What will you harvest from this class?
If any of you interested in learning more about Body-Mind Centering, Doug would be happy to help direct you in that exploration. He can be reached at dougmack@crocker.com.
Please add any thoughts from Thursday's class on Body Systems to this posting. On Thursday we explored the breath, organs, nervous and muscular systems with a hands on approach. What lesson or experience will you remember from this class?
What I’ve harvested from this class is challenging to collect and put into words (but I will try my best). The experience was what seemed like an endless journey, in which I strive to unite my breath, body organs, and mind. I was extremely pleased to have been familiarized with my anatomy, in order to guide myself successfully through this journey. Once my focus and attention was grasped by this experience, the rest was flowing smoothly without any mind boggling disruptions.
ReplyDeleteI personally enjoyed this journey through my anatomy. The 2 hours went by exceedingly fast! Time, space, and energy were not much of a factor in this experience. It was incredible to be able to leave everything else out the door and ultimately focus only on myself.
I open my mouth and stretch around. I've never noticed that my mouth could come alive. I never noticed that it was shut off, or asleep, or just not stimulated. I stretched my jaw, and wriggled my tongue, moved my nose, and tapped my teeth. I AM A MOUTH!
ReplyDeleteThis exercise took me through my body, internally and externally. I was lead to move authentically and critically. I was compelled to experiment with listening to my body, and then encouraging myself to follow its lead. I found myself moving in totally strange and unprecedented ways. I became an ocean wave, moving across the floor and pulsating with a deep energy.
For complex reasons, I remember that I was more in my body than in my thoughts. I was really yielding to what the exercise was offering, and this sort of focus didn't really allow any room for judgment or projection, about what I should be doing, or would be doing!
This exercise created vast space in my body and her bones, joints, muscles, and sense, as well as my mind, I felt an affirmation of the physical experience and reality of life, as well as an acceptance of times when I don't feel this. I have a strong resonance with sensual appreciation of life, as well as with an intellectual one. This exercise allowed to see that I exist at different times in different energies, and they all can feed and encourage each other. In this exercise, my intellect was still thoroughly engaged, in a slow, witnessing way, while my body was engaged as an active participant, a lover of the moment and the story teller of this narrative. Different spaces need different stories.
This experience was very calming. I have been feeling its deep affects since Tuesday (now Friday). Thank you Doug for providing us with this opportunity! I'm curious if there is a script of this exercise that could be passed our way. I would love to experiment more with this as a guide.
Tuesday was an interesting experience- I was very in tune with my body. It was cool to explore our anatomy and look at parts that I definitely don’t think about on a regular basis. There was fluidity within my skin and bones. I thought it was really interesting how we explored our bone marrow and then from there went to explore our bones and then our skin. I think thinking about organs such as the spleen usually doesn’t happen- we never think about what that organ does or how it keeps us alive. But our whole body depends on all our systems functioning and working together. I loved how we shook our bones because it allowed me to feel my whole body from the inside out. I think visiting the cerebral spinal fluid was important. I always have a lot of tension in my neck and thinking about that helped ease it a little bit. All in all, this experience calmed me and allowed me to notice parts of my body I didn’t pay much attention to before.
ReplyDeleteThursday’s class was interesting too. I have never given massages so it was interesting to do that. I’m not use to putting pressure on anyone; I’m always afraid I’m going to hurt them. It was interesting to explore nervous and muscular systems. We definitely work them a lot through our days and it was nice to let them relax. I did have a hard time yielding to my partner though and letting her have my weight. All in all, it’s been a good experience learning about the different systems and how to pay more attention to them in order to be in tune with our bodies.
Body Mind Centering with Doug
ReplyDeleteIntegration.
Integration of the mind, spirit, heart, bones, muscles, organs, systems and breath.
Through the process of mind-body-centering, I came out whole, experiencing oneness. I felt light, my endpoints carrying me through space.
