Often when we are attempting a new movement, our first reaction is confusion. If the routine is unfamiliar, we feel uncoordinated. When this newness points us toward a challenging aspect of our body in motion, we decide we are too weak or puny and give up – or try to power through it in an attempt to prove ourselves strong and able.

The truth is that our bodymind has simply not yet organized itself around the new information.

I recently took a series of classes from a very skillful Gyrotonic Master Trainer. It was great fun, quite challenging and very humbling. There was one particular move he asked me to do that my body had never done before. The first time I attempted it, I simply could not do it. After several attempts, I stopped and scratched my head and asked, “Where does that come from in my body and why can’t I do it?” He reminded me that it really isn’t about where it comes from; it’s about organizing around what you are asking your body to do.

This is clearly not just an intellectual endeavor. It is a process of patiently allowing the body to explore what is being asked of it so that the movement can unfold in a way that is natural and organic. The mind grasps a concept at lightning speed, part of its astonishing brilliance. The body, however, learns through repetition. This can sometimes put the mind and the body at odds, as the mind becomes impatient with the measured and deliberate way in which the body learns and integrates the movement. And yet, if they work together to contemplate and reiterate the move – it is a thing of beauty! It is through this union, communion and mutuality that deep intelligence awakens and courses freely through our being, quickly able to discern the mechanics, play with the sensations and pulsate with the exuberance of new found discovery. That’s the fun of it! It is in this process of unfolding that movement becomes meaningful, joyful and pleasurable!

A few days later, I tried the same impossible move and amazingly was able to do it! My body and mind, having percolated and contemplated, had organized around the information received through my first attempt. Now I could dive more deeply into the move, discover its nuances and relax into the pure enjoyment of my body in motion.

The next time you are attempting to learn a new move, become more adept in your sport, increase the difficulty of your current workout, acquire a skill that is unfamiliar – notice if there is any impatience, judgment or force in the learning and see if you can switch that to cooperation and curiosity. Let go of over-efforting and ease into the feedback that you are receiving from your mind and your body. Let it go for a day or two and see if that doesn’t bring a greater sense of clarity, ease and pleasure to your learning and to your body in motion.

Deep blessings, Carol

Learning about the body is so intriguing! I am continually amazed by its capacity and encouraged in my certainty of its place in living a conscious and evolved life! In The Body Has a Mind of Its Own, the authors, Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee, present the emerging science of body maps; how mind and body intertwine to create your embodied, feeling self. I am quickened and delighted by this material – and I have only read the first few chapters! The thing of it is; this information feels familiar – I may not have thought about in exactly these terms, but I recognize this information as holding fundamental truths, truths that movement and teaching movement have revealed to me.

In the introduction, they ask you to use your arms, legs, head, neck, tongue, torso, butt to explore the invisible space all around your body and state, “This invisible volume of space around your body out to arm’s length—what neuroscientists call peripersonal space—is part of you.”

They go on to say, “This is not a metaphor, but a recently discovered physiological fact. Through a special mapping procedure, your brain annexes this space to your limbs and body, clothing you in it like an extended, ghostly skin. The maps that encode your physical body are connected directly, immediately, personally to a map of every point in that space and also map out your potential to perform actions in that space. Your self does not end where your flesh ends, but suffuses and blends with the world, including other beings.”

Fascinating – yes? Your brain appropriates this space for use by the body!

For quite some time, I have coached students to imagine the space around them as part of the movement – and this information augments that idea. And it is more than an idea, it’s real! It has substance! And it has already proven to be a source of support and inspiration to my students. For instance – I have a student who has struggled with the weight of her head in the curl up (long bow) position, causing tension in her neck. I encouraged her to become aware of the full circle of space all around her, suggesting she use the bottom side of the circle to support her head – she found relief and strength as she pressed the back of her head into this “imaginary circle.”

See if you can feel into this annexing of space. Notice how it supports you. Has your brain annexed the chair you are sitting in and has it become part of the support system that your body is using? The next time you workout, see if you can feel how the equipment you are using has been commandeered as part of your potential to perform. The possibilities are endless and intriguing. And I can’t wait to see how this information grows our ability to be more thoroughly embodied!

Deep blessings, Carol

This is a wonderful interview with Juliu Horvath, filmed at Angela Crowley’s studio, The Phoenix Center in Denver. This is the studio and the teacher that introduced me to this rich and nourishing world of intelligent movement.  Hope you enjoy this brief clip (about 6-1/2 minutes).

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GYROTONIC from phelan on Vimeo.

We, as human beings, are a complex blend of form and formless, made up of physical matter and energy – add to that the rich capacity for consciousness and what you have is a complex life form that is simultaneously finite and infinite.

