Moving Consciously: Somatic Transformations through Dance, Yoga, and Touch

Moving into silence fosters resilience, clear thinking, and increases one’s capacity for compassionate listening. The latter has assisted my teaching and helped me understand the importance of not leaving anyone out—and in mindfulness terms—not ever giving up on a student. Being transparent about my own stumbling seems to help.

To the definition of consciousness as a state of mind, Damasio adds that states of mind are always accompanied by feelings.17 We are conscious and very much alive to the feeling of our own existence, or perhaps the feeling is dull, but if we are awake and conscious, we feel something (consciousness is consciousness of something).

The experience may be slightly different from practice to practice (and lesson to lesson), but the essence revolves around discovering (or rediscovering) the wisdom of the self.

“bring your attention to,” or “what if you focus on this, now that you’ve learned that”? Sondra calls this “cultivating verbs of permission.”

Noise is not what we want at home. Harmony and balance are part of the routines of having a home, of taking pleasure in our bodies, of finding a pleasing equilibrium, of enjoying safety and well-being.

Both are being moved through touch.

Haptic perception refers to touch and how we come to know the otherness of people and

one who touches is also being touched.

Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (2012), Damasio shows how images, both abstract and concrete, are “the main currency of our minds.”14 In this, he associates images and minded awareness. Mind is more than the ability to think in words; it is also the ability to imagine and create images of all kinds in tandem with bodily knowled