Tending the Wounds of Disconnection

February 26, 2020

Most of us live our days from the head down, thinking our way through the labyrinth of our life experience. Often that can cause disconnection from the voices of our hearts and the language of our bodies, our emotional and somatic intelligence.
Living in our heads also disconnects us from our relationship with the earth and sky. We are really just energetic currents in between those two forces.
When I set foot on the 5Rhythms dance floor, my first task is to connect with my self, my embodied being: body part by body part. I become present to what is going on below the level of thought. What am I feeling? What am I sensing? This approach to healing is feminine in its nature.
From this place of deep connection with myself I can then reach out and relate to others, tasks at hand and the world around me. I can relate to what is below me (earth) and what is above me (sky) and find my place in between. These directions become points of reference, a vertical way of orienting myself in time and space. This approach to healing is masculine in its nature.

Another wound we often carry is the one of not-belonging or feeling that we are different. The dance invites us into authentic connection where we can show up as we are and belong as part of the rhythmic symphony that unfolds. Rhythm is our mother tongue. Intimacy and heart-centered relating is necessary for us to thrive as human beings.
As we work on healing our wounds of disconnection in the dance and nurture both the feminine and masculine principle in all creation including ourselves, we re-create our world anew, breath by breath, step by step.

[mk_audio mp3_file=”https://hollyhock.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/aligning-between-earth-and-sky.m4a” thumb=”https://hollyhock.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Bettina-Rothe-Bio-Photo-e1508183067153.jpg” player_background=”#2f6974″]

Transcript: Practice of Aligning Vertically

Often we have most of our attention outside of ourselves and organize our life force around people, things and situations. This is the horizontal plane of engaging with life. Let’s disengage from the “out there” for a moment and bring ourselves back into connection with the vertical axis, aligning ourselves between earth and sky:
Soften your eyes or close them and drop into yourself, placing your attention onto your breath. Rather than focusing on the in and out movement of the breath see if you can experience the up and down movement along the central channel of the body. Let the inhale lengthen and uplift your body focusing on the above. Let your exhale soften and ground your body settling into the below.
You can say to yourself: “As I inhale I open towards the sky, as I exhale I root deeper into the earth.”
Notice the subtle movements of your body as your life force and breath move through you. Allow any movement impulses that arise. Complete this practice by opening your eyes and bringing yourself back into connection with the world around you and see if you can maintain the awareness of this vertical alignment within yourself.
Practice several times a day when life “out there” feels too much or if you lose connection with yourself.