Carrie Lafferty
The current manifestation of the last 26 years of my journey is a brand-new, six-CD series (also available as a download).
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Blessings, Carrie
What is more valuable than gold? More precious than silver? More beautiful than a diamond? More directly meaningful than a million dollars?
The answer: your bare, alert and aware attention. Attention paid directly within the unfolding moment. This is the most valuable gift you can give. To yourself. To a beloved or intimate other. To a casual acquaintance. To a stranger. To a being of another species. To our planet. To the choices you have in front of you at any given moment.
Our world (both inner and outer) are perched at a precarious moment. Precarious for humanity as a species. There are so many things out there providing distractions. Distractions from just remaining present.
We are being distracted by food with so many chemicals, genetically modified organisms, and toxins. Media reporting on very trivial and unimportant details about celebrity’s lives. Constant advertising pushing us to purchase, consume and buy more distracting items. Pharmaceuticals that numb, sedate or create hyperactivity within us. Constant comparisons to ‘those who have more.’
All this and more leading us further away from just noticing. Just noticing the aliveness of each unfolding moment. This takes a choice. A choiceful response. Not a distracted reaction. An awake, alert, aware attention. To stay present. Try offering your attention to another today. Offer your attention to yourself. Offer your attention to our planet. We are all depending upon it.
I have offered just such attention to my breaking heart as I watched this video. Joanna Macy is a true elder who at age 83 is still a deeply committed activist on our planet. Please take the time to watch this video. Feel fully what it may evoke in you.
May we all open to that fire within and transmute it to the fire of justice, passion and compassion for All That Is……May we wake up and co-create a world that is based on harmony, equality, compassion and a reverence for All of Life!
Please join Carrie at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, 206-459-1773 or feldychi@comcast.net for an upcoming class or workshop at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Washington.
Living with paradox. That’s the reality of being a fully evolved human. Today is Earth Day. Why do we even need to have one day set aside to honor our Earth? When we are the Earth and the Earth is us. We have ALL of our requirements met by the Earth. In order to survive . ALL of them, every last one. Our food, water, shelter, air, and our inherent interconnection with all other sentient beings that brings us meaning in life. In fact, we are all one interconnected, breathing, living, exchanging, interdependent web of life. When will every day be Earth Day? What a paradox.
The paradox that lives within me today is large. Gratitude for the 40 or so beings that showed up at the Olympic Sculpture Park for a mindfulness walk that I participated in. At the same time, multitudes of industry, cargo and cruise ships in the Sound, planes flying overhead—all affecting the Web of Life, and hoardes of tourists/locals communing with the glorious sun along Seattle’s waterfront on a rare 75 degree sunny day in April.
Another paradox lives within me. A grief for how the belief in an illusory state of separation continues to fuel ‘business as usual’ for our globe. A belief in a separation of each from herself, from others, from the Earth and inherently from the absolute interconnectedness of Life. It seems so many are still living life with a ‘business as usual’ mentality. When climate change is rapidly happening, inequity is growing, and the population continues to grow— all vying for a finite amount of resources.
This lives paradoxically within me along with an amazing hope for so many finally waking up to reality as it is. Waking up and choosing a path of the heart–one of interconnection, love, compassion, and wisdom. So many from all walks of life waking up and beginning to look towards co-creating a world of equanimity, reverence for Life, harmony, compassion and thriving with each other, other beings and our Earth. Both are present. Both are true.
Today is Earth Day. Everyday is Earth Day. Is it? When will it truly be that every day is Earth Day?
Join Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle for an upcoming class or workshop. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, 206-459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.
What will it take for humanity to step fully into our full shining? To access and live from our full life force? To create actions that embody compassions and love? To truly become the stewards for this amazing Gaian Web of Life?
To AWAKEN: Awake to this moment. Awake within this moment. Open to receiving the continual unfolding flux of livingness. To have all of the senses open to receive. Awake to seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, thinking, feeling, sensing, and the infinite way that al lof those ‘ings’ can flux together into the moments of unfolding Life. Awake to all of the sensations. Pleasant, unpleasant or unrecognized.
