photo by Nadin Thompson
It was three years ago when I first offered a workshop with the title 'Musicality of Being.' It felt experimental, but simultaneously natural.
Instead of teaching embodiment practice only within the frame of my training in the Feldenkrais Method, I was bringing more of myself into the offering.
Today, based on much more experience, I understand why it feels so important to me to offer a framework for self-development which:
can be practiced in any kind of surroundings or circumstance
which is explicitly relational - encompassing self, other and world
does NOT function primarily by breaking wholes into smaller parts
emphasizes attuning to feeling over mental analysis
celebrates, illuminates and enriches the learning process itself
With this clarity, I'm very excited to make the experience of Musicality of Being - which leads to falling more deeply in love with life - available to wider audiences.
This month marks a turning point for me.
Not only will I be offering the ever-evolving 3-hour Musicality of Being workshop on Sunday September 15, 1-4pm EST.
I will also be offering a 2-hour Musicality of Breath workshop on Sunday September 22, 1-3pm EST.
The latter workshop is the first in a series of explorations of the component relationships of the Presence Mantra, the Anytime Anywhere Awareness practice that I teach to all of my clients.
In every single moment of your life, you are in a dynamically unfolding relationship with the phenomena of breath, ground, space, sound & light.
This is, in one sense, 'obvious.'
But unfortunately, in this day and age, more and more people are NOT in touch with these basic elements of embodied experience.
The good news is that these relationships can be reawakened in you and when you become more effortlessly infinite with their ebbs and flows, you will discover a new ease and flow in life you may have never known was possible.
But what happens during a Musicality of Being workshop?
Honestly, all kinds of things happen, but here's a preview of some of what we'll be playing with during the September workshops:
On September 15, we will find our way into Musicality of Being by waking up awareness of the synaesthesia of our phenomenology - that is, the fact that we are always weaving together the tapestry of our experience from multiple streams of sensory input.
Rather than feeling like it's all "too much information", we can learn to listen to the WHOLE musicality of what is unfolding inside of us and all around us and move with that flowing aliveness.
Building on this awareness, we'll explore a more intential participation with life's musicality through playful embodied practices such as:
illuminating the dance of thought, feeling, speech and gesture
coordinating movements of the hands and the lungs
tuning and entraining the voice to environmental tones and rhythms
co-creating resonance through call and response of words and images
The September 22 workshop will highlight the special role of breath in the landscape of Musicality of Being.
We will NOT be doing "breathwork"!
Instead, we'll dive into breath's infinite creative potential, particularly as a doorway into deeper listening.
Activities will include:
Using breath to improve posture and the rhythm of movement
Mapping the landscape of the lungs with embodied imagination
Listening - through breath - to deeper layers of the nervous system
Discovering exquisite subtleties of breath to enhance sensitivity
Both of these workshop are available to members of my new monthly membership program here on Substack. You can subscribe for $17/month.
Or, if you're not sure yet about making an ongoing commitment, click here to register for both workshops for just $30.
***If you go with the second option, I'll still throw in a two-month trial membership so you can take a look around inside the membership area.***
This means you'll also be able to attend a third live workshop in October!
There is no reason why your entire life can't feel the way it feels when you are joyfully dancing to your favorite music.
Musicality of Being is a perspective that opens up that kind of love affair with life by teaching you how to listen to yourself, your company and your surrounding environment from a place of harmony.
I look forward to making music with you!
Musicality of Being workshop series through the New Year (for paid subscribers)
(Dates subject to change)
Musicality of Breath
September 22, 1-3pm EST
Life is better when more hours of your day include direct contact with breath. Intimate awareness of the myriad qualities of each breath and what they signal facilitates this practice.
Your breath may be deep or shallow, fast or slow, quiet or loud, flowing or held, voiced or silent, continuous or broken, on the left or right, in sync with others or not. Breath is musical.
Musicality of Ground
October 20, 1-3pm EST
Your capacity to be upright depends on your relationship to the earth below and the bones of your skeleton. Ground provides leverage for movement, support for rest, dignity for the soul.
The ground of being is your most fundamental resource. You have no idea how deep it goes.
It goes deeper than ideas. Orientation begins with sensation. Knowing grows out of feeling.
Musicality of Space
November 10, 1-3pm EST
You don’t live in a vacuum. You live in space. It stretches in all directions. Except sometimes there is an obstruction. In some spaces your feel spontaneous. In other spaces, you are hesitant.
Space defines the field of action for both your body and mind. Becoming intentional with the movement of your attention is key to spaciousness and the capacity to hold space for others.
Musicality of Sound
December 15, 1-3pm EST
Sound is the raw stuff of those moments we define as ‘music’ or ‘noise,’ depending on our ears. Listening more carefully, we find music everywhere, inviting our bodies to dance.
Everything you do has rhythm and melody. Harmony occurs when your actions and energies are coordinated with the rhythms and melodies of others. Musicality is the ground of presence.
Musicality of Light
January 5, 1-3pm EST
Light - and the absence of light - defines the vision of every world you see, real or imagined. Do you turn towards or away from the light? Do you look mostly inwards or mostly outwards?
Light can be clarifying or blinding. Dark can be mysterious or dangerous or deeply peaceful. Sometimes we are fooled by what we see. Sometimes we are saved by our blindspots.