Sounding

Sound is an important element of the InbodyNature practice. Both the listening and the making sounds.

Listening to the Body for (repeatable) Movements ~

There was a time when I was a wild dancer on indoor floors with loud music. My nervous system no longer allows this and so I learn about simple movements. These movements or gestures seem to be a kind of medicine that I can perform when needed.

Braiding / Weaving / Mending:

 

With slight shift of hands, we move from offering out to gathering in.

We mend relationships between shoulder blades and hips, between each vertebra. Becoming fluid. Serpent like. Weaving ancestors of past with future and of this place.

Creating a braid like a ladder between us all—above, below, and here, where we stand.

Make Room in the Heart

This movement was inspired by a little beach bird cautiously—or was it bravely?—stepping forward with his chest puffed out and then rocking backwards. It is also inspired by Harry Belafonte's quote: "The heart has to find greater space for rebellion."

Canoeing/Steering the Boat

This movement is from one of my earliest memories of being in nature, canoeing with my family in the rivers flowing from the Great Lakes. Canoeing in the dry Santa Fe River, one is forced to call upon deeper waters.

Infinity Rotation Spiral

Eyes look forward, sometimes scanning all the way around,
Activate solar plexus (inner power).

“I can move forward with stability & healthy boundaries.”
“I can steer through these waters.”

Take long, gliding strokes and get at the tiny mucky mucks in the back corner so this boat won’t lag.


Inner Satisfaction = Love

Joanna Macy’s spiral

I’ve started using Joanna Macy’s spiral as another layer of score to the InBodyNature practice. (see Macy's book Coming Back to Life)

It seems to help shift what at times feels like a very personal practice into a collective consciousness. The spiral of: Gratitude / Despair / Seeing with New Eyes / Going Forth - is a potent container of focus easily integrated with embodiment practices.
For me what’s important in doing this practice is the unlearning / relearning / remembering that I/we are of nature. To be embodied is nature, to feel, to express is nature. And in these times of uncertainty, this practice of communing within through communion with nature can be a bridge to empathy for all beings. And is it not, activism of the soul?
Here are some sample explorations, understanding that these are but one body, one moment, each persons experience of gratitude, of despair, of awe is unique.