color your energy centers

i’ve been told i “wear my emotions on my sleeve”, and for a long time – perhaps due to my Catholic upbringing, the fastidiousness of competitive gymnastics training, or having a loving, but brutally honest older sister – i didn’t like it. i didn’t understand that it gave me power. it wasn’t until i found freedom in movement that i could channel those feelings into a complete body-mind-spirit experience, a deep trust in my own knowing. in college, when i really delved into modern dance, i didn’t know about chakras, or energy centers in our bodies. i just felt it, and i knew when my performance was “on”. even as a young gymnast, i didn’t have the most brute strength, but i felt home in the dance of my floor routine, given to me by my Russian coach, Natasha, and nearly always placed on top of the podium. it’s the feeling of flying when i raced my first 10K with my sister and actually won my age group, experiencing what must have been that “runner’s high” that folx talk about.

i now know that this experience is alignment. not just of the physical structure of our bones, joints, fascia, and tissue, or mental understanding of realizing something amazing is happening. it’s a connection and igniting of all of the bodies that surround and augment our physical body – etheric, emotional, mental, and spiritual – and that it exists as an energetic understanding beyond what solely the brain can comprehend. it’s an affirmation from Source that we have arrived and are here and now and present and perfect. 

the beauty is, we can all experience this merging of our bodies, regardless if we consider ourself a “mover” or a “performer”. because we’re all energetic beings, we have the ability to sense and feel that energy if we tune into our physical body, the densest reality we have.

certain forms of movement like tai chi, the under-curves present in modern dance, and the rhythmical breathing and flowing movement inherent in the GYROTONIC® method that i have practiced and teach have helped me to understand the importance of the focused energy inherent in the repetition of circling and spiraling movement through space, connected to breath. it’s as if by practicing this kind of movement in this kind of way we ignite a force field around ourselves, a bubble of rainbow light energy that colors and connects our energy centers, lighting them up from the inside-out. 

most of the movements that we will share in Sayezz with Stephanie have been channeled from Source energy, and my experience of movement and choreography and cueing and communicating add structure to that energy. much like dams and pipes have the capacity to shift the flow of water, certain repetitive movements can help shape and hone the flow of our energy centers. combine it all with imagery and breath, and – wow! – does that make for a powerful, transformational practice! 

self-practice

sit toward the edge of a seat. it can be on a chair, a stool, a tree trunk.

let your arms hang by your sides. 

feel your bare feet touch the ground, give your toes a wiggle. 

then, close your eyes. 

listen to your breath – does it actually make a sound? 

are you breathing through your nose? through your mouth? both? 

where does the breath physically move in your body? 

do you feel your belly expand? your ribs? your back? your chest? 

sit with feeling and noticing your breath for a few moments. 

feel what you feel. 

hear what you hear. 

let any thoughts come in and then waft away.

begin to circle your torso. notice what direction you’ve chosen. 

imagine there is a rainbow attached to the back of your spine, almost like a endless fin. 

as you circle your torso, watch this rainbow circle and swirl around you, creating a bubble of colorful energy that first fills the shape of your physical body, and then expands, perhaps even bursting through the room, your environment.

do the colors blend together? do their individual forms meld together and brighten?

continue to move and to notice this energetic field you’re creating around yourself.

slow down the circle and come to stillness. 

let your arms hang, and keep your eyes closed.

what do you feel? tingly fingers? the base of your bum heavier on your seat? your feet melting into the ground? 

does any image or thought come into your mind’s eye or ear?

blink your eyes open when you are ready, come back into your space.

if you have paper and pen handy, write down those images and thoughts.

practice this twice a day, the second time circling the opposite direction. see what comes up.