This month marks the 10th Anniversary of iskip.com and I created a new Facebook Page for the Skipping Movement to celebrate! Come join the skipping fun and spread the word to your skipping friends.

This has to be one of my all time favorite skipping videos. "Why should I skip and why are you going to put it on a website?" asked gangsta musician Jaye Swift. I must have said something right. Just look at him go!

I am so grateful this magical moment skipping with the one and only Harry Perry on Venice Beach was captured on film. So much fun! Life was surely made for moments like this.

This question recently came through the website:

Recently I started doing skipping. But few of my friends told me that it's not good for gents. It's only for ladies. Kindly let me know.

And here's my reply...

Your friends are wrong. Skipping is for everyone.

It is true that most men have a harder time breaking through unspoken cultural rules to skip. But the brave ones who feel inspired to skip do it anyway. And they do it well. A man named Ashrita Furman recent sent a Guinness World Record for skipping the fastest 5K.

So don't let your friends stop you! Skip loud and skip proud!

I never know just what I might find when I open the skipping mailbag. Take this email that I received this morning for example....

I was being held in Calif. on a 211 p.c. (armed robbery) charge, and I skipped bail, changed my name, moved to the rural south.

I'm currently running a Ponzi scam, and running for city council. These Hillbilly rubes are like children around here, and I'll be skipping this God-foresaken hell-hole as soon as I run the town dry, which will be soon.

I recommend skipping for both fun and profit. It sure changed my life!

Name Withheld
Last single-wide on the left at the end of the dirt road
East Jeuss, Arkansas

Dear whoever you are that wrote it, thanks for the laugh! I love your creative spirit. Skip on! LOL.

After work tonight my will to skip pushed through all the resistance I've been carrying around for what feels like forever and I went on my first long distance skip in eons.

In 5 months I am planning on skipping in a 5K called SEE JANE RUN and that was a huge part of my inspiration.

I went for about two miles... Probably skipped 1/4 mile straight right out of the gate...Then I did walking/skipping intervals. I mixed up the count depending on what happy song was playing on my ipod...I'd walk four steps, skip four steps for a while. Then walk two steps, skip two steps...Etc.

It's amazing how different skipping along a quiet relatively rural road compares to the early skipping days when I lived in downtown San Francisco. It's much easier to go more deeply within with out a lot of people around. That's for sure.

It felt REALLY good to fully get my skip on again...and am intending tonight to be the start of a much more consistent skipping practice. Please send me good thoughts that it will be true!

India was all I hoped it would be and more! I had a fabulous time and still feel like I'm in the process of integrating all I experienced into my regular life.

I've been uploading photos and videos and working on getting them in a sharable format. This video captures one of the highlights for me from the whole adventure. It was taken in a fruit market in Pondicherry and was such a magical moment!

As I type this I am in India! I'm here celebrating my 40th bday. Don't have much time to blog, but am regularly updating my Twitter account. So if you are interested in skipping with me in India click here.

On New Year's Eve I participated in a powerful Native American ceremony called a sweat lodge. This was the third sweat I have done...and it once again proved to be quite a powerful experience.

Sweats come from the Native American tradiition. This excerpt I found on the barefootworlds.net website does a good job describing the intention behind the experience...

"During the purification of one's spirit inside a sweat lodge, all sense of race, color and religion is set aside. As in the Mother's womb and the Father's eyes, we are all the same, we are One. Each of us has the ability to sit with the Creator himself. Healing begins here for dis-ease, physical, emotional, directional and spiritual.

As the steam and temperature rises so do our senses. Messages and vision from the Spirit World are received through the group consciousness of the participants. One at a time, the people inside get an opportunity to speak, to pray and to ask for guidance and forgiveness from the Creator and the people they have hurt. As they go around the circle, they tell who they are, where they are from, and what is their clan, so the Creator, the Spirit People, and all there can acknowledge them.

A sweat is typically four sessions, called rounds or endurances, each lasting about 30 to 45 minutes. The round ends when the leader announces the opening of the door."
----
Our sweat took place in a Kiva, which is a large hole dug deep into the ground that is supported by beams, etc. We sang songs from the Native Amercian tradition and took turns praying outloud. At the beginning of each of the four rounds, the firekeeper would bring in more piping hot stones before sealing the front door so the space would become pitch black.

As each of us sang, prayed, rattled, and drummed, the lodge leader added water to the stones which caused the Kiva to fill with hot steam. With each round the steam and temperature intensified...as did the energy behind the drumming, prayers, songs, etc. and my sense of connection to earth and to spirit.

