La forza evocativa delle parole

Wholebody – Its name for me, is more than a name, it is like an invitation to my body to consider itself as a whole.

di Rosa Catoio

La forza evocativa delle parole, nell’Wholebody, mi permette di accedere direttamente al corpo superando i dubbi e le resistenze della mente.

Il mio incontro con l’Wholebody Focusing fa parte di un processo iniziato tanti anni fa. Sono passata attraverso tante discipline ed ognuna di queste mi ha dato qualcosa. Il Focusing e l’Wholebody sono gli ultimi anelli di una lunga catena e sono molto grata di averle potute includere nella mia vita.

Sono una partigiana dell’inclusione e sono convinta che sia l’inclusione ad arricchire le nostre vite e non l’esclusione. La visione propriamente inclusiva dell’Wholebody mi ha catturata e lo ha fatto attraverso le parole, parole di grande potere evocativo.  A cominciare dal suo nome, Wholebody.

Corpo intero 

Il suo nome, per me, è più di un nome, è come un invito al mio corpo a considerarsi come un tutt’uno. Sin dall’inizio della mia formazione è come se il mio corpo avesse risposto a questo invito e avesse iniziato a sentire un senso di ampiezza, di espansione e di benessere. E questo movimento si ripete ogni volta che penso o pronuncio la parola “Wholebody”.

Non so come avvenga, ma nell’evocare questo nome, il mio corpo risponde a questa parola/invito e si mette in cerca di una forma di unità, non so se mentale, immaginaria, energetica, fisica, relazionale, spirituale, oppure tutti questi aspetti insieme. Lo fa in maniera naturale, rapida e armoniosa, creando un senso di espansione, di leggerezza e di presenza. Un corpo che va ben al di là della pelle che mi ricopre.

Non è una sensazione che rimane a lungo, ma basta ripensare al nome perché la sensazioni ritorni. Come se ci fosse bisogno di ricordare a me stessa, con più frequenza, che sono un essere molto più grande e complesso di quello che penso. Questo invito mette insieme tutte le parti di me, come se venissero attirate da una calamita in un unico nucleo centrale, che via via diventa più grande, più ampio e più libero, fino ad includere tutto ciò che mi circonda, persone comprese.

Nessuna parte viene abbandonata a se stessa. Ogni parte viene inclusa armoniosamente. In questo modo l’intero corpo (Wholebody) è pronto ad iniziare il processo di accoglienza di ciò che ha bisogno di essere ascoltato o visto in quel momento.

Questo processo mi permette di uscire dall’isolamento mentale in cui troppo spesso mi sento imprigionata. Mi collega al mondo e agli altri, con maggior fiducia e maggior presenza. Mi collega al flusso stesso della vita rendendomi più vitale e piena di energia. Un’energia che scorre più libera e sottile attraverso ogni parte del corpo, anche quelle solitamente dimenticate e stanche o problematiche. Tutto tende a collaborare e ad avere un senso.

Ma questa non è l’unica parola che per me corrisponde ad un invito. Ce ne sono tante altre che ho imparato o ritrovato grazie all’Wholebody.  Ne citerò alcune. Sono queste parole che hanno creato in me, passo dopo passo, l’idea di Wholebody e del suo funzionamento.

Presenza Radicata

L’altra parola/invito fondamentale è Grounded Presence – Presenza Radicata Una Presenza più grande, radicata, centrata, osservatrice, che emerge quando riesco a darmi il permesso di posarmi, lì dove sono, così come sono, con chi sono. Quando permetto al flusso vitale di percorrermi e attraversami fin nel profondo delle mie radici. Quando permetto all’intero contenitore “corpo” di sentirsi sicuro di esplorare quello che è. Permettere piuttosto che fare.

Questo può essere l’inizio di un processo di Wholebody Focusing. Ho imparato a sperimentarlo su di me e a trasmetterlo, ponendo l’attenzione sui cinque spazi corporei, secondo il metodo Wholebody.

Saggezza del Corpo.

Un’altra parola che funziona come catalizzatore per innescare un processo è Body Wisdom – Saggezza del Corpo. E’ un’idea molto potente perché, nei momenti di maggior stress, offre un pensiero di salvezza, e dà la possibilità di affidarsi a qualcosa di più grande di noi. Qualcosa che sentiamo vicino, che ci abita e ci guida, se solo glielo permettiamo, abbandonando la rigidità e l’eccessivo controllo mentale.

