Really Knowing Showing Up

Tags

Being, being present, Believing, breath, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, doing, faith, practice, Showing up, Soul to Soul, spirit, swimming

We have all heard the phrase “just show up”. We understand what it conveys and we do this on many occasions whether we realize it or not. But just yesterday it really hit me and solidified its significance in a recent swim practice that I have returned to.

I was off on my day and had planned for a swim time early afternoon. After taking the dogs for a double play time with their friends and settling in to some research and reading, I could feel that sense of energy dropping and that play between making an excuse to take it easy for the day. The age old battle to keep to it or give in to not going.

After mustering the energy to go I gathered my things and dig deep to get myself in the car for a short journey to the pool. After holding true to the commitment I made I just said to myself I will go, get in and do what I can do for the day. That will be good enough and showing up for that will be success in and of itself.

And so I did.

Wonderfully the pool was pretty empty and quiet. I got in and just started swimming. I have a routine that helps me to count laps and frames my practice. I started and found myself just giving in to the breath and movements. Oddly, being because I was tired and not fully into it, I seemed to let go and release any attachment to how I was feeling and simply just swam. I got lost in movement and breath and just kept swimming.

I found myself swimming further and further than I had ever swam before and by the end of my swim I realized I was swimming for fifty minutes straight. I almost made it a mile. Which was a goal I hoped to achieve by September. Oddly, on a day I almost skipped was the day I broke through so many walls of my life. Ironic that perhaps some of our biggest achievements might be scheduled for the days when we least feel motivated, inspired or into the “work”.

it really hit me deeply that I may have on many occasions missed so many major accomplishments or break through because I have in and didn’t show up. I wondered what might could have been if all those times I have in to the numbing and hid from my own success? Realizing this it became very clear that I need to remember this next time I am feeling the need to skip something.

I didn’t stay in the woe is me mindset but did recognize that I need to remember this breakthrough lesson. It was now an inspiration for just showing up and doing my best without expectation.

processing this the output the rest of my day I wondered at so many times how this idea would work if I had shown up in all aspects of my life? Would relationships work better if we just showed up? Would all of our work be more deeply felt if we just showed up without expectation and simply with an open heart?

So how might we show up this week in many aspects of our lives? In what ways might I show up with that open heart and find myself giving in to the movements and breath and simply be present in the doing?

Thirty Days of Thoughts: Day 9

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Believing, change, choices, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, faith, love, practice, Soul to Soul, space, spirit, writing as a practice

6/10/21

This morning ritual has been a delight to move through that space I spoke of yesterday and to do so with my boys right here at my side. We seemed to have carved out a time where we can be in silence together connecting and grounding before our day ahead. 

Once they have gone out and eaten, both of them head over to the couch to their positions flanking me and leaving just enough space for me to do my thing. They patiently relax and wait for me to get through my journaling and reading of my daily affirmations and meditation. 

Once that is complete I know it is time for attending to the new ritual of this writing challenge. I realized the momentum is actually picking up and the shift in having to write is turning into a joy to write. Writing is becoming much more like a practice than a chore. It got me thinking about movement being a life practice for me and why not giving energy to other aspects of my life. In fact is not life a practice in itself? 

It is kind of simple when you stop to think of it. What if we created a series of practices for ourselves while creating the space to engage in them on a daily basis? That space I spoke of yesterday is a practice. Putting space in the in between is a practice. Making changes in our lives is a practice. 

Anything we wish to learn, explore, achieve and become takes practice. Why shouldn’t being a good person be the same. It takes practice to be mindful of your words. It takes practice to listen to people. It takes practice to be kind. It takes practice to rewire our ways of thinking, neuromuscular pathways and our gratitude. 

With practice one can shift so many things. With practice we get better. With practice it gets better. But to practice we have to choose a practice. That choice is necessary for the change. That little bit of awareness, time and space will be the difference of a fulfilled and present life. A life in practice. 

The Depth of Space

Tags

Ballet, bliss, breath, class, contemporary dance, courage, Dance, depth of space, Jazz, joy, Modern, moving mountains, path, peace, practice, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, Understanding, yoga

In the space between the spaces is an ocean of understanding. In the breath that fills the lungs, there is compassion. In our practice we must remember to allow for space despite not knowing how much more there is to achieve. When we diligently practice with a beginners mind and a committed heart, space opens up. Time becomes our ally as we ever expand our reach both externally and internally. In this expanse, we find freedom.

 

This range of motion of both the physical self and emotional self allows for release and rejuvenation. We rehydrate our bodies while replenishing our spirit. Our ever-reaching hearts are allowed to beat the breath of our souls finally becoming congruent as the body enjoys the joy of itself in motion. We are built to move and our hearts built to run.

