Moving in Trust

We get so caught up in our IDEAS of things, don’t we?

And those ideas then get caught up with other people’s ideas and pretty soon we are in knots over things that seem like they should be pretty simple.

Movement, for example.

Instead of just trusting ourselves to move in ways that bring us joy and pleasure and growth and change and all the things we really want from movement, we start to explore a particular path.

Then we get caught up in doing it “right.”

Then we self identify with the culture of the path.

Let’s take, for example, yoga — the very thing that is meant to bring us freedom and an understanding of ourselves that is infinite. Over time, over repetitions, it ends up concretizing us in our bodies and our minds. It can take a long time — if ever — to be able to see that this is what has happened.

Maybe then we move to “primal movement,” but again, instead of trusting ourselves, we seek a “program” and even in this concept called “primal,” we find ourselves learning patterns and repeating patterns and wondering when we’ll get to the “advanced” patterns.

When the most “advanced” pattern is the capacity to follow no pattern.

There is nothing wrong with studying different paths and with different teachers as long as we don’t get STUCK.

Find a teacher who is the geekiest student you’ve ever met.

Find a teacher who is there to light your curiosity on fire.

Find a teacher who is never ever finished.

Find a culture of no culture, one that is always expanding.

Find a group of humans who don’t believe in hierarchies of any kind.

Be brave.

Stop following. Stop patterning.

Question. Experiment. Play.

JoyBody is NOT...

I use the word JOY in the way mystics have traditionally used it across many traditions.

It doesn't mean happiness or silliness or any sort of BIG expressed, giddy sort of emotional state. It's the ground of your being. It's the ground of all existence.

It's the feeling that we have when we are centered and residing in the space in ourselves that knows it is a good thing to be living this life no matter what is happening. It's actually quite... calm, steady, abiding... it feels a lot like long deep breathing.

There are as many ways to access this state as there are human experiences and that is where tantra comes in for me. Tantra is an understanding of life that says that every single thing you take in via your senses is a gift that we can learn from, that we can grow from.

So tantra never denies bodily needs and desires like so many paths do. There's no "transcending." There's being right here IN THIS.

This does NOT mean that SHIT doesn't happen. It doesn't mean that SHIT isn't SHITTY. It doesn't mean there aren't UBER SHITTY humans on this planet making UBER SHITTY choices.

It means that if we are settled in our joybody we can, after processing and being truthful and expressing what needs to be expressed, we can find even just a small something of value for ourselves. After the fact.

The universe and life aren't here to "teach you lessons." Open minded and inquisitive people turn life INTO lessons.

So when I ask you about joy even in this current context of craposity, I mean, dig a little under that. Are you breathing today? Then there's something for you under the crap.

THIS is LIBERATING your joybody.

The Stories of Your Body

Jane was one of my elder dancers. She was about 80 when I was teaching her and she had more energy than ANYONE I knew. She was so IN LOVE with life, and she just DOVE into anything I asked them to do.

And she had the most expressive FEET.

As we age, things might start to feel differently. Things might start to make sounds, feel achey, not extend or stretch quite as far as they used to.

That only upsets us because of our expectations and because of the negative stories we then spin around what is simply…happening.

What if we flipped that?

What if we decided — as the original practitioners of Butoh did many years ago — that with age, our bodies become MORE — more full of story, MORE able to tell those stories, more honest, more expressive, more beautiful, more joyful?

What if we decided that the true dance didn’t — couldn’t — happen until we were well toward our 80s like Jane?

JOYBODY Movement Arts Six Week Online Session: You Are Fascinating

If you’ve been around me for more than a couple of years, you know that I can never quite NAME the work I do. Until recently…when I woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago with this in my head…

JOYBODY.

And as someone smart in my orbit remarked, that name has been there all along.

Yes. It has. I can remember the very first training I took at Kripalu and this idea of accessing our original joy nature? It popped out of my mouth by the end of that week.

When I watch you, even though you might not be capable of feeling it yet, that’s what I see… your essential nature as a joybody.

