Stoic Bodywork News Letter - January 2025:

Dear Honorable Fellows of the Human Genome,

My long time clientele may remember that the only thing I celebrate with any regularity (usually when reminded) is Lunar New Year. It was a big part of my training and a good mix of celebration and contemplation on how things change. Also, of how little time itself does, change that is. You see choices beget change. Correlation of those choices is what shapes the outcome to be expected. I wasn’t always so good at that part. Until I got better at pouring tea… I poured a lot of tea.

A great deal of my training was a reflection of my betters. A whirlwind of egos, accomplishments, opinions, directions, mistakes and a superimposed need for nostalgia. I was, more often than naught, fashioned to be an experiment for my betters. Curious I know, but so was I. Hind sight being twenty-twenty I suppose we call it all a success. Despite some nefarious, quasi-radical, and on occasion misunderstood implications of reality. Some my fault, some others. Mostly nonsense really. Long lost lessons, kind of like the tea.

Many people have heard of Kung Fu. You may be picturing an animated Panda eating noodles, and I do approve, but you may not know the irony of that. ‘Fu’ directly translates to ‘way’ or ‘method’. ‘Kung’ means hard, physical, or effort.

Kung Fu = Physical Method

Not many people learn Gung Fu. Gung denotes a possession and refers to self or mind. Fu stays the same.

Gung Fu = Mental (Your) Method

All the mystical, philosophical, metaphysical, social-economical, historical, add a bunch more words ending in ‘al’, nonsense aside. It was all just training in self awareness. The physical methods are typically the easiest to grasp. Most of it is a big game to teach you to stop being a reflection of everyone else and learn about who you truly are.

The full moon shining on the 13th (a Wolf Moon by chance) was the last of this Lunar Year. The new moon on the 29th ushers in the year of the Yin Wood Snake.

I’ve always found it interesting how that lone full moon shining brightly is just a reflection of the Sun, and the unseen new moon is the beginning of the year. Might be that where we start is seldom seen. Instead we spend time contemplating the reflections of that reality. Your Gung Fu, like your depression, is yours and yours alone. Kung Fu is how you got here. Gung Fu is what you did along the way. Understanding Shen answers the why of it all. I spend most of my time on that now.

My Gung Fu still finds solace and a home in quiet shadows often less traveled. Thus most of you have noted that I keep to myself. That is because it is my way. One I found after I became very tired of following everyone else’s.

That was my first glimpse of Shen.

I’m still very good at pouring tea, but now a days I usually just have a cup of coffee. More sunlight too, apparently its good for you. Still quiet though, like rain, something I enjoy very much.

As is tradition during the Lunar celebrations, a prediction and a piece of advice…

I predict we will see a year of great change, some good, some bad, a building hyper novelty that stretches the Yin Yang. Find your Gung Fu and practice it daily. You will need it and it will need you.

Happy New Year!

Always remember my ad nauseum disclaimer: I am not a doctor, medical or financial professional, and none of this is medical, financial or professional advice of any kind. Also, any affiliate links below will be noted with an asterisk ‘*’. Enjoy.

News:

• Stoic Sleep - Now available for purchase (currently in store only)

• Postural Assessments have been going well. Its a great way to start the year. Mention Lunar New Year at Checkout between now and the next News Letter for $25 off. Click here to book
  The package is $225 and includes:
  - 1 hour in person appointment with assessment and exercises for correction.
  - A full written report with pictures, notations and detailed findings including recommendations.
  - 6 week follow up appointment (30min) with comparison photos.
  - A $35 comparison report is also available at the follow up appointment if desired.

• Still waiting on approval of my new CEU course. Might do some seminars or workshops for the public, still gauging interest. Also looking for public speaking events, or might start a new podcast to scratch that itch. Novelty mostly, until things change a bit.

• That’s kind of it. Finishing the old projects up to get ready to start new ones. I feel awkward about it too, don’t worry, I’ll probably remedy this quickly.

Current work / research:

My research has turned more reflective. Looking at old pieces of information in new ways. Making connections between things I’ve learned in the past to that discovered more recent. This is a practice that has given me great insights into the human condition. Perhaps it will lead to a new book idea, or motivation to actually write another.

There’s probably some level of burnout occurring if I’m being honest. Pattern and cycle recognition requires an ever scaling level of forced feedback till resolved.

I do listen to all of you when you tell me I need to take a break. My obsession is my addiction and I did spend a lot of time studying Taoism… The immortal chooses their addiction in order to become immortal, not burdened by an addiction because they are immortal… Esoteric Pedantism I know.

One of my greatest endeavors and a unifying factor in everything I’ve ever researched, trained in, or experienced, is the work towards understanding what I call ‘Universe’.

In doing so I spend time on my ever growing ‘Grand Unified Theory of Nonsense’. A slightly satirical, mostly anecdotal, long winded, and certainly questionable explanation of the fundamental fabric of existence. Also the antithesis there of, which I should probably admit, interests me far more.