To be ALERT: Curious, non-judgmental observing and felt sense noticing. Directly experiencing this moment. This current moment only. Watching without expectation, attachment or aversion. Open to discerning. Noticing with discerning.
To be AWARE: To recognize what is and only what is. No additions. No distractions. No subtractions. To have a clear felt sense of the moment. In your inner world. To follow that felt sense as the moment unfolds. To know clearly in a a fully embodied way. No layers of judgement.
Awake, Alert and Aware
When will humanity step into it’s full shining?
When each is ABLE to ACCESS the fully AWAKE, ALERT, AND AWARE state of being and doing. The awake, alert and aware state of being alive, being fully human. Being wholly human. Then actions will arise from that fully awake, alert, and aware state. From the world of AND. Will you begin to practice now?
Join Carrie at an upcoming embodied awareness practice. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, feldychi@comcast.net or 206-459-1773.
Moshe Feldenkrais was one of the very early ‘systems thinkers.” Dynamic Systems Therory and other models of holistic systems theory are much more commonplace today. In Moshe’s time, his thinking was ‘out there.” Out there in the sense of not many thinking or approaching life from systems theory tenets but actually ‘in here’ by the very nature of the unseparateness of systems thinking. No separation –complete interconnectedness–of body, mind, spirit, Nature, and all of Life.
One of the basic tenets of systems theory is an idea of ‘power with.’ All players in an efficiently functioning system are cooperative. They all create and direct their power to continue to serve the wholeness of the entire system –on all fractal levels. A power with—within themselves–call it empowerment AND a power with between other species of Life and themselves. Call it interdependent empowerment.
All parts serve the whole
This is opposed to ‘power over’ ideas in a hierarchical system. In a power over system there is an inherent idea that one player is ‘more important’ than another. This feeds ideas and behaviors of wanting more in order to be ‘better than’ and “I am bigger, better, more important, etc…..than you are”. This feeds separation. This feeds power over and co-dependent relationships.
In a thriving holistic system (interconnected wholeness) there is only power with–only empowered beings, moments and interactions. In a dysfunctional holistic system, there is belief in separation and functioning to support a hierarchy that has been super-imposed on the system. There are power over, co-dependent relationships and effort/dis’ease’ everywhere. This is the system we are living in. Making the shift inside to live life from it’s natural inherent wholeness shifts naturally from power over to power with. An empowered life.
I experience subtle to not so subtle ways that students/clients ‘give their power’ to me or to another person or system. The only person who can change your own experience is you. There are no external circumstances or persons acting ‘over’ or ‘on’ you. There is only consciousness being perceived in and out of form as the moments to moments of life express themselves and then fall away.
Power with......A teacher in China
Often in the beginning, clients or students will come expecting that I have a power over them to ‘fix’ them. First of all, as if they are broken. Not true–we are inherently whole at all moments. Second of all, as if I can rearrange them in some way better or have more wisdom then their own inherent sensory capacity does. This ‘giving away’ of their power is a double -edged sword (as all dualistic separation ideas are). Sometimes I am held up on a pedestal with the ideas of ‘She knows more then I do about….’ or “I’m in pain and she should just take it away, then….. I will be able or will try to pay attention.”
These ideas and others like them continue to separate us from the direct experience of the Wholeness of Life. They also feed the power over mentality of giving their power to me and then continuing to separate themselves when their discomfort returns and they are frustrated with that returned state.
We each make every moment of our experience. Both the easy and the difficult. Both those we like, those we dislike and those that are boring or we are indifferent towards. It is only through the embodied practice of taking complete responsibility for our own experience that we can find the ‘healing’ (return to access our inherent wholeness that has been present all along) we so desire. It comes from an empowered state within. I can’t give it or take it away from anyone except for myself.
