Movement Medicine Pilgrimage

I had an adventure going to this tree and filming movement video’s and read aloud excerpts of my book. It was a hard journey. I lost a tire. I was alone with baskets of film equipment to carry back and forth. The wind blew and shook my camera so I couldn’t use most of what I wanted to film. And yet the place was stunning.

For months I’ve been yearning for something that feels similar to what I would get by going on a sacred pilgrimage. But it’s Covid time and travelling is not easy. And then I realised I don’t need to go anywhere. I can create my own pilgrimage, right here, a pilgrimage to nourish my heart and my soul. All I need to do is set the intention and make a plan for a week, or two, to give myself what I’m needing.

I’m wanting to feel light as a feather and grounded as an ancient oak. I’m longing to feel spacious within my mind and at ease in my body. The longing is deep.

It dawned on me this is true for every one of us. We deeply need soul nourishment as we face the uncertainties, the solitude, the intensive family time, the friends on different sides of beliefs around illness, and all the the stop-start experiences of 2020.

In Part 1 of Movement Medicine we focus on breath and all it’s connected to physically, emotionally and energetically. I had a feeling there was something I wasn’t seeing that needed to be added to the course. As soon as I realised I could take a pilgrimage right here, at home, I knew this was the piece I needed to add to Movement Medicine.

As we start (because every time a course begins I get to start again as well as my students), and as we initiate our journey in Movement Medicine, the invitation is to begin with the intention of going on a sacred journey.

An adventure beckons.

We listen to the whispers of our soul, we move our bodies until calm and spaciousness arrive even as we move, we release the hold of tight muscles and mind, we come into connection with each other and something greater, when we feel safe and supported we gracefully open like a rose and allow our true nature to blossom. And our lives change.

I Live My Life in Widening Circles

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I will give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song? 

- Rainer Maria Rilke