OBSERVER-HACKER-MASSER: Rapport d’atelier, en direct de Biopulse

December 12, 2013 <3

Jeudi 12 Décembre chez Biopulse Formation Massage s’est déroulé l’atelier débrouillard et futé OBSERVER-HACKER-MASSER, animé par Emily et tous les participants ainsi que Baba ! Nous avons noté en direct sur cette page certains éléments de cet atelier, et voici notre rapport ! Pour mémoire, inspiration, et partage !

En guise de préambule aux activités pratiques les participant.e.s ont réfléchit à 2 questions. L’une portait sur les “qualités” personnelles, l’autre sur les modes préférentiels d’apprentissage. Ces réflexions avaient pour objectif de sentir en soi le potentiel et la variété des formes apprentissages (et de transmissions ), libres, personnelles, collaboratives, et de prendre conscience de ses capacités, pour développer “son art” à partir de ses forces, ses sensibilités, ses ressources existantes, tout en mettant en commun avec ses pairs, pour augmenter encore d’avantage les connaissances et capacités de toutes et tous. Nous avons évoqué le concept anglo-saxon de “empowerment”, dans le sens de “se rendre capable”, de se concentrer sur ce qui va être “capacitant” pour soi, plutôt que le contraire…

Les réponses ont été mises en commun, discutées, et notées en direct, les voici – les prénoms sont remplacés par des pseudonymes

> Pensez à 3 qualités, talents personnels que vous avez… A priori éloignées ou pas, qu’est ce que ces qualités peuvent vous apporter en massage ?

baba

l’humour => accueil / énergie positive / légèreté/ protection, défense de soi (comme toute défense, intéressant en bon dosage, sinon on risque de barrer l’autre)
l’empathie => contact avec l’énergie / écoute
l’utopie => liberté / accessibilité du massage pour tous et par tous / transformation personelle et collective

dragon

patience => pas pressé d’arriver / être dans le processus / écoute
curiosité => stimule l’apprentissage / favorise une observation fine de l’autre
passion => énergie / plaisir / générosité / traverser les moments difficile avec la flamme qui continue

joker

générosité => donner
attentive, à l’écoute
joie => énergie positive, vitalité
gentillesse => envie de faire du bien

litsea

organisation -> le cadre, la structure, les rdv / organiser son discours pour la transmission / organisation du toucher / intégration du schéma corporel
empathie
créativité -> art vivant / adapter ses formes / ne pas s’ennuyer / inventer

sarah

initiative, prise de risque => oser proposer un massage qui ne parait pas immédiatement coller avec la demande, mais en fait correspond parfaitement. Suivre son intuition dans des chemins nouveaux.
confiance en soi => permet la prise de risque, l’écoute des intuitions, et une forme de stabilité.
bienveillance => évidemmment
synthèse, organisation => élaborer à partir d’une intuition, avoir rapidement une vision d’ensemble qui guide le massage

> Quelles sont vos modes préférés d’apprentissage ? Comment retenez-vous le plus facilement quelque chose ?

sarah

pas à l’école, partout ailleurs
à travers des rencontres
écriture / lecture
faire confiance à la maturation d’un apprentissage, savoir lâcher prise même dans l’apprentissage
les challenges, les épreuves

litsea

en écoutant

à l’école<3, dans un cadre structuré, à travers la prise de notes (qui ne seront pas nécessairement relues..)
par les couleurs

joker

quand on m’explique, qu’on me raconte une histoire, toute seule je n’arrive à rien.
En regardant quelqu’un, besoin d’un maitre
Avec des anecdotes, ou des images, des métaphores

dragon

l’expérimentation, jouer: si c’est ludique j’apprend plus facilement
visualisation, parcours mental ou corporel, mémoire d’un “chemin” sur le corps
désynchronisation des sens / dissociation, c’est à dire, un sens après l’autre: répétition d’une même info via plusieurs canaux différents
accompagné de musique

baba

ludique, rapport au plaisir / désir
situation / contexte plaisant

Emy

image / métaphores / allégories
si je dois/veux transmettre
reformulation dans mon propre langage
pas de musique
ressentir = savoir. Recevoir un massage c’est l’apprendre

Ces réflexions et mises en commun ont été suivi d’un réveil corporel ludique et sensible spontanément animé par Sarah, fait de secousses de 4×4 et ébrouements et cris d’ours.

De là nous avons chacun procédé à un “body scan”, ce qui nous a permit d’identifier et d’approcher de quelques “problèmes du jour”(en vue de “résolution” par notre groupe de hacker masseurs !)

Chacun profite de son réveil corporel pour ressentir dans soi l’état présent de son corps, identifier un “problème” du jour, et chacun profite de son ressenti pour dire de quoi, de quel(s) geste(s) cela lui donne immédiatement envie (le ressenti nous INSTRUIT sur le geste). Quelques problèmes et envies, suggestions:

Sensation d’avoir un “petit dos”, comprimé, rabougri, ratatiné => envie d’un bain aux essences et d’une bonne nuit de sommeil. En massage, nous suggérerions un thaï dans un rythme lent, océanique, composé surtout d’étirements.
Mal au dessus des omoplates => envie de pétrissage du trapèze, de ponçage de l’os omoplate
Fébrilité, Frilosité => envie de force, d’appuis, de frictions
“mal au muscle du torticolis” => envie de glissement, de étirement, et de rechercher les attaches du muscles
Fatigue, manque de sommeil, je ne sens pas mon corps comme d’habitude => bain aussi ! massage océanique pour emmener vers un bon sommeil, “décrasser” les parasites de la fatigue, massage de pieds, des mains…

Exploration en groupe de l’outil MAIN… et des manières imaginables de se servir d’une, ou deux, mains, paumes, doigts, pouces, éminences thénar… Poings… Percussions… Frictions…. Cela en fonction du “problème”, du “site” sur le corps, de ses caractéristiques etc…

RESOURCES & TOOLS

MARVELOUS FITNESS (I shall triumph over human lethargy)

December 9, 2013 <3

Here for your enjoyment some yoga / stretch / fitness exercises from Stan Lee’s STRENGTH & FITNESS book.

