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Algo nos visita y algo nos deja (Things come and go.)

This article is in English and Spanish. Este artículo está en inglés y español.

Miren Salmerón vive en Legazpi, España donde practica como un oesteopath pediátrico.
Ella es un líder autorizado del conocimiento sensorial, que ofrece a personas de todas las edades.
Miren Salmeron lives in Legazpi, Spain where she practices as a Pediatric Oesteopath.
She is an authorized leader of Sensory Awareness which she offers to people of all ages..

¿Estás en un momento de cambio en tu vida? ¿Tal vez, inmerso en un momento de que algo se cierra y algo nuevo se está abriendo camino?

Si nos paramos a pensar un poquito, esto ya sucede a cada instante.

En cada respiración que viene y se va

…Algo nos visita y algo nos deja

…O al caminar

…Llegamos a un paso, y al poco, ya llegamos a uno nuevo

…Pero, puede que también estés inmerso en cambios más significativos en tu vida

…Y en este momento, no sientas más que incertidumbre y un suelo inestable bajo tus pies

…Si es así, puede que en un taller de Consiencia Sensorial encuentres aliados y recursos que te ayuden a vivir este momento.

A través de diferentes prácticas, exploraremos el contacto con nosotros mismos, con este instante, con todo lo que nos rodea. A través de la experiencia es como aprendemos

…Así lo hicimos tiempo atrás cuando comenzamos a dar nuestros primeros pasos en la verticalidad

…Sólo necesita su curiosidad y la presencia.

 

 

 

 
Are you in a time of change in your life?

Maybe, immersed in a time when something is closing and something new is opening up?

If you think about it a little, this is already happening at every moment …. In every breath that comes and goes …

Something comes to us and something leaves us..

… or walking …. We complete a step, and soon as we begin a new one.

But you might also be overwhelmed by more significant changes in your life

…. And right now, you may feel nothing more than uncertainty and a shaky ground beneath your feet.

Sensory Awareness can help you to connect with allies and resources that are always there for you, to help you to live in this moment.

Through different practices, we explore contact with ourselves, right now, and with everything that surrounds us.

We learn through experiencing.

Just as we did long ago when we began to take our first steps, standing upright.

You need only your curiosity and presence.

Visit her website: mirenmore.com

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Tibetan Nun Refugees and Sensory Awareness

Years ago, Judyth O. Weaver, PhD was invited to Dharamsala, India to work with Tibetan Buddhist Nuns who were living there as refugees in exile. This story is quoted from an article on her website: Touching Our Human Essence – Leading Sensory Awareness Classes in Different Cultures. Click here to read the full article including several moving and insightful stories about offering Sensory Awareness to people from diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Judyth Weaver in Dharamsala, India

“Many of the nuns had escaped from Tibet, having been tortured and abused in various horrible ways; their’s is not a way of life that affords the time and space to “be sensitive” but which demands a sensitivity and paying attention to what is happening in order to survive. They have many physical complaints – among the most common are severe headaches, neck, back and joint pains, and gastrointestinal problems.” Fifteen nuns showed up for the first workshop.

Judyth writes that initially when working in pairs “their concern was so focused on the other person”, that they were not aware of their own experiences but very tuned into that of their partner in the experiment.

“As we worked they gradually became more sensitive to all that was happening, within themselves and others. What fun to watch them recognize the movement and affect of their own breath in their bellies, in their lung tips, and then being able to more sensitively recognize it within the other person and thereby receive more information regarding working with the other person, the whole person.”

“The progression during the ten days, two classes a day was exciting and gratifying. They learned some therapeutic massage techniques, specific to their needs. We also focused on foot reflexology and I was able to teach them a bit about the cranium and how to begin to work with that. Sensory Awareness was a basis of it all: the awareness of how to approach a person to touch, the sensitivities and respect required in the giver and the receiver, the affects and responses. They learned the power of contact in the somatic realm and how much can be accomplished, and the efficacy and healing that is possible by the grand simplicity of being there on all levels.”

Weaver has continued to support these wonderful, courageous people, offering Sensory Awareness and anything else from her broad background that could be beneficial.

