Aligned, Relaxed, Resilient

"Transform the act of cooking into a dance worthy of both Nijinsky and the Buddha." This is the essence of Will Johnson's handbook for living in your body. Aligned, Relaxed, Resilient combines the body awareness of yoga, the life force, as Johnson puts it, of Taiji, and the mindfulness of Thich Nhat Hanh into a single and simple practice of attentive movement. Too often meditators and spiritual practitioners from all religions retreat into the head or heart, neglecting not only the health but the spiritual potential of the body. Through carefully constructed exercises, Johnson reintegrates body and mind, bringing the senses of vision, hearing, and tactile sensation into what he calls a unified field of shimmering awareness. After alignment and relaxation, the capstone of Johnson's practice is resilience, a harnessing of life force in every natural movement. Free of tension and buoyed by the earth's gravity, the body, a mass of coordinated activity, moves like a flock of starlings. When resilient movement is combined with unified sensation, the ground of being opens up to every moment's joyful apprehension. Learn and indulge. --Brian Bruya