5Rhythms offers accessible, life-supporting tools. Below are some that can be used anywhere, for any amount of time.
I have used them in airport bathroom stalls, in hospital parking lots, in challenging conversations, in the middle of the night... endless times and places.
We are each a body that includes consciousness. We can use this fact, without being fancy, to help ourselves when life seems like business as usual, and also when we’re off the map of what we thought we knew. The many schools of movement, and awareness and healing practices that include the body, have both shared and unique tools that can help us through life. So much is offered by walking meditation, “conscious dance” forms, martial arts, qigong, yoga, traditions of sitting meditation that use breath and sensation, BMC, Feldenkrais/ABM, all bodywork that includes mindful tracking, EMDR, IBP, etc. I'm grateful for the teachers in many disciplines who have opened their practices to online sessions.
I would like to provide support for your in-body, non-virtual self-connection by sharing easy embodiment practices that you can take with you wherever you are, and do alone or with others who are actually there with you, in the flesh. In 5Rhythms, we use intentionally breathing into our bodies, feeling our bodies on purpose, and allowing movement to arise from our body awareness and persistent presence of mind to help us grow our capacity to live well.
We can:
Turn toward and tend ourselves
(In 5Rhythms, this is Flowing)
Express ourselves for ourselves
(Rhythm of Staccato)
Surrender ourselves for ourselves
(Rhythm of Chaos)
Open our horizons wider, easier
(Rhythm of Lyrical)
Rest in emptied completion, in our own way
(Rhythm of Stillness)
5Rhythms teaches that each Rhythm is a unique way of being, and a distinct apprenticeship. Experimenting with each is meant to yield a medicine–– a specific lesson on life’s puzzles, tasks, and possibilities. Each is meant to offer a helpful approach to living. Each is also seen as a birthright; a capacity each of us is meant to have. An everyday superpower waiting to be felt, developed, and used to mutual benefit, in dynamic balance with the other 4.
Each of these embodiment tools serves to re-regulate a dysregulated human in different ways. When we’re off-balance in any way, each of them can help.
All of them can be done standing, sitting in a chair or on the floor, kneeling, on all 4s in table-top, or lying on your side, back or front, on a floor or in bed or bath. All of them can be done for the span of one breath or for minutes and minutes. Each of them can be done stand-alone, or in sequence, or in spontaneous combinations. It’s up to you.
If you’re exhausted, ill, injured, emotionally overwhelmed, or unable to move your whole body freely for any other reason, it’s just as good to move any part of your body, and just as good to move very gently and very small–– even invisibly, from the outside. A hand, a foot, your head and face, YOUR BREATH are capable of moving everything you need to move. Engaging in the simple intention, and in any physical sensation and movement, is powerful and healing.
1. ENTER THE FLOW
INHALE, SENSE & SOFTEN to FILL & GROUND yourself. Actively feel your feet (or whatever part of you is touching ground) and let your whole bodyweight follow that contact, melting inward. Attune to what you hear, see, smell, taste, feel, within and without. Let it feed you and reconnect you. Notice what is present and bend with it, like grass in the wind. Breathe in, soften all your tissues around your sturdy bones, feel the ground already supporting your weight and your moving feet, as you gently root.
Flowing medicine nurtures our capacity to attune, take in and become aware, notice what truly is, and ground in reality (engage in right perception). It encourages us to go with reality more than we fight it, to go with the flow of life–– lessening self-sabotaging resistance and turning our attention to maximal care, nurturance and realism.
2. ENGAGE WITH STACCATO
EXHALE, SHAPE & EXPRESS to FOCUS, UNBLOCK & DEPRESSURIZE yourself. Direct unforced, clear body movements, in pulses, right from your core–– belly, hips, heart and shoulders –– out through your legs, arms, neck and head. Stay close to your core or reach all the way through your crown, hands and feet, or anywhere in between, and breathe out, and repeat or change your movement-statements as often as you like. Take the lid off, get it off your chest. If there happen to be words on your tongue that want to be said, let your mouth say them to yourself.
Staccato medicine builds our capacity to express instead of repress, to articulate, to let out what we feel and bleed over-stimulation and pressure. It supports us to reach out from the heart and maintain self-chosen boundaries, to engage in right speech, to focus in the moment and over time, to take right action, and to follow through.
3. RELEASE INTO CHAOS
BREATHE FREELY, SHAKE & LET GO to RELEASE & EMPTY yourself. Shake~shimmy~sway your whole body. Wobble and spill over, bouncing up/down, front/back, left/right, any speed and amplitude without violence, freeing your head, face and neck first, all the way to beneath your feet. Be a waterfall descending from cliff to pool, with softness and power. Let your breath be affected, unpredictably, by your movement. Step, tap or shift your weight side to side, in your feet.
