Part Five: Practice as Chrysalis

This week's post is the fifth in a seven-part series of excerpts from our soon to be released companion video to the book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art & Practice of Embodied Mindfulness.

^"You can use the Somatic Learning practices to hold the field, like a chrysalis, for you to unravel, from one state into another … letting go of our dualistic orientation of the observer and observed, to enter into a non-dual realm of pure presencing. This practice is a portal into vast, unbounded spaciousness.  At the same time, You can receive the structure of your practice as an embrace, a container where you can feel safe enough to enfold into a more fluid state and drink in the deliciousness of being fully alive.

In the same way that the chrysalis supports a caterpillar’s metamorphosis from one state of being into another, and a womb allows an embryo to grow into a fetus bathed within the amniotic landscape, your Somatic Learning practice can womb you, so that you can give birth to yourself as the embodiment of the vast, unlimited consciousness that is your birthright.

I want to speak to you, dear viewer, about how to best receive this practice. Employing your will in an effort to achieve some predetermined goal or image turns your determination against you, perpetuating a subtle kind of violence. Our belief that we need to fix or improve ourselves reflects our identification with a very limited image of who we are. If we could see ourselves as source, then we would not feel the need to fix or improve ourselves. We would simply want to live the fullest expression of what we really are, unmediated by limiting beliefs and images."

Part Four: Leisure as a Practice in Detachment to Time

This week's post is the fourth in a seven-part series of excerpts from our soon to be released companion video to the book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art & Practice of Embodied Mindfulness.

^"When we engage our somatic intelligence, we awaken to our true nature as the embodiment of luminosity and spaciousness.   This awakened mode of perception dispels the curse of mis-identification with image/object bound experience.  You are already home, expressing in the world all the juiciness of this ecstatic union with the beloved. 

Let’s begin by exploring how we relate to the idea of “practice” to enter into  dimensions of experience unlike anything you have ever done before.

Your practice is the time you create for yourself to give birth slowly. It is an embodiment of leisure, or timelessness, the way you detach from the pressurized field of time. 

As my friend, Brother David Steindl-Rast defines it: “Leisure is the expression of detachment with regard to time.” He goes on to say that “leisure … is not the privilege of those who can afford to take time; it is the virtue of those who give to everything they do the time it deserves to take.” 

This is one of the best descriptions of practice I’ve heard."

Part Two: An Open Dialogue between the Conscious and Subconscious parts of the BodyMind.

This week's post is the second in a seven-part series of excerpts from our soon to be released companion video to the book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art & Practice of Embodied Mindfulness.

Click here to download the audio excerpt.

"The art and practice of Somatic Learning optimally supports the full embodiment of the quality commonly referred to as “mindfulness” in our lives through awakening somatic intelligence.  Somatic Intelligence refers to the way life knows itself in the bubbling, bursting, blooming forth of consciousness in the here and now. This is how we know ourselves at no distance, from the inside out.  In contrast, to how we were conditioned to know ourselves from the outside in.  In other words, assuming that the object we are perceiving at a distance - the way you look to me from a few feet away or I look in a mirror - is the same as what is actually here at no distance. 

Somatic Learning develops an open dialogue between the conscious and subconscious parts of our body-mind. This dialogue allows what we sense in the depths of our silent level of experience to influence and update our way of perceiving ourselves and the world.  Like fine tuning a radio receiver, Somatic Intelligence enhances our ability  to accurately attune with the body’s impulse to thrive. ,As we sense the feedback arising from the body-mind, we learn new ways of functioning that are congruent with non self-limiting beliefs. The old programmed  reactions are gradually erased, and our habitual tensions release into a more enlivened and integrated functioning. 

We learn from utilizing feedback - just as we wouldn’t learn to swim without water - we need the feedback of our feelings and sensations to become more self-organizing.  This changes not only our awareness, but our actual physical structure and physiological functioning.  We learn to bring spaciousness throughout the body-mind, allowing us to move with grace and efficiency, to prevent injuries and reverse the deterioration that often accompanies aging.  We strengthen our immune system, change the stress responses to ones that are more restorative and intelligent, and heal from trauma and stress related illnesses.   

And, Just as our physical movement becomes less dense and mechanical, so does the way we think and feel, become more fluid, creative and resourceful. 

Through the Somatic Meditations we develop a more highly differentiated response-ability.  This enhanced capacity for self-sensing, self-organizing (self-correcting), and self-renewing is the hallmark of the practice of Somatic Learning."

Part One: Journey into Embodied Mindfulness

This week's post is the first in a seven-part series of excerpts from our soon to be released companion video to the book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art & Practice of Embodied Mindfulness:

"Hello.  I feel so grateful to share this journey into embodied mindfulness with you.

