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The Spaciousness Project
John William Johnson: Click here to Email Me

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ideas
My Dream
Authentic Movement
Maps of the Mind
The 5 Rhythms
Ritual Dance
Body Rolling
Exercises
Marriage of Spirit
Developmental Cycles
Chakras
Knowledge of Our Bodies
Nutrition
Spaciousness Around Your Creative Process
Personal Rhythms
Breath
The Inner Critic
Support Groups
Ergonomics
The Surrender Process
Yoga
Issues of Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ideas
The spaciousness project is a forum in which I and others can bring together all of the teachings that I have done and take the pieces that help bring me to a place of inner peace and spaciousness, where I can sit in total bodied presence forever. To write about it in article form and end up with a book.

One of the goals is to have people leave the work with a 360 degree perspective, able to feel themselves in all 4 directions, with a support group in place to assist in keeping themselves on track. A big aspect of the work is getting into the body, developing a distinct sense of presence. And using creativity as a vehicle for self expression and self unfolding.
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My Dream:

I want to be able to dance my life away, to be with people of like mind, to invest myself in movement, healing, and creativity. I vow that I will do everything in my power to bring dance and its possibilities to everyone I meet, and to embody a sense of health and well being, compassion, and love...

What this looks like, dance, have body work, body rolling and/or yoga every day...work with a group developing pieces and performing them on the streets...(finding that comfortable space between performance and too much rehearsal, developing an aesthetic, which primarily entails a deep sense of authenticity and presence. Body painting, costumes also...another section of young people who are incredible dancers/producing them in the malls, and on the streets. Helping them to manifest their dreams, and then a clothes line, velour jackets/shirts/blouses. And yoga mats/hindu deities T shirts..

The spaciousness project is a bold attempt to gain higher ground, to expose ourselves to new possibilities, to let into our lives more of the good stuff. Life is moving so fast, so much to do, so many choices. It's time to quiet down. To allow ourselves to listen to the inner voice that is there to guide us to our destiny. To relieve ourselves of all that is not who we really are. This work requires that we have a commitment to each other's personal journeys. Discipline and fortitude are valuable aids on this path. This is not about games, it's not about John, it's about the bigger picture and how we are contributing to that picture. How can we make our lives truly magnificent, and in doing so make the world a richer and better place for others.

This process is one of the most magnificent I know of. So simple, and yet so profound. It is the easiest way for me to check in, to get a sense of who I truly am at any given moment in time.
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Authentic Movement

Here's how it works. Two people. One is the witness, the other is the mover. The role of the witness is simply to allow him/herself to be aware of the images, sensations, and emotions that occur while watching. The witness is also there to protect the mover, to keep the mover from hurting him/herself.

The mover simply closes her eyes, and allows. It is not about dancing, performing, or impressing the witness. Follow the breath. Let the mind go still, and send your attention to your physical body; allow it to move. Or not! Your body has a mind, it will let you know what it wants. Your job is to allow it to happen. So you might just stand still for awhile; your left thumb might begin to move. As it moves, something in your elbow comes alive, asking to be expressed. You notice your chest expanding as a wave of breath enters your body. A flash of your mom slashing you with one of her snide criticisms, you're five years old, and the whole scene is right there in front of you. You're lost in your feelings of that episode. Your body begins thrashing in an effort to maintain its integrity, not wanting to be sucked into momma's paws. And that will lead to the next movement, and the next and the next.

Time
How long you move depends on your level of experience, your desired outcome, and how much time you have available. I have had profound experiences in 5 or 6 minutes. For beginners, that is probably a good place to start. The witness is the timer; one minute before the agreed upon end, the timer says "Take a minute to finish up". It is a good idea for each person to have a true sense of how long a minute is. Most of the time, when I tell people a minute, they assume this is just a nice way to say finish up now, it's over. Or they truly don't realize the spaciousness that one minute provides. If you have ever been involved in certain intense sports, you know. The most intense experiences for me were when I wrestled and boxed in college. Most rounds in boxing are 3 minutes long. Doesn't sound like much, right? Well, put on a pair of 16oz. Boxing gloves, stand in a ring with an opponent who is determined to knock you out, and 3 minutes is a lifetime. Wrestling was even more so for me; at least in boxing you can move around, try to stay away; but in wrestling, your body is locked up with the other person determined to pin you; so there is no time out. Rock climbing also provides you with a sense of immediacy. Even though you are tied in to a rope and cannot get hurt, holding on to the side of a mountain, and realizing that if it weren't for that rope you could fall to your death, is a challenging and exhilarating experience.

