The Earth-Sky embodiment practice
Below is a recorded excerpt I made during a session with a client guiding them through a basic earth-sky embodiment practice. The graphic image is the logo for the Lomi School which was where I began in 1993 to learn about Somatics. It was created decades ago by Al Huang, the Tai Chi teacher well-known at Esalen Institute. If you listen to the recording I hope you’ll see how this image applies. I am deeply grateful I found at the school my first teachers, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, and Robert K. Hall.
Ray Castellino, the creator of the womb surround format called this practice mother-earth/father-sky and it seems appropriate to open the name now as it could sound culturally bounded by the mother-father associations. I’m sure Ray wouldn’t mind. If earth feels motherly to you, wonderful. If not, wonderful too - maybe there’s another way you discover the mothering qualities of the universe. The point is the inner practice and meeting the world from a 3-dimensional embodied human state.
This is a practice we can use anywhere, anytime, to center our attention in the core of our bodies. It’s a basic way to orient ourselves by sensing from within, beginning as we say from the inside out. I find it useful all the time no matter what I’m doing, and especially helpful whenever I feel disoriented and disregulated.
We can learn to rest within our skins, to be at home by being embodied.
While training with Ray I realized this practice is essentially the same as the practice I’d learned from Richard Strozzi-Heckler, my Aikido sensei and founder of Strozzi Institute. I already knew it though with different language. Somatically it’s foundational to be aware that being fully human is a 3-dimensional embodied process. Look again at the Lomi School logo image.
The next dimension then is awareness of inside-outside. Not to create separation but to support orientation, so necessary for our nervous systems to feel settled and regulated.
For some people, this practice may actually be disorienting and disregulating. If this is true for you, there are good reasons! I’d be happy to