Noi Qui

Uno dei termini usato nell’Wholebody che apprezzo particolarmente è : We Here – Noi Qui che è l’invito relazionale a considerare il campo energetico in cui ci troviamo in due, in tre o in gruppo. Grazie alle nostre rispettive presenze radicate, possiamo aprirci all’intero potenziale del campo che riusciamo a creare in quel preciso momento, con la nostra accoglienza, la nostra disposizione a lasciare da parte il mentale per aprirci alla parte più grande di noi, al nuovo, alla saggezza interiore, senza giudizi, senza etichette, schemi o aspettative.

Queste sono alcune delle parole che ho imparato ad usare con la pratica dell’Wholebody Focusing. Alcune di queste vengono usate anche nel Focusing e in altre pratiche conosciute, tuttavia le parole dell’Wholebody entrano in modo nuovo e potente e, se lo permettiamo, riescono a risvegliare il nostro mondo interiore. È quello che succede nel processo di Wholebody ed è un viaggio che porta davvero lontano.

English Version

The Evocative Power of Words

by Rosa Catoio

The evocative power of words, in Wholebody, allows me to directly access the body, overcoming the doubts and resistance of the mind. My encounter with Wholebody Focusing is part of a process that began many years ago. I have gone through many disciplines and each of these has given me something. Focusing and Wholebody are the last links in a long chain and I am very grateful to have been able to include them in my life.

I am a supporter of inclusion and I am convinced that it is inclusion that enriches our lives and not exclusion. The truly inclusive vision of Wholebody captured me and did so through words, words of great evocative power. Starting with its name, Wholebody.

Wholebody

Wholebody – Its name for me, is more than a name, it is like an invitation to my body to consider itself as a whole. From the beginning of my training it is as if my body responded to this invitation and began to feel a sense of breadth, expansion and well-being. And this movement repeats itself every time I think or pronounce the word “Wholebody”.

I don’t know how it happens, but in evoking this name, my body responds to this word/invitation and starts looking for a form of unity, I don’t know if mental, imaginary, energetic, physical, relational, spiritual or all of these aspects together. It does so naturally, quickly and harmoniously, creating a sense of expansion, lightness and presence. A body that goes far beyond the skin that covers me.

It is not a sensation that remains for long, but just thinking back to the name makes the sensations return. As if I needed to remind myself, more frequently, that I am a much bigger and more complex being than I think. This invitation brings together all parts of me, as if they were attracted by a magnet into a single central nucleus, which gradually becomes bigger, broader and freer, until it includes everything that surrounds me, including people. No part is left to itself. Every part is included harmoniously. In this way the whole body is ready to begin the process of welcoming what needs to be heard or seen in that moment.

This process allows me to escape from the mental isolation in which I too often feel imprisoned. It connects me to the world and to others, with greater trust and greater presence. It connects me to the very flow of life making me more vital and full of energy. An energy that flows more freely and subtly through every part of the body, even those usually forgotten, tired or problematic. Everything tends to work together and to make sense.

But this is not the only word that for me corresponds to an invitation. There are many others that I have learned or rediscovered thanks to Wholebody. I will mention some of them. These words created in me, step by step, the idea of Wholebody and how it works.

Grounded Presence

The other fundamental word/invitation is Grounded Presence – A larger, rooted, centered, observing Presence, which emerges when I manage to give myself permission to rest, where I am, as I am, with who I am. When I allow the vital flow to run through me and pass through me to the depths of my roots. When I allow the entire “body” container to feel safe to explore what it is. Allowing rather than doing.

This can be the beginning of a Wholebody Focusing process. I learned to experience it on myself and to transmit it, paying attention to the five body spaces, according to the Wholebody method.

Body Wisdom

Another word that works as a catalyst to trigger a process is Body Wisdom. It is a very powerful idea because, in moments of greatest stress, it offers a thought of salvation, and gives the possibility of relying on something bigger than us. Something that we feel close to, that lives in us and guides us, if only we allow it, abandoning rigidity and excessive mental control.

We Here

One of the terms hat I particularly appreciate is We Here – which is the relational invitation to consider the energy field in which we find ourselves as two, three or in a group. Thanks to our respective rooted presences, we can open ourselves to the entire potential of the field that we manage to create in that precise moment, with our welcome, our willingness to leave the mental aside and to open up to the greater part of us, to the new, to inner wisdom, without judgment, without labels, patterns or expectations.

These are some of the words I learned to use with the practice of Wholebody Focusing. Some of these are also used in Focusing and other known practices, however the words of the Wholebody enter in a new and powerful way and, if we allow it, manage to awaken our inner world. That’s what happens in the Wholebody process and it’s a journey that really takes you far.