Feedback
Feedback is a traditional part of the form. The movement process can be done without it, but bringing the experience into the verbal realm helps to solidify it, to integrate it into one's body/being. Come together; take a moment to center. See who feels like speaking. Usually the witness goes first; this gives the mover an opportunity to re-integrate. It is a good idea to set a time limit; some people love to go on and on, comfortable now that they are back in the familiarity of talking. Remember that one person talks, and the other person listens; this is not a conversation/dialogue. Feedback is given in the same style as the witnessing occurred. Just talk about how the experience made you feel, what was it like to watch? Stay away from judgments and analysis.

The mover shares her/his experience of moving, once again, what it felt like, what images arose. (You might want to read the Maps of the Mind section so you have a sense of the possibilities).
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MAPS OF THE MIND

From 1987 to 1990 (???), I studied with Stanislov Grof. I was learning how to be a Holotropic Breathwork Practitioner. I consider Dr. Grof to be one of the (foremost minds) geniuses of our time. I am surprised that he hasn't gained the kind of recognition he deserves. You can read about his work in "?????"; his other works are in the bibliography.

The aspect of his work that is relevant to the Spaciousness Project is his map of consciousness. I have always been interested in the bigger picture. How does what I am doing figure into the grand scheme of things? What does this mean?

According to Dr. Grof's model, there are 5 stages of experience:

1) The sensational (sensate): This is the most superficial level of experience. You are aware of all the information that your senses can provide: tastes, sounds, images, colors, smells, and tactile sensations. It is based on the immediacy of this moment, the here and now of your life.

2) The personal level: This includes all the memories that you have of things that happened to you in your lifetime. It's your personal history; the images and memories that you carry with you from this lifetime.

3) The perinatal level: Now we move into more unfamiliar territory. One of the reasons I am sharing this map with you is so that you will now have a container for almost any experience that might occur to you. There are hundreds, thousands of cases of people who had experiences that they just could not understand. And their inability to cope with the information they received can often lead to horrific consequences. (Example). The perinatal level consists of all of the experiences that you had while you were being born. All of the things that happened while you were making the journey out of your mother's womb.

One of Stan's theories is that whatever happened to us during the journey out of the womb and into the world provides a metaphor for how our lives will unfold.

4)The prenatal level: This is all that happened during the time from conception to the delivery. More and more we learn about how creative and receptive this period of our lives is.

5) The transpersonal level: This includes all those possibilities that are not directly linked to who you really are. The belief is that all information is available, everything that has ever happened, is out there in the either, waiting for us to tap into it. Another concept is that of matrices; our DNA, the specific wiring of our body, will tend to pull in and be available to certain pieces of information. It's similar to a radio or a TV; turn the dial and you get/receive a specific type of information. So if a person has an experience of being a fish, it's not that they necessarily were a fish in a post lifetime, but they are/were available to the information of what it its was like to be a certain kind of fish.
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THE FIVE RHYTHMS

I was introduced to the rhythms indirectly. One of my teachers, Vin Marti, was studying with Gabrielle Roth, and slowly brought pieces of her work back with him. He incorporated her work into what he was already teaching. After a five years of working together, I began covering for him when he was gone.

 What I love about the rhythms is that it provides a very loose form, a container, in which I can have my own unique movement experience. While others are having their own unique movement experiences. I have the opportunity to push my edges, within the container of the 5 rhythms. For years, I was like most other dancers. Constantly injuring myself. What I have come to realize is that most dance classes are technique classes. They are about making my body conform to a specific movement vocabulary that the teacher believes in. Personally, I would rather work in a setting where my own movement vocabulary is being supported; where I can learn to develop my movement based on my own unique physiognomy, and my own history. I have tired of watching dancers move in predictable patterns, with blank faces. To my mind, dancing as it exists today, is in many ways more of a craft than an art. Many dancers are more like robots than creative artists. When I have worked with ballet dancers, their strength and technique is well developed, but when I ask them to move improvisationally, they are lost. They don't know how to generate movement from their own personal sensibility. And who can blame them, they have little or no training in improvisation.

There are five Rhythms: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness.

How does this form bring spaciousness? Some of the other forms that I have explained are preparatory phases. They are ways of opening up the body in preparation for life. The Rhythms represent the practical phase. It takes the opened body and uses it as a transmitter for possibilities. The form can be used to experience any of the levels of consciousness. This form allows for the acknowledgment that we do indeed have bodies, and that we live on this planet with other beings, in other bodies.

One of the ways the Rhythms are used is a process called Sweat Your Prayers. Here the rhythms are used to access the Divine; to use our bodies as vehicles for prayer. It is a wonderful form for people who are not able to sit quietly. I personally have a few somatic irregularities; one of them is restless legs. What this looks like is my legs will twitch involuntarily, at unpredictable times. And so sometimes, many times, meditation becomes an almost traumatic experience.

