Integrating Creation Exercises with Expressions of Movement by Victoria McMahon
I have been a long-time yoga practitioner, moving with the rhythms of breath and body. I follow the feelings of the body expanding and contracting as I breathe and through various shapes. What I am most intrigued by these days is the space in between breaths and movement from one shape into the next. Do I feel more connected in the space at the end of the breath or the beginning of the next inhalation? What does that mean for me? Or at other moments, how am I experiencing myself as the shape of a posture as the energy creates the form, shaping and reshaping? I love exploring the nature of me that experiences these textures of breath and body…movement and shape.
About a year ago, I started exploring what the impact that the creation exercises might have on this exploration of matter and energy on the yoga mat. What would the integration of yoga practice feel and be like with the creation exercises? How might it shift my comprehension of being in unity? Curious how the two practices would be informed by the other, I set out on a journey.
At first, I began with my yoga mat practice and then I would write creation exercises at the end…like a writing meditation to see what would arise when my bodymind was more open to itself. I noticed how much more access I had because my sensory awareness was heightened. The disruptions of thought were less as less tension resided in my bodymind. Because I had a quieter mind, I was more able to flow into a craving or craving being state of mind. And even in those moments when my practice had surfaced a disturbance held within, I could navigate into the disturbance more readily through the observing or observing being template as a way to clarify how my system needed support to open up into deeper knowings or longings.
Then, I noticed myself writing an observing before I started a practice to inform what aspect of my body and/or mind wanted attention in the moment. I found myself following the flow of the observing into my movement and being guided by the movement of the words. How lovely to have another entry point to explore language to open me up into the sensory experience. This deepened my sensitivity to the power of my mind to inform the body experience.
Currently, my practice is morphing into a combination of body/breath movement and writing creation exercises throughout the time on the yoga mat. It is curious to feel the rhythm of how the movement of body and breath is like the movement of the words in the recursions written down. In the In Unity with Creation Institute training modules, the idea of this connection is talked about in relationship to the spiral, the Fibonacci sequence of life. What a mind-boggling idea that I have been craving into the deeper comprehension.
Consider for yourself for a moment, what is the way in which you move with the rhythms of life. Is it through movement like yoga? Or is your movement with life with sound? Or maybe with the vibration of words, pictures, a paintbrush or animals. Isn’t if all the really from the same movement? In yoga, Om is named as the sound of pure consciousness resonating through everything. Then, the expression of your rhythms is what is yours to do. How are you following these rhythms, and have you explored integrating the creation exercises into your innate expression of life moving through you? Play with the experience and share your discoveries.