The group of 20 or so people that participated was wonderfully diverse...from the four year-old son of the lodge leader on up to a radiant 79-year old woman who lived next door. Individuals from Spain, Ireland, and Peru were represented...as well as both East and West Coasters there all seeking a deeper connection to spirit and Mother earth. Several different languages were spoken, but we were all had gathered with the same intent - spiritual connection and healing for ourselves and "all of our relations."

Yellowbird, our lodge leader is the founder of the Institute for Cultural Awareness, a nonprofit that is dedicated to preserving sacred sites and indigenous traditions and bridging the gap between the elders and the children. You can read more about the important work he's doing in the world here.

I feel truly honored to have had the experience....what a renewing way to begin 2009. Aho Mataqui Yasin!

Tomorrow in the United Kingdom, a former Pediatrician named Dimple Devadas will be giving a speech at her Toastmasters Club that asks, "Why Do Children Skip?"

Dimple contacted me through iskip.com well over a year ago now to interview me for an article she was writing that was later published that posed the same question.

You can reach the article that Dr. Devadas write by clicking here.

Thanks for spreading the skipping message on the other side of the pond, Dimple! Skip on!

It appears the poet Hafiz was a skipper! Wanted to share this lovely poem that my Twitter friend Barb sent me over the weekend.

And For No Reason by Hafiz

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun's mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.

For the past several months I have been working on the publicity campaign for a book called Why Walk When You Can Fly: Soar Beyond Your Fears and Love Yourself and Others Unconditionally by a delightful author named Isha.

The book's publication represents her North American debut. Isha is a widely recognized spiritual teacher from Latin America who has received unprecedented support from the international media for her extensive social outreach programs that are changing lives in high security prisons, hospitals, children’s homes, and with ex-guerilla soldiers. Inspired by her vision for a world united in the experience of love-consciousness, her revolutionary system offers a practical solution for inner change.

Because embracing life with childlike innocence and an open heart is a central part of Isha's teachings, her work resonated with my inner skipper right from the start. Here's a short excerpt from her book that reminds me a lot of how skipping makes me feel...

"A conscious person is just an innocent child who lives in each moment 100 percent, giving love to herself and everyone else, whom she also knows is self."

For the past several weeks, Isha has been touring the United States and Canada promoting her book...and today her travels brought her to our offices at New World Library. It was great fun to finally meet her in person and to skip together hand in hand.

For more information about Why Walk When You Can Fly and the Isha System, check out her website at isha.com.

My TV interview with Cody Stark on GOOD DAY SACRAMENTO last weekend was a smash success! Just posted it on You Tube and wanted to share it here.

As you'll see, Cody asked me to skip over to their local Walmart to recruit people to join the skipping movement...and it went quite well.



Thanks to all the skippers who joined in the fun! Skip on! Skip on! Skip on!

Just received this email and felt inspired to share...

After viewing your blog, I went outside to skip. There is something so freeing about the particular leg/arm/full body movements of skipping. Thank you for such a wonderful, easy and freeing invitation to be fully who we are. Skipping brought me directly back into my body and enlivened my senses!

This coming Sunday I am going to be doing a live TV interview on Sacramento's KOVR about skipping as a path to happiness in the 8 am hour! Be sure to tune in if you're in the area!

I'll also be working at New World Library's booth at the Green Festival on Saturday from 3-8 pm. If you're there, skip on by and say hello!

I've been having so much fun on twitter...and now Facebook...that updating my blog has fallen to the backburner a bit.

Things have definitely been skipping right along...I'm nearing completion of the first draft of my manuscript...and remain commited to my goal of feeling great in my body when I go to India in January to celebrate turning 40. I'm down 10.4 pounds...So so far so good.

I've also been digging through the skipping archives and came across this super fun video from the 2001/2002 time frame. The more evangelical skipping days depicted here almost feel like they were a dream at this point...So it's fun to have the videos as documenting evidence...



I'll be doing my best to do updates here more often... and in the meantime please skip on by and say hello if you're on twitter @iskip, gaia, myspace, or facebook!

My weight loss efforts continue and it's going relatively well...Although after yesterday's meeting, my results are beginning to feel a bit like the stock market. Down SIX pounds last week...and back up a pound and a half this week...despite following the program to the T both weeks.

I need to remind myself that this is a process that takes time... and that it will ebb and flow so I don't get discouraged! I'm down a total of eight pounds so far and my clothes are fitting much better...and that's what I'm going to focus on.