Yanhgtzee River China
I can only be a guide or a catalyst that can help create conditions to invite a student’s mindfulness to keep accessing this natural state of wholeness–no matter the content of Life. This natural state has a power with structure. When moving, thining , feeling, and acting are efficient and in a state of grace—there is no hierarchy. Only a whole system synchronicity and a whole system experiecne of the intent at hand. All parts are necessary for the whole action. All parts are equally necessary. They don’t have the same roles but without even one, the system would be in a state of effort. If one part of the system makes a slight of a bigger change, the whole system will adoapt, modify, and notice novel emergent ways of co-creating a new pattern to continue to serve the inherebnt whole. True power with. Empowerment.
How do you give your power away?
Please join Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle for an upcoming class or workshop. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, 206-459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net
THis is
“You are what you eat. You are what you think. You are what you feel. You ARE your direct interactions with all of Life!” We’ve all heard it. We all know it. How often do we choose to access it? WHAT IS IT?
The most high, clear and wise energy available to us. Through that conscious choice we have access to LIVE with our full life force energy. This requires clear and aware choices in each and every arena in our life. Choices made from and with the highest of integrity or state of wholeness.
Choose Life!
Our world is full of toxins. In our foods, water, air, electronic airwaves, media and within so many of our interactions with others. We are one and the same as our environment that we surround ourselves with. What we take in our mouths, our hearts and our minds is the literal food/energy we have to work with. This provides us with the physical nourishment we require to move through our day and to open our hearts and our minds to our interconnection with all of Life. In other words, to truly embody that interconnection to the Gaian Web of Life and be of service to the unfolding of Life in a truly compassionate, wise, connected and thriving way.
You can only work with what you eat!
What we take in is the energy we have to work with (or not!). When we take in lower vibrational energy in an unaware way (in other words to just react to life), then we usually just feed our reactive habits hiding in our shadow. Becoming curious AND conscious about what we surround ourselves with is the first step towards knowing our inherent wholeness (our full spiritual/health/service/Deep Soul Path).
Everything you put in your mouth, your heart and your mind matters. It matters directly for your personal energy and evolutionary path AND it matters equally for our collective path. Our completely interconnected Gaian Web of Life. Choosing to support food, water, personal interactions, media/entertainment, practices/actions that do not rape our Mother Earth and in turn bring in a higher vibrational state to ourselves and our collective is of utmost importance at this time in our evolution of consciousness!
Choose Life! Know what you are eating. Know what you are drinking. Know what you are thinking, feeling, and sensing. Know how you are acting. Stay connected to the complete unfolding of ALL OF LIFE and choose with non-judgmental clarity how to access all of your Life Force energy. Apathy, distraction, numbing out, turning away from, clinging to Life all occur from and through recycled habits of unaware disconnection and effort. Know what and how you are being and doing Life!
Join Carrie at an upcoming workshop at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, 206-459-1773 or feldychi@comcast.net.
Our times are calling for actions and a resting state of being that arises from a dynamic harmony of gentle fierceness. Or fierce gentleness. A way of dancing with those parts of ourselves that are afraid or want to turn away. Invite a compelling and interesting draw to remian curious in those moments. To remain in te dance and allow a slightly new dance ste to emerge. One that navigates the internal sense of fear with a gentle courage to stay put until that very new way emerges. Emerges from the vulnerability of not knowing.
I watch these moments in my own life. In those relationships that are most personal and intimate to me as well as those moments in the midst of my perceived ‘smallness’ relative to the chaos present in local and global events. This quality of gentle fierceness is innate to all Consciousness. We are all born with it. It has a genuine interest or curiosity and an open heart quality embedded within it. A compassion and Universal love for the vibrancy and deep connection to the intimate relating to life as it is expressing itself.
Animals and small children automatically evoke this state all of the time. We as adults often have buried our access to this stat through the many ‘shoulds’ and ‘shouldn’ts’ we have practiced for years.
The lake.....
I am imagining and remembering a moment a couple of summers ago while on a backpack in the Olympics when this quality was so accurately and beautifully shown to me. Two friends and I were sitting next to a lake in a high alpine region. No one else was around. It was sunny and we were at the far end of a lake with the breeze blowing across the lake past us. W were watching in the distance a mother bear and two cubs frolicking in the meadow uplake from us. They were eating huckleberries, rolling in the meadow and playing as all sentient beings are drawn to do when it is a warm, beautiful sunny day. The cubs would jump and land on each other on their backs and dash in and around their mother. She engaged in play with them for a long while which was so heartwarming to watch. They couldnt smell us so we got to watch for a long while!
There came a moment when it was time to eat. Mom began to graze on the berries and head a little uplake to a small bluff. She beautifully nuzzled the cubs to follow her and with a gentle fierceness and didn’t take no for an answer. She offered a multitude of directions of nuzzling, pawing, turning and drawing with her eyes and patiently yet directly waiting for a new pattern with the cubs to begin feeding to emerge. Fierce gentleness in action.
This example so wonderfully creates the space inside of me to remember that quality as I move into the interactions of my life. Especially when those moments of fear, apathy or distraction arise and I react from a place of unawareness. Here’s my practice for those moments.
Create a word that matches that quality I wish to navigate the difficult moment with. In this case, fierce gentleness. Now, with the same fierce gentleness for myself, take a breath and move forward with a word or an action from that inner quality. Continue one moment at a time from that quality without over-extending myself or criticizing myself. Keep the idea of smooth flow as I breathe each breath… from and through fierce gentleness. Keep feeling inside and allow this quality to generate my unfolding words and actions.
How are you cultivating a fierce gentleness in your life?
Please join Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle for an upcoming workshop or class. She can be reached at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, (206) 459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.
How do you play? I don’t mean what do you do to play but HOW do you play? Do you have any idea of what sort of internal sense you may have when you are deeply engrossed in play?
A sense of play is necessary, in fact fundamental, for truly embodied learning of a novel way of engaging with the world. A new way of doing ‘the same old thing.’ I’m not referring to just doing it with the other hand or on the other side or saying different words. I am referring to a truly differently embodied way of being in the world. A completely novel internal sense of how you are who you are.
The play of marmots in the wild
Play requires wonder. Absolute engagement with curiosity. Without an attachment to any particular label to the moment or an outcome. An abandonment of doing a should or a shouldn’t. Absolute open engagement with how life is expressing itself through you.
What is your internal sense when you are at play? Maybe a sense of lightness felt in a clear, strong way? Maybe a sense of opn expansiveness surrounding the very complexities of your task? All flowing through you with the sense of timelessness? Just an internal sense of ease, grace, and a deep alive connection to the unfolding of Life? How does play live within your internal felt sense?
Eugene Gendlin, developer of the work called Focusing, calls felt sense “A felt sense is body and mind before they are split apart.”
What is the difference between play and fun? Is there a difference? Can you discern inside yourself if your ‘requirement’ of any sort of expectation changes with the idea of having fun versus the idea of allowing play?
I was in a group recently where we were having a discussion about if ther was a difference between the idea of play and the idea of fun? Can one still engage in the unfolding of life with a sense of wonder (or play) if the moments of life are challenging?
I wonder if.......?
For example, say you have had an extremely busy day at work. Maybe several things didn’t necessarily ‘go as planned.’ Maybe some deadlines were only hurriedly met or not met at all? Maybe a mildly disturbing interaction with a co-worker? Now it is time to go to an obligatory gathering that you have not been particularly looking forward to. Did you access or cultivate moments of engaging with your life during this day with a sense of play?
Can you make a conscious choice to turn your noticing inside as you see the ‘difficult’ person who greets you at this gathering? Turn you noticing inside and notice this meeting with this person from a state of novel wonder? NO preconceived ideas of ‘who they are or aren’t’ Just notice from a place of open expansiveness? Can you approach the words, gestures, and unfolding interactions between you and this ‘same old person who is always…..” from a sense of play?
Maybe the next interaction or moment at the gathering you could approach from another novel sense of noticing? In fact, maybe you could go through the entire evening from a place of curiosity and allow your words, actions, and senses to arise from that place? Maybe you could play for the evening, at this obligatory event that ‘always is or isn’t like….”
Is this play? Is this fun? Are they the same? Maybe you come out the other end of the evening freeling lighter, easier, more comfortable and expansive? Maybe it felt more like play? When does play become fun?
Could you cultivate a sense of interest, lightness, and non-expectation when a moment is even more challenging? Maybe a moment where you are experiencing pain or a loved one is accusing you of ‘being or saying something as if it is an always event.” When you know inside that the statment is incongruewnt with how you feel? Can you still cultivate a sense of play? Maybe again only a second later—cultivate play again? Does this allow you to navigae the interaction in an easier way and feel a novel way of experiencing the moment?
Could you do this with a very challenging situation? Like sitting with someone who is of a very different mindset than you on politics or say the state of our world?
Does play require non-judgmental listening? Listening inside/feeling inside to one’s felt senses? Truly allowing ‘what is; to be felt , noticed and not attempted to be changed? With interest, with friendliness and with deep engagement? Is this play-no matter what the situation? Maybe with a deep practice, cultivating play in this way can be fun…..?
Join Carrie at an upcoming workshop or class and play…….She can be contacted at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, 206-459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.
Well, the process of birthing The Walking Way: Stepping Into Awareness CD series was a event in itself. Now, the observing, co-creating with and allowing The Walking Way to live in the world in it’s own special way is starting. I do not have any children of my own and can only imagine the feeling of allowing a being to take their own place in the world may elicit some similar feelings to what I am experiencing. I realize that raising a child is also a very different thing.
First of all, so many thanks to all the people along the way who have been there in very direct ways to help me manifest this project and those who continue to lend their love and support in both direct and indirect ways.
I can’t say thank you enough to my friend Bob Bost who has been instrumental in so many aspects of helping me manifest this series. From the design, the graphics, much editing, hooking me up with an amazing sound engineer, making sound files and now making my video. Bob’s love and support for me is enduring and my heart fills with warm gratitude for him. His music also is so alive. The song Quiet Earth on the video was written through him by his deep connection to Universal Life and his intent for my project to be in it’s full and highest form in our world! Bob’s music is one of the main reasons why he is here on our planet and I am grateful to have his music in my life!
The video promoting a feel of The Walking Way is now on my website and on UTube. You can check it out here. You just have to scroll down a bit. http://www.movementfromwithin.net/feldenkraisandqigongproducts.html
I am also so humbled by several recent endorsements that have arrived for The Walking Way. I will share them here:
“The Walking Way is a clear, lovely guide to bringing awareness to life through movement. I don’t know of anything else like it.”
~ Sharon Salzberg, New York Times Bestselling Author of Real Happiness and other titles, Insight Meditation Teacher
“The Walking Way is a beautiful and powerful journey into healing. Combining ancient and modern wisdom with a deep sense of compassion, Carrie guides us through portals into worlds of higher consciousness.”
~ John Perkins , New York Times Bestselling Author of Hookwinked and Shapeshifting as well as other titles.
“The Walking Way is the perfect antidote to the stressful life rhythms of our modern day! Carrie’s carefully designed programs demonstrate an articulate understanding of energy, movement and meditation. These CD’s are a great way to gain the best of what Carrie offers in her private practice in the comfort of your own home.”
“Carrie Lafferty brilliantly synthesizes three internal systems of mindful body awareness: Feldenkrais, qigong and meditation. Through simple, slow and thoughtful exercises, she brings renewed insight into our daily movements. Accompanied by Qigong meditations, the rhythm of the Chinese 5 elements becomes alive within our body and environment. Her system of inner awareness creates a foundation for becoming truly present in our life.”
