- Movement
- Stillness
- Enquiry
- Healing
The four strands of work emerged slowly out of an understanding that my Tai Chi students couldn’t really move nor could they really talk. What do I mean by that?
If I put a Tai Chi student in a place where I was asking them to move outside of the formal movements, they would be really uncomfortable. I began to ask myself why? Why, when I move with ease within the structure of Tai Chi, am I so uneasy out of the structure? The same with communication. Why, when I can communicate so well with my body, is it so difficult to communicate with my voice? I began to see that for me to move, really move freely within Form, I needed to be formless. To really communicate outside of the form, I needed to be able to articulate what I was feeling, knowing intuitively, into vocal communication. Thus I began to work with formless movement to help Tai Chi students really move within Form. And I began to use Enquiry to help Tai Chi students to connect and communicate to themselves and others.
But the reverse was also true when I taught dance students Tai Chi. They were really uncomfortable with formal movement. You could say they were trapped in the formless. When I taught people who loved healing they found it really difficult to face something for themselves, they wanted “someone else” to release it for them. It was the same when I taught people who were really easy with vocal communication or the mind, they found it really difficult to be still or even connected to their bodies. It was true too of those who were addicted to stillness. They were really uncomfortable with something that got them moving, speaking etc. So each person chose for themselves a path they were comfortable with and hid their discomfort. You can see the problem! Then the path becomes a prison, a structure to hide inside. What is hidden? The wounds and their vulnerabilities.
So to use a path which brings about a broad exploration of these Four Strands – Movement, Stillness, Enquiry and Healing – brings about freedom, balance and maturity, whilst recognising that we all have preferences. Whereas we may prefer to move, or particularly like stillness, or healing, or to talk, we need all four to help us round out the many aspects of being a human being.
Why is Movement important?
The simplest way to say it is the body stores unresolved experiences. If these are not released they affect us negatively sooner or later, resulting in reduced mobility and ill health. So to move the body is really important. The body also shows us directly when we are using the Principles correctly, it’s really obvious! Some people like formal structured movement like Tai Chi Chuan and others like formless informal movement like dancing or moving freely. Both are important. To move with aliveness in a formal predicted sequence requires aliveness in the moment. To stay fresh and alive in formless movement requires us to be really embodied in our structure.
Why is Stillness important?
In a busy world it is really important to understand stillness, to allow stillness. Stillness allows us to re-find ourselves. It allows us to meet that part which is busy, to make friends with it. It allows us to know that stillness is a natural place deep within us. Why Stillness and not Meditation? Stillness is a part of meditation, but if we think we arrive at stillness because of the meditation, then we leave stillness behind when we “leave the mat”. Meditation actually is a vehicle to feel and find that place of stillness and quietness that is our natural birthright. Once found then we can access it anywhere, anytime.
Why is Enquiry important?
We are not just a body, nor just spirit but we have a mind too. In the modern world, the mind is given great importance, so in the spiritual journey it is important to know and use the mind. It is an important part of us. It needs to be integrated. Enquiry is a way of asking questions of ourselves to come to know what makes us tick, what is important to us, what “story” we believe or have had handed down to us, which rules us. By seeing this and understanding that it is not current but belongs to history, as it were, we can begin to feel into what is really important to us personally.
Why is Healing important?
We all have wounds, inner and outer wounds, which pull us and distort our original nature as well as our body. So to offer a space that allows these wounds to be held and met, understood, released or integrated, is really important. The gift of presence brings a feeling of being accompanied and being held, which is vitally important to that part which feels alone and separate. When we feel safe, we can release, it is as simple as that. So to have a very simple way of becoming available to the healing presence is very valuable. In addition, when we allow that sense of being, when we offer this to ourselves or others, we are in touch with a creative, open place which begins to allow for many possibilities, not just the line of reality that the wound creates and imprisons us in. Healing allows. Healing releases. Healing allows us to live.
So let’s start with where you are comfortable. Let’s begin by supporting your problem enough so that it feels safe to unravel and reveal the source of the wound. And then let’s use the other strands to help you express, understand and heal, not only where you are but where you want to go and how to get there.
How can you work with me with these? – TMW and Embodied Learning gives me the tools to work with you to develop these strands, and the path of Metatronic Healing gives me the opportunity to focus you on your own healing journey. It just depends on what you want and what interests you, but with these tools I have a huge range of help for you should you wish it.