The Rhythms bring in a powerful external medium. And that medium is music. Music can be seen as representing the sounds of the universe. And so we have Sound and Movement as Medicine.

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Ritual Dance

My own creative and therapeutic practices have given me the experiences that influence how I currently view dance and movement. I see movement as an opportunity to experience a profound sense of one's self within the community. I bring people together, and provide a container for them to go deep into themselves, using movement as the vehicle. Ultimately, the vehicle allows for a transcendence of the small self, and access to the authentic Self. It is very similar to the methods used by "primitive" tribes for thousands of years. Some of the core ingredients:

Breath: use the breath to fuel your movement. There is nothing complicated here, no unusual breathing patterns. Just notice your breath, and try to stay with full deep breaths. The healthiest way to breathe is in and out through the nose. The nose has an intricate system of filters to keep bacteria and pathogens from entering the body. The mouth does not; in some parts of the world, breathing through the mouth is considered barbaric. If your heart is beating too hard, mouth breathing becomes necessary. This is an indicator that you are probably moving faster than your own bodily rhythm desires.

Music as Guide versus Dominator/Manipulator

Music is a powerful force. When moving to music, the sounds can very easily carry us into an altered state. Let the music be the jump starter, the partner in your journey. The trick is to notice whether the music is dictating the movement, or your body is following its own internal rhythm. There are forms where the music rules, and people surrender to it, and become channels for spirit to manifest. Voodoo is one of these forms. The witness is always asking: what does my body want to say now?

Repetition: If you watch any spiritual dance, they almost always have a very specific form to them. Finding repetitive movement patterns allows our mind to relax, to let go, and let the body express itself. You can concentrate on any part of your body, notice the pattern it is describing, and keep repeating it. At some point you will let go of the need to think about what you are doing, and the movement will be clear and strong and allow you to go into a deeper experience of yourself. You can concentrate on the tension in your body, on the images that are being conjured up by your movement, on how your movement resembles or differs from those around you. Is there someone next to you doing the same thing? Amazing! All of a sudden we feel our commonality, the still point.

Setting an Intention: This is key; without this, there is no container, no place for the alchemy to take place. I sometimes attend Raves or go out to the local clubs to see what is happening. Once in a rare while I will find a place with good music and a decent floor. (the body does best with a floor that gives a little; like wood. Linoleum, cement, these are hard on the joints and the back). But never do I find the container that would totally transform the experience. It feels to me like the younger generation is slowly beginning to hear the call of the Divine. If all that raucous energy could be put into a container, kids would come home with an intense experience of connection and transformation. The primary ingredient that is missing is that of setting an intention.

What is intention? It is the process of deciding what it is that we want to create. Where do we want to be during and after this experience. Some examples: I want to feel more relaxed in my body, I want to let go of the tension in my neck and shoulders, I want to dance with another person, I want to give praise to God, I want to release my emotions.

And then there is the tribe.

Acknowledging the Tribe: We have let go of the nuclear family. In our pursuit of happiness, we have been manipulated by the media to believe that more is better. Now it is time to come back toward the center, into acknowledging the communities and tribes that we have created for ourselves. Making that aspect of our lives more conscious. Do you know your neighbors? Do you know the people who you work with? Is that the kind of life you aspire towards? How can you create more of what you truly desire in the world? In this case we are talking about connection, about relationship. Each of us is a beacon, each of us can have a profound effect on the world around us.

Eyes Open, Eyes Closed: Dancing with your eyes closed definitely transforms the experience. It eliminates the visual channel from our experience. And so it makes the inner realms more accessible.

This, combined with the energy of being surrounded by others in the same process, has a powerful effect on us. Personally, I find that I get more of a workout when I dance with a large group.
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BODY ROLLING

This body of work has had a profound influence on me. Primarily because it allows me to heal my own wounds. Rather than having to constantly plan on seeing a chiropractor or massage therapist, I am confident that I can get on the ball and work out my own kinks. The ball listens to my disgruntled body parts, and they in turn relinquish their stranglehold on me.

Let's face it, if you are going to function on this planet, you are going to experience aches, pains, and stress. The idea is to learn how to use your body in a way that maximizes effectiveness and minimizes pain and discomfort. When you do injure yourself, do you know how to heal? Was there something you did that contributed to your problem, and can you learn anything from your experience so it doesn't have to happen again?

This area of body work deals with the consequences of the way we move our bodies while at work, at rest, and at play. Sports medicine is largely responsible for financially supporting many doctors who only take care of weekend athletes, aka weekend warriors. So often I see someone playing a competitive sport, and their shoulders are up around their ears, their breathing patterns are erratic, and they look like they are in pain!

