February 2012 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Just a quick note to wish you a very Happy New Year and to update you on what is happening with Conscious Embodiment in 2012. Our new website is completed and if you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment to visit Embodiment International. We’d love to hear your feedback!

We would like to remind anyone interested in a Level 1 course, that we have one coming up in San Rafael on January 21st with Julie Stuart. You can contact Julie directly or through our website. As a reminder, a Level 1 course is a prerequisite for signing up for a Retreat. Other Level 1 courses are listed to the left and at Embodiment International.

If you’ve taken a Level 1 and you are interested in going deeper into the practices of Conscious Embodiment, Tiphani Palmer is offering a Level 2 course at the CE Retreat Center in San Rafael beginning on March 11.

In April, a Retreat with Wendy Palmer is offered at the CE Retreat Center in San Rafael. This is a great opportunity to do in-person work with the Founder of Conscious Embodiment.

To experience the practice of Conscious Embodiment in a completely different setting, we have two very special events coming up. In October, a Retreat in Tuscany is offered. Check it out — we’re filling up fast. Then, in December, a Spiritual Journey to Bhutan is a rare opportunity to practice with Wendy Palmer in a magical and inspirational environment.

Drop a note to the office (office@embodimentinternational.com) if you are interested – we would love to fit you in.

Peace & AIki,

LE/CE Staff

An article on the lessons of leadership learned from embodied practices like martial arts and somatic traditions by John Tuite.

 

Getting Back to the Body

It is not easy to navigate the internal terrain of how our mind thinks. Our mind and emotions are highly developed like a magician in the art of illusion and the intensity resembles that of an Imax theatre.  Inside our head we have a big screen, a big sound system and a variety of dramas designed to stimulate emotions ranging from terror to desire that can accelerate to maximum intensity in under six seconds.

Mindfulness is a way we can begin to sort out some of ‘what is’ from the illusion. We can begin to observe how our need to create security at any cost reinforces the belief that we need more… more money, approval and control so we can have happiness and security.

Sitting down in a posture that is strong and gentle we can begin to make friends with our mind by observing the habits of our thinking. In this view instead of attempting to minimize the thoughts, we are interested in them. There is a sense of curiosity as to what thought will arise next.  Will it be a judgment, a desire, a fear or a plan?  The idea is to greet each thought kindly and then after acknowledging the validity of it, we offer it out to the space.  Then there is a gap, a moment when we are not engaged in the thought and nothing has rushed in yet.  This is a moment of choice, we can look for the next thought or we can return to our posture, the space around us and our breath.

In this type of practice we work with two basic elements of self-development – awareness and concentration.  Awareness is the practice of seeing and being with what is arising in the moment. Concentration is the practice of focusing one’s attention in a particular way so that our experience stabilizes in a contained process of attention. Concentration is sometimes referred to as Shamatha – a single pointed meditation. Awareness is sometimes referred to as Vipassana – an analytic form of meditation. Working with the balance and timing of the movement between awareness and concentration is an art form. How long do we spend in acknowledging the thought? When are we indulging and when are we rejecting?  As we deepen in to our practice sensitivity begins to develop, we can recognize when indulging is taking place and when rejection is happening.

Little by little a sense of friendliness toward our mind develops and we can see through the magicians game – that of trying to convince ourselves that if things were different then we would be secure and happy. We see there is richness in our drama –it is our humanity and it is not the whole picture.

The reason it is so important to get to know the habits of the mind is that when they show up in the world of daily encounters we can recognize the habit instead of believing the illusion.  Before I began to practice meditation I didn’t think I was judgmental – I just thought that I was right. As I began to examine my habits of thinking I realized that I am judging much of the time. Now when I am out in the world I can recognize my tendency to be judgmental and choose to respond differently. Having that choice opened up my relationship with people and things. I became more curious and confident and everyday encounters are often interesting instead of annoying.

Getting to know our body patterns and our mind patterns gives us a choice. It is easier to spot a tendency of constriction when I have seen it in action as a generic response to intensity. It is easier to spot a judgment or frivolous planning when I have observed my mind judge and plan when I am sitting on my cushion with no external stimulus around. I can make a choice to shift to center, to an experience of expansiveness. I won’t attempt to stay in center – personality will kick in and it is a rich part my human experience. We are both personality and center. Our center is noble and awesome, pulsing with life and the wisdom of heaven and earth. Why not cultivate center and become bright and shiny?

