Gratitude to Debbie, Liz, Bonnie, Katherine and Jasmine for today’s co-teaching and co-learning during online qìgōng. Profound movements and reflection. I added some sources like a percussionist pulsing with the rhythm and the horn sections. Deep bow to our community of practice, our ancestors, and our teachers. Deep bow to recent and longtime ancestors/teachers.
- “Subdued and curious” AND “Spaces to be deeper in with connected existence during these times of cruelty”
Lucille Clifton: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lucille-clifton
America’s Racial Kharma: The fires of grief are burning by Dr. Larry Ward (2020) 13m
PROMPT cited: “I am preparing for…. “ (e.g. joy, connection, transformation, all beings to be free and genuinely secure)
- “Remembering and in awe of my feet” AND “Murmuration and holding joy and grief “
- Adrienne Marie Brown: On emergence, flocking, and murmuration https://adriennemareebrown.net/2013/06/21/emergence-speech-from-opening-for-allied-media-conference-2013/
- https://theconversation.com/why-do-flocks-of-birds-swoop-and-swirl-together-in-the-sky-a-biologist-explains-the-science-of-murmurations-176194
“Crummy” AND “I got lost in the movement and realized I was going a different direction. And that was okay and I could return if I wanted. I am accepted as I arrive and as I move.”
“Love after love” Derek Walkcott
“Hurt my leg and can’t move in the way I want.” AND “I felt soothed. The body as a poem”
“Living in the Body” Joyce Sutphen
🧠 Brain Meets Qì
Did you know? Practicing qìgōng has been associated with changes in brain networks involved in attention, emotional regulation, and body awareness.
My understanding is that taking a pause, an interstitial, a few deep breaths after relaxation helps feed back calming experiences in neural networks by activating specific neurons in the brain that link breathing to relaxation and calmer emotional states. Or Qì flow through movement might connect to our pacemaker neurons in our brain and locking into a slower rhythm and adapting firing patterns over time when we repeatedly practice the slow, rhythmic activites like the circular movements we practiced today.
Gratitude to our community of practice.
We practice for ourselves and all beings. With no being and place left out.
Be well. I intend to have practice on Sunday, July 5.
Dr. Kathy Yep 