A being of love and compassion and a strength you likely have forgotten.

But through our movement experiments and our shared rituals, we can remember.

We can re-member:

We are not a product or a result or someone's "after" photo. There is nothing wrong with us. We are not "over" or "under" weight. We are not "inflexible." We are not someone "with two left feet."

We are not a THING in any way, and we are not, therefore, to be somehow qualified, quantified, or categorized.

We are a PROCESS... and we are ever-evolving.

NEXT SESSION BEGINS MONDAY, October 12th and runs for 6 weeks.

WHERE: ONLINE, via Skype

TIME: Mondays, 5:30 to 6:45 PM (Eastern Time)

DATES: October 12, 19, 26 and November 2, 9, 16

HOW: For this session, you need to also be familiar with/able to use Spotify or YouTube ALONG WITH Skype. It’s free. I’ll be providing a music list BEFORE each class. While I’m teaching, ALL MICS MUST BE OFF, except for mine. You’ll be listening to the music at your end (providing more volume and clarity) AND you’ll still be able to hear me (I’ll be using an earbud for my own music.)

MISSED CLASS: If you miss a class, I will gladly provide the prompts for that music list in writing up to two times per session.

COST: $85

JoyBody Morning Quickie: 6 Week Online Kundalini Yoga for an Open Heart

According to yoga tradition and philosophy, we are in a time period when things are very skewed. (And they don’t just mean 2020.)

We’re in a time when the typical spiritual practices are either too difficult for people to comprehend or just not effective because of the depth of despair and disbelief and disconnect that humans are experiencing.

During this time, tantra yoga practices are what humans need. They’re concrete. They’re easy to grasp. They’re grounded in the physical world more than any of the others. They’re effective QUICKLY.

And so we have Kundalini yoga.

And I DO believe that this is the yoga we need right now.

We need a yoga that can quickly affect our mind and heart and spirit via body practices that are accessible to all bodies with barely any modification.

This yoga clarifies immediately. Even a short practice, takes away my brain fog.

This yoga clears the heart immediately. No matter what’s on the news, after a quick Kundalini practice I feel like I can handle life again.

This yoga activates the body powerfully. I feel like a different person after a mere ten minutes and I feel ready to tackle whatever needs to be tackled.

This is the yoga of the heart based warrior.

PLEASE READ ALL THE HOWS AND WHATS BELOW CAREFULLY!

WHAT YOU GET:
ACCESS TO TWO 20 MINUTE PRACTICES A WEEK, WHICH YOU CAN WATCH LIVE OR YOU CAN WATCH THE RECORDING WHEN YOU HAVE TIME. IT’S ALL UP TO YOU.

You can also REPEAT the material as much as you want. Each class will stay up in the group for the entire month and a bit beyond.

You also have access to ME. You can ask for help ANY TIME in the group.

HOW:
YOU HAVE TO BE ON FACEBOOK.

MUSIC will be provided in the group prior to the class via Spotify and YouTube lists.

You’ll be added to a “Morning Quickie Yoga” PRIVATE group.

TIME ZONE: I’m in the Eastern U.S. Time Zone. For those of you for whom that might not mean much, I’m in the same time zone as New York City.

ALSO NOTE: Classes, though online, START ON TIME. You can jump in late, but I won't be waiting.

COST: $70 for 6 weeks of 2 quickie classes
TIME: 10:30 AM
Tuesdays: October 13, 20, 27 and November 3, 10, 17
Thursdays: October 15, 22, 29 and November 5, 12, 19

Morning Quickie: Kundalini Yoga for Your Unique Bones

No two downdogs (or whatever) should ever look the same!

You skeleton is unique to you and your yoga should be too.

This twice a week, four week session, starting Tuesday, September 15th, will be a combination of all the yoga I’ve studied for almost 25 years, with a special emphasis, as usual on Kundalini. Each week, we’ll deep dive into a couple of traditional hatha postures and different ways to approach them depending on YOUR skeleton.