In 2016, Judyth was in Dharamsala, India to witness the Dalai Lama in the conferment of the Geshema Degree to twenty Tibetan nuns. They are the first females to earn this degree which often requires over 20 years of study. A Geshema Degree is equivalent to a PhD in Buddhist philosophy.

 

Judyth Weaver with Elizabeth Castagna at the 2017 East Coast workshop

What are the differences of leading this work in different cultures? “My answer is basically, “none.” The culture that Sensory Awareness works with is the human culture; the specific country, language, or way of dressing is not the level where we meet. Our work goes underneath the vagaries of cultural experience and reaches down to the foundational essence of human nature. I am awed and thrilled about our basic humanity every time an experiment is met with honesty and human grace and a person, no matter what their homeland, is affected.This does not mean that there are not many cultural concerns and variations that need to be attended to. On the contrary, I want to be especially careful and not violate any cultural issues so that the students may feel safe and free to explore without worry that they be offended or need to protect themselves. I err on the side of safety, and consequently many experimenting situations that I would use in my familiar western context, I forego in other countries.”

 

 

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Overcoming obstacles: Carol Buck’s story

Over 40 years ago, Carol Buck was in despair. She had gradually lost much or her mobility and was diagnosed with Scleroderma, a terrible degenerative connective tissue disease. At that time, her doctor told her there was no treatment and no cure and she should get her affairs in order. A soulful, talented cellist, Carol could only hold down the strings of her cello using the index finger of her left hand.

Somehow, she happened to go to a Sensory Awareness class led by Charlotte Selver and she felt a difference right away. “I could feel where the frozen areas in my tissues met the areas that were still alive.” That was the late summer. Charlotte invited her to participate in an intensive study group that Fall where she would experience Sensory Awareness daily. By December, she was moving with much more ease. Her recovery continued as she continued to study and practice Sensing. Now, in her 70s, still agile and mobile, she performs in several musical ensembles in New York City and is a member of the Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild. In November 2016, she played with the Ron Carter Nonet at the new Blue Note in Beijing, China.  Carter is the most recorded jazz bassist in the world. He is pretty picky about his cellists but Carol has played with the ‘Nonet’ for years. Sensory Awareness is not snake oil. There are no guarantees of  ‘cures’, but this is a true story and there are many more like it. Profound awareness helps us to be fully present for our unique individual experience of health and disease.  From that place, we are more responsive and able to cope with whatever comes in new and surprising ways.

 

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A pot of tea

This article is in English and Spanish. Este artículo está en inglés y español.

I would like to share a simple story that has been important to me. Last year a friend gave us a very nice glass teapot, but when trying it the first day, tea spilled over the sides as the lid was a little unstable. My first reaction was to exchange it for one that worked better, but I really liked that glass teapot, and it was a gift… So I started serving tea carefully without tilting too much, feeling the weight changes when serving, and it worked perfectly! So suddenly it turned out to be that every morning I was “forced” into Sensing for breakfast! And it is wonderful. And after all this time, when it’s tea time, we look at each other, my wife and I, and smile before deciding whose turn it is…

And actually when we look around, we are surrounded by opportunities, invitations to connect with ourselves in everything we do, in our own home, with every door we open…

En Español

Me gustaría compartir una sencilla historia que para mí ha resultado importante. El año pasado un amigo nos regaló un teapot de cristal muy lindo, pero al probarlo el primer día se derramó el té por los lados,ya que tiene la tapa un poco inestable. La primera reacción fue ir a cambiarla por otra que funcionara mejor, pero en realidad me gustaba esa de cristal, y además era un regalo… Así que empecé a servir el té con mucho cuidado, sin inclinarlo demasiado, sintiendo los cambios de peso  al servir, y funcionó perfectamente! Así que de repente me encontré cada mañana con que la tetera me “obligaba” a hacer sensing para desayunar! Y es maravilloso.

Y después de todo este tiempo, a la hora de servir el té, nos miramos mi mujer y yo, y sonreímos antes de decidir a quién le toca…

Y en realidad cuando miramos a nuestro alrededor, estamos rodeados de oportunidades, de invitaciones a conectar con nosotros mismos en cada cosa que hacemos, con cada puerta que abrimos…

 

Enric Bruguera offers Sensory Awareness workshops in Spain, Chile, Mexico and India.
He lives with his wife, Nuria Vives (also a leader in Sensory Awareness, in Palafruguell (Girona), Spain. They are both members of the Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild. Enric is also a professional photographer. Visit his website: Click here!