I left our session feeling present, at ease and comfortably ready for anything. What was wonderful about my state of consciousness was the crystal clear aliveness penetrating from my gut.
To attain integration takes patience, trust, desire and the ability to let go and listen to the language of the body, manifesting through sensations. This is not easily attainable; though I believe that if one is available and open to the experience anything is possible.
Integration is what I aspire to attain.
I have been meditating on the fluidity of the body, the permeable layers within. Experiencing the fluid between the organs and the bones were two very different movements. The first was wild and bouncy; the later was soft, slight and full of curves. Upon reflection I began thinking about the two distinct ways in which fluid came out through the dance of the bones compared to the dance of the organs, fluid is fluid whether it exists between the bones or the organs it is one liquid. Though I loved how those different movements emerged when embodying those two different components of my body. Through movement I could experience my bones and organs respectively and in doing so, I got to honor the role they play in my whole system functioning, leading to the overall sense of integration I experienced upon leaving the space.
Oh…and the idea of being one with space, being enveloped by my environment is such a compelling thought… I am an extension of the environment; the environment is an extension of me. We are one… This inspires connection to place, to community, calls me to want to engage more fully in relationships…
There is so much potency here.
Thank you.
Who wrote this lovely entry?
ReplyDeleteWhen we laid down on the floor Tuesday I was ready for an exploration inside my body. I had no idea how, but I knew I would be attempting to contact my “insides” with our guest teacher. I was truly happy with the path Doug took us through. I really tried to let my body move the way it wanted, and to let my mind take a step down and observe my experience. I kept finding myself surprised, yet at peace with the movement I made as we explored progressively through our bodies. I was comfortable and relaxed and I felt open to the voices inside me.
ReplyDeleteAs I finished class, I continued on into ballet and found myself continually checking in with those experiences I had the previous hour. I was consciously and unconsciously connecting this calming yet invigorating experience with the technical movement I study on a daily basis. For me, this was the most exciting result of this class because that is my highest goal with these bodily explorations – to bring them into all aspects of my life.
Thursdays class was also great because we partnered up and used a hands on approach. I love touching other people in a Thai Massage fashion because I feel as though I am giving as much as receiving. When my partner placed her hands on my kidneys, I found a strong and powerful connection through my back space. As she took her hands away, I really felt as though she pulled out my kidneys. It was a strange experience, but also gave me a great awareness to where my kidneys are and how they feel.
Tuesday’s class facilitated a journey into my body. By the end of the class, I had reached a mental plane I’ve never explored before. I found a deep connection with my skin. It was like I could feel the molecules in the air against my skin, around my limbs. The air was there, it felt like something I was passing thru, like it was thick or something. It’s like the air was stimulating me for once. I wonder how much of this sensation I got from the air may have been connected to everyone else’s vibe in the room. I assume we were all tapping into ourselves on a level that is not frequently visited. How does this inner connection affect the energy radiating from each of us? Hmmmm?
ReplyDeleteAt times my movement ignited feelings/sensations resembling ones I have felt when I’ve been in suspension. I believe at times when I’ve executed a move and truly felt suspended, the sensations I feel are linked to slowing down time. On Tuesday, I had entered a time warp; I wish I could’ve continued my journey for days. It’s like moving out of your ‘normal’ mind, beyond your current surroundings, reaching an otherworldly place. But maybe it has never been otherworldly. Maybe it has always been there.
One thing that I found captivating was the inertia behind reaching for something. It was crazy to feel reaching, and simultaneously be taking in stimuli as well. Giving and taking. wow.
As for Thursday’s class, I found that it was relatively easier for me to connect to my marrow than do a dance of the bones. I just didn’t feel as free as I thought I should. I wonder if it’s cause I had some form of an expectation on it. I do realize I need to find some sort of separation from expectations and just let things be. I did find the different rhythms behind the different aspects to our bones. For instance, when I connected to my marrow and the outside of my bones, it was slower.
