Intro:
Welcome to Part 8, the last six weeks of Creative Self Exploration, a year-long experiment I publish every Saturday (damn near) solely following my intuition/inspiration.
In Part 8, we will be using our body as the tool of our expression. Each week I propose a theme, a particular emotion for you to seek out through the week, and when you find yourself feeling it, I ask you to use your body to express it. Much like choreography but doesn’t have to be a dance move, it can be just a small movement with your pinky. What’s important is that, you catch yourself in the moment of your such emotion and with the movement of your body you jump into the present.
Come Alive, right where you are
Into the Immediacy of the Moment
In case if your mobility is restricted in any way at the moment, please do instead make a movement in your brain/with your thoughts – as our brain is the one who gives the rest of our body commands to make any part of it move. You can still send signals, whether your bod responds with movements or not. I think that’d get you there.
Same goes for situations where you are not able to, or very difficult to, actually move, such as at work conference, on crowded train, etc.
I hope the idea excites you, I think it will be a great Quality Fun.
Please Be Noted: If, at any point, you feel overwhelmed or get other strong responses, please suspend the exercise and proceed with suitable self care measures. Read more in Introduction page – scroll down to “Few Important Notes”.
( in reverse chronological order )
Week 51: Escape into the Moment
December 21, 2024
Welcome (back), Dear Visitor!!
This is the last week of Part 8: You in the Moment, which is the last chapter of this year-long project, Creative Self Exploration.
For the last 5 weeks we have explored every imaginable discomfort known to mankind: Anger, Fear, Sorrow, Contempt, Lethargy.
There’s a reason for this. Part 8 has been about coming alive in the moment. I found it true however, that, in order for a person to achieve that state, the moment has got to be a reasonably safe place*.
*Safe, as in, psychologically safe. If “unsafe” physically/situationally e.g. bombs going off, a tiger after you, etc. run to the safety first.
Example. You are mad as hell and rightfully so, but hiding it from yourself because you feel not much hope in the cause of anger dissipating for the remainder of the history of the Universe. In this state if you attempt at coming alive in the moment, there will be a conflict of interest within yourself. The anger with despair piled on it will demand your attention, making your “present” unappealing, and reasonably so.
Wonderful news for you is that, no matter how great the anger/despair, in this example, may be, you need not to wait until they are resolved in order for you to feel alive in the present. I found it true time and again, that simple and honest-enough acknowledgment of how you feel, and gestures as small as the exercise suggested here (in Part 8), will loosen, and unlock you from, an internal battle – between how you truly feel and your wish to look away from it, which could have kept you in a form of half-heartedness/sorta-aliveness. And that my friend, in my humble opinion, is a crying shame, if it is prolonged.
With that being said, please find below, the last exercise to conclude this experiment.
Recall a time when you felt very alive and present.
Find a few words, a sentence or two, a form of a short prayer, etc. that describe the experience well enough that will trigger the lively feeling(s) in you.
Speak the trigger words/lines, and jump into the moment and come alive like you have every right to.
Do so whenever you want to.
Creativity will greet you in the Delight of the Present
And will let you know, Life’s a Gift granted free.
Maybe, just perhaps, that’s what freedom really means.
Well Dear Visitor, this concludes Part 8, the last chapter of this project.
Please allow me to thank you heartily for joining me. It’s been a pleasure to share these experiments with you.
Next week, we will have a Grand Finale, will celebrate with yet another Quality Fun, so make sure to join me one more time.
Til then,
Peace.
Week 50: Lethargy, Loss of Vitality
December 14, 2024
This is the fifth week of Part 8: You in the Moment, and today we will be talking about the Lethargy group, which includes:
Depression. Burnout. Overwhelm. Dispiritedness. Decrease in interest, appetite, passion, energy. Drought of your heart. The Blah state. Floating in a mud pit, sinking slow.
Unlike Anger, which’s where we started 4 weeks ago, Lethargy group confronts you with a lack of fuel. Not much to work with or so it may seem. Well let’s see how we’ll do with this particular challenge.
Spend this week in search for your feelings/states in the Lethargy group .
When you sense their presence, *feel into the way you are, as if to intentionally bathe in a mud pool.
As you do, allow your body to flow into movement, let it express the way you feel.
*If you feel overtaken by strong reactions/emotions in any way, please discontinue this exercise and proceed to give yourself necessary tender loving care. Also, practice this exercise only if you won’t become a danger to yourself and/or others.
I’ve written this and other instructions throughout all the preceding weeks, so if interested, scroll this page further down to find them.
Since Lethargy may be more about the state of your existence, I recommend another way in addition to the usual “locating your feelings in your body” approach: the Mud Pool Method, meaning, getting to your Lethargy through how immediate surroundings feel on your body.