Chaos medicine deepens our capacity to let go instead of hurting ourselves clenching, clinging, hanging on, and helps us to both realize what is not in our control and to yield to that gracefully, with far more chance of wellbeing and survival. This is a tool for peacefully, wisely clearing, cleansing, unburdening, and laying down what feels stuck in us and what does not serve us. It can teach us to move through uncertainty with more chance of coming through the other side–– bending instead of breaking and emptying so that we liberate space to learn, shift, and re-form according to changing conditions. It can prepare us to let go of outdated or false beliefs and rules in order to create in and on new ground, new scope.
4. EXPAND IN LYRICAL
BREATHE EASY, SPREAD OPEN YOUR CHEST, UPPER BACK, ARMS, HANDS, & ENTER THE SPELL OF REPETITION to EASE, EXPAND, and maybe even DELIGHT your whole self. Play with movements that relate to the light touch of endless air around you. Find movements that want to repeat over and over. Experiment until you find effortless, pleasing, entrancing movements, from small and inward to large and extended, and let your attention dilate like the pupil of your eye dilates in low light. Hang out. Follow. Chill.
Lyrical medicine opens and fertilizes our soul in realms of imagination, inspiration, and vision. It soothes and sweetens our nervous system through repetition of pleasurable movements that “fit” or “click”. It seeds our creativity, adventurousness, and facility for enchantment by engaging all parts of our consciousness in the nectar of waking, moving dream.
5. RE-INTEGRATE THROUGH STILLNESS
BREATHE FULL & COMPLETE, GO SLOW & SENSITIVE, & USE PAUSES TO SETTLE, REST, AND RE-WEAVE yourself. Try letting each breath result in a new variation of movement, gesture, or a paused shape. Move enough to feel yourself–– to stay awake–– yet spaciously and unhurriedly enough that you can track every movement and sensation without strain. Pair moments of acutely-aware, restful movement with complete stillness of body… like a lake without a ripple. Let the circle be unbroken.
Stillness medicine regenerates our capacity to integrate and heal. To integrate, we need spaces and stretches of time to truly rest, do nothing, be empty, and simply dwell without stimulus or demands. Without integration, our life experiences can’t synthesize, unify, become whole, come home to us, or become part of who we are.
I have used them in airport bathroom stalls, in hospital parking lots, in challenging conversations, in the middle of the night... endless times and places.
We are each a body that includes consciousness. We can use this fact, without being fancy, to help ourselves when life seems like business as usual, and also when we’re off the map of what we thought we knew. The many schools of movement, and awareness and healing practices that include the body, have both shared and unique tools that can help us through life. So much is offered by walking meditation, “conscious dance” forms, martial arts, qigong, yoga, traditions of sitting meditation that use breath and sensation, BMC, Feldenkrais/ABM, all bodywork that includes mindful tracking, EMDR, IBP, etc. I'm grateful for the teachers in many disciplines who have opened their practices to online sessions.
I would like to provide support for your in-body, non-virtual self-connection by sharing easy embodiment practices that you can take with you wherever you are, and do alone or with others who are actually there with you, in the flesh. In 5Rhythms, we use intentionally breathing into our bodies, feeling our bodies on purpose, and allowing movement to arise from our body awareness and persistent presence of mind to help us grow our capacity to live well.
We can:
Turn toward and tend ourselves
(In 5Rhythms, this is Flowing)
Express ourselves for ourselves
(Rhythm of Staccato)
Surrender ourselves for ourselves
(Rhythm of Chaos)
Open our horizons wider, easier
(Rhythm of Lyrical)
Rest in emptied completion, in our own way
(Rhythm of Stillness)
5Rhythms teaches that each Rhythm is a unique way of being, and a distinct apprenticeship. Experimenting with each is meant to yield a medicine–– a specific lesson on life’s puzzles, tasks, and possibilities. Each is meant to offer a helpful approach to living. Each is also seen as a birthright; a capacity each of us is meant to have. An everyday superpower waiting to be felt, developed, and used to mutual benefit, in dynamic balance with the other 4.
Each of these embodiment tools serves to re-regulate a dysregulated human in different ways. When we’re off-balance in any way, each of them can help.
All of them can be done standing, sitting in a chair or on the floor, kneeling, on all 4s in table-top, or lying on your side, back or front, on a floor or in bed or bath. All of them can be done for the span of one breath or for minutes and minutes. Each of them can be done stand-alone, or in sequence, or in spontaneous combinations. It’s up to you.