At first I found it interesting that I had a little trouble isolating movement from my hands apart from my feet and vice versa. I had to focus on the isolation of the movement. But it does make sense to me that I had trouble with that, because when I dance around in my house or if I go out dancing, I move my hands and my feet in a major way.
Thursdays class was amazing. My one goal for the quarter was making my movements more fluid in dance classes. In exploring the nervous system and tracing the nervous system on another body, I discovered how important the nervous system when it comes to movement ans sensations. Having my nervous system traced while laying on the floor, my body felt more awake and alive to move.
ReplyDeleteWhen we practiced Thai massage with another classmate, I felt a sense of comfort and love. Contact in this manner is great for dancers because we loosened up muscles on one another. I love getting and giving massages as i do with my mom, who is a massage therapist herself. She has taught me some massage techniques, but Thai style massage I have only done one other time in a dance class. I love how you use your own bodies weight into the other persons body to release tension in muscles.
But I have been struggling in ballet and modern this quarter with have fluidity in my shoulder and arm movements. I have been trying to focus on how my ballet teacher tells me to think about my arms as a mosaic when I move them. But in ballet class on Thursday while focusing on fluidity in arm movements during bar work, I finally was able to find this fluidity my teacher had been looking for all quarter! It was amazing getting compliments for something I have been trying to improve on in ballet class since college, and I give credit to the Thai massage in class because it made my arms and shoulders more mobile than normal in class. I wish we could do Thai massage everyday! Thanks so much for this experience!
Katie Boulanger
Out of all my experiences in the class so far, I feel that Tuesday’s class allowed me to let go the most. I was able to let go of my body, my mind, my worries and time. I am not quite sure why, but I was able to forget about time and was amazed when the class came to an end. It was very calming and soothing to get in touch with my different organs and think about the amazing network of bones, muscles and fluids that make up who I am. I think that I was truly able to get in touch with my inner body and feel what it was like to move merely listening to the inner workings. It is interesting to me that an exploration into our body is something that we normally do not do even though it is so important to listen to our bodies. In order to be content and be able to exude energy to the outside, it seems as though we should pay more attention to what our insides feel like.
ReplyDeleteThursday’s class also allowed me to feel the effects of the inside of my body, but in a different way. I really enjoyed doing the massage activity with a partner because I was able to feel my muscles and how they reacted to pressure from someone else. I also really enjoyed being able to dance according to how my bones and marrow because that is something that I have not ever thought of before. Overall, this week was a great experience because it allowed me to think about different parts of my body that are normally neglected.
Tuesday’s class with Doug was interesting in that being just in my body was much easier than it had been before. Maybe this is because we have been building on it through out the quarter and it is getting easier to just let my thoughts drift on by and be in my body. The part that struck me the most was the exercise talking about the esophagus leading to the stomach and then along the intestines and out the anus. It made me feel very much like the sea squirt and how it has the ability to pump the ocean’s water through its body to gain nutrients. As I took deep breaths, I almost felt as if I was gathering nutrients from the air and filling my whole insides. I had a very stressful week (2 physics midterms and 1 astronomy) and yet this class seemed to ground me and give me a sense of tranquility I could bring to the rest of the week.
ReplyDeleteThursday’s class in one word was fun. Playing around with big movements and just letting me body dance however it wants is one of the things that makes me happy. It was interesting to explore how thinking of bones, skin on bones and marrow made me move differently. The skin on the bones was a very tingly feeling and I felt like making twitchy movements (which are very unnatural to my usual mode of moving), the marrow made me feel like floating and all my movements felt very smooth and buoyant, and the bones where like long sticks slashing through the air. It was interesting trying to switch between them while dancing and occasionally try to combine two or all three. I can see this helping me more in ballet or other dance classes as I can use this to tap into those different modes easier. I also liked the massage, not just the receiving thought that of course was quite pleasant, but also the giving. It was interesting to feel how my partner’s muscles and bones were put together. Though we all have the same parts put together in basically the same way it is our differences that fascinate me. To me this is a beautiful thing as if we were all identical it would be rather dull. That and I was impressed by her musculature, since my own muscles tend on the flimsier side and there isn’t too much to feel.
