Dewitt Jones

November 25, 2012

Change Is Possibility


Gazing at the water drops on this leaf there is a sense of capturing an exquisite moment.  Yet our experience tells us that in the next moment this will change as everything is always in motion.  Riding the inevitable movement of change is what this life of ours is all about.  What do we do with change – resist it, or choose to see and be open to possibility.

This past week during a class I was teaching on the breath at our local University here in Austin, Texas there was a moment that asked for a different awareness.  Participants were paired up to practice opening breathing spaces with each other by simply laying hands on shoulders, backs and sides of body.  At the end of the exercise the giver was to give a gentle shoulder massage and simply be present in the moment.  Coming over to one pairing I saw and felt the possibility for a shift and believed that it was there to emerge.

Placing my hands lightly on the person’s mid-back and fingertips mid-chest I simply encouraged the breath to release.  In that moment the person who was receiving was filled with breath as if she was being breathed.  She became taller and expanded her breathing spaces to such an extent that it felt like a miracle to her.  The amazed expression on her face was enough to validate that within change there is always possibility for yet something else to evolve if we are open.

The person responsible for the photo above, Dewitt Jones, says that we “won’t see it until we believe it”.   That can be said for feeling it as well….a sixth sense if you will that something else is about to emerge that is even more extraordinary than what is presenting in the moment.  Do we have the patience and the trust to simply wait and be directed from a deeper place than our minds.  Do we have the wisdom to look at what is right with our lives, our relationships, our breath, our world.

It is always right there within the framework of change…   Please take time to watch this 22 minute video by Dewitt Jones on celebrating what is right with the world and staying open to change.  As we enter into the holiday season it may offer an entirely different perspective to live and be grateful from.

http://www.celebratewhatsright.com/film

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WEBSITE:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

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October 9, 2011

Patterns As Prisons

Dewitt Jones  “Our patterns, too long unquestioned, become our prisons. Break the pattern! And see the scene before you with new eyes.”

Weekly I receive a picture and quote from DeWitt Jones, an internationally known photo journalist who is committed to viewing life and the world as something to celebrate every single day.  This weeks picture and quote made me start thinking about the patterns of breathing that we inhabit on a moment to moment basis, most of which we are completely unaware of.

What I saw in the pattern of the regimented vineyard above was multifaceted.  The red bucket of course interrupts the necessary uniformity required to grow and harvest grapes – almost as if it was an exclamation point thrown in to startle the eyes from only seeing a certain pattern.  The mass of yellow flowers beneath support the possibility of other choices as they wildly grow in whatever way they choose.

Having lived in wine country for 14 years I was used to seeing scenes such as the one in this picture and noticed when the new growth or Fall colors would change the landscape and thus the pattern.  However, there was always an underlying blueprint that best supported optimal growth.

This is how I see the patterns of our breathing.  The underlying blueprint for optimal breathing was installed before you were even born and activated once you took your first breath.  It is what is overlaying this healthy natural breath blueprint that I address here.

A very large percentage of people breathe very shallowly using secondary breath muscles (neck, upper back and chest).  Consequently why there is so much tension and discomfort in the head, neck and shoulders.  These muscles were never meant to be the primary care giver for the breath. They are often depended on because of bad posture, sitting for long periods of time, stress and fear, and most certainly lack of daily movement to stimulate natural breathing cycles as a result of being in our heads way too much of the time.

Did you know that there is a correlation between upper chest breathing and heart disease?  Of note is that almost all people that have had heart attacks are presumably chest breathers.  The heart is attached to the diaphragm by fascia.  Each time we breathe utilizing the diaphragm and other primary muscles for breathing the heart is massaged!

This is just one of the many benefits that a natural fluid diaphragmatic breath can bring.  Our primary breathing muscles are the thoracic diaphragm, the muscles between the ribs (intercostals), and the abdominal muscles (front of belly) as well as the pelvic diaphragm.  When you breathe in a natural healthy way the breath should be felt in pelvis, belly, back, and all of the ribcage.

Invite a full embodied breath in today and give it to the rising sun – a key to break free of the patterns that have captured your vital health and aliveness!

