I Have A Dream...

I do what I do, simply because I have a dream. Sometimes I forget, but I want to remember, and I want to share it with people, with people who may be dreaming the same dream as I do...

• I dream of making this world a better place, where people live in peace and love one another.
• Where people are not so rushed or hurried to pursue the riches in life, but take their time and feel one another, and feel the world, feel their existence in the world.
• I live, in a slower pace than most people around me. Perhaps I could slow down the hurried, the overly rushed, and make them feel and think, and enjoy their presence, here in the world... just like how nature, moves slowly, but surely.
• I dream that we would be kind to one another, that we would make decisions that considers the best interests of one another, that understand its effects and consequences to one another, that we do not simply take from others, what is not ours.
• I dream that we could live in harmony with nature, that we learn to realise that it is nature that offers us the greatest abundance, enough for all of us to share, that there is no need to fight or to steal or to compete.
• That our need for abundance does not need to be in conflict with the very nature of the universe, of our existence...

The Pressures We Put On Ourselves

About 2 years ago, I had a major breakthrough in my work with my body. I was finally able to understand how it feels to be truly aligned and released.

However, I was working in a static state, not dynamic - as in standing still vs. movements. The wonderful alignment cannot be sustained as I have yet to develop the necessary muscles to uphold that posture. To do so would take constant work of daily alignment and exercise. In addition to that, I have discovered some dormant muscle injury that was the result of an electro-acupuncture session gone wrong. It was an extremely challenging phase, not only physically, but also emotionally. Soon I slowly let it go, the old habits took over again and I lost that wonderful feeling.

2 years on, I find myself stuck at my performance level, and that there is no way to move forward other than to deal with my alignment again. This time, with a more prepared and positive mind set, and I opt to work more dynamically.

You see, the benefits of working dynamically (with movement) is that you are constantly building muscle and conditioning your movement habits as you work - rather than just "stacking" your joints and expect them to stay there.

So last week, during my dance sessions, as I was working on my body, I discovered 2 habits that was holding me back.

1. There is a sensation of pulling back/clawing down along my middle-lower back muscles.
My teacher commented about my habit of contracting that part of my back to develop an arch and to extend my legs backwards. Now I suddenly realised how dominant that sensation was in my overall body posture.

2. As I work to release that sensation, I found another, even more influential force that is holding me down - there is a pressure over the top of my head that is pressing me down.

Well, technically, it was me, putting that pressure on myself. But it did felt like an invisible hand pushing down on me. It's still me.

So what I did was, I mentally "opened up" this pressure over the top of my head, like opening a box and letting the sensation out.
The mantra I gave to myself was to "believe in the higher power," that is to trust the natural forces to hold up my body, instead of me trying do push myself up.

The counter force to that is also the ground. Dynamically speaking, the more force going downwards, the more counter force there is going upwards, which is how an extended, lengthened body comes about.

So the second mantra was to "believe in the ground I am stepping on." It is the sensation of developing trust, that all is fine.

This sensation extends the highly contracted muscles in my legs, especially my quadriceps and calves.

It is a wonderful load of pressure released from my body from these 2 exercises.

I hope that my sharing of my experiences can benefit your practices as well.

Until next time, warm regards...

"(Dancing is) constantly doing a lot of active stretches."
- Mew Chang Tsing