Why Embodiment Work is Not "Exercise," Part One of MANY

NOTE: this was written way before we were at all aware of what was to come via this virus.

"Embodiment" is not just experienced on the individuated level. There is the body of family and the body of a circle of friends and the body of our society and many other bodies of which we are all members.

Our society's body is SICK right now. Obviously.

The process of healing BEGINS in the individual body that has been turned into a "disposable worker" in a large machine.

The process of healing begins in the individual body when we start to feel and BE IN these bodies in ways that the larger machine doesn't like. Meaning, when we become aware of our power.

We do that through creative expressions that put us back in touch with our original selves.

It saddens (and angers) me that we need "studies" and "numbers" to "prove" the truth of such obvious underlying truths.

First, by elevating certain intellectual pursuits, we clearly tell children that being good at A is way more important than being good at B.

What of the children who are so very excellent at B?

Second, this then creates our culture of blaming the poor for being poor in that people who were valued more in school for being good at A are then more valued in society and paid more for doing A.

Those who were good at other things that went unrecognized... then what?

Low paying jobs for the most part. With no insurance, no future security, etc.

Those people are then told to go back to school to "get better jobs."

HOW IS THERE A CONCEPT SUCH AS "BETTER" JOBS?

Is not all human labor and creativity inherently dignified if we treat it as such? Is not all human labor worthy of a livable income. Take that a step further: are not all HUMANS "worthy" of the basics no matter what?

And humans should be valued based on what they're naturally good at? We are so far away from what we are meant to be...

As if humans should be "valued" over other humans in any way whatsoever.

Anger

The lake was crazy today when we took a walk to see her. LOUD and VIOLENT in her waves and churning. The kind of water action that changes whole coastlines in amazingly short lengths of time.

She was mesmerizing.

And I kept thinking she was reminding me of Kali, the Hindu goddess that brings about death to make room for rebirth.

She’s a goddess that I have spent a lot of time with over the last six years.

I feel her rage inside of me, but unlike our lake or mother nature in general, I don’t feel like I have anywhere to put that sort of rage. I don’t have a coastline that I can recut.

Another title for Kali, though, is liberator of souls.

We can only be liberated once what is keeping us imprisoned is destroyed.

Right now, we’re in this strange, extremely uncomfortable (to put it mildly), frustrating, STUCK place, but it’s in these sorts of liminal spaces where it seems nothing is happening that everything is happening.

More people than ever are, for example, waking up to the fact that the way our current culture is structured is not working. People are dying from lack of healthcare and food. What about that is in any way civilized?

But we have, for too long, walked beside that fact, averting our eyes because it wasn’t touching us. Now it is or the possibility is more present than ever and that is enough to stir more than usual critical thinking.

People are waking up to the fact that a few people owning most of the world’s resources is maybe not only unfair but just, well, not longterm functional.

Raging, churning, screaming…

It’s a right and good rage. It’s a necessary churning. It’s a relief to be screaming and to finally be heard, even just a bit.

I have no answers. I have no idea where we’re headed or how to get there. It’s the nature of this space we’re in. All I have is feeling and observation, and for now, that has to be enough no matter how much I don’t like it.

Quiet...

I’ve always spent a lot of time at our Peninsula here on this Great Lake, and so going there to “blow the stink off,” as my Nana always said, is a natural reflex for me during this time of social isolation.

What’s surprising is the way we walk past each other with our guard up… swerving a bit as if to say, “there you go… there’s your six feet.”

We’re just generally… shyer with each other, aren’t we?

And because so many people are mainly staying at home, the other surprise is the QUIET. It’s that kind of quiet that you normally only hear on these paths during the winter months. Deep and thick with beauty and mystery. You hear your own breath and every sound that the trees and land around you have to offer, from subtle crackling of leaves to the bird calls beckoning from the summer that is still to come.

I don’t like why this gift has presented itself, but I will not turn this gift away.

When I’m walking along the lapping shore, I no longer bother with headphones and podcasts. When I’m walking, I’m no longer aiming to go faster and cover more ground.

When I’m walking, I’m just walking.

Do You Remember Why We Used to Blog?

I think I started blogging about 12 years ago or a bit more. It was when blogging was still all about writing and connecting and inspiring one another and creating community. It was exciting and new(ish) and it was before anyone was thinking about “monetizing.” Ads on blogs were barely ever seen and Amazon was only just about to create the affiliate program. (I may be off on some of these dates but this was my perception when I started.)

