06 Apr 5Rhythms Movement Meditation
by Laura Martin-Eagle
(reprint from Nov. 5 2013 www.5rhythms.com)
I wandered into a bookstore one evening when this book jumped out with gold and black and intensity and comfort all at once and this was just the cover, and I bought it. I read it — jaw dropped, feeling shy and exposed you mean there are others? And they do it together? And when I got to the end of the book a day later there was a phone number and I called. And I traveled. And I danced. And I found Home and Tribe.
That book was, of course, Sweat Your Prayers by Gabrielle Roth. My home rhythm is Stillness. It is where I heal. Having lived in the shadow of stillness for much of my life, I found the permission to be as I am in the Rhythm of Stillness, to move and breathe and not feel alone. It is where I am most me, and where I can disappear in the mystery of the moment. Instead of hiding, I feel revealed. Filled with emptiness, abundant with raw potential, of the earth and of the ethers.
In my work as an Ayurvedic practitioner, I guide my guests from the habitual to ritual. I notice how much of our struggles are carried generation to generation veiled as our own personal wounds. Embodying our maternal and paternal ancestral legacy allows us to celebrate that which enriches our soul and release with compassion that which we need not carry.
Dancing in the chaotic soup of our ancestors, their prayers, their lies, their secrets, their joys, we can emerge with the lightness of clarity, shedding the ancient binds that hold us down and drawing out the medicine that will serve us for manifesting that which is yet to come. Creating rituals and the sacred intention to honor our ancestors allows us to release them from our chains, and creates the space for both freedom and mystery to ignite the present moment.
