In my workshops we explore methods of body awareness designed to move us beyond self limiting thinking/feeling patterns and into the subtle motions that pulse through all forms of life. We tune in to the physical, energetic and spatial bodies through sound and movement. Through direct experience, we learn that the way to partner with this pulsing life force energy is through the body. Body is defined as being much bigger and infinitely more complex than our skin envelope. It turns out that body and environment are literally ONE. So by embracing our body wisdom, we are simultaneously embracing the world in its magnificent complexity.
In any given workshop, there is a confluence of fluid methods of change. Each of the following modalities can be blended with any of the others, much like separate rivers flowing together for a time. Sometimes these crossings can come together to form a new pattern of meaning, making explicit one coherent model of understanding. I have also found, however, that all of the following schools of learning, even if not explicit in any one workshop, will continue to implicitly influence the whole experience of the one being focused upon.
In any given workshop, there is a confluence of fluid methods of change. Each of the following modalities can be blended with any of the others, much like separate rivers flowing together for a time. Sometimes these crossings can come together to form a new pattern of meaning, making explicit one coherent model of understanding. I have also found, however, that all of the following schools of learning, even if not explicit in any one workshop, will continue to implicitly influence the whole experience of the one being focused upon.
Continuum/Focusing Blend
"Body is not something that moves, body is movement itself in constant interaction with space."
~Emilie Conrad, Founder of Continuum.
"That which moves is the real reality."
~Eugene Gendlin, Founder of Focusing
Continuum is a method of accessing our bodies' fluid intelligence through micro-movements, sound and deep inquiry.
Focusing is about a certain kind of bodily attention which yields physically meaning-sensed experiences called a felt sense.
These two streams interweave and cross with one another and sometimes come together to form a new pattern understanding. Each is an energetic morphic field with its own complexity and coherence and is an ever evolving process.
Crossing the two modalities of Continuum and Focusing reveals a profound connection between self and the larger field, the interaction process where nothing is a separate unit. Bringing our attention to our bodies, pausing and deeply listening provides guidance for our next step, life moving forward. In these workshops, we can experience the fluid intelligence of the interacting body-environment dance which becomes the process of creating a new world, a new way of understanding reality.
"Body is not something that moves, body is movement itself in constant interaction with space."
~Emilie Conrad, Founder of Continuum.
"That which moves is the real reality."
~Eugene Gendlin, Founder of Focusing
Continuum is a method of accessing our bodies' fluid intelligence through micro-movements, sound and deep inquiry.
Focusing is about a certain kind of bodily attention which yields physically meaning-sensed experiences called a felt sense.
These two streams interweave and cross with one another and sometimes come together to form a new pattern understanding. Each is an energetic morphic field with its own complexity and coherence and is an ever evolving process.
Crossing the two modalities of Continuum and Focusing reveals a profound connection between self and the larger field, the interaction process where nothing is a separate unit. Bringing our attention to our bodies, pausing and deeply listening provides guidance for our next step, life moving forward. In these workshops, we can experience the fluid intelligence of the interacting body-environment dance which becomes the process of creating a new world, a new way of understanding reality.
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Core to Core Intimacy and the Realization Process
Judith Blackstone's brilliant body-based path to an intimate life is explored through specific exercises done individually and in pairs. Fundamental unconditional consciousness is directly experienced when we tune into the spaciousness both inside and outside of our bodies in a special kind of way. The body can also show us where our blocks to this pervasive energy reside. Healing of contracted areas of the body is possible when we can feel into the space within and surrounding the contractions. Enlightenment becomes a felt sensed experience. |
Gestalt Awareness and Psychological Healing
Gestalt Awareness Practice is a body based healing modality derived from the work of Fritz Perls, influenced by Buddhist practice, and evolved by Richard and Christine Price (co-founders of Esalen Institute.) Healing happens by non-judgmentally meeting each feeling or thought as an honored guest within the field of awareness. In these workshops, there is a supportive field which provides a profound feeling of safety to each person who works individually with me as we uncover the psychological blocks to her/his freedom. There are also group exercises and pair work.