Some of you may still be around from when I started and you’ll remember that I began blogging under BlissChick. For the first year, I blogged seven days a week without missing, and then I transitioned to 5 days a week and stuck with that for some time. I had daily topics … you know, MusicBliss, BookBliss, InterviewBliss… you get it.

Blogging got me to love writing again, and the conversations that could ensue, even on a smallish blog like mine, were invigorating. We were making friends all over this globe. I loved watching my stats and seeing where my readers were coming from.

Some of the friends I made in those days are still friends to this day. Those friendships have deepened. I’ve met many of them in person. I was right about who they were every time but one! Pretty amazing stats.

Connections online are no less real than in 3D life. If you have shallow relationships in person, you’ll get the same virtually. If you’re a deep relationship person, the same will happen here. As I like to say, it’s all about the user, not at all about the tech.

Blogging like this changed my damn life and that is not hyperbole. I went to my very first dance based training at Kripalu because I felt a healthy and helpful obligation to my readers/friends to whom I had announced my intentions.

I would NOT have the life I have now had it not been for blogging.

So when someone I knew from way back when, Mindy Tsonas, announced she was going to start blogging again in this “old” way, I was immediately on board.

We need this now more than ever.

At the beginning of this year, I decided 2020 would be my year of beauty. Creating it, cultivating it, curating it.

If that sounds at all trite to you, then you don’t know beauty. Beauty is truth, vulnerability, passion. It has very little to do with aesthetics though there’s also that. The aesthetics, if it is true beauty, though, will always point to those deeper things…be merely a signpost pointing to something much more important.

And that is what Mindy intends to focus on… that sort of beauty… the kind that, again, creates connections and helps us to inspire one another and to be inspired … to be inspired, most importantly, to something MORE.

Thanks to Mindy, then, I’ll be here much more often again. I might even be setting up daily categories of content. For old time’s sake.

12 Years Ago You Would Not Have Known Me

In this photo, I think I am happy. I have just finished my Yoga Dance teacher training with the amazing Megha at Kripalu. My life felt like it finally had some meaning and purpose. I was starting to feel more like myself than I had in…forever.

And YET.

I look at this photo now and it makes me sad. I can see that it is me but it does not look like me, if that makes sense. There is something off about the eyes in particular. I think I look older in this photo from 11 years ago than I do now, as I approach 51 in mere weeks.

11 years ago, I was starting on this path that has led me to creating Bodypoetics, but oh, my, the distances I have had to cover before I got here.

The distances I had already covered before heading to Kripalu…

12 years ago, you would not have known me.

My body was much bigger, but that is just the outside, which for me is very much about the insides but that’s another post.

My eyes were empty, from over a decade of serious depression, and from living a lie of a life in every way.

My body was always and forever carrying some sort of pain — back, hips, migrained brain, and on and on with one chronic issue after another.

And oh, my, MY MIND.

I had been convinced that I did not like people, that I hated people.

I had been convinced that I did not ever want to be touched or hugged by anyone. BY ANYONE.

I had been convinced that my fears prevented me from pursuing good work or even leaving the house.

I had been convinced that I had this mental illness, then this one, then this one, then this one…all to keep me obsessed and paralyzed.

I had been convinced that getting professional help was a waste of time and wouldn’t help anyway. That pills were bad. That therapy was dumb.

These beliefs came to me from another human who counted on me staying down.

But there was plenty of inner shit to work with that I had been carrying since I was about 9.

I was already convinced that I was worthless.

I was already convinced that I had nothing of value to offer others.

I was already convinced that life was a burden, as was I to anyone.

12 years ago you would not have known me.

And then, long story short, a dear friend died and I attended the wedding of another and I started to dance and eventually met Megha, and well, the rest is (recent) history.

I do not know what compelled me to dance at that wedding.

I do not know what compelled me to go to Kripalu, and in so doing, face about 100 of my greatest fears.

12 years ago you would not have known me but that’s because I did not even know myself.

Somehow I am still alive.

Somehow I am getting real help and am surrounded by well meaning people who only want the best for me… finally.

Somehow, every day, I get up and believe in my vision of me just enough more than I believe in that old version of me. Just enough to keep me going, to keep me trying and hoping.

Deep Listening: Meditative Movement Arts Meets Improvisational Music & Sound Workshop in Erie

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This is an exciting workshop for a bunch of reasons, but to start, our music will be created LIVE and in large part, spontaneously. Music and movement will listen and dialogue back and forth just as much as we ourselves will listen to and dialogue with mind, heart, body, and breath.

As we are experimenting with movement and sound, we will also be (un)intentionally creating a collective piece of art (while we are surrounded by the visual art of the gallery in which we will move!). This collective piece actively demonstrates basic underlying concepts of buddhism, including interconnectedness and impermanence and the beauty of both.

