Not only that, but I am scheduling  extra meditation time to help reduce the stress in my community and those around me.  Now, what better gift can I give than that, and no body even knows about it!  Then when someone cuts me off on the highway, I will be so filled with love, that it will be no problem to love them back.

 But most important, I will continually throughout the day fill myself with thoughts and feelings of gratitude.  Now, that’s where you come in.  Ever think about who you are?  And, then recall this incident with your dad, that event with your mom, a situation with a sibling, a friend, a boss?  Remember a powerful life changing book, or a work shop that opened your heart and mind?  All of these experiences, everyone whom you have known is part of who you are.  We are all part of each other.  You are a mini matrix of the quilt of humanity.  I am part of the Indian woman who walks for one day to fill jugs of water for her family.  I am part of the war in the Middle East.  I am part of the joy of my neighbor and you are part of my joy. 

 For every person who has worked with me throughout the years to heal a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual imbalance is part of me now, and I am part of them.  After twenty years of practice, my personal matrix has been enriched by you, and I thank you and love you. 

 Happy Thanksgiving.

So, who you are becomes love.  And love is the greatest manifestor of all. As it is the creator of all.  Love, Deborah-Marie     www.deborahmdiamond.com

For three years I studied, DiRRiD, Dance in Rhythm Rhythm in Dance.  We drummed and stepped to one rhythm, clapped our hands to another rhythm, and sang non-sense syllables to a third rhythm – staking a polyrhythm.  Now, your brain cannot figure this out. It just can’t, so you must fall into your body and allow the rhythm to move and coordinate you.  What a relief!  No thinking and you are still doing exactly what you want!  But as soon as you try to figure it out, you will fall out of rhythm. 

I know in your generation the mind is the great king, but even science is realizing that the mind is only good up to a point, and then it just gets in the way.  There are things that are beyond thought.  Try to explain in words an ecstatic experience.  You can’t.  Yes, you will exclaim with wows and oh my goodnesses, but you can’t put your feelings into words.  I remember skiing a black diamond run on Aspen Mountain in my twenties.  Every bump, it seemed, was perfectly placed.   The rhythm of the run was synced with the heavens.   I was in the zone, flying high…  You sort of get the picture don’t you?  But to know the union and ecstasy is impossible.   It is beyond words.  Well, truth and freedom are beyond words also.   Divine Love is beyond words.  And, so I would say peace and calm are beyond words, a long with joy.  That’s where you can get when you let the music move you, instead of thinking so much about your next move.  I certainly was not planning how to execute the next bump in my famous ski run.  I didn’t have to, as I was not only skiing the mountain, the mountain was skiing me.  Let the music dance you next time.  See you on the dance floor!

The master cycles are governed by your internal or spiritual senses, or as Deepak Chopra, M.D. and Ayurvedic Teacher would say, your quantum body.  There are three phases that occur from sunrise to sunset and then three more from sunset to sunrise.

The times are as follows:

                6 A.M. – 10 A.M.  Kapha                                                6 P.M. – 10 P.M. Kapha

                10 A.M. – 2 P.M.  Pita                                                    10 P.M. – 2 A.M.  Pita

                2 P.M.  – 6 P.M. Vata                                                       2 A.M. – 6 A.M.  Vata

If you are not familiar with the Ayurvedic doshas, I will give you a brief explanation. Doshas are the Ayurvedic body type categories and attributes that apply to your body and the master cycles.  Everything is related and connected. 

A Vata is enthusiastic and vivacious by nature. Thin physique. May have difficulty falling asleep and sleeps lightly.  Has an active and imaginative mind. Learns quickly, but also forgets quickly.

A Pita is precise and orderly. Can anger easily.  Is uncomfortable if a meal is skipped or late. Fond of cold foods and drinks – loves ice cream.  Has a sharp intellect and articulate in speech.

A Kapha gains weight easily and loses it more slowly. Is calm, not easily ruffled. Must get at least eight hours of sleep at night. Is uncomfortable in cool and damp climates. Has very good stamina and physical endurance. Has a steady energy.

