All of our experiences happen in our body.
Our body, our soma, ourselves are shaped by our material reality and our inherent needs for safety, belonging, and dignity.
We can develop new ways of responding to the same reality. We can develop new ways of being in the world. We can develop new worlds.
Personal, community, and social transformation are connected. Like adrienne marie brown says, the way we are on the small scale is the way we are on a large scale. Practicing change at the personal level gives us skills that can be applied interpersonally and can help us be protagonists, shapers of our shared stories, on the social level.
The purpose of these Embodiment Sessions is to use movement practice to facilitate personal transformation toward creating a more just and loving world. If more people are more able to be more present then better choices can be made and better futures can be built.
Movement is an inherent human need, our bodies are made to move. Dominant culture in the US and the West seeks to control our bodies, to mechanize our movement. Even the movement practices that are widely available support this mechanization by prioritizing aesthetics or ‘hacking the body’ to achieve ‘optimization’. Practicing moving with awareness and intention is disruptive and nourishing. It is valuable to practice movement as a process of reflection, inquiry, and transformation.
Through earnest practices of inquiry, which these Embodiment Sessions can be a part, we can
develop knowledge of how we have been shaped by the world, especially the conditioned tendencies that do not serve us
understand the systems these tendencies do serve
boldly name and claim our values
develop the capacity and skill to live in alignment with those values
work together with others to actualize our values at the family, community, and mass levels
Commit to practicing movement, to reflection, to learning.
What other ways do you practice?
In love and solidarity,
Amal, your pal