A few stretches in the morning and/or evening can go a long way. You don’t necessarily have to jump like Silver surfer, in fact, maybe you shouldn’t jump first thing, but do adopt a little morning routine to wake your body gently and activate your vitals so you can kick ass all day. Make it indispensable and obvious like a shower (let’s hope you do shower from time to time). In the evening, stretching will help you lose the tight uniform of a hero, so you can regenerate at ease, make room for new moves and ideas, sleep well, and be fit to kick ass again tomorrow.

The exercise below, the Jameson Roar, is a take on Simhasana, the Lion pose, in Yoga (as shown here also by BKS Iyengar). It is for me a MUST in morning stretch, very accessible and rewarding. It opens your face, brightens your vision, takes away tension in the jaws and at the back of the neck. Interesting for people with bruxomania (compulsive grinding of teeth in sleep) AND very interesting to practice before giving a speech

When bending forward and letting your head hang like Spiderman below, you might want to flex your knees, to go easy on them and your legs if you are not very flexible (you should not feel pain). Certainly flex your knees on the way up, even if you’re flexible, and rise up slowly, vertebra after vertebra, from the sacred to the cervical region where your head rests. Once you are standing, see that your shoulders are in a good alignment, not falling in front, not too much in your back, and keep them low (you ARE strong, no need to brag about it more).

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

HACK STRESS and prevent collateral damages to yourself

December 4, 2013 <3

WHAT IS STRESS ?

Stress is a useful, dynamic state of tension that will boost your mind and body when you need to actively and quickly respond to extraordinary demanding situations. Hence the idea is not to rid our lives of stress altogether, but rather, to learn to operate at “optimum” levels of stress, to calm down when stress is done serving its purpose, and to find balance between challenges. Indeed, if the mind and body do not experience regularly the state opposite to stress -rest, relaxation, regeneration- the general well-being and health of a person can suffer some serious aches in the long run.

STRESS activates your senses for action, it prepares you to “flee or fight“, as evolution scientists like to put it. It can be defined as a powerful set of physiological and behavioral responses to a set of demands and pressures. Some of the demands and pressures you perceive come from outside (surveillance dispositive, laws, heavy work-load, aggressive threats, poor weather, noisy surroundings, lack of daylight…), some you might have “internalized” (education, prejudices, norms…), and some are more personal/internal and/or or related to your actual physical condition (ideals, personal views, illness, hunger…). These are often entangled. When they “reach” a critical level, very subjective, all these demands and pressures trigger your stress response.

REACTION AND OVER-REACTION

Together, your nervous and endocrine systems operate some switches and start “firing” their neurotransmitters, and specific stress hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine, a.k.a. adrenaline and noradrenaline, cortisol…), which, networking between your organs via nerves and blood vessels, sensitize and prepare all systems for a joint action. Your heartbeat rises, your breathing becomes faster and shallower, your digestion and excretory functions are put on hold, memories are pushed aside to boost focus on one concern, your muscular skeletal system gets extra tensed and tonic, you mouth goes dry, you start to sweat, etc.

That is a LOT of ACTION. Normally, it all goes back to a calm pacific state once the danger is dealt with, mind and body rest and you regenerate after the extra struggle. But if/when all this ACTION goes on after the challenge has passed or if – as is the case – the fight or resistance is NEVER OVER and you cannot allow yourself to stop, your mind and body become at risk of turning into a devastated, depleted battlefield, with little resources for you (or others) to draw from, and a likely generalsensitization that will make you each time more vulnerable to the next attack… until you are the one unconsciously attacking yourself with this chemistry. And while the demands and pressures are probably still (out)there stressing you, your stress response also starts feeding on itself… And there you are, entering the dodgy state of CHRONIC STRESS…

CHRONIC STRESS

Symptoms of CHRONIC STRESS will quite logically and frantically reflect the havoc in all your body systems: tormented digestion (diarrhea for example) which in turn might lead to bad assimilation of nutrients, bad sleep (insomnia…), poor immunity (susceptibility to infections, allergies, auto-immune and inflammatory diseases…), cognitive disorders (bad memory, memory loss, poor concentration..), heart problems (high blood pressure, tachycardia.. ), emotional distress (depression, rage, panic attacks…), below ground libido and/or sexual dysfunctions, muscle strains, pathologies of the tendons, ligaments and joints (caused by some of the above + bad posture associated with chronic tensions), adoption and/or abuse of “toxic” and/or addictive substances (alcohol, tobacco, pain killers, sleeping pills, coffee… you name it) in attempts to self-regulate and/or compensate for difficulties in all the above areas, more vulnerability to addiction. So much for “survival” then…

Once the damages are done it takes long for the mind and body to recuperate (of course the longer the non-stop stress period the worse). Better then to think about how to balance your forces AS YOU GO. If/when you understand better your stress response and become more aware of how efficiently or badly it affects you, you can start having ideas on how to prevent damage to yourself and yes, to others (whom you might be neglecting or shouting at, or taking ill advised, impulsive decisions for). You are welcome to share these ideas ! Here are some known tricks and strategies I have used for myself and, sometimes others, with positive results.

SWITCH OFF the STRESS RESPONSE WITH DEEP (ABDOMINAL) BREATHING

The part of the nervous system that is specifically involved with the stress response is the autonomic nervous system (a.k.a involuntary) responsible for the automatic (without thinking) control of basic essential and visceral functions, which I have described above (respiration, heart rate, digestion…). The autonomic nervous system is comprised of two antagonist systems, that is, two distinct networks of nerves connecting the same organs but with opposite effects: the sympathetic nervous system stimulates action as in the stress response, where it prevails, while the parasympathetic system is responsible for rest and regeneration (both do so by inhibiting or stimulating this or that, see image). The nerve branches of the sympathetic system exit the spine at the thoracic and lumbar vertebras, while the nerve branches of the parasympathetic exit the spine at the cervical and sacred vertebras.

