NOTE:
I’m thrilled about the new Mastermind group that’s forming in May – if you are a movement or embodiment teacher and you’ve been thinking about it, now is the time to jump because the early bird discount will be ending March 31. Here is a link to information about the offering, and here is a link you can use to book your free 45 minute interview if you want to explore joining in.
Now, for my educational content.
Do you ever get so upset about violence in our culture that you start to shut down and tune out? I think it would be pretty weird if you didn’t. As a person with considerable privilege, I understand that I have a particular responsibility to stay present and not check out, but the fact is I still do.
I lose contact with that creative part of me that can imagine things being different.
The kind of ideas and actions I come up with when I am in shut down tend to be fear based, crisis driven, and pessimistic. I can’t dream a better world when I can’t feel my body. Access to a vivid imagination is the best, and most indispensable part of what we call “embodiment.” It’s like, the essence of life! Ladies and gentleman, we really need some wild dreaming right now.
I woke up this morning pretty upset about the most recent violent events in the USA, which are only the latest manifestation of deep problems in our society. I know these are systemic problems, but each event happens to specific and particular people, and I feel it. The violence aimed at all kinds of Asian people, and Asian woman in particular, is close to home for me because I have so many Asian family members and friends and can’t understand the lack of respect for Asian cultures which have given us all so much. So I shut down and push on, or I can breath, take a little time, and ask…..How can I accept my role as a “happy body person” in circumstances like this? I find that I do have the skills to reconnect with myself. Please know I’m not saying you should be able to do that…but I’ve practiced long and diligently, and…
I can breath, I get into my body, and I can dream.
Here is my simple educational prompt for the day:
1) Stop, breath, and listen to your body. Everyone knows how to do this.
2) Choose one Mobilignment™ point to focus on: nose, tail bone, top of your tibia bone are a few. Let yourself organize around this awareness.
2) Stop, breath, and listen to the world outside your body. Locate your whole self, and one particular point in yourself, in a larger, more global awareness.
Spend a couple of minutes alternating between the two.
Do you feel better, or worse?
If you feel better, it’s self-reinforcing and you’ll probably continue. If you feel worse, hopefully having listened to your body you will take some kind of self-loving or kind action for it (and one thing you could do is book a free 15 minute consultation :-). Once it’s heard, your body will probably be a little bit happier.
A body (and bodies include brains) that is listened to – either through touch, or sound, or empathetic witnessing – tends to soften, open, and ease. It gives imaginative and sensory gifts to the listener.
So if I ask myself hmmm, I wonder what it would be like if my body was easy…
My feet…
My tongue…
My throat…
My inner thighs…
(insert space here for some part of your body that is speaking up)
….. my body mind starts to spread its wings. Recently I started to think…what if I just imagine ease out into the world? What if it wasn’t just me?
Here are some questions my brain came up with when I turned my eased mind outwards:
- What if every child in my city had enough healthy food to eat?
- What if I knew in my bones that I, too, would never be allowed to go hungry or be homeless, even in my old age? That I, too would be cared for?
- What if I knew that no human being was going to be beaten or killed merely because of their perceived race, ethnicity, gender, or any state of their body whatsoever today, or tomorrow, or next year…
- What if systemically oppressed people were actually witnessed, heard, and believed when they tell us what is going on and what needs to change?
It would feel sooooooo good. Now, that’s embodiment!
These are just a few of my big dreams. What are yours? Cheer me up and send them to me! It’s hard to act when you feel truly helpless and hopeless, but how many of us can really honestly say that there is no hope? I’ll help you, if you’ll help me.