~ Deborah Davis, LAc, Author of Women’s Qigong for Health and Longevity
I so appreciate everyone’s interest, comments and support of my work. My intent is for The Walking Way: Stepping Into Awareness to be a deeply meaningful exploration for allowing clear embodied presence to be inquired about and integrated into daily life. May we all know our inherent interconnection to All That Is.
Blessings,
Carrie Lafferty, PT, GCFP (cm), Master Healing Qi Gong Teacher
You may find Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, feldychi@comcast.net, or 206-459-1773.
How is internal power created? The type of power that arises from within and serves the inherent wholeness of the system? This type of power is not hierarchical and is recognized by us as a sense of grace, resilience, and an easy adaptability to the continuous changes that come forth. This type of power is our true nature. The same true nature of the whole of Nature. The same true nature of all of Life. One interconnected spiral Whole of Life. The Walking Way: Stepping Into Awareness invites and then guides you along this very path.
The Walking Way: Stepping Into Awareness
Walking is one of the most complex activities we do as humans. We can’t control or make ourselves feel more powerful in our walking by holding a fixed belief in how we ‘should’ be. We also can’t create a powerful walk through strengthening a muscle or group of muscles without relating to the pattern of how the whole body is used relative to the ground and gravity during this dynamic activity. Power and grace are a natural state that occur when a system is unified. Unified between intent and action.
This is the same state that arises from Mother Nature and the incredible harmony, resilience, adaptability and diversity contained within her changing spiral cycles. In fact, these states of unified action in humans and Nature are one and the same. The Walking Way unveils the mutually informing wisdom between efficient walking and Nature’s eternal truths.
This requires a subtle engaging sensory loop for monitoring when effort may occur. When effort is able to be sensed, a new possibility can arise. Begin with a lightly structured, yet highly playful sensory foreground/background relationship that changes. Adding engaging curiosity, non-judgmental attention, and reduced speed to the feedback loop of noticing allows new possibilities to begin to emerge. Thus, ease and efficiency may be accessed in a novel way. If you want to create an opportunity to learn how to feel a different experience in your walk or how you relate to your world, being able to notice a sensory difference is required.
As noted, walking is highly complex. There is a dynamic spiraling movement occurring at all moments. This is dynamic partially due to a continual changing dance between your relationship to gravity and your inherent vitality to remain upright and alive. At any given moment in time, you are unaware of the millions of small incremental changes that your nervous system is making to keep you walking on your intended path with ease. Allowing some of these senses to show up more clearly within your inner world changes your opportunity to walk through life differently.
THE WALKING SPIRAL
Continuously unfolding through walking is a spiraling movement made up of dynamic action within all three planes at the very same time. From one moment to the next, there is an infinite number of ways your nervous system can arrange the trillions of muscle fibers moving your numerous bones. Of course these changes are always relative to gravity and your intended path. One way to become more clear about any unintended effort in walking is to bring each one of these senses into the foreground of our noticing….. while walking. This allows for a felt-sense comparison to arise. The difference between effort and ease can begin to get recognized as a felt-sense.
With practice, your noticing system gets more clear in your ability to differentiate ease versus effort relative to the intended path. The effortful pattern gently changes to a fresh and easier pattern which can serve the inherent whole in a more effective way. This shows up inside as a sense of smoothness, grace, and a natural power.
THE SPIRAL IN NATURE
There is the same continuous dynamic unfolding spiral pattern in Nature. This shows up from the pattern of a conch shell to an unfurling sprout to the shape of incoming waves. It is also the spiraling path between the seasons, and the elements in Nature and the qualities that emerge between them. Magnify the view by 10,000 and you could be in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Go 10,000 in the other direction and you could be in the zero point field of vibrating strings and the vast reservoir of all possible energy. Either direction of magnification takes you to the same view–a vibrating, fluxing and constantly moving spiral of energy.
A unfurling spiral of Nature
We are not separate from Nature. We are made of the same stuff—hence our inability to be separate. So, it is not a surprise that the same efficient pattern would show up in human walking as does in all the fractal levels of Natures existence.