Body Rolling is a physical practice that is done with a specially designed and manufactured ball, usually six to nine inches in diameter. There are two fundamental principles underlying the practice. The first is the discovery that muscles release from the point of origin. The "point of origin" is an anatomical term meaning the beginning of the muscle. If you contract a muscle, the direction that it goes in is toward the point of origin. Let's have an experience! Focus your attention on your left arm. Go ahead and make a muscle in your upper arm: pretend you are lifting a weight. What usually happens is the forearm raise up and comes toward the upper arm. And so we realize that the origin of the biceps is somewhere higher up on the arm.

 The other fundamental principle is the finding that pressure applied to the bone will release all the muscles that are attached to that bone. And so the majority of the work occurs on the first half of the muscle.

Even though the work is called Body Rolling, most of the time we work with specific points along the body of the muscle.

If you have ever had deep muscle work done, you know that there is connective tissue wrapping around all of our muscles.

One of the things I love about Body Rolling is the immediate visual feedback I get after working a specific muscle group. Since most of our bodies consist of pairs of muscles, after I work a specific muscle, there is one muscle in the "after" phase and one muscle in the "before " phase.

 As we age, the fluidity and autonomy of our muscles becomes compromised. The connective tissue loses some of its elasticity, and begins to adhere to the muscles underneath. And so we lose the distinctions from one muscle to another, and they begin to lose their ability to work alone. All over our bodies

(Yamuna questions: limb falling asleep, why pain is often on last half of the muscle, research verifying the muscle release and bone theories.
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Excercises

Compassionate Being Exercise:

Imagine for your self, in this specific moment in time, the most compassionate, loving being that you can. And imagine that this being is totally available to you, right here, right now. Let your self be bathed in her love and unconditional acceptance. Hear what she has to say. You can even ask her questions about anything you want information about...and continue this for the next 5 minutes of clock time, which will be more than enough time for you to find out all that you need to know.

Test Pilot Exercise:

Imagine that you are a test pilot. And today your flight will be to test this body that you find yourself in. For the next period of time, you will have no sense of limitation, no history, no memories of what your boundaries are. Open up to the limitless possibilities that exist in this moment. And being a professional, you also have an innate sense of how to protect your self and your craft from any obvious dangers.

Reclaiming Your Body

Ways to protect yourself from industrialized manipulation and unconsciousness, esp. sitting for long periods of time, anything that you do for prolonged periods that are asymmetrical, computer work. (Timo and body realignment - tape him - get his handouts)
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MARRIAGE OF SPIRIT

This process was developed by Leslie Temple Thurston, my spiritual teacher from 1996 through 1999. It is an incredible tool for working through difficult issues that confront you. Whenever I am counseling someone and they have an either-or issue, I know it's time to bring out the Marriage of Spirit tool. This form acknowledges that we live in a world of polarities; whenever one side shows up, sooner or later the other side has to have its voice heard. We want more time off; then we get it, and we miss working. We long for a relationship; then we have one, and we long to have our freedom back.

 There is an aspect of the shadow in this work. The shadow is usually that aspect of an issue that is uncomfortable, not politically correct. Joe is nice to us, but we can't stand him. He always has a saccharine smile on when he greets you; all you want to do is scream at him! After conducting hundreds of workshops, I have come to trust that when anyone's shadow is up, it is an authentic experience that needs to be acknowledged. This gets tricky. It doesn't mean that we have to act out what we really feel inside; it does mean that we need to find a way to express all aspects of it. The emotional component could be done by beating up a pillow. The communication aspect is a bit trickier; this is where the Marriage process can help. Unfortunately, the shadow often gets heard by engaging in unacceptable forms of behavior. A spiral begins, and inertia kicks in, and before you know it, there's a war going on because Jimmy didn't take the garbage out. It might start with Jimmy leaving his dishes out. His housemates wash the dishes, and don't bother to confront him. Then he leaves his laundry in the dryer, so the next person can't put there wet wash in. That person empties the laundry, and actually folds it for Jimmy, figuring that he would do the same. These events keep happening, until one housemate just can't take it any longer. Jimmy doesn't empty the garbage, and next time he comes home, his housemate starts yelling and screaming at him! Since no one said anything to him earlier, he is taken aback. He reacts, yells back, and feels like his housemates are ganging up on him.

Let me give you another example, and use the Marriage of Spirit tool. In my desire to put this book together, I was immediately confronted with the realization that I don't have anything new to say. Who needs another system; there are already hundreds if not thousands of systems out there.

So I did a square. Squares are the basic approach to a problem. There are more sophisticated approaches available; for those I recommend the book, "??".

