The soul's free flowing movement
I doubt one could ever over estimate the immeasurable value of deep consciousness bodywork as a means to connect with our soul, cleanse our energetic field and accelerate our evolution. Deep consciousness bodywork simply means being totally present within our bodily field feelings, as we move or are moved. To quickly imagine what I'm speaking of, visualise some of the movements you'll have seen in Tai Chi. But now take away the thirty years of practice and form needed to perfect that art and instead, just connect with your field and let your soul speak through you. Now you've got a glimpse of what I'm speaking of. What's more, with just a little attention and practice, absolutely anyone can do it...
Previously in my life I've practiced the martial arts for over 25 years, from which I derived immeasurable benefit. I remember distinctly during teenage times the frustration of exams and the general growing pains due to society. At the age of fifteen I received a 'god-send' in the shape of Bruce Lee. "Enter the Dragon" hit the big screen in the 1970's and I was truly captivated. If you've ever watched Bruce Lee move, it's like watching a cat. Every sinew of his body seems to be vibrantly alive. When he moves, his whole being moves.
After two years of studious karate practice, I reached a point where following a session, my hands were literally burning with universal life energy and upon leaving the dojo, I wasn't walking down the street anymore, but literally floating down it! I felt on top of the world, immensely empowered.
But one thing always seemed just out of reach. At the end of a session, we'd usually gather to watch the senior Blackbelts performing 'kata'. These are a prescribed sequences of movement with a very distinct configuration and form. They took many years of practice to master. For me, watching this awesome mastery of detail, with incredible concentration and focus, was a double edged sword. I was both inspired and saddened... "how could I, with all my teenage human clumsiness, ever master something so perfect and masterful as that?"
It wasn't until I woke up to the true meaning of the soul that my prayers were answered many years later. By now, I'd given up Karate. Openhand's soulmotion was taking form through daily practice, emerging and evolving from the Karate warm up routines that I'd performed over many years previous. The practice was flowering like a spring blossom. My heart was opening ever wider, until one day, at sunrise in a dried up river bed in Taos New Mexico, I truly discovered the meaning of free flowing soul motion.
I'd practiced the basic forms and postures (not dissimilar to yoga). I was now standing quietly on the river bed, my body gently sweating and pulsating under the early morning sun. The scenery was silent, enough to hear my own heart beating, not even a gentle breeze to disturb the immeasurable peace. Then images of the advanced movement katas of the martial arts of my youth suddenly began to flow into mind. My body began to sway of its own accord, and from that, movement began to happen.
But there was no fixedness to this flow, no rigidity. It seemed to have a life all of its own. It had taken the form and mercilessly broken it down into formlessness. Now the unleashed energy of that was simply flowing through me. The more I aligned myself in this way, the more I dissolved into it and the more my heart opened until tears of joy rolled down my face like gently falling petals. Wow - how good can a human body feel!
- I realised that although the martial arts had inspired and connected me to the flow, in some ways I'd also been retarded and held back. In the constant striving for the perfection of a particular form, I'd restricted the spontaneity and boundless liberation that defines the soul. Now something inside of me had snapped. The rebellious teenager would be bowed no longer and the gentle child crushed under foot neither. Both were untethered to articulate freely through movement.
Yes it was my journey, I needed the years of practice somehow to discover valuable lessons in life. But my travels have now inspired me to help people realise and discover the immense beauty that lies inside of them and to unleash it through free flowing movement that can be mastered by anyone, of any age or physical ability.
You don't need decades of yoga, Tai Chi or dance practice to truly touch your soul through movement. We simply need to unfold the confidence that it is already there. And if we turn our attention inwards and simply let movement happen, then what can unfold all by itself can be truly miraculous. It harnesses and unleashes the vibrancy of the soul.
That's what this video below inspired in me when I saw it posted here the other day. It reminds me so much of the free flowing movement that sings through my heart these days. How does it inspire you to move? What wants to arise through you? How can you let your soul simply sing through movement?...
Chris
PS - and if you would like help unleashing the formless form of your soul, then we guide Openhand's soulmotion on all of our courses. And it takes only an hour or so to master the core essence of it.
Catalyse your spiritual evolution... Openhand Courses
Comments
natural movement for evolution
17 April, 2012 - 10:21 — Trinity BourneBeautiful sharing. I look at nature in absolute awe of natural movement. Even my yogi cat, inspires me deeply in the way she intuitively moves in every waking hour.
In my various experiences as a body worker, I have noticed how the body knows exactly what it needs (unless someone is taking pain killers or drugs, in which case, the appropriate response is anaesthetised or otherwise).
It's amazing how quickly emotional energy can be transformed by spontaeous movement or how the energy of mental processing can be trancended. It's like, we get out of the way and create space for the soul to really shine through.
Yes! Let's live right now and dance like there's no tomorrow.
The wave dance
28 April, 2012 - 14:30 — someoneFree flow dancing:
I went to a class in Berlin and fell in love with it.
