A few announcements!

First, as always, there’s a new session of classes starting the week of March 11th. Go here for information about quickie yoga and Peony Somatic Dance classes that are online.

Second, if you know Helen Yee (perhaps you’ve been in a class with her), you might not know that she’s an amazing violinist and composer, AND she just released a solo album that I’m currently playing on repeat. I think my students will love it for movement practice.

Go here to support her work. You can purchase the CD (which comes with digital download) or you can just do digital.

(And hey, if you have anything you’re releasing out into the world, please send me a message so I can highlight you in my/our spaces.)

Speaking of spaces, the third announcement comes with a lot of mixed emotions, but my overriding emotion is excitement and so I know this is the right choice: I’m shutting down the JoyBody Sanctuary after 12 years of running free, private Facebook groups. I need a break and I need that time and energy to work on other projects and writing.

That said, you should be seeing me here more.

You can go here to read what I wrote about the closing of the group. I’ll be archiving the group at some point on Monday, March 4th so until then you can comment and leave responses.

And finally, a short video from a class with Linda Soto. It’s blurry but I found this so beautiful that it’s worth the blur.

JoyBody and the values that underlie your embodiment intentions

Whether we’re wanting to create a deeper sense of embodiment or we want to move more and in different ways to experience the expression of this body, it can be a huge help to understand the values underneath your intended actions.

When we understand WHY, we’re less likely to give up on the what and how. When we understand and put the WHY first, we’re more willing to experiment and to see the what and how through a lens of curiosity and playfulness.

When we understand our WHY, we’re also less likely to get caught up in blame and shame or other people’s ideas about what we “should” be doing.

This is important stuff, to say the least, and I think most people don’t spend much, if any, time thinking about it or articulating it for themselves.

I’m going to talk about mine as an example:

Value one: physical strength and flexibility = mental health. The stronger I am physically, the stronger I am mentally. Period. They are inextricably linked.

Value two: creative expression. When I’m moving more, I get more creative with movement, sure, but I get more creative in every area of my life.

Value three: connection. When I’m moving more, I’m more deeply connected to myself and therefore have better connections to others, including healthier boundaries.

When I focus on those values instead of things like “I should exercise more,” then my movement time is more meaningful and I’m better at making the best choices for myself around movement and embodiment.

For example, if I focus on my values, I don’t give up but I also don’t punish myself or forget to nurture myself with appropriate rest, nutrition, and hydration.

Those values are in the driver’s seat.

You might notice, too, that these values are not things that are exclusive to movement but can be applied in every area of my life. That’s when we know we’re at the true core of things.

If you’ve never thought of it this way, just start to take a stab at it for yourself and I’ll help where I can. (Feel free to email, FB message, or write in the Sanctuary about this.)

JoyMusic: Something new to move to

Definitely how I feel.

I love that we have musicians and composers right in the midst of our circles, including in the sanctuary.

I want to encourage you to, firstly, look for women, nonbinary people, and people of color when you’re looking for new composers in particular. There are so many amazing composers out there who don’t fit the usual stereotype and are NOT, of course, getting the attention or the work that they deserve. (Side note: If you have a local philharmonic, check out their schedule and see if they’re including any women. So many just do not. Then maybe contact them.)

Secondly, I encourage you to always be listening to new things… and MOVING to new things. It wakes up different parts of your brain and bodymind. It’s important. Nostalgia music also plays a part but new stuff is even more important in terms of brain health.

All of that said, today I bring you the work of Trista Hill, who happens to live near me in Columbus (but is someone I’ve been connected to for longer… I think… it’s hard to keep track!).

Trista plays the harp and here is her bandcamp for a project with a cellist. It’s not what you would expect. It’s quite exciting. I never would have thought of the harp this way.

Look to the right hand column and also check out Urban Elegance. (And everything else, of course.)

Next up is Helen Yee, whom I’ve definitely been connected to for many years, including having the opportunity to move with her in classes and a long ago, first attempt at a long distance choreography project.

She is a violinist and composer working in a field that both of us have a hard time putting language too… avant guard? Minimalist? Hmmm…

Here’s her soundcloud.

Let me know if you know of anyone different and exciting in the world of composing.

JoyList: Stuff floating my boat

Are you heading to any music or festivals this summer? We started off this past weekend with our neighborhood ComFest (community arts and music festival). It’s been going on in our park for 51 years.

Obviously, the stilt walker was at our festival. She was one of two. I can’t imagine. Even this bit of height would turn my stomach, but they were so happy and smiley.

Other things floating my boat…

Did you hear about this wacky and amazing science-y discovery that is blowing all the scientists brains this week? The papers were released on the 28th and wow! If you like time and space stuff, check it out.

OH! I have a new video of a super simple and highly effective psoas release that also works, of course, on your diaphragm and your nervous system. Go here and look under “shorts.” It’ll be the first one with me looking way up at the camera. And if you get something out of it, make sure to like, comment, and/or subscribe. (Thank you!)

