shen Tao Studio
303 Park Ave South, Suite 312 (@ 23rd Street)

7:00 – 8:15 PM

$25 Before 12/4
$35 until 12/7
$50 at the door

Space is Limited!
Register Now

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Learn powerful and effective techniques for using walking to:

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[list_item]Release Stress Throughout the Day[/list_item]
[list_item]Increase Your Focus & Stamina[/list_item]
[list_item]Relax Your Mind & Increase Your Awareness[/list_item]
[list_item]Improve Immune Function & Breath Capacity[/list_item]
[list_item]Replenish Your Energy[/list_item]
[list_item]Improve Your Alignment[/list_item]
[list_item]Reduce Chronic Pain & Avoid Injury[/list_item][/list]

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[one_half_last]

Your Guide

Ophra Wolf is a mind-body educator, healer and mover extraordinaire. She’s bringing together an incredible array of knowledge – from the mechanics and anatomy of dance, yoga, and pilates, to the energetics of qi gong and mindfulness of meditation and movement improvisation – to deliver a workshop packed with practical and tangible information to help improve your everyday life.[/one_half_last]

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Enroll Now

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[one_half]
[alert color=”white” background=”#FF7E00″ border_color=”#FF7E00″]Register and pay using a credit card or paypal account:
[paupay_cart id=”14816″ trans_type=”variable_purchase” pretext=”Enroll Now” text=”Select Payment”][/alert]

[alert color=”white” background=”#7E9254″ border_color=”#7E9254″]If you have questions or concerns, use the form below to leave us a note. Your spot is not reserved until we’ve received your payment.[pauf id=”workshop_registration” text=”Workshop Registration” width=”200px”][/alert]
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[one_half_last]

[alert color=”white” background=”#3A1A45″ border_color=”#3A1A45″]POLICIES
- Your spot in the workshop is not guaranteed until we’ve received your payment.
- We will issue a full refund minus a $10 processing fee for all cancellations made within 7 days of the workshop.
- We will issue a 50% refund for all cancellations made 2-6 days prior to the workshop.
- Cancellations made 48 hours or less prior to the workshop are non-refundable.
[/alert]
[alert color=”white” background=”#7E9245″ border_color=”#7E9245″]WHAT TO BRING
- Comfortable shoes and clothes to move in.
- A bottle of water.
- Optional: a notebook, drawing pad, camera… some kind of mneumonic aid.
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December 4, 2014
Need some playful release? Get in on some Partner Stretching!
[spacer height=”10px”]Partner Stretching

[divider style=”medium”] [spacer height=”20px”]This holiday season, instead of new toys, invest in new ways to play…

Learn how to partner with another body to push, pull and shake your tensions out and bring the good feelings in.

In this two-hour workshop you’ll learn how to stretch, release tension, and encourage relaxation in your partner and yourself simultaneously.

You can look forward to an invigorating and playful evening packed with pleasure and practical tools for releasing tension and improving your strength and alignment.

Space is Limited! Register Now

[spacer height=”10px”]Get the moves to keep your juices flowing

Now that your days are getting short and cold, you need some good moves to ward off the inevitable winter stiffness and lethargy, and this workshop is here to give you just that. Come learn secrets to staying limber, toned and relaxed while hanging out on the floor at home… you may never even miss the great outdoors!

[spacer height=”10px”]Feed your body and spirit a sweet dose of playful partnering and deep listening

There’s nothing like the awareness that comes when you work in partnership with another body – you’ll learn to feel subtle pushes and pulls, resistance and release, and the dynamics of sharing your weight with another – all skills that are sure to make you an even more masterful communicator in every part of your life. And there’s no play quite as pleasurable and rewarding as using your own weight for resisting, sharing, and supporting another.

Best of all, while you play with using your weight to resist, support and share, you’re also on the fast track to finding more balance, flexibility, strength, and most of all, *pleasure* in your own body. And with all that in your bag, you’re on your way to a winter full of healthy fun and vitality.

[spacer height=”10px”]Come alone or with a partner – this is a gift to yourself and someone you love playing with that will keep giving.

Space is very limited because this is a hands on and individualized workshop – if you’re tired of having generic moves thrown at you that you’re expected to perform no matter what your body actually feels good doing, make sure to reserve your spot lickety split. I’ll be treating every individual as just that and giving you both the attention and the expertise you need to make the most of every move and moment that we share.
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Save Your Spots! Register Now

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Wednesday, December 10

7PM – 9PM

SOLD OUT
use the form below to request info about upcoming dates

$75 before Dec 3 – use coupon EARLY BIRD @ checkout
After 12/3: $99 for one/$177 for two
$125 at the Door

Register Now

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[one_half]
[toggle open=”true” title=”The Take Away”]

Learn powerful and effective techniques for using walking to:

[list icon=”star”]

[list_item]Relax & Revitalize[/list_item]
[list_item]Listen & Connect Deeply[/list_item]
[list_item]Reduce Stress[/list_item]
[list_item]Release Pain & Tension[/list_item]
[list_item]Replenish Energy[/list_item]
[list_item]Improve Alignment & Flexibility[/list_item]
[list_item]Support Injuries[/list_item]
[list_item]Reduce Chronic Pain[/list_item][/list]

[/toggle][/one_half]

[one_half_last]

Your Guide

Ophra Wolf is a mind-body educator, healer and mover extraordinaire. She’s bringing together an incredible array of knowledge – from the mechanics and anatomy of dance, yoga, and pilates, to the energetics of qi gong and mindfulness of meditation and movement improvisation – to deliver a workshop packed with practical and accessible information to help improve your everyday life.

[/one_half_last]

[spacer height=”10px”]
[divider style=”medium”]
[spacer height=”20px”]

Enroll Now

[spacer height=”15px”]
[one_half]
[alert color=”white” background=”#FF7E00″ border_color=”#FF7E00″]Register and pay using a credit card or paypal account:
[paupay_cart id=”14889″ trans_type=”variable_purchase” pretext=”Buy Now” text=”Buy Now”]To use the EARLY BIRD coupon code (until Nov 30), Select ‘One Spot’ and press the Edit button in the payment panel to enter your coupon code.[/alert]

[alert color=”white” background=”#7E9254″ border_color=”#7E9254″]If you have questions or concerns, use the form below to leave us a note. Your spot is not reserved until we’ve received your payment.[pauf id=”workshop_registration” text=”Workshop Registration” width=”200px”][/alert]
[/one_half]
[one_half_last]

[alert color=”white” background=”#3A1A45″ border_color=”#3A1A45″]POLICIES
- Your spot in the workshop is not guaranteed until we’ve received your payment.
- We will issue a full refund minus a $10 processing fee for all cancellations made within 7 days of the workshop.
- We will issue a 50% refund for all cancellations made 2-6 days prior to the workshop.
- Cancellations made 48 hours or less prior to the workshop are non-refundable.
[/alert]
[alert color=”white” background=”#7E9245″ border_color=”#7E9245″]WHAT TO BRING
- Comfortable shoes and clothes to move in.
- A bottle of water.
- Optional: a notebook, drawing pad, camera… some kind of mneumonic aid.
[/alert]
[/one_half_last]

[alert color=”white” background=”#3A1A45″ border_color=”#3A1A45″]To pay by check or cash, submit the form above and leave a note in the message field indicating your payment option, then mail your payment to Force and Flow, 1102 Dean St. #4, Brooklyn 11216.[/alert]
December 2, 2014