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The Benefits of Sensory Awareness

A great deal of research is now available on the subject of mindfulness and the impact of contemplative practices on our health and well-being. Measurable benefits result from consistently engaging in present-focused states of being. Brain waves, heart functions and respiration become synchronized. The functioning of our immune and endocrine systems improves. As we feel more connected to ourselves and the world around us, compassion and empathy often develops naturally, resulting in more authentic interpersonal relationships.

We spend our lives unconsciously developing habits of thought and behavior. What fires together, wires together.  When brain cells communicate frequently, the connection between them strengthens. Neural pathways are formed through repetition and then those pathways are more often taken, becoming reinforced even more. With enough repetition, they become automatic. Each experience, including our feelings, thoughts, sensations, and muscular actions becomes embedded in the network of brain cells. In the same way that dysfunctional patterns can become entrenched through repetition, we can also cultivate a responsive way of being if we practice on an on-going basis.  The more we pause and pay attention, the more we remember to pause and pay attention. As we gradually become more aware of automatic patterns and reactivity, we have the option to change them.

Sensing does not have a ‘goal’ of relaxing or an ideal of how we should be, but of just being more fully attentive to what we are actually experiencing in any given moment, thus deepening our understanding of ourselves. Through direct sensory experience we find out how we, in particular, are. What we notice is that we are always in relationship: with gravity, the air, everything (whether we know it or not). Whatever is needed has the space to emerge naturally. Sensory Awareness experiments are just that: experiments. A seasoned leader has learned how to ask questions which deeply explore a broad range of sensory experience. Over time, we can internalize this consciously exploratory way of being and carry it into our daily lives.

You may find that:

  • your ability to focus and pay attention is enhanced.
  • cognitive flexibility increases.
  • you have greater self-insight, curiosity and patience.
  • you experience more empathy and compassion.
  • you experience wonder and gratitude more often.
  • you are better able to cope with stress and challenging situations.
  • your listening skills improve.
  • you are able to engage in your life with less effort and energy.
  • you have a greater awareness of the interconnection present in all of life.
  • you experience joy and pleasure in simple, every day activities.
  • you become more responsive and less reactive.

Above all, you learn to trust the natural wisdom of your own responsiveness and aliveness.

Featured image, “Popcorn” © Robert Smith: visit his on-line gallery

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Gravity, Energy, and the Support of the Ground

I would like to speak about the main natural forces we are exposed to as we live on this planet. There is this force of gravity. Gravity is a very attractive force, and everybody is constantly exposed to its influence. The pull of this force makes us all stay on the ground. It even tries to pull us under the ground. But fortunately there is another force in us which does not permit that. That is energy. Each of us is able to allow energy to counteract the pull of gravity. So this would be the second very, very important force there is, to which we are constantly exposed. And then, of course, this energy manifests as breathing too. The possibility of constantly getting new air – can you feel it right now as you are reading? Are you open for this possibility of the energy source breathing to go through you or are you collapsing? Are you open to this coming and going of air and the possibility – whether we sit, or stand, or lie – to allow this exchange of air through us?

The third very important force, which we constantly are exposed to, is the support of the ground. That means, as you are sitting right now, there is something under you which supports you. Can you feel it? It is very solid and reliable; it is there at all times supporting us – the support underneath your feet, underneath your whole self, when you are lying, underneath your behind when you are sitting. You cannot go wrong trusting this support. Are you enjoying it? How wonderful that is!

Gravity, the support which the ground gives you, and energy – can you really experience these three forces?

– Can you feel that there is always something which invites you down?

– Can you feel something going through you which gives you the strength to stay upright?

– Is there really something which offers itself under you?

You may feel how easy it would be for gravity to become overwhelming, pulling you down to the ground and how the earth even wants to swallow you. But no, there is something under you which supports you – and something inside you which reconditions you from moment to moment.

Could you be open in your bones and other tissues for that which supports you? Be grateful for that support – grateful in every cell, grateful in your skin, and in your bones!

