I introduced a concept at yesterdays *workshop to bring awareness to the positions each of us hold in our relationships. Have you taken time to consider the unique individual position you and yours have and how these positions are separate and overlap to those around you? After introducing this I led the participants through some awareness exercises to directly experience being in the center of their universe whilein their conversations. These exercises follow a pattern for both the speaker and listener to experience and stay in the center of their universe.
In these dialogue exercises a field was created that was their direct experience and felt by those around them. Think about the following Rumi’s quote and consider, if you are still in judgement thinking of right and wrong what the field is that you are creating in your relationships. What is your direct experience and that of others as they connect with you or share in the field around you?
“Out beyond right doing and wrong doing there is a field, I will meet you there. ”
*These workshops are designed with the intention to share how to turn disconnection into connection and to bring personal awareness to how ones personal communication habits impacts direct experiences. For more information on how to take part go to link.
First, come into the present. Flash on what’s happening with you right now. Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions.
Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in that moment, a way of saying, “This is my experience right now, and it’s okay.”
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
Yesterday CBC News shared how published researchers in British Columbia had analyzed videos of 227 falls by 130 seniors in B.C. between 2007 and 2010. (Adults of all ages could benefit by becoming more aware as these seniors did not just change how they shift their weight at this stage of their life.
I enjoyed watching the video shown on the news that demonstrated how balance is connected to shifting body weight, counterbalancing and sensory awareness. Watching the video I could see the weight shift in the filmed subjects legs and recognized it confirms what I share in may Awareness through Movement balance classes. Here are a few comments from the researchers:
“We show that the most common causes of falls are incorrect weight shifting and tripping, and the most common activities leading to falls are forward walking, standing quietly and sitting down,” concluded study co-leader Prof. Stephen Robinovitch, of the department of biomedical physiology and kinesiology at Simon Fraser University, and his team.
“Our findings emphasize the need to target each of these activities in fall risk assessment and prevention strategies,” they added in calling prevention a “public health priority.”
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP, Feldenkrais Practitioner & Awareness through Movement teacher since 2007
Authored Achieving your Goals 31 Day Program, Sleep Sweet Sleep, Kid’s Peace Bus Calendar of Values Educational Program & InTouch with Your Values Self-Actualization Program. Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Labyrinths of Victoria since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Grassroots Calendar Founder, Vice-Chair of World Children’s Summit on Peace & Nature in 2015
Chogum Trungpa Rinpoche, originally from Tibet, taught North Americans a structure to experience mindfulness in meditation. A structure to occupy the mind and body with focus of attention in a particular way to encourage the mind to slow down to have freedom from thought driven action.
The structure in meditation is particular. You enter into a room with reverence, sit on a cushion that has a mat between it and floor. You have a choice of sitting in two or three positions. When you sit you notice your thoughts and practice labeling them, “thinking.” You follow your breath outwards counting for cycles of 10 breathes. As you sit you notice when your thoughts wander off and then as soon as you notice this you simply bring yourself back to the pattern of breathing and observing your breath. Your eyes are aimed 6 feet in front of you down towards the floor and an you begin to sense the environment. Sitting begins at a cycle of 20 minutes, walking mediation for 10 and back to sitting for 20 minutes. For a retreat the 20 minutes stretches into longer periods of time. The purpose is to begin to have an experience of empty space between the thoughts. An experience quite unlike a mind driven experience.
Sharing Awareness through Communication workshops based on world recognized models for communicating and development, a dawning realization is for the need of a similar structure. Chogyam was sharing that the mind needs attention and a structured system of focusing it to participate, not dominate. Our series of classes has evolved into realizing this same need for structure with a purpose of giving the mind space between thoughts and allowing it room for participating, not dominating. This then deepens the quality. Therefore it isn’t the quantity of thoughts and filling up the silence that matters, it’s the quality that becomes recognizable. Therefore a growing mindfulness can come from learning while developing a lite quality of curiosity in studying one’s own behavior.
A recent comment, “When I hold onto the thoughts in my mind that want to jump out and only share back what I am hearing from my friend, my friend shares more. I am getting to know more about this person and I thought I already knew everything about them. They are also speaking from a deeper place.”
Learning opportunities to discover for yourself how to improve your relationships with clarity and developing mindfulness, western style, are available. For more explore the classes listed, inquire about presentations, workshops and coaching. There are organized group classes, classes designed with your needs in mind, online classes and private sessions for coaching and improving your relationships.
Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of Feldenkrais Guild® of North America. Feldenkrais Method®
News for parents on parenting is that their needs are not the same need as their child. Awareness is recognizing the needs of the child. The relationship is taking the time to pause, connect and recognize their needs as having value. It doesn’t mean you give your parenting needs up, it means your children are not invisible and that they are valued, seen and heard! This starts pre-verbal and begins with parents having skills to identify their own needs.
This exercised was emailed to me from Carla Munro ~ a fellow contributor to sharing value-based empathy conscious communication methods. It will be useful to the teacher in all of us.
Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning 