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2. Learning Together 3. Some helpful Homework! 4. A New Way of Relating to Yourself |
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 HIS WEBSITE is constructed as an interactive resource, designed to educate both body and mind. There are two tracks on the site--one that draws you into your body’s knowing, and another that responds to your mind’s desire for further understanding and information. Wherever you find brown and yellow link buttons, these guide you through a series of interactive exercises, stories, examples, and illustrations that invite you to enter your body’s way of knowing. |
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| By following these colored weblinks you can access a series of interactive exercises, illustrations, and examples that teach you how to notice and nurture your important feelings. |
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| The blue link buttons, and occasional “LEARN MORE ABOUT...” link descriptions, lead to further explanations, background theory, technical details, and other information designed to satisfy your mind’s desire for greater understanding. This information can also be very helpful for learning the process, and may help stimulate your motivation. Often, when we understand what is behind an activity, we apply ourselves more fully to learning it. |
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| For basic website information, consult the top menu bar. The bottom menu bar repeats this information, but also adds links to every exercise and further explanation text on this site. You will find a brief description and link to every page on the site by clicking the Site Map link found at the top and bottom of each page. |
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 Pythagoras Chartres Cathedral 12th Century |
You might find it helpful to think of the blue link buttons as providing a complementary approach to the brown and yellow buttons. For example, if you were to ask a group of adults whether they know how to drive a car, most would say, “Yes.” If you then inquired whether they know how the anti-lock braking or fuel-injection systems worked on their cars, most would say, “No.” The conclusion: a lot of people can be taught to drive a car without needing to know everything about how it works! |
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For some, too much technical information can actually get in the way of learning a feel for the road. Driving a car is different from becoming a mechanic! Mixing the two may cause unnecessary confusion for those who simply want to get from point A to point B. If you’re that kind of person, stay with the brown and yellow link buttons. Read through the blue text links when you have time, or when some aspect of the process especially interests you and you want to learn more about it.
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| However, if you're the type of person who really wants to understand what you're doing "while you're learning," then by all means--read everything! |
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| But remember, "Knowing is not the process of changing!" For that, you must "notice," "nurture," and enter into the process of how your body knows. |
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 E ENCOURAGE friends, spouses, partners, families, and other communities or groups to consider learning from the website together, sharing their experiences and companioning one another on this inward journey. For example: |
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 F YOU ARE UNACCUSTOMED to being with your feelings, allow time while going through this website just to "notice" that you have feelings, and where you carry them in your body. Also, take time to notice if they feel like they have a hidden story in them. Instead of rushing on to the next exercise, try to carry the body sense of what you're learning about yourself throughout each day.Give yourself a week or so to savor each of the various stages in this learning experience. They will tell you something more and, perhaps, even new about what is going on inside you. Allow time to sense the body-feel of further possibilities, directions, unexplored paths, and unopened doors that may gradually unfold. Make room for this kind of day-to-day "living homework" as you work your way through the material on this site. |
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The road lies waiting before you. Take time to savor each step.
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to Yourself |
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| HE INWARD JOURNEY you are about to embark upon will draw you forward into a largely unexplored world of hidden links and felt body connections. The opportunity for self-discovery is enormous, but the journey will make certain demands upon you. Chief among these is learning a whole new way of relating to yourself. The stone carved image on the left comes from Zimbabwe, Africa. The sculptor, named Gift Muza, grew up in a culture not alienated from the “intelligence” of the body. |
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| He described this figure as a person listening to the intelligence (Daba) of the stomach as it tries to speak to the intelligence (Daba) of the head. “Daba-to-Daba,” he called it. |
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 OU CAN SEE this process well represented by the lowered eyes quietly tuned into the body, as one arm and hand let the Daba of the stomach know that it is being listened to. At the same time, the other arm and hand seem to unite the body with the head’s knowing in a bold and graphic way. |
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| The sculptor went on to say that the Shona people know when they are out of touch with themselves because they can feel it in their bodies. They then take time to notice and nurture what the intelligence of their body, expressed in their feelings, is trying to tell the intelligence of their mind. Their way of putting it is to spend some quiet time in Daba-to-Daba listening, allowing the Daba of the body to tell the Daba of the head whatever it needs to know. |
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| Whenever some word, image, or memory connects with the body’s Daba, and they feel an easing or “shift” come inside, then the body’s Daba can speak to the Daba of the head. New meanings emerge, together with greater clarity about what course of action or behavior is appropriate. You will learn more about this as you proceed through the exercises on this site. |
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| The sculptor’s image speaks of a “caring presence” that respects both the mind’s clear thinking and the body’s more connected way of knowing. The sculpture models for us how we must learn to relate to ourselves. |
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| This is not an image of war and tension between mind and body, but one of cooperating and mutual working together. It expresses an empathic sense for connecting, linking, listening in to the whole of ourselves. Daba-to-Daba represents an underlying theme running throughout the pages you are beginning to explore. |
 Daba-to-Daba |
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| Next to many of the interactive exercises presented on this site, you will find a small Daba-to-Daba image. It is a quiet reminder, placed next to texts where you are instructed to grow quiet, go inside, and be with whatever the exercise leads you to sense inside yourself. |
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| On the next page, you will learn more about how to begin the process of "Noticing" your important feelings. |
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