Katrina: Today’s practice will use body awareness to build a space of resourcefulness and resiliency, and then experiment with taking in small sips of minor life stressors to see if we can move the sensations that arrive through us a little more freely.
Luke: Marshall Rosenberg, who founded the Nonviolent Communication movement, is quoted saying, “Opinions and judgements are tragic expressions of unmet needs.” This CEC Monday night session will give us an opportunity to practice the art of lending a caring and empathetic ear to our critical parts, in an effort to uncover what’s behind the often elusive veil of judgement and opinion.
James: it’s a line i cribbed from the zen poet, Ryokan. he says something like, “the pain of life makes me want to protect everyone. if only these black sleeves were wider, deeper, i’d put everyone inside.” i like the metaphor because I know the feeling. it is a boundless one. as we open ourselves, we identify more strongly with other living things, their joy and trials, glee and pain. to know this truth in the deepest sense means understanding if you hurt yourself caring for others, they share in the hurt. you see, in the poem, ryokan says IF his sleeves were bigger. they are not. they are only ryokan sized. for this sit we will work on exploring the boundaries of our body, the gauzy interface between it and the room, then showering it with petals of love enough for everyone.
Steph: I used to be interested in pushing my body – to see how far it could go. I climbed big mountains, ran a marathon, partied for days… you get the idea. More recently, I’m still interested in exploring the limits of my body, but what I’m exploring has changed. What interests me now is how many different ways I can heal my body. Life experience, accidents, illness, and birthing and caring for a child have taken its toll on my middle aged body, and as a result, my focus has shifted to exploring all the ways I can heal my body. My explorations into healing have led me to discover different movement modalities, wisdom traditions, stillness practices and more, to land here – on a meditation practice, combined with energy work, and a focus on the body that is healing for mind, body and spirit. Join me for tonight’s exploration in and through the body in a Samatha inspired, Reiki energy infused meditation, that uses both the breath and body to bring the mind-body connection back into alignment.
Jeff: I’ve been enjoying a new practice. Every night before sleep, I write in a journal one line about how I want to be in my life the next day. I might write “Slinky, sensual, slow as a snake,” or “Booming and happy, like a big huggable Buddha,” or “Action hero readiness and competency – like Captain America!” What I write depends on my mood, and sometimes on what’s happening the next day. The emphasis is always on the embodied feeling of how I want to show up. The next day, my words often end up being a noticeable theme. It just seems to happen, like magic. How does it work? No doubt part of it is I’m scripting myself – I’m essentially playing a role. But it can feel like more than this too, like the world meets me coming the other direction, and mischievously feeds me lines and scenarios.
“Imagination lays the tracks for reality to follow,” says trickster Caroline Casey. How superb. This Monday, we use our imaginations to shape our caring.
