Through art projects—including visual arts, dance, writing, and music—along with spiritual practices and guided imagery, Healing With the Arts gives you the tools to heal what you need to heal in your life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
The Sacred Groove
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From the course by University of Florida
Healing with the Arts
117 ratings
From the lesson
Movement
Meet the Instructors
Mary Rockwood Lane, PhD, RN, FAANAssociate Professor
College of Nursing
Michael Samuels, MD
Hi, welcome to the sacred groove.
This is a dance where we get to take this opportunity to step out of
judgment of ourselves and of others, and explore movement.
The movement is medicine.
And in it we get to open our hearts and
open our minds by stepping out of our head and opening our minds and
delving deeper into our body, listening to all the signals and
information our body is constantly offering us.
And through this process we get to take form
of that information and release.
And through that shedding of different weights that tend to build up and baggage,
when we get to shed that, we get to reconnect and be closer to our soul.
So this is an opportunity to take this dance and reconnect with our soul.
And shed some of that weight that we accumulate in the world, and
let it go and rediscover what our soul is saying to us now.
So, in the dance we step out of the judgement of ourselves and others and
we step out of verbal conversation as well.
However, all kinds of vocalization is invited, such as,
making sounds, animal sounds, hooting and hollering,
screaming, crying, even singing along with the music.
However, just not having a conversation that engages more mental activity.
This is the time devoted to really getting to just hear more what
our soul has to say, and listen to our body, and connecting that body and spirit.
And so we're stepping out of the verbal conversation,
stepping out of judgment of ourselves and of others as much as possible,
just simply noticing whenever judgment comes up that,
just as easy as it comes up, we can also let it go.
And the dance, it doesn't matter what we look like,
it's more exploring movement and form.
The dance may be very subtle at times.
It may be very exaggerated at times.
And it may be very beautiful, and it could be very awkward.
And all of that is welcomed.
That's all part of the exploration.
So if you will, I'm going to go through
the different rhythms that the music is arranged to.
And the rhythms create a wave form and
that helps with delving deeper into the dance and
inviting more of a release.
And so now I'll go into those different rhythms.
So also the music, it ranges from all different genres and eras and
parts of the world, and there's songs that you may know,
there may be songs that you're unfamiliar with,
there may be songs that you love, maybe songs you just like and
it's all just an opportunity to play with it and just express through it and
then watch observe ourself as things change while we're just exploring.
Like we can play with it and be creative.
If there's something that we don't like like really act that out and
see what that looks like.
And so the beginning songs all tend to carry a flowing rhythm,
and the flowing, it's more of an inhale, and it's more inhaling.
It's where we take things in.
It's more like painting the floor with your feet.
And it's a base current for finding our base current on the earth.
And it's real earthy in the inhale it's in the flow, it's continuous and
it doesn't know any stopping flame it just keeps changing and
transforming and it's this feminine energy.
And then the next set of songs goes into a staccato rhythm.
And the staccato's real defining and it's the exhale and it's masculine,
and it's geometry, and motion, and it's defining things,
and it's building things up and then breaking it down.
And it's what makes things happen, go forth.
And it's what helps us pay our bills and gets things taken care of.
And then we go into the chaos rhythm.
And the chaos is where the staccato and the flow just collide.
And in this place of chaos, there's infinite possibility.
And sometimes people think of chaos as a void when really
it's full of potential and it's imagination.
We get to really tap into the imagination and see, or actually intuition.
It's more intuitive and see what we feel guided to do in the chaos.
And just letting go of all these ideas that we have of what we are.
And then, from the chaos, it goes more into lyrical.
And that's more, lyrical's more of an airy type of place, and
it's celebration, and it's a maturing point.
It's when we know that stuff happens, in the world,
but it's how we handle it, is that what matters.
And just maybe we'll be more inclined to reach out to others, and
want to dance in the celebration in the lyrical.
And this is the place where imagination is engaged, and we make discoveries.
And then the music goes into the stillness.
And the stillness is sometimes the best place that we can
go where we really feel the dance.
And it's a place of wisdom and compassion and embracing this mystery that we are.
So those are the rhythms that the music is arranged in.
Like I said, it's all different genres and areas and parts of the world and
music, yet they hold that rhythm, and it goes through, and
it's assisting with helping us shed.
And also want to emphasize the importance of making sound.
So turn the volume up really loud, if that helps.
And you can make sounds because when we're making sounds, any type of vocalization,
that can really help us get out of thinking and start feeling more.
The sound really helps open up.
So, let that happen and invite it in, practice it.
And this practice can really be done for any amount of time.
If you wanted to do a regular practice weekly, if it was even for 15 minutes.
And sometimes you might feel more drawn to one of the rhythms than the other, but
just giving opportunity to explore this.
Or may want to do the whole hour or so of doing the whole wave,
and release, yet if a daily practice or
a few times a week can really open up a lot, a world of discovery.
And so in these rhythms, once again, that flowing place,
the feminine place, this is where we get to discover.
We're making discoveries.
And then in the staccato place we're making definitions and
we're defining ourselves.
And then in that chaos, we're just dissolving it.
And then in the lyrical, we are having this inspiration
to devote ourselves to finding our unique expression.
And then in the stillness, we get to just disappear into that mystery.
And do the dance all over again.
So enjoy, explore, cry, laugh,
scream, whatever you need to do.
[LAUGH] Sacred groove.
[LAUGH] Thank you, thank you
[MUSIC]
But, you can hear me?
>> Yes.
Okay, all right, well, that is a demo of what sacred groove can look like,
and I just want to emphasize, once again, that it can take any form.
The music is there just as a tool and
the idea of the rhythms is there as a tool, as well.
The music can be completely chaotic and one may feel like being totally still.
And the music may be going into stillness, and
you may feel like still moving and thrashing about.
So, it's up to you.
Explore the pattern is there with the music and the arrangement.
But it's up to us, and to listen to our body and our internal rhythm,
which can be tapped into with listening to our breath and
just listening to our body and listening wherever there's areas that may
be speaking to us that want to open up or contract and giving that voice and shape.
And I like to usually open up before going into the dance
with a scan of just closing our eyes before starting the music and the dance.
And simply scanning the body can do the sitting down or standing.
And starting at the toes and moving all the way up to the head.
And just noticing if there's any areas that are feeling any pain,
or areas that are feeling exceptionally well, and simply just seeing it for
that, without putting any ideas, or judgments on it, just noticing.
And then after dancing, come back into
whatever sitting position you'd like to be in and
scan the body again and simply notice the changes that took place
from how we felt before starting the dance and then after.
And just becoming more familiar with how things shift and change.
So, there you have it.
Enjoy your exploration of the sacred groove.
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