If you’re exhausted, ill, injured, emotionally overwhelmed, or unable to move your whole body freely for any other reason, it’s just as good to move any part of your body, and just as good to move very gently and very small–– even invisibly, from the outside. A hand, a foot, your head and face, YOUR BREATH are capable of moving everything you need to move. Engaging in the simple intention, and in any physical sensation and movement, is powerful and healing.
1. ENTER THE FLOW
INHALE, SENSE & SOFTEN to FILL & GROUND yourself. Actively feel your feet (or whatever part of you is touching ground) and let your whole bodyweight follow that contact, melting inward. Attune to what you hear, see, smell, taste, feel, within and without. Let it feed you and reconnect you. Notice what is present and bend with it, like grass in the wind. Breathe in, soften all your tissues around your sturdy bones, feel the ground already supporting your weight and your moving feet, as you gently root.
Flowing medicine nurtures our capacity to attune, take in and become aware, notice what truly is, and ground in reality (engage in right perception). It encourages us to go with reality more than we fight it, to go with the flow of life–– lessening self-sabotaging resistance and turning our attention to maximal care, nurturance and realism.
2. ENGAGE WITH STACCATO
EXHALE, SHAPE & EXPRESS to FOCUS, UNBLOCK & DEPRESSURIZE yourself. Direct unforced, clear body movements, in pulses, right from your core–– belly, hips, heart and shoulders –– out through your legs, arms, neck and head. Stay close to your core or reach all the way through your crown, hands and feet, or anywhere in between, and breathe out, and repeat or change your movement-statements as often as you like. Take the lid off, get it off your chest. If there happen to be words on your tongue that want to be said, let your mouth say them to yourself.
Staccato medicine builds our capacity to express instead of repress, to articulate, to let out what we feel and bleed over-stimulation and pressure. It supports us to reach out from the heart and maintain self-chosen boundaries, to engage in right speech, to focus in the moment and over time, to take right action, and to follow through.
3. RELEASE INTO CHAOS
BREATHE FREELY, SHAKE & LET GO to RELEASE & EMPTY yourself. Shake~shimmy~sway your whole body. Wobble and spill over, bouncing up/down, front/back, left/right, any speed and amplitude without violence, freeing your head, face and neck first, all the way to beneath your feet. Be a waterfall descending from cliff to pool, with softness and power. Let your breath be affected, unpredictably, by your movement. Step, tap or shift your weight side to side, in your feet.
Chaos medicine deepens our capacity to let go instead of hurting ourselves clenching, clinging, hanging on, and helps us to both realize what is not in our control and to yield to that gracefully, with far more chance of wellbeing and survival. This is a tool for peacefully, wisely clearing, cleansing, unburdening, and laying down what feels stuck in us and what does not serve us. It can teach us to move through uncertainty with more chance of coming through the other side–– bending instead of breaking and emptying so that we liberate space to learn, shift, and re-form according to changing conditions. It can prepare us to let go of outdated or false beliefs and rules in order to create in and on new ground, new scope.
4. EXPAND IN LYRICAL
BREATHE EASY, SPREAD OPEN YOUR CHEST, UPPER BACK, ARMS, HANDS, & ENTER THE SPELL OF REPETITION to EASE, EXPAND, and maybe even DELIGHT your whole self. Play with movements that relate to the light touch of endless air around you. Find movements that want to repeat over and over. Experiment until you find effortless, pleasing, entrancing movements, from small and inward to large and extended, and let your attention dilate like the pupil of your eye dilates in low light. Hang out. Follow. Chill.
Lyrical medicine opens and fertilizes our soul in realms of imagination, inspiration, and vision. It soothes and sweetens our nervous system through repetition of pleasurable movements that “fit” or “click”. It seeds our creativity, adventurousness, and facility for enchantment by engaging all parts of our consciousness in the nectar of waking, moving dream.
5. RE-INTEGRATE THROUGH STILLNESS
BREATHE FULL & COMPLETE, GO SLOW & SENSITIVE, & USE PAUSES TO SETTLE, REST, AND RE-WEAVE yourself. Try letting each breath result in a new variation of movement, gesture, or a paused shape. Move enough to feel yourself–– to stay awake–– yet spaciously and unhurriedly enough that you can track every movement and sensation without strain. Pair moments of acutely-aware, restful movement with complete stillness of body… like a lake without a ripple. Let the circle be unbroken.
Stillness medicine regenerates our capacity to integrate and heal. To integrate, we need spaces and stretches of time to truly rest, do nothing, be empty, and simply dwell without stimulus or demands. Without integration, our life experiences can’t synthesize, unify, become whole, come home to us, or become part of who we are.