Not to feel good - but to feel.*
Not to just dance - but to be moved with purpose.
Not to 'be conscious' - but to cultivate critical consciousness*.
Not to ‘be free’ - but to be disciplined in disrupting oppression.
Not to get healed - but to raise our own healer-ship, and to cultivate our capacity for tending the world's wounds, together.
These values are a living continuously evolving practice.
Discipline:
Discipline carves a conversation between unconscious and conscious behavior, between habit and choice, between comfort and growth. To engage in a discipline allows for “I don’t know what I don’t know.” It is a commitment to the embodied “research” of inquiry.
The rigor and reflection discipline offers is foundational here.
Authenticity:
Authenticity opens the door to connection. It allows space for vulnerability and uncertainty as well as strength and potency. It permits emotion - both fierce and fragile. It embraces imperfection and learning from mistakes.
The transparency, integrity and humanity authenticity brings is respected here.
Dignity:
Dignity is embodied, multidirectional respect. It is a relational grace with which to hold ourselves, each other, and our world.
It is active compassion. It is a form of justice.
Giving ourselves and each other the agency, recognition and space to be in our own wisdom. Accepting and giving boundaries. Heeding our own and others limitations. Acknowledging impact (over intent). Making amends. These acts of dignity are highly valued here.
Liberation:
Liberation is disentanglement from systems inside and out that obstruct or persecute one’s intrinsic power, wisdom, belonging and ability to live safely, truly and freely in the world.
Liberation seeks to open gateways to who and what we are beyond context and construct. It aspires to reconnect us with a truth + essence that has been obscured. Liberatory perspective knows well, the impacts of sociopolitical context, trauma and oppression and sees the promise of resilience, renewal and grace. Liberatory practice is personal, spiritual, social and environmental activism.
Liberation is the compass here.
The foundational structure and embodiment practice engaged is the 5Rhythms™ movement map charted by Gabrielle Roth.
Here, it’s application expands to include other trauma-informed somatic practices and cultural activism.
Now is a pivot point.
Socially. Culturally. Politically. Personally. Ecologically.
A radical response is needed.
The consequences of culture rooted in Western-colonial-capitalist-supremacies are persistent, heinous and vast.
Restoring embodied culture rooted in relational ethics is one antidote.
This is work for our time - and many lifetimes to come.
The 5Rhythms movement maps integrated with body-based social and environmental liberation ideologies, trauma informed somatic practices and ritual arts, can contribute to the personal and cultural
reckoning being asked of us.