Now I just arranged folders with the sequences and dance at home. It is not the same as dancing in a room full of free flowing people, but it is still great and a great fun too
Free soul in a trained body
7 February, 2013 - 10:32 — someoneI didn't say it in April 2012, because I was afraid it will ruin the spontaneous atmosphere hhhhh But after almost a year I want to say the same thing as one year ago, so I'll just say it.
I agree that you don't need to train years to be able to move spontaneously. But! The guy on the video is a professional dancer, who was trained for decades. The piece he is performing is actually choreographed, pre-planed. Every move he is doing - he was told to do so.
So to me, it is not only the sensation of a free flow, but actually the ability to let this flow through something that is actually not spontaneous. How do you do THAT? THIS is what amazes me in this video, this is what left me with jaw down, and to me, this is the greatest mastery that one can reach: how to be free, real and flow in such an ethereal way through something that is not free, not unlimited, not spontaneous, perfectly controlled.
What makes me feel totally blown away is the incredible combination of both mastery of the body, a perfect, flawless control AND the totally ethereal, non-physical something flowing through it, beyond the control.
So for me the two are rather inseparable: mastering the body, knowing how it works, what it needs, how to move it, build whatever is needed, like strength, speed, precision, flexibility, to build degrees of freedom, reaching its full potential (which is relative from person to person, or in various periods/ages in life), bringing it to its instantaneous perfection, and then you have a tool, you have what to flow through.
It is about having a tool to express. And the more the tool is evolved, cleared, known, taken care of, used, developed, etc, and expanded in its possibilities - the more energy, and the more forms of energy and flows it can express.
It doesn't mean that everybody should be professional dancers to move, but these days I do believe that often relying on spontaneity and the 'wisdom' of the body is not the best thing to do. Body's wisdom has its limits.
The body is a fantastic thing, so smart in so many ways, but at the same time, it can be totally stupid. Great example - it easily gets addicted to things that are toxic to it, like coffee, sugar, chocolate, drugs, alcohol, etc. If there is anything toxic but not deadly - most probably it will get addicted to it. It often looks for the easier way, the saving-energy mode way, while often it is not the best thing for it. It often freezes in danger instead of running out of the way. It gets scared by funny things. It is pretty vulnerable and needs to be well-treated and taken care of by a conscious user, who in turn, should know what his body needs, without lying to himself, denying and hiding in some ideas, ideals, moralities, or whatever. It is taking responsibility for what I am given and sacrificing everything to do what I need to do.
The point is that nothing is a problem, as long as it serves the purpose, and that nothing should stand on the way to fulfilling this purpose.
I just got that another amazing thing shining through the video is surrender. He is so surrendered into the imposed limitations, that the boundaries stop being boundaries. They have become part of him, as there is no resistance to them. There is nothing separating him from them, and so everything can flow.
I often wondered what is it I feel with people who are devoted to some kind of sport, to some art, or science, that is torturing their bodies, their minds, that takes so much from them and demands even more in return. This is the sacrifice, the humbleness, surrender and groundedness. I feel all these in this dance...
spontaneous feeling
7 February, 2013 - 10:45 — Chris BourneThe point of the article, was to encourage people who might not be masters at movement: that without years of practice, we all have a body which will move naturally and spontaneously and is an awesome way to connect to spirit.
So intellectually maybe a poor choice of video. But the 'idea' of it, was to convey people more into spontaneous feeling.
Chris
I got that :)
7 February, 2013 - 13:22 — someoneI totally agree about that part.
What I was trying to say is that it is great to also address the tool of expression, whatever it is, and in the movement case it is the physical body, which can then allow people to express the 'spontaneous feeling' in a much better way.
And I also said that it is not something that one cannot move without, but it can greatly help to not only drop into spontaneous feelings, but also get a bit more physical and, in parallel, maybe to evolve the body so it can become better and better tool for expression.
An extreme case of it is a mastery of the physical body, and developing hyper-awareness and conscious control over various if not all tissues of the body, involved in movement, for example. It just gives maximum degrees of freedom for motion and expression. This was my point, as an addition to your point, to also address a more 'down to earth' and practical factors related to self-expression.
Example: I can't express myself though voice, because given an absolute pitch and a rather wide range, I have a really weak voice. If I express what I have to express through it, like sing for a while in a bathroom, I get a soar throat and an inflammation right away. So I go for the motion, since my body is much stronger than my voice at the moment and I can really go wild, free and much more spontaneous because I am exercising since I am 14, i.e for 18 years. It allows me to really have fun with it.
If I wanted to express myself through voice, it might be of great benefit to develop it, maybe to take lessons with a teacher or on the web, etc... This is what I meant.
You said spontaneous feeling. That's great.
And I add, that in this world we often want to express things and we need some tool that would be able to allow us to express whatever we spontaneously feel.
I don't see how it contradicts your point. I think it supports it
Pages