Perhaps you would be interested to know that the maps of the Chakra Points, Dan Tien Points, Ayurvedic Prana Points, TCM Acupuncture Points, Lymph Node Sites, and Vagus Nerve Innervation Sites all line up inside the weave of the Fascial System.

Or that most of the principality of existence in our shared Materium is predicated on the interactions of Light, Water and Magnetism.

Magnetism being the geometrical procession of force starting and ending in the same point of empty space. Or that in which would define a field without Cartesian or Euclidian dynamics. Gravity, yes, is defined in this way, just don’t tell academia.

Magnetism is the direct opposite of Electricity and vice versa. The median of the two is the Dielectric plane, which is the origin of all Light frequencies.

Water is a dipole molecule, just like the Vagus Nerve it is an upside down antenna. Water travels across the Fascial System to reach different tissues. The Fascia itself acts as a non-Newtonian fluid. Water is both a conductor and capacitor of Electricity and each cell of your body has a voltage, minuscule, but a voltage none the less. When considering the amount of cells in the body it becomes substantial.

Where there is Electricity there is Magnetism and thus the Bio-Electric field is created that encompasses the human system. The many layers of skin the insulation to that system. Insulation that both contains and defends us from these forces.

The Vagus Nerve is tasked with perceiving all of the changes in both the internal and external factors of Electricity and Magnetism. It then relays that information to the Central Nervus System.

Frequencies are the differentiation of the Materium as experienced. You and everything around you is a balance of Magnetism and Electricity. The different sides of the Dielectric Plane. The origination of all Light Frequencies.

For example, visual perception of the color spectrum is the color frequency that is reflected. If an object is a red color it is absorbing all the other visual frequencies and reflecting away the red. All of our senses are a perception of a specific range of frequencies that combine into our experience.

You and everything around you is an interaction of Light, in shape, size, material, color and all other sense modalities. Hard Light, Soft Light, Red Light, Green Light, Bright Light, Dim Light, Loud Light, Silent Light. Just measurements of frequencies.

Yin Yang. Two equal and opposite sides in measurement of something. Emphasis on the fact they are measuring something and not the something itself. Three pieces, trine, not dual. Sorry duality.

Magnetism bends and directs Frequency. Water stores and records it. Light is the measure of it.

The words often associated in the mystical worlds of cultivation are varied. Ki, Prana, Qi, Life Force, Luminaferious Aether, Quintessence. They are the descriptive interactions of those forces not well perceived because of a lack of an understanding of that described above. This is the world of the Bio-Electric field. Another glimpse into that which involves Shen. A life long endeavor. A path travelled, a lot of things missed.

Like I said… Esoteric Pedantism, a well researched specialty of mine.

Questions of the month:

What is Shen?

I can tell you it is often translated as ‘Spirit’. That, my dear readers, is a wholly inadequate translation and there is no possible way for me to explain to you something I myself do not currently fully understand. The best I can do is tell you it is the entirety of everything beyond our understanding that is not ‘Body’ or ‘Mind’ and is thus ‘Spirit’. It is also the anti… well… that. It’s the anti-everything. The part I’m really interested in.

(Have a question you want answered? Send it to info@stoicbodywork.com)

Unrelated:

Stoic and Chan/Zen ponderings:

1. Magick exists when you forget it doesn’t.

2. One person’s comedy is another’s drama. If your introspection is one and your social aspect is another. Are you two different people?

3. Déjà vu is just Nostalgia that hasn’t happened yet.

Smithing of Words:

Everything above is probably enough striking of the anvil this month. Not all pieces are worth sharing, most are mundane bloviation akin to making the 108th horseshoe. A necessary venture to finish the order, but not worth celebrating.

That would be enough for 27 horses. How did I know you were trying to figure that out?

Just chatting with Shen.

The real question to ask is if that was the whole order or do I still need to make more?

More… always more…

Rarely delayed characters on a page sounding the rhythmic patter of vibration falling solely for the effort. A cascading collection of individual strikes practicing the coordination of consciousness bestowed to the neutral chaos held behind a thin vale. Tippity, type, tippity, type. Like rain. Pitter, patter, pitter, patter. The calming strangulation of sound caressed by the deluge of distraction. A cacophony of silence followed by the smell of ozone and the crash after the blistering glare. Just like the antagonistic flashing of the cursor followed by… Delete, delete, delete.

There’s a reason I like rain. Like the hammer strike to the anvil. Like the repeated presses of the keys. Notes played, words spoken, steps taken. They all muffle the sounds of everything around us. Distractions are everywhere and the voice of the Universe is soft, and subtle. Like a simple ringing in the ear.

Curse you Shen, maddening and beautiful.

Like Violets in a downpour.

Thanks for reading. We look forward to seeing you at your next appointment.