What Chris wrote for the 23rd June

The Source : Connecting with the Here and Now.

Do you ever get the feeling that your mind is like a cluttered desk, which could do with a good clearout? Does it sometimes feel that your body is just a glorified taxi, which takes your overloaded brain from A to B? At the end of the day, when you try to sit down and relax, do you find it impossible to switch off and just be? Why does doing nothing seem so difficult?

In our superconnected times, a prevailing paradox is that the more we rely on technology for communication and information, the less integrated we become on a physical level. Our relationships with ourselves, each other, and our surroundings are becoming more virtual and disembodied. What can be done to return to a more holistic state of being and doing, whilst remaining in our brave new technoworld? How can we re-member ourselves, and is there a point anyway?

At the Source, our main preoccupation is getting people connected; with themselves, with each other , and with their environment. How do we do this? By creating space for awareness. In our ongoing work in the field of leadership development and training, we have identified a recurring theme from feedback we receive, namely how much more energised and alive people feel after a creative hands-on session; whether it be music, movement, visual art or storytelling. It is this feeling of being grounded that we take as a platform for authentic self expression, and for developing trusting relationships, as we recognise both our uniqueness, and our common humanity.

Through the creative and experiential process, we invite groups to embark on a journey into the interior. Initially, this requires a still mind and an awake body, so to that end, we employ a simple, yet powerful series of exercises to suspend our rational thought patterns, to let go of our preconceived ideas, and to connect with the here and now; just a group of bodies breathing in the present. From this still point, we can begin to integrate our minds and hearts with our bodies, then with each other, and our environment. This is a place of remarkable creative potency. Sportsmen describe it as ‘being in the zone’. The Japanese call it ‘Sartori’, a state of being, where nothing is happening, but the potential for action is ever present. In their book ‘Presence’, Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer et.al describe this in developmental terms as ‘Theory U’.

In relation to this work, we have just completed a course with a colleague of theirs, Arawana Hayashi, which is called ‘Embodied Presence Practice’. We are planning to continue working with Arawana in the future, and in the meantime, are happy to acknowledge her important contribution to our understanding of this crucial area of our own development.