In stress response, the sympathetic system is king. As I have said, breathing is faster and shallower. The muscular work/effort of breathing (which always involves various principal and accessory muscles) tends to be concentrated in the shoulders and thorax, with the diaphragm not going down very low in the abdomen. Next time you feel stressed, anxious, observe what is happening with your breathing, what do you notice? (notice, for example, how your tummy is sticking in and not ballooning out like a kid’s). We cannot control the fact that we breathe to be alive -that’s where the autonomic nervous system is involved- but we can have control over HOW we breathe thanks to our central nervous system and brain.

To switch to the parasympathetic system, that will favor a state of relaxation, you can try deep abdominal breathing. Lower the shoulders (=lower the guard !), lie down if you can, place a soft hand on your abdomen, another one on the thorax/heart (feel the heart pounding and later feel how it slows down). Breathe in through the nose, extend your diaphragm to the max, let air in all the way DOWN to the most remote places of your obscure belly, let your abdomen fully BALLOON. Breathe out (empty slow the balloon) through the mouth until there is no air left down there. Then, naturally, just like a pump, fill your belly up again. Think only of what you are doing : breathing in and out, and FEEL what it feels like. What does it feel like in the abdomen when it stretches to the shape of a balloon ? What does it feels like to have that “knot” at the solar plexus slowly soften, untie ? There in your plexus, travels a very important nerve of the parasympathetic system, called the vagus nerve. The movements of your deep diaphragmatic breathing will likely stimulate this nerve and help you switch systems, from sympathetic to parasympathetic. Meanwhile, the fact that you are no longer breathing so much in the thorax will lessen the stimulation to the nerve branches of the sympathetic system that exit at these vertebras and also contribute to that switch. Slower heartbeat, loose breathing, that chilly feeling, laid-back stomach sounds (indicating a restart of peristalsis) all signal that you have made it to a quieter state.

Practice on yourself whenever necessary and in more quiet times, so that you are ready when it IS important that you come down. Practicing on yourself will then allow you to practice on someone else who might need your help to achieve this switch. It is a very caring hack that requires patience, trust, confidence. You do not impose a way of breathing to someone, you create a space, conditions and contact that are welcoming for them to find their way to relaxation through deep breathing. I have practiced with success on myself and people who showed up at my massage table with a lot of anxiety.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS AND TIPS

– Break it down! You might want to break down whatever “THE” great MISSION into sequences of smaller missions, for a start, so you can identify “cycles” more easily, and make room for rest/recuperation after completion of each task.

– Identify and analyze demands and pressures both external and internal and make all possible changes immediately AT HAND to alleviate these. It might not be easy to influence which scumbag is going to be at the head of a state or an institution, but it is probably in your power to not let yourself starve while thinking about it. Don’t add to a long list of stressors outside by neglecting yourself and/or your surroundings. Take all the “stones” you think are no “big deal in comparison to the importance of the cause” out of your boots NOW so you can have more strength to actually climb the mountain. Meditate to identify which external pressures and demands you’ve unconsciously taken to be yours and can or should discard, spot pressures and demands that actually belong to the past (but for some odd reason you behave like they are still on), reflect upon YOUR interpretations of stressful situations, modify them so they suit you better, and eventually make your mind more caring and comfortable for your SELF, that needs not be oppressed further.

– Acknowledge your emotion(s) and others’ emotion(s) in stressful situations. ANXIETY, ANGER, and SADNESS are the three main emotions associated to the state of stress. Emotions are great, they are vital, so once again, it’s not about getting rid of them, it’s about balance. Understanding emotions, so that they contribute to a vibrant life rather than become a pain (to you and others’) deserves an article which I will write another day. IMHO, one advice that can go a long way is to acknowledge the emotions that come knocking at your door during stress. It sounds easy, but it is in fact quite an art, and most people are not very good at it. And many cannot even tell emotions apart, anger or fear, or sadness… Work on that. Learn to be able to say to yourself (or to someone if necessary -acknowledging emotions actually takes a lot of heat off interpersonal conflicts): “Oh, this is anger – Hello anger – You want to cross me ? Sure, ok, just get across then ! ” Kind of “data must flow” applied to emotional life. It is a 100% non judgmental. ANGER is ANGER, SADNESS is SADNESS, neither good or bad. Resist them emotions, and they’ll bother you for hours. Welcome them, and you’re done with them in 20 minutes.

– Install and SUSTAIN regular eat / sleep / and other life patterns. Most things in the body work hand in hand, alternating with their antagonist and counterparts. It is like a dance, you don’t want all your systems always stepping on each others feet, conflicting, or becoming shy on you or shutting down, you want them to settle a little bit as to when they come in and when they come out to do what is is they have to do for your to be well. Think CYCLES, complete.

– Move your body where it has not been moved and relax that which has been tensed too long.

– Practice relaxation techniques or disciplines that will favor the state antagonist to stress, like Chi-Kung, yoga, mediation, breathing techniques, or other not necessarily “oriental”. The deep tummy breathing described above can be practiced daily. Be aware that SPORTS (as in tennis, or running, or squash) might still solicit your active side. Although sports certainly have good effects (like building stamina or “emptying the mind”) they won’t necessarily bring your system to COOL DOWN. Getting a massage is also a good idea, or getting someone to gently scratch your back…

Disclaimer: I am here to share what I know, what I have experienced and read, but I am not a qualified doctor ! Do consult with one in due time if you experience stress related disorders that you feel might be endangering your physical and/or mental health.

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

Switch Off from stress with abdominal breathing

December 4, 2013 <3

The part of the nervous system that is specifically involved with the stress response (described in details in previous post) is the autonomic nervous system (a.k.a involuntary) responsible for the automatic (without thinking) control of basic essential and visceral functions (respiration, heart rate, digestion…). The autonomic nervous system is comprised of two antagonist systems, two distinct networks of nerves connecting the same organs but with opposite effects: the sympathetic nervous system stimulates action as in the stress response, where it prevails, while the parasympathetic system is responsible for rest and regeneration (both do so by inhibiting or stimulating this or that, see image). The nerve branches of the sympathetic system exit the spine at the thoracic and lumbar vertebras, while the nerve branches of the parasympathetic exit the spine at the cervical and sacred vertebras.

