Words

In my Embodied Meditation program this past weekend, I became very interested in the way that words and stories limit or halt the experience of my body in yoga and movement. Our teacher, Bobbie Ellis, asked us to move deep inside our bodies, allowing the sensations space and time to unfold. It was harder than I expected to release the judgment, the conclusions that pounded up against the door of my consciousness: "Your hip's sore because of the hike yesterday." "You're too full. You shouldn't have had that scone." The stories poured in faster than I had time to process them, each abruptly halting tinglings of sensations, reductive and dismissive, or perhaps interesting and lovely - but completely disconnected from my actual experience. A cosmos of experience in my body, shrunk down to an imposed and rigid cast, mindlessly flung atop it.

It's hard for me, with my immense love for words, to imagine them as villains. And so I seek to imagine a new way of being. One that's expansive, with enough room for all the layers of wisdom inside my body, blossoming out love and intelligence and health, space for the mind to be quiet and rest. I imagine words might just find a new home there, allowing dead symbols to sprout wings and horns, halos and antennae, dance with music and light and color, and breathe life again.

Today, as I tripped over language, working to express this desire to my friend, she smiled and said: "Oh, you mean art." I think I do.

Collages

I can't stop collaging. It's so damn soothing. My bunk bed is a tent filled with collages, essential oils and books. It's going to be strange to go back to actually having to maintain a space larger than my bunk bed, closet, and 5 foot space. Actually having to cook... I might stay here forever. Enjoy.

Reiki

I'm currently in program for my reiki master's training. It's such a gift, to be in a group of people that desire to be healed and to heal. Our teachers - Audrey Pearson (Devdasi) and James Pearson (Mohan) - went to Japan last year to study with a teacher from a lineage previously assumed to have disappeared, their secrecy was so effective. Their Prana-Tantra Reiki tradition is born out of that lineage.

It's fascinating to learn and experience the differences between the traditional Japanese and western-developed forms and ideas around reiki. It's amazing to imagine the courage exhibited by Madame Takada in bringing this healing to the United States at the end of WWII. It's exciting to consider the powerful ways this modality is being woven into peoples' lives and ways of being in the world.

There are a million more pieces to reflect upon, but for now, I'll content myself with sharing this nugget of insight from this morning's session:

- As you progress in your ability to your development towards peace and wisdom, don't use your heightened insight as a tool for flagellation when you aren't feeling or living in that way. Instead, your response to where you're at now becomes the place for practice. Imagine yourself as a young child, and work to show that same sense of loving compassion to yourself, wherever or however you show up.

* After this training, I will be certified to teach Reiki I, II, and master's level. I'm hoping to schedule these for the winter 2012-2013. I'll keep you posted.