New offerings and a (virtual) makeover
updates from the real world
Hello everyone. Before I get into my next post about maya and the virtual world, I wanted to share some updates that might interest you.
Moving Stillness, Stillness Moving
This is an embodied movement class that I’m facilitating in partnership with the Wellness Festival Singapore (WFS). It’s on Sunday 2 July, 2-3PM at Marina Bay Sands.
Refine your creative awareness through this sensual, embodied moving meditation. You will be guided through waves of motion and stillness, sound and silence—in the process discovering new sensations and unlocking your intuitive knowledge. Join for an imaginative flow experience that will help you move beyond limits and boundaries.
I’m in the process of putting together a playlist for this class, which is very loosely inspired by the 5Rhythms wave. Hit me up with any suggestions you have, or music you’re enjoying at the moment.
Find out more about the class and book to attend here.
I recently attended this beautiful art show that’s also part of the WFS. Check it out if you’re in the mood for a gentle, meditative aesthetic experience.
A virtual makeover
Since I started this substack, I have been waiting for the right time to rename my website and business, which I share with my mum. The moment has come, and The Still Space (our old business name) has been reborn as The Wise Body.
I’m feeling much more aligned and streamlined, not only because it’s a lot easier to have only one brand name, but because the name itself is closer to what we both do and believe. As I said on my About page, The Wise Body refers to the innate intelligence of our embodied, physical selves, as well as being a play on dharmakaya, the ultimate wisdom body of the Buddha. Both my mum’s work (as a homeopath and Yi Jing reader) and mine draws on these threads, so this change is apt.
The logo for this substack and our website is a stylized depiction of the three main energetic channels from the tantra and yoga traditions. The central channel, sushumna, is the space of pure awareness, while to either side are the golden-solar-yang pingala nadi and the silver-lunar-yin ida nadi. I created the arcs of the nadis using Zen enso circles, because Zen has been a strong influence in both mine and my mum’s work and life. The overall shape also resembles the rod of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and prophecy.
In celebration of this virtual rebirth, I’ve given our website a light makeover, so it presents in line with our new logo, name and banner. Check it out here.
Note that the old url (thestillspace.org) still works, as it auto-redirects to the new one (thewisebody.org). I’m keeping the old one alive until next year, so there’s plenty of transition time and hopefully no online visitors get lost.
Embodiment Coaching
This past month I’ve been synthesising a new offering that is now up on my website. It’s come out of recent interactions with students in the studio, as well as private clients, and a recognition that this is something meaningful I can help people with. Somatics/embodiment is a new field worldwide but it’s virtually unknown where I am, so I decided to write a mini-essay explaining what it means to me.
Why Embodiment
Most of us, conditioned by modern culture and society, live in our heads. Everything that happens to us is automatically processed by thinking, planning, categorizing, managing, problem-solving. These are valuable skills, but incomplete to experience the richness or navigate the challenges of life. The mind is only half of who we are; the other half is the body.
You may have already realized that it’s nearly impossible to think your way into and out of feelings. The same holds for tension, trauma and stress, which are physiological (body-based) as well as psychological (mind-based).
How do you manage and categorize and control experiences like grief, that have no words, no logic, no structure, and no limits?
When life spirals out of control, do your thoughts help you navigate the chaos, or do they keep you swirling in self-doubt and anxiety?
Can you strategize your way into being authentically yourself, when you don’t know what self feels like?
In these domains of life, we need a different set of skills, a fresh approach: and thankfully there is one waiting for us inside our own skin. Our bodies possess innate intelligence and the marvellous ability to support us through the ups and downs of life. The body knows things the mind doesn’t, can handle things that are beyond thought, and has insights beyond the limits of what we believe or know.
All we need to do is remember to tune in. Remember that you are a living being, not a machine running on the fumes of mind alone. Reconnect with your aliveness, the movement of life inside you that shows you who you are and what you could become.
Embodiment is your felt experience of the body, what you know through sensation, perception, movement, intuition, imagination and touch. It is not about the way your body looks on the outside, or what you think or believe about your body, but about the way you feel on the inside: the living, breathing you. This ‘inside you’ contains all your feelings, your instincts and desires, your intuition, your presence, your sub- and unconscious processes, and your basic life force. Do you know how to be with all these different parts of yourself?
Embodiment coaching is about bringing your body back to life, or back into your life. It involves practices and processes designed to rekindle your relationship with your physicality, so that you can discover the joy of living life with your body as your ally and friend. Sometimes this is called living from the bottom-up or from the inside-out (rather than from the top-down, or the outside-in).
No matter who you are, your body has something to offer you—something that you may not even know you’re missing, but that will bring enormous value to you when you find it. Your body is a hidden treasure, and what I offer is a way for you to unlock it.
Find out more about how these coaching sessions work, what’s included and whether they’re right for you here. Also scroll down to the bottom of that page for some more wonderful artwork on the theme of embodiment. And please share with anyone who would appreciate it.
With my next post I will resume writing about maya and the virtual world. In case you missed them, here are the first and second articles in the series.
Thank you for being here. If you find value in what I do, please upgrade to a paid subscription—costs about the same as 1 fancy coffee per month ;)