Speaking of YouTube:

Something new from one of my favorite dance companies.

My favorite creator who talks about her different brain and burnout and how she’s healing that.

Have you ever watched any of the videos by this Chinese creator? She lives in the mountains on her grandparents’ farm and does every freaking thing by hand and traditional methods. Watching her cook or build something is so freaking soothing to me. She also practices traditional arts like calligraphy… just whoa.

For my Butoh loving peeps, here’s a short video of Kauo Ohno (one of the founders) talking about technique and motivation.

For my book lovers, here are a few of my recent faves, but you can always just look at my goodreads.

For specific books:

I’m about 2/3s of the way through Lisa See’s most current book. ANYTHING SHE WRITES is worth your time.

I loved Louise Erdrich’s most recent. She just never misses the mark.

And someone told me to read this Rebecca Solnit quite a while ago. I love her work and am loving this too.

What’s floating YOUR boat?

JoyBody: the collective body

The work we do under the name JoyBody doesn’t mean much if it’s just about our own individual bodies. That’s not even how humans work, right? We’re part of a larger ecosystem… or web. I am because you are. Period.

So I’ll be, here and there, highlighting communities that need our help and direct ways you can help, even just from your seat in front of this screen.

As you know, it’s pride month, and I want to highlight one part of the LGBTQIA+ community in particular: the trans community.

I’m highlighting the trans community, because I know and love some trans people, first and foremost, but secondly because I think their community is the most in need of our help right now. They are under attack in so many new and frightening ways.

I would start by getting more educated about all of this. Here’s a great article that explains the science of sex and gender and how complicated it is.

Here’s a great FAQ about gender and all the different ways one can identify and the issues that can arise (like gender dysphoria).

If you feel like you don’t have a deep enough understanding of these issues, start with what I’ve provided and then don’t be afraid to ask questions. (The sanctuary is a safe place for everyone so feel free to ask there or you can write to me directly.)

From understanding, we need to move on to action. What can we do?

Firstly, look for your own state specific organizations working on these issues. Like here, we have Equality Ohio. I follow them on TikTok to keep track of what’s happening in our state government. (It’s a lot and it’s AWFUL.)

You can always start by simply giving money to these organizations, but you can help by showing up at protests and writing emails and making phone calls. We all have comfort zones and we all have skills we can offer.

If you want to see what’s going on nationally and internationally, check out Outright International. There’s also the Trans Legal Mapping Report.

In the US, there’s the Transgender Law Center, the Equality Federation (which can help you find your state based actions), and the National Center for Transgender Equality.

JoyMoves: the obstacles are the path

“The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Or to put it more succinctly: the obstacles are the path, as I say in the heading. So freaking annoying and so true.

If the obstacles don’t become the path or the way, then you’re resisting the truth and reality of your own life and that, I think, is what we’re actually experiencing when we say things like “I’m stuck… I don’t know what to do next… I have no visions…” or even when we say things like, “I don’t have time.”

The work of the practice is devotion to the obstacles.

If we aren’t devoted to the obstacles, then we’re not devoted to the practice.

(I know… I’m even annoying myself here…)

I’m writing particularly today about your movement practice, but you know that movement is life and therefore all the things we do in our movement practices are just reflections of what’s happening our life and how we’re approaching obstacles. (SO. ANNOYING.)

Here are some simple ways to work with your obstacles instead of allowing them to rob you of the practices that support and rejuvenate you and bring you to your essential nature of joy:

1. Time: THIS ONE IS BIG. Stop telling yourself that you have to move at a certain time and stop thinking that only certain amounts of time "count." Look for opportunities that you're missing because of these stories. For example, when you're waiting on your coffee or tea in the microwave, you can stretch, wiggle, bounce. THINK MICRO MOVEMENT PLAY.

2. Space: stop telling yourself that you need a special space or a certain amount of space. Great movement can happen in the square foot right around your body, in a chair, in the car.

3. Clothing/shoes: this one is also big. You don't have to take the time to change your clothes if that's going to stop you. Do whatever *IN* whatever. (And just free your feet and work barefoot -- if you're not already.) I often work in my jeans because if I have to stop to change, I’m just not going to do it.

4. Finding music: don’t let feeling bored by music stop you. Check out my Spotify and just randomly pick a list, hit shuffle, and move no matter what.

5. Boredom with how you’re moving: this is a big one and it happens to all of us, even me. We all hit points where we just feel like we’re repeating ourselves or nothing is happening that is interesting. This is where my videos can help (which are free) or make sure you’re in the sanctuary (which is free) to ask questions and get inspiration or take a class with me or schedule a one on one.

What other obstacles are you running in to? I would love to help figure out a way to work with them.

Two Free Invites: Brains and Disco (It will make sense in a minute...)