We are matter – dense, physical, animal, body. We are energy – breath, essence, life-force, unseen. We are consciousness – self-aware, responsive, perceiving, evolving.  I find this to be fertile ground for exploration.

Breath is a wonderful way to experience this blend – we cannot see breath, yet it is essential to our physical life. And if we are conscious of our breath, we become present in this moment. Here are a few ways to play with your breath:

• Notice your breath as it moves in and out of your body. Sit quietly with your eyes closed and take a few natural breaths, becoming tuned in and aware. Slow the breath down and deepen it. As you inhale, feel the whisper of sensation in your nostrils, the passing of the air through your windpipe, the soft expansion of your lungs, the lift of your diaphragm, the subtle spreading of your ribcage, the quiet rise of your belly. As you exhale, feel the belly soften, the ribs drift in, the diaphragm relax and the throat open as the breath falls out of the body.
• Let yourself be breathed. Imagine that life is breathing you. Instead of actively inhaling and exhaling, become passive and pretend you are on a cosmic breathing machine that fills you with life giving breath and then receives that breathe back from you – an exchange of breath from the infinite to the finite and back again. Fun!

I also find movement to be great way to play with form and formless. The sideways figure 8, a symbol for infinity, is a holistic way to expand this experience and is incorporated into much of the movement in Gyrokinesis. Try this:

• Sit on the edge of chair or stool so that you can sit directly on top of your sit bones. Have your legs in an open V, and engage your abdominals so that you feel grounded and supported by your lower body. Now sit tall, lengthening the spine all the way from your sacrum to the top of your head. As you go through the movement, move the entire torso and head as one piece – like a stick figure.
• Tip from the hip and let the entire torso and head fall forward through the center as one piece. Sweep your body in a circular motion around and out to the right. Lean back at the center, then fall forward and sweep out and around to the left. Exhale each time you go through center and inhale as you go around to the back. Create a smooth continuous movement becoming more and more aware of the sideways figure 8 that you are creating with your body and with your breath.
• When you are comfortable with the basic move, close your eyes and continue moving in this pattern. Explore the round edges of infinity and the angular intersection as you pass through center on your way to the other side of infinity. See if you can feel how the infinite interacts and intersects with the finite, formless weaves through form and matter mingles with non-matter.
• Begin to make the physical figure 8 smaller and smaller, all the while allowing the energetic figure 8 to expand. Finally, come to rest in the center of the cross point of infinity. This is a place of great quiet, deep presence and grand neutrality. Take a few moments to savor and enjoy.

What other ways do you know of to explore and experience this multi-faceted human life?

in body & soul, Carol

“When God created Himself, He created Himself in two aspects: the Infinite and the finite. When you think of the finite, you think of form, and when you think of the Infinite, you feel that there is no form. However, inside the finite is the message of the Infinite; in the finite is first the revelation and then the manifestation of the Infinite. The finite is necessary because it is through the finite that the Infinite plays its role in the cosmic rhythm here on earth. At the same time, the Infinite is necessary because it is in the Infinite that the finite has its eternal shelter. There it finds protection and perfection.” Sri Chinmoy

I’m reading Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters by Robert Masters, and found myself particularly intrigued by the chapter, “Disembodied Spirituality and Embodied Being.” Here are some excerpts I thought you might find meaningful:
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. . . no matter how much we might neglect or mistreat it, our body calls us back through its aches and pains and imbalances to take real care of it, to integrate it with the rest of our being, to honor and love it, and recognize it as an expression of who and what we truly are. It is essential that we rediscover and treat the body as an inherently sacred expression of our fundamental nature, and that we outgrow our dissociative tendencies and judgment about body image. Somatic idealism has done incredible damage to us, as exemplified by the unending obsession with how we – and others – look.  Until we get under the skin of our distorted body image, journeying into and through its psychological origins, we will be at its mercy, held hostage by its ubiquitous mirrors. “The flesh” has been slapped with negative press for millennia, being associated with sin, carnality, moral weakness, and disease. Many of us don’t seem to like our body very much, or we may like it but not want it to change, as it inevitably must. In either case, we are burdening our body with unrealistic expectations, central among them our obsession with not showing signs of aging. Our body not only reveals what’s going on for us emotionally – through its posture, gestures, expression, but also signals our impermanent nature, no matter how much we try to stave off change through endless exercise, diet, or plastic surgery. If we don’t want to be reminded of our mortality, we are going to keep our distance from our body, despite the attention we may seem to lavish on it. So what’s a body to do?