In the stress response, the sympathetic nervous system is king. Breathing is faster and shallower. The muscular work/effort of breathing (which always involves various principal and accessory muscles) tends to be concentrated in the shoulders and thorax, with the diaphragm not going down very low in the abdomen. Next time you feel stressed, anxious, observe what is happening with your breathing, what do you notice? (notice, for example, how your tummy is sticking in and not ballooning out like a kid’s). We cannot control the fact that we breathe to be alive -that’s where the autonomic nervous system is involved- but we can have control over HOW we breathe thanks to our central nervous system and brain.

To switch to the parasympathetic system, that will favor a state of relaxation, you can try deep abdominal breathing. Lower the shoulders (=lower the guard !), lie down if you can, place a soft hand on your stomach, another one on the thorax/heart (feel the heart pounding and later feel how it slows down). Breathe in through the nose, extend your diaphragm to the max, let air in all the way DOWN to the most remote places of your obscure belly, let your abdomen fully BALLOON. Breathe out (empty slow the balloon) through the mouth until there is no air left down there. Then, naturally, just like a pump, fill your belly up again. Think only of what you are doing : breathing in and out, and FEEL what it feels like. What does it feel like in the stomach when it stretches to the shape of a balloon ? What does it feels like to have that “knot” at the solar plexus slowly soften, untie ? There in your plexus, travels a very important nerve of the parasympathetic system, called the vagus nerve. The movements of your deep diaphragmatic breathing will likely stimulate this nerve and help you switch systems, from sympathetic to parasympathetic. Meanwhile, the fact that you are no longer breathing so much in the thorax will lessen the stimulation to the nerve branches of the sympathetic system that exit at these vertebras and also contribute to that switch. Slower heartbeat, loose breathing, that chilly feeling, laid-back stomach sounds (indicating a restart of peristalsis) all signal that you have made it to a quieter state.

Practice on yourself so that you are ready when it IS important that you come down. Practicing on yourself will then allow you to practice on someone else who might need your help to achieve this switch. It is a very caring hack that requires patience, trust, confidence. You do not impose a way of breathing to someone, you create a space, conditions and contact that are welcoming for them to find their way to relaxation through deep breathing. I have practiced it with success on myself and on people when they showed up at my massage table with a lot of anxiety.

This article is part of a previous larger article about the stress response: HACK STRESS and prevent damages to yourself (and others) in the process of fighting for your ideals

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

REPOS / REST

December 1, 2013 <3

La sagesse du dimanche soir:

” Le vrai repos est celui où l’homme s’arrête quand le moment est venu de s’arrêter et se meut quand le moment est venu de se mouvoir”

Richard Wilhelm, à propos du “repos”, dans son commentaire de l’hexagramme 52 KEN (l’immobilisation, la montagne) du Yi King, Livre des transformations.

J’ai remarqué qu’il est fréquent de négliger l’un ou l’autre de ces deux termes/principes, qui pris ensemble opèrent pourtant une bonne régénération des forces vitales, le cycle étant complet. Il semble même que certaines personnes tendent à négliger préférentiellement l’un ou l’autre, l’arrêt ou l’activité, selon leur “tempérament” ou “habitudes”. Il y a alors les personnes qui vont avoir tendance à se dévitaliser d’avantage en s’arrêtant trop, et celles qui vont avoir tendance à persister dans l’activité par dessus les ravins de fatigue qui se creusent, et toutes arrivent à l’épuisement finalement par des voies différentes. Wilhelm émet l’hypothèse que l’interprétation de cet hexagramme renvoie aussi à la pratique du yoga. Je perçois en effet comment le yoga peut contenir en lui même cette grande petite leçon là.

Some sunday night wisdom:

“True rest is when one stops when time has come to stop and moves when time has come to move”

Richard Wilhelm about “rest”, in his commentary of hexagram 52 KEN (keeping still, the mountain) in the I ching Book of changes.

I have noticed that it is quite common to neglect either one of these two terms/principles, which when united bring good, full regeneration of life forces, for the cycle is complete. It even seems to me that some persons tend to neglect preferentially either one or the other, of stillness or activity, according to their “temperament” and/or “habits”. Then, there are the ones who tend to devitalize themselves further by keeping still too much, and the ones who insist on pedaling over ravines of weariness, and all reach exhaustion eventually following different paths. Wilhelm also makes the hypothesis that the interpretation of this hexagram refers in some ways to the practice of yoga. I think I see how yoga can indeed include this big small teaching.

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

Que sont nos signaux somatiques devenus?

November 28, 2013 anne

« Your injured body has become the burden of your digital soul.»
Yin Aiwen, 2013, The Massage is the medium

─Séance de Feldenkrais [1]─
Intégration Fonctionnelle

Plongée intérieure
dans un corps
comme système
Réaliser qu’il est
immensément complexe
et que les mécanisme et circulations
qui s’y trament
y sont très largement inconnus et ignorés.

Nous étions partis dans l’esprit comme habitat ultime
Depuis quand avons-nous commencé à déserter nos corps
les vouloir obsolètes?

Je regarde et relis le film et la documentation de cette performance et installation magnifique d’Aiwen Yin: The Massage is The Medium, 2012

Je recopie quelques petits extraits de la voix off qui accompagne la performance, telle que retranscrite par Emily King

[…]

Peut-être qu’à force d’extériorité
d’harnachement aux artefacts
de cognition
qui déposent dans l’espace
lointain
et proxémique
à force de sortir du corps
nos pensées
et idées
et
mémoires…
nous sommes devenu.e.s
à nous-mêmes
inconnu.e.s

des systèmes oubliés
lointains
relégués
aux soins de soi
délégués
aux experts en dérèglements
qui parlent en règles
en régimes
en régiments
d’instructions médicales
mécaniques
désaffiliés

Hello computer
partenaire d’évasion
colonel d’invasion
de l’espace
de nos corps:
nous revenons.

Est-ce que je force le trait?
Est-ce que j’invente un passé?
que dit l’archéologie de nos présences au corps depuis le temps que nous sommes numériques?

Le vieux Marx parlait d’un continuum.

Tout ce qu’on appelle l’histoire universelle n’est rien d’autre que l’engendrement de l’homme par le travail humain. [2]

Si nous sommes parti.e.s
ailleurs
et absenté.e.s
nous allons donc nous réengendrer
et penser de tous nos corps
prolongés

Encore?