Please read another post by Rosa Catoio A Heart Creation/Una creazione del cuore

Holding Space for the Suffering of the Holocaust

Ellen part of holding space for the Holocaust, Korman Mains describes being a witness at Auschwitz as “shattering” initially; however, if one is able and willing to stay present to the energy of the experienceShe describes the process of being a witness at Auschwitz as “shattering” initially; however, if one is able and willing to stay present to the energy of the experience, a peacefulness emerges and extends into a sense of spaciousness and well-being.She describes the process of being a witness at Auschwitz as “shattering” initially; however, if one is able and willing to stay present to the energy of the experience, a peacefulness emerges and extends into a sense of spaciousness and well-being.

Presentation by Ellen Korman Mains

As part of the commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Kevin McEvenue’s Wholebody Focusing Blog helped sponsor an online gathering, attended by people from at least 6 countries. Author, Holocaust activist, and Focusing Teacher Ellen Korman Mains led a discussion on ways to hold space for and participate in the healing that needs to happen around the devastation of the Holocaust.

This post has an abridged version of Ellen’s presentation to the participants that supported small group Heart Conversation on this topic. Ellen starts her comments with a discussion of time itself. How are the past, present, and future connected? Can we relate to trauma in the past? Do these past actions relate to what is happening now? And, most importantly, how can holding space for the past carry us forward?

Ellen talks about the history of witnessing the Holocaust—how it was avoided by many at first. It is challenging to hold such horrors in our consciousness. She describes the process of becoming a witness and why witnessing matters. What is the impact on the person who is a witness? Can it change the energy of those spirits who lived through this tragedy?

Ellen draws on her work and the work of other healers for inspiration. She describes the process of being a witness at Auschwitz as “shattering” initially; however, if one is able and willing to stay present to the energy of the experience, a peacefulness emerges and extends into a sense of spaciousness and well-being.

This video is about 18 minutes long but well worth the effort to watch. For me, it is a convincing explanation of how we can heal ourselves, the past, and the future through this type of energy work. This kind of holding of space for suffering can also be helpful in many other circumstances in which unattended suffering still has us in its grip.

Sit back and take your time being with Ellen and her wisdom.

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My Prayer Hears Your Prayer

That was the awakening:  My prayer hears your prayer. Perhaps for you, too. And then something in me said that’s enough! That’s all I need to do—holding a sense of me and being aware of a sense of you. And you’re different!

Painting; Riverdale Park in Cabbagetown by Kevin McEvenue

My Prayer Hears Your Prayer  is in response to Elizabeth’s  “It Is for This.” It is the power of her voice, the tone of the sound, that is so healing to my soul.  My body instantly awakens to her tone of voice even before the words are felt.

I am just allowing Elizabeth’s prayer to be heard and felt inside me. And the words that seem to awaken something deeper in me are this expression that she keeps repeating:  it is for this. It is for this. It is for this.
And each time I hear that repetition, it touches me even more deeply because I know that sound.  I can feel that sound, and I can feel myself.
That is what Elizabeth has awakened in me, too—that sense of me that knows who I am.  What I am.
And I love the feel of it.  I love being awakened when I hear someone else is there too. It gives me a sense of myself that feels totally satisfying.  It is a feeling of love.
I am Love.
I live, love in my whole body.
It is me.
This is who I am.
Amen.

Something more came to me from listening to Elizabeth say what was there for her, and how deeply that awakened something in me. It is as though her sound, her voice, her expression, awakened a sense of myself from inside–like awakening a tuning fork of who I am.

My Prayer Hears your Prayer

Continue reading “My Prayer Hears Your Prayer”

Finding Life Fully Inside Me as Me!

Kevin begins by asking us to “find ourselves once again together.”  It is a most luxurious invitation to take the time to explore who I am separate from all the normal static that is part of my life.  To be with Me,  I make room for the life in “what wants to be heard” and to help this part become aware of itself.  This part is always functioning within me, however, it needs my consciousness to become aware of its own existence.  I take all the  time I need to find and spend time with Me as Me.

Diana Scalera

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The Squirrel and the Chicken Bone

 

While walking through my complex, I offered a squirrel a walnut but she already had a chicken’s thigh bone in her mouth.  We both stopped to notice each other and we made a pact to connect. I wanted to know what a squirrel would do with a chicken bone and she knew I had more walnuts. So there we were, she was working the bone with an eye on me and the walnut and I was standing motionless studying her chewing on a chicken thigh.  