Gestalt Awareness Practice is a body based healing modality derived from the work of Fritz Perls, influenced by Buddhist practice, and evolved by Richard and Christine Price (co-founders of Esalen Institute.) Healing happens by non-judgmentally meeting each feeling or thought as an honored guest within the field of awareness. In these workshops, there is a supportive field which provides a profound feeling of safety to each person who works individually with me as we uncover the psychological blocks to her/his freedom. There are also group exercises and pair work.
Embodied Life
"As individual human beings we experience our inter-beingness -as both separate and interwoven- honoring our entirety as physical, feeling, symbolizing and transcendent Beings. All these get to live together without fusion yet without separating."
~Russell Delman, Founder of Embodied Life.
Russell developed a school of embodied life by crossing Feldenkrais, Zen Buddhism and Focusing. As a certified practitioner of this blend of embodied awareness systems, my workshops also have periods of meditation, focusing interaction and aware movements. We explore the difference between interwoven interaction and fusion or merging. What does it mean to be both separate and interwoven?
"As individual human beings we experience our inter-beingness -as both separate and interwoven- honoring our entirety as physical, feeling, symbolizing and transcendent Beings. All these get to live together without fusion yet without separating."
~Russell Delman, Founder of Embodied Life.
Russell developed a school of embodied life by crossing Feldenkrais, Zen Buddhism and Focusing. As a certified practitioner of this blend of embodied awareness systems, my workshops also have periods of meditation, focusing interaction and aware movements. We explore the difference between interwoven interaction and fusion or merging. What does it mean to be both separate and interwoven?
Moving Meditation with Nature
"When we come to a point of rest in our own being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest,and then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud becomes a revelation, and each person we meet a cosmos whose riches we can only glimpse."
~Dag Hammarskjöld
"At times, I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons. There is nothing...with which I am not linked."
~CG Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections
Just as body is not separate from environment, human nature is not separate from but rather one with the natural world. Interaction is who we are. For example, our lungs would not work if we didn't have the plant world. The human body being so similar to our four legged, winged, water dwelling friends, it is clear that we are animals too.
In this modality we intentionally make contact with the earth, with the plant world, with open sky: the clouds, the sun and/or moon. We feel our own bodies in interaction with these forms of nature through breath and movement.
"When we come to a point of rest in our own being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest,and then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud becomes a revelation, and each person we meet a cosmos whose riches we can only glimpse."
~Dag Hammarskjöld
"At times, I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons. There is nothing...with which I am not linked."
~CG Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections
Just as body is not separate from environment, human nature is not separate from but rather one with the natural world. Interaction is who we are. For example, our lungs would not work if we didn't have the plant world. The human body being so similar to our four legged, winged, water dwelling friends, it is clear that we are animals too.
In this modality we intentionally make contact with the earth, with the plant world, with open sky: the clouds, the sun and/or moon. We feel our own bodies in interaction with these forms of nature through breath and movement.
Tantric Dance of 10,000 things and THAT which cannot be named.
Through chanting, shaking, meditating and visualizing we open up to the embodied imaginative field where there is real contact with the larger field. The 10,000 things is an ancient phrase meaning the multiplicity of forms, and THAT which cannot be named signifies the formless essence. In this modality, we access the underlying essence AND learn to dance with life as it unfolds, honoring both the physical and relational world.
Through chanting, shaking, meditating and visualizing we open up to the embodied imaginative field where there is real contact with the larger field. The 10,000 things is an ancient phrase meaning the multiplicity of forms, and THAT which cannot be named signifies the formless essence. In this modality, we access the underlying essence AND learn to dance with life as it unfolds, honoring both the physical and relational world.
Workshops at the Awareness Barn can take place on the earth based holy days, including: Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. There can also be weekly, biweekly and monthly classes on a certain theme. Some are closed so that the same group can form a strong container for deep psychological work. And others are open to all.
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