— Resources for navigating serious illness, crisis or overwhelm
Free drop-in session Wednesday June 23,
4pm-5.30pm (UK time)
Main course Wednesdays June 30 – July 28,
4pm-5.30pm (UK time)
If you’re in a healing crisis of some kind, and could do with some company on the way, with embodiment and creative practices to help you through, this course is a reach-out to you.
Maybe you’re seriously ill.
Maybe you’re in recovery, where everyone thinks you’re ‘better’, but you're actually shaken to the core and super-vulnerable.
Maybe you’re so overwhelmed by life that it’s hard to function.
Maybe the 'you' that you've been has gone, leaving you bewildered, lost at sea, wondering what's next. Listening in the Dark is a 5-week journey, undertaken with the good company of others going through similar experiences, so you don't have to go it alone.
We'll drop into embodiment, enquiry and encouragement practices, designed for when you’re on the edge.
You’ll find resources to help you stay true to yourself when deep in the unknown, to be with the fear, grief and pain in ways that are beneficial for your nervous system.
Most importantly, we'll create ways for you to feel genuine connection with people even though we're online. Online courses can be almost barren; I can assure you this one won't be, if you're willing to show up, with your camera on, and take part as you are, no matter how broken you feel. You'll be welcome, and having the support of others who understand something of what you're going through is strong medicine for us all.
Why:
I am just emerging from a 2-year cancer journey. Death came close. The loss of my identity was huge. I was no longer the healthy, capable, energetic father and partner, with a job I loved and a future I had taken for granted. I know what it's like to have everything dissolve; to be left only with bones, breath, and a longing to live. The levels of pain, fear and grief I went through were like nothing I'd ever experienced.
What's more, the dance and movement practices I’d used for my sanity, healing and awakening over 35 years, that I'd made my life's work, were no longer suitable because I was too weak, in too much pain.
However, I adapted, taking the essence of everything I knew and making it work for the state I was in.My definition of ‘dance’ expanded way further. Often subtle. Mostly quiet. Long periods of complete stillness. Dedicated listening to my breath, and simply being present. A willingness, above all, to feel.
To lean into my fear, being with its disturbing darkness, sensing its direction, knowing that it’s not the whole truth but allowing myself to be touched, moved, informed.
To surrender to the grief — at losing my way of life and the capacity for ordinary pleasures like walking, cooking, sleeping soundly. Of potentially losing life altogether, losing everyone and everything I love.
Sometimes, when able and when needed, I used physical movement to make space in my body for the intensity of experience I was going through, and to give physical expression to all those feelings.
Now, I'm still tired easily, and my immune system is compromised, but I'm well otherwise, and am in a better space psychologically, spiritually and relationally than I've ever been. It's been completely transformational, and although I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy, I'm incredibly grateful for the profound reset that this illness has been.
What's Possible:
The level of challenge we’re capable of facing as human beings is extraordinary, and these are extraordinary times, with radical amounts of pressure and stress upon most of us.
On top of that more and more of us are dealing with chronic health issues, which can bring us to a breaking point psychologically.
Most movement-based embodiment practices involve fairly high-energy states, but when we’re in serious overwhelm already, that’s likely not what’s needed. Indeed, it may even be damaging, or simply impossible.
This course will be specifically tailored to those who need something different. You’ll be encouraged to stay within your window of tolerance as well as have ways to navigate going beyond it. To stay true to your own embodied presence, however minimal, slow, wild or strange.
We’ll use writing, drawing, and guided verbal communication in addition to the embodied meditations.
You’ll have the chance to go through stuff when needed, releasing stuck feelings and freeing up some space to breathe some new light through.
You’ll learn simple tools you can use at any time in your daily life to stay present and embodied through difficult circumstances, far beyond this actual course. This will include ways of being with others that cut through 'normal', beyond social chat, reaching for the real.
The sessions will give you tools that you can go on to use in the future at any time — everything from in-depth meditations that need time set aside (including soundtracks and musical guides), to simple grounded practices designed to be integrated into everyday moments.Practical:
Sessions will be recorded, so if you can’t make it for any reason, you can join in later in your own time.
You’ll also receive a free e-copy of my book Pathways Home (also available in print if you wish), full of ideas and inspiration for home practice if you want to take some of the course material further.
It would be foolish to make promises for miraculous healing, but this course will give you increased access your body’s natural tendency for wellness, aliveness and joy.
We’ll go there together. You’re not alone. The time is ripe for an evolution of human consciousness, a kind of collective awakening if you will, and when you’re going through a healing crisis personally, the potential for growth is perhaps at its strongest.
Here you'll find good company in the dark, with people who know it from the inside.
I am more deeply myself, and more available to give something to world through the shattering experience of cancer, and what it took to get through it. Maybe you can sense that this is a transformational journey for you too, with the potential for goodness all round. Maybe Listening in the Dark could be part of it becoming so.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
