Yesterday I joined my very small Authentic Movement group for a once a month dive into what is…in this BodySpirit universe I live in. The format we work in is: one serves as sacred witness and the two movers in our group move with eyes closed…following the inner prompts of the body….curious, hunting, following. We move in two rounds of about 20 minutes each with a break for art, writing and sharing in between. In this circle, I am a mover.
In the first round I begin stretching away from pain I have in my right hip. Pulling, stretching…almost crawling out of the discomfort. I get curious. I wonder what I am crawling out of in my life? Extracting myself from…rocking, tugging my right hip against the floor and holding myself in an extended pulling out. My thoughts return to the reading I had last week…the hip somehow related to my father. Hum..I think of my recent recollection of being left in the crib to cry in the first days of life. He said, “you were fed, dry, burped…I was training you to put your self to sleep”. My new born self just felt unresponded to, unseen, abandoned, alone, unable to get my needs met. As the bell rings to end the round, my hip is still open, extended…and I see the other mover, the toes of her left foot extended and almost touching the toes of my extended right side. Sweetness comes, toe to toe…not alone…not alone. I am going toe to toe with this.
We make art, share, name, make meaning, receive witnessing and fill out the picture of our individual experience and the points of connection that magically occur.
Round two begins and I move to hands and knees, aware of my right hip and feeling into what it wants now. Rocking on hands and knees my hand gently comes to the crown of my head. This is all I need to feel the re-birth begin. I am pushing first, then pulling, dragging myself out. Out and out and out…until I draw my legs fully “out” and rest in a fetal position…breathing with what is happening. I hear the other mover breathing. She is close. My body twists open, one hand moves to my heart the other opens and extends naturally. She breaths close. I pause here. I feel her…wonder how it would be to feel her…my two fingers make a micrometer of a reach… and…contact. My hand on my heart, my fingers extended…tender sweet contact…and my gentle weeping comes. No thoughts, just this deep body response…something in me has broken free…feels finally satisfied. Something in me understands…something is different…changed. I am different…I am changed. The story…the ending…the moral…all changed.
Connected…
Connection…connection…connection…
“Click”
The bell rings. We make eye contact and acknowledge, I make art, share, name, make meaning, receive witnessing and we share our stories, filling out the picture of our movement journey. I realize…what if it is just that close? What if we travel a lifetime within a certain story, healing, shifting, growing, changing…and then…in the micrometer of a reach…the story changes. We feel the click of the change we have been creating all this time. It is changed. We are changed.
*Authentic Movement is a discipline Founded by Mary Whitehouse. It is done in silence, movers have eyes closed, one or several sacred witnesses hold space and practice tuning into their own bodies, their own emotions and images as the movers unfold their exploration. This practice and the process for sharing, invite all into a more whole experience of self, relationship and the mystery of being human. Shannon has practiced, studied and facilitated over 15,000 hours of this powerful modality and is excited to share it more broadly and use it in her work.
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