Day 19: Meditation Challenge ~ Get Up and Dance Your Way into Meditation!
Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.
In Tuesday's post, I announced the details of our 28-Day Meditation teleconference (free!) is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). Everyone is welcome! However, you must register to be in on the conference call. There are 96 slots available. To do so, go to the Contact Box at my website: http://www.awakenedliving.com/ Send me an e-mail with the word "Register" in the subject line. By Sunday, I will confirm your reservation with an e-mail about how to call in. An MP3 will be posted for those who cannot attend "live." Read Tuesday's post for ALL the details.
Even if you just found the Challenge, or if you committed and aren't meditating regularly, no worries. Join us, no matter what!
Please welcome today's very special guest, another wildly creative woman, Christine Reed, from Bliss Chick!
She's offering us a fresh and completely different perspective on meditation. It's about getting up and moving, dancing your way into calm, clarity—bliss even. But most of all, what Christine advocates is how we movement can help us embody our truest self! Without further ado, Christine ...
Dancing into Our Essence
In this culture, we have a tendency to see the Brain/Mind as supreme and separate from our Bodies. This split was articulated best (or worst) by Descartes, when he said, "I think, therefore I am."
In much (not all) of the current "spiritual" thinking, this split is exemplified in the attempt to transcend our bodies in a variety of ways. For many, the process of meditation implies that consciousness, for example, resides in the Brain/Mind. For many, "real" meditation only can happen, therefore, when the body is still or tamed. Whether we are sitting on a cushion or staying in a yoga pose for an extended period, we think that to find peace or enlightenment, we must control or lessen movement.
I come at this from a completely different perspective.
As a person who has spent the majority of her life suffering from severe depression and anxiety, I have come to know my Brain/Mind as one of the tools of these dis-ease processes. I am not so keen, therefore, to spend more time with this generator of thought and obsession.
I would challenge Descartes and say that "I sense and move, therefore I am."
I would challenge mainstream science and say that consciousness does not reside in brain activity but rather in my body.
My whole body, in which my Brain is just one organ. (Brain is an important organ, as I think to know one's stories is vital to health but that is a whole other piece of writing.)
Brain gets way too much credit—or blame—in our search for happiness.
I am healthy and happy when I am spending the majority of my day moving, being, tasting, smelling, hearing, touching.
I am healthy and happy when I live from a place of instinct, which comes from accumulating sensory information.
I am healthiest and happiest when I dance.
It is through dance that I achieve a state of utter and complete awareness. That state where I just am. That state that is purely of the Now.
My past is a story when I dance. My future is an idea.
My present moment is my Whole Life when I dance.
I do not have to ward off, fight off, observe away thoughts, because I am Pure Being, Doing, Sensing when I dance.
I lose My Self—the ego that gets in the way of Fully Living.
I find My Self—the essence that leads me always in the right direction, that which points toward Joy.
This all happens on a body level.
We have always danced, we humans, since we stood upright. It is basic to our genetic makeup. Dance is life. It is a lesson in reacting to the moment and to the breath and the external vibrations of music. It is learning to go with the flow and live through the rhythms.
When I dance, life is not a mere illusion constructed by Brain. No. When I dance, life is a bodily experience that only gets more beautiful, more bountiful, more blissful, more real.
Christine Reed describes herself as a Mystical Catholic Yogini. "That's as simple as it gets for this Chick. Though I am a SeriousChick, I am also a SillyChick and a GlitterChick and a GeekChick and a SciFiChick. During my 40th year (2009), I rediscovered my Dancer self, and my life changed for the better more radically than I ever could have imagined." Today, she is a certified YogaDance instructor.
Visit her website to learn more about her. http://www.blisschick.net/
Thank you, Christine, for opening us up to a new way of thinking about life and meditation. May we allow our bodies to feel, express our inner wisdom, and revel in the fullness of life!
Blessings,
Jan
(Dance image courtesy of http://pollux.usc.edu)
Read on ...
(Dance image courtesy of http://pollux.usc.edu)
Read on ...