Wendy Palmer

Changing the energy pattern in the body can change the thinking pattern in our mind. Once the body imprint has been established it can take only a few seconds to switch from the effort of trying to do something to the ease of letting something come through. When our body runs the energy of constriction and separation we get a mind of constriction and separation.  When the body runs a pattern of expansion and interconnection we get a mind of expansion and interconnection.

Creatures of Habit

By the time we have reached adult age we have put in thousands of hours developing habits, which have carved smooth roadways, like super highways with few exit ramps in our brain. Once a behavior pattern is triggered the momentum quickly builds and we begin to experience familiar sights and voices. Most of these responses are related to our body’s energy patterns commonly known as fight, flight and freeze.

We have read the books and we know that reacting with anger and judgment does not make us feel better or change the behavior of the annoying person. Even though we ‘know’ that we should respond differently often we find ourselves returning to the familiar movie that we have seen so many times.  We are suddenly irritated, judgmental or humiliated.

I became interested in why; if I know and feel that I really do want to be compassionate I so quickly react with irritation and judgment when I am triggered by inappropriate behavior. What I discovered is that my body is on a different program from my conscious mind. In other words – we can’t change our mind with our mind alone.  If we could have we would have, it is certainly not for lack of wanting to be kind or knowing that being kind offers a better outcome than being irritated. It is instead a lack of embodied habit.

With the Leadership Embodiment practices we practice cultivating compassion, confidence and presence while we are under stress. Stress is activated in the body before it shows up in our conscious mind. Small children and animals know before we know when we are mad, sad, glad and afraid. By the time I am aware that I am irritated I have been running that irritation energy for between 10 and 30 seconds and it has gained momentum. Simulating stress through memory or physical pressure allows us to study the body’s stress pattern. If we are tuned into the body’s pattern we can catch it at the beginning and shift to a more skillful pattern on the spot. I can catch the beginning of the pattern in my body even before I am thinking or feeling irritation.

In Leadership Embodiment we make a distinction between two parts of ourselves; we call them personality and center. Our personality is the part of us that references on managing the stuff of life –things, people and concepts. Our personality is afraid of loss; it is always looking for security. Every person has a particular pattern or way of organizing energy in an attempt to manage a situation to achieve maximum security and minimize any perceived threat.

Our center is the part of us that we experience when we are in the zone or the flow state. Center sees the big picture, it is not afraid of loss and relates naturally to impermanence – it references on interconnection and what is emerging.  The centered part of us needs no verification, as it experiences no separation.

The embodiment practice is to copy the body’s energy patterns in those expansive moments and imprint them so they can be reproduced or evoked in stressful situations. Once the imprint is accessible we will need to practice shifting from the constriction of personality to the spacious confidence of center not once but thousands of times. To be clear we are not trying to transform our personality – it is our humanity but we don’t want to spend 80% or more of our time in that part of ourselves. With practice we can become more adept at shifting from personality to center.

Research shows that the practice of centering restores the capacity for the long-term, higher functioning aspects of the brain – big picture thinking, innovation, morality and intuition. Stress mutes these higher functioning capacities and activates the short-term survival aspects of our brain – narrow focus, hyper vigilance and defensiveness. As a parent, my number one source of stress is thinking about my family’s future. This is why I always tell parents to get life insurance at www.lifecoverquotes.org.uk to give them peace of mind that their loved ones are looked after even when they’re gone.

The brain and the body are intrinsically connected. Centering shifts the energy in the body from contraction to expansion.  This shift activates our sense of interconnection and wisdom allowing us to move from narrow focus to big picture thinking – from irritation to compassion.

At last, some empirical data  –

The way we sit and stand changes our chemistry and therefore it affects the way we think and speak. When we sit and stand in a closed, contracted posture (personality) more cortisol begins to flood the system. In an article called Power Posing from the Association for Psychological Science, researchers found elevated cortisol is associated with negative health consequences like impaired immune functioning, hypertension, and memory loss. When we sit and stand in more open and expansive postures (center) we increase our testosterone. Increased levels of testosterone improve mental and physiological systems to endure difficult and stressful situations, and perhaps to improve confidence. http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/10/1363

Centering Practice

One way to make the shift from personality to center is to start by working with the breath and posture.
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  • Use your inhale to uplift your posture and lengthen your spine.
  • Next breathe your exhale downwards toward the earth softening your chest and settling into the earth.
  • You can also put the two together using an image from a French press coffee maker.  As the plunger slowly presses down, the drinkable coffee rises up.
  • So as we exhale down we have a sense of rising or uplifting.
  • Using the fingers, reach out toward the far wall until the arms are straight instead of bent. Continue extending and put your attention on the space behind and to the left and right.
  • As you drop your arms keep the sense of expansion as if you were still reaching out. Let gravity soften your shoulders and ask yourself,
  • “What would it be like if there was a little more ease in my body?”
  • Remember that every atom and cell in your body is primarily space, sense how the openness in your body connects with the openness around you.
  • You can imagine that the space is buoyant and supportive.  Consider the space as a shock absorber.
  • Words, thoughts and feelings can land in the space around you and can be examined with interest and detachment.

(This takes about 15 to 30 seconds)
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Once you have a distinct experience of the centered state you can streamline your practice and coach your self into the state with the words:

“posture”, “expand” and “relax”.

(This takes 3 to 5 seconds)

Dear Friends,

Let’s stop and lengthen our spine to a dignified posture. Exhale with a long, slow breath. Expand out as far as you can and still be present in the space. Ah, center -what a gift! Enjoy the sense of openness and interconnection that is automatically activated when we center. We can be like a positive virus, spreading good will into the environment amid the lights and action of the Holiday season.

Here in the hub of Conscious Embodiment and Leadership Embodiment we are experiencing the excitement of possibilities manifesting and the growing pains of trying out a course of action, adjusting and trying again.

It is said, “We teach what we need to learn.” Well, I can say that I am having a direct experience of that. When I coach leaders I mention that to grow in leadership means to develop the capacity to take risks, be able to and fail and learn from our mistakes. It seems that the ability to adapt is a key competency – especially when the situation is growing and changing. We need capacity for both autonomy and collaboration and the wisdom to know when to do which – ah, the endless opportunities to practice.

There is so much happening. We are now officially in our new ‘center’.

We have recently graduated a new group of practitioners from the UK and EU – congratulations to our new certified trainers! We have started our first teacher training in Boston and in South Africa. We have a new business manager, a new website and a new project to work with potential leaders in the townships of Cape Town South Africa.

Given all this activity I am so grateful for the tools to recover center and the practice of being able to adapt. Check out this book recommended by our friend Matthew Dodwell, Adapt, Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Tim Hartford. In it you will find lots of good stories about why things work and don’t work as well as information relating to autonomy and collaboration.

And how about you, my readers? Any new years resolutions perhaps? I have one. My doctor told me I need to take better care of my blood sugar, so I’m making it a resolution to be more proactive in that regard. I looked online, in health journals and science news sites as well for information on medication that could help me in my goal. As they always say, talk to your doctor first, right? I’ll be doing exactly that, but from my initial research I may have struck gold here. Wish me luck, and do let me know if you have any of your own!

Wishing you Joy and Blessings in the Holiday Season,

Wendy and the CE/LE Community

Dear Friends,

Take this moment to straighten up a little more. Lengthen the back of your neck as you inhale and let your chest soften as you exhale. Allow a little more space between your ribs. Notice how much space there is where ever you are sitting – there is space all around. The space is not stressed, it is equally accepting of speed or stillness. Space is a reservoir for insight and creativity – it receives everything without reservations or blockages. Use the (white) space as an artist would, to highlight and clarify what is important.

At this time of year in California, summer gardens are growing fast and producing fruit and vegetables, which help to sustain us and keep us healthy. The people and organizations we are working with are also growing fast and producing all kinds of ideas and products to sustain us and help us grow into our fast changing culture.

We have an immediate opportunity to move along with this situation to grow, learn and produce. Businesses are moving with alacrity and the way people are managing information is quite different than it was 5 years ago. We are being asked to think globally and quickly – process a lot of information in a short time and arrive at solutions that can be implemented immediately.

Our capacity to work with this speed is directly related to our ability to use space to access different patterns of perceiving and processing. Adaptability and flexibility are keys to adjusting to change. We could open up, expand and see what is possible and we might have missed.

Remember – if you change the way you sit and stand, it changes the way you think and speak. I enjoyed this quote from the movie Buck, “Blessed are those who are flexible for they never get bent out of shape.”

Many blessings,
Wendy Palmer and the CE community