Holly hails from an illustrious lineage of fortune tellers, yogis, folk healers, troubadours and poets of the fine and mystical arts. Shape-shifting Tantric Siren of the Lunar Mysteries, she surfs the ebbs and flows of the multiverse on the Pure Sound of Creation. Her alchemy is Sacred Folly — revolutionary transformation through Love, deep play, Beauty, and music.
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.
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.
This month’s challenge is a practice that I have been doing on and off since last May. I can tell you that when my practice is consistent, transformation happens with ease. I also know that when things get moving in my life, I tend to get lax on the practices that make my days go a little more smoothly. So, I am bringing this one back into my life and am sharing it with you because it’s a lovely practice.
So long Peter Seeger! Thank you for your voice and your heart! I never had much, but I did have music, and music is what kept me going when the world was a cold cold place. I remember literally freezing and starving on the Lower East Side, but the spirit of music kept me going. You believed music could save the world – and it saved mine. I am grateful for your life, Mr. Seeger, bodhisattva, and all those you’ve inspired.
What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control? What if the point is not to keep at bay all those people, beings, objects and emotions that we so needlessly fear? What if the point instead is to let go of that control? What if the point of life, the primary reason for existence, is to lie naked with your lover in a shady grove of trees? What if the point is to taste each other’s sweat and feel the delicate pressure of finger on chest, thigh on thigh, lip on cheek? What if the point is to stop, then, in your slow movements together, and listen to the birdsong, to watch the dragonflies hover, to look at your lover’s face, then up at the undersides of leaves moving together in the breeze? What if the point is to invite these others into your movement, to bring trees, wind, grass, dragonflies into your family and in so doing abandon any attempt to control them? What if the point all along has been to get along, to relate, to experience things on their own terms? What if the point is to feel joy when joyous, love when loving, anger when angry, thoughtful when full of thought? What if the point from the beginning has been to simply be?
I like exploring, and will try just about anything at least once. Of course, once I find something I like, I get into going deeper. ( I geek out). I like working/playing with the chakra system. After leading a few Writing the Energetic Body workshops, I have found that many people get almost weighed down […]
I confess, “If I weren’t afraid, I’d make money doing what I love.” I am willing to explore and take new actions toward creating income through my creative work, and am especially committed to my sacred sexuality project with Sydney Francis. I am committed to sharing my knowledge of somatics, creativity and the creative process (especially in writing, the visual arts and sound), ritual, and play. I am willing to explore and experiment, with an open heart and spirit toward gratitude and abundance in all its forms.
holly troy ~ sacred folly 