17.2.2025
Here we go again! Today I started my blog while listening to a fantastic album that I recently discovered. So in case you feel motivated to listen to some music while reading my yet to be manifested lines of juxtaposed words that somehow make sense… here it is:
Album: Música Callada by François Couturier, François Méchali, François Laizeau
Rare to find such a François Trio :) Lovely album!
Back to my juxtapositional effort trying to make some sense today, before I dive into my notes of the Manual.
I lifted myself from my futon and my dreamworld at 7 this morning and started my day with a long cuddle with Gigi, then a lovely few cups of Golden Pine Needle tea and some reading of Confessions of St. Augustin. It is a lovely winter day here in Prague, -7 degrees but full sunshine and sparkling snow and ice.
Of course this was followed by a long walk in the Chuchle woods, where my thoughts were flowing into my steps. I was of course actively thinking of how to start and what to write about.. and the moment I gave up thinking, the thoughts were slowly flowing.
What is the flow?
This was my first thought actually. We always talk about a flow: to be able to flow, to create a flow, to be in the flow…what does it actually mean?
During Somatic Dialogue sessions I also talk a lot about the flow. There, it is a little bit more clear for me: in one of the possible meanings, we actually want to be able to feel the body well enough to feel how one movement is following another. Because from this continuous movement we can feel the flow of the energy passing through the physical structure of our body. It is a very pleasurable feeling, because during this process, that is the creation of the flow, our unnecessary holding of our muscles gives in. In other words the unholding of tension happens. And as we unhold tension we can articulate in a better way, and we are slowly aligning with gravity, so that it can make the transfer of weights in our body. And this simply gives pleasure. It is as simple as that.
In this process we also discover and improve the way we articulate our movements. Articulation not only in a random way, of being able to just move freely, but also in the sense that we are more present during the articulation and thus bring clarity to it. Clear articulation in the way we speak, or in the thought process. We can try to clearly articulate our words and listen to our voices. Or clearly articulate our thoughts, each time they appear.
More about Articulation?
Let’s just have a quick look into the meaning of the word articulation: According to the Oxford Languages, articulation is the formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech. It also is the action of putting into words an idea or feeling. In music it is the clarity in the production of successive notes. In the body it indicates the state of being jointed.
In Somatic Dialogue we talk a lot about articulation. It is one of the most important elements in improving our movement capacity and widening our range of movement. We talk about the articulation of the joints. Of course articulation means being jointed and also evokes clarity of action. But we speak of the joints and their capacity of clearly articulating the movement. The clarity in the movement is essential for the presence to land into it. In other words, when we practice more and more to bring clarity into the joint movements, we allow our presence to land into that area, and thus can feel more of what happens when a movement is happening. Well articulated movement in the joints, will allow us to feel the flow of the energy, which is liberated during movement.
This gives me the idea that I might design the next Online Improvisation class entirely on the articulation of the joints in various qualities.
Now back to the forest…all this came to me as I was walking on the frozen path, hearing the snow crack under my steps. Being charmed by the trees, as always, I felt this alignment happening in me, in my body while I was marching, feeling my feet and leg joints in perfect articulation, my hips swinging, spine swaying… my awareness was flowing through my body to articulate thoughts for the day. To be able to hear what our movements have to say, we need to work on articulation. The clearer we move, the more aware we will be during the movement and thus will hear better through our sensations.
What is my motivation?
Such a big question. Motivation has always been a very complex word for me. I have always been trying, as still am trying hard, to be as motivated as I can be. It is difficult in today’s world to stay motivated, because all our surroundings and education and interaction in everyday life are solely stimuli based. We need a lot of stimuli, and we are constantly stimulated, which I believe really brings us further away from our motivation.
We need time and space to find motivation…
When we are constantly stimulated we are constantly in motion, losing most of the time the inner quietness and the space that is needed to be able to even hear or get in touch with our motivation. I believe we also tend to confuse motivation with will, our constant need to want something, wanting to be like this or like that, wanting to appear as such and such…
When we allow ourselves to find our motivation, and when we recognize it, we do not need to push it towards a result. We just need to stay in motion, gently, kindly, and mindfully, so that the motivation can grow. It is like a source that helps us to make little steps, which take us a little further on our path. When motivation meets our patience and movements, it can flourish and nourish us.
