Expansion and Contraction: The Ribcase
The planets are charged, poised and ready for take off during this next waxing cycle. Can you feel the expansion taking place within you and your life? In your relationships and desires? This is a perfect opportunity to work with the rib case and our experience of expansion and contraction. Using this theme of expansion and contraction, we will work specifically with the ribcase in this Creative Ritual. The ribcase provides protection for the body's vital organs- heart and lungs specifically. Every breath we take is connected to opening and expansion as well as letting go, releasing and contracting. The breath is the greatest metaphor for boundaries, and it's no mistake that the lungs literally provide us with the ability to live and "take in life" as well. Our ribcase is the protective case that houses these sacred physical tools of the body that allow us to expand and contract our life. When we work with the ribcase, we can explore these themes more intentionally, while letting the body direct our experience. Start standing or lying down. Begin by bringing your attention to your breath. What is the quality of your breath on the inhale and exhale. Do you feel the breath staying in your chest or moving into your belly? Don't try to force this to change. We are just being a witness to "what is" right now. Continue this focus for a few minutes, then add another body part to this open and close momentum that starts in your chest. As you expand on the inhale, let another body part become involved. As you exhale let the body relax and surrender to a neutral. Rise and fall. Open and close. Expand contract. Continue working with these expressions and notice what other body parts naturally join. Let the body move like a wave in harmony with the breath. Use a time frame of 20 minutes for this ribcase/breath exploration. Then come to your drawing pad and do a 10 minute sketch of your experience. A "snap shot" of your embodiment process. What colors arrive? What textures? What types of lines and shape? Give a title to this piece then answer the harvesting questions below. Harvesting Questions: If my ribcase could speak, what would it say to me? What am I opening to? What am I closing to? What am I expanding towards? Where am I contracting? Where am I letting in life force? Where am I resisting life force? What does my ribcase need? Never miss a Creative Ritual, sign up for my weekly newsletter. Want more Creative Rituals? See my current virtual workshop offerings here.
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{Movement Explorations} -SJM So much movement within the planets this week. As Jupiter moves back into Ardra nakshatra, Rudra energy will be enlivened. This is a powerful and forceful energy that brings movement and changes with it. Destruction and chaos as well as emotions and anger. The symbols of Ardra are a tear drop and perspiration- the internal waters flowing; inner tides moving and offering changes. Change requires that there is an ending but also a beginning.
This week we will play with the image of "stepping into something new" and the movement and changes that come as a result of this forward momentum. Feet bring stability and grounding. They offer us the ability to "step forward" both physically and metaphorically in our lives. We sense and connect to the earth (the ultimate support system) through the souls of our feet which helps us find our overall balance, nourishment and resiliency. It's a new year and the time of Makar Sankranti in the Vedic calendar. Time to step forward with momentum and spring into new actions in order to harvest new growth, wisdom and abundance. Use the feet as a starting point for your movement exploration, but let this be a starting point only. Spine (flexibility and support) as well as chest (expand/contract and open/close) can also be important resources for self tracking this theme. Move through space starting with your feet awareness. Wake them up! Call upon them for activation! Let them move you forward! Let your feet speak to you! Then let that wisdom rise up through the rest of your body. Harvesting: What am I stepping towards? What am I moving away from? As I move forward, what do I need/want? As I close old doors, what do I need/want? What are my actions steps for growth and change? This week? This month? This year? As you think about your 2014 intentions/goals that you created last week, what image comes to you? Put this image on paper using a medium that connects to your theme. Example: water color for fluidity and change, oil pastels for commitments, collage for healing old wounds. The ribcase houses our heart and is both expandable and able to contract. Its movement is vital for breath, reaching, rolling, folding and bending. The physical connection to expansion and contraction correlates to these experiences on the mental and emotional levels as well. When we breathe in, it symbolizes our taking in of life/life force, while our exhales offer a letting go/release experience. The ribcase is literally like a door to our heart space, offering opportunity for both opening and closing. Especially important right now as Venus is about to go retrograde and we begin to re-evaluate our relationships and our relation to others in a more exact way.
Begin by walking and rolling your shoulders, noticing the connection to chest and ribcase. Roll your shoulders forward and collapse the chest while you exhale. Inhale, roll the shoulders back, open the chest. Repeat several more times until you make some new connections. How do you feel as you open? How do you feel as you close and collapse? Notice the differences and continue to check in with your breath. Try this simple awareness activity for at least 5-10 minutes. Then rest on your back with eyes closed to integrate. Come to your drawing pad and capture any images that came to you. What are you opening to? What are you closing to? Who and what is invited in and who and what is uninvited? When you have completed your image, answer these base line statements ::: I am___ I want___ I need___ Circle at least three key words. Then write a haiku with your harvesting. "...through the Creative Engagements I'm able to embody and consciously embrace the information my feeble brain can't always absorb. WHAT A GIFT!!!...these weekly offerings are filling a void i feared would only get deeper, more vast. thank you for helping me fill my coffers with love, insight, art and my own, authentic medicine." ~ S.R.
Creative Engagement Activity for the week of 9.9 ::: Last week we used the pelvis as an entry point into our creative potential. With the intention of creating for our New Moon cycle, we developed a mandala and wrote "I am creating" statements that came from our dance and mandala experience. This week, continuing the mandala theme, and in honor of "removing obstacles" because of Ganesha Chaturthi, we will build on our previous work. With "the act of creating something new for our lives" in mind, we will work with the ribcase. The ribcage/ribcase houses and protects our heart and lungs, two of our most vital organs, and it also protects our main life-support systems. Here we can feel the rhythm of our breath, the pulse of the heart beat, a letting in and a letting out. Lie on your back, prop your self up comfortably in a seated position. Place left hand on heart, right hand on belly. Take at least ten minutes here feeling the breath, noticing the movement of chest with every rise and fall. Come to your drawing pad and create three mandalas- one for the mental, emotional and physical levels (extra credit for a spiritual level). Finish these statements: What am I opening to? Closing to? What am I releasing? Inviting in? |
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