Pauses should be taken, whenever it is necessary

Blog 26.05.2025

Here I am again after a week. I haven’t even been able to feel that a week has passed. I was walking freely again under the spring sky of the forest and thinking of when I will sit down and start writing today.  It passed so quickly. And I am meeting you and  starting the blog today at 16:20 sharp.  (oh dear that is such a regular time… let me just linger a bit more to have a more interesting time to start with 🙂)

I haven’t shared any music for a long time and right now I could do with some music. So let me choose something for us that will tickle our ears, me writing, you reading… maybe it’ll do more than just tickling..

I have just discovered this Album of Stephen Micus, and right now I am also listening to it for the first time. The title touched me a lot, although I am not a religious person but the poetic aspect of this sacredness has always been very touching for me. It is like an archaic metaphor for connection. And I guess this is one of my main themes in my life, which also led me to Somatic Dialogue, and which shaped all of my choices in life: to connect!

Our need to connect

In last week’s workshop in Vadimanasir in Izmir, something truly unexpected happened: As the participants were invited not to speak during the workshop, they could write down their comments and thoughts and questions and share them with me and Pedro. So we discovered this layer of poetry that was a co-creation by the participants and our work. I have been all week long writing down the phrases of the participants. And I am deeply touched by the images, the metaphors, the creativeness, the confessions… and I decided that I will make something out of them, of which everyone who was there will be a co-author. And as you will see in the photo below, there are many of them, and still now when I opened my notes I found four more papers, which contain the pearls of truth of that moment, the moment just before they were written. As they are anonymous I will share those with you here:

“When I came here at first, I would not have believed I could surrender to space and be able to move so freely.”

“Are my hands controlling me? or am I controlling them? Does control give liveliness and support to my hands, amongst other things? or is it a balance between being in control and letting go of control? How is it?”

“Groan Zone. Resistance to connection. Resistance to joy. Withdrawl”

“Allow it to flow, let go of the things you think you know: let it be”

How a meeting can change the flow

These papers I had overlooked on the last day of the workshop. I must have put them inside another notebook in my bag and I haven’t even read them before the end of the workshop, which means also that I haven’t been able to comment on them during the work, so the unknown authors could get feedback or an answer. Now that I have read these papers, this contact with them will change the flow of my writing. Initially I was going to write about the new idea to reflect on in Somatic Dialogue: every touch or encounter with the other during the practice can change and influence our flow and course of action.

But now I will have to reflect on these papers and write the answers. However, right now I will take a pause and go to the forest. It is calling me.. and the rain is starting to pour down, so here I go!

The walk in the forest, a strong moment

The walk is always an inspiring rhythm where one can meet with not only nature but also the nature of one’s being at that very moment. (Pauses should be taken, whenever it is necessary). During the walk the sky was so dramatic and the rain stopped, only to turn to an occasional shower, caused by the leaves moving in the wind. And I had the pleasure of meeting an old wise troll, who invited me to stay still for a while. How refreshing.

Upon entering home I cooked, we had dinner and this evening we also danced online, praying for Health, Love and Peace in us and around us. Tonight 19 beautiful people joined and the 30 minutes of dancing prayers were powerful. And now I can continue developing the bits and pieces of my ideas. Here are the answers to the four phrases shared above by the 4 mysterious participants of the Vadimanasir Workshop:

Surrender to space 

We always have an idea or a preconceived judgement about what we do, how we are and what we are able to do. By clinging on to what we know we can start a movement. We have to start from somewhere, right? However when we continue clinging onto what we know and what we think we know, we may not step into discovery of what happens when we are in movement. Therefore, how liberating it is to be surprised by yourself… to discover that it takes very little to surrender to space, to be embraced by it and to embrace it. With the surrender, starts also the freeing of our potential. And when the people around are in the same situation a collective liberation is happening. Everyone can be themselves, all the while remaining in the same landscape and in connection with each other. This is what the author of that line experienced.

Let your control surrender

And about the control of the hands, or one’s control over the hands… in general control is something we know very well. The key is to become aware of it, so that we do not let ourselves be imprisoned by the control, but rather we take it as a playmate. We can be in it, and we can turn away from it, leaving it alone. So the dance is a place where the being in and out of control can happen, bringing dynamics, peace and surprises.

Stay in your moment

Same applies to our states of being. During long hours of dancing and deep presence in movement, all our memories long forgotten float to the surface of our movements. And resistances kick in, the body may ache, it may cry, it may not want to connect, or maybe the mind does not wish to connect, and forces the body to withdraw. This is part of the flow. We cannot and don’t have to obey at all costs. Our moments of resistance open other spaces in us, where we can rest, reflect and make peace with memories. Resistances build character, and they create structure, which then shapes our actions. They have their time of existence and  leave us at their own time. We just need to accompany ourselves during that moment, and have the courage to stay in our subjectivity.

“Allow it to flow, let go of the things you think you know: let it be”

Now you can think this is easier said than done. But actually it is easier to do than we think. We all have this knowledge inside, deep down in our memories of our childhood. We all played unconditionally, in whatever environment we were, we were driven by the need of discovery, and we surrendered to the environment, not understanding much of what it was all about. Then we played, with the body, going, meeting, grabbing, holding, dropping, falling, rolling, finding momentum, repeating until something else caught our attention. And of course we think that we have lost all this through our education and the natural evolution of growth. But I see that nothing is lost, nothing. We just need to create the space and hear the desire to play. As we grow more mature, even old, this may be the only way to refresh our relationship to the world and to others.

There in our body are the hidden reserves of water, in very unknown and unexpected places. We just need to dance through our inner forest with patience and presence…and maybe we’ll find the sources.

Stay well dear reader,

I leave you to your dream at 23:03 (still Monday!)

And stay in love.