Le post-humain est-il post-cyborg?
Le post-cyborg est-il post-humain?
Le post du post est-il là?
Au cœur d’une circulation,
une conversation à reprendre
entre artefacts cognitifs, corps pensants, et pensées outillées

re-prise de corps
aussi inconnu.e.s brillant.e.s, éléctriques, usé.e.s, perdu.e.s et à portée de main,
et de signal, l’un.e que l’autre.

Les techniques somatiques
reviennent
comme des prises, des langages
de programmation et de lecture
de nos corps systèmes
aux langues oubliées
presque mortes
organes inutiles
déplacées dépassées
remplacées
prothésées
Un retour vraiment?
Ou un nouvel appel à exploration d’une dimension ignorée

body signal within techno noise
body noise to techno signal
embodied techno signal
au présent

Ontologie hacker
à renverser
inter-verser
intérieurement
retracer le circuit
de l’origine de nos pensées
de l’émergence du signal
de sa circulation

Taire les signaux
les ignorer
à force
jusqu’à perdre
le sens de lecture
l’écoute
le décodage
des signaux
des signes
des pulsations
des souffles
des douleurs
des rythmes
qui battent
et pulsent
et disent

Communications systémiques à reprendre
opérer
nos artefacts à cœur ouvert
et désirer
que corps obsolètes
ressortent des tiroirs
et s’extirpent des chaises
et nos mains des souris
en dansant

des ré/assemblages.

… suite sur le délinéaire du labnt2 …

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

OBSERVER-HACKER-MASSER: Atelier de massage bien-être à Paris le 12.12.2013

November 27, 2013 <3

Jeudi 12 Décembre 2013 Emily animera chez Biopulse Formation Massage à Paris l’atelier OBSERVER-HACKER-MASSER.

L’atelier propose de découvrir l’application de l’éthique du hacker à l’apprentissage et la pratique du massage bien-être. Le terme anglais « hacker » peut se traduire par « bidouilleur », « bricoleur », et est loin de ne se référer qu’à la figure du pirate informatique plus ou moins malveillant communément relayée par les médias. Si la malveillance existe (et les questions relatives à la vie privée, à l’intrusion, résonnent avec le massage), il existe aussi de nombreuses personnes passionnées exerçant leur savoir-faire, leurs ingéniosités curieuses, selon une éthique ayant pour coeur le bien commun, la joie d’apprendre, de résoudre des problèmes, de partager le libre-savoir et cultiver les connaissances. C’est dans cette optique que nous nous situons avec cet atelier de massage. Que peut signifier hacker-masser ? Qu’est-ce que ce rapprochement peut nous apporter en tant que practicien-nes bien-être ?

Cet atelier est né d’une collaboration avec La Quadrature du Net, association française de défense des droits et des libertés fondamentales des citoyens sur Internet, lors du festival international OHM (Observe-Hack-Make) 2013 auquel Emily a participé avec eux. Un compte rendu de cette expérience est disponible ici.

OBSERVER-HACKER-MASSER

Jeudi 12 Décembre 2013, de 19h30 à 21h30

Biopulse Formation Massage

12 Rue Saint Sauveur

75002 PARIS

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VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

About hackers and depression

November 22, 2013 <3

Some material related to hackers’ psychological well being/health in the article CRACKING SUICIDE: HACKERS TRY TO ENGINEER A CURE FOR DEPRESSION, By Adrianne Jeffries. Full text here.

EXTRACTS :

WHAT’S IN A HACKER ?

(…)Bernadette Schell, vice-provost at Laurentian University, studied hackers for more than a decade. (…) She wanted to know whether hackers matched their portrayal in the media, which at the time considered them maladjusted cyber-psychopaths. ”I kept looking for everything that would support these myths,” she said.

“What I found was that the hacker community was a very well-adjusted group of individuals.“ At the time, the perception was that hackers were computer addicted, high-strung type A personalities. But the hackers in Schell’s study turned out to be emotionally balanced, “self-healing” type B personalities. They were a bit more introverted than the average population, but still socially connected. Most were employed and made more than the median income level. Incidence of depression was not higher than in the general population. (In fact, some studies have shown that engineers, a group that has a lot of overlap with hackers, have one of the lowest depression rates compared to other occupations.) The hackers were so resilient that even being sent to jail or charged for hacking crimes did not affect their reported stress levels long term.

JUST FIX IT

(…)The roboticist, hacker, and Discovery Channel personality Zoz, also known as Andrew Brooks, served as a student mentor while getting his PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He ended up counseling a lot of depressed undergrads who tried to reverse-engineer a solution rather than seek help. Many hackers even refer to their strategies for dealing with depression as “hacks.”

(…)Of course, depression can be difficult to synthesize into a math problem. The cause is usually a combination of cascading factors that are often difficult to trace. The solution can be even harder to pin down.

“It can be incredibly frustrating to be sitting there, looking at your own brain, and going, ‘right, I entirely understand that something is not quite right with the way that my neurotransmitters are communicating with the receptors in my brain,’” Patterson said. “‘I recognize that I can tinker with this balance and otherwise engage in manipulations of my own mental state to try to resolve this situation. I understand all of this, and why is it not working?’”

HACKING TOWARDS SOLUTIONS

(…)The popular impression that hackers have a high suicide rate could be because many of the hackers who killed themselves were at the top of their fields, and the highly gifted are statistically more likely to suffer from depression. The community’s facility for dissecting, analyzing, and communicating on the internet — a medium that naturally amplifies its message — has also contributed to the perception that there is a hacker suicide crisis.

In reality, the situation is getting better. While there are still some negative associations with mental health issues among hackers, that’s true of most cultures. Like the broader public, awareness of mental health issues is growing, and resources like BlueHackers.org, which has information about depression geared to hackers, and IMAlive, an instant message version of a suicide hotline, have helped countless hackers through their issues. Hackers are also eager to help each other; the line for Baldet’s talk started forming 20 minutes before it was set to start, and she was mobbed by questioners afterward.

