Not a hard body, an awake body, a new body for our times, reflecting the evolutionary surge of our moment in history, a new body for a new earth. (January ‘09)
The earth is changing, moving through a new part of the sky, and our bodies are changing as well to reflect a more fluid identity. For years I have been curious as to how my body changes and opens when my awareness focuses on it with an open attention. I experience that my structure changes over time, and not always in the direction of aging. I have asked questions such as whether aging is inevitable, especially the type of aging we have seen with unhealthy lifestyles, overuse of medication, and pushing to extremes. I have been delving into the body from both a somatic perspective as well as an energetic one for many decades. What is possible in this time, especially now being assisted by the earth changes.
My thoughts and the perspectives have been developed from primary experience with my body. I have learned a form of precision focus over the years, an ability to direct my attention much like the zoom function on a computer, to zoom in closely, or way out to the entire whole, depending on what is required. This allows me to to see/feel into the interior of the body or zoom out to feel the movement and energy of the larger universe. What I know from this exploration is that we are saturated with a bio-intelligence of love, an intrinsic part of the magnificence of nature, moving as one holomovement. Through our attention we can feel and experience this, and we are changed in the experiencing of it.
This new body is both flow and structure. Fluid identity, but with a firmly grounded felt sense of the physical. When I feel my insides, become deeply interior, I become part of a horizontal realm, but also vertical, where I find myself at the center of the directions as well as above and below, interconnected and inter-dimensional. Nourished by all that surrounds me, bathed in textures and gentle stirrings, met on all sides by dark loving eyes. (February ‘12)
As I embody, living more deeply within this body and earth, aligned with nature, my inherent interconnection with everything becomes more apparent. Like looking at the surface of water and then diving in, I direct my attention within my skin to feel what is going on inside. Using my inner sight and touch, I feel the contours of my tailbone, begin to see how it moves, and how the muscles and ligaments interconnect. And suddenly I am immersed in a living breathing ecosystem, a bio-intelligence far more beautiful and complex than I could have imagined. I am moving within this deep and luscious intelligence, beyond the stiffness of the surface, in an interior space where new patterns can emerge. This is how I would explain tangible grace, the body belonging and interwoven with the whole.
We become increasingly relational, moving with what unfolds in the moment, in rhythmic resonance with what is emerging, shifting to embody new energies. Feeling the inner waters, aware of the sea of chi, dancing with external influences, awareness of the play at the membranes and the shifting landscapes of body. Increasing fluidity and flexibility in the spinal column enable balance. We see this in the dancer, the surfer, the snowboarder, alive at the edges of the skin, fluidly responding with grace, demonstrating flexibility supported by structure.
We no longer have to age as harshly as we have in the past. When body is seen as an inpenetrable object that only our doctor understands, there is decreasing aliveness as we grow older. We give over our power and the fate of our bodies without questioning, and rarely experience what is possible. Through a participatory, natural, and reverent approach to body, we can each individually work with our biointelligence, listening to what is needed. I have found that along with a healthy organic diet and varied movement, we can have excellent health with minimal aging, and reverse old aches and pains.
There is an open secret that I wish more people could experience: When you experience the inner-world of your entire body as alive, intelligent, wild, and in ongoing relationship with the intelligent, animate world around you, it changes everything about how you move in the world. Your strength, sensitivity, mobility, alignment, your sense of pleasure and grace – they all emerge when moving from this experiential wholeness.
Like animals or children, we don't have to pull our shoulders back or loop this or tuck that or bio-hack our breathing. We just need to be in ongoing, respectful relationship between the infinite inner-world and the infinite outer world, breath by breath. Carl Rabke
I will touch on various ways to engage in relationship with body and earth below.
On space
How do we create the space for the new to emerge? We need time to notice and feel. While the computer offers us novelty and startling new information, it is not the same as allowing the space for the new to grow through us as a new creation, a new event, a movement never before felt, a new path. This moment of arising, form arising out of the formless, needs silence and space, just laying around or sitting on a park bench, receptive, the slow way. We dissolve into the moving whole where worlds intertwine, form, and reform. We might think we don’t have time, but life goes by in a blur unless we take some time, even five minutes to stop and be with ourselves. When we feel the space within and without, our attention is free to feel how interconnection is inherent to our world.