Now you can take a written quiz to determine which is your dominate doshas. I administer these in my healing practice. (www.deborahmdiamond.com) 

These same attributes are attributed to the cycles of the day. So, 6 – 10 both A.M. and P.M. are slower rhythms. That is why you are slower, calmer and more relaxed when you first get up in the morning and start to wind down naturally in the evening.

The Pita cycle is when you are naturally most physically active. Hunger comes in the middle of the Pita cycle around noon. As Pita is responsible for metabolizing food, it is good to eat your largest meal (if they vary) at noon.  At night Pita appetite’s is not as strong, but it will digest your dinner and keeps you warm at night as you sleep and helps regenerate your tissues. Pita is the fire element.

The first Vata period begins at 2 P.M. and it controls the nervous system. Research shows that people do best on tests in the Vata period, and can add fastest than, also.  Interesting isn’t it?  Now at night during your Vata sleep cycle instead of “thinking” it assists in a deep dream cycle REM (rapid eye movement).

So, in Ayurveda the perfect day to correspond with nature’s cycles looks like this.           

                Rising: 6-8 A.M. Best to rise one hour before the sun comes up so that you have time to meditate, do some Yoga postures, and deep breathing. Dawn is a very receptive time of day to connect with the natural rhythms and open your psyche to higher levels.  During this Kapha period your body and mind is also calm and relaxed.  It is my favorite time a day. Eat breakfast.  Sit quietly for five minutes and walk lightly five to fifteen minutes to aid digestion.

                Lunch:  12 – 1 P.M. when the digestive fires are burning their hottest and not coincidently the sun is the highest in the sky!  Sit quietly for five minutes after lunch  and walk lightly five to fifteen minutes to aid the digestion. Later in the afternoon, take some time to sit quietly and/or meditate. 

                Dinner:  6 – 7 P.M.   Eat a moderate meal.  Sit quietly for five minutes after lunch and walk lightly five to fifteen minutes to aid the digestion. Dusk is another very powerful time of day. I like to sit and watch or feel the sun set. It is very calming and connecting for your body, mind and spirit.

                Bedtime:  9:30 – 10:30 P.M.  Light activity in the evening and to bed at least three hours after your dinner.

Now, I imagine you are thinking. “That’s not my schedule!”  And I can relate.  I have an 8:00 P.M. dance class on Wednesday nights!  One of the reason’s I bring this up is that our society is suffering from an all time high of insomnia, stress, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Humans are the only species, a famous drummer once said, that can intentionally get out of rhythm with the greater cycles.  Ever notice how crickets chirp in harmony at night?   They synchronize.  Ever notice how birds and other insects do a call and response.  One bird will do a call and another will respond.  If you are good at bird calls, you can mimic a call to a particular bird in your area and listen closely, sooner or later, you will hear a response!  This is all part of the synchronization of life cycles. 

People today are more out of balance than ever before! Once you begin to re-entrain with the natural rhythms, you will start to have more energy, be calmer, and therefore happier and healthier.   And consequently, learn your dance steps easier!  You will be riding the current instead of paddling against it.  If you have ever fought a head wind, or paddled up stream, you know how exhausting it is and how little progress you make! The exact same principle is applied here.

So, how to do it in a modern world? I have found for myself that the morning time is the most important.  Set the tone of the day with the meditation, yoga, or your own form of stretching, or exercise, and breathe work.  And, yes, I don’t always want to get up at 5 or even 6 A.M., but I am always grateful when I do.  Honestly, I am just more cheerful!

Now, you gotta plan for the meals and with our insane schedules, meals are falling low on the priority list. Fresh organic vegetables, grains and meats is the best. Pick more conscious restaurants. Prepare several meals on Sundays to get you through the first part of the week, then, take another evening or morning to prepare for the rest of the week. Best not to eat food more than three days old, as it loses too much nutrition the older it gets.  In other words, the food’s life force diminishes and therefore yours also.  Imagine how much life force is lost in packaged and caned foods that are months on shelves before they even reach the grocery store!

How to begin?  First step is becoming conscious of the cycles. So, that one is out of the way.  Second step is to commit to do something to improve your connection to the master rhythms, and the third step is to do it!  You will be very grateful once your body readjusts.  A good reference is Deepak Chopra’s book, Perfect Health.  Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Please write me on how you are doing.