In other news.... A cool website called Take5Moment.com that features experts that deliver messages on motivation, inspiration, health, meditation, nutrition, exercises, etc. just used one of my skipping videos as their featured video of the week. Their mission is to provide people a landing spot in their day to "Take Time to Take Care, Take 5" to recharge, refocus and relax.

I had to giggle when I saw that they called me the CEO of iskip.com. :-) CSO: Chief Skipping Officer is actually more like it! :-) Skip on!

This email from the editor of the God Bless Humanity website that recently published an article about skipping I wrote made me smile, so I wanted to share it here...

OMG Kim I LOVE THIS! I want to go skipping now!

And whats so funny, just the idea of skipping woke me up. (I worked a ton
this week on Young & Restless/Price is Right/Bold & Beautiful - I'm a Scenic Artist) I was yawning and trying to stay awake until 8:30pm and now I 'm ready to go out and skip. I think I should find some kids to skip with hehe hehe

Woo-hoo! Skip on, Gayle.... and keeping having faith in humanity and sharing the positive stories of the world with us all.

It's been a good day. I went with a few coworkers a gala awards ceremony put on by the North Bay Business Journal to accept a "Best Places to Work in the North Bay award" on behalf of New World Library. We skipped out a little early, but all in all it was a positive, fun night.

I also just learned that a great website published an article I wrote about skippping. The site is called God Bless Humanity and it's a gathering place for people to share hopes, dreams, visions, prayers, intentions and good news with others around the world.

Last week, I attended a weight watchers meeting for the first time in 23 years. The last time I went to one, I was a sophomore in high school and went somewhat against my will per my Father's well-intentioned suggestion. So just getting myself there on my own volition felt like a signficant achievement.

I'm turning 40 in four months and it feels good to once again be taking positive steps toward healthier eating habits. I pray that I'm at a place where my focus and determination will stay the course....I'm ready to feel good in my body again!

At tonight's meeting, I learned that I lost 3 pounds in my first week which certainly encourages me to to keep at it. The theme for tonight was "Dance it Off"... The leader suggested that we turn on music in our house to dance to at some point before the next meeting... So I decided to pipe up and share my love of skipping with the group....since it's also a great thing to do around the house (especially if you're too self conscious to do it in public.)

I shared how skipping burns twice as many calories as walking...and passed around some SKIP ON postcards I had with me. A couple of people came up to me after to say they were going to give it a try. That felt good! I hope they really do! I know that it's something I am intending on doing a lot more of because I know firsthand how doing so can speed up weight loss efforts. Think good thoughts for me! Skip on!

I am very excited to announce that I am the proud mama of a new kitty cat! I adopted him from the Marin Humane Society on Sunday. He's 8 1/2 years old and his name is Ozzy.

I've been stopping by the humane society for well over a year now.... Waiting for that special cat that made my heart go pitter pat....and at long last, my search is over! Ozzy is a big snuggly love bug who loves to purr and cuddle....and I'm beyond excited to welcome him into my life!

It's been nearly two years since my beloved Kidder Cat skipped onto kitty heaven.... And it feels wonderful to once again be opening my heart to a new furry feline friend. Yay!

This past week I had a lot of fun guest teaching my friend Rachel's weekly Dance Your Bliss class in San Francisco. Of course, we skipped our bliss as well!Her website describes the class like this, "Imagine a space where you can really feel how powerful, alive and amaxing you are. You move with freedom, playfulness and creative expression. Suddenly, you are shaking away stress and entering a world of self-appreciation, spontaneity, and playfulness."

I sent out an email to the iskip mailing list announcing the class...and was thrilled to hear from the head skipper in Milwaukee, WI who found iskip way back in 2K. She's definitely among the most memorable of the bunch. She called herself the Cheesehead skipper and regularly updated me about her son who she called Little Cheese's skipping pursuits.

Well, imagine my surprise to receive the photo above of Little Cheese! He's not so little anymore.. Nearly 12-years old... Obviously, his old skipping name no longer suits him So, for now, I'll just refer to him as LC Skipper. Anyway, as it turns out, he is now an actor and a model! Here's the update his Mom sent...

LC is now 11. He will be 12 on Halloween. He has been cast in A Christmas Carol at the Milwaukee Reparatory theatre for the 2nd year in a row. The play has been running for more than 30 years straight. He will be skipping his little heart out since his part involves lots of singing, dancing and skipping.

Woo-hoo! You go LC Skipper! It's quite exciting to see the person who was once iskip.com youngest head skipper doing so many wonderful things with his life! Yay you! Skip on!

