Sensing Worlds: The Body Becomes River
Session 3: The Shadow & The Invitation
A guide for home practice.
In our third session, we moved from the "Stone" (the weight we carry) into the Shadows of the back body... the parts of our movement, our history, and our longing that usually stay behind us or out of sight. We explored the back body as an under explored space of wisdom.
1. The Warm-Up: The Ripple
We often only move toward what we can see. We move with the awareness dwelling and initiating from the back body. Here we invite the "Back-Body" to lead. Play some songs and for about 7 minutes do the following practice:
Integration: To finish, move across your room one last time. Use the text and the drawing to conjure a new gesture and resonance in your body.
We missed your trace in the circle tonight. Your shadow has a place at our altar.
See you next week!
Guadalupe
In our third session, we moved from the "Stone" (the weight we carry) into the Shadows of the back body... the parts of our movement, our history, and our longing that usually stay behind us or out of sight. We explored the back body as an under explored space of wisdom.
1. The Warm-Up: The Ripple
- The Practice: Imagine you are a seaweed standing at the bottom of the ocean or lake.
- The Ripple: Start a tiny pulse in your center (your navel). Let it travel out to your fingertips, then "pass" it into the space around you.
- The Disruption: Let the movement travel into space and back to you. As you receive a movement back, explore new possibilites:
- Sense it: Let the movement keep transforming gently.
- Amplify it: Take that small movement and make it huge, vigorous, and expansive. And send it back.
- Reverse it: Suddenly change the direction or the "mood" of the movement.
- The Inquiry: How does it feel to be the one who changes the current?
We often only move toward what we can see. We move with the awareness dwelling and initiating from the back body. Here we invite the "Back-Body" to lead. Play some songs and for about 7 minutes do the following practice:
- The Practice: Imagine your back is facing a witness. Move through your space as if your back were your "front." And let the back body discover its sensations, its movement vocabulary, and how to carve with movement into the back-space.
Nice how the role of the front-body shifts. - The Reach: Reach into the space behind you. What gestures live there that you normally ignore? Is there a shrug, a retreat, or a secret strength in your shoulder blades?
- The Find: Find one specific gesture that feels like it belongs to your shadow—something "unfinished" or hidden.
- The Drawing: Use a sheet of paper to draw a portrait "a homage" to your back-body. Alternatively, use your non-dominant hand to draw the traces of your back-body movements and gestures. Don't draw a person; draw the textures, colors, and "shadows" of where you are headed.
- The Writing: Take 5 -10 minutes to write freely.
- “When I moved from my back-body, I discovered...”
- “The shadow I am ready to invite is...”
Integration: To finish, move across your room one last time. Use the text and the drawing to conjure a new gesture and resonance in your body.
We missed your trace in the circle tonight. Your shadow has a place at our altar.
See you next week!
Guadalupe
