-Good evening and welcome to the Author Series a the Harvard Coop. With us tonight and reading from his new work, Touch the Ocean, is James Nemec.

-Raised on the ocean in South Florida, Nemec is an esteemed playwright and poet. In addition, after more than fifteen years working as a craniosacral and massage therapist, Nemec is celebrated for his ability to combine science and intuition in order to heal individuals previously considered beyond help.

-His focus is on the curative powers of light touch and the physical presence of our natural world. What Nemec succeeds at conveying, according to surgeon and Ivy League diplomat Roy Nuzzo, is that "the world shapes us. We, in turn, collectively shape the world."

-The case studies presented in Touch the Ocean explain the curious life-elixir Nemec has learned to brew between the ocean, the sky, and the energies of our collective conscious. On behalf of the Harvard Coop, I would sincerely like to thank, and introduce, James Nemec.

5 point flower

Stopping is an exercise presented in TOUCH THE OCEAN: THE POWER OF OUR COLLECTIVE EMOTIONS. Here is a brief excerpt from the chapter entitled, The Simple Feeling of Being in Gratitude:

"The hardest part about stopping, or taking pause, or making an aside, whatever you would like to call it, is in the remembering to do it.

Anyone can do it. Anyone can at least, stop. When clients have asked me how they can slow down and reconnect in the midst of their busy lives, I might suggest they just "stop." I would tend to call it “stopping”. I’ll be entering a Starbucks in a Mall, for example, or walking through a parking garage, or entering a party filled with people I don't know, and I’ll just stop. I try to stand casually as possible so as not to attract attention. Now, I’ve gotten good enough at this tendency to notice the impulse when it arises. I may experience a feeling of discomfort with the jostling people at a Mall, or the Quaaludes' they seem to pump through the air conditioner vents of most Malls so you trance-out and just buy and buy and buy! And so I just let my body stop. When my body stops, when I literally stop in my tracks, or take pause, something happens. There is a silence. It arises unbidden. It is a very safe space. It is a silence that is always here and that is not forced.

This is a very different experience than when we sit in "the moment before."

We can do it while swimming in a pool, lake, or the ocean. I'll try to practice stopping, or just taking a breather, when I go into the Mall, or even into the bank, or grocery store. Let's say there are people around who seem totally unaware of the miracle of just being alive on a planet in the Universe. Rather than react, or put down the people at the Mall, the Bank, the Party, I take a pause, stop, and in stopping, stop the emotional reaction.

Stopping can be useful in personal and interpersonal relationships. For example, one of my older sisters had said something hurtful to me, something about my not being a good son to my Dad. I could feel the emotions churn within me like a storm. There was emotional lightening in that storm, and it was about to lash out. I knew that I could hurt her. I knew that I could turn around her hurtful words and say exactly the same thing about her. I had been a good son, screamed my emotions. I had been the best son that I knew how to be. I could see the pain in her eyes. She instantly regretted what she said because she knew she had hurt me. Then I told her that I loved her and meant it. It shocked both of us!

It's the awareness of what we are doing that makes the shift. When I'm caught in reacting, there is little I can actually do.

When aware, something happens. This is far beyond any insistence on positive or even negative thinking. This is to shine a light.

It’s human nature to react with emotion, and lots of it, often violent emotions, when our small feelings are hurt, it’s not human nature to stop. It takes some practice, some conscious-awareness. When I do this, I may have the opportunity of observing the thoughts, the odd logic, the raw unfiltered emotions going through me. And because I have stopped, just for a moment or two, then, and only then, response. And a response that is totally spontaneous, creative, life giving and alive. I may even discover that I was really the one being ungrateful in that moment of entering the Mall, not them, not the nameless faces. Not that there are any "rules" about being grateful, or even cheerful, it's more an attitude toward living.

I could write a book or pamphlet on just this. It was something my body would do, like a horse when faced with a freeway. There’s that moment when things get confused, that moment of reaction, why not take a pause? Breathe? The reader may find examples in her or his own life. It’s best to start with public places, for example, just when walking down a sidewalk. Simply stop."

All rights reserved.

And so imagine this author's surprise to see this You Tube Video show up in the mail today: "Best Prank Ever: Stopping Time at Grand Central Station."

Put your SMILE Face On

Question: “Is it laughing at someone’s pain or misery?”

Answer: “No, not at all. It’s laughing at the worry about it.”

Lately, I do feel a bit like a Book Mom (different than a
Soccer Mom) and would like to introduce my little book to
others so that it can make friends. I don't want this little
book to stay indoors and alone, so I talk to other Moms (other
people who like books) and introduce this book-as a friend.

As it grows up, I'll introduce it as a date, or something.

This doesn't mean I have to tell others about this little book
on tv or newspapers or craigslist.org.

Well, originally I said I'd get the book out there best I could, and then
just let it be available.

I sent it out to Oprah, once. And that was enough. Even the
thought of following up on that disagrees with me. Same with the Today Show or Colbert

The original plan was to see it published and just let be available to
those who might find it, somehow, or be drawn to it.

I think I'll back to the original plan now, with the addition of
keeping the newsletter going for awhile.

After all, there are a few more books after TOUCH, and well,
somebody needs to know about them, at least those in my
sphere of influence. And if anyone who enjoys the newsletter
(CraniOcean.Calm Newsletter) would like to send on the good news
of the little book to others, or feel inspired, as events unfold,
they may do so. And then there's the One World Laff Off coming up, so I'll make another newsletter about that and about Laughter as the best medicine, because it can be. The blog is already set up. And the You Tube video has been made, with the kindly assist of a CST client. Those who find out about it, find out about it. Those who don't, don't.

How much is enough?

After the Author Events in L.A. for Touch the Ocean, and after working on folks there, I'm off to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur to revisit the Healing Art of Massage Therapy. It will be fun to go back to Massage Therapy for awhile, and the cliffs over the ocean at Esalen so beautiful. (Of course, everyone will want me to trade CranioSacral) And what do you do after you're considered an expert?

Go back to the basics.

It' s for me to stop promoting and get back to writing and the
publishing of the next book(s) in line. And put the next plays
for the stage down in words. And get back to CST clients what are in need.

Promoting and promoting, it's not something I'm all that
interested in, and it's not really something I can do. It can
make a liar and a self improver out of me :) It's just not my
style.

I've been sleeping, taking naps, so much lately. Just tired,
tired, tired. If others are drawing energy from this one, well,
there is more energy where that came from. I think it's
more the doing of something that I'm not suited for. I can
write hours and hours with vast increases of energy.

Just searchin feelings out loud. In public. On a friggin blog!

Think I'll take a nap.

:)