I'm traveling for 3 days but I have every intention of meditating. I've packed my prayer beads. My iPod is loaded up with guided meditations. And I am carrying my breath with me— Portable Peace! I'll let you know how it goes!
Resources:
These from Christine:
"Let Your Yoga Dance" page with Megha, my teacher from Kripalu: http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.letyouryogadance.com%252F
This is an excellent (available online) magazine that's about dance as a path: http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.consciousdancer.com%252F
And of course, there's Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms:
http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.gabrielleroth.com%252F
Inspiration:
Your body is the place where heaven and earth meet.
~Jay Michaelson, God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice
Breathing, the dancer moves
Spirit gently bonding with her soul
dancing with bone and breath.
Her soul, infused with spirit
is shaping her body, and her body, her soul.
Body and soul become as one,
living moving being.
~Carla DeSola, as quoted in Praying with Body and Soul by Jane Venard
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20 comments:
Christine...this is a wonderful post. Getting out of our "heads" and into the rest of our body-all of our senses is so very, very important. It's interesting too, to remember that "dancing" can take on many forms. For some of us, getting up on our feet and moving with great momentum is not possible. I used to love to dance that way :( but I can still "dance" when I am sitting with gentle swaying movement...using my arms and shoulders, hands and fingers, torso, head and neck...I can even move my legs and feet (although standing movement is a bit tricky right now)...so I just wanted to add this for anyone else who might have difficulty with large motor movement/balance. WE CAN STILL DANCE...it just looks a little different.
Jan, know that we are all here supporting you and your vow to meditate this year. I hope you are allowing your sacred community to be part of your portable peace, tucked away in a special space in your heart...I will speak for myself and say..."you are in mine"
gentle steps,
Laura
oh, Laura, yes! Dancing is a very broad category. To me it is simply expressive movement, often accompanied by joy!
Today, I have posted a video about dance's effects on a man with cerebral palsy over at blisschick. Check it out!
A wonderfully new perspective on meditation! Thank you!
Hi Jan,
Happy to find your post early today.It is 9.15 p.m and I didn't expect to see the post today.An interesting form of meditation-to dance with joy! Thank you,Christine,for the message.
I connected with joanne's message yesterday. I allow my creativity be my meditation as I work on my art.It gives me so much peace while creating and after it too!
I enjoyed doing my second lens on our meditation challenge.-- meditation-challenge-week-2.I am finding this process of creating the lens very absorbing as I spend more time reading the posts to note the messages and looking up the resources.
Thank you ,Jan ,for guiding us through a great experience.
Blessings,
sema
(Sorry,Jan,I deleted the previous 2 comments as I had clicked enter before finishing the reply the first time and the next time the link was wrong)
Christine - I so agree with this, and am glad dance and movement got represented in Jan's meditation challenge, and especially by you. Dance was a big part of my childhood, and I realize now in retrospect that my dance classes was one of the main ways I got through the more difficult patches then...as an adult I moved into martial arts, and then yoga, and all of these movement forms for me are definitely forms of meditation and part of my practice...not to mention sources of great joy in my life!
I do think chakra work is very compatible with this too (I know you do kundalini/chakra yoga as well, no?) because the chakras are intersections of mind/body/spirit...As to your point about body being separated so often in spiritual teachings, I actually think movement/body is part of most Eastern traditions, as they almost all do have some movement incorporated (martial arts, tai chi, yoga), but it's true that in the West that integration seems to often get lost in the translation of these teachings...