Six months after Sassaman died, Patterson appeared on a panel called “Geeks and Depression” at the 2011 Chaos Communication Congress (CCC), an international hacker conference.

(this article was first published 28th August 2013 by Le massage en images)

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

Habit “turns us into machines”

November 21, 2013 <3

“Lack of choice makes strain habitual”

“As long as superfluous effort is invested in any action, man must throw up defenses, must brace himself to great effort that is neither comfortable, pleasurable, nor desirable. The lack of choice of whether to make an effort or not turns an action into a habit, and in the end nothing appears more natural than that to which he is accustomed, even if it is opposed to all reason or necessity.”

“Habit makes it easier to persist in an action, and for this reason it is extremely valuable in general. Nevertheless, we easily over-indulge in habits, until self criticism is silenced and our ability to discern is diminished, which gradually turns us into machines that act without thinking.”

Text: Moshe Feldenkrais, in Health Exercise for Personal Growth.

Illustration: Fritz Kahn, Man As An Industrial Palace, 1926

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

OBSERVE-HACK-MASSAGE

November 21, 2013 <3

Here I am back from my tour with time to reflect on the wonderful experiences I’ve lived this summer in company of La Quadrature du Net, the french organization in the defense of civil rights and freedom on the Internet, and friends from around the world.

Invited to join their village as a hacker-masseuse on the OHM2013 festival for hackers and makers in the Netherlands, I took part with all my heart for a week, along with a team, to bring massage and care to a place where it was not much represented…at all.

Our “Hacking with Care” team was composed, for massage, of myself and physiotherapist student Baptiste, who had come to lend a hand (two actually!), of JB hacker-maker of MyOwnStretchWare (nice piece of “reverse engineering for public health”), with whom we put the proposal together and who was also behind the funky initiative Nail art for nerds, and of dancers Karine Rathle and Anne Goldenberg from Quebec, with whom we teamed up to propose workshops.

The Nail art for nerds, carried out on a playful DIY basis proved great to bring awareness, sensation and meaning (messages, symbols, logos were painted on nails) to the tip of these ultimate 21st century tools which are our hands and fingers. Massage was MUCH wanted all day long and MUCH appreciated. Workshops had great, happy, responsive, audiences.

Indeed, the two consecutive workshops Karine, Anne and I gave on the third day made for a sensational afternoon. First, Karine and Anne conducted Atten!ion Som(t)a(c)tic, an embodiment workshop in which participants were invited to explore through various postures the physical and more subtle sides of their relationship to their devices (computers, phones…), and to pain and pleasure when working with a machine. Then, to an already quite relaxed and very enthusiastic crowd, I gave a hands-on massage workshop, named after the festival : Observe-Hack-Massage ! My intention was rather simple: With the same passion everyone around felt for their discipline, I set to explain to bright crafty people how the same hacking spirit they apply to pretty much everything can also be applied to the art of massage and body care – a dimension where most had been more shy all week – with great enjoyment and results ! It was very exciting, and people were still exchanging massages on our village after the workshop was over. I heard some were already talking of setting up a massage corner in their hackerspace, and already thinking about how to build the massage table themselves…

At the end of the camp, it was obvious the “Hacking with care” team had done a wonderful job. Each activity invited people to engage with each other (and their devices !) in a variety of (new) ways, brought awareness about one’s body, one’s relationship to others, to machines and to work, and helped soften some barriers between genders, in a community still dominantly masculine (it felt more balanced on our camp..).

Most of all, all these activities blended very well with the magic conviviality of the tea house, which was at the heart of La quadrature du Net’s project for OHM2013.

The tea house was ran collectively by LQDN’s team and visitor volunteers, who were spontaneously taking turns at being Tea Masters -very horizontally though- and served a fine selection of tea to everyone from dusk ’til dawn. Various workshops and debates took place sitting at these handmade tables, sipping erva maté or pu-erh, discussing topics such as Net Neutrality, Copyright Reform, or how to “make datalove” to your neighbor, as heartily and rightly argued by spokesperson for LQDN Jérémie Zimmermann in the talk he gave.

It was a beautiful gathering and bridging of talents and hearts. We all got a LOT of positive feedback. Many people expressed many gestures of gratitude and support for the hacking with care project, whether they had individually received a massage or not.

We know now there is clearly room for more hacker-masseur and hacker-masseuses like me (and other body and soul practitioners) in the hackers world, just as there are, I believe, many massage or other healthcare/body practitioners who could benefit (and so would everyone they care for) from injecting some of that hacking spirit into their own practice.

A downside of this beautiful success ? I didn’t have much time to attend talks or workshops given by others… Indeed, for the proposal to be as successful as it turned out to be, I kind of had to stick around the massage booth ! I have lots of catching up to do !

Luckily, La Quadrature du OHM’s Village attracted many talented persons in its DIY dwellings (almost pumping them in and out like a strong loving heart would do). In the end I had the opportunity to exchange thoughts with the passers by and I learnt a lot, thanks to a genuinely generous attitude I find many had in common. I even got the chance to swap sessions and received one of the most beautiful massages in my life (which is always a lesson in itself). Hackers, you will learn, are certainly not all disembodied goofs like you’d expect them to be. Clichés are often worth crap, but they seemed to make even less sense there in this community. There are many colors to the hackers hats, not just white or black or grey, and sometimes rainbow ! Speaking of which, we were called “hippies” a couple of times, which I actually take as a compliment, if not a manifest, in times so perverted with murderous greed and totalitarian fear. Shouldn’t ideals of love, goodness, sharing and caring, be key ingredients in any form of resistance to human-made evils ? Doesn’t the world stand better chances to be a nicer place for all if/when these ideals are “built-in” our technologies ? LQDN seems to think so, and I think so too.

So it was an important week… For us, and for two civil disobedience heroes in particular: Private Bradley Manning -from now on Chelsea Manning- who was convicted on July 30th of 17 charges including 5 counts of espionage and theft, and whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum by Russia and left the Moscow airport on the 1st of August of that week.

French readers who wish to find out more about these events and what went on in OHM2013 can read a series of articles written “en direct” from OHM by journalist Jerôme Hourdeaux for Mediapart.

Finally, I would like to say once again THANK YOU to everyone and to LQDN especially. I hope to be back with more projects and collaborations soon, we sure have lots of ideas to explore and put into practice !

I will be giving the Observe-Hack-Massage workshop again, starting with a session on Thursday December 12th, at the Biopulse School of Massage in Paris. Contact them directly, not me, for information and registration.

Meanwhile, if you want to help La Quadrature Du Net to keep on keeping ‘on, you can make a donation on their website (or reach them if you have other helpful propositions to make). If you want to help me to keep on keepin’ on, well, be sure to book a massage or workshop next time I’m in town ! It will do everyone good

PEACE AND DATALOVE

(this article was first published August 22nd 2013 by Emily King – Le Massage En Images here)

ART & INSPIRATIONS

“Feel what the medium has done to you”: Artist Yin Aiwen

November 21, 2013 <3

Taking media analyst Marshall Mc Luhan’s famous theoretical pun that “the medium is the massage” almost to the letter as a staring point, chinese artist Yin Aiwen designs a performance-installation in which massage plays a central part, until the initial statement appears to be reversed, and “the massage” re-installs itself as “the medium”. A true human massage ultimately appears as a possible antidote to the panoply of psycho-physical pains quite willingly (=unconsciously?) inflicted to oneself by the modern human, otherwise “massaged” into a disembodied alienation by the soft, gentle, falsely-caring mass media machinery.

I as a masseuse happen to think highly about massage, and this work strikes me as interesting. I may have a few hesitations about the piece (mostly about the dispositive), still I feel it is conveying important, inspiring, and potentially emancipative material.

The dispositive is as follow: Yin Aiwen gives a 15 minutes a chinese medical massage to a participant installed in a massage chair, at the headset of which is installed a tablet playing a video-montage of clips from mass culture. A voice over reads, in a more or less relaxing, therapeutical tone, a text exploring the relationship between media, machines (computers specifically) and the receiver’s body, their pain, their vitality, all along questioning them, engaging them in instructive feedback loops with their sensations. A small audience is invited to watch the session.

It is almost a clever piece of reverse engineering, Yin Aiwen giving a massage and deducing, from the informations she collects at her expert fingertips, the design of the “end product”, the end product here being the human being in the capitalist world… So that she could then re-build this human being, re-model them, correct them, free them from this socio-economical-mechanical blocking ?

I have not assisted to the performance myself, so my judgment and impressions are of course limited. I only watched the video documentation, which I find was already quite an experience, and I strongly advise you to watch it ! As for the text, for which I post below a full transcript, it contains some gems and, in the light of my own experience, it speaks a lot of truth, however in somewhat dark aspects of it.

In the end, the piece altogether appears to be slightly too demonstrative, still too spectacular to my taste, authoritarian and somewhat cruel for the receiver (!) but Yin Aiwen completely admits it, for it serves her purpose : “The harsh, ruthless massage has no interest in your pleasure”, she writes. It gets the “message”/”massage” across…

However I believe this “message” is in essence one that emerges from massage during a private session. Indeed, a good massage will “inform” you of your condition. Here and now, and before, and even possibly give you an insight on after. It will move and question those layers of histories embedded in your flesh, sometimes it will allow images, memories, dreams, fantasies, to flash behind your eyelids, without a video being necessary. It will present to your consciousness, at your own pace, material very personal, possibly life improving; hints, cues, directions given by your senses to finding yourself again, connecting with yourself so that you be again the one “living” rather than the one being “operated” by. This way of the massage is known, and listened to, by many massage artists, practicians and therapists.This piece speaks to me of the substance of which good massage sessions are made of.

Find out more about the Massage is the medium by Yin Aiwen here.

Welcome to the plug in systems.

Your body will be massaged in a few seconds,

Please relax…

You are going to experience a story that is specifically made by you, enjoy.

Please relax…

Some cream will be applied to your neck and shoulders,

It’s going to be fine,

Things will be nice and smooth…

Good

That’s right

After your fifteen minutes massage, you’ll feel free like never before.

Now your neck is being touched, does it hurt ?

Have you noticed this type of pain before ?

I know you work in front of the computer a lot, picture that scene :

Do you see your face with the screen light on, glowing in the dark, just like everyone else ?

You work late quite often, don’t you ?

The quiet night… Only the sounds of your keyboard is in company.

Do you feel those blocks here ? It hurts a lot, doesn’t it ?

You must be the kind of person that is constantly thinking, probably getting annoyed by it sometimes.

Your tired brain creates this block.

It’s in the way in which your brain gets all the supplies.

So when it gets blocked, the supplies – oxygen, nutrients, and blood – will have difficulties to get into your brain.

Tiredness must be an old friend of yours.

That’s why you need this massage :

To clear out the scene, to make it work again…

Computers change you, starting from your hands,

Grow into your chest, get into your back, then to your neck, and eventually, to your brain…

I know you thought that your body was irrelevant, didn’t you ?

Otherwise, you wouldn’t let it be like this…

As if it’s just the operator of your mind, and you thought your mind is eternal,

travelling in the infinite universe, pluging into the mortal nervous circuits, being free…

The strain muscle you have, many people have it nowadays.

It used to be a professional injury for people doing paperwork.

But nowadays, almost everyone has it.

Even children have it.

See how stiff your front neck is.

It indicates the condition of your chest

Like here, the end point of your chest muscles, and the starting point of your arms’…

Do you feel how it goes all the way down to the hand that types the keyboard ?

Your injured body has become the burden of your digital soul.

It’s ok, many people thought so.

People say fickleness is the theme of society now

Streaming tweets, 24/7

Optical transmission, day and night…

The facebook « one for all, all for one » utopia, right in front of your eyes…

Your fingers dance on your keyboard non-stop

Your Iphone camera flashes at every corner of your life

Your exciting brain on wire, all season…

You are so willing to share yourself to the world,

That you are pleased to shatter yourself into a hundred and forty pieces…

All the consequences then fall on your back,

Sink into your neck, permeate your brain…

They change you so quietly that you thought it’s your choice.

Do you see your face with the screen light on, glowing in the dark, just like everyone else ?

Physical pain is easy to forget of course.

