rhythm of reality

the breath and what comes from witnessing it. Includes practice, meditation and contemplation.

I’m back at my laptop and feel myself trying to run away, to procrastinate. I’ve had a delicious 6 weeks of summer holidays, doing a lot of child-rearing and very little admin / life laundry and the pile is getting high. I find it hard to show up sometimes and adult. But here I am, booked my dentist appointment and I want to get back to writing these regular Artful Movement letters. I’m a little uncertain about if I can still sustain a weekly version as my teaching schedule is increasing this term, but let’s see what evolves shall we?

This weekend I was invited to teach at the Every Body Studio teacher training again and I wanted to share a snippet of what I shall teach there. It is something that I believe is an essential principle of yoga and embodiment practice and understanding and feeling it can be quietly radical and transformative in how we move…

Spanda (Sanskrit) the pulsation or vibration inherent in everything, that is the nature of the universe.

I learnt this beautiful teaching through my yoga and meditation teachers¹. Spanda, the essential vibration of the universe, is something I keep returning to in my movement practice. To remember the waves, the rhythm, the pulsations in all the systems of our body (and ultimately the universe). Tuning into our inner rhythms and frequencies I find deeply restorative and nourishing. Dare I say even healing.

Spanda is the original pulsation of divine energy that creates the universe and remains embedded within every particle of it.

– Sally Kempton

breath has/is Spanda.

The breath has a rise and fall, an expansion and contraction of muscles and organs and responses. Our diaphragm, pelvic floor, lungs and more expand and contract, push/pull, rise and fall. When we tune into this pulsation, some say, we tune into the essence of the universe. 

image NASA on Unsplash

There is a heartbeat throbbing nature of reality and our body. Even our cells breathe, expanding and contracting. We are born from pulsation and rhythm and there is healing and soothing in swaying, rocking, rhythm in the body and spine. We grow, we regress. We learn, we forget. There is this backwards and forwards in our development and in life itself.

“The breath arises out of stillness, expands, condenses, and returns to this ground of stillness. Oscillation is an intrinsic part of life and all movements.” - Donna Farhi, Yoga Mind Body and Spirit - A Return to Wholeness

what is inside is outside.

When we feel into our inner rhythms we learn to tune into outer rhythms too. By sensing into our bodies we may develop a greater awareness of the ways of the world and nature of reality. We can notice the impact outer vibrations have on us and how we can impact those around us. Everything is connected. Ok, bear with me dears. I know this one is out there. But maybe not. Have a play/think/ruminate on this and report back. Note - this awareness isn’t about trying to ‘fix things’. We aren’t changing anything, simply listening to what is already there, inside and around us. Things may, probably will, shift when we do listen. But that’s a process we can’t really interfere with.

meditation prompt:

As you sit can you feel some movement in your body - can you feel your breath moving the different parts of you? Now notice the sounds around you, how they too have a vibration, a rise and fall, they appear and disappear. The next step is to listen to both - the inner and outer world - notice how they dovetail in feeling, sound, sensation and harmony. This inner-outer listening is subtle and may wriggle away like a snake from your consciousness. But if you can be with it for a moment and hold it lightly in your mind like a feather, you’re listening to the source of energy itself.

Take it or leave it, question it, or take it with a dollop of salt. Below is a movement practice exploring this in the body. Let me know how you get on.

B x

//MOVE//

a gentle 20 minute meditative movement practice focusing on the pulsation of breath… enjoy!

1. (mostly Sally Kempton and Sianna Sherman, teachings derived from the Kashmir Shaivism tradition)