We all know about the heart pulse in our necks and on our wrists, and if you have had your pulses read by an acupuncturist, naturopath, or an Ayurvedic Practitioner you know that you have pulses for all your organs. The rhythm and the strength of the pulse tells a trained practitioner about the health of the organ. Isn’t that just amazing! No cat scans, or X-rays  no blood tests needed, just reading an internal pulse that tells a clear story. Taoists have created methods for maintaining the energy balance of each organ i.e. health – by using the biorhythm clock. So, each organ has a special time of day corresponding to the solar and lunar rhythms. You may have heard Biorhythm referred to as the biological clock. So, for example 1-3 a.m. is the liver. 3-5 am are the lungs, 7-9 a.m. is the large intestine and so forth. So, why, do I bring this up? Because so many people now suffer from insomnia and fatigue. If you track what time you wake up in the middle of the night, and know the corresponding organ, you can have the meridian of that organ opened by an acupuncturist, or Taoists exercises to open the lines on energy to the organ so that the organ will heal itself. No drugs! .

I recently learned that there is also a corresponding muscle chart for the times. So, for example, let’s say you wake up at 2 a.m. each morning, maybe get up and use the bathroom and go back to sleep. It is not coincidence that you are waking at 2 and not at 4.  The 2 a.m. mark indicates that you have an imbalance in the energy flow of the liver meridian and also correspondently the Pectoralis Major Sternal muscle. Those muscles can be relieved by a special massage technique developed by Thomas Grinner. The process is neuro-soma. And there is one practitioner in Asheville, NC. His name is Dr. Rich Livernois and his number is 828-216-8966. There are others through the US. It is a little known study of how the muscular system effects not only the body’s structure, but also organ health! Grinner’s book is entitled What’s Really Wrong with You.  Before Grinner, no one had really studied how the muscular system effects the entire body. For a dancer, it is essential to have good muscle health. But, as a person ages the muscles stiffen, and it may not just be arthritis, but an accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles.

Most athletes and therefore dancers suffer from painful muscles. As the muscles are freed from the lactic acid with the neuro-soma massage, their receptors come back on line and can respond more quickly, become pain free and the circulation in the body improves. Corresponding organs also rejuvenate. Neuro-soma is not taught in massage schools yet or in the chiropractic schools, but you will see more about it in the future as more people learn about it. You can learn about it at www.neurosoma.com.

The rhythm cycles go through out the entire day, so if you notice the time your stomach hurts, or a discomfort arises, you will notice a pattern which can be traced back to the bio-clock. The bio-clock has twelve watches that correspond to the zodiac. Here is the entire chart:

                        1-3  A.M.                        Liver

                        3-5  A.M.                        Lungs

                        5-7  A.M.                        Large Intestine

                        7-9  A.M.                        Stomach

                        9-11  A.M.                      Spleen-Pancreas

                        11:  A.M. – 1 P.M.          Heart

                        1-3  P.M.                          Small Intestine

                        3-5  P.M.                          Bladder                     

                       5-7  P.M.                          Kidney

                        7-9  P.M.                         Heart Constrictor

                        9-11  P.M.                       Triple Heater

                        11 P.M. – 1:00 A.M.     Gallbladder

So, in summary, your internal rhythms, which are synced to the solar and lunar rhythms of our planet, run by your parasympathetic nervous system, directly effect your muscle, bone, and organ health.

 I hope these tips open new doorways to your health and your awareness. I will be writing more on how rhythm supports health, happiness, and joy!

 See you on the dance floor!

 Deborah-Marie

I really struggled with patterns when I was young. Even though I grew up on Greek Line Dancing ”Hopa!” It seemed like I had to relearn the “steps” every time there was a family gathering or a church dance. My cousin, on the other hand, could lead the dances with such flare and confidence. When I was put in the front of the line – you can bet against my protest – my heart quaked that my feet would not remember. I even took a Jazz class once, but could not continue as I couldn’t do the patterns. It was  a little disruptive, to say the least, when we were all dancing down the line in a sequence, and I fumbled and crashed into someone. I didn’t make many friends in that class!