Staying motivated, easier said than done!
Since I have put myself in front of the computer, I have been trying to stay motivated. I am motivated, yet it isn’t enough to make me finish this blog today and flow as I would like to. I would rather linger.. have another tea… dream and listen to some music… Oh what a good idea. So before further juxtaposition of words deriving from my brain.. let me play another album.. maybe it’ll tickle me to move from the motivation source towards the action mode.
Album Radicants by Ballaké Sissoko and Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch
What does flow do to us?
I was talking about the flow, and I think that the flow is something related to pleasure. When flow happens no matter in which domain, may it be in movement, in the body, in thought, in a conversation, in writing a blog, in making love… flow simply caresses our sense of pleasure. It makes the experience easier, effortless, and rewarding (without receiving a reward). In the flow, obstacles transform to play partners, the unknown awakens curiosity, we can receive our thoughts, be surprised by the effect, embrace our pleasure of just being in the moment, and nourish ourselves by the sources that the flow brings.
I have not been able to flow today but right now by giving myself the time, I feel something is starting to flow in my thoughts…my unknown resistances are melting and I need less effort to write.
Today as I finish these lines, I will go over my notes of the Manual. I have not been able to work on it a lot, but the little work I have done (practically just reading my notes again, but this time with a coloured pen in my hand) I realize how much I need to read them again and again. I find myself laughing at myself.. was I able to write or say such things? And the answer is YES. Probably it made sense in that moment, in the flow of that lesson.
How do I create the material to write?
All my material, the notes that I talk about, and re-organize all the time, are actually transcripts of all the lessons that I have been giving during the first cycle of the Somatic Dialogue Facilitator Training. This means that I have been giving these lessons verbally, and each lesson contains about 2 hours of recording. And I have every week during that time, sat down and transcribed the recordings by myself. A two hour lesson took me about 6-7 hours to transcribe. I did not want to use an app that makes the transcriptions. I wanted to hear myself, not because I love my voice so much (actually the first 20-30 lessons were like a torture for me.. ) Can you imagine? Having your voice in your ears, and your fingers writing your own words. It was a terrifyingly interesting process. After some time I was listening to myself as if it were someone else, and there was this woman, talking about what is important (I think I use this word a lot when I teach…) what one should do, what one will experience.. how it works… and I found that sometimes this woman was just saying nonsense.. although she was convinced at the time of the lesson that it wasn’t. How funny we are.
And when I was working on the first selection of the notes last year, I was proud of having cut out so much of the 480 pages.
Since I have started this blog (third week now) I have been cutting out even more. I hope that I will be left with very few.
Of course in the meantime the second cycle has been running… The syllabus was more elaborate than the first cycle, because I have learned a lot during the first cycle and the transcription process. And now I will have to do the same again with the second cycle. I hope that the Manual will really serve well all facilitators who have been going through my articulations of trying to transmit as best as I can (of course as you may know I am not alone in this transmission. My colleagues Beliz Demircioğlu İnanç and Kateřina Ledvinková, as well as our program assistant Zeynep Çamlı, have been contributing immensely to the development of these articulations. ) There is my motivation!
We have in fact been learning together how to be more articulate in our aims, in our actions and expressions, so that we can all serve best to the experience of this program. It has been demanding from all of us to stay deeply connected to our motivations, and have a deep listening to each other. And I can say that even if we have gone through moments where understanding was far away from being present… we have managed because we had the common motivation. We are creating something new, something unique, and it is working.
Where am I today?
This is my flow today, going from one thought to another, trying to stay tuned to the path that is being created in my thoughts. However here I am, feeling a little bit clearer in what I will do now: writing today has helped me going into one of my sources: interest. I feel interest flowing in my veins.. interest to continue reading my notes this afternoon, and cutting out paragraphs that no longer make sense to me.
This meticulous action will keep me motivated to start reading the new lessons and repeating this exercise of reading and cutting again.
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