 

Yet, this is just for today. Tomorrow we must again climb that mountain of practice and once again ascend with humility and awe. We have never been here before because it is this day, this moment. Never have we seen this time and never will we see it again. It is not enough to have felt the joy once; the challenge is to strive to feel it again and again. Memorize your sensation. Know where it comes from and how to access the depth of it. Know the body as you know your soul, intimately and with a sense of respect and reverence.

 

In this daily practice, inside the humility and exaltation, find the replenished heart and then share it with the world. When you realize how much strength and power lies within the space within, when you understand that you are able to move mountains by gesturing the center-line as long as you possibly can, you will know you are free. You will know you are truly alive by your mere ability to reshape your being and your spiritual bliss. Once you know this, share it unconditionally. Give all you can without expectation and love because you can.

 

 

 

Reflections on Thirty Days of Thoughts

Tags

art, completion, continuing, courage, Dance, faith, goals met, inspired, life, moving forward, moving on, poetry, practice, project, project completion, recycled poetry, Soul to Soul

And so, it is, just like you said it would be….

 

And here I am on this last day of a self-imposed process of practice. What a lovely thirty days it has been. For those of you who have been traveling with me, thank you for your energy and support. Thank you for spending moments of your time to sip into my mind and my heart. I thank you for being with me and, in many ways, holding my hand helping me along the way.

 

It has been just a joy to steal time to write. It has been a pleasure letting thoughts drip to the page as I, word by word, grew in the practice of writing. There has been a shift in my faith as well as my courage, which now feels incredibly freeing and inspiring. Where I used to be afraid to share my thoughts and my words, I now am excited and proud at the developing process and skill. It is true, like all things, life and art is a practice.

 

So what now? Undoubtedly, there will be more practice. I have decided to spend some time on a project I am calling recycled poetry. I will spend some time diving into books and picking out words from the pages to collage together new thoughts and ideas through a more poetic form. I am feeling I need to spend a little time exploring new colorful language and creating a more expansive palette of imagery to better express my thoughts.

 

It is my hope that my vocabulary and word play will expand my abilities with the words as well as see how they affect the way in which I play with kinetic images in the new dances I am making throughout the year. I am on an expedition to uncover a new language landscape for myself and hope that you will share in this journey with me as well.

 

Looking forward to walking hand and hand again!

 

A Body Speaks

Tags

Ballet, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, Creativity, Dance, EBAS, listening, Modern, practice, Soul to Soul, speaking body., spirit, Technique, training, universal heart, well being, Wonder

Our bodies speak to us. They communicate our deepest needs as well as our finest joys. Our bodies are intelligent organisms capable of incredible healing and transformation. The limitations established for this magnificent organic machine are created by the mind that is no longer capable of listening.

It is important to listen carefully to the fluctuations of the body’s voice. Every shift and alteration of functioning should be understood and evaluated so as to better understand whether or not the change is a positive one or one that should no longer be engaged in. We must train ourselves to listen again and to fully understand what is good for our systems and what might need better attention or implementation.

This is crucial in the development and training of dance. We must focus on learning through sensation rather than sensationalize external pictures or forms. If we are able to train ourselves to listen to our bodies feeling the very musculature necessary for a technical application, we are more likely to fully understand the fundamental function and integration of that function in the larger tapestry of our practice. We must allow time for the recognition and reflection necessary to hear and feel the voice of the body.

This way of working is by no means an excuse to diminish the technical proficiency of our forms, but rather a way of heightening our awareness and understanding of how to engage our bodies in a more holistic and healthy practice of training our bodies establishing new limitless boundaries that support a more conscious and soulful form. We must understand how technique works to expand the limits of what we currently think possible.

There is so much noise in our dance culture that we are not able to sense or feel the artistry within the art. We have stopped listening and have only been manufacturing the external sensationalization of jumps, tricks and turns. No one longer wishes to establish a fundamental practice to support these very virtuosic activities and therefore find them no longer able to participate in the very activity they love because they have injured themselves. This seems to be a reflection of our culture and society with wanting everything possible immediately without ever having worked for it. The student becomes a hostage to a very flimsy house of cards in which hope can no longer be a reliable foundation.

It is time for us to take time to train through listening. It is time to slow down and allow the students to hear their own bodies so that they might make informed decisions in which they become empowered as artists, creative choreographers and educated teachers. The irony in slowing down is that you speed up the consciousness for the student. If a student achieves more awareness they are able to make connections and integrate their technical and creative process allowing their practice to function like the central nervous system in our magnificent machines; making neurological and physical shifts and changes at the speed of sound, the sound of their bodies voice.