The first thing I did was to make a statement that is the crux of my dilemma. I wrote, " My desire to write a book". Then I wrote down the opposing thought to this, "My aversion to writing a book". And then comes a hard part; I have to figure out what the polar opposite to these statements is. I usually go inside, and then let my intuition sing. For me, the opposite was, my desire to take it easy. And the opposite of that, my aversion to taking it easy.

Make a square.

Then I make a list. I write down all the reasons that I want to write a book. Then I make a list of my aversion to writing a book; and so I end up with 4 columns. Now comes the beautiful part. I pray. I bring into my heart the whole column dealing with "My desire to write a book". Then I go to its opposite, my aversion to writing a book, and hold that sensibility in my heart right next to the desire. Then I go to each of the other two statements, and hold them in my heart. Once I have all four placed side to side in my heart,

I ask spirit to take all of these powerful places, and allow them to move up and out, and be filled with a sense of possibility, to move into a natural harmonic state.

Depending on the gravity of the issue, it may resolve itself after one time. Deeper and more complicated issues require more work; it is necessary to make more squares and flesh out deeper levels of the polarities. I hope you can begin to see the power in this form. It is actually helping us to move beyond our limited lives. It is a form that can help us to transcend the world of polarities.
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STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

I was walking home the other night, and I couldn't stop thinking about a female friend of mine( Kate in NYC). The night before, we had been catching up by phone. Kate is very involved in a form of karate, and is also dancing in a troupe whose choreographer is a black belt. I was a bit surprised that this wise, young woman was engaging in an activity that seems a bit brutal to me. Then I flashed on the fact that I too had studied martial arts; I even went a step further, boxing in college. I realized that just because I am in a different stage of my personal evolution, I don't need to negate my friend's reality.

Then I began to wonder about the theories regarding the developmental stages of man. There are quite a few, and I have yet to find one that I can say, "This is home". One aspect of the theories that I am aware of is that they rarely talk about the ideal versus the real. They don't talk about how a shadow will develop if an aspect of reality that is present is not being talked about. It seems to me that youth is a time for shaping; in an ideal world, the parents and their support system would be letting the child discover for itself what are the most relevant issues that need to be grappled with. I have a family that I am friend's with, and I have watched the father Dan let his 4 kids decide what they want to do with their time, with their lives. His daughter came up to him and was worried because she is 12 years old and "I can't do math". And yet Dan knew that if he gave her 20 dollars and sent her to the store with a list, she would know how to buy things, how to count the change, even to budget her allowance. In the prevailing system of education, the state has the moral right, and the authority, to dictate what the child needs to know, how it will learn it, and what the consequences of misbehavior are. We might as well be raising robots. Just fill 'er up, put in all the data essential for an optimally functioning, contributing member of society. It seems to me we spend 15 years getting filled with information that has more to do with society's needs than it has to do with mine.
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THE RHYTHMS OF THE CHAKRAS

Over the thousands (???) of years that man has been living on earth, certain belief systems have developed, based purely on their ability to heal. Have you ever heard the word chakras, with a soft "c"?

I have found this form to be a valuable way to bring people into their bodies. There are 7 primary chakras, starting at the base of the torso. Each area has with it a corresponding sensibility. There are also corresponding colors and sounds.

Most of humanity tends to operate with an awareness of the first three chakras. Rare indeed is the person who has moved into the 4th chakra.

What do I want to say about this work? That it's still a theory to me. I honor it and believe in it, but I don't have a total experience of it. I have felt the kundalini energy rise through my spine, and I have a kinesthetic sense of the 7 areas of the body, but it is the least palpable, for me, of the systems I have explored in this book.

It is a valuable map.
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Knowledge of our Bodies as Essential in the New World

I know so many people who are dealing with symptoms that refuse to be conveniently diagnosed. There are more and more "syndromes" cropping up in medicine. A syndrome is basically a group of symptoms that have been showing up in people, and yet there is no known illness. The medical profession does not understand its workings. And often there is no known cure.

My sense is that our lives are so complicated at this point, there are so many powerful and divergent inputs coming at us each day, that it would be very difficult for a doctor to be aware of what is causing our problems. The average visit with an allopathic doctor (MD) is 6 minutes long. And there are about 20 drugs that are prescribed for about 85% of all symptoms the doctor sees.(what are they???).

 It is my sense that I am the only one in a position to really know what is affecting me. "...." is my favorite resource for when I have unexpected symptoms occur. It is well laid out, easy to follow, and it works!

