THE RICHNESS OF THE MOMENT
Photo by Dasha Gaian
"Non-aggression is the key to life, and to perception altogether.It is how to perceive reality at its best."
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Life's rich. Sometimes more than others. Right now, with the poppies blooming in their almost obscene way, the lushness of grass and greenery, and the brief but violent afternoon rains, I'm drowning in the richness. Swimming in the sensations. It's kind of amazing.
There are also moments of drowning in the pain of migraines, the intensity of nausea, the ferociousness of my son's mood swings and melt downs.
They are all moments to get lost in- moments of extreme sensation.
Sometimes the sensation are pleasurable and delicious. Sometimes they are painful, almost unbearable. When we know that in our very center, there is stillness, space. So why not dive into the moments when they arise, and be fed?
In dance as in life, there are moments when our mind gets quiet and our body's wisdom takes over- and it's bliss. Moments when the stretch of the movement feels exquisite.
And there are moments where self-consciousness gets loud and our body's freeze. Or the pain of a chronic injury flares and dancing feels effortful or stiff.
All these moments are the stuff of life! Without the pain we would not know pleasure.
I invite you to FEEL all the moments of richness of your life, in your dance. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It's all rich. And when we feel rich and full from the inside out, we don't need to look to the outside world for satisfaction...just saying.
Here's what the dancers had to say when we danced the Richness of the Moment
in Awaken the Dance Class:
"Coming here was the best possible thing, I was able to physically cocoon myself and honor that space in me that really needed to alone. And once I did that, I was able to just dance and be myself again. This was perfect for what's going in me, and being able to honor and acknowledge that is beautiful."
"I have been coming here for a while, and the first couple of times I was terrified! The trained ballet dancer in me thought, am I doing it right? But now I am finding moments of totally losing myself. Complete un-selfconciousness. And dancing together today, it was the first time in my entire life there was no insecurity. We were just dancing together, it was so beautiful. Such a gift."
"I feel like I don't recognize my body lately in this big transformational transition. Confidence is coming out as well as patterns of resistance. There's a lot going on but it was so good to move."
"I'm feeling the richness of being here with all of you, and taking in your bodies and how they do what they do, and feeling my own frustration that I'm at 10% of my normal capacity of energy and strength. There's a lot of pain right now, and I'm also feeling frustrated. In the past I've talked myself out of it, tried to force myself into gratitude. It's nice to be like yeah, this kind of sucks. And it feels good to feel it, instead of wanting to not feel it!"
"I've been more linear and using my strength- and my body needed the softness of this class to equalize myself."