A Little Aside About Source Materials

I do a lot of reading and note taking. There is a ton of resource material on childbirth, natural or otherwise, meditation, Yoga, Buddhism, Systems, Stoics, Emotions, Physiology, Neuroscience and the list goes on and on. It is me doing the mash up on how to use elements from all these things to effect a Calm Positive Birth Experience.

I like to give credit where credit is due, but sorry to say, I have not been the most conscientious about labeling the sources of my notes as I make them. I will do what I can with the notes I have thus far—it's going to be spotty as I have had a lot of these notes before I decided to start this blog. And if this blog becomes more than a passing fancy for me, then I will strive to do better, most definitely. At this point I am still going through the angst of just getting myself to sit down at the keyboard.

Most recently I have been reading about the theory behind Hypnobirthing and using Yoga for Birth.  Along those lines I read several hypnosis/birth and yoga/birth books and a really lovely book by Tina Lilly titled Love, Labor and Liberation. She teaches Yoga for Labor/Birth classes out west, I would love to meet her some day.

Anyway I have done a bunch of reading on a lot of the above mentioned subjects. Most of my Yoga research stems from the awesome teachings of Patanjali, OSHO and Sri Swami Satchidananda. I have read a ton of books on Childbirth. I spend afternoons at Barnes & Noble reading through source material (books and magazines) just about mindfulness, etc. I am too cheap to buy. When did magazines get so expensive? ... the list goes on and on… lots and lots of reading.

I have a couple of years worth of notes. It took me awhile to figure all this stuff out, it is not that there is not a lot to say…there is on the contrary a vast amount to say. I needed it to be true and evidence based, not just something I wanted to believe. The key elements (take aways) of each reading--to me anyway. These articles are my way of organizing a whole lot of material and as such should be read as a work in progress. It will edited, re-edited, organized and re-organized until hopefully I get it "right".

This has always been my approach to gathering knowledge and when I become passionate about a topic I want to read and learn all there is to know.

It is one of the reasons my Yoga Studio is named The Yoga Whole. I gather what I like from various approaches and styles, writings and books and magazines etc and I mash them together into a version that works best for my direct experience. I leave behind that which just doesn’t seem to have any evidence to back it up, or I make an attempt to put them into the context of modern day understanding. I'm not much into mystical "woo-woo" thinking.

I throw these bits and pieces into a figurative “hole” and hope that they emerge on the other side as a cohesive “whole”. It is the way I organize the flow in my classes and hopefully my posts will someday soon be as carefully choreographed. 

Recently I have heard the following “truism” many a time…”It is better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.” And while that sentiment seems a little entitled it is indeed my intention to do a mea culpa to anyone who would like a stronger form of recognition for their words. No one will cite you after the fact faster than me. :) And thank you in advance for the awesomeness of your words.

Of course they would need to find and read me first…which seems a little to optimistic to expect for this blog. Right now I am practicing what I preach and using a systematic approach:  just writing and posting a short blog every couple of days.