Medicine Moves: Voice
First, a brief intro. I’ll guide you through some OPTIONAL, VOLUNTARY exercises designed to help your voice emerge in a way that is pleasurable and creative. If you prefer, you can just witness me doing the exercises. Then I’ll sample the playlist for you, giving background about the songs and suggesting ways to interact with them when they come up in the playlist.
Next comes the music itself: 35 minutes of tunes, chosen for the various aspects of voice: gorgeous, goofy, hypnotic — some for listening and others that invite a singalong. While the music plays, the invitation is to slip in and out of movement, stillness, and witness, as we choose. As always, we conclude with brief optional sharing.
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Medicine Moves: Breath
In this event, we play with our breath, allowing the music in the 28-minute playlist to inspire varying patterns and intensities. I will provide a bit of guidance and a few ideas up front, but what you do is completely up to you. Nothing is expected of you. You can turn off your camera for privacy and you will be muted while the music is on. If you stay for the whole event, there will be a few minutes at the end for voluntary sharing.
As always, no previous experience — in breath work or in movement — is required.
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Medicine Moves: Play
Play: “To engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.” We play to circulate our life force energy, to let go of preconceived ideas of what’s “normal” or “proper,” and to joyfully connect with others.
My aim for this playshop is to help stimulate movement creativity by providing opportunities for pretending to move like an animal, a fantastical creature, or a force of nature — or to try on and play with various emotional states in the safe container of our movement space. Juicy, liberating, and fun.
Questions? Ask.
Contact Kathryn to register: kathryn@wellwisestrong.com
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Medicine Moves: Spine in Six Directions
In this slow-paced, gentle playshop, we practice safe movement in our spine and explore how music can inspire this movement into something else. Something possibly resembling a dance, possibly not. My hope is that your body will decide, based on your sensation of comfort and pleasure.
We begin with a teaching: three motions from yoga, each done in two directions, and each presented with options for sitting, standing, and reclining. If you prefer not to sit on the floor, it might be helpful for you to have a chair, cushion, or ball to sit on. A mat or rug would be good for reclined exploration.
Next comes a 20-minute playlist, when we can continue to play with spinal movement, alternating with stillness and witness, as our bodies choose.
Contact Kathryn with questions: kathryn@wellwisestrong.com
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Medicine Moves: Freedom within Form
We’ll start wherever we are.
Already, there are movements your body knows and feels safe doing.
Maybe you dance, practice yoga or Pilates or Nia, engage in martial arts or Five Rhythms. Maybe you’ve done Jazzercise, hoop dance, or other aerobic workouts to music. Breathwork. Rowing. Weight lifting. Barre. Maybe you enjoy walking. We can start there …
Maybe you have yet to discover the movement forms your body feels happy and safe with.
Perfect either way.
Contact Kathryn with questions: kathryn@wellwisestrong.com
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Medicine Moves: A Playshop Series
The Medicine Moves Playshop series might be for you if …
you love music (and are ready to hear some new tunes)
you need more movement in your life (but not in a public setting)
you would enjoy a friendly community experience (facilitated by an experienced leader)
you are interested in freeform movement (and are looking for guidance and inspiration)
you can spend 1.5 hours on Mondays, April through mid-May
Yes? Maybe? Read on.
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Medicine Moves: Base and Beat
In this playshop, we first establish safety in a stable base. Then we allow ourselves to merge with the music, guided by the sensation of pleasure and the emotional quality of the song.
We’ll practice several options for the stable base: sitting, standing (maybe by a wall or chair), kneeling, all fours (or threes), and lying down. Next we’ll explore some very simple movement options to pair with our stable base. Examples: active/resting, left/right, front/back, high/low, large/small, inhale/exhale, fast/slow, forceful/gentle, rhythmic/flowing, simple/complex, stationary/traveling, mind chooses/body chooses. And whatever else you want to play with.
We practice with a 20-minute playlist: songs chosen for their variety in tempo and energy. While the music plays, we have the option of experimenting with base and beat, witnessing others on the screen, or sitting still – flowing in and out of these options as we choose.
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I hold plant medicine in very high regard ...
… especially mushrooms. And especially in a large enough dose that I surrender fully to their medicinal effects — whatever those may be on a particular journey.
It’s always different. Brilliantly intense. Never more than I can handle, but not what I’d call a joy ride either.
I value how the medicine takes me to the edge of my edge on an inward spiral, and then outward and beyond, until the journeyer is no longer “me” but instead a sort of essence that feels like pure consciousness.
This is where Union with All That Is rests — including this journeyer.
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still.being.moved ~ what is it?
During this unguided experience, music supports our choices as we interact with each space as inspired. In the movement space, anything goes. The invitation is to dance, to bring in elements of other practices such as yoga or t’ai chi, or to simply stand and sway, sit and rock, or crawl or roll around on the floor. Again, anything goes.
In the witness space, we observe ourselves and each other without judgment. (Note: this is potent medicine.) In the stillness space, we sit.
Simple. Juicy beyond words.
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Cost to Rent the Sacred Container
Your cost will depend on the length of your retreat and whether I provide meals. In any case, you will get great value for your investment.
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Christina Update #22: Suerte, por favor
The photo is from the plaza in San Pancho, where Christina worked for a decade in a hair salon.
I received this update from her today. She is asking the universe for buena suerte — good luck. She could really use some.
hi dear friend
ive been living in my car pretty much all the time and its just a big cluster fuck of bags
my friend said she sent 20 bucks for gas so i came on to paypal to see and i realized you sent this amazing donation and others that i didnt respond to … im sorry
im trying to get a plea for basically “bad operating” of a vehicle so . . . that wouldnt be a felony or damn jail time,. or 6 months plus with no license . . . and a way smaller fine
i am asking the universe and all its magic and all its friends to send me so much buena suerte
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Christina Update #21: Hope. Somehow, She Still Has It ...