Can you feel the air which goes through you? Can you feel how it comes into you and how it goes out of you? Could you become sensitive in your muscles and skin and all tissues for the air which goes through you and leaves you? Are your tissues awake enough to let the air through and receive what is needed and let out what needs to go out? Can more and more of your inner be open for this wonderful process? We call it breathing.

….When you feel what is, what occurs, what calls on you, your sensations, then you are in touch with life, which is always better, always deeper, always new. Wanting to know something is usually outside. Real experience is always surprising, is nothing which you know beforehand. And there is a difference between talking it – speaking from direct experience – and talking about it. When we speak about something we are not in it. It is important to feel what we say. Very much of our daily living is not experiencing, is not this warm-blooded being there for what we are doing.

As old as I am, all these moments of a new reality, of a new experiencing make everything so alive and full. I feel how it affects me when I’m only in my head, with my thoughts, and when I really feel in my tissues, in my nerves, in my bones. When I am really sensitive from moment to moment I live a completely different life.

This article is an edited excerpt from the newly published audio tape Coming Back to Experiencing, recorded in Santa Barbara, CA, on April 2, 2000.

Featured image, “Massive Cliff Rocks” © by Robert Smith: Visit his on-line gallery

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Learning To Receive

 

hands and stonesBe it through hearing, touch, taste or seeing, when the senses are stimulated the whole organism is transformed into a feeling entity – into a sensitive entity. However, this can only happen when the mind is clear. That means not sharp. That means cleared out like when you make general cleaning and you take all the furniture out, and all the dust away and all the dirt and everything, so that the whole room becomes cleaned and open, quiet. This ‘radio in our head’ becomes silent as you let go of thoughts, and peace can come, when you are more quiet, more open in your head. That is not sleeping or dreaming – it’s like when something is really clean, so it’s free for reception. And then we have to learn to allow that what is happening inside: the beating of the heart. The coming and going of air. Not creating anything. Letting everything be as it happens and letting it change, if it changes. No expectations, no criticisms, no emotions. Just like a clear lake, very quiet.

This article is an edited excerpt from the newly published audio tape by Charlotte Selver’s July 30, 1992 class on Monhegan Island in Maine.

Featured image: “Branches” © Robert Smith Visit his on-line gallery

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How can we bring this practice into our daily lives?

By Robert Smith http://like-a-gallery.com/gallery.html
sharing circle
Creating a conscious bridge from the workshop to daily life.

At every workshop, we take some time to envision how we might bring this work home with us.

Without some conscious commitments to practice, the workshop fades and we are back in our habits and routines.

Many people find that if they just choose to pay attention during some daily activity they begin to form a ‘habit of awareness’. So how would it be for you to choose among the many things that you do each day?

Showering, brushing your teeth, drinking a beverage, waking up, eating, driving, walking the dogs, cleaning, etc.

You don’t really have to do anything special. Just notice. For example, how is breathing and your relationship to gravity?  Is there extra efforting anywhere? Can you be present for brushing your teeth, without zoning out into whatever you think you are going to do later, on any given day? If you ‘zone out’, can you notice how that is? Do you brush your teeth the same way every day?

Upon awakening, do you let yourself be supported in lying? After a bad dream, perhaps you feel distress and tightness all over, but tomorrow, you awaken relaxed and feel more of your own weight sink into your bed. Neither way is right or wrong, but how is it that you experience waking up this time? What sounds are there? What play of light and shadow and color? What textures? Is the light different in winter and in summer? How do you experience temperature against bare skin or the texture of fabric?

You are basically, calling yourself ‘here’ during this one activity that you choose and eventually, it spills out into the rest of your life some of the time. No matter how much more of you is here, there are always more possibilities for presence.

Why bother with this? Find out for yourself. Maybe being present for the simplest of tasks, opens you up to the world.

At workshops, many participants feel a deep sense of connection to themselves and everything alive around them. You have the capacity for this. You just have to remember to wake up.

 

Featured image, “Nightshade-Lichen” © Robert Smith: Visit his on-line gallery

Contact Information

Sensory Awareness Foundation

Sensory Awareness focuses on the cultivation of an ever deepening awareness of our sensory experience as a gateway into ourselves and simultaneously into deeper connection with others and the world around us. This depth of connection is our birthright and anchors us in a more responsive and compassionate way of being.