That's my view anyway, thanks so much for contributing this to the discussion! - lisa
Oh yes, I so agree... i am so loving breaking out of the box and seeing meditation in all these wonderful ways... i so agree with you, Christine, about dancing... the integration of mind, body, emotion and spirit in a sensual expression of interconnectedness is a joyful meditation... i discovered the Nia DVD a few years ago, and just love the free-form dance style they teach...
thank you so much for this lovely post, Christine, and Jan, once again, who is hosting such an inspirational month for all of us...
i'm going to put some music on and dance :)
Lisa! Yep, you remember correctly that I am a HUGE proponent of Kundalini yoga which is totally chakra based, AND my YogaDance teacher certification -- again, totally a chakra based system. :)
I was just watching the beginnings of a documentary about Isadora Duncan, and for her, the most important discovery she made was that dance does not come from the spine as in formal ballet, but rather, it comes from the solar plexus -- the seat of heat and heart. :)
Good afternoon, Christine and all! Just checking in (thanks to wireless internet!) in between duties while traveling.
Laura,
I so appreciate your perspective here that dance can be in our body even if we can't move it the way we might ideally like. I love how you have modified dance to meet your needs. Such a good reminder!
And thank you for the support. I DO carry you with me. Actually, it has been "hard" to be away from the Challenge and all of you, so, yes, I carry you in my heart too!
Interesting, this time away (even though I am "working") has brought many opportunities for meditation. Twice yesterday I as able to listen to guided meditations on my iPod. This morning (in a staff meeting) we did a lectio divina and took plenty of time for silence at other points. I am "sitting" with directees/mentees this afternoon, and our time together is PURE meditation, prayerfulness, giving ourselves over to the Spirit. I feel as if my meditation well is full!
Blessings to you!
Michelle,
Glad it resonated. Isn't Christine's perspective just wonderful?! Tis true that when we do anything we love with clarity of thought and heart, we ARE in meditation. (I get this with gardening too, LOL)
Lisa,
Lovely points. I do think that the rift between body, mind, spirit is a Western creation. (Began with Aristotle, I believe. Yoga for me was one of the reunion organizers!
Christine,
Thank you again for your astute observations, kind comments, and compassionate presence to all here. Your insights are so fresh and alive! A treasure....
Well, my break is over. I will check in again tonight if I can. In the meantime, enjoy, breathe and smile everyone. I am!
p.s. Continued prayers for those in the storms in CA. May damage be minimal...
Sema,
I am breathless, touched, and simply blown away by the Squidoo that you created for the Challenge. I hope everyone will check it out!
This is priceless. Like a little meditation handbook. I -emailed my husband about it and told him to print it off for me so I can keep it forever. Thank you for doing this. You are so sweet and thoughtful. Blessings!
I love this perspective. Sometimes, I've just gotta get up and dance. Nothing else will do.
Christine, I really appreciate the rewriting/rethinking of Descartes quote. Often times I have changed it to, "I am, therefore I think," but I am delighting in your version, "I sense and move, there I am." Peace, Nicki.
Thank you so much for this post! Dance has enhanced my spirit all my life. I am delighted this is used as a form of meditation for others as well. Joy! Joy! Joy!
Oh oh oh Christine...I do so love her!! Wonderful..just wonderful!
I love how completely honest you are hon...the true essence of Let Fly! What a joy to know you!!
As for the dancing..it was funny as I read this that I didn't connect the two before..the dancing and the meditation.
I danced for about 15 years..I loved it especially modern Jazz. Of late I have taken up a bit of belly dancing..which I looove. I have also found something else out of late.. I often close down this part of me. The dancing, singing joyful me. I get too busy and forget myself in it all. So I have been making a point of just cranking the music and LEtting Fly with the dance an song. Thank you for the reminder and the concept that meditation can be full of movement! Wonderful interview!
Namaste, Sarah
I love the idea of dancing as a form of meditation. I have a love affair with kickboxing and it has a meditative affect on me. I hadn't realized it until recently. But as I am moving, I am completely in tune with my body and my breathing.(I have to be or I would fall on my face!) Thank you for this post.
This is beautiful Jan and Christine --thank you to both of you for sharing! Christine, I needed this post for sure ;) I found that I was filling out the different sections you shared and customizing it for what my dance/essence is. Thank you for this help so much! hugs, Jenn
Fantastic... "My present moment is my Whole Life when I dance." .... that sums it up for me right there. Thank you for putting it into words! Much love & peace :)
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