As consciously as possible, bring awareness – compassionately wakeful attentiveness – into sensation, into emotion, and into the energetic  patternings and psychological holdings of the body. Moving toward and into emotion, feeling it in the raw and giving it room for expression while understanding its connection to events in our life, is an especially effective way to reconnect with the body. We may be resistant to doing this, given that there might be considerable pain and perhaps also trauma embedded in the deeper layers of emotion, but in contacting and freeing up such zones of feeling, we become more integrated, more intimate with our body.

and later in the chapter . . .

Getting back to the body means doing whatever is needed to cut through our disembodied experience, which in part means a journey into and through the very pain that first drove us to disown and dissociate from our body.

The first step is to name this pain, to openly acknowledge the reality of it. The second step is to turn toward it, however counterintuitive this might seem to us, so that we are directly facing it, and the third step is to enter it, getting beneath its surface and encountering its originating dynamics. In so doing we become not only more intimate with our pain, but also more intimate with our resistance to entering our pain. As we engage in this process, we find ourselves more and more immersed in our somatic reality, with a considerable deepening  of both our sensory and emotional awareness. We feel more deeply – feeling into, feeling for, feeling with – becoming increasingly present to our body. Instead of just thinking as we walk, we become more aware of the actual process of walking, enjoying the sensory flow and particulars of our experience. We may still feel much of our old pain, but now we can hold it in a way that catalyzes its healing.

Food for thought – eh?

in body & soul, Carol

“Who we are makes its appearance not in a body but as a body. This does not necessarily mean that we literally are our body, but that our body expresses rather than contains us.”

“To really feel our body is an art in which compassion, patience, and the spirit of exploration all coexist.”

Robert Masters

Being human is quite a conundrum. This is the only earthly vehicle we have for living an enlightened life, yet we are prone to resist it, hate it, abandon it, abuse it, judge it, ignore it . . . In general, we seem to be busy in a myriad of strategies to deal with this thing called life. How then, do we navigate the complex terrain of living a human life that neither idolizes nor devalues the body’s rightful place in the scheme of living a fully realized life?

I think of being human as a grand experiment of the soul: Is it possible to live as conscious matter, fully expressing and experiencing life in a body? And can we find ease and pleasure in being a complex integration of form and formless? Is it truly feasible to touch the infinite from the finite construct of our physicality? Could we stop fighting or resisting our life and just relax into all sensations as dancing energy? Can we open the vastness of our hearts and brilliance of our minds to allow our flesh and bone to fully participate in the awakening of consciousness and the evolution of the soul?

I have been actively traversing the maze of embodiment for quite some time and am very familiar with the quirks and pitfalls inherent in this endeavor. I am also keenly aware of the joyful moments of intimacy, ease and peace that are the over-arcing consequence of relaxing into the soul-filled enjoyment of this human life.

We so often feel alone – lost in this maze of confusion about the body and what it means to be human. You don’t have to be alone in this endeavor. Let me join you as a guide and co-conspirator to:

• shift your relationship to your body to one of clarity, strength, appreciation and pleasure
• walk with you as we tease apart the ways in which the ego holds your body captive in a jail of judgment
• discover your soul’s intimate, deliberate, devoted and affectionate union with your body
• recapture your exuberance for this life, in this body, at this time and in this space

With that in mind, I am offering a year long program:

Body and Soul: A Compassionate Conspiracy. This will include – 15 individual sessions (3 the first month, 2 the second month and once a month thereafter) and a full year of weekly Gyrokinesis classes. Together, we will approach this from many angles, including spiritual, psychological, physical, belief systems, movement, sensations – and who knows where else our co-conspiracy will take us.

Don’t underestimate what it means to be human.
Let’s journey together to:
Explore it. Embrace it. Co-create it
Respect it. Embellish it. Enjoy it.
Embody it!

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Here are the details:
Pay in Full: $1275
($975 for the 15 sessions which works out to be $65 per session / $300 for a year of weekly Gyrokinesis classes, a $600 value). You save $120 by paying in full.

Pay Monthly: $116

Sliding scale is a possibility, depending on your circumstance.

If the weekly Gyrokinesis classes don’t work for you, there are other possibilities that we can work with. And if you don’t live locally we can work with that as well.

This offering is near and dear to my heart and I would love to compassionately co-conspire with you to consciously explore the dynamic relationship of body and soul.

Please contact me for more information or to simply schedule your first session.

in body & soul, Carol

“Our imperfection is one of the most astonishingly beautiful facets of being human, for it is our imperfection that compels us forward. And it is our imperfection that must be met with the open embrace of unconditional love and compassionate kindness. It is our deep acceptance – and not our judgment – of our humanity that creates a more authentic, purposeful and joyful life.”

