About the similarity of fog and emotions and working with a soul mate…

These past days have been a bliss concerning autumn weather, the mornings were mystified by the fog and the afternoons shone with the sun. I have been walking a lot in the forest these past days and one day the fog was so dense that I could not see the trees at the entrance of the forest. It is the forest that I know nearly by heart, and yet not being able to see 1 meter ahead was thrilling. However as I started walking into it the trees appeared, I walked right in and stayed inside, and the more I walked the more I was enveloped in the fog and my sight was being delighted by the trees and creatures appearing ahead. 

Is there a similarity between fog and emotions? Yes there is, even more than one similarity: Walking right in the fog I couldn’t help thinking about what we worked on the weekend before this last one. Emotions are like fog, when one stays outside and does not enter them or doesn’t pass through them, doesn’t allow them to envelop us.. we cannot really see what is hidden inside. As we feel courageous enough to walk through, to dance through our emotions, as we accept to stay with them during the walk, we can start seeing what they look like and to which parts of our unknown selves they shed a light on. 

From simple and bold to a weekend full of emotions. We had a very rich weekend two weeks ago, where I had the deep pleasure of co-facilitating our 3rd workshop with my dear friend and colleague Pedro Prazeres. You have heard about him in my past blogs, when I was writing about the workshop at Vadi Manasir. With Pedro this time we created a workshop called Witness Liberation In you and Around you. It may sound very ambitious and grandiose, but as a matter of fact we went down to the simplest way of facilitating. 

In this simplicity and the complicity between us, the space transformed into a sea of movement, small and big, dense and light, expressive and intimate. Together with 15 participants overall over two days we witnessed how emotions were liberated during the improvisations. Our listening and feeling became vibrant, that witnessing one’s own and others’ emotions did nourish us to the bone. The liberation was happening if we wanted or not, so we soon dropped this concept, and could stay with the body in pure motion, witnessing what was happening in us and in all the others.

At moments the intensity was so dense that it reminded me of the fog in the forest, and as everyone stayed in it continuing to dance through the foggy emotions, clarity appeared and the movements communicated without producing any meaning. The action was pure and innocent, and we all just stayed with what happened: movements and emotions transformed and caressed us with ephemeral strokes.

Who is Pedro then? Can you see him?

Pedro Prazeres is one of our first generation Facilitators. He lives in France and gives his sessions, group classes and workshops there, as well as everywhere around in the world. He also is a talented choreographer and has produced many poetic pieces for dance, landscape and music. Nowadays, I feel Pedro is going into the subtleties of being, through movement, artistic creation, creating meaningful networks and listening to nature. Some years ago he created an association called LIM where many artists from different disciplines gather, work and exchange, research and produce together in an organic network.

My encounter with Pedro goes way back to 2006 when he came to study at the Duncan Centre Conservatory. This encounter continued to be shaped into a steady and sincere friendship, student-teacher relationship, then mentor-mentee relationship and finally evolved into a professional partnership. The sincere friendship has been the very ground upon which all other relationships have been growing.

(I must mention also that Pedro was the first babysitter of my daughter Sofia-Su, and they were very cute together, going wild in laughter, cornflake fights, banana parties and much more… a little photo by our common friend Pedro Pina Vasconcelos, taken in Barcelona during one of our trips together: Pedro and Sofia-Su in the court yard of the Modern Art museum in Barcelona)

Do I sound admirative? Well yes, I have the impossible weakness of falling in love with beautiful souls who I have the chance to work with. But as we say in Turkish, Love can land on anything…and when it lands it does its work, no matter what we do. Every love is unique and is incomparable, unaccountable and unique: therefore today it's about my love for Pedro and our friendship that will reach 20 years next year. 

Just after finishing his studies at the Duncan Centre he asked me if he could continue being my student, and somehow was able to transform this teacher-student relationship into a mentor-mentee relationship, all the while keeping it clearly separated from our family friendship. And believe me, this is very rare! He would be so clear about these lines: He would write to me saying that he would like to have a mentor-mentee time, and then another time we would just meet and talk and chat about life. Of course all themes would flow as they did, but just mentioning these lines gave us the sense of the importance of the values we cherish in each other. Over the years we learned, exchanged and supported each other, and as the years passed by our love grew, our love for each other, for the common experiences and the work: our path of love and our approach to the body in all its aspects.

How did Somatic Dialogue enter into the scene? Well, when I finally decided to design a training for Somatic Dialogue Facilitators, I first asked some of my former students to take some pilot lessons with me, so that their feedback would help me finalize the whole program. Most of them did take part in the training after I launched it.  One of them was Pedro. His way of being in the lessons, questioning certain things, sharing his experiences gave me a lot of support.

The first cycle was precious because it was there, where I could really crystallize and transmit something that I do intuitively to other professionals. Every participant in this cycle just like Pedro was a mirror in which a part of myself was reflecting, and a world through which I could learn things one cannot find in books or elsewhere. After completing his training as a Somatic  Dialogue Facilitator, Pedro has been giving regular group classes, individual sessions and workshops in which he dives into Somatic Dialogue and allows all his other knowledge of techniques and  experiences to combine with it. His workshops are inspiring and create a safe space where each participant can dive into their depths to fish out material to work with.

Pedro stayed in Prague last week after the workshop and we had the opportunity to talk and share more about our work together, and one interesting topic was about witnessing, about perceiving and about reflecting on what we are perceiving. 

The photos that you see here are from our preparation session with Pedro, where we just spent home time together doing Prayers in the studio and writing down our ideas that emerged during the prayers.

After talking we came to the conclusion for now, that the best part is just to witness in full presence what we are seeing, and to stay with what is happening. This thought was overlapping with the theme I was working on that week for the book. I had just come to the part of the book where I write about the importance of training perception for the facilitator in training. 

Learning to perceive movement is a very long process, and a never ending one. It is like a muscle that one needs to train, because the whole being is involved. We do not only see with the eyes or hear with the ears or project and analyze with the mind but we connect with the body’s intelligence where the mind and senses meet and we let the perceived scene reach us and touch us. We learn to perceive from the heart… the heart’s windows open and the curtains float in the air moved by the in-flowing wind, and we can from time to time see without a curtain or veil what moves in front of our eyes… Therefore it is so important to be fully present. The practice of perception is sometimes very hard and tiring but it is just as much a delight for all our senses.

So we have to practice Somatic Dialogue to perceive? No of course not,there are many disciplines and traditions that teach perception, but in Somatic Dialogue the perception is vital and therefore the practice of the method throws us into our perceptive systems immediately. However I find that it is also a very inspiring practice in life: Trying to perceive more than the first layer in what we look at or listen to or even feel. Taking time to let our awareness kick in when we are looking at a landscape, or at a person. Trying to perceive beyond seeing, and listening with the heart and not stopping at the ears and the first meanings that emerge in our minds.

I am sure Pedro would agree with me right now and would add his precious thoughts on this matter… Right Pedro? Will you give us the honour?

Dear reader, I will stop for now, as I have so much to write in the book. Time is flying and I am already thinking that the deadline that I had given to myself will not be kept. Helas!  We do what we are able to do. The book imposes its own rhythm, and I am respecting the process.

I hope you have had a  nice few minutes reading. And maybe you might read in the near future what Pedro thinks about all this 🙂

Stay well, enjoy the photos, and as always,

take time to feel how you are in love..

as Love must B