The Body-Mind centering work was a great culmination of everything that we had been working on up to this point in the class. I could feel myself more comfortable in my body as Doug led us through the stages of awareness and centering within our bodies. The evolutionary bit of the exercises I always find particularly interesting because there are always aspects of it that seem to really feel good to me. I find myself wanting to live longer in the ape stages of evolution and just hang out on all fours more. Some days I’ll find myself really desiring the watery stages and just feeling the weightlessness that comes with the water and a body made of watery fluids. And as Doug mentioned when we began to reflect on the process, the room was very engaged and everyone seemed to be getting deeper and deeper within themselves. Even when I began to have a little bit of interaction with other people towards the end of the exercise I still felt immensely centered.
ReplyDeleteI am having the experience at this very moment of sitting with an illness. It’s an illness that I’m fairly familiar with that involves me getting a sore throat and then feeling like I have no voice and then it migrates into my chest where it would usually stay and fester for a while causing me to cough and often produce mucus and gross things like that. The reason I bring this up is that after being in touch with my body so much in the last week and really working on the connections between mind and body I have grown to appreciate and to become closer with my visceral system and its needs and rhythms. So as I got this cold-thing I figured that it would want to go to my chest where I have harbored a great deal of stress throughout my life and so when it did I was already aware of it and beginning to prevent it. I have been breathing into my body more and listening to its rhythms and giving it love and support. As my chest began to clench up in protection against this invader illness I have been working with it to release the tension and be healthy and full. I feel as though I have almost cast off the illness already and I’ve only had it two days whereas they normally affect me for about a week or two. This also connects directly into the reading on breath and the respiratory section of our bodies. I completely feel when breath is stifled in different situations and is used as a tool for others. It’s fascinating to me how much control we have over this essential part of our existence and how much we never even think of it! We have the potential to use our breath for so much good and so much healing and yet normally we ignore it and then it turns around and bites us in the butt because we weren’t paying attention.
Another relevant connection that I made this week was my previous bodily response to intense uncomfortable situations. Not long ago, I used to get intense cramping and knotting of my stomach when I was exposed to situations of vile anger, terrible communication between people or very stressful or dangerous situations. I could feel my innards twist and I would feel awful. In the past couple years, especially this year, I have gained a great deal of awareness to these situations and my mind-body connection and have been able to figure out a better way of feeling and getting through any potentially uncomfortable situations.
“Fluidity is a powerful force that is largely unconscious in our culture” (132, Natural Intelligence). The most powerful process I connected with Doug's class was the power of the fluidity within my own body. As we focused on the reciprocal nature of lymph, I was connected with the movement within my body, continuous and flowing. “Our body is simply a series of membranes and fluids” (131). I became really connected with this fluidity and it made my body feel great. As in previous classes, I felt pathways opening up that I had not connected with before. With this class though, it was really a body thought process. I was knew I was thinking because my body was responding, doing, feeling different. I love the idea given in Natural Intelligence that when we focus on these internal elements we are creating a “dialogue” (107) between the different parts of our bodies, parts that have their own “motivations” (106), and that by enabling this dialogue we notice the “diversity” (107) within ourselves. The idea of fluidity that we explored, especially with lymph, with Doug illustrated this in the most profound way. I generally tend to think of my body as a whole entity, which is part of it, but the more we break down into different focuses the more I realize is going on in there. Especially what is going on that I have completely lost touch with (or perhaps was never integrated). What I am thinking about in my mind is really not the only thing going on in there. I am also realizing more and more, what I ignore in order to function throughout the day, and really, how sad that is for the rest of my body. Focusing on the lymph, the way it processes out and then circulates back was really exciting for me, because I was focusing with a part of my body that was not only my mind. I know