Connecting to a Squirrel

Squirrels are like that. They size you up for the potential of being a provider of food. If you meet the requirements, motionless with something in your hand, they will hold your gaze, partly anticipating danger and partly as boldness to hold space for their hunger. I decided to watch her transform the thigh bone into food.

What Happened Next?

I used my body to block her from others’ view so they would not break the spell. She chewed and chewed on the bone until it began to dissolve. Soon, the squirrel cast off small flakes of bone —first from the center, where I could see some dried-out marrow, and then from the ends.

I wondered how this chicken thigh bone had gotten into her hands. Perhaps, there was a chicken that laid an egg, and that egg became a chicken grew up somewhere eating chicken food.  

Eventually, a factory process transformed the chicken into an edible product that someone cooked at a fast food store. Someone bought the chicken and ate lunch on the grass. Then, the bone was left behind and found its way into that lucky squirrel’s mouth.

What a journey! By this time, all the squirrel had left was the bone’s knuckle, which she was making smaller and smaller. She was a recycling machine.

I was reminded of  having fried chicken with the leader of a national union. We were organizing the largest anti-Apartheid demonstration ever in New York City.  We stopped to eat our fried chicken. I noticed the difference between how I ate my piece of  chicken and how he did. For him there was nothing left on the bones.  I had selectively only eaten the meat and left everything else. I mentioned that we had a different way of eating a piece of chicken.  He explained he grew up in a low-income family and he never left anything behind.  He still loved to eat this way. I always had the luxury to be fussy about food and still only eat the parts that that I like.  

Grounded Presence

When the squirrel finished demolishing her bone, she walked over to the walnut and ate that, too! I gave her a few more pieces of walnut and went back home. Watching a squirrel consume a chicken bone stimulated many thoughts about life.

Stop, connect to a squirrel, a bird, a flower, a tree and  wait, notice one’s environment and wait some more. 

Take a look at Kevin McEvenue’s Me and Planet Earth

Paused to be Love

I purchased a fist-sized Fluorite crystal selecting a particular one by holding them in my hands to see which one had the strongest vibration for me. I chose the one that lifted my hand up and down.

Photo by Diana Scalera

Recently, Kevin and I have been exploring. Participatory Spirituality. it reminded me of the blog Pause to be Love.   It is a story of holding space with others in a way that leads us to experience a positive felt sense unexpectedly. Kevin McEcenue and I decided to start writing more about Whole Body Focusing when Particiatory  Spiritual is present.  It  draws us into situations in which our interactions with others stimulate our our need for Participatory Spirituality.

Change Your Mind

The first day of Spring gave me a lovely present. In New York City, the weather was mild and sunny. It was a beautiful day to walk around my neighborhood.

I walked toward my favorite organic grocery store in the East Village when I came across an old school building. It was converted in 1980 into a performance art workshop operated by the artists.

I used to live across the street from this building and went to many avant-garde performances there. It was in a constant state of disrepair and construction then. A few years ago, the building underwent a $37 million gentrification makeover and was taken over by a prestigious art institution in NYC. I never even considered going inside. I felt that it was part of the general destruction of a neighborhood that was once cheap enough for anyone to live in and had supported a broad range of art and life.

Change Happens

As I walked by, I paused to be with this new incarnation of the building. There were inviting signs announcing some new performances, and I decided to go in. I spoke to the people at the front desk and learned that there was a multimedia exhibition open to the public on the political nature of cells. I spent some time with this exhibit. My favorite part was watching a video of the sun’s rays shining on the particles in the air we breathe. It was called “This Is Your Living Room.”

I also got a chance to use the bathroom there. It was gender neutral with multiple stalls. This new architectural adaptation felt right to me and was needed to reduce gender bias.

While I am sad that I may never see the likes of Penny Arcade’s outspoken rants or Bina Sharif’s insightful plays in this building again, I got a chance to see that there is something here that does support art and life.

Try a Little Kindness

When I got to the newly-opened organic grocery, I noticed a Latino man in his forties putting vegetables on the shelf. He looked familiar to me. As I paused with that sense of familiarity, I asked him if he had worked in a different grocery store in the neighborhood. He had, and said that the store had closed. I hadn’t seen him in years. What made me remember was his kindness.  I felt delighted that he was now working in this new, well-run store and wished him well in his new job. I needed to pause, because I recognized someone with whom I rarely interacted, simply because his kindness was always so present.

