Awakening Power

This embodied movement practice is designed to awaken energy and deepen your connection to your body. Together, we’ll explore power as a dynamic force within the body, viewing all experiences as energy that is either contracted or flowing. By bringing awareness to how your body holds effort and tension, you’ll learn to release contractions, opening up greater flow, vitality, personal power, and a sense of expanded possibility.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to your Awakening Power audio practice.

So,

This practice,

We are simply looking at power as energy in the body.

So,

As best as you can,

Set aside any ideas of what power might mean to you or any agenda to become powerful and really focus on dropping into the body.

So,

Today we are just looking at the ways that you in the body can tract around the power,

The energy that's here,

And how to start to open that up so you have more access to a free-flowing experience of yourself.

So,

We're exploring this today through effort in the body and through flow.

So,

The general foundation here is that everything is energy in the body,

And that energy is either moving and flowing or it's contracted.

And of course,

It's not that black and white,

But those are kind of the two things you're paying attention to in the body,

Where there's effort,

Contracting,

Holding,

Tightening,

And where you feel something moving,

Some energy flowing.

Not necessarily fluid,

It could be shaky,

It could be vibrating,

But it's moving instead of stuck.

So,

Trust what you uncover.

Use this time to simply let the body lead.

So,

You'll begin standing,

And start by taking a few really full,

Generous breaths into the body,

And bringing a little bit of shaking,

A little bit of bouncing at the knees.

So,

Your feet are flat on the floor,

And you're just gently bouncing at the knees.

To create a little bit of aliveness,

Really deepening the breath as you do this.

Nice,

Full breaths,

Just gently bouncing for just a few more moments,

Just to start to wake up the container that we work in,

The body.

Maybe letting out some sound.

Ahhhh.

One more full,

Deep breath in and out.

And then letting that bouncing subside,

Coming into stillness,

And just noticing what is here at the level of physical sensations.

So,

Physical sensations are the language of the body.

Temperature,

Pressure,

Movement,

Numbness,

Textures.

So,

Just notice if you can feel energy moving,

Sensations.

Without fixing or changing anything,

Just noticing what's here.

Then we're going to begin to scan the body for effort.

So,

Places that are tense,

Or holding,

Or gripping,

And you're not going to fix them.

You're just going to start to notice and scan where is their contracted energy in the body,

And how we feel that and sense that is effort.

Tension,

Tightness,

Gripping,

Holding,

Clenching.

So,

Just scanning your body.

The shoulders,

The jaw,

The chest,

The belly,

The groin,

The legs,

The toes.

And you're going to just see what stands out.

One,

Maybe two areas that really pull your attention,

Where you're noticing some effort,

Some tension,

Some holding,

Some tightness,

Some contracting.

You're going to really notice what it is you're doing in that area.

Dropping all your attention there,

Really feeling the effort.

And then for just a few moments,

You're going to slowly emphasize the effort,

Almost like you're turning the volume up 20%.

Nice and slow.

If there's a gripping,

You're going to increase it.

If there's a contracting,

A tightening,

A sucking in,

You're just emphasizing the effort that's already there as you continue to breathe.

And just noticing for just a moment more what this is like,

This increased effort.

Maybe there are other parts of the body that got involved,

And maybe there's an overall shape.

Leaning in and breathing.

One more breath.

And then taking a really deep inhale.

On the exhale,

You're going to slowly start to drop that effort.

Deepening the breath,

Continuing to let go of that effort,

To open that energy,

To start to move those places,

To breathe,

And to really let the body lead,

Following whatever energy starts to open up.

There might be emotion,

There might be impulses.

Really trusting,

Breathing nice and full.

Letting go of effort.

Continuing to follow the body,

Bringing movement,

Saying yes to whatever opening,

To whatever energy,

To whatever feels like it's moving inside of you.

Making it physical,

So saying yes with your movement,

With your breath,

With your sound.

Remembering anything is available.

You can get down on the ground,

You can push,

You can stay standing.

It might be slower,

It might be more subtle,

It might be fiery and fast.

Really trusting that your body knows how to open up these places of stuckness.

It knows how to open up this energy,

This power,

And let it move.

Let it be breathed.

Let it be incorporated back into you.

If the mind is really active or you're having a hard time dropping in,

Increase the breath.

Maybe even let out sound or breathe in and out through the mouth in a cyclical breath.

The more breath there is here,

The more quiet the cognitive mind is,

And the more attuned to the sensations you'll be.

So trusting yourself,

Continuing to move,

Continuing to open,

Continuing to really just be a body.

And really dropping all your attention into the physicality,

Letting the body move you,

Versus you moving it and just being active and not really fully dropping the attention into the body.

And this is a skill set.

It takes time.

So trusting where you're at,

Continuing to breathe,

Continuing to move,

And feeling the flow of energy as sensations in the body.

And if there's emotion here,

Remember that emotion is just energy.

It's energy in motion,

So let it move.

Doing your best to soften around right,

Wrong,

Good,

Bad,

Why,

What is it,

And just feel it as a body.

How can you say yes to it?

With your movement,

With your breath,

With your sound.

And then for just one little tiny short song,

You're going to bring in some stopping movement to whatever area stood out to you,

Or if there's another place that the body is calling you to move.

And if you haven't done stopping movement,

All you're doing is stopping on the beat.

So you move and then you stop.

And that stop is a new starting place.

And when you move in that way with an area of the body,

You're generating energy there.

You're dropping all your attention there and you're gathering up that energy.

So choosing the area of the body that you're going to work with and just beginning to find that stop on the beat.

Once again,

Trusting whatever you are doing is perfect.

You are meeting your body,

You are being with your body,

And that is so powerful.

Breathing,

Generating energy in that area by bringing in that stopping movement,

Stopping on the beat.

Each stop is a new beginning.

Taking a few more breaths here,

A few more movements,

And then pausing for a moment and tuning in to the sensations,

To what energy is here,

To what you notice in the body now.

And see if you can really sense energy moving,

Maybe a little bit more than when you first began.

Notice perhaps there's a little less effort,

Maybe,

Just notice.

So you're going to take one more song to move,

To open up energy.

And you can choose if there is some effort or stuckness or an area of the body that feels less alive,

You can bring specific movement and breath and maybe touch to that area,

Encouraging some more opening.

Or if there's some open energy that's moving that feels really good,

Or something that you would like to allow to take up more space to encourage it,

Then you can use your movement and your attention and your breath and your sound there.

And you might do a little bit of both.

This is really a free space,

A free container for you to move and open up energy and be a body.

Moving for just a few more moments,

Bringing in maybe more breath,

More freedom,

Letting out some sound.

And then starting to slow it down.

To once again tune into those physical sensations,

Temperature,

Movement,

Pressure,

Texture.

What is here at the level of energy in the body?

And perhaps you can feel that this energy is a source of power.

If you moved through some waves,

Some emotions,

You might just notice if you stripped away any thoughts of good or bad or right or wrong or what they are,

And you just felt it as sensation,

As heat,

As a rush of water,

As tingles,

That that might be power,

Energy.

And just noticing with curiosity what your body feels like,

What you feel like,

The qualities of energy,

The sensations,

What it's like to be you.

And then you're going to take just a few moments to rest.

Anytime we open up energy,

It's important to leave some digestion to let go of all the stress.

Some time,

Some integration,

Trusting that the energy is going to the parched places,

That there's nothing else you have to do,

That you can just rest and receive this practice.

The music will gently fade out,

And that will be the end of this practice.