NOTICE WITH A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Here is an analogy. Take a triangular shaped wood object and paint each side a different bright color. We’ll say blue, red and purple. Imagine placing it in a vat of some type of clear and moderately thick oil. Imagine how the triangular shaped object may turn over spontaneously in many different types of patterns as it slowly descends through the oil.
For a moment, as you gaze upon the scenario, you can see a blue-red pattern. In another moment a red-purple or a purple-blue-red pattern as well as many other more complex arrangements. These patterns can interchange from moment to moment, all dependent on how your system is perceiving the unfolding movement. With each individual pattern noticed, you may label the overall movement with a different ‘name’ or quality. Could be fast, slow, smooth, easy, jerky, etc….Or you may just step back and observe one whole pattern of the object moving through the oil—just a continuous whole.
Each combination of noticing (say blue-red) is analogous to a shift in your awareness. This allows you a certain perspective on the whole. The same thing happens in a walking Awareness Through Movement ® (ATM) Lesson and in a Qi Gong Meditation in The Walking Way. We may explore a lesson about one pattern within walking (like the blue-red pattern). For example, there could be a lesson exploring how your arms move relative to how weight is transferring across your feet. How you allow your sense of grounding to move through the whole of you. This allows you to have a chance to notice effort anywhere in this pattern.
The particular felt-sense that is being explored in the ATM will also be accessible in the corresponding Qi Gong Meditation. From again, another perspective. For example, the fourth CD explores the grounding quality of the element Earth. In undertaking the ATM and then the Qi Gong, you may become aware of a spiraling connection between the grounding sensory experience of Earth as different possibilities you have direct access to.
As time goes on and your noticing feedback ability gets more subtle, smaller amounts of unnecessary effort within that particular pattern will stand out. When effort is noticed with curiosity and a ‘not trying to fix’ awareness, then your system inherently will begin to discard the pattern of effort– as it is less efficient. Over time, this letting go leads to more authentic options arising for how you engage with your world. These will arise from a state of dynamic, adaptable and changing sense of inner wisdom and power. Maybe better stated as ‘powering.” Alive, vibrant, changing and ever-present to your requirements as you walk through life.
Join Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle for an upcoming workshop exploring The Walking Way: Stepping Into Awareness. She can be reached at (206) 459-1773, feldychi@comcast.net or http://www.movementfromwithin.net.
Sometimes more slowly, sometimes more quickly. At times quickly within slowly. At times searching for slowly within quickly. All is a multi-dimensional fractal layering of moving.
In the northern hemisphere, we are moving towards the darkest (and often) the slowest time of the year. Like the moving within water in it’s form as ice. Obviously slower than the moving within water in it’s form as water or steam. The moving becomes more subtle and consciousness requires more discernment to be able to sense the possibility of continued moving. At the same time the southern hemisphere is experiencing the lightest and often most quick fractal of moving. These two are occurring at the very same time. Not in opposition but in dynamic balancing harmony.
The return of the light
The winter solstice, upcoming on 12/21/11 is the window where the dynamic balancing harmony shifts. The slowest turns toward the quickest and the quickest turns toward the slowest. Just like the moment of transitioning of a ball that is thrown in the air. The moment where there is a turning. The change from moving up to moving down–from more active to more receptive. Yet deep receptivity lies in that action and a deep spark of action lives in that receptivity–always.
All is moving. All is changing. There are no static moments–only those where the moving is subtle. We have to be so calm and quiet if we are to discern the moving. The winter solstice is that time.
Sit and sense the possibility to discern the moving of ice ‘turn’ one drop toward water. From deep in the central core. Feel the moment of dynamic baancing harmony shift from the slowest, darkest moment to one where increased light now exists. Only to continue to slowly grow and morph again as the days unfold. Open, and turn into this moment. The veil is very thin.
Water and Ice
Join Carrie at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle for a class or a workshop. She may be contacted at http://www.movementfromwithin.net, (206) 459-1773, or feldychi@comcast.net.