Good Vibrations

As I walked back home, I realized I wanted to pick up a plant for my apartment. There is a fantastic store, EviFlorist, run by a family of Latin Americans who have in-depth knowledge and skill with plants. They also have a fabulous collection of gems and can help their customers select plants and crystals to enrich their lives.

The moment you are near the store, you feel the vibrational energy increase. There are so many plants and gems that every breath you take raises your own energy levels. The hyacinth drew my attention. It was just beginning to bloom. Wha talso attracted my attention were the crystals. I needed to bring this kind of energy into my life. I held the fist-sized Fluorite crystal in my hands to see which one had the strongest vibration for me. The Crystal made my hands vibrate up and down, I was sold.

Big Yellow Taxi

As I happily left the store with my purchases, I realized that I couldn’t carry the groceries, the plant, and the crystal all the way home, and I searched for a cab.

I have a sure-fire way to get a cab in NYC. Instead of using my cell phone, I sing a song to myself, inviting a cab driver to find me. Within 30 seconds, I was in a cab. The driver was a man who wore a Sikh turban. I noticed that he was stressed.

I let him know that I was grateful to him for finding me with all these packages and that I was not concerned with the traffic. He relaxed. I saw that he was a very young man who was struggling with the pressures of being a cab driver in NYC. By the time we got to my apartment, he finally noticed me. He eventually offered to help me with my bags, and we wished each other a good day.

When I was walking into my apartment building, I found a name for this experience—the Magical Mystery Tour. Equally important, I appreciated the pauses for Love with everyone I met that day.

Sister Hazel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y944YxuE1OU

Glenn Campbell  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvswocNN-g8

Beach Boys  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eab_beh07HU

Joni Mitchel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20

Beatles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8WMGBuNaus

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It’s a Big Deal

“There is a deeper process inside of you that wants to be seen…and heard…and appreciated by you.”

It’s a Big Deal
Intro by E. Morana

It’s a Big Deal is a segment on the power of being noticed that brings us to the completion of the series, Participatory Spirituality.

In his own words:  “It’s a big deal…to notice…to be noticed…to be informed…and to receive and to go with…”

The video below is a shortened version of a webinar which Kevin offered on Zoom to a group of WholeBody focusers in July 2021. In it, Kevin begins by speaking to us of his own experience of what it’s like—for him—to be in a community. When asked to lead a webinar on the value of community, he knew he didn’t want to do it. His past experience had left him with generally negative expectations regarding community. He noticed that. Then he decided to do the webinar and to see what was there.

To Notice

He opens with the statement: “Here I am…so what’s going on in me? Notice me being present to myself.”

After articulating his own discovery, he invites his audience—and now, that’s each of us here on the blog—to turn inwardly and to wait for our own Body Sense to form about being here—in this situation. His words: “There’s a deeper process inside of you that wants to be seen…and heard…and appreciated by you.”

The Big Deal

Kevin has set out to show us something almost miraculous: that when we begin to pay attention to whatever-that-is-in-us, it begins to awaken to itself and it begins to transform. On its own! And it needs us to pay attention to it. It couldn’t have awakened—and couldn’t have begun this new period of growth—without our attention.

That’s what we’ve really come here to learn. Not thoughts-about community, but our direct-experience-here-and-now of me-in-this-community. Instead, we’ve come to practice listening to how it is for me, here, now. Things begin to unfold that could not have happened without it. Surprising things. Good things.

No wonder it’s a Big Deal.

Participatory Spirituality: A New Experience

Kevin McEvenue explores Participatory Spirituality as a new experience of his ever evolving Wholebody Focusing Practice.

y Kevin McEvenue

This blog is about my work with Participatory Spirituality. I am introducing a new topic to be shared and explored together.  Other blogs about Participatory Spirituality will be identified in the first paragraph.

As I say the words out loud, I notice I stop! A sequence of events happens.  Holding Grounded Presence takes over. A feeling of confusion emerges, as though I don’t know what to think. It’s true, I don’t know!  MY body took a deep breath and paused;  wonder washes over me.

Panic or shut down; I wonder as though I am curious. I am aware of both.

I stop, and I notice, and then something comes into my awareness! It feels new—like a new direction—as though a door has been opened in this way of responding. And holding both with equal positive regard.

Something comes that is clearly unexpected and not of my own making. Body, mind, and an awakening that is not of my own making! This is what we will be exploring as this new direction takes us to a place we have not been before, a kind of engagement with life that seems very personal.

Please join me in this new experience of myself as I explore what happens within me when I take this next step, then the next, and then the one after that. It seems to have a life of its own. I am given a choice.

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