that blood circulates, I can feel my heart pump, but I had never explored the idea of lymph circulation. Even though I know about my bloods circulation, experiencing it bodily is a totally different conceptualization than knowing about it mentally. It's a “thought” process in bodily fluids. A language of the body to understand the body. After the experiences in this class, and the experience with Doug, I feel that anatomy is truly lost in translation between the body and the mind. In Doug's class I got a taste of what my body is really communicating. I feel that is why it was so easy to focus; I wasn't using only my brain to focus with, I used my lymph, my muscles, I transitioned focusing between body systems. With Thursday's class, I was able to integrate this concept with the bone dance. Also on Thursday, one of the most fascinating things for me was tracing the nerve systems. I have experienced this tracing a couple of times before, but integrating the idea that I could focus with the system, I finally understood why it was done. I could feel the impact. Also, when we breathed into our kidneys I had a realization of “Whoa! They're really in there.” I mean, obviously I have kidneys, but so often (as I stated above) the explanation of anatomy is just not adequate. I feel as if anatomy as it is traditionally described is separated from the body. It's a drawing of a general figure who has the parts you're supposed to have and that your supposed to imagine being part of your body. Well, body parts aren't figments of the imagination, they are there and experiencing them as an integrating system is a completely different communication from assessing them mentally. It's so simple and yet so removed from how, my culture at least, is taught to think. It's so refreshing to experience my individual systems as unique in function and personality and not just a mass of squishy stuff that I have to carry around all the time or as imperceptible goings on that I am just supposed to ignore and let function on their own, detached from me as a being. It really is a limited perspective to experience life as a detached head, there is so much other cool stuff going on in here.
ReplyDelete-Allexa Laycock
First off, I just have to say how much I appreciated our guest, Doug Mackenzie, who led us in this wonderful body-mind work. I especially appreciated his encouragement and enthusiasm for the focus of our class. To be honest, it was a little hard to remain focused for that long, but it was so enriching that I didn’t even know that our class was almost over when we came together - I thought we had at least another hour! But, I would like to talk in depth about more of the specific systems we discovered and felt in our bodies.
ReplyDeleteIt felt as if every new stage of our body-mind centering was new and exciting, but I would like to comment on a few of the more memorable experiences I had in our class. First off, I can still remember feeling the sensations of the bones in my skeleton. It has always fascinated me to imagine my body as a skeleton when I study anatomy since we are so used to seeing a skeleton as something dead, though our bones are indeed a living, thriving part of our bodies. It was a pleasure to be able to move around in my living bones in class since I am used to being in a more static, academic class when discussing bones. I could feel and experience the sensations of the way that my bones stacked upon each other and the articulation in my feet and hands between the cartilage and joint fluid. All of the new sensations in the movements that my bones wanted to produce was so exciting and filled me with curiousity and wonder.
Another important system which almost seemed to demand my attention on Tuesday was my digestive system. When we began to explore the esophagus through swallowing, I began to imagine the pathway down to my stomach, feeling the area that it resides in below my left ribs. Following this continued pathway from the stomach to the long, compressed small intestine and into the ascending, transverse and descending intestines ending in the rectum was especially interesting as I related this imagery to the diagrams and descriptions I had experienced in the reading. This system seemed as though it wanted my particular attention because I have recently been changing my diet’s content and eating intervals and my intestines seem to be inquiring after these new nutrients. And, at the prompting of Doug to say and do what our body, I felt led to explain my intestine’s need for care and intention.
Thursday’s class was also an interesting exploration of our bodies, and it was nice to have another day of exploring our body’s systems. I was especially drawn to our exercises in the breathe as I felt a relaxed dizziness from some of the deep breathes I took and my body seemed to need that added amount of oxygen. Another obvious highlight from the class on Thursday was ending with Thai massage in coordination with talking about our muscles. I really liked the attention to dancer-specific muscles of the trapezius (it felt SO relaxing!) and pressure in the quads.
