Author: Craig Constantine

MaryBeth Gangemi: Environment, ‘Natural Movement’, and Breathing →

Published May 24, 2022  ·  All posts on May 24  ·  

MaryBeth Gangemi: Environment, ‘natural movement,’ and breathing

What are the key insights into natural movement, breathing, and how they connect to overall well-being?

MaryBeth Gangemi’s experience as a social worker has had a profound affect on how she approaches her movement practice and working with clients. She shares her own movement journey, from city to country side. MaryBeth discusses the importance of environment, breathing, and play on our ability to move well and ‘naturally.’ She unpacks her thoughts on the connections between social work and movement, as well as creating spaces accessible to all.

So you could say, is walking natural movement? […] But what if you’re walking with your head down looking at your phone, with your mouth open breathing heavy, is that? […] If we want to focus on return to nature type of idea […] how about like, really walk with posture up and look where you’re going and look around and see what’s ahead of you? […] Just not letting all of it pass you by.

~ MaryBeth Gangemi (39:34)

MaryBeth Gangemi is a breath, strength, and natural movement coach, in addition to being a wife and mother. She has certifications in many different areas, including MovNat, Kettlebells, Original Strength, and Buteyko Breathing Method. MaryBeth owns and runs Kairos Strong, where she teaches students to develop quality movement to support all areas of their life.

The conversation explores the profound relationship between natural movement, breathing, and overall well-being. Topics include the importance of posture, awareness, and incorporating nature into daily practices to foster mindfulness. Breathing techniques, such as the control pause, are discussed as vital tools for improving health and managing stress.

There’s an emphasis on rediscovering play, curiosity, and sensory experiences, like walking barefoot or engaging with different textures in the environment. The dialogue also examines the role of environment in shaping movement habits and encourages listeners to explore new activities when their current routines become monotonous or unfulfilling.

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Sculpting →

Published May 24, 2022  ·  All posts on May 24  ·  ,

The sculptor must paint with his chisel: Half his touches are not to realize, but to put power into, the form. They are touches of light and shadow, and raise a ridge, or sink a hollow, not to represent an actual ridge or hollow, but to get a line of ight, or a spot of darkness.

~ John Ruskin

Elsewhere, this is 4a894. — slipbox

A tiny commitment →

Published May 24, 2022  ·  All posts on May 24  ·  

To suddenly “go mindful” and try to be present all the time is about as easy as running a marathon when you’ve never even run around the block. Since most of us are not present the vast majority of the time, occasional stabs at “being in the moment” are quickly overrun by the colossal momentum of a lifetime of being lost in thought.

~ David Cain from, How to Make Mindfulness a Habit With Only a Tiny Commitment

There’s much worth reading on David Cain’s Raptitude website. For example, his How to walk across a parking lot, is one of the greatest things I’ve ever read. But the piece I’ve quoted from above stands out as a terrific “how to…” for working on mindfulness.

I’ve been actively working on first self-awareness, then self-assesment and finally mindfulness, for many years. (And writing about my journey as I’ve done so.) But mindfulness is still something that comes and goes for me.

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Rewriting →

Published May 23, 2022  ·  All posts on May 23  ·  ,

Rewriting [is] very painful. You know it’s finished when you can’t do anything more to it, though it’s never exactly the way you want it… The hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. You have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.

~ James Baldwin

Elsewhere, this is 4a892. — slipbox

Not in a vacuum →

Published May 23, 2022  ·  All posts on May 23  ·  

It can be easy to look at great geniuses like Newton and imagine that their ideas and work came solely out of their minds, that they spun it from their own thoughts—that they were true originals. But that is rarely the case.

~ Shane Parrish from, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

There’s a perennial discussion around creativity that gets described various ways: “Steal like an artist.” “Repurpose what’s been done before.” “Creating new from the old.” I like Parrish’s point, (in the article but not the quote above,) that “geniuses” first mastered the best that others had to offer. Then they go onward and farther to create something new.

If the only thing someone has ever done is sample and remix others’ work… meh. But if someone has mastered some field—art, math, music, whatever—and then recombines and extends, (or pares down or transmogrifies)… then, ok. My distinction feels very close to the, No true Scotsman, logic fallacy, and yet I think it’s a useful distinction.

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True beauty →

Published May 22, 2022  ·  All posts on May 22  ·  ,

Moral beauty is the basis of all true beauty. This foundation is somewhat covered and veiled in Nature. Art brings it out, and gives it more transparent forms.

~ Victor Cousin

Elsewhere, this is 4a889. — slipbox

Vignettes →

Published May 22, 2022  ·  All posts on May 22

I was chatting with my old friend Arthur over a continental breakfast at the Hotel Palomar.

~ Dave Pell from, The Cell Phone Time Machine

Elsewhere, this is 4unete1. — slipbox

I’m deeply in lust for vignettes. I’ve quoted the opening of the short piece and I’m saying nothing further about it. Although, I’ll happily arrange a few more bytes about vignettes.

You see, I’m a sucker for cuts; Cuts in the sense where one visual transitions to another exactly in the way that the real world doesn’t. (With a hat tip to Douglas Adams if that last turn of phrase feels familiar.) Movies like Up, or Bicentennial Man—which I love, but most people seem to pan—or check out the “Epilogue” in the movie, Cherry, (on AppleTV. Get AppleTV for a month just to watch this movie.) I’m a sucker for Vignettes that give you just enough information for you to navigate… and leave to your own devices to pull up your own memories, and to yank on your own heart strings.

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The effort is real →

Published May 21, 2022  ·  All posts on May 21  ·  ,

If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; If you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.

~ James Baldwin

Elsewhere, this is 4a887. — slipbox

Choose two →

Published May 21, 2022  ·  All posts on May 21  ·  ,

Life is about tradeoffs. When we know what to say no to, and we know why, we can say yes with comfort and confidence to the things that matter. To the things that last. Work, family, scene. You can have two if you say no to one. If you can’t, you’ll have none.

~ Ryan Holiday from, Work, Family, Scene: You Can Only Pick Two

Elsewhere, this is 4urywo1. — slipbox

The words “work”, “family”, and “scene” are of course maleable. I’d argue there’s a fourth—”self” or “health” would be the word I’d choose—and the admonition should be expanded to, “choose any three.” None the less, there something that feels to me very true about it being necessary, in the way the gravity is necessary to obey, about picking two of those three. There was a time when I chose work and scene. It was interesting, for a while. It wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. What’s your list, and which are you choosing?

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Well adjusted →

Published May 20, 2022  ·  All posts on May 20  ·  , ,

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Elsewhere, this is 4a885. — slipbox