I survived my 11th Burning Man!

This photo was taken on Thursday afternoon after an unrelenting white out dust storm with 40 mile an hour winds that raged on for six or seven hours! I'm inside my Coleman shade structure which was completely demolished in the process. No doubt about it, camping at Burning Man is beyond extreme and not for the weak of heart.

One of my highlights this year was going out with a friend with a video camera and inviting colorfully clad burners to skip with me for a complitation video I plan on editing and posting on You Tube soon! Skipping happens spontaneously and naturally on at Burning Man....and I'm excited to do a video about it! Woo-hoo! Skip on!

At long last, I finished a new page on iskip about the rad sport of Extreme Skipping. It started in 2005, when a New Yorker named Extreme Gene introduced Extreme SKipping to the world with the following video:



In the years since, hundreds of Extreme Skippers have followed suit...and iSkip is proud to be profiling a particularly passionate group of them called Silly Boys Extreme Skipping. Skip on over to the new extreme skipping page to meet them for yourself.

Sorry to not be posting much lately....I'm in major planning mode for the Burning Man festival in Nevada next week. I'm going with several coworkers and a bunch of other fun people! 8 out of the 11 people in our camp are first timers. We're calling ourselves Camp Bee Here Now...We all have bee suits and will be swarming the desert en masse! Fun!

If you haven't heard of Burning Man... Basically it's a place where 50K people gather in the Black Rock Desert (extreme weather...hot during the day, cold at night, and if you don't drink water u die!) and create a temporary city called Black Rock City. There is no commercial vending on site...The city operates on a gift economy. It's a fully operational town... Beauty parlors, massage places, dance clubs, small, intimate blues clubs, open mikes, live music, bars, adult sized playgrounds, etc. etc..... and the best part is the art. Huge installations that quite often are burned at the end of the event to signify the temporary nature of all things...and the joy of creating for the sake of creating. You can find all kinds of cool pictures on their website.

It's a pretty amazing experience...This will be my 11th year...I'm really looking forward to it!

Oh, my other exciting news is that I just got started on Twitter! You can find me there twitter.com/iskip.

I have a few things to share today... First, a quote that I found in one of the books I am publicizing right now by Kamal Sarma called Mental Resilience: How to Develop the Focus of a Warrior & the Peace of a Monk...

"I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone weird wasn't weird at all and that it was the people saying they were weird that were weird." --Paul McCartney

Reminds me of something I often say which is that I think it is crazier for someone else to judge someone for skipping/expressing their joy in today's world than it is to want to skip down the street! Lord knows we need all the positive energy we can get! So skip loud and skip proud!

Also, here are two recent media references to the joys of skipping. Many thanks to author Melanie Bowden for sending them in.
* * *
In the August 2008 issue of Prevention magazine there is a workout on page 99 and one of the exercises is skipping. Here's what is says:

Lower Body Move: Skipping
Just like when you were a kid. Do it for 15 to 30 seconds. If you are indoors or have limited space, skip or jump in place.
* * *
And this was in the July 2008 issue of Parenting in an article of tips on mental-health boosters for moms:

Skip with your child. The steady rhythm naturally calms you and gives you a sense of being in sync with your body and the other person, Scott Sheperd, a psychologist in St. Louis says. "It's like two violin strings getting in tune with each other. Plus you'll feel like a kid again--and that rejuvenates you."
* * *
Two violin strings getting in tune with each other! I love that! Skip on! :-)

I had such a fun night last night. At 7:30 pm, my friend Dale called to see if I wanted to come out to hear some great blues music. My initial reaction was to say no...I've been so focused on my manuscript lately that the polite decline tends to be my habitual response to most social invitations that don't involve writing.

But then I realized he was very close by at the Marin Center and that Buddy Guy and George Thorogood & the Destroyers were on the bill! So I seized the moment and told him I was on my way.

Forty-five minutes later, there I was, in the 8th row listening to the smooth, cool sounds of Buddy Guy...and, later, singing along with George Thorogood to "Bad to the Bone" and "You Talk Too Much." It was fabulous!

As it turns out, Dale has been friends with George's bass player Billy Blough for years and that was how he scored the great tickets. We also had backstage passes. At first, I imagined a wild backstage party scene, but alas, it was as simple as getting the opportunity to meet Bill and talking to him about the show before they hit the road for their next gig in Reno.

Imagine my delight when Dale introduced us and Bill said he had heard about my skipping efforts 9 years ago when I was a guest on the NPR show, "Wait, wait, don't tell me!" Pretty cool that he remembered after all that time!

