Confluence Experience Learning Hub

As Vajrayana practitioners, meditation is the cornerstone of our practice. As we progress in our studies, our practice becomes increasingly subtle, and in order to access and sustain more subtle states it is critical that we remain grounded in our bodies.

For many of us, inhabiting our bodies has not always felt safe or, at times, even possible. Traumatic experiences, for example, often lead to a variety of disembodied states. These may range from a subtle tendency toward dominance of cognitive/intellectual capacities to experiences of dissociation.

The whole range of states that a body/psyche experiences when locked in a survival mode of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn (sympathetic overdrive), can present a real impasse to our progress in meditation. It can not only be a source of great frustration, in terms of our practice not feeling “real” or embodied, but can also lead to spiritual bypassing, whereby unaddressed pain and grief is further suppressed by our meditation.

The good news is that a plethora of somatic meditation techniques exist that can help us modulate our nervous systems and find real safety in the body, allowing us to achieve and sustain the embodied presence that is so foundational to our meditation.

Content

Over the course of four weeks, we will explore together a variety of somatic meditations and breathing exercises that you will experiment with on your own. As each of our bodies and histories are unique, different bodies will respond to and resonate with different practices, so the intention is to give you a range of tools to explore and find what best supports you.

Format

The basic format will include learning and practicing somatic techniques with time for questions and conversation around what we are experiencing as we practice.

Though I have been studying and practicing somatic techniques for a number of years, I am not an expert by any means and am on this journey myself, so it is my intention to guide and hold the space for us to learn from each other.

When and Where

Zoom - from 7-8:15 p.m. Central Time on Tuesdays in April: 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. 

* While in-person attendance is of course encouraged, each class will be recorded so that you are able to continue to explore and practice these techniques on your own time and at your own pace.