Breast Strokes

Readers' Guide

You’ve finished the book and are looking for more.   Perhaps you are looking for support.  The questions on this page, like the Socratic Method, are designed to stimulate discussion within a supportive group.  They may be particularly helpful for book group discussions.  You may also find comfort in sitting alone, contemplating what these questions evoke in you. This is not a test.  It is said we enter school as question marks and come out as periods. Dealing with illness turns our world upside down.  It is time to return to questions as a way to know what we know, as a way to stimulate what we want.

Background: 

A moment is a moment.

Cathy is a Rosen Method bodywork practitioner and a continuing student of Sensory Awareness and Essential Motion.   All three derive from Elsa Gindler’s work in Germany beginning in the early 1920’s. 

When Elsa Gindler could not afford to go to a sanitarium to cure her tuberculosis, she stayed at home and observing her breath, taught herself to rest one part of her lung so another part could heal.  Healed, she began to teach people how to trust their natural intelligence.

She taught Charlotte Selver, the founder of Sensory Awareness.  Marion Rosen, the founder of Rosen Method learned her work through Lucy Heyer, who studied with Elsa Gindler.  Karen Roeper studied with Marion, as did Cathy. 

Because they were Jewish, Charlotte and Marion wisely left Germany when Hitler came to power.  Elsa Gindler stayed in Germany and though it was forbidden to work with Jewish people, she risked her life to do so. She taught people to stay calm, even while being interrogated by the SS.  

In her honor, a tree is planted at Yad Veshem where she is commemorated as “Righteous Among the Nations,” because her work as a Non-Jew saved lives during the Holocaust at great personal risk to herself. 

Cathy came to Somatic work and the work of Charlotte, and then, Marion, when she was 44.  She jumped enthusiastically into the study, but did not fully understand its value until she began treatment for cancer.  Suddenly, she was filled with the words of Charlotte,”A moment is a moment.” 

Each moment is to be entered, and cherished without  judgment, as a child does when they learn to crawl, stand, and walk.  

This book evolved as Cathy and Jane learned the value of committing to a writing practice. Because of cancer, Roger Ebert, a wonderful writer and movie critic, has lost his ability to speak.  He writes: When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.

We, too, discovered this to be true.  Alan Watts called Sensory Awareness “the living Zen.”  This book is a practice, a practice in presence, mindfulness, and the spirituality that celebrates the life that connects us all.

Marilyn Egan told me that when she was reading Breast Strokes, her husband would move over next to her, and sit. She said, “Some kind of transformation occurred in me while reading the book and after, a calmness, an ability to be in presence, a softness, a gentle “aura,” and a knowing the true meaning of family.”  

Our intention is to celebrate the family we are and the family we can come to be.  This book is about love, love for ourselves, love for us all.

 Information Sources:

 Check out the Sensory Awareness Foundation .  

 Stefen Laeng-Gilliatt discusses The Pathways of Sensory Awareness.  

Here is information on Rosen Method.

Karen Roeper is the founder of Essential Motion. Karen and Jane Flint founded Eyes of the Beholder, an exciting and inviting way to work, learn, and explore.  

Books:

Alan Fogel's The Psychophysiology of Self-Awareness, Rediscovering the Lost Art of Body Sense is an in-depth resource.  

If you are interested in knowing more about the Somatic Field, Don Hanlon Johnson's book, Bone, Breath, & Gesture, Practices of Embodiment, gives a brief history.  

From Elaine Mayland's book, Rosen Method: An Approach to Wholeness and Well-Being through the Body.

Marion Rosen: "The goal of this work is to bring you to a place where there is no barrier between your internal experience and your external expression of yourself. You do not oppose the universe, but become part of the universe. Letting this happen is the attitude of surrender and trust."

"Every moment is a moment."

 To consider:  

Support:

What is it like to support another?

What is it like to support yourself?

When supporting someone who is ill, is there a place for your problems, your complaints?

How would it be for you to say to someone who is ill that it is hard for you because you worry about yourself and you worry about them? 

How do you think Cathy dealt with fear?  Jane?  Do you think they feared death?  Why or why not?  Do you think that dealing with cancer brings up a fear of death?

Cathy and Jane used writing to support themselves and each other.  They often shared their writing.  If you keep a journal or diary, did reading Breast Strokes change your thoughts and feelings around sharing what you write?

Technology and Nature:

What is your relationship to technology? To nature?  Do you prefer one over the other or do you integrate the two?

Do you enjoy a special place in nature that gives you support?

Do you recognize your inner nature, pause to feel the workings within?

What do you think of the idea of having a blog/online journal while dealing with a life-threatening illness?  What are the pros and cons?

Do you think that Cathy and Jane's use of poetry allowed them a closer relationship with technology and nature?

 Self-Care:

How do you listen to your wants and needs? 

How do you know when you are hungry or tired?  Is your life balanced with physical, mental and spiritual renewal and treats?

Can you receive a compliment?  Can you compliment yourself, pat yourself on the back? 

How do you respond to this statement?  Perfection is static; there is no movement there.

Do you think Cathy and Jane used their writing of poetry as a form of self-care?

Environment:

What surrounds you?  What excites your awareness?

Cathy surrounds herself with poetry and inspirational quotes.  What effect do these actions have on her? How do you decide what will be in your surroundings?  Are you happy with your surroundings?

What do you think of using a pet or animal to help your healing, to lift and calm your mood?

Cathy and Jane both pause during each day.  How do you think this ability to pause affects them?  Do you pause?  What does that mean for you?

Survivor:

How does the word survivor land on you?

Cathy struggled to feel she had earned anything herself, felt she was carried through by the love and attention of others, and yet she was thrilled with her diplomas signifying graduation from chemotherapy and radiation.  How do you celebrate your accomplishments?  What would it mean in your life to acknowledge yourself?

When is proclaiming accomplishment ego and when is it acknowledging the conduit that we are?

Do you think Cathy and Jane are kind to themselves?  How or how not?  Are you kind to yourself?  What would it look like to give yourself a rousing cheer?

Spiritual Aspects:

Cathy speaks of learning about non-judgment and entering a world of non-duality because chemotherapy, a poison, was for her, an elixir of life.  What did Cathy mean by that?  What allows you to step outside the strict division of “good” and “bad”?

Cathy often uses the word "and" as a connector rather than "but," so that this happened and that happened.  It is her way to cultivate a place of non-judgment, to equalize what occurs for her.  Do you think this way of viewing what happens is effective?

The book is about connection, and commitment, about the need for the support of the herd, the tribe.  What examples of these attributes had meaning for you?  

Do you think it is possible, without the pause that illness allows, to give yourself a few moments each hour to reflect within, to let your mind rest in larger hands of support?

Joan Palma of Grover Beach, CA said:

The book has an important message that people need to hear: it's OK to reach out, to be vulnerable; you don't have to hunker down inside your own fear and pain and isolate. There is a healing that comes only through connection with others, and that can be one of the gifts of being ill.

It's also about showing one way we can "help". Friends and family sometimes feel awkward, don't know how to handle illness. They want to do something but are at a loss to know what. So for me, it was about a model for the role friends can have - we're all going to know someone who is seriously and/or chronically ill. What kind of commitment are we willing to make?