Finished reading: A System for Writing by Bob Doto
This is a very helpful primer on how to make notes that lead to writing.
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Finished reading: Attensity! by The Friends of Attention The five biggest companies in the world, including Apple, are in the business of human fracking. They are fracking our collective attention and polluting our inner environments! They’re driven by greed. Their goal is making money. And my “time on device” is the only thing about me that is real to them, because that’s the part of my being that can be recorded, quantified and eventually sold. -
Number Five, from the Twelve Theses on Attention:
An attentional path is the trace left by a free mind. To submit to the attentional path of another, to retrace it, is a form of attention. Retracing the attentional path of a free mind is one of the keenest pleasures we can take in each other and in the world.
Concrete examples of retracing attentional paths: transcribing solos of jazz musicians and transcribing Feldō Awareness Through Movement Lessons.
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I just gave a lesson at the Stroke Support Group at Lutheran Hospital in Denver, my first time presenting Feldenkrais to adult stroke survivors, who seemed to enjoy the lesson, and the broadest idea I shared was: We, as a community, can set aside time to do less and try softer, and it’s worth it.
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Went on a hike this morning then vibe coded a map making script that puts together gpx and heart rate data.
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I just finished reading: Shu Ha Ri by Richard Griffiths @writingslowly
I liked how short it was. I think it would fit in well with other books from Tracy Durnell’s In praise of the hundred page idea.
Shu Ha Ri is about learning through lineage, then keeping lineage alive. I liked the weave of examples from different ways (dōs) that run through the book. Most touching was the story of Jigoro Kano, founder of Judō, whose final request in life was to be buried wearing his white belt. I had already heard a fair bit about Kano because Moshe Feldenkrais studied with Kano, so Kano feels like an ancestor in the Feldenkrais lineage I’m practicing in. But I had never heard this detail about Kano’s intention to maintain beginner’s mind even after going through death.
I also appreciated the explanation of Keiko, a word for training that includes reference to 10 generations of practitioners before. It had me thinking about how lineage holders actually want an endlessness for their practice, for the “living knowledge” or the meme of the practice to go on and on.
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Attention is Precious
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Turns out I started blogging in 2007
In 2007 I graduated from college and started blogging on blogger.com. I had one called Ethan Brand Development and another one called Acade-Me. I only published that first summer. In the fall, I started more blogs but never published, just made drafts. Basically journal entries. I won’t bring the drafts forward onto my website now, but I’m definitely keeping them in my files for reference. Some juicy, personal stuff in there. -
I’m thinking about retro-actively assembling my personal website as an archive of lots of previous stuff I did, including stuff I already posted online, which is what Lisa Charlotte Muth did bringing everything back to her website, but ALSO maybe some stuff I haven’t posted before.
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Esalen 3
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Esalen 2 - Scanning and 5 Lines
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I want to write a book
I don’t know why. I’m not sure what it would be about. Plus I know it’s a BIG project and I don’t really have much training. But this desire to write a book just keeps coming up in my life. And since I’m not getting any younger, I figure I might as well be honest with myself and try to get into it while I have time. Most of the writing I’ve done until now has been in my journals. -
One of my top contenders for 2026 slogan of the year (it’s early yet, but this does a lot of conceptual work for me).
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Esalen 47 - Public Class Sitting Twist
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Esalen 32 - Measuring
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Esalen 30 - Bridge
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Esalen 29 - Toes
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Esalen 26 - Foot Above the Head
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Unwrap the Present - Perfect Hinges
I’m trying something again, composing my own movement lessons. I’ve done it before, though this time feels different, like I have more faith in the process and more experience under my belt. I’m keeping the process fast and loose, minimal editing, opposite of fussy, like how I imagine the original Alexander Yanai lessons got done. Make a recording. Try it out with a small audience. Keep moving. This is a short lesson, no frills, maybe more like a sketch or demo than a finished thing. -
Mia and Gaby SF Evenings 1978 - 1 - Coordinating Flexors and Extensors
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Feldenkrais Variations Help Us Make Better Mistakes
When we’re learning as kids, before we go to any kind of school, we learn to use ourselves by making mistakes. Trial and error. For example, let’s say a baby is trying to put something into her mouth, and you watch her go through six or seven mistakes, putting the thing on her ear, her eye, on her forehead, her nose, on her chin, her other eye, and then finally she gets it into her mouth. -
The Basic Situation
Let’s say a baby is born and one of her eyes needs a surgery. So they do the surgery and it goes well and the eye is going to be totally usable, but it’s gonna take a little bit of time for it to heal. If that eye is kept covered during the healing process, the baby will learn how to live without it. She’ll look for the path of least resistance and work her life around the functional absence of the eye, meaning her growing sense of self will not include the eye that’s covered. -
Why can't I just relax?
Last weekend I went on a four hour alpine hike with three friends from high school, and I got worked. Trying to keep up with them, I found myself deeply tired, coming down the mountain with an aching knee. What was frustrating was, in spite of my Feldenkrais training, when I tried to relax and make inner adjustments to control my knee pain, I couldn’t do it. My knee kept hurting and whatever below-the-radar muscle was pulling on my knee kept pulling. -
Circling on the Ear
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Hope for the Demoralized
The hidden power is already inside I’ve been thinking a lot about power and powerlessness lately. In October, I’m giving a talk with my colleague Erin Finkelstein at the Team Luke Hope for Minds conference in Austin. We’re calling it “Empowering Kids and Parents Through the Quality of Human Touch,” and it’s got me reflecting on what empowerment actually means — especially for children with disabilities and their families. Usually when parents and kids first come to see us, there’s some flavor of powerlessness in the mix: “We’ve tried everything, and it’s just hard to know if anything is really helping.