Embodied Spirit, Conscious Earth

Linda Hartley’s career of five decades has spanned the fields of somatic dance, somatic movement education and therapy, and transpersonal somatic psychotherapy. She has worked as a therapist in private practice, as well as teaching independently and for many organisations in the UK and continental Europe. In 1990 she founded what would become a 3-year ISMETA Approved Training Programme in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy, based on the three foundations of Body-Mind Centering, Authentic Movement and Somatic Psychology. She has written several books including the bestselling: 'Wisdom of the Body Moving'.

Preface



Part 1:
What is Embodiment?



1:
Conscious Embodiment



What Do We Mean by ‘Embodiment’?



Conscious Embodiment of Movement



Three Moments



Embodiment and Dissociation



Returning Home to the Body



2:
Coming Home to the Body



The Integration of Body and Mind



Visualisation
− Somatisation − Embodiment



The
Moving Self and the Inner Witness



3:
Cultivating Embodied Presence



Stillness
and Rest



Breath



The
Language of the Body and the Language of Words



Presence
– letting movement be just what it is



Transparency



Empty/Full



4: Somatic Movement, Somatic Imagination &
Authentic Movement



Attention
and Intention



The Touch of Attention



Somatic
Movement and the Potential to Heal



Working with Pain in the Body



Somatic
Imagination and Dance-Making



The Discipline
of Authentic Movement as Mystical Practice



Healing



Dance



Mystical Practice



Body as Sacred Vessel – Body
as Prayer – Body as Offering



Part 2:
Embodying Spirit



5:
Embryological Beginnings



Movement
is Life



The
Dance of Conception – Feminine and Masculine



Inside
– Outside



One
Becomes Many, Many Are One – contents and container



Coming
into Relationship – self and other



Bonding
and Defence



6: Emerging
into Form



Bringing
the Outside In



Heart



Nervous System



Digestive Tube



Organic
Origami



Unfolding
to Verticality



7:
Early Imprints



Grof’s
Basic Peri-Natal Matrix (BPM)



Womb
Time, Eternal Time − BPM 1



Paradise
Lost − BPM 2



Discovering
Agency − BPM 3



The Threshold between Life & Death, Joy & Anxiety −
BPM 4



Reflections



8:
Meeting the World



Emergence
and Separation from the Ground of Being



Relational
Consciousness



Mediating Inner & Outer through the Autonomic Nervous
System



Holding
and Being Held



Part 3:
Home and Ground



9:
Body as Resource and Healing



The
Grounding of Spirit in the Body



Trauma
and the Upsurging of the Deep Psyche



Healing
through Movement and Embodied Awareness



The
Discipline of Authentic Movement



Developmental
Movement Therapy



Cellular Breathing



Navel Radiation



Spinal Patterns



Yield and Push



Reach and Pull



10:
Supporting Presence in Relationship



Grounding



Flexibility



Centering



Boundaries



Orienting in Space



Negotiating Relationship



Balancing
the Autonomic Nervous System



Inside and Outside – the Cell



Autonomic Rhythm



Gestures of the Embryo



Navel Radiation Pattern



Deeper
In and Further Out



Physiological Flexion and
Extension



Birth



The
Support of Primitive Reflexes



Self
and Other



To
Summarise



Part 4:
Communication and Connectivity



11:
Cellular Body



Whispering
Between Cells



The
Emotional Brain and Psycho-neuro-immuno-endocrinology



Energetic
Pathways



The
Cell’s Code of Three



12:
Earth Body



Whispering
Between Trees



We are
Earth



Earth
as Witness



Dancing
with Earth Consciousness



From
Tribe to Individual to Interbeing



Climate
Change as Symptom



13:
Collective Body



Communication
and Connection



Embryonic
Roots of Embodied Relational Spiritual Practice



Global
Expressions of Embodied Relational Spiritual Practice



Part 5:
Endings and Beginnings



14:
Transparency and the Aging Body



Spirit
Grows Younger as Body Ages



Joyful
Body, Painful Body



Coming
Full Circle – Witnessing the Return to Beginnings



And
Endings



Notes



References



Acknowledgments



Resources