💚 The ways we embody how we feel

Email Read Time: 45 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 13 minutes

—Here’s a recent email about our upcoming Group Spiritual Direction for Writers Cohorts
—SDW Members: A Members Only Update is coming soon! (Maybe today?)
—Our regular SDW Co-Writing Sessions will return on August 6th. We will have 15+ SDW Co-Writing Sessions during the 2nd-ish and 4th-ish weeks of every month beginning in August. All SDW Members are welcome to participate in as many SDW Co-Writing Sessions as they like.
—Join SDW here.

“If anybody asks you, ‘What exactly did Martha Graham do?’ You can say, ‘She took natural gesture, the things we do unconsciously when we’re sad or when we’re happy, euphoric, stressed… She took those gestures and those ways that we embody how we feel, and turned them into a dance language.’” - Janet Eilber

Pause.

Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.).

Prompt.

“Martha Graham once said, ‘A dancer’s art is built on an attitude of listening, with his whole being.’ That’s probably a good prescription for those of us also in search of creative insight.

What does your whole being tell you? What kinds of imagery flit across your imagining mind while reading about Martha Graham – or courting personal inspiration? And how do those images mesh with the demands of your vocation or avocation? A thinker’s art is built on an attitude of listening to the world without and the mind within.”

- Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein

Practice.

Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the quotes above.

—How do you embody how you feel?
—What is your dance language?
—What does your whole being tell you? (Stop right now and listen. What do you hear?)
—What kinds of imagery flit across your imagining mind while reading about Martha Graham?
—How do you listen to the world?

If you like, use your notes to start a new poem, story, essay, or a letter to a friend.

Want More?
Watch this very cool 7-minute video about Martha Graham, her iconic piece Appalachian Spring, and a relatively new accompanying piece, The Auditions.

Charlotte Donlon

Writer, Spiritual Director, & Founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers

spiritualdirectionforwriters.com

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