"Being mindful is not a matter of thinking more clearly about experience; it is the act of experiencing more clearly...One of the great strengths of this technique of meditation, from a secular point of view, is that it does not require us to adopt any cultural affectations or unjustified beliefs. It simply demands that we pay close attention to the flow of experience in each moment." - Sam Harris
Dear Friends,
There are so many ways I can describe the daily practice of the work I continue to develop and teach: Embodied Mindfulness. The open-ended nature of the work in its varied formats speaks to participants in multiple ways as well. A French student some years back remarked: "The practice introduced me to a friend inside."
Sometimes the poetic/metaphoric mind can transmit information better than the narrative mind. In that spirit, I offer this encapsulation of Embodied Mindfulness practice.
Enjoy,
Jamie
Befriending Ourselves: Benevolent Somatic Journeys in the Inner Landscape
Enter at your own choosing with abundant permission
Know the place where you can land
Bring your form to rest in an upright position, attend to the interior and behold:
Lively, still, living stillness, still alive!
Leave the road well-travelled when you trust your way back
Entice unfamiliar pathways to appear
Sense what beckons, allures, captivates and liberates
Go behind the scenes as needed.
Make space for the formless - release the random, the extraneous, the unnecessary holding in place born of thought
Move breath as ocean swells in deepening, widening, expanding, condensing constancy
Small, medium and large intervals of participation and rest
Entering and stepping out of habitual internal stances: structural intransigence or looping ruminations balking at change, barking at any unknown movement in the dark.
Slow down time, breathe, pause, move, and attune
Focus and wander, attend and dissolve, accentuating varied streams of breath made visible with sensate reverberations in the seen and unseen exhale.
Perceive self as nature, remember nature as self changes within – soft breezes become strong gusts, darkness gives way to dawn, chattering birds and chirping frogs momentarily suspended in silence – all colliding, collaborating, constant
forces percolating within magnified, methodically dissolved, witnessed, or reconfigured.
Choose what feels good, fluctuate the frequencies and notice the aftermath, uncover subtle shadings and splendid textures of sensation, remember who you were before you were born.
Find your way back and touch this body born of Earth in the wilds of civilization
Receive support, allow freedom, permit comfort, trust ease.
Re-member, re-new, re-constitute your birthright in the family of beings. - JM 08/05/20
Upcoming
The Power of the Pause: Breathing Room
August 8 - 9:30am
August 22 - 9:30am
These Free 1 hour drop-in sessions are guided in real-time to offer a practical experience of collaborating with your 360 Degree Breathing to dissipate anxiety and stabilize attention. (All times Pacific Time) CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Ongoing Class Series
I am continuing to offer my online classes for the duration of the summer as Pay What You Can Donation due to the financial stress created by the pandemic. These are open to those who have taken class with me or have some experience in somatic-expressive work.
Somatica Poetica Series
3 Sessions: August 9, 23 & September 6, 4-6pm Pacific time
The transitional zone between the inner landscape of the body and the outer environment is a fertile place for creative meanderings and imaginings. Guided somatic explorations are followed by writing time and embodied reading to harvest what has surfaced in the preverbal realm.
Thinking Body, Sensing Mind Series
August 10-September 2, Mondays & Wednesdays
Series J) 10-11am Pacific Time OR Series K) 4-5pm Pacific Time
A series designed to create a restorative break by giving spacious attention to our bodies in movement and stillness. With so much anxiety and uncertainty in the world, the return to the breathing body in the company of others is a welcome oasis of calm and a soulful sanctuary of artful exploration. All sessions are recorded for participant downloading and playback
