Day One : Orientation and Arriving

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1

Orientation and Arriving

Sometimes we spend our whole time just arriving in a new place, rather than being fully present. How do we practice orientation and arriving?

Begin standing:

-Greet your oldest friend, gravity. How do you notice the sensation of weight in your body?

-Move your head off center and notice the subtle shifts in your sensing feet.

-Take a walk, and receive the ground with your feet. Let the earth touch you.

-Now, move with active feet. Let them lead you into space. Does that change how you move?

-Bring your attention to the palms of your hands and receive the “news of the universe” in their skin.

-Imagine a tail of your choice and grow it from your tailbone: dinosaur, salamander, or poodle. Notice how your tail extends your spine into space.

-Reach the top of your head towards the sky. Shake any tension out of your spine as you elongate head to tail.

-Move your head vigorously and bring your attention to your inner ear. Visualize the tiny ear stones suspended in fluid telling you about balance. Imagine long earrings dangling amplifying your sense of down. Accelerate or decelerate your movement and notice the difference.

-Foreground awareness of your eyes. Pause and bring in peripheral vision. Imagine eyes as windows, receiving the world. Now explore an active gaze. Let your eyes lead you in space.

-Explore on your own, with awareness of hands and feet, head and tail, inner ear and eyes. These are parts of your tonic system—the gravity system in your body— locating you in place.

-Transition to lying down comfortably on your back and yield your weight into the ground. What can you let go of that’s holding you away from the earth? Bond with gravity.

-Sometimes yield feels like collapse. If collapse is right for you, roll onto your belly and spill your weight into this vulnerable surface.  Rest. Stay as long as you need, until you feel a genuine impulse to move again.

-When you are ready, dance your own dance, orienting to weight and stimulating the gravity system in your body, answering the question “where am I”.  

-Let your body tell you what it wants. It knows exactly what it needs at every moment for rest, recovery, and expression if you take the time to listen. Tune in, rather than tune out.

Sometimes you have to go way down in yourself to find an authentic voice— to take the next step.