Little doors opening to a magical world!

Here I am sitting at my beloved desk in Corsica, it is 13:28, the perfect time to start writing the last blog of 2025. The river that runs next to the road below is so strong, it transformed from a middle sized stream into a torrent this winter: there is this non-stop roaring, gurgling, swooshing and many more. I have been listening to the river everyday, listening deeply and losing myself in its music.

I am here to have some quiet time in order to write as you all know, and I have been writing and I have managed to finish what I intended to finish. Interestingly I had a plan and as I continued writing according to plan, the plan just transformed: new ideas were sliding in, and I did not feel disturbed by them, but rather intrigued and I followed them. Now let me explain:

My initial plan since last summer has been to work on three books at a time. Just imagine it visually: three documents juxtaposed. The one in the middle is the main book, the source. In this one I write about all the lessons that have been taught during the 2 cycles of the facilitator training. This book I call the Facilitation Textbook. It will serve as a book of reference for all the instructors who will teach during all the long-term training programs that will happen: Level 1: Embodiment through movement, Level 2: The Touch and Level 3: Somatic Dialogue Facilitation Program. In this book I write about all the lessons which were recorded, it is like a documentation of all the lessons given in 4 years of training. Just re-writing them is yet an amazing other level of the embodiment process for me. 

On the left document, or in Book 2, I am working on parts which are written for the Certified Facilitators.  In this book there are the main areas of interest in the Method of Somatic Dialogue, exercises and questions, anecdotes, short case studies which will serve as a road map and as an inspiration for the facilitators in practice, with exercises also for self-practice and reflection exercises so that we can continue the dialogue with ourselves while working with clients.  

In Book 3, which is placed on the right of the Textbook, I gather together more philosophical paragraphs, they will be like little paragraphs enumerated (like in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, for example), sometimes also little invitations to think, write, draw and improvise. A little modest book of inspiration based on the ideas and principles of Somatic Dialogue, which can inspire the reflection about how we relate to our body, selves and life. This book will be published for everyone :) , well that is, if it will be interesting enough for the publisher.

Now at the beginning I started with a clear structure. I know that when I need to create or write I need to start with the structure and make a road map. I need to know what my sources  are (nearly 1000 A4 pages of notes, more precisely transcripts of all the lessons), all my notes that I made during this process concerning the chapters of the book, the imaginary outline of the table of contents, i.e. draft chapters that relate to the main areas of work in Somatic Dialogue, and also a free space in my head for anything that may come.

This last part is very important for me, because what I was teaching then during the training was corresponding to that period in my own process with Somatic Dialogue. But creating the training programs allowed me to learn so much from the participants’ processes that I have also been going through a very large path of learning. So when I write about the lessons, I re-write them with my experience that I have gained over the past 5 years. So having somewhere this empty space in my mind and imagination helps me to hear new ideas, which can carry and represent the past experiences. 

As I write these lines here, my inner voice tells me: oh Berrak, who will ever read this, apart from the facilitators? But hey, yes, it might not be an attractive book at first glance, but actually it is not the book that is attractive and interesting, but it is the interest and time and comprehension of the reader that brings the book to life and makes it desirable. The book and the reader need to meet at the moment of the reading, and hopefully my book will be able to foster such a meeting.

I imagine the reader like a person who goes for a walk, with no other aim than just walking. When I go for a walk sometimes my mind is very full and I just walk, letting the rhythm of my steps bring some soothing to my full mind. Sometimes my body is very heavy and the walk is an opportunity for me to release tension in my body, breathe and find some kind of a flow. But the best times when I walk are the times when my perception is open, my mind and heart are quiet and I can see and feel the environment in which I am walking. 

I love walking through nature. When I have a calm heart and I walk at my body‘s pace, my eyes always rest upon little details that I see in tree trunks, on the moss, and even in the little stones or rocks. I see a little point, a little hole or a little passage and it leads somewhere… 

And when I stand there, and I look, and I let my imagination float towards the image that I’m seeing, I have a feeling that I’m passing through a door and I enter a different dimension, a  different world like Alice in Wonderland but not that wild. A world that I don’t see through my eyes, but that I feel through my senses, a world where another life exists. These places are tiny little landscapes.

I call them little doors opening to a magical world! During my walks these past few weeks I have been lucky enough to see these little doors, they turned my walks into special imaginary moments, where I was firmly in the reality of walking and feeling the ground, looking out for Gigi, and at the same time I was in another realm. So cool!! Best trip ever!

I find this sensation very close to the writing process. Sometimes I am starting off writing about a chapter that is present in the structure that I am following, but in one phrase I feel there is a door opening to another world, one concept opens up and I find myself shifting to another document and letting my fingers write without filter about this concept. These moments are also like little doors opening to different worlds during writing. 

Well, so much from me on this last blog of 2025 dear readers. I finish this year with a shorter blog on the book and more photos of these little doors that have been inspiring me in the past few weeks. Maybe they will lead you to magical realms too❤️

Have a good end of the year. And see you next week.

Love as always,

as love must B