In this video series, you will learn how to engage your innate Somatic Intelligence, feeling and sensing from the inside-out to transform pain stress, trauma and aging.

All living things, even a single celled organism, or a plant, are continually growing, responding, moving - becoming.

They are designed to respond to the environment around them, as well as to their own internal needs.

You too are designed to tune in and learn from your inner sensing system. Most of us lost this capacity as we were socialized. Much of what we learn about ourselves we learn from external sources. We learn that we have only five senses - all for gathering external data. In reality, we have an unlimited capacity to receive from within and to shape our own experience.

This video series is divided into sections.  Some provide a conceptual framework.  Others introduce and demonstrate somatic mediations, while others guide you through experiments that support the integration of somatic intelligence into every aspect of living. I encourage you to watch the practices first, before going back and trying them yourselves.

In volume one you will learn how to breathe with a new awareness --  in such a way that everything inside you move.

You will learn to differentiate the movement of each of your respiratory diaphragms, freeing your bones to float in the sea of soft tissue. I think of this as "gravity surfing."

Using your breath you will be able to elongate your spine and open all your joints, so your bones float freely extending on the waves of your breath.

We practice this process while sitting and lying on the ground in volume two, we extend this practice to sitting on balls and chairs,  while standing and walking, learning to fluidly change plains between these positions.

This practice is a wonderful opportunity to shift the way you approach learning and movement, no pushing to achieve an idea, no strain or struggle with the somatic meditations.   Trust yourself to open and learn at your own pace and tune in to the beauty and wonder of the living system that is you.

As my beloved yoga teacher, Vanda Scaravelli, often said; 'you must start with beauty and no ambition.'

Lets begin joyously."

How do you journey into embodied mindfulness?

Breathing: Drinking in and kissing back, a Somatic Meditation®

Presencing is a way of learning into the infinite as the beloved, just as a cat will sometimes lean into stroking, expressing its enjoyment in purring.

Try this Somatic Meditation in breathing, then ask yourself:

• When you lean into this vast spaciousness, can you sense it more deeply?

• Does kissing back the infinite as intimately as kissing the beloved make this simple moment of breathing even more luscious?

• Do you feel renewed in this mode of breathing?

• Can you sense this drinking in and kissing back with your breath as an expression of gratefulness?

Risa on "Inner Speak Soul Adventures"

Dear Friends,

I had the pleasure of speaking on Inner Speak Soul Adventures with Jeane Adrienne this past Tuesday, and wanted to share this with you!

All love,

- Risa


On this Show:
Current western scientific research verifies that you can use your mind to change your brain, producing not just short-term effects, but permanent changes. These shifts can result in profound improvements to the physiological, mental, emotional, and interpersonal aspects of our lives.

Healthy Longevity:  
For the 75 million baby boomers who are facing the realities of their aging bodies, beliefs, and habits, Awakening Somatic Intelligence teaches how to awaken the potential of the body-mind and to use that untapped potential to create a healthy, vibrant, and graceful aging process free of pain, injury, suffering, and confusion.

Life-Long Wellness:
Awakening Somatic Intelligence empowers people to achieve goals like healthy longevity, inner peace and happiness, weight loss, freedom from pain and trauma, and alleviation of the negative effects of stress based upon the untapped capacities of people to utilize the finely tuned feedback of their own bodies.

Integrated into Daily Life:
Awakening Somatic Intelligence provides simple, easy to learn practices that can be applied  “anytime, anywhere” to live more mindfully, effectively, and joyously. These practices are integrated into the normal flow of life so that waking, sleeping, walking, driving, and eating are all gymnasiums for discovery.

More Benefits in Less Time:
Sometimes, relief is as close as a breath away. Just five minutes of daily practice can be sufficient to turn the tide of even chronic and degenerative conditions. Given that people have less free time yet greater economic and personal stress, the need for approaches that naturally integrate into ordinary everyday activities is now greater than ever.
Awakening Somatic Intelligence takes daily practice beyond the meditation cushion or yoga mat and supports the integration and stabilization of non-dual consciousness and optimal cognitive, emotional and physiological functioning into a new way of living with ever-greater freedom and aliveness.

**Be sure to check out The Awakening Zone, which is full of a great interviews and helpful information!

Conscious Talk Radio - Featuring Dr. Risa Kaparo

Dear Friends,

I'm very excited to share with you one of my recent interviews on Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art & Practice of Embodied Mindfulness - Transform Pain Stress Trauma & Aging, with Rob Spears and Brenda Michaels of Conscious Talk Radio.  I really recommend you take a look at their website, which has tons of archived interviews with many prominent researchers, writers, and doctors.

Enjoy!
- Risa

http://www.conscioustalk.net/