This event was held in 2019. I hope to be offering live, in-person events like this again, just as soon as we know it’s safe to do so. Make sure to get all the invites and updates by joining the mailing list or by following me on Facebook.

Conscious Movement & Mindful Communication

Conscious movement practices like 5 Rhythms dance, Yoga, and Body-Mind Centering have been just as healing and transformative for me as T-Group. In truth, I believe T-Group would have been largely useless to me without them...

These practices revealed that I lived almost exclusively in what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche calls the “psychosomatic-body,” a mental model made up of thoughts ABOUT my body, ABOUT myself, and ABOUT my life (like a tiny, inner Truman Show that I both produced and lived obliviously inside of). They also gave me the tools I needed to re-discover what Trungpa calls “body-body,” the ACTUAL, living body that can be felt and sensed directly, that always knows what’s most true for me in any situation.

In doing this kind of work, I realized that the only “self” I had to offer others was just the outward surface of the psychosomatic body, and that my sense of insecurity, inauthenticity, and isolation came from being so disconnected from the deeper truth of the body-body. I could hardly answer the question, “How are you feeling right now?” So how do you think I did with questions like, “What’s true for you in this situation?” “What do you need?” Or, “Where is your boundary?” No wonder I had gotten myself into situations and relationships that weren’t good for me… :-(

At first, getting more into my body was disorienting AF. The body doesn’t speak in words, and I didn’t know how to decode its messages. But with time, practice, and a lot of trial and error, I was able to learn its language. And now, I experience my body as an incredibly sensitive instrument that will faithfully tell me MY truth in any situation (the truth that’s true regardless of what I might think or prefer, which is my definition of authenticity). It’s the GPS I use to navigate every moment of my life.

And in T-Group, this gives me greater access to the layers and levels of my inner world: what my current state is and what I might be needing, how I’m responding to others, and what kind of sense I’m making out of it all. This means that I can sit at the relational table and NEGOTIATE with a full deck. And when the self I’m sharing is sourced from the deep well of truth within me, that authenticity and vulnerability opens the portal to true connection and intimacy with others.

So my intention for this gathering is to bring conscious movement and mindful communication together in one place. Drawing from both T-Group and the movement practices I mentioned above, we’ll generate an alternating current, flowing between the deep inner world of embodiment and the outer world of connection, communication, and community.

This practice will support your movement from the psychosomatic-body to the body-body, wherever you happen to be in that process. As we connect more deeply with ourselves, we have more of our authentic vulnerability to share with others. And as we know from Brené Brown, vulnerability is the birthplace of connection - and connection is why we are here in the first place.

Furthermore, living through the body-body is the best system I’ve found for cultivating discernment (which is defined in the Buddhist tradition as “knowing what to accept and what to reject”), and also for knowing how to make decisions (how to invest our precious and very limited resources of time, energy, and attention). It’s what lets us be ALL THE WAY HERE, knowing that we get to occupy space, that we get to to make room for all the things that are true for us, and to impact the world around us as well.

It will also expand your range of self-expression, revealing novel ways to communicate your inner world and connect with others. My hope is that you will find play and jubilation in rediscovering the modes of communication we knew so well as children.

Questions? Write me here...