Tuesday's experience with Doug was pretty rad. What stood out to me the most was near the end where we danced from our bones vs our dance from our bone marrow. Thinking about where the movement is coming from was mind-blowing. How much effort that it took totally changed the way I moved. My speed, my fluidity, my range all changed when moving from the bone to the middle of my bone. It was just really cool to think in such a way. My energy was calming in my marrow dance. I also thought that the vibrations was really interesting. When I was vibrating, I felt like everything inside of me was alive. I felt the energy just spread throughout my body.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Thursday's experience. The contact with the massage was really relaxing and calming. The pressure was really comforting. The extra pressure and having someone feel me made me awknowledge parts of my body that I really don't focus on. Running our hands over our partner's nervous system was interesting. It allowed me to visualize from the head down as it flows down the back and out into the limbs. It was fun!
Cougar
Additionally, on Thursday's class.. we explored the MASSAGES! What I remembered most from that experience.. was the sensations I felt while my partner ran her fingers down my nervous system; starting with the head. As the first person undergoing this experience, I was able to feel the sensations before applying it to my partner (which was an advantage). As I applied it to my partner, I imagined the sensations I would feel if I were here, rather than the boring sensations I felt.. doing it to her. It was a relaxing, fun, and experimental exercise that I will be taking home with me.. =)
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, I started a journey through the foreign land of my body. I suppose the journey started at the beginning of the quarter, but last week forced me to pay attention to specific areas of my body in a more engaging and demanding way. On Tuesday, I felt myself hearing the instructions and following the voice but my brain could not retain any of the information.
ReplyDeleteBy Thursday, I was able to actually “tune in” to my body. Everything became clearer and the directed movement was no longer ambiguous or indistinguishable. I could separate and target the individual organ levels we travelled through. I think I began to understand how to communicate with my body through its breath and pulse—I began to embody the idea of “each breath is an integrated response to the myriad impulses that move through us in any moment…” (112). The dialogue might have always been there, but there was no real connection. I suppose now that I’ve felt this bond, now I have to maintain and develop the relationship.
The body mind centering session was a summary of our journey thus far. I relived from going to a single cell organism to a starfish to a fish, to primates. The experience allowed me to feel once again the fluidity and connectedness of the body as a whole. It reinforced the concept that there is a natural movement within us and it is up to me to rediscover that.
ReplyDeleteWe explored our skeletal structure on Thursday, with differences in movement according to how we perceive our bones to be moving. The thought of moving from the bone, from within the marrow, and from the external surface of the bone where the muscle connects with, alone changes the quality of my movements. This kind of reminds me of Alexander technique where we have to merely think of lifting our head and it will be done subtly. The exploration of breath also showed me how natural it is to expand and extend with breathing in and contracting back into the center with exhaling out. Partner massage work heightened some senses of the body that I have long neglected.
Tuesday's class on body mind centering was difficult for me. All I remember is an intense feeling of nervousness because of the guest teacher. It was nothing he did; it was just my comfort level and be able to go to that place where I could express things freely. Louis - I have been working with you for that last two quarters and I have learned to trust you. For whatever reason, a new teacher inhibits my ability to express things more openly. I feel like I didn't have the best experience that I could have had. This is another issue that I need to work towards letting go.
ReplyDeleteThursday's class was a huge step for me. Last quarter in the somatics class we did this exercise with Thai massage as well. I watched Jamie demonstrate with Louis and when she asked us to pair up ... I freaked out and told Jamie and Louis that I could not participate in this exercise. I don't like to touch people that I don't know and I don't like people I don't know touching me. I'm not sure what caused this ... but I know I am not comfortable with it. This quarter I have a friend in the class. We were partners for this exercise and I was able to complete it! It makes such a difference when you know and trust the person you have to touch and who has to touch you. I was happy with my experience in Thursday's class.
**Kali