Beloved Movers, Community, Friends:
Be soft with yourself when Life brings hard truths. (Chani Nicolas)
In these times of social distancing and disorientation from "life as we've known it" there are certainly opportunities to reflect and renew...to redefine the world we want to live in...to find joy in simple pleasures. AND...there are immense challenges, waves of discomfort, and collective grief, loss and pain.
These times are an initiation into the unknown, and many of us will - if we haven’t already - come into contact with hard truths. Some may arise in our environments while others arise from within. In many ways, we are (re) learning how to Dance with Shadows.
Every time we slow down - in our dance or in our lives - we have an opportunity to sense and feel what is moving just below the surface. If we make space to notice - sometimes for the first time - all of the feelings, experiences and truths being unearthed, we may find ourselves under resourced or not sure we want to "be with" the content that arises.
It’s okay to say “no” in the context of your dance.
To practice discernment and bring your will in relationship to what's arising, choosing to engage it in the moment or not. To come back to the terrain when you have more resource to stay present rather than be hijacked by it. Likewise, in life, it's okay to pause and reset when your cup is overflowing. To conserve energy until each wave of intensity goes by.
Be soft with yourself when Life brings hard truths.
As long as there is light, there will be dark. As long as there is form or body, there will be shadow. And until we fully accept this, that which is denied will have no choice but to store itself somewhere in our Somatic experience. Unprocessed pain will trigger reactionary alarms. Ignored emotion will distort best intentions. Disowned power and pleasure will inhabit the spaces reserved for joy, devouring vast fascial networks of connection.
The Shadow (and/or the realm of hard truths) is not some worthless landscape of unenlightened thoughts, feelings, and impulses, but rather a field of hidden expression, wisdom, creativity, and soul.
Each gentle turn toward the disavowed reveals shapes and gestures, sounds and silences of previously undisclosed parts...pieces of soul that have been cast aside or not yet seen...all awaiting their time and space to emerge. As dancers, it is a mystical task to weave the fragmented life back together. To dance our way toward wholeness. Not by getting rid of challenge, confusion or tragedy, but to illuminate and engage with it consciously...as partner, lover, friend. To welcome it into the larger ecology of who we are and who we are becoming...with all the inevitable defects and distresses inherent in any human story AND with all the promise held by our uniquely human imagination.
In these times of social distancing and disorientation from life as I've known it, dancing within the humbling and complex realm of shadow has become a remedy and resource. I give thanks to my teachers Daphne Lowell and Alton Wasson and the practice of Authentic Movement for offering me tools to “be with” my experience, just as it is. To individuate and differentiate what is mine and of the collective. To move and include unconscious worlds, mysterious worlds, and worlds with no apparent order into and through my body while trusting the information it offers as sincere.
I give thanks to my teachers at the Open Floor, and in particular Kathy Altman’s teaching of the “dragons gate” for offering me tools to move with polarity and recognize all pain and pleasure as a call for love that is communicated in ways both ancient and wise.
I give thanks to Samantha Sweetwater and the practice of Dancing Freedom for fueling me with compassion toward all my Soma has experienced...all it's survived, witnessed, held back or had to pretend...and to recognize myself as a sovereign being who is part of a greater whole, weaving every fragmented piece back home. Dance by dance. Moment by moment.
I give thanks to the many teachers and guides along the paths of initiation, particularly Francis Weller, for reminding me that wholeness, not perfection, is the longing of Soul. And so I interrupt the beliefs that I don't deserve to be treated with tenderness AND respect. I break with traditions that have little room for being gentle AND powerful. I offer myself space to be more than I was taught AND reclaim what was hidden, yet always known, about who I am and who I am becoming. The good, the bad and the ugly...all beauty-full.
Finally I give thanks to all of the movers who move with me on a regular basis. You consistently move me…deeply. We journey alone, yet together...into and through the unknown. May we be soft when life brings hard truths to our doors or to the steps of another. May we practice moving and including the full spectrum of our experience. May we discern what is most life affirming, moment by moment. May we remember that we are stronger...within and without...when we stand together and turn toward beloveds for support. May our work continue to shed light on all that is unknown - within ourselves and the collective - and keep listening, learning and practicing what it means to be a human, be-ing, during these times.
With immense tenderness and love, Teresa