Books That Have (Recently) Changed The Course of My Life

This page contains affiliate links to Amazon and elsewhere. I only recommend what I find useful.

A New Way To Think by Roger L. Martin

This book is a bit geeky and jargony for those of us who do not have a business background. But if you take the time to consider them, many of the ideas are organic, emergent, and embodied. The chapter on Strategy is particularly relevant to somatic practitioners.

Awareness, movement, and your practice are emergent and flexible. Somatic professional organizations are hierarchical and rigid. This book might just help you find a way to organize your practice and life in a way that meets your emergent needs.

Deep Work by Cal Newport

One of the most important is "Deep Work" by Cal Newport. It is the most important book that I have read in the last decade in terms of setting a direction for my business and life. It led me to cut back on internet time, restart my meditation practice, and it was the reason that I started my Easy Feldenkrais membership website. I wrote a bit more about it here.

Six Blind Elephants, Volume 1 and 2 by Steve Andreas.

The Volume One and Volume Two of Six Blind Elephants by Steve Andreas are beyond "good." They are transformational.

If you work with the distinctions that they contain, you can create or amplify your understanding of yourself and the world and how to act in the world to create the types of experience and meaning that you want.

But be warned - it is not for the faint of heart. You have to be willing to put in consistent time studying and using the distinctions. I sometimes go weeks at a time, putting in 30 to 45-minutes per day working with the ideas contained in the books. I actually took the trouble to scan my physical copies of the books and put them in pdf format so that I could keep them open on my computer and search for specific phrases and ideas.

The Courage To Be Disliked

The Courage To Be Disliked introduced me to the work of Alfred Adler who I somehow missed in 9 years of studying psychology at University and Grad School. The man was a genius FAR ahead of his time. Moshe Feldenkrais dismissed Adler, but mainly because Moshe only had a superficial understanding of his work.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

I bought this book in 2019 and after reading the first chapter at a coffee shop, I cleared my schedule and binged on it for two full days.

Books With Useful Distinctions

Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry

This is a book that I hate sometimes. For real. There is just so much unnecessary pain caused by invasive back pain treatments. And this book brings the various poor treatments into focus: Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery

The Use of The Eyes in Movement by Jack Heggie

By Jack Heggie, the person who introduced me to the work of Moshe Feldenkrais many decades ago. In The Use of the Eyes in Movement, He integrates ideas from both Moshe Feldenkrais and William Bates to elucidate critical ideas about our eye functioning and to help you use your eyes to move better and more easily.

I have created 3 different Feldenkrais-based series regarding the eyes and vision. They are not directly based on Jack's book. Rather, they are based on transcripts from Moshe Feldenkrais that involve movements of the eye. The transcripts are from Moshe's Esalen workshop and various transcripts from his days teaching at his Alexander Yanai studio in Tel Aviv. I should also mention my TMJ series that also has some wonderful (and short) sessions that help with improving the movements of the eyes, jaw and neck: Feldenkrais TMJ Program.

Supplements for the Eyes

I won't write much here as I am in the very beginning of my journey into using supplements for my eyes. However, these capsules from my local GNC here in Mexico have been wonderful. They weren't my first choice. They were the ONLY choice I had access to locally. They contain lutein and zeaxanthin which seem to be useful for eye health. There are many studies. I am not an expert on the topic, I was simply willing to take the chance that they could help.

The supplements made an immediate difference in my vision and helped my eyes to relax and feel more lubricated. Of course, consult with a health practitioner when making decisions about your eye health.

When I am ready to do an online purchase from Amazon, I will evaluate the results from this search on Amazonn and choose another supplement with lutein, zeaxanthin, meso-zeaxanthin and whatever else my research leads to.

Peace!