Walking in the Snow, Thinking Warm:Working for the Book everyday!
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
It’s Monday again :) and here I am at 14:44 sharp starting to write my 44th blog! Wow, so many 4s… the number of reality and stability. Currently I am on a skiing holiday with my daughter, Sofia who is an enthusiastic skier. She loves skiing alone, going down the slopes and listening to music, but she also stops frequently I found out and enjoys just looking out into the valley… letting the beauty of nature reach her. ( Well the last part is my imagination, but for sure she enjoys it). She is on the slopes now while I am happily enjoying the hotel room after a long walk in the forest.
Yesterday and today I have had just wonderfully beautiful walks in the valley of Gerlos/ Zillertal. The path goes along the stream and through the forest, which just looks charming with the snow. As I already wrote my 2 weekly newsletters today, I feel warmed up. In the Turkish one I was writing about the term being grounded (in body work, not as a student in middle school). And I mentioned that being grounded goes actually via having one's feet well on the ground, while walking allowing the weight to fall through the feet back into the ground. I really enjoy doing my steps consciously, feeling how my weight is traveling through my body, and how it comes back to me, and how I find my momentum, or my groove while walking. It is a great feeling even when the path is icy and snowy, like today and yesterday.
Being warm, thinking warm is also a nice image I have these days, when it snows outside. Thinking warmly about the book is even better. I have been finding my rhythm again writing or meditating, figuring out how to develop. And this morning I was just checking out my instagram feed and came upon a post by my dear friend Nazli Çevik Azazi, the writer, storyteller and beauty. She was mentioning that she has decided to take up again the writing of her book on “resistance in the creative process”. What a theme, huh? Yeah, can’t wait to read it.
I know exactly how she feels, the resistances sometimes keep us away from a regular rhythm. And we always have excuses, at least I do: lessons, workshops, planning, my daughter, my dog, I am tired… it is endless.
Actually I was thinking about this a lot lately, so I started to really do something for it everyday. Something small. Even if I don’t write, I try at least to jot down a sentence, or look again at my notes and read them… structure them. Even 5-10 minutes helps, (actually this was the theme of my weekly newsletter in English: in case you haven’t registered yet, here it is).
I have started to write the second module already. The second module needs a different kind of approach. As you know I am blending together the 1st and 2nd cycle of the Facilitator Trainings, and they are slightly different. Although they both have the same aim, the syllabus was created separately depending on the needs of the participants. And in the meantime, while doing the 2nd cycle, I realize that I have learned so much from the 1st. But this doesn’t mean that the second was better or more developed than the first one. Not at all, both cycles have taught me to be flexible on timing, and also on wording. And I have learned a lot!
So now I am trying to blend the experience of both cycles together, and at the same time, am trying to keep a chronological order, at least for the textbook. As for the book of inspiration or the facilitator’s manual, it is not necessarily in a particular order.. although there might be just a logical landscape on which the writing will be placed. Meaning that, when I say in no particular order, it isn’t chaotic, rather has its own logic.
Coming back to the book: As I said I have finished Module 1. This module was in both cycles, all about the general rules of facilitation, and embodiment of movement. It was the most intense of all modules. I somehow tried to put everything I could in it. We all realized that when we came to module 5, all we needed to do is go over module 1 again. And we were able to make more sense of it.
Now Module 2 is all about the details of the classes, class structuring, analysis of the movements:
why we do it?
and how we do it?
and what do we feel when it happens?
The second module has just as many practical classes as the first one, maybe a little more. The exercises are variations of the basic Somatic Dialogue exercises, and elaborations of them. As they sound very similar, but the experience of them is more deep, because of the embodiment process, it is very difficult to write about them, and find a way in which one wouldn’t get bored reading them. This means also that I will have to find ways of explaining what has happened then with my experience of today.
The challenges of structuring Module 2 is going to be different and a little harder I guess. But I am confident that I will find a way. I have started already some days ago, and I am reading the notes, making new notes on them. And this is what I am going to write right after finishing this blog today.
So when I saw my friend Nazli’s post about her writing process, I decided to support that by writing also everyday and not postponing this. As I walk everyday, writing is my second priority. And of course the third is to do one Somatic Dialogue exercise at least. Usually I do it before going to sleep and also when I am preparing myself for the day. Today for example I did the Waves from the centre for at least 15 minutes. And it immediately changed my flow of energy.
It is a blessing to feel present in every step, and to let the time of the action settle into you. I am more and more simple in the tasks that I do, be it walking, preparing food, driving, dancing or writing. I enjoy just indulging in that presence of the action.
This indulgence into presence creates another quality of life, it feels less that I am wasting time during a chore or a task, but rather that I am making time, creating time for the experience and the consequences of it.
And in Module 2, that is in this second chapter of the textbook, the underlying thought is making time for the presence to settle into our actions. By using the magic of repetition, each time going deeper and enriching the action, we created time and space so that we can indulge in the sensations of our actions. After doing the tasks or exercises, we always took time to write and feel how the experience felt and where it landed. A precious practice also for everyday life, isn’t it?
Right! Off I go writing the second chapter, while I leave you now with a nice song and some photos of my recent walks in the snow!
Greetings from North Triol!
Love
B
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