Cultivating Embodiment and Presence - Module 2
Session 3
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
– Mary Oliver
For our second module we will cultivate our embodiment and presence. Practicing the art of listening to our bodies, so that we may find and rest in the flow of our intuition. We will build on the skills we explored in module one - feeling the natural pattern of the universe as it expands and grows. The cyclical nature of expansion, pause, contraction, pause, expansion, pause contraction.
Reflection Prompts
• How does creativity feel in your body?
• What emotions do you associate with being in a creative flow?
• What do you feel in your body if you feel resistance to creativity?
• Does the resistance show up as a thought, a sensation, or something else?
The Collective’s Seeds
Warmth
Content
Wonder
Peace
Tender
Links
Free Community BBTRS Breathwork
Grounding to the Earth Practice
Guided by Erin McGuiness
Energy Basics
by Lynda Caesura
Optional Home Practice
Wander & Gather Practice
Creativity thrives in many modalities. In Euro-Western culture the vehicle for creativity that holds the most weight in the collective consciousness is a “birth” process for creation. However, there is another process I love. One that utilizes intuition, the body, the quiet inner voice that whispers to us of discovery, of “gathering” as a creative act. Following is a practice to play with the forces of wandering and gathering. I encourage you to try it if you are craving some inspiration.
First create a “container” for your wander/gather, this provides boundaries and containment that allows for the free flow of the wander.
Set a timer for at least 20 minutes or as along as you desire it to be. You can wander anywhere, even in a bathroom, though I feel outside leads to a richer experience and the wilder a place the better.
Do something to tell your body that you are starting to wander. For example, mark the transition point mentally, by noting when you cross the threshold of your front door, clap your hands, place something like a broom or stick on the ground and step over it. Some sort of physical delineation to tell your body that you are now entering the wander.
What is the wander? Mary Oliver names it beautifully in her poem Wild Geese - it is letting the soft animal of your body love what it loves as you move through your environment. Some suggestions for facilitating this capacity within yourself are to sit quietly for a few minutes letting your mind quiet. Witness your thoughts come and go, like clouds in a sky, no need to chase them or follow them, just witness them rise and fall. Bring your attention into your body, notice a place of ease or comfort in your body. Maybe it is sunlight on your skin, the feeling of your hand resting on a leg. Allow yourself to settle into that sense of comfort, into that soft animal of your being. From this settled place within your body become curious of the world around you, look with your inner child’s eyes at the colors, shapes, light. Listen with your child’s ears to the sounds around you and allow your body, your intuition, your wonder, your joy and your curiosity be drawn to what it is drawn. As you wander gather 3 things. When your timer rings and your wander is ending, return to where you started (with your 3 things).
Let your body know your wander is complete by doing the same physical act that began it. Cross the threshold back into your house, clap your hands or step over a broom in the opposite direction etc. depending on how you marked the beginning, mark the end as well.
Next take a few minutes and journal by writing and/or doodling about your experience. What came up, what inner voices resisted surrendering to the process, what felt good? How did it feel in your body? Turn your attention to the 3 objects you gathered and journal about what the objects symbolize to you. Use whatever avenue feels best to unpack the symbolism of your objects. Some suggested points of entry are to explore your personal relationship to the object through personal associations/meaning. Reflect on the collective/cultural/societal associations of the object. Do your personal ancestral familial lineage(s) have a special relationship to the object or something similar to it? With intention, look up the symbols on the internet or in any resource books you have on symbolism. Play with word associations as well, like puns or plays on words that may or may not also directly relate to the content of the object. To complete the process notice the interrelationship of the objects, is there a story they tell together. Do you notice any themes that move through them, does this relate to anything happening in your life now? If you arrange the objects in a certain way does that change the story they are telling you?
Session 4
Reflection & Integration
“Often the creative life is slowed or stopped because something in the psyche has a very low opinion of us, and we are down there groveling at its feet instead of bopping it over the head and running free. In many cases what is required to aright the situation is that we take ourselves, our ideas, our art, far more seriously than we have done before...the business of valuing one’s creative life - that is, valuing the beauteous and artful ideas and works which issue from the wildish soul...”
Home Practice & Buddy Check-in
The invitation is to be curious and explore - stepping out of a right or wrong frame. To give yourself more permission to play and be curious.
What aspect of my life do I move with ease through states of expansion, pause, contraction, pause?
Feel into that, drop in. Journal, doodle, dance what that feels like. Witness yourself - how does that feel in my body? Explore the shape your body takes as it moves through the states.
Connect with your buddy and share what you are learning and exploring. Each buddy system decides how often, how long and in what way they want to meet. You can be creative!
The Collective’s Seeds
Expansion
Warmth
Delight
Spring
Joy