Liberated Being

This is a recording of a free class that I taught on July 26th 2020. In the class I talk about why the ability to deeply experience and know safety is so foundational to any shift being able to take place in us and in how we relate to the world. We work with an embodied approach, and go through two practices for coming into embodied presence- both in time and also locating in the body.

The full Embodying Safety and Capacity course begins August 4th and is open for registration at

https://www.liberatedbeing.community/course

As we all spend time at home these days, I've been reflecting on where Liberated Body took me. So I wanted to record an episode that traced that. It all boils down to one question I think: That question is: What is embodiment? It's an exploration from my own experience- certainly not the final word on anything- and I hope it's interesting and useful for you.

This episode functions like a little embodiment gift, courtesy of myself and Liam Bowler, who is the creator of the podcast The Body Awake. It is also an appetizer, a teeny tiny appetizer, of our upcoming weekend course: Living Your Body’s Intelligence, this July 28-29 2018 in Seattle.

So many of you have gotten in touch with me over the years to say how much you liked the “home play” part of the Liberated Body episodes- i.e. the body-based explorations at the end of each show- so you can think of this as one long home play episode! I hope you enjoy it.

If you have listened to Liberated Body and to The Body Awake you know Liam and I are kindred spirits. For both of us our work is dedicated to the larger, and I would say unanswerable inquiries around what is a body? How do we really connect with our bodies and from there with our lives? What gifts does the body have to deliver if we learn how to have an intimate and reciprocal relationship with it?

Over the course of our parallel inquiries it becamse clear that it would be really fun and also uselful to do a class together where we can lead people deep into landing in their bodies, but also to bridge the questions around what you do from there? How does becoming more embodied translate in our lives? How do we change our orientation from concepts and thoughts to being led by our felt experiences and why would we undertake that?

We get into depth with that in our weekend workshop. In this episode there is taste of that- a somatic meditation led by me, and an embodied movement exploration led by Liam. It’s some “land in yourself” assistance- which is where it all starts.

For the past 3 years I have talked with somatic visionaries about new paradigms of understanding about the human body- and today is the final episode of the show. I have had the great honor of exploring inner space with the exceptional people I got to interview, and with all of you listeners who have formed such a warm and inquisitive community. For the final episode my dear friend Vanessa Scotto- who is also my co-host over at my new show Bliss and Grit- is talking to me about the whole Liberated Body journey. How it began, how it evolved, what some of the biggest a-ha highlight moments were for me, and why my work is now focused on embodied spirituality.

It is my great good fortune for this to be my second interview with Mary Bond. Mary has an MA in Dance from UCLA, and studied with, and was certified by, Dr. Ida Rolf, the originator of Rolfing Structural Integration. Mary is currently Chair of the Movement Faculty of The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration in Boulder, CO. She also teaches workshops online and in person tailored to the movement needs and interests of various groups such as runners, dancers, Pilates and yoga instructors, and massage therapists. Mary is also a prolific writer whose articles have appeared in numerous magazines and she has written several books. You may know her best for her book The New Rules of Posture, and in today’s conversation we’re talking about her forthcoming book: Your Body Mandala: Posture, Perception, and Prescence. And her mission, which, much to my delight, is to contribute to humanity’s deeper embodiment.

Today I’m talking with Judith Blackstone. Judith is the creator of The Realization Process, which is an integrated approach to embodiment, psychological, relational, physical healing, and spiritual awakening. That maybe sounds like a tall order, but I’m here to tell you as someone who has been in the somatic fields for 20 years and who just finished my certification in The Realization Process, it’s the most accessible and glorious embodiment work I have come across. So it’s a delight for me to be able to introduce one of my teachers here on Liberated Body. Judith is a clinical psychologist and a meditation practitioner and student of contemplative traditions with more than 40 years of experience. She is the author of several books including Belonging Here and The Enlightenment Process, and she is also the co-founder of the Nonduality Institute which is dedicated to the science and practice of non-duality. In today’s conversation we’re talking about “the issues in the tissues”, or how emotional pain gets bound in the body- and also how it can be released, what fundamental consciousness is and why it’s useful to attune to it, how your experience of gravity and your fluidity of movement changes with this embodiment work, what happens when people bypass their stuck emotional pain, and how this work can help what I call the “senseys” of the world- the empaths- to do their work and to live fully without feeling overwhelmed much of the time.

Today I’m talking with Peter Blackaby who is the author of the book Intelligent Yoga which he is currently writing the 2nd edition for. Pete started practicing yoga in 1978 and began teaching in 1986. He then went on to become an osteopath. In 2002 he became involved in the British Wheel of Yoga (which is the governing body in England), and ran a two-year teacher training program for them. Since then, Pete has been running courses for teachers and teaches functional anatomy and biomechanics in the UK and internationally. His interest in the last 15 years has been to put some scientific underpinning to the practice of yoga, both in the biomechanical sense and in the mind/body relationship. In today’s conversation we’re talking about moving away from the Western reductionist view of anatomy, what a bottom up approach to yoga looks like vs. a top down approach, how the whole person’s lived experience is tied into how they move, and how yoga teachers can approach working with students who have chronic pain.

Leslie Kaminoff has been a yoga educator for the last four decades and is an internationally recognized specialist in the fields of yoga and breath anatomy. He leads anatomy and yoga methodology workshops for many of the leading yoga associations, schools and training programs in the world. He is the co-author of the bestselling book Yoga Anatomy, and the founder of The Breathing Project, Leslie has also helped to organize international yoga conferences while serving as Vice-President of Unity in Yoga, and was part of the committee that established national standards for yoga teacher training. In today’s conversation we’re talking about what it was like to have a front row seat for the birth of the fitness and yoga industries in the United States, concepts related to breath and breath anatomy, the art of teaching and the importance of creating an atmosphere of inquiry in yoga classes and how that can honor students’ individuality and allow for deeper insights.

Today I’m talking with Amy Matthews. Amy Matthews, has been teaching movement since 1994. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher, an Infant Developmental Movement Educator, and a movement therapist and yoga teacher. Amy is also the co-author of the best-selling book Yoga Anatomy, and together Amy and Leslie teach The Breathing Project's Advanced Studies courses. I will also be moderating a symposium called Beyond Anatomy with Amy at The Breathing Project soon- the first weekend of April. In today’s conversation we’re talking about Laban Movement Analysis and body mind centering, developmental movement work, and what that means for infants- how they can get a solid foundation for personal agency and emotional regulation through movement, and how developmental movement work helps adults as well. We also talk about embodied teaching, how teaching is its own art form and how it can call forth student’s personal agency.

Katy Bowman is a biomechanist and the founder of Nutritious Movement. She is the author of several books including Move Your DNA, Whole Body Barefoot, and her most recent collection of essays, Movement Matters. In today’s conversation we’re talking about the ecology of movement. How does your movement affect not just your health but also humans everywhere, even ones you’ve never met, and how does it affect the health of the planet as a whole? We discuss the real impact of our sedentarism and our drive for convenience, and how movement can be a very profound and impactful form of activism.