Embodiment Lab October 2019: Inner Authority, Body Sovere...

Of course, the exploration of Inner Authority, Bodily Sovereignty, and Your Inner Teacher is where we must begin the Embodiment Lab adventure!  This way of learning is absolutely foundational for everything else. It can utterly change how you interact with every other situation in your life in such potent and healing ways.

“Make of yourself a light,” said the Buddha, before he died. 

I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, 

to send up the first signal – a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green..."

We love this opening line from Mary Oliver’s poem, The Buddha’s Last Instruction. When we look at a sunrise, a sunset, a unique play of light across a floor, light shining on water, we often reflect on these last words of the Buddha. How do I make of myself a light? 

One of our shared central life passions is the exploration of learning, teaching, and exploring contexts which support others in finding and honing that unique inner compass and reliable embodied guidance.

This beloved poem from William Stafford points toward finding that priceless inner compass:

“When I Met My Muse,”

by William Stafford

I glanced at her and took my glasses
off - they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip 

on whatever they touched. “I am your own
way of looking at things,” she said. “When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation.” And I took her hand.

Could it be possible that your own unique way of looking at things could be a sort of salvation?

Could it be likewise true for your own unique way of sensing and feeling and living in an embodied way? 

Um, Yes. Absolute. Unequivocal. YES.

This perspective invites us to hold a kind of paradox:

How do we open to inspiration, blessings, feedback, guidance, new possibilities from teachers, situations, pain, pleasure, our real lives; while at the same time, not surrendering our own capacity to sense and live from our inner compass, our bullshit detector, our non-verbal truth resonators, our body's continuous and ongoing feedback of so many kinds. 

How can we be an adult, autonomous learner, tuned to our own inner compass, in any situation?

Is some old message you received from who-knows-where influencing the way you're walking, the way you're holding your legs when you sit, the way you're exhausting yourself by sucking in your belly or pushing yourself too hard?

Is there some old voice in your body-mind holding you back from your truer, more authentic, more free life?

Is there some internalized authority you're rebelling against? 

Might it be nice to be liberated from some of that old shit?

I mean, RIGHT??!!

We work with this at such a profound, deep level when we include movement, embodiment, somatic habits and our physical way of being our self and doing our life, and not just our thoughts and concepts. It's deep. It's potent. And it's so worth doing.

A powerful pointing from Moshe Feldenkrais is this:

“The mature human being is one who has re-appropriated inner authority.” 

In fact, a central intention of the Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons is to support people in doing just that – removing outer authority from our inner lives. This is deep and infinitely rewarding work. And the improvement of aches and pains happens to be a wonderful side effect.

It can be so easy to simply accept the perspective of someone deemed an authority: a doctor, a teacher, an internet article, a self-proclaimed expert on ___, or fill in your own blank. We often take this at face value and honor it over and above the truth of our own direct, bodily experience, our own unique way of looking at and feeling our lives. 

As Parker Palmer says:

“Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks–we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.”

Let's explore embodying Inner Authority, Bodily Sovereignty, and Your Inner Teacher!

We hope you'll consider joining us in the Embodiment Lab!

Wishing you an unshakable connection with your own inner teacher,

Carl & Erin

For years we've been teaching this incredible work in beautiful studios in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We usually teach two dozen people (at the most) at a time. While we love the intimacy of that size for a live gathering, and while we utterly cherish our local live community, we've realized that in a sense the room has become too small and that many more than 2 dozen people at a time could really benefit from this potent work. So we've created an online learning lab where you can join us in this life-giving education from anywhere in the world - and all at your own convenience. 

Can I get a WOOOOOHOOOOOO!?!?! 

For us, it's a given, but we'll make it explicit: We promise to treat you with the utmost respect and kindness, which itself can be powerfully reorganizing when you're accustomed to people trying to help and fix you. :)  We'll never be bossy or shaming. We do our best to create a vibrant, welcome, learning context where you can feel safe to experiment and make lots of mistakes. (That's how you become an expert, after all!) Having some gentle, invitational guidance to reclaim the birthright of your own incarnation and your own organic learning process can be so helpful and life-giving. We do our best to make it as down-to-earth, fun, engaging, respectful, spacious, practical, rich, and beauty-filled as possible.