The Embodiment of Being

I am here to share this radical idea: The Body does not have to learn to BE.

There is an idea that I have heard throughout my life, that we somehow have to WORK to learn to BE. I have come to understand that this is a basic misunderstanding of HOW we develop.

The Body has ALWAYS known BEingness and at this very moment yearns for the complex YOU to allow it more and more! (Can you hear it whispering, “please oh please oh please”?)

Here is how I view it: Body was conceived into Beingness. One moment you were something - spirit, energy, Divine, nothingness, take your pick - and then the next moment you were the embodiment of Being. In that moment of your conception the cells knew how to Be. They didn’t need an instructor or a book. They knew. They Breathed, taking in nourishment and letting go of what didn’t serve their desire for Life. They accepted the support of Gravity as it sequenced through the Body of your host. They allowed and welcomed growth and change. All of this is what supported You to become the Being that could viably live outside your host mother in your many layered complex form. Your cells then continued to allow and welcome growth and change as you became…the YOU of right now and all that you’ve been.

Today, right now, you can trust that your cells. While having changed their form many times over, they are still as wise as they were in the BEginning. You can trust that they have the capacity to continue to allow and welcome growth and change (as long as your more complex Self doesn’t thwart them in living their deep wisdom!)

The embodiment of BEing is foundational within all of us. It is how we all began.

To connect with the history of the human experience of this deep wisdom we just need look at the way we’ve have created language to try to capture this very experience. The etymology of the word “Be” is “I am”, “I exist” and “I grow”. Similarly the word BEgin derives from roots that mean “to open to existence”.

We are always capable of sensing of BEingness…that is IF we allow ourselves to access the deep wisdoms of the Body, I’m talking about accessing the deep wisdom of the Body in its own right, with its own unique information and not as our Minds conceives of it.

Can you grok this? Do you feel any of your Body’s parts resonate or become more enlivened as you read this idea? Do you feel curiosity and/or desire well up in your tissues?
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I will say it again.

The Body does not have to learn to BE.

We do not have to do anything to BE, other than to allow ourselves to connect with the most foundational experience of our physical embodied Selves.

When we think we have to learn to Be, we forget that it is actually the DOing that we learned and must relearn, unlearn or change to feel more health.

As we grew from that initial tissue into the more complex human form that we most likely still carry with us in some way in this moment, we moved and we engaged with the environment. It is this movement and engagement that invited the mind to began its process of being created.

And it is the mind that was taught to separate our DOing from the foundational support of BEing. It is the mind that was taught to prioritize the DOing. And it is the mind that was taught to dis-embody ourselves, to we make our bodies DO in ways that exhaust and deplete us. (When I say “taught” I am not talking about the intentional lessons of educators. I am talking about everything what we experienced, saw, felt, were told, were subjected to by people, things and situations (well-meaning or otherwise) that formed our understanding of our Selves - then, now and in-between.)

Given this, we are all fully capable of allowing ourselves to be open to embodying our BEingness ALL THE TIME (or at least, opening ourselves to the possibility that we are all fully able to be open to this in some way), even while we are DOing.

And yet, I have learned and observed that it is not an easy thing to reconnect with this foundational aspect of our Selves. The lessons of disembodiment are deep. Our patterns and practices of disembodiment and disconnection are strong and familiar in our culture (and sometimes we have learned to disembody and disconnect for important and valuable reasons that served us at the time!)

In spite of the challenge, it is the practice of reconnecting with the embodiment of BEing that is essential to living our life more fully (in my probably not so humble opinion). It is my experience that one of the keys (if not THE key) to living life with more health, ease, confidence, creativity, and compassion (to name a few of the benefits) is this practice of connecting to one’s sensory, moving, breathing, living Body in whatever ways are possible in this moment and in each moment.

If you are curious and want support exploring and reconnecting with your sense of your foundational BEing Self, contact me.

Blessings. Victoria aka DidiAletheia

Embodying the Movement Practice of Stability and Change

I am sharing and commenting on this excerpt from one of my favorite daily books of contemplation and inspiration because it speaks to something that is very important to my own perspective about movement, not just yoga but all the movement of living life..

The quote begins:

I teach a flowing style of yoga in which one posture flows into the next. The transition between postures are postures in their own right. The breath and the meditation are unbroken. This is not true in all styles of yoga, nor is such a flow necessary in order for a form of yoga to be effective. The lesson remains, however, that it is our tendency to pay attention to the postures themselves, not to the spaces in between. So it is in life. We leave one relationship or job and set out sights on the next. We cross one item off the to-do list and dive into the next chore. The illusion is that the posture ends.

The reality is that the posture never ends, it just shifts from one form to the next, one lesson to the next, one opportunity to the next. We remain life's student whether we are inhaling or exhaling, in a relationship or out of one, saving the world or looking for a temp job. The posture never ends.

-Rolf Gates, "Meditations from the Mat"

I wholeheartedly agree!

As a species (or perhaps just as a culture) it seems we tend to pay attention to the static moments and the "tasks" of living, and ignore the spaces of movement, the periods of transition in between.

Because of this propensity, we miss out on so many opportunities to notice, observe and learn about our many habits and patterns. We focus on the destination or final product and overlook the options and choices we unconsciously ignored as we moved toward this (temporary) destination!

Because of this habit of focusing on product without recognizing the complexity and process that is involved in all movement, we miss out on the opportunities to explore the choices that are available to us, if we could but see them. We miss out on so many opportunities to expand our resiliency.

In Laban Movement Analysis we use the concept of the “phrase” to expand our focus from the single point in time. We recognize that every single movement and movement sequence can be described within the concept of a “phrase” which recognizes that all movement has a beginning From which we move Through (space, time, an emotion, a body system) that results in our arrival To another place or state (that can and will itself be part of the Through or To of other phrases!

Movement is always moving from-through-to! Every breath, every action, every thought, every relationship, every movement has these three “states” - and this applies to the practice of yoga as well.

This habit of focusing almost solely on the “To” part of the process (the product) is something I observe repeatedly in those clients who seek my support to deepen their yoga practice (as well as those who seek my support for other challenges!). Most clients come to our work together focused on some act of "doing" that they find challenging: they want to "fix" whatever is wrong and then hold on tight to the “right” way of “doing”. They are usually very surprised when I invite them to slow down, shift their focus and join me in exploring the experience of being with the process. Together, over time, we will move From and Through the more foundational developmental patterns that will, with practice, expand their capacity to discover ways to arrive To the place/posture/moment that they desire that is more fully enlivened and more easily created - in their yoga practice and in their life. A place/posture/moment that is, itself, a new place to move From!

This is my approach because I do not teach yoga. My approach as an RSME/T is one of somatic movement repatterning which can deepen ALL movement practices, such as body practices like yoga as well as the actions of simply moving through one’s life.

When a client comes to me to help them with a challenge, I use my extensive understanding of all aspects of What, Where, When, Why and How of movement, including the foundational developmental patterns of human movement, to help them expand their capacity to move (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) with more ease. I support them not to DO a specific thing, but to cultivate their ability to explore the possibilities of movement while they also learn to observe themselves. I support them to observe their experience and notice the choices available to them. I support them to be more consciously embodied as they move from, through and to these desired "postures"...of yoga, and of life.

As Rolf Gates says, the posture never ends and this is because yoga (like life) is made up of an ongoing complex series of movements! Being more able to Be present within this complexity opens up so many opportunities to Live Life More Fully!

for more information, check out my website: http://www.embodimentllc.com/individual-sessions