Example. You feel like you are wearing a wet jacket, running in water, in dense humid air…
There is something unspecific about Lethargy. Hard to pinpoint. Can be felt more enveloping. All encompassing. But the core idea of this exercise is the same as the previous weeks:
Feel into your discomfort. Suspend analysis/judgment at best of your ability.
We are not attempting to solve, heal, combat the Lethargy. It’s important to not have goals/outcomes for this exercise. Instead…
Feel the Lethargy with/in your physicality and allow your body to express it through movements.
When you permit yourself, even for just a few seconds, expressive movements of your own seem to occur almost on their own. If that doesn’t happen, do what you can in ways right for you. That should suffice.
What we are trying to do is to, instead of talking/thinking/writing, etc. let your body speak its own language, flowing with the energy of Lethargy – which sounds like oxymoron for we are talking about the lack of energy here.
However. Lack, possibly severe lack, is not complete absence. Withered flowers are not dead. Find energy still present in you and give it a voice through movements of your body.
And see what happens.
The Current that forms Endless Ocean Waves
Pulsates within you the Song you came here to Sing
Thank you for joining me.
Next week we will be concluding the Part 8. Look forward for more quality fun, til then!
Week 49: Challenges of Contempt
December 07, 2024
Contempt is not so easy to fathom.
Sometimes it seems rather justified. Some other times, a bit more complicated. Either way, it can be kind of difficult.
As have been for last three weeks, I am going to group emotions/feelings/reactions and name this week’s pick as the Contempt group.
Repulsion. Disgust. A strong sense of incompatibility. A reaction of “recoiling from”.
Exciting, yes? Let’s begin, ‘cause it will be.
This week watch for feelings of contempt/repulsion.
Feel into your sense of contempt without becoming analytical.
Naturally progress into expressing the feeling using your body*.
*Weekly caution-note time:
If you feel overwhelmed/confused or any other strong reactions overtaking you, please stop this exercise pronto and take necessary care of yourself.
Furthermore, only proceed with the exercise when you are not a danger to yourself and/or others.
One can feel contemptuous for very many reasons. Delicate, tender, painfully human stories may reside right beneath. Compared to the last three weeks’ themes of Anger/Fear/Sorrow, Contempt can be more complex, subtle, multi layered over our very vulnerable place inside.
This exercise is offered, not to dissect your psychology, presented without specific aim such as healing/solving/overcoming.
This is an invitation, to capitalize on the power of Creativity through a simple, easily applicable creative actions – and see where that takes you.
Also is for you to explore your multitude of potentials, whether recognized/realized or just yet – to experience you as the biggest mystery of your life.
So this week if something happens that triggers the response of contempt in you, please take that as an opportunity and give this exercise a try.
Feel into the sense of contempt. Locate it in your body/existence, taste the flavor, take the pulse of it, dance to the heartbeat of it and naturally, allow part or whole of your body to move in expression of it.
And see what happens.
Surrender to Imperfections**
A Beautiful Paradox of Life will bring you to your Wings
**By “imperfections” I meant, e.g. uncomfortable feelings, your reactions to external circumstances, etc.
By “surrender” I meant, instead of fighting/ignoring/wishing them away/punishing yourself for them, etc.
Even more instructions can be found in previous three posts on Anger, Fear and Sorrow. Simply scroll this page further down to read.
Wish you beautiful experiences this week,
Sincerely.
Week 48: Let Sorrow Be Your Inspiration
November 30, 2024
This week, we are going to venture into another territory of our emotional state: please welcome, the Sorrow group.
Sadness. Grief. Melancholy. Include versions of defeat, disappointment, despair. A sense of loss, and its preceding state, disbelief. How sorrow creeps in while still bargaining with reality…
Oh wait, don’t leave without giving the following a try…
Spend this week being mindful of your feelings. Look for moments you feel Sorrow.
When such moments arrive, *dive into the depth of it and express the way you feel using your body.
*Weekly ‘caution note’ time:
Please also be mindful if you feel overwhelmed in any way. In such case, I strongly suggest you discontinue this exercise and tend to your needs.
Also proceed with this exercise only when it is safe to do so, that no one – you and/or other creatures – will be in danger because of it.
Different versions of this ‘caution note’ as well as instructions can be found in previous posts, just scroll down further to get to them, they are short and fun to read (I think).
This may or may not be true for you:
when you allow yourself to feel, in this week’s case, sorrow group emotions, even the ones from possibly long past may surface.
I am writing this, in case you are conflicted about “re-experiencing”, as in digging up the past discomfort from years prior.
My wish for you is that you deem the surfacing as an opportunity, that you as a whole know what has been stored inside, that is ready to be befriended, integrated, or perhaps released. Please give the benefit of the doubt that, the timing may be just perfect.
Do you know a song “Drown in my own tears”? What I am recommending this week is a swim instead – through the use of easily applicable creative actions.