So what do you do when you get unusual symptoms? What do you believe about your body? Do you trust the medical profession to be always be guided by what is best for you, their client?
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NUTRITION

The importance of nutrition on our daily well being is only recently receiving its due recognition. We have been ruled by the edicts of the medical profession. Let's face it, we love to have "Daddy" tell us what we should do. I am constantly flabbergasted by how readily people ingest pharmaceutical drugs without batting an eye. And they will continue in that vein. The average doctor's visit is 6 minutes. And there are about 16 drugs that make up 90% of a doctor's prescriptions. All that training so they can see as many people as fast as possible and be whores for the drug companies. If you have a strong constitution, this information will not seem as pressing as for those of us who are constantly fighting for our health.

Of all the diets out there, if I were to recommend one that provides the most benefit, it would be found in the book "Body Ecology" by. ??? was ???? die, and so she went on her own journey of self discovery and found...
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Spaciousness Around Your Creative Process

Have you ever found yourself feeling guilty because you are not producing at the level you expect of yourself? I am referring here primarily to your creative output; the book you say you want to write or the painting you know you have in you. And yet you've been talking about it for years. I have been working with people and observing their creative process for years now. My observations lead me to believe that we need to embrace the notion of spaciousness in the arena of creative productivity. I think that in order for our creative juices to flow out of us, there needs to be a buildup of energy, of resources within us. Like water behind a dam. If we are spending our days busy busy busy, there is not going to be enough energy left over to wake up the Muse. Just scheduling the hour to write is simply not enough, in the long haul of a person's lifetime. We may be able to do it for while. And some truly gifted persons may be able to do it that way period. But for many of us, I suspect that there needs to be a more loving perspective. (Judgement phrase).

 

Spaciousness Around Your Heart

Swami Kripalvananda: " My beloved child, break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself, you break your own heart."

 

Yoga ": "Feel every cell in your body alive with yoga. Use Ujjaya breath to listen to your breath, bringing prana, life energy, to every cell."

Feel your grace and beauty as you move into the stretch.

 

***"The key to your fulfilment is to let the posture be a vehicle, your tool to strengthen this vessel you've been given in this lifetime, so that you can hold more energy, more light, so that there's more room for you inside."
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Personal Rhythms

Recently, I have been asking my friends this question: " Do you think that your body has a rhythm that is unique to you? That if you were to let go of all the should's and the ought to's and the rules you have been taught about how to live your life, that without the mind, your body would have a rhythm that would provide you with your highest purpose?"

Most of them say yes, but then it becomes obvious that they don't really have a clue how to bring this about. My sense is that the world is chock full of rhythms. And most of us are engaged in the world. So how do we maintain our personal rhythm in the midst of these other rhythms? How to we manage our daily responsibilities? I would think that the first necessity would be to actually find out what our rhythm is. I know that the few times I have experimented with this notion, I have gone into a spiral. The spiral seems to go into more and more eccentric behavior patterns. I eat more irregularly, I sleep more sporadically, and I get frenetic. I bounce back and forth between the polarities of totally off and totally on. It's a bit manic depressive or bipolar as it is now termed, thank you.

Making appointments and breaking them, Mexican time.

It seems to me that one possibility is to live with more spaciousness in our commitments. So I agree to do something. but it is implicit in the agreement that if my personal process, my personal rhythm is totally committed to something that is going on at that moment, that my rhythm takes precedence. This does sound a bit narcissistic. I would imagine that a numbering system would help. On a scale of one to ten, one being I am not committed to anything at this moment, and ten being that I am totally into this moment. And then for each event, we decide what the number has to be for us to go or stay.

I am noticing that with my writing, I often just get motivated about the time that I have to walk out the door. Is that some neurotic pattern, or is it deeper? Lately I have been cancelling my appointments when I feel this adrenaline rush, and staying in and following my muse.
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Breath

There are some things that we have with us at all times that can help to keep us to keep in touch with a sense of spaciousness...the fundamental connection is the breath. To make the breath more conscious is a valuable aid to a long and healthy, happy and prosperous life. I have started to use my watch as an aid. It is very easy in this day and age to access a watch that will beep on the hour. I use that beep as a reminder to breathe. The commitment is to take in at least one full breath. On the in breath I breathe in love or fear or neutrality, depending on the day. And on the out breath I breathe out love and compassion. I keep doing this as long as it takes for me to regain my sense of spaciousness.

Breath

Everyone knows that the breath is a key to being alive. In the spaciousness project, as in many spiritual and physical disciplines, the breath is the key to the whole process.