Recently I’ve started two new habits/groups of sorts and I’ve started them small (and actually VERY small with the disco) so I could see how it would go and then open it up to more of you lovely humans.

First up, BRAINS! If you are a person with any kind of, what we call now, neurodivergence, we would love to have you in our private Facebook group, Beautiful Brains.

I realized I was constantly coming across information and videos and my own schtuff and I didn’t want it to overwhelm the JoyBody Sanctuary, so it definitely needed its own space. We have just under 40 members now, and the conversations are so helpful. It feels good to know we’re not alone in our different way of engaging with the world and the different ways our brains process.

This group would include anyone on any kind of spectrum, Autism, ADHD, OCD, C-PTSD, etc. And often, of course, with different brains, there’s lots of comorbidity.

Send me a note either here or on Facebook and tell me you want in and I’ll get you set up.

Second, DICSO! In order to get myself to move more on days I don’t teach, I knew I needed some body doubling help. I found a perfect companion and we got started and then we quite naturally added about 3 other people. Not everyone shows up each time but it’s enough to keep us going.

We only do this on Wednesdays and Fridays. We meet on zoom at 9 AM (Eastern) and we are each trying to stay on for about 30 minutes. We don’t talk. We just wave to each other and get started. (We all have video on because that’s part of the helpfulness but we’re all muted because we’re each doing our own music and our own movement.)

Again, let me know if you want to be included. This is a no pressure sort of group… both of them actually.

When bad things keep happening...

It’s Tuesday, March 28th as I sit to write this. Today I had myself scheduled to make some new reels and videos. My books are full of work to be done. My planner has lists.

But I just couldn’t. Instead I’m writing here and then I’m going to take some time to do some reading… Buddhism. It seems to be my go to when I feel lost, angry, sad, grieving, and powerless in this world that more and more is being created in some sick image of an authoritarian God who judges and punishes, a world where the faithful are really the fearful, a world that values one particular “freedom” over all others.

On average, we are seeing one school shooting a week. A WEEK.

But this last shooting in Nashville has an added layer that is dangerous for an already marginalized group of people. This added layer is what those fearful “Christians” immediately grabbed on to, and within moments of the news, they started churning out hateful rhetoric that is inflammatory, dangerous, and actually, as usual, full of lies.

They are claiming that trans people are the new dangerous group. I won’t quote them, but I will quote some actual REAL and TRUE stats, which are easy enough to corroborate just by going through all the news stories yourself and counting but here:

"4 shooters out of over 300 mass shooters since 2009 are transgender or non binary. That's just 1.3 percent of all shooters," Anthony Zenkus, a lecturer in social work at Columbia University, wrote on Twitter. "You just proved our point: 99 percent of mass shooters in the United States are cis gendered.”

* Cis gendered male, to be more precise. For more of those stats and the rest of that article, go here.

As usual, our politicians, most of whom are the whores of the NRA and other violent groups, are trying to distract us from the reality that this country is sick, and specifically, that our love of guns in this country is a mental illness.

As a cis gendered woman who has had plenty of opportunity in my life to feel frightened and actually threatened by the men around her, I have never once thought, “I should carry a gun…”

As a person in a group of humans who is actually targeted with rape and murder, I have never thought that I should arm myself and prepare myself to kill another.

So what are all these cis gendered men who carry their AR15s into GROCERY stores so fucking frightened of?

They have bought into a story told to them from on high… that someone, some mysterious someone is out to get them. Though they themselves hold most of the power, they have bought into a story that their power is being threatened and can be directly protected with violence.

Again, we are sick.

And guns only make our sickness more obvious. Every other developed country that has instituted strict gun control (not even just the wimpy ass variety we’ve been begging for for decades) sees an immediate decrease in violence and death.

“But the criminals still have guns.” That falls flat when you take a real look at the stats for those countries just mentioned. I’m guessing they still have crime and criminals, but guess what they don’t have? Mass shootings. School shootings. Ever growing graveyards of children.

Statistically this country has more people who claim to be on the left than on the right. But the right has somehow highjacked our political system and is imposing their fear-based, ugly, violent, restrictive, and yes, fascist vision on this country. (You immediately become a fascist, FYI, when you ban books. Period.)

When I say they have somehow highjacked our political system what I really mean is that they have very intentionally squashed voter rights, instituted gerrymandering, and made their gun ownership as visible as possible so that the rest of us stay in place, too frightened to fight…

I don’t have any answers. And I don’t think it’s people like me stockpiling weapons themselves.

Because unlike most “Christians,” I actually believe in the nonviolent Christ who was very clear about weapons.

My mind is all over the place right now so I’ll end with a couple of suggestions:

First, if you’re not already, follow, support, whatever a gun reform group. This one is good.

Second, if you’re a trans ally, start being louder about it, and if for whatever reason, you feel like you can’t be louder, then be more supportive in other ways.

Here’s a national one you could support but every state and city has smaller groups that always need help.