But, after I took Dance in Rhythm Rhythm in Dance for three years while also learning how to play the Buk drum (you can see the Buk in the background of our promo, it’s hanging on a frame, just scroll down), then I could learn patterns!?  Something in my brain neurology changed. Some switch got turned on and my body was more connected to itself. Through the entire three years of DIRRID, www.dirrid.com) I could feel my brain changing. The only other time I felt my brain change SO distinctly was when I studied A Course of Miracles, a spiritual teaching of freedom. In the Course, all the old beliefs so embedded into my brain were transformed. Not that I just started to ‘think” differently, but that my neurological patterning was actually changed. I changed on a cellular level. Rhythm does the same thing. Ever know an African Drummer? Notice how grounded he/she is? That’s why. They are grounded, as their brains work differently!  I ‘ll ponder on this some more and get back to you. Any thoughts?

If you have trouble with rhythm, hearing the music, difficulty remembering the steps, or would just like to know about a different way to learn dance, you will find our method quite fascinating. We created a 2 DVD set on the East Coast Swing. It’s a live class with Warren Wilson Students who had never danced the new method. No rehearsal. We just taught the class and video taped it.   And then spent six months editing it!! Look below or click here to see a short video on the method. www.zediamonddancemethod.com. I know you’ll love, so please share the good news with your friends!

 See you out on the Dance Floor,

DMD

So, stayed tuned at noon tomorrow we launch!

It’s fun. Makes you smile and helps open your heart!

 ….more tomorrow

I have experienced so much suffering in this life and help thousands of folks through their own physical and emotional pain. So, many rapes, robberies, abuses on our planet, but conversely SO much joy. When the suffering is in our cells and DNA, we feel trapped. The moods are low and the fatigue blinding. How can you possibly get out of that?

One step at a time. No, quick fix. One prayer at a time. One gratitude at a time. One release and forgiveness at a time. Each day walking toward the light – one step at a time.  Even if you can’t see the light!  It’s there behind that  black cloud!

 I think that’s why I created my DVD. Because there IS something beyond pain. Plato was right – it’s joy. In October of 2008, I had ruptured another disc in my back, got cancer and well, just about died and I thought yikes, here we go again. Why do I have to experience everything through my body? Why can’t I just learn something vicariously????  So, I started to create something joyful. Purely selfish, I might add, as it was my way out of my own pain and imbalance. My back is healed and the cancer is gone, of course. In those places, joy resides. Dances really and smiles.

There’s an over soul for joy too, you know. Why not point to that star? Focus on what gives you joy, instead of what is wrong. We are discerning beings because we had to be to survive in the wild, but we don’t live in the wild anymore.

After 20 years in a healing practice of which I helped so many folks see their past and move beyond it, lift the pain from their cells and their soul, well it seems that pain is endless. Pain is infinite. When do you say, okay, no more?  Change your mind about it.  It’s hard. I know it is. Because it can overwhelm you and once you are trapped in your own pain, we are joined with the pain over soul and well there you have it. Your own little hell.  It can be a loop. You keep going back to the pain. Why not loop in joy?

And, I don’t mean unconscious joy, like when you drink, or take social drugs, I mean real pure joy. That vibration, the vibration of joy is divine. It’s god. Actually, it’s is said that the Earth’s vibration is joy. That’s why we feel so balanced when we are joyful. That’s why time stops. Because we are synced with our Mother – entrained. Our real Mother, not the one who we still may hold grudges against, but our one Mother. Our common Mother.  We all come from the same Mother and Father really. The Mother Father God. One Presence, one power. I guess really the choice is ours each day. When the hormones go nuts, the food cravings flood our brain, and even when our pain is beyond our tolerance, can’t we choose joy then too, instead of succumbing to it and  falling asleep to the truth? How about, okay, I’m in pain today? I’m exhausted today, but what is REALLY  important?  Joy. Period.  Joy.  Guess I will pitch my tent there. The joy tent. I’ll sit in there until this other aspect passes. It will pass. You’ll see.