The first thing you need to do is to become aware of your own breathing patterns. Very few people breathe alike. Take a moment now and notice your breathing pattern. Don't change it or try to "do it right"; just let it be. Notice its pattern. Do you breathe into your whole body? Now stretch your body in ways you've never thought of. Find a position and hold it. What is your breathing like in this position?
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The Inner Critic/Living with Should's

What would your life be like if you had no should's in it? If you could get up in the morning and just "be"? Let's say it's 7 am. You wake up. You feel like rolling around, so you roll around in your huge bed, or you move onto the floor and roll around there. You find yourself in a fetal position; your breathing is full and deep. You fall into a warm stillness. You stay there for 27 minutes. When thoughts that say, "This is ridiculous, it's time to eat" or whatever appear, you just take another delicious breath, notice the thought, and let go. Then you want to go back to sleep, so you get back in bed for another hour. You wake up; you have an urge to write down your experience, so you do it. And on and on for the rest of the day. The should's will show up; just breathe into them, and continue with your very special, very unique process.

After a few days or weeks of this, you may find patterns emerging. Or not; sometimes I seem to spiral into extremes. But if I have an abiding theme, as we spoke of ..., I use that as my core guide to the day. That theme is both my cheer leader, my coach, and sometimes my opposition. But I hold onto it, so when I have conflicting desires on what I want to do, the theme helps me to decide. As I write this, I was going to dance this afternoon for 2 hours with some friends. That was an idea that I had this morning. "I love to dance. I haven't been dancing enough. I had a great time doing contact improvisation last Tuesday. That time is available every day, and I've only attended once. I'm going to make sure I make it today." So now it's time to go; but my abiding theme is that I want to get pages written, specifically on the Spaciousness Project. And so here I am, writing! What is your abiding theme?

Sense how various tensions and postures

habitual postures and tensions influence our breath and overall sensation and overall sense of our selves
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Support Groups

Developing and Nurturing your circle of influence.

If there is one idea that can catapult you into success, it is the concept of a support group. We have managed in the United States to have virtually eliminated the nuclear family. And we have created a lifestyle that places freedom and happiness at the pinnacle of success. And yet when people attain those goals, it is an empty and unfulfilling experience. And so the terms ritual, tribal, have become more and more prevalent. Those of us who have created a lifestyle of freedom are now realizing that we have no group that mirrors us, no group that excites us and supports us to be all that we can be. The primary resource for this kind of work is Barbara Sher; one of her books is titled ?????

Here's what you want to do: write out a list of all the people that you feel supported by. Ideally, you want to end up with two lists: a general list, for a larger gathering, and a very specific list of 3 to 6 people who you feel comfortable calling up. You call them, and you ask them if they would be willing to be a part of your support group. You decide how often you want to meet. Their role is that of mentor/supporter. If you haven't heard about Master Mind groups, it is in the same realm (you can read about master mind groups in Napolean Hills books, especially ???)
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Ergonomics

In a sedentary culture, sitting is the primary posture most people find themselves in during the day; lying down is the most common way to spend at 6 to 12 hours each night. If you watch the way people slump in their chairs, you have to think that the sitting posture is not the ultimate position for our body. There is a whole field of research known as Ergonomics: "The study of human engineering?????" It deals primarily with work situations, but many of these carry over into our daily lives. It is a good idea to look at the kinds of furniture that you are using, and why it is in your home. When you use it, does it provide you with an optimal body position, or is it contorting your body? In our youth, these postural misalignments go by unnoticed. But as we age, an unnatural position can literally throw our body into pain. I have a tendency to spread my work materials out. So very often I find myself working on the floor, where there is always lots of room. Many times, I would be sitting on my calf's or heels, bending over. Well, after a half hour in this position, when I came out of it, my lower back would be in severe pain. And yet the whole time I was in the position I was perfectly fine! Start to watch your own patterns, and see which ones leave you feeling alive and uplifted, and which ones leave you either in pain or sleepy.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF ERGONOMIC YES'S AND NO'S

BODY POSTURES THAT WORK AND DON'T WORK

Chairs (using balls instead)

tables

human angles when reading/using computer
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The Surrender Process

I have always loved being in the water; there's something very womb-like about it. Especially floating; it's like going home. After I float for awhile, everything seems more vivid, the colors, the smells, the sounds. Over the last half century of New Age exploration, there have been a number of processes that include water. The first one that comes to mind is f rebirthing. Developed by Leonard Orr, the process came out of his own unique experiences. He had been in a funky place emotionally, and found himself taking more and more baths. One time, after being in the tub for about an hour, he was overwhelmed by a flood of emotions. He processed them as best he could, and found that he felt much much better afterwards. And so he continued the process, getting into his bathtub of hot water for hours on end. Ultimately, he had a life changing experience in which he re-lived his birth. The catharsis was so powerful that he continued his self exploration, and began sharing what he experienced with others..

