Body-based Writing : What it Does Not Need from You
"To experience what isn't, love what is." ~ Eric Mi'chael Leventhal.
When I recently came across this quote by Leventhal, who is a holistic educator based out of Hawaii, I sat thinking. Seven words that glow with a personal and a collective truth. As is my habit, I soaked in the simple intensity of the quote to see where I stood with it. And so it emerged - the unknown and the unknowable are forever hiding within the known, but the real question is, are we ready to go on a path of self-discovery to find what we've always thought is a direct result of blessing?
What has this got to do with body-based writing, you'll ask. I'll say, "Everything." The body is our first organic contact with the manifested world, it is through the body that we know our minds and our creative selves. Imagine if we didn't have a body, what pleasure would there be to touch paper with ink or colours? Imagine how in the absence of the body we would access our primary senses and how they connect us to our own vitality as well as to that of our surroundings.
This is where we come to the part where Leventhal says, "love what is." Across generations, individually and collectively, as the world has moved from the primal to the cognitive, the body has been forgotten. While it has spoken to us again and again, we have continued to pay heed to what we loosely call "the mind". I don't see a distinction between the two, apart from a necessity of academic interest. However, it might be true that they get separated in the process of living life, and perhaps disconnecting from "life".
The essence of body-based writing is to be able to work with what we have - our bodies. We come to it with what we have and what we don't have. What we would have liked and what we have come to know helps us every day. Body-based writing looks at "loving what is" and if there isn't love, then to confront and acknowledge whatever there is.
And so, as a continuation to my last post, where I had described what the practice will need from you, in this one, I'll highlight what you needn't be, to be able to practise this.
YOU NEEDN'T BE A DANCER OR MOVER
Perhaps just as you're about to write off engaging in a process like this, I'm dropping this one. And it's only so that you know that to explore this movement-expression based process, you don't have to be someone adept or professional at being a mover or dancer. As I had mentioned in the last post, you only have to "show up". With exactly what you have. And the rest hopefully will be more history than a sense of impending doom.
YOU NEEDN'T BE A WRITER
"I'm not even a writer, how am I supposed to engage with the body and then write?"
"Oh God! Even if I managed to move, how could I write? I've never done anything like this."
"I have nothing specific or brilliant to say, so why even try?"
I won't say I have heard these specific complaints. However, when I let my imagination loose, I get in touch with unspoken anxieties. I have experienced them myself from time to time, so I have a sense-feel of how crippling they can be. In body-based writing though, we are not looking at "performance" or "outcome". What we are looking at is finding ways to uncover our inner stories and then releasing them on to blank paper. I am not saying it is ever easy. It isn't like nothing really is, but from my own experience, it's well worth a try. Because each of us holds wonderful gifts within us and this gifts need to see the light of day.
YOU NEEDN'T BE ANYTHING MORE THAN WHO YOU ARE
I like the sound of this. And let me tell you why. It takes off the pressure of "being" something to be able to "do" something. You come with the experiences you've gone through, you come with disappointments and you come with joys. What we are trying to work with is "your version of all that you've gone through". We are not trying to make any of it okay, we are only trying to look at some of it (based upon your readiness). In my last post, I mentioned a quote by Elizabeth Gilbert. I can only say that I believe in it very strongly. Whether someone else is keen to hear them or not, the paper is ready for your stories to pour out.
"Let the Body Narrate" is a body-based writing workshop I am conducting on March 17th in Bangalore.
To know more, follow the event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/566613703818296/
(Image source : Freeimages.com)
When I recently came across this quote by Leventhal, who is a holistic educator based out of Hawaii, I sat thinking. Seven words that glow with a personal and a collective truth. As is my habit, I soaked in the simple intensity of the quote to see where I stood with it. And so it emerged - the unknown and the unknowable are forever hiding within the known, but the real question is, are we ready to go on a path of self-discovery to find what we've always thought is a direct result of blessing?
What has this got to do with body-based writing, you'll ask. I'll say, "Everything." The body is our first organic contact with the manifested world, it is through the body that we know our minds and our creative selves. Imagine if we didn't have a body, what pleasure would there be to touch paper with ink or colours? Imagine how in the absence of the body we would access our primary senses and how they connect us to our own vitality as well as to that of our surroundings.
This is where we come to the part where Leventhal says, "love what is." Across generations, individually and collectively, as the world has moved from the primal to the cognitive, the body has been forgotten. While it has spoken to us again and again, we have continued to pay heed to what we loosely call "the mind". I don't see a distinction between the two, apart from a necessity of academic interest. However, it might be true that they get separated in the process of living life, and perhaps disconnecting from "life".
The essence of body-based writing is to be able to work with what we have - our bodies. We come to it with what we have and what we don't have. What we would have liked and what we have come to know helps us every day. Body-based writing looks at "loving what is" and if there isn't love, then to confront and acknowledge whatever there is.
And so, as a continuation to my last post, where I had described what the practice will need from you, in this one, I'll highlight what you needn't be, to be able to practise this.
YOU NEEDN'T BE A DANCER OR MOVER
Perhaps just as you're about to write off engaging in a process like this, I'm dropping this one. And it's only so that you know that to explore this movement-expression based process, you don't have to be someone adept or professional at being a mover or dancer. As I had mentioned in the last post, you only have to "show up". With exactly what you have. And the rest hopefully will be more history than a sense of impending doom.
YOU NEEDN'T BE A WRITER
"I'm not even a writer, how am I supposed to engage with the body and then write?"
"Oh God! Even if I managed to move, how could I write? I've never done anything like this."
"I have nothing specific or brilliant to say, so why even try?"
I won't say I have heard these specific complaints. However, when I let my imagination loose, I get in touch with unspoken anxieties. I have experienced them myself from time to time, so I have a sense-feel of how crippling they can be. In body-based writing though, we are not looking at "performance" or "outcome". What we are looking at is finding ways to uncover our inner stories and then releasing them on to blank paper. I am not saying it is ever easy. It isn't like nothing really is, but from my own experience, it's well worth a try. Because each of us holds wonderful gifts within us and this gifts need to see the light of day.
YOU NEEDN'T BE ANYTHING MORE THAN WHO YOU ARE
I like the sound of this. And let me tell you why. It takes off the pressure of "being" something to be able to "do" something. You come with the experiences you've gone through, you come with disappointments and you come with joys. What we are trying to work with is "your version of all that you've gone through". We are not trying to make any of it okay, we are only trying to look at some of it (based upon your readiness). In my last post, I mentioned a quote by Elizabeth Gilbert. I can only say that I believe in it very strongly. Whether someone else is keen to hear them or not, the paper is ready for your stories to pour out.
"Let the Body Narrate" is a body-based writing workshop I am conducting on March 17th in Bangalore.
To know more, follow the event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/566613703818296/
(Image source : Freeimages.com)
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