That’s why you constantly hurt yourself.

Do you see how badly you have hurt yourself ?

It’s so painful it almost becomes emotional.

Feel it…

Feel what has happened to you…

Feel what the medium has done to you…

Think about what you have done to yourself…

Can this pain that you have done to yourself make you regretful ?

The medium is the massage.

The sweet exciting kind of massage, catering to your every wish,

Manufacturing your desire, regulating your recognition,

Until you can’t tell if there is another kind of life anymore…

All you can see is what has been given,

ALL that has been given is ALL you can imagine…

In the world of cyber capital

Everything is soft, fluffy, gentle, fulfilling…

Like a massage.

Satisfying your longing to be cared for, to feel special, to feel loved…

All you need to do is to pick a set that is all designed.

Yes, the special design, only for you…

And a million duplications of you.

You think this massage is made for you, don’t you ?

Like this, it happens for a reason,

Reasons that are based on your condition

But so many people have the same condition,

The same analysis of you…

I did it to dozens and dozens and dozens of people.

You are the same, you are all made the same.

Together you are precious, together you are special,

Together you are unique, together you are alone.

It’s not enough that machines code your life.

It’s not enough that they design every inch of your life.

You will only be perfect when its perspective becomes yours,

Your only perspective.

Only then you will have your true freedom :

Boundless, painless, senseless, heartless…

Do you see your face with the screen light on, glowing in the dark, just like everyone else ?

In this optical fiber world, you are transcendant.

Your face is flattened after the speed of light.

You can barely see others faces, and others can barely see yours.

So you talk as loud as you can, in one way or another,

So you can grab as many hurried travellers as possible…

After all, the mass man needs the proof of his living…

So fifteen minutes of attention is already an extravagance.

If possible a massive killing weapon is in favour.

So taking a massage to you becomes a very odd, even uncomfortable idea, doesn’t it ?

You needed to have so many decent reasons to give yourself in, didn’t you ?

But you need this massage.

Through others hands, it reminds you that you are still human.

Through the pain, it reminds you that you are not entirely numb, yet.

You are more than the electrical signals from your neurons.

Your communication with people is more than a faceless P2P transmission.

The massage is the medium.

This person behind you, who’s touching you, trying to find out what happened to you,

Do you see her as a human ?

Two euros slide in a coin slot, and a piece of hamburger jumps out…

She’s not a walking commodity, providing catalogue services,

But that’s why you felt uncomfortable about the idea, isn’t it ?

It’s a better design that pryes your heart with a decent distance…

Have you noticed the silent communication between you and her ?

Or are you just struggling to fight with your body, learning about yourself ?

It’s ok, she knows what you have been through.

Underneath the fingertips size of skin that she connects to you, your trembling muscles are shedding a tear…

She knows.

The pain you’re experiencing is the last mayday your body screams out to you, do you hear that ?

Feel it…

Feel your blood running through your body…

So powerful, as if you are alive again…

Feel this warmth inside, as if you are being cared for…

Feel what is happening now…

Feel where they came from, and where they will go…

Feel it, before this massage comes to an end…

I would like to thank you for dedicating yourself to this experiment.

I hope it means something to you.

Before you unplug yourself,

Please take a deep breath,

And I would like to ask you : Do you think I am human ?

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

HACKING WITH CARE : Attention, bien-être et politique de l’ordinaire dans le milieu hacktiviste

November 21, 2013 anne

There are numerous reasons to draw parallels between the hacktivist movement and a vision of the future that is politicized, self-governing, and libertarian. As shown in the documentary We Are Legion, hacktivism has evolved into a tool for politicization and transnational solidarity. Hackers value and encourage an empowering, transparent, and freeing relationship with tools, technology, and knowledge. They are often viewed through the lens of their ethics, values, and social engagements – but how does this translate for them on a daily basis? How do hackers invest in relationships that reflect their political discourse? What are the links between hacktivism, care, and the politicization of everyday life? How do hacktivists practice self-care and handle exclusion problems within their community?

Hacking with Care : Attention, bien-être et politique de l’ordinaire dans le milieu hacktiviste

– Anne Goldenberg, DPI 27, Hacktivism, April 24, 2013

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Carpal Tunnel: Anatomy, Syndrome and Exercises

September 29, 2013 <3

VIDEO Carpal Tunnel Syndrome exercises that really work – Boing Boing.

Anatomy of the region:

Q/A (from wisegeek.com)

WHAT CAUSES TENDINITIS ?

“Tendinitis is a condition that is created by some type of irritation or inflammation of the tendon. Since tendons are the connecting tissue that adheres muscles to the skeletal structure of the body, this inflammation can be extremely painful. Tendinitis can come about as the result of certain types of physical activity and exertion, as well as be the product of other health ailments that are creating adverse effects on other parts of the body as well as the tendons.

One of the most common causes of tendinitis is overexertion. When the muscles become strained due to heavy lifting or any movements that place the muscles and tendons into unnatural positions, there is a chance of straining the tendons and creating temporary irritation. Repeated activity of this nature may inhibit the ability of the tendons to recover from each episode and lead to tendon inflammation. When this is the case, it is often necessary to visit a physician and obtain medication to help reduce the swelling and the discomfort while the tendons heal.

Full article on wisegeek here

WHAT IS THE CARPAL TUNNEL ?

“The carpal tunnel is a narrow area that is located under the ligament, a band of tough tissue, of the wrist. It consists of both tendons, which are connective tissue between the bones and muscles, and nerves. One of the primary nerves in this area is known as the median nerve, which is located down the forearm into the wrist. When the median nerve becomes irritated or otherwise affected, it can cause pain in the tunnel and lead to the condition known as carpal tunnel syndrome.

When the area near the carpal tunnel, especially its tendons, becomes swollen or inflamed, it can result in the tunnel becoming more narrow and pressing down on the median nerve. This narrowing of the tunnel is often due to repetitive movements of the wrist that may end up irritating the median nerve. It can also be caused by having a naturally smaller carpal tunnel, which can make even slight constriction of the tunnel press down on the median nerve and cause symptoms.”

Full article here + how to “treat carpal tunnel syndrome”