I’ve been avoiding writing about Christina. I cannot find any hope to highlight in this story of hers, as her life continues to fall apart. She’s stuck living at home with her parents — which, by the sound of it would be intolerable even for a week-long visit, let alone two years and counting. With no transportation, she is isolated — she can’t visit friends or even take Ollie to the dog park.
And her body. She now has issues with her lungs requiring antibiotics and prednisone, three accessed teeth …
Somehow she has retained the capacity for joy in small things and a bit of hope for the future. I can’t see it, but I’m glad she can.
I am not sure why I’m writing this, aside from a commitment I made to myself in August 2020 to tell her story.
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Christina Update #20: I Just Want to Die
Christina fell asleep at the wheel and smashed her van into a telephone pole, breaking her sternum. The police mistook her for a junkie and are charging her.
I wish I was dead.
My van is gone.
My way to escape the stress here at home is gone.
The tiny bit of freedom I had is gone.
I don’t know what to do.
I'm really scared.
Worried.
Done.
I can't breathe.
I am really just wanting to die.
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Christina Update #19: Please Send Magical Vibes
This has been a summer of anguish for Christina. Respecting her privacy, I’ve captured only what she has written about her physical state.
Please send some magical vibes my way. I'm really worried. I'm feeling bad I adopted Ollie. He hasn't played with another dog in forever.
This painful and scary thing has been happening. My tense leg muscles won’t extend all the way. They shake involuntarily when I stretch them just so far. They ache in the bones and I can’t stand for more than five minutes.
I feel like I could sleep for years. My POTS symptoms make it worse. Standing up almost puts me to the floor from lightheadedness. I can’t go upstairs without reaching a heart rate of over 140 bpm. I can’t make my bed or do laundry …
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Christina Update #18: Van Life
A sweet young man from Christina’s distant past has shown up in a way that seems to offer both possibilities and complications. She is weighing these on her delicately balanced scale of survival.
I'm broken. Van life has been painful. The van is totally unusable for two people to live in. I made it as comfy as possible with sleeping bags and blankets. But still too many metal hooks and bars on the floor that hurt, blankets or not. If the van was set up for living in it with cubbies and storage, we would at least have to places to put stuff. I've been trying to show him. Keep clothes together, food over there, electronics and charger there, blankets there, and dirty things there. He’s like where's my phone and just rips around looking for it and then it's messy AF, a disaster pile of crap.
So ya. Losing my mind. Gonna have to tap out soon. Can't do my life like this.
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Christina Update #17: Creepy Aunt Hits the Kill Switch
Took Ollie for a ride today. He was an anxious mess. I figured a Petco trip might leave a happy memory. On the way home my van was shaking so hard I almost started crying. Someone was tailing me and it felt like the tire was gonna blow. Trying so hard to stay calm, say the right words. I drove with one hand to keep an arm on him and the leash cuz he kept trying to jump off the seat and go on the floor and under the middle console. So ya phew was too much and I just wanted him and me back in my room — my bubble — safe from stress.
I'm gonna check tomorrow and hopefully it's just the same tire that keeps going flat. I can NOT lose my wheels. That was probably why I teared up once the van started convulsing. It was going 60 and I hadn't felt the shaking in town so ... hoping it's just a damn tire.
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Christina Update #16: Poops, Pinball, and a Motorcycle
Thus far, most of what I have posted about Christina I got through stealth. She writes me random stuff at random times about her day and her life, not thinking I will use any of it in a blog.
This time, I asked her to write. She forgot, and then she remembered, and then she forgot … so what follows is mostly unfiltered Christina, as usual, but with encouragement to just keep writing. And as usual, I find her words both heartbreaking and wickedly funny.
For the back story, see the previous blogs. This update features what pooping can be like for a person with EDS, the hazards of unfamiliar hot tubs, a pinball date, and a motorcycle fantasy.
What shines through is the spirit of a woman who still loves life when some others (definitely including me) would have given up.
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Falling in Love with still.being.moved
When I first met still.being.moved, her name was Embody. She was just being born into this world and I was among those invited to attend the birth. She came into being through the genius of my friend and teacher, Sarah Marshank, about ten years ago.
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Retreat Offerings: A Food-related Retreat Possibility.
When I showed my original retreat invitation to my niece April, who owns the guest house where retreats will take place, she had one criticism: I needed to say more about the food. At the time, I wasn’t ready.
But this past Saturday I invited one of her current tenants, a 25-year-old man, to dinner after I realized he was alone for the weekend. I had roasted some vegetables to eat during the week: sweet potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onions … There was also bok choy sauteed with garlic and homemade sauerkraut. He was enraptured. Wanted to know how I made everything. No problem! It’s really, really simple.
Now I’m realizing that April is right: I need to share this kitchen witchery with folks. To inspire others to enjoy playing around with food.
You, perhaps? Or your daughter, your sister, your friend?
I’m thinking sometime this spring or early summer for a food-focused retreat. Tell me when is a good time for you to come to Texas and we’ll make this happen.
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Retreat Offerings: My Interests and Expertise
During our retreat, we’ll learn, heal, and play. For example …
Learning. The Enneagram has been life-changing for me. We can dip in or geek out, as you wish. Same with Selfistry — Artistry of the Self.
Healing. We will share gut-healthy meals and I’ll teach you what has helped me heal my own digestive system. Moving on to the bedroom, I’ll share my wisdom on sleep hygiene practices and/or the experience and enjoyment of sex. We can also explore Yoga, meditation, and plant medicine.
Play. Bring what you know and love from any movement modality — and a beginner’s mindset — and we’ll turn it into play through music. And if we need more play, there’s always Bananagrams …
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