Carol McAnally

There once was a sore and achy left hip that wanted to communicate to Command Central (ComCen) that something wasn’t quite right. So the hip enclosed its message in a bundle of neurons, the messenger, and sent it on its way. The messenger found his way to the super highway and was moving along, humming and happy to be in the flow.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, something plowed into his side and sent him reeling and tumbling end over end until he came to rest in a ditch.

The messenger shook himself off and looked around trying to get his bearings. There, bigger than anything the messenger had ever seen, was a massive, oily, sludge-like, black blob. The messenger did not like the looks of that at all and tried to just move around the blob and be on his way. But the blob would have none of it and blocked the messenger’s way. An ugly mouth opened up in the middle of all that blackness, and began to speak. The messenger tried to ignore the voice, but it was compelling, mesmerizing – and he began to listen intently; “You are carrying a worthless, stupid message” it hissed. “No one cares,” it murmured in a whisper that was so loud that it shook the messenger to his core – he didn’t want to hear anymore but the blob was relentless, “Don’t deliver it. The hip is foolish for sending it. It is just a trouble maker, a big baby. Nothing is really wrong.” The blob droned on and on until finally it closed its oily mouth with a nasty grin and slithered away.

The messenger sat immobilized for a long time. He felt woozy and confused. Slowly, he began to recall his journey – he was on a mission to ComCen and even though he couldn’t remember the purpose of that mission, he made his way back onto the super highway and into the flow.

He spent the rest of his journey trying to remember the message he was carrying or even who sent him – blank, nothing – only a sense of some purpose to his mission.

When he arrived to deliver the message, he began to confess that he could not recall why he had been sent. But instead of his confession, a nasty voice he didn’t recognize growled from his mouth, “The stupid left hip thinks something is wrong. But it’s just a big baby that wants to cause trouble. You should ignore it. I was there and I know it’s really nothing. It just wants some attention. So stupid!”

ComCen, confused by the message and preoccupied with the running of the body, asked the messenger to put the message on the desk and turned back to the task at hand. The messenger floated away with a nagging feeling that he had not really completed his mission . . .

Suddenly the whole body was flooded with stress as it began to deal with the day ahead, muscles contracted, the stomach knotted, the mind reeled and the emotional body tensed. Command Central was on full alert; bells ringing, lights flashing, activity everywhere. The message from the hip fluttered to the floor . . . and was forgotten.

A few months later, after many messages – unfortunately usurped and diluted by the black blob – the hip could take no more. Bone scraping on bone, tissue swelling, joint frozen, no longer able to bear weight – the hip failed and the body fell. ComCen was now on full alert to deal with the crisis in the hip.

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The moral of this story is no mystery . . .

It is imperative that we cultivate a compassionate awareness of the messages that our body is sending. And that we do not let our judgment, disdain or apathy (the black blob) usurp and distort those messages. If we are able to hear the messages with clarity and concern, then we can respond in a way that is meaningful and relevant – and circumvent a potential disaster that puts the entire body on full alert, stressed, anxious and unstable.

Deep blessings to you and your body, Carol

“Loving oneself is no easy matter, just because it means loving all of oneself, including the shadow where one is inferior and socially so unacceptable. The care one gives this humiliating part is the cure.” James Hillman

Your body loves to feel good – it is constantly striving to feel its best. Through its eloquent language of sensation, it is communicating with you in every moment, letting you know about pain, tension, pleasure, need. By paying attention, you can begin to respond and support the body to feel the best that it can today. To tune in and respond to your body, try this:

• Sitting in a comfortable, supported position, close your eyes. Allow your body to relax completely. Release any tension in your face and throat. Let your belly soften and your limbs be heavy. Take a moment to let this unfold.
• Become aware of any sensations you are having in your body. Can you feel the backs of your legs on the chair? Can you feel the points of pressure where your back is against the chair? Become aware of the feel of your clothes on your skin.
• Keep tuning into the subtleties of the sensations you are having in this moment. Begin to scan more specifically. Are you feeling pain, tension, pleasure, relaxation, freedom, constrictions? Are there certain areas of your body you are more aware of than others?
• Now that you are tuned in, can you feel what you might wish for your body? “My wish for my body is that it: breathes easy; has relaxed shoulders; is free of tension, feels healthy . . .” You get the idea — whatever it is that might help the body to feel good, create a wish. How many wishes can you fulfill in any given moment?

Write some of these wishes down, play with them throughout the day and the week. See what kind of difference it makes to create and fulfill your body’s wishes.