center of attention…9-19-17

It’s those five, ten year milestones that get me reflecting. Realize I’ve been showing up on dance floors for fifteen years now. Always a student, sometimes a guide. I find myself listening for what keeps me coming back with such regularity and devotion. At the heart of showing up is something I believe we all share. I sometimes find myself frustratingly distracted by the speed and demand of the way I choose to live. Maybe you do, too. Awareness of this fact does not seem to mitigate its acceleration.

Everything moves so rapidly. The state of our political and natural environment is changing in ways incomprehensible. Choices I feel compelled to make are also, in ways obvious and paradoxically mysterious, creating uneasy isolation. I’m surrounded by people and love and beauty…and at time it feels challenging to let all that goodness in. Some days are easier than others.

When I come onto a community dance floor (or my mat in communal space), I invariably re-connect with all that beauty. There is an opportunity for me to unobstructed-ly feel whatever might be arising inside…or notice the way I’m resisting that. There is time for me to be with, flesh out, move with whatever it is. And, at the same time, I’m connecting with other beings who also value the need for this precious carving of time. In short, it’s a medicinal antidote to the dis-ease of modern living.

It was with rusty trepidation and a great deal of joy that I stepped back into Clara last week. And after three times guiding, the medicinal relief is completely obvious. The first Sunday’s invitation was for us to feel the web of support, the grounding, the community connection we share by utilizing that redwood metaphor I wrote about two weeks ago. This Sunday, I invited us to keep that communal sense of ground and breathe our way into our moving center. I don’t know anything more reliable for delivering us to that inside space than grounding and centering. So many practices go there. 5Rhythms is no different.

So I was not surprised by a recent library angel. They always deliver when I’m ready. Pathway to a Centered Body by Donna Farhi is bringing me to my own center in old ways and new. Very inspiring. Wanna feel inside for a minute? Picture up top is what your psoas looks like when you lay down. One at the bottom is an artist’s rendition (mine). Psoas crosses pelvis an inch lateral to pubic bone. Gently place finger in hip crease there, lift foot an inch from floor, feel psoas as hip flexor. It does so much more, what an amazing structure. Place your fingers behind you and feel spine where last rib comes off…that’s where it begins. And if you place another finger in hip crease you can travel down a smidge to exactly where psoas meets femur (the big thigh bone). That’s where it ends. It travels right through your central body, same shape and size (and function!) as a pork tenderloin. Imagine that structure caressing your center on each side of spine. Gently purse lips, exhaling through some resistance and feel the way it snuggles up to your spine stabilizing and lengthening it.

Slow down for a few moments. Feel your feet rooting in the earth and, at the same time, connecting to this center. Breathe. Look up away from that screen and notice what is arising. Thank you for taking this journey with me.

Off for a couple days now back to those redwoods. See you on the dance floor Wednesday and Sunday.

Love, bella