Month: February 2014

Starting March 1st: Next Session of Writing the Energetic Body Online

.Reading time 6 minutes.

Get ready to explore possibility, make (re)discoveries, release inhibition, and develop a writing practice.

Overview of the seven major chakras of the Hindu Chakra System:

1st Chakra – This is our entrance into the earthly plane, our right to be in the world. We will investigate issues surrounding survival and our “tribe”.
2nd Chakra – This is where we experience the power of relationships. We will plumb pleasure, sexuality, emotions, and the desire to create.
3rd Chakra – This is where we gain our sense of personal identity, power, and will. Who are you? What is your purpose?
4th Chakra – We will open to compassion, self-acceptance, and love.
5th Chakra – We will look at clear communication, self-expression, creativity and “Divine Will”. What happens when you speak your Truth?
6th Chakra – We will explore perception, clarity of vision, and psychic ability. How do you see the world? How does intuition and imagination expand your life experience?
7th Chakra – How do we understand the world? What is our connection to a Higher Power?

We will investigate thought as the seed of manifestation and how the energy of this “ethereal” chakra can be brought “down to earth”.

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Born on a Thursday #46 – Why the Body? II

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Movement (yoga, hiking, dancing, walking, biking), meditation, and pranayama (yogic breathing techniques) bring me into the moment and out of my default patterns of thinking. Many ideas come through while I am moving (or in stillness after movement). It is as if a channel opens, as if some of the filters of my mind have been removed and ideas and/or observations are more clear.

I’m continuing to look at the question of movement and art (or movement and writing). My friend and folk artist/musician, TJK Haywood, aka Wooden Thomas (and one of the first participants of Writing the Energetic Body), turned me on to artist Heather Hansen. She literally uses her body to make art. Her work is inspiring and exquisite.

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Why the Body?

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Below, I’ve listed several reasons for why I teach writing the way I do.

The body is how we experience the world. It is through our bodies that we gather information for our brains to process. Lively writing incorporates the senses.
When we pay attention to our bodies, sometimes we are able to bypass brain chatter and “notice” on a deeper level. Rather than pushing our thoughts and words around, we open and notice thoughts and words that arise.
Sometimes people get really wound up about writing. How many of us put our research papers off until the last minute while we were in school? What about some of us who have taken on copywriting as a job – and we are strictly bound by rules and deadlines? Or maybe someone told us we were stupid or had nothing important to say – and that stuck with us? Movement lightens things up – it’s fun.
Most of us simply don’t move enough in our day – so why not get some exercise before doing a practice that pretty much requires us to sit?
Personally, I’m hyper and easily distracted and bored. I need to let off extra energy often, and I find that movement helps. Music helps. Dancing helps. Singing helps. If I try to fight my need for action, my mind gets stuck in a loop. A shift in focus breaks the thread.
Yoga body/yoga mind. Stimulate the body/stimulate the mind. Sometimes the body just needs a little attention in order to relax, and when the body relaxes, the mind can relax.
I am coming to believe that we ignore our bodies at the peril of not only ourselves, but, our planet. We need to remember that our lives are lived not only in our heads and on our computer screens. We are beings in bodies experiencing a physical life. We physically live on Earth. Our disconnect with the planet mirrors our disconnect with our bodies – we cannot live without a planet nor our bodies. (Common sense, but . . . ) Paying attention is important – denial is dangerous.
Our heads sometimes have ideas about things that our bodies completely disagree with – that’s worth exploring.
I’ve found that what works for me works for others, too. Write what you know . . . teach what you know.

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Blue Haze, Neon and Earl Grey (or Dreaming Rock-n-Roll)

.Reading time 6 minutes.

I dreamed I was in a band last night. It’s been almost ten years since I’ve been on stage. I miss it a lot. I like group creative projects – I often need something larger than myself to continue, to finish work, and the group is more than “just me”. The dynamic is exhilarating, usually fun, sometimes frustrating – rarely boring. Though I haven’t been making music, I have been in a collaborative project for months now, and it is informing my solitary work in a good way (I’m painting again), and I am waking up with the desire to create almost over all else.

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