The Power and Potency of Empathic Listening

How potent and powerful it is to help people feel met and seen and to calm down, to where they have access to their own answers. There isn't much fixing or helping or advising that needs to happen once we're seen. At least that's my experience. And I guess it's pretty universal.

My whole focus and intention is really about discovering a deeper way of relating and making connection than most of the world actually experiences, or engages in. Bringing that in. Being part of the wave of bringing that in to the human social cultural structure.

And the thing that happens when we are actually deeply feeling connected and connected with, is that we re-discover our essential selves. We reclaim our personal and spiritual power.

The families we are raised in are a so often dysfunctional. As children we sacrifice our capacity for self connection, mindfulness, awareness and presence, in order to belong. But that connection to our awesome essence is essential for any kind of spacious, satisfying, mutual and reciprocal relating.

My path is an ongoing process to re-discover this deep inner knowing, and apply it, through doing, through learning, through doing and then sharing what I learn, with others. And living into that place more deeply, more comfortably, more confidently. It’s about having full access to my self. And inviting others to have full access to themselves. And to brining that full self-connection into the 'we', into the interaction, into the relating and the relationship.

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A Special Dance

by Harmony Gates I was lying on my back in the center of the room. The music was slow the lights were low. A ritual preparation. Tuning in: to the room, to the music, to my body. He rolled up to me slowly… deliberately, I thought, and peered down at me; head cocked to the left, mouth slightly open, teeth slightly showing. I'd had this happen before; another day, another dance. He'd rolled up next to me, peering in my direction. I'd offered to connect, and he'd rolled right on past. But this time felt different. He stopped. I waited. He looked. I held his gaze. My right arm was outstretched hand open, reaching in slow motion. Inviting, offering, waiting. Wanting nothing, allowing everything. As if called forth-- his left arm, pinioned to his chest like an unfurled wing, began to extend. His hand, claw-like in it's spastic contraction met mine With incredible power and strength he closed his

Being Embraced

A Description of Contact Improvisation Dance Practice: Achieving inner stillness through attention to, and acute observation of our impulses; our bodily experience. Meeting at the point of touch and exploring, through mutual responsiveness, what movement wants to unfold from an authentic, neutral space Curiously exploring that meeting, that point, that present moment, while maintaining full, unconditional presence. Saying, “YES!” in response to the other, without diminishing our self; without compromising our own authenticity. Surrendering to process, letting go of judgment, of intention, of willfulness. Experiencing a spaciousness that allows full acceptance self and other. As we are. Mutually supporting what is happening. And when there are ‘disconnects’, stopping and waiting. Waiting for that full presence to come into each of us again; for that felt sense of, “Ah yes, you are here, I am here, we meet here.” And in agreement, continuing. Joined, yet separate and individual. Connecti

A Cannabis Lesson

I remember smoking some cannabis many years ago when I was visiting the island of Kauai. I wasn’t a frequent smoker. In fact I’d had a skeptical relationship with the plant. I was lying under a Plumeria tree and as soon as I felt ‘high’, I started feeling disoriented and panicked about the seemingly ongoing open-endedness of my own existence. Simply experiencing the structureless and infinite possibilities of where to focus my awareness was terrifying. I remember the free-floating panic I was experiencing and I felt overwhelmed with the idea that I had no idea how to direct my focus or my Self, believing that I had no way of knowing how I was supposed to focus my attention, my energy, or myself. I imagined an endless existence with endless possibilities, and no structure to hold or guide me. This provoked such anxiety that I longed for the effect of the marijuana to swiftly wear off and bring me back to the state of mind I was accustomed to . I thought I was doomed to, or trapp

Radical Aliveness

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