As if to swim out into a lake made of your sorrow, feel into it, savor if possible, then express the way you feel with your body**.
You can then bring the experience of the ’swim’ to your creative pursuits, like a fruit to the kitchen table. Nothing gets lost that way.
**As mentioned earlier, more instructions on this I wrote on previous posts. Please do check them out by simply scrolling this page further down.
Just quickly tho, “feel into it” meaning, does it feel sharp like a knife, cold like an ice, engulfing or localized, heart aches, chakra collapses, etc. etc.
“Express with your body” means allow your body to move almost on its own, flow into movements, enough just for a few seconds, of course longer if you wish.
As we all know, Life can take us to very many places, some of them no doubt, would leave us with psychological discomfort. Creativity has a habit of turning those experiences into potent assets, as if to say joys and sorrows are both equally welcome.
Swim in a lake of your sorrow
Sunlight dances on the surface
will show you the way to the Shore
Wishing you a fruitful week ahead!
Week 47: Fear as an Opportunity
November 23, 2024
Fear. Anxiety. Nervousness. Antsy. Edgy. Panicky. Tremor, terror, horror.
This week we are going to positively experiment with the Fear group of our mental-emotional states.
Before going further let me re-emphasize the following:
if you find yourself overwhelmed in any way during this exercise, please stop right there and take a good care of you. No point in pushing when the timing isn’t right.
Remember, ‘not now’ doesn’t have to mean ‘never’.
This week as you walk the world, pay close attention to the way you feel.
When you find yourself in fear, feel into it and express it using your body*.
*As I wrote last week (in other words allow me to repeat again), please do make sure you are not a danger to yourself and/or others when you do this. Longer “caution” note is just a scroll (down) away, from last week in small letters just like this, right beneath the blue-background short paragraph, like the one above.
So, the fear-anxiety spectrum of feelings/states. I would like you to catch yourself in low-key background anxiety as well, not only in fear that is usually louder.
When in one of those states, feel into it as if to examine the texture, or to swim into a lake of it.
Where in your body do you feel it?
Back of your neck where they say your hair stands? Is there a butterfly in the pit of your stomach?
Not to label the feeling, just dive into it when opportunity arrives.
And allow your body to move in ways it wants to, let your body interpret-express the feeling, and flow with it just for a few seconds.
This exercise is not aimed at overcoming/solving/fighting against fear. It is to drop such intentions and flow with your fear, either right when you’re feeling it, or when you have time/space to do so.
How does it feel? Let your body speak freely in response. Exaggerate a bit perhaps. Suspend any self-criticism if any (e.g. this is ridiculous I look foolish…) and go ahead, steal a moment of freedom.
Lovingly, Life Pulsates
In the Ocean of your Unrest
Thanks for coming by,
join me again next Saturday.
Week 46: Anger, the Ultimate Dynamo
November 16, 2024
Been angry before? If you are a living human, probably have (so you know how it feels).
This week, I propose an idea to you, to utilize anger as follows:
Spend this week looking for moments when you feel angry.
When you catch yourself in anger, feel into it and express the way you feel using your body*.
*Needless to say perhaps, but on internet, playing it safe may be preferable:
only proceed with this exercise if you are safe to yourself and others. If you need to defend, flee, call for help, focus on task at hand, etc. please do so.
Also, using your body to slap a person in anger, for instance, is not what is suggested here. This exercise does not condone no violence, physical or psychological, unless absolutely necessary for your safety/survival.
Angry. Agitated. Frustrated. Displeased. Indignant. Triggered. I loosely group these psychological states in the anger category.
This week, I want you to feel into the sensation of anger. No need to spend too long. Just gently, playfully perhaps, dip into the emotion/reaction of anger.
How does it feel, is it anger, agony, discontent? Does the feel of it change as you go deeper?
Which part of your body feels it the most, how strong, what is the sensation?
Then, using your body as a tool of expression, express the feeling with the motion of your body. Like choreographing your anger.
Circumstance may not allow you to go full-on ballet dancing but perhaps, you can sneak Swan Lake a sec and gesture your hands without no one noticing.
Another example, if you feel your anger in your heart, and as you dip into the feel of it it starts to morph into agony, then perhaps, clutch onto your heart with tightened fists, but make it quick so to avoid paramedics turning up for you.
I think it’s best if you can do this the moment you feel it, but it may also be preferable to wait until you are alone in your room so you can really get into it. You know which is better for your specific situation.
Anger can be quite uncomfortable, but when you see it as an opportunity to feel Creative Energy flowing through you, it can be experienced quite differently. Often considered “negative”, anger can be seen as a transformative, life affirming experience, that gives you deep insight into your internal landscape.
Anger is an expression of Dynamic Energy
flowing through All in Celebration of Life.
Thanks for joining me,
and see you in a week!
