Would you notice?

It’s early Friday morning on a cold January day at a metro station in Washington D.C. A violinist is playing classical music as people stream past on their way to work. During his 43 minute performance  1,097 people walk past. 63 people and three minutes later, a middle aged man notices there is music playing, slows for a moment his head turned slightly, then keeps walking.

4 minutes: He gets his first donation, a woman tosses in a dollar and walks off.

6 minutes: A man stops to listen, he’s three minutes early for work.

10 minutes: A three year old tries to stop and listen, but is propelled along after his mother, rushed for time to get him to class and get back to work.

43 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. Some gave money, but kept walking. The man collected a total of $32.17. Yes, some people gave pennies.

As he finished playing, there was silence. No applause, no acknowledgment.

The violin player was Joshua Bell, playing a 3.5 million dollar Stradivari violin. One of the world’s finest violinist’s, playing some of greatest music ever written on one of the world’s best violins. And almost total ignored while he played.  Even the people waiting in line to buy lottery tickets didn’t turn to pay attention to the fiddler behind them.

Jashua Bell was making a lot of noise. If we can ignore this kind of beauty when it’s singing out loudly for attention, what sorts of other things are we missing as we hurry through life?

You can read the original article Pearls Before Swine at The Washington Post.

Getting Started

Seems that taking that first step, getting things moving is sometimes the most difficult. I wanted a place to write about my progress stepping into life as an Anat Baniel Method Practitioner. I also wanted a place to share the things that I’ve found helpful and to encourage you to start moving into your life in a more powerful and productive way.

Let’s see how this works at the new blog set up here at SomaticNirvana.com.

I’m excited to share the first step with you!

What is the Anat Baniel Method℠?

The Anat Baniel Method℠ (ABM) helps people of all ages overcome pain and limitation and achieve lifetime fitness and vitality – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The method accesses the remarkable capacity of the human brain to form new connections and new patterns and reach levels of performance never achieved before.

Derived from the groundbreaking method developed by Dr Feldenkrais, the ABM is based on cutting-edge scientific theory and on the understanding of how our brain learns and transforms our body, our mind and our spirit. Tens of thousands of people seeking an alternative and complementary approach to medicine, fitness training, physical therapy programs and ways to help children with special needs have used the ABM with great success.

Read more at AnatBanielMethod.com

© Copyright, 2008, Anat Baniel Method, All Rights Reserved, Reprinted with Permission