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WEBSITE:  www.IgniteWealthNow.com
January 17, 2011

Everything You Need to Know About Life Is In One Breath

“Everything you need to know about life is in one breath.”

–Dewitt Jones, Photojournalist

 

 

 

 

 

 

After listening to the recent interview with Dewitt done by Sheila Finkelstein of Picture to Ponder I was brought back again to what an important tool and a metaphor for life the breath is.   You fill yourself up and then the biological imperative is that you must give it back out.  We, at times, attempt to hold our breaths thinking that it will make us “safe”and nothing bad will happen. Amelia Earhart said “Who wants a life imprisoned in safety?”

 
That is what holding our breath is about. You can’t not breathe – but you can, if you choose to do so, contract away from your own life experience and the calling and relationships that may be asking you out to play, create, and experience life fully, by shallow breathing or holding the breath.

 

You have to breathe!  Taking in a full breath fills you, gives energy, stimulates natural biological processes, and expands your potential for excitement about life and the contribution that you naturally have to bring.

 

Your contribution is then present in the exhale.   A giving out of the fullness that you have just taken in from a place of enough – to sustain, support, and create new life. For within the exhale a space is created to bring in more.

 

There is always enough, and for most living things this process is on automatic.  It is something that we can trust and relax into, especially during particularly difficult or stressful times.  Can we use the breath as a tool for recognizing the wealth and potential that is our life now?

 

Soft belly, relaxed shoulders, face and mind at peace – take time NOW to enter a Breathing Space of fullness.

 

Take that full breath and move, breathe and listen to Words From The Hopi Elders:

( from the album Songs of the Earth – Majbritte Ulrikkeholm & Søren Frieboe)  The music video was filmed by Majbritte Ulrikkeholm & Søren Frieboe .  Listen to the album on www.majbritteulrikkeholm.dk)

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January 10, 2011

Beyond Our Own Boundaries

Eyes of A Child - Photography by Dewitt Jones

“If we want TRULY EXTRAORDINARY VISION then you have to continually expand your horizons, take risks.  If we don’t push our edge we’ll never expand our view.. It’s not trespassing to go beyond your own boundaries.”

–Dewitt Jones, National Geographic Photojournalist

Going beyond our own boundaries is an expression of creativity as I see it.  The expansive artist knows this well…and that artist is within all of us if we only let down the walls separating ourselves from the heart of our own unique vision.  I never quite know what I am going to post for the week on this blog, but somehow it always appears. How does that happen? I stretch out and open to see what comes in….and then creation is born.

Last year I found an amazing photojournalist, Dewitt Jones,  who works with National Geographic.   For me he represents that wild, creative, and curious soul that isn’t afraid to wait for opportunity to present itself.  He inhabits a breathing space of promise, possibility, vision, and the sacred in the practice of everyday creativity.  I was so taken with him that I posted a video that left me inspired to tap my own deep well of creativity and see possibility everywhere.  I give it here for you again in “Celebrate What Is Right With The World”.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/bethechange/videos/1/

Visual Banquet

“Every evening nature sets before us a visual banquet.
How often do we join her at the table?” D.J.

My favorite part of finding Dewitt is that one of my readers, Sheila Finkelstein, who is an inspirational artist/photographer herself, was so excited about discovering this man and his work that she e-mailed him last year…and he responded back!  Well to make a long story short she is now interviewing him at the end of this month and the information for that interview is below.

 

I invite you to join Dewitt and Sheila by clicking on the link below.   On this call you will learn that “creativity is not about being artistic, but about an attitude! An attitude that can change our perspective, invite limitless opportunities, and help us see the extraordinary.” DJ

http://www.throughandfromthelens.com/dewitt111.html

This interview is Tuesday, January 11, 8:30-9:30 EST so please go to the link above to sign up soon.  It is free of charge and an MP3 will be made available to you if you can’t be on the call.   Even if you don’t consider yourself a photographer, or better yet wish that you knew more about it, the time with both of them will take you to an expanded breathing space of how you “see” the world around you!

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