The rebirthing model spawned a number of variations on the water theme. One was holotropic breathing, developed by Dr. Stan Grof, who brought legitimacy and a wealth of information into the model. Sessions are usually at least 2 hours, during which loud evocative music is played. Each person has a partner; one person lays down and has the experience, and the other is there to serve as witness and protector. Deep, rapid breathing is encouraged; each session begins with the participants taking long deep breaths for as long as they can.

There is a form of water based massage that I am very impressed with that I would like to share. It is known as Watsu, short for water shiatsu; it was developed by. The client floats, and the therapist uses the water to hold the person in a suspended space. It is done in a pool where the water is at body temperature, and about 4 feet deep. It is a beautiful form to watch.

At the 1998 Somatics Conference sponsored by the Association of Humanistic Psychology, in Arrowhead Springs, California, there was a huge pool the size of a football field, and it was pretty much room temperature. The high point of the conference for me was being able to spend time each day in water. I began finding my own way to surrender and let go. I have always been a water person. I swam in high school and college, and was a lifeguard at a popular ocean beach on Long Island for over 10 years. A few years ago, I realized that the way we swim is so linear. Lanes are always used in pools, so everyone basically swims back and forth is straight lines. Well, I began playing with dolphin swimming, jumping, twirling, going down, with no regard to speed or distance. Then I got some rubber swaths that I could Velcro to my thighs to keep me afloat, and I began just moving my body however it wanted to, stretching all my muscles. It was a very slow process; I would let my body find just the right shape that it wanted to be in. I believe that this work is similar to the teachings of the mudras. In India, mudras are very specific hand gestures that invoke very specific energy states. Very often when I am dancing or doing the water work, I will find a spot where it feels like my body becomes some kind of transformer/receiver, and I could stay in that pose forever. The water provides an antidote to gravity. This was the beginning of the spaciousness project. I found that this play brought me into my self in a very profound way. It was an avenue into my depths, into the core of my beingness. I would feel so centered, that the conference workshops became almost irrelevant.
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YOGA

The word yoga means "connection with God" There are many different aspects .Since this book is addressing the body, I would like to explain a little about Hatha Yoga.
It is a yoga concerned with physical and energetical purification and training. Its goal is to bring the physical body into a perfect state of health so the soul has a fitting vehicle of expression to work through. It embraces many practices, including physical postures and breathing excercises (pranayama) which alos act upon the physical nervious system and etheric body which is considered a corollary aspect of the physical body and brings the vital energies of the physical and etheric bodies under conscious control.

Kundalini Yoga: this is a form that has a lot to offer. My experience of Hatha Yoga has always been more of an external sensibility,i.e., feeling my torso engage in postures that made my muscles engage and compete in order to do the practice.

In kundalini, the emphasis is more on the internal organs. It is like building the fire in the cabin of one's body. I mention this form because it is a valuable foundation for the spaciousness work. I do not experience a sense of spaciousness when I do the work, but in my life after the class I do notice a different sensibility.
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ISSUES OF TIME

I don't know if I am equipped or capable of dealing with part of the puzzle. In America we are so greedy, so possessive of our lives. Every minute has to count. Not a lot of spaciousness. If we truly are forever, this is a childish approach to life. Let go of the pressure john, move into the flow, , be aware of your sensations.

STUCK IN THE AIRPORT
What better place to put this whole concept into practice! Lots of irritated people, Sun Country just cancelled their flight. I called this morning to check in, and the operator put me on hold for 5 minutes, that should have been a signal. Then around 11 am, I felt sick, I laid down and checked in, and I felt like my connection to source had been cut. I felt like I had lost my juice, and my lifeline had been severed. I tried to find the reason, to no avail. Now I think it was a premonition that my flight was cancelled. I used the pendulum to ask about booking a hotel, and it said yes. About having sex in Vegas, it said no.

So how do I feel my spaciousness here at JFK International Airport? I can be here for people, I can radiate love and light, I can be courteous, I can tell the truth. I can definitely stay out of stress, drama, and self doubt. I can look at it as an opportunity for all sorts of new things to happen!

I definitely get the feeling like I am a second class citizen. I could have gotten better service with a bigger airline. I think. I could get rid of my bags. That would help a lot. Just my big green bag, with hardly anything in it...YES....I wonder if the airport over at La Guardia is comfortable. TWA has a nice terminal. Spacious. I could roll on the ball. I could read. I could do some writing. I could meet someone new. Writing seems like the one I would feel best about after it was all over. Moving the time from wasted to productive. Seven hours later, more delays: I am now realizing that the one oasis always available is that of meditation, or Tonglon. Breathing in frustration, breathing out love and compassion. Or I could set an intention, and sleep!
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