By Monday each week, I will post in the private Facebook group which postures we’ll be deconstructing so you have time to say “HEY! This is how I struggle with ((fill in the blank))!” I can then tailor our classes to specific needs.

PLEASE READ ALL THE HOWS AND WHATS BELOW CAREFULLY!

WHAT YOU GET:
Access to TWO 20 minute practices a week, which you can watch live or you can watch the recording when you have time. It’s all up to you.

You can also REPEAT the material as much as you want. Each class will stay up in the group for the entire month and a bit beyond.

You also have access to ME. You can ask for help ANY TIME in the group.

HOW:
You have to be on Facebook.

MUSIC will be provided in the group prior to the class via Spotify and YouTube lists.

You’ll be added to a “Morning Quickie Yoga” PRIVATE group.

TIME ZONE: I’m in the Eastern U.S. Time Zone. For those of you for whom that might not mean much, I’m in the same time zone as New York City.

ALSO NOTE: Classes, though online, START ON TIME. You can jump in late, but I won't be waiting.

COST: $60 for 4 weeks of 2 quickie classes
TIME: 10:30 AM
Tuesdays: September 15, 22, 29, and October 6
Thursdays: September 17, 24, and October 1, 8

Be a Movement Rebel Fundamentals: Summer Session 2 (ONLINE)

WHERE: ONLINE, via Skype

TIME: Mondays, 5:30 to 6:40 PM (Eastern Time)

DATES: July 20, 27 and August 3, 10, 17, 24

HOW: For this session, you need to also be familiar with/able to use Spotify. It’s free. But I’ll be providing a music list BEFORE each class. While I’m teaching, ALL MICS MUST BE OFF, except for mine. You’ll be listening to the music at your end (providing more volumn and clarity) AND you’ll still be able to hear me (I’ll be using an earbud for my own music.)

COST: $80

REGISTER HERE

I’ve gone through a gazillion transformations with this work that started 11 years ago, and for the first time ever, I feel like I have finally found some ways to talk about it that really give you a feeling for what we are doing.

I am a Kinetic Liberator.

What the heck does that mean?!?

Well, it means about a thousand things, but to start, it means that I am here to guide you into your own body’s ways of moving in this world that will bring you to a place in which you are able to truly enjoy living in your body.

I’m here to guide you into a fuller relationship with your body via her unique vocabulary — not the vocabulary of someone else’s body or anyone else’s ideas of forms and postures and steps.

Also I’m here to make space for bodies that were often told they didn’t belong in certain places — like dance classes or yoga studios (I’m not saying ALL have been exclusionary BUT I am saying that far too many of my students have this shared experience).

I’m here to make space for different bodies to move in ways that have been culturally deemed “only for (insert body type).”

I’m here, too, to cut the cord connecting permission and a male or other gaze. Meaning, your body moving is for YOU… not for anyone else to “enjoy” or partake of in any way.

Besides how I’m here to guide you via your body, I’m here to help in another way:

I’m here to show you that you can literally MOVE YOUR CRAP, cut through all the old stories, build a new way of being, and that you don’t need to talk it all to death.

So that’s me… what’s the work for you?

I want you to embrace yourself as a Movement Rebel.

As a movement rebel, you come to each and every class with no preconceived notions.

You come with no mat, no shoes, no special equipment.

The only equipment you need is CURIOSITY and FASCINATION.

As a movement rebel, you know all you need is you.

What do we actually do?

From week to week, this evolves. Constantly. But there are some things that create a sense of familiarity so that we can be brave in the face of all that change:

We always start class on the floor, seated (though this can be done in a chair), and we always start with the breath and with a series of circular movements throughout the body.

This gets us grounded and settled and warmed up.

Then we explore individual body parts for a segment of the class. We might spend a whole song moving with just the hands, for example.

And finally, we get into more poetic work toward the end, using prompts designed to disconnect thinking mind so you can really get to know your rebel self.

LIBERATION IS THE WHOLE POINT

Are you ready?