You will learn how to listen to your body on a whole new level -- understanding its intuition, emotion, and feeling languages better than ever before -- but you will also learn how to listen to and participate in a communal body conversation.

This is not ecstatic dance. We are not seeking to lose ourselves or transcend anything.

We are experimenting with becoming more alive as we sink into what is referred to as the "mud body" of Japanese Butoh.

In seeking deeper aliveness, we are ready to take full responsibility for our own lives and the life of our community in new and more compassionate ways.

Movement art and music are two of the most basic and earliest ways humans interacted with one another in sacred ritual. Our movement art and music naturally ritualizes our experience of being one among many and what our default identity is in that context and whether or not it's an identity that is functional. In this work, we can observe our habits and patterns while at the same time experimenting with new ways of being, all in a safe and nurturing space.

Jeremy Yama is a multidisciplinary visual and sound creator whose projects and interests encompass both compositional and improvisational music and textural sound in it's raw form. He has most recently been involved in the improvisational sound duo ZONK as well as being a contributing member to Pittsburgh's experimental sound collective Hunted Creatures. https://huntedcreatures.bandcamp.com/ . For this workshop, Jeremy is particularly interested in the intersectional and transactional potential of sound and movement in a guided therapeutic setting.

Christine Serfozo is a trauma-sensitive movement artist with a comprehensive knowledge of somatic psychology. She's studied many forms of dance, with a special focus on Butoh and Modern which, in conjunction with biomechanics, breath techniques, and body inclusion, are the foundation for her work. She's interested in developing choreographic processes that create cathartic release and emotional growth, as opposed to typical choreographed 'productions.' She develops her processes through experimentation with a communal group of movement artists, and they are accessible to any level of movement experience. Most recently, she developed a process that expresses, integrates, and transforms the human experience of grief. She's currently creating sequences that will foster the expression of sacred sensuality outside of an objectifying gaze. Her ultimate goal is to inspire deep body listening leading to the fundamental freedom that can only be found in the essential creativity of our very cells. More: christineserfozo.com

Functional Animal Movement to Enhance Your Yoga, Movement Practices, & LIFE

$30 (limited space)
CLICK HERE to register

Open to ALL BODIES, ALL LEVELS, ALL GENDERS.

Whether you're just starting to explore movement modalities or consider yourself a seasoned yogi or a veteran athlete, this stuff will challenge you to move outside the box and into a better understanding of your body and its true abilities.

Come and surprise yourself!

We'll cover the following and then some:

Better breathing for all types of movement -- and even just for living.

Moving on and through different planes.

Transitioning more smoothly in your movements whether that be yoga, dance, walking, or lifting weights.

The biomechanics of better movement, including moving in awkward and misaligned ways ON PURPOSE.

Aging gracefully by not committing so many common user errors with your beautiful body.

Aging powerfully by learning basic, fundamental movement that will protect you from much of what we consider the "negatives of aging."

Sacred Feminine Happy Hour Study Circle, 2nd Friday, Starting in October: When God was a Woman

STARTING OCTOBER 11th!

You know how it is with our yoga classes — there’s usually some ((cough)) talking at the beginning. And there have been days when it felt like the world was collapsing in on itself and was I ever grateful for the women in community with me who showed up for class and understood that sometimes our deepest “yoga” is talking, yelling, crying, and just being together in shelter.

There were a couple of those times when it became really clear to me that there are so many of us who need some time dedicated to deep study, thought, and sharing, so here we go: SATSANG — a spiritual study circle.

(There will be beverages but you can bring your own, and remember, we share space with a PIZZA SHOP!)

We’ll be focusing on the sacred feminine in general, but for months at a time we’ll be focused on certain texts.

For our first few months, we’ll be looking at When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone. (That’s a link to the book on Amazon, but I encourage you to order a copy through an independent bookseller, like Pressed here in Erie.)

Even if you’ve read this, you’ve probably not read it in community.

The point is to work through this stuff in a way that it settles into our bodies. By that I mean, we’ll work in a way that is meant to lead to an eventual understanding of the material that affects our daily lives and spiritual practices.

We’ll start with the abstract, otherwise, and work toward the concrete and the material.

Here’s a loose idea of the calendar for this particular book — the dates are the dates but who knows if we’ll stick to this for the pages. It might take longer.

October 11th: Introduction through chapter 2

November 8th: chapter 3 through 5

December 13th: chapter 6 through 8

January 10th: chapter 9 through 11