Skip on Billy Blough & George Thorogood...and rock on too!

All in all, I am very happy that I did the apple fast. I was amazed by how great I felt when I was finished.... and it seems I lost 6 pounds in the process....Pretty cool!

It's been a while since I've posted the interview I did about skipping on the Donny & Marie Show back in 2000, so I thought I'd share it again now...



Skipping with Donny Osmond was DEFINITELY a childhood dream come true! Skip on!

Well, it's day three of my apple fast and it looks like I made it! I actually feel really great today...almost like an altered state of consciousness or something. Pretty cool.

I went to work this morning, but ended up taking 1/2 a personal day this afternoon because it started getting hard for me to concentrate, etc. I scheduled a massage for myself which was a wonderful way to spend my last night on the fast.

All in all, I'm really happy that I did this... I feel like it will positively impact my relationship with food as I go back to regular eating over the next couple of days. I don't know if I've lost any weight since I haven't been to the gym where the scale is...(They recommend minimal exercise during the fast)...But that's not ultimately why I did it anyway (even though I most certainly would love to lose a few pounds.)

I've been focusing on letting go of some old ways of thinking throughout the fast...and feel lighter as a result. I feel like ever since I got in financial trouble because of quitting my job to focus on the skipping movement, that I've had a hard time trusting myself and my intuition as fully as I once did. My head and my heart haven't been in alignment... My heart wants to dream big again and my head has been coming up with a million reasons why it is too risky to do so... And that inner battle has been taking up way too much of my precious energy. So that is what I have been focusing on letting go of throughout my cleanse. Inner peace, baby. That's where it's at.

Tomorrow I can have orange juice in the morning and fruits/vegetables for lunch...and some grains for dinner. Then on Wednesday it's back to regular food....and exercise! I intend to get my skip on. That's for sure.

Day two on the apple fast and I'm going strong...Had about five apples again today...and lots of water.

I gave myself plenty of room to take it easy today! I read Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and watched movies in bed. I've been surprised by how tired I have been. Last night I fell asleep at 9:30 with the lights on while watching a movie and didn't wake up until 10 this morning. And I've cat napping off and on all day. Honestly, it feels good to have an excuse not to do anything but lounge around and eat apples!

So far so good on my apple fast! It's actually been much easier than I originally thought, so far anyway. I've eaten five apples today...and hunger has come in waves, but it doesn't seem to linger very long. Every now and then I get a very strong impulse to make myself a big, yummy meal. But then I remind myself...nothing but apples for three days! :-)

The most challenging part of today has been the persistent headache I've had since this morning...probably from caffeine withdrawl since I ususally have a couple cups every morning when I first get up.

I spent a while this morning doing more reading about cleanses/fasts and found great inspiration there. One website I found said..

Be kind to yourself during the fast. Let any emotions that have been pent up be leeched out of you along with all the other toxins. Let it all go, let it all out...

I suggest keeping a journal during the fast to see what bubbles up and needs your attention. Remember that you are cleansing yourself of all unwanted toxins: emotional, mental and physical.

What great advice...It really helps to see this process as going beyond the physical. Here's to releasing old, worn out, toxic ways of thinking and being.

I'm doing something I've never done this weekend! I'm going to do an apple fast.

Basically, I will eat nothing but apples for the next three days. I also can drink water, herbal tea, and apple juice.

I've been feeling like I need to do something to become more conscious and disciplined about my eating habits....So after doing a lot of research online for a cleanse/fast that is relatively cheap, easy, and do-able.... The Apple Fast is what I came up with.

Here's what an article I found on Bella Online says the benefits of doing this are...

This is a purifying diet which cleanses your alimentary canal, kidneys and liver, as well as your entire system.

Fasting is a wonderful way to cleanse the inside of our bodies. The American diet is loaded with heavy duty fats, calories, sugar, and very little nutritional value. Fasting can teach you a lot about your relationship with food and meals. Many people eat because they are feeling anxious and bored, and not because they are truly hungry. After three days, your digestive tract is empty, and your body has adjusted to not processing the food in your digestive tract , and not relying on stored fats as part of the process. After the first three days of a fast you can expect to stop feeling hungry, and thus will be able to alleviate binge, anxiety or boredom induced snacking. An apple cleansing fast is ideal for beginning fasters. The apple is an energizing food and will keep up your energy while you are bringing down your food consumption.

So, how about them apples? Here goes nothing! I will be writing about my experience here.... So stay tuned!