I was listening to Radio 4 and hearing how unhappy our youth are at present - it's not a surprise that mental health problems are rocketing with such uncertainty in our natural world, the political climate, draconian authoritarian controls being put forward, and suppression and disconnect from what is our own resource - our body, our creative impetus, our expressivity, our soul essence, our inner compass - to name just a few things. The new Dance Connection teacher trainees & I were discussing the need for dance, music, and connection for our youth, but also for the policy makers & leaders, to get them to come from a more embodied, and heart-centred place.
I would go so far as to say we generally need anything that allows our spirits and souls to be met, our body to be engaged, and connection to what is profoundly meaningful. For me anything that isn’t easily fathomable by the rational part of my brain is supportive of soul: storytelling & myth; spiritual experience; Art; poetry; music; wildness; soul-print moments; and undoubtedly more.
(painting by Ivon Hitchens)
A book written quite a long-time ago - Small is Beautiful (a study of economics as if people mattered) by E.F Schumacher pointed then to the error of the trajectory we were on in our modern day life. Humans are not machines, we do not thrive in mechanical, artificial lives where we are disconnected from nature - we are nature, the biology of our body reveals we would not survive without the bacteria we share our body with - the human body contains trillions of microorganisms — outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1.
I feel we are in a period of immense crisis. Talk of laboratory grown food, virtual reality rather than present moment experience, more and more reliance on large impersonal organisations for the very basics of life - we are becoming more separated from the capacity for and capability of being self-sufficient as small communities.
Sometimes I wonder if humankind will be thrown into a reactionary, survival-based future where erratic weather patterns, food instability, mental health problems, fear, and virtual life is the norm.
However, I am heartened by many things emerging, shared writings, and wisdom that is coming from many directions. Charles Eisenstein’s The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible (2013) spoke of everything I had felt for some time and this made me feel hopeful that ripple effects are spreading through the world and more than a small minority of people are making radical changes that give rise to hope.
It’s hard to keep our centre, to keep calm, when what we witness what looks like mass madness. However, if we come from the right brain hemisphere, and try and see the bigger picture, perhaps change is coming. If enough people say ‘no’ to government imposed rules, then we have a chance to turn the tide whilst we still can. Ground upwards, in small is beautiful community and locality we can take back our power to live naturally, to support each other, to be the change.
Do check out Dr Ian Mc Gilchrist's YouTube talks they are amazing. This work discusses and explains in depth the problem with a left hemisphere analytical, dissecting approach to life alongside a loss of right hemisphere influence - flow state, intuition, feeling, holism, etc. Of course it’s not as simple as one side of the brain being for only certain things, that's too simplistic, and Dr Mc Gilchrist explains things beautifully.
What is truly important? What do we need, rather than what do we want? ‘The Century of the Self’ film made in a 2002, shows how we have been manipulated into consumerism through our desire self. Many years ago I noticed the difference I felt from receiving a handmade stool from a carpenter friend - this object was filled with presence - partly from his love, but partly from the care and reverence that went into making it. I became aware of the difference between machine made, mass-produced items and the hand-made. Our Earth has become a dumping ground for all the superfluous, machine made possessions we thought we wanted, but soon didn’t - empty of meaning, un-needed, sensorially unpleasant - easily discarded. In small is beautiful Schumacher makes a strong, simple point that we have confused resources taken from the Earth as income, rather than the finite capital it is.
Do we humankind keep justifying taking of this capital, polluting of the water and soil we need to be healthy, giving away our sovereignty? Whose body is yours? That may seem a silly question, but when you do not have the right to make decisions for your own fulfilment, health & wellbeing - then you no longer have sovereignity.
For me we are souls experiencing through a body-mind. Some say the mind is there to serve - to help us discern, process sensory input, etc., but when it is in charge and dismisses intuition, bodily & emotional messaging, instincts, our inner compass or soul's urge we are in trouble! I love the left hemisphere of my mind for it allows me to consider, plan, discuss, fix repeatable methods, but the life-juice it brings is a lot less than the whole experience that flows through the right hemisphere. The moments I remember are not the list-making, the analysis of something, the focus needed to write…they are the fully experienced moments….joining up with a horse where we become as one, looking at the stars on a cold winter night, watching dancers on Eggardon hill as the sunsets, sitting with friend around the fire listening to stories and singing songs.
In the Dance Connection sharing circles I often hear people talk about the joy they experience in allowing the body to explore movement vocabulary or connection dances, for instance. The well-spring we have in our body-mind is extraordinary, but when we dissect, analyse too much, give credence to only one part of our whole self then we lose so much. Our bodies are designed to move, to feel, to explore the senses. We can experience the life energy in our bodies, passion for life, physical pleasure for free. This life flow makes us resilient and allows us to rejuvenate.
I learnt a lot from my time as a Biodanza dancer, teacher, then Co-Director of the Dorset School of Biodanza. Foremost I experienced the intense positive feedback of letting life dance me through challenge, pain, and out the other side resilient, rejuvenated. I knew that there was a simple, balanced way of restoring ourselves whilst enjoying dance and partnership with our bodies. Lockdown gave me the gift to park Biodanza for good and make space to receive the inspiration that has become Dance Connection.
(photo Dance Connection)
I reflect on this Thursday’s DC pathway: the pleasure of feeling my weight transferring into the wall or another's body, the joy and freedom my soul feels through dancing an Air dance, the sublime quietude of a stillness dance, the fun and play in a Dance-Pause group dance....I could go on. That's just in one dance pathway...that awareness can extend in any direction once we give it attention....
….. noticing raindrops on leaves, savouring fresh herbs, rubbing cooling lotion into tired feet, smelling the aroma of freshly cooked bread, hearing the balm of The Lark Ascending by Vaughn-Williams....coming to our senses literally !
A lot of what I write about costs very little monetarily, but rewards in numerous ways. In the here and now we can play, explore, express, connect, relate, feel, create, share, support, respect, revere, stop and stare.
Leisure by W.H. Davies
What is this life if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?-
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows:
No time to see, the woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this is, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Musings by Julia Hope Brightwell