At Freedom Friday in Tavira last night we danced the Essential Movement Practice idea of "natural". The word has many aspects. One which I feel I can communicate is "something that is unaffected by anything or untouched". We can go deeper and say it is expressed as ones "Buddha Nature" or ones essence. From the work I do as a "Learning Love" facilitator we learn about peeling away the protection layers around our core wounds of shame, shock, abandonment, fear.. and when we are in a more "take it or leave it kind of space" or "loose and open" then our essence shines through. Taking that into account I feel there is a natural essential nature always waiting to shine through in all of us on or off the dance floor. In our dance this essentialness can be very real and present. Osho said "let the dancer become the dance" this would in dancing terms be exactly what natural is. What an order ! I don't offer classes on becoming enlightened as I am not there myself but we can make tiny steps on the dance floor! Well I think at the most simple and accessible level we do just that in Essential Movement Practice. No goal in movement, no desire to do anything but move with the flow of the music. We all get these glimpses of what this is about and trying to force being natural is not going to work either. Again as Osho said we just have to be loose and open and the natural part will follow. Well I think he said that! So last night we approached natural through the body by using our breath and heart space. What is more natural than the breath and our heart. Using a modified Lathihan of my own creation we broke a 17 min meditation down into 3 stages. The first stage was coming into a relaxes heart energy by using heart coherence breathing. Then we moved into phase two where we were now relaxed and open and brought light and energy into our heart space on the in breath and then became aware of where it moved in the body on the out breath. So there was the opportunity to move the body where the energy or light from the heart was sensed. The third and final phase was really doing nothing but feeling and letting the body move in the way it wanted to with no direction or thinking. Just letting it happen. For some they found it boring and were troubled by it which raises the question of how conditioned we are to "doing". The point of some of the work we do in my classes is to become aware of these feelings. This is a wonderful awareness to have of being bored so not everything has to be ecstatic in the dance to make deep awarenesses. Some clues to what is "natural" is when we ask ourselves questions like .. "the most natural thing to do right now is to lick my plate clean as the sauce is so tasty but I should not because it is not polite" !!! Dropping our conditioning is a way towards "natural". In our dance we can create our own moves and not be worried about what others think about us. This is "natural". We continue in two weeks for the last class of the summer before we return in August. For more information on Open Floor classes in Tavira or my retreats and coaching sessions send me a message I would love to hear from you.
I thought I would give a flavour of what my classes are like. So read on if you want to find out more. At last nights Open Floor dance practice on the 14 June in Tavira we explored the quality of Flowing which is part of the Essential Movement Practice I teach. Open ...Loose..Natural ...Flowing are the core qualities that expand in depth to embrace certainly Open Floors 4 x 4 as it is called. In Open Floor these are the relational hungers for Solitude, Belonging, Spirit and Connection. They weave together with the 4 dimensions of embodiment that are the Physical, Emotional, Mind and Soul. So on the dance floor we always have something moving in us and Open floor practice helps us become aware of what is pulling or pushing us at any one time in the 4x4. It really is a joy to be offering classes to what is a small group at the moment of really passionate dancers. The idea of Flowing is nothing new. 5R has a part of its movement cycle called just that and probably many other modalities. Last night we explored Flowing using the idea of birds soaring and looking for a thermal to lift them and carry them. How does it feel emotionally, mentally, physically and in our hearts when we are in the flow or flowing in our dance. You know the feeling its like .."We have caught the wave "or we have found a thermal to lift us. In our dance we can find that sweet spot where there is a beautiful juicy energy of flowing were we just feel our inner body effortlessly move. There is no stress or pushing we are simply in balance and as we turn we find another point of balance and turn with that and so on and so on. Last night, taking the bird idea further we began to find our own flow then there was an invitation to see if we could find our group flow. Moving together sharing the flight..etc.. I feel that when I am Open and Loose and as unforced as I can be (natural) then I will find the flow. At times we may need to flap our wings a lot to get into the Flow thermal! This effort can be a habit or just a lack of trust or we need to because we have to do the foot work to get going. Last night we also looked at an inquiry that was simple and not edgy!! "How do I know when I am in my Flow" we could ask "How do I know when I am not in my flow"..."How do I get back into my flow".. etc. All the classes are simple body awareness and core movement resource based practices that help bring essential awareness to our lives. There is the chance to go deeper for anyone who attends.
One area we can explore is when we are in connection or we suddenly have a feeling of gratitude that comes upon us from no where then I find that this puts me into a flow. Equally I believe we can be in a flow even when life is not easy. I can feel lots of things going on and at the same time accept that this is not easy and resist less, be more loose and open to change and then suddenly we find from nowhere we are lifted by the thermal and up we go and away we go. Just keep on moving is something that I always thing is so true. I will be giving a weekend workshop in August called "Wild Heart - Coming Alive" There we will be working with the body our energy and much more from not only dance. |
About SimonMovement and Awareness are my medicine . I dedicate my life to growing more conscious and in turn sharing and supporting others who wish to do the same. This blog is a way for me to do this and to reach people and share my ideas. Some of the subjects are about my Open Floor teaching in Portugal and some of the post are related to Tantra and Spirituality Archives
June 2019
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