We are rhythm-bound organisms.
– Bruce Perry
Hi everyone,
I’ve always liked that quote. It is simple and succinct, yet a profound and apt descriptor of the very essence of our lives.
When our body grows tense, when stress consumes us, we tighten up and lose the ability to feel our own inner and bodily rhythm. When we are able to feel it, it becomes the basis for being in rhythm with another; we resonate. This mind-body resonance from one to another enables empathy and supports compassion. Keeping our body soft and open enough to feel our own inner sensations is the key to feeling connected to one another. Being in a grounded state supports us as we feel not only our shared connection, but the connection to the earth below our feet.
Last weekend, eight of us were at the Living Ubuntu 2013 Winter Retreat in Julian. With grounding exercises each morning and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) before bed each night, it gets easier to feel, and feel deeply. The harder part is to keep it going upon returning home.
The Ubuntu group is only once a month, but our group TRE practice with shared vibratory experiences provides an important part of honoring the fact that we are rhythm-bound organisms.
I hope you will be there for the next one.
If you would like more information on how to join the Ubuntu group, please get in touch with us. : )
Warmly,
Barbara English
http://livingubuntu.org
(949) 891-2005
* * *
Ubuntu Group in Orange County, CA
Friday, February 15 2013
6:30p – 9:30p
TRE starts promptly at 6:30p
Optional: bring veggie foods to share
We have been doing the Ubuntu group since the very beginning (2004). Held on the 3rd Friday of every month, it is a time to connect with one another in an authentic way about whatever is happening in life, to share from the deeper self, from our most known truth. For more information, visit http://livingubuntu.org/events or call (949) 891-2005.
[Ubuntu] n.
Every human being truly becomes a human by means of relationships with other human beings.
Man carries his fiercest enemy within himself.
Giving material goods is one form of generosity, but one can extend an attitude of generosity into all one’s behavior. Being kind, attentive, and honest in dealing with others, offering praise where it is due, giving comfort and advice where they are needed, and simply sharing one’s time with someone – all these are forms of generosity, and they do not require any particular level of material wealth.
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Wisdom means seeing into the heart of things,
When an impulse is consciously held back, the resulting contraction of the muscles is acute. Waves of excitation still reach the muscles, which are all a-quiver like racehorses raring to go but restrained by their jockeys. When the tension becomes chronic, however, the muscles become fixed and the holding back of the impulse becomes unconscious. A fixed, tense muscle makes a spontaneous movement impossible, so that one is no longer aware of anger or any other feeling, not even of the fact that one is holding back feeling. Sensitivity in the area is deadened, so that one doesn’t feel the tension. Years later, when the muscle weakens, pain develops, but by this time the individual cannot make a connection between the pain, the tension, and the suppression of feeling. The chronic tension in the musculature that prevents an impulse from activating the muscle and thus being experienced…
If the road to joy is through the surrender to the self — that is to one’s feelings — the first step in the therapeutic process is to sense and express one’s sadness…
Living Ubuntu Blog 