17 April 2017 – I am at home working. I am distracted by new emails as they arrive, new facebook posts as they ping, new phone calls as they ring, awareness of dishes undone, wet clothes in the washing machine needing to be hung, delectable leftovers in the fridge begging to be eaten, a second cup of coffee waiting to be heated, Henry is lonely and I am ignoring him, Colleen is in Malibu tutoring and would love to be checked-in with.
“YAHOO! News” beckons with word of nuclear tests and threats, Russian intervention and aggression, Republican party shenanigans and macho posturing seducing war, two of four brothers are missing from radar, father and father-n-law are in big homes alone, wifeless, isolated needing support. The front and the back, plumped up and bursting in bloom after our glorious winter of rain are now two weeks into renewed drought and in danger of withering and browning and perishing.
This is a snippet of the incessant conversation in my head as I am facing a list of clients uncalled, workshops unfilled, banking unaccounted, bills overdue, travel arrangements unmade.
I do this work, this movement work, this conscious dance that I call Medicine Dance, because I need this work. I am at risk daily of mind hijacking sense of well-being, connection to Earth and all relations, peace of mind, simple enjoyment of little things, unreasonable joy and easy uninterrupted sleep.
Extricating myself from the computer, entering the back room of our home created to be sacred space, committing to five or ten or twenty or 90 minutes – Pausing. Sensing into my body. Allowing or initiating response, in the form of more and less movement is my practice. My medicine. The way back home.
Paying attention to present-moment thoughts, feeling and sensation, moving as I feel, feeling as I move is the practice and 5 minutes can shift everything.
And it does not always look the same. It often times is not in the back room. It can be breathing in a committed 20 minute hot bath. It can be intended awareness of feet and spine and core muscles on a 90 minute walk/climb/run in the neighboring streets and hills . It can be rolling around with Colleen, or included in pulling weeds or sitting still in the sun.
But if I do not Do “It.” “It” being Pause. Sense into body. Respond with more and less movement. Attend to present-moment thoughts, feelings and sensation, moving as I feel, feeling as I move – then I am in trouble.
How do you Do It? What activities does your mindful movement practice get integrated into, or do you simply move and feel for how long? Where? What do you say to yourself to get started and to sustain the few minutes or hours that you practice? Are you willing to share your secret Way of moving meditation?
This workshop is borrowing tried and true elements of our See/Hear/Love: As A Tree Medicine Dance Facilitation trainings, where the majority of knowledge identified and practiced in real time comes from the center of the circle that we create on that day. Whoever shows up informs the space as much as anyone else, more or less, depending on your willingness to share what you already know, what you do and what you do not do, what you want to do more and less of.
Bring a journal and writing implement. Bring music that you move to at home or would be excited to move to at home. Bring blankets and layers and water and snacks that support your deep comfort over the course of our 5 hours together.
We will include different varieties and colors and qualities of practice, that can address a myriad of needs that change continuously. Practice that supports profound rest, practice that awakens and energizes, practice that clears mental chatter, practice that unravels chronic tension, strengthens muscle, lubricates joints, expands myo-fascial tissues, increases circulatory and breath capacity. You name it we create it. And its fun and easy and cheap and doable.