Movement
I would love my new earth to have more indoor and outdoor spaces for movement, to include both the ground and sky. Beaches are wonderful for adults to play, but not everyone has a nearby beach. I envision places to roll around on the ground, friendly paths to walk barefoot such as pebble paths in gardens, and trees or jungle gyms for adults to climb and hang from, with ropes and swings, as well as dance friendly decks and trampolines. Gardens can incorporate movement friendly options for adults as well as children. I would love to see healthy ways for having fun and connecting in addition to going out to dinner and standing around at parties. I love the rise of dance spaces in movement studios, for instance. My body craves movement options. New movement opens new neural pathways in the brain as well.
The way we move is a primary communication, transmitting a vibrational message of joy or freedom, despair or resignation, ambivalence, fragmentation - or wholeness. The grace of the body is inspiring, reassuring, and inherently peaceful. We are shape makers and shape shifters broadcasting our feelings in the waves of air we move through. The ripples of our movements precede us and clear a path, connecting us with our surroundings and possible outcomes. Alternatively, our movement can be harsh and disruptive, disjointed and lacking cohesion. Then the environment responds with confusion and static, and our path becomes more arduous.
Movement reveals our awareness of connection, whether we feel the earth and our surroundings, whether our heart is noticing and responding to the gentle beings, to the plants, animals, birds and fish - and whether we hear the feelings and sweet stirrings of the air, the movement of the moon and stars, the power of the sun. We see and feel more when we experience the 360 degrees of space around us and all the beauty of our world.
Some thoughts on perception
Derived from German, Umwelt encapsulates the understanding that every entity perceives the world through a unique lens, molded by its unique biology and experiences. This realm is a universe unto itself, governed by deeply personal sensations, signs, and symbols often invisible or imperceptible to others, entire worlds of perception, each with its own set of codes and cues, remaining invisible or inaudible to others. (from an Ang Stoic newsletter)
Gently windy spring day lying on my back on the sofa in the treetops on Sunnyside Drive, the softness of evening turning to night, sun illuminating pastel hills across the bay. I am melted into this air and earth, the fog sliding through me and my gaze moving the leaves, as if the movement of my eye ever so lightly sends a current of breeze into the tree outside my window. Feeling this subtle exchange, I recognize how I am creating this unique window of perception that has never existed before, and how we each from a different point of view create this moment.
One person may notice the water flowing in the nearby fountain, another the golden light of the sun reflected on the bay - and me, the warmth on my chest, the leaves dancing in the breeze, and the fullness of the moment. It is said that we are what we perceive. Our world is what we notice, our body is what we feel. When we feel the infinite beauty within us, we experience it everywhere. It is paradoxical but in looking more deeply I see another world, or another part of this world. My attention is directed to where it needs to be, moved by the bio-intelligence in which we are held.
We have the ability to move beyond the surface pain and fragmentation to an awareness of the whole evolving as us, to the holomovement I have mentioned in previous essays. We are more than rewarded by taking the time to stop and feel intently. Our world changes around us as our attention penetrates more deeply to the love flowing through us as aliveness.
Explore your own umwelt and notice what is new each day, how your body and identity are becoming more fluid in this changing time. The new body and the new earth are tangibly emerging through each of us in this moment. We hold the power to experience and accelerate this evolutionary unfolding.
I welcome your questions and comments. Thank you for joining me here today!
Sabrina Page, MA in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness I work with individuals and groups, with a focus on somatic inquiry and embodiment, to support you in living life fully, freely, and fluidly, intertwined with nature. As well, I have studied movement, dance, and astrology with some of the leading individuals in their fields. My private sessions are offered on zoom, phone, or in person in Bolinas, Ca.
More information is available on my website, sabrinapage.com
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wow Sabrina, this is a beautiful article. Elegant, and precise in the way that makes perfect sense to other whimsicals, and those who love brains and nervous systems and the bodies encasing them...and the great mystery surrounding all that...
(Last night i caught this article offline - so no pictures - and today i can comment and what a banquet. i'm back in the bay now to close out my old life...where internet works...)
The BEST phrase (if i have to choose) is "bio-intelligence" - which i called body-knowing, or body-based awareness, or keeping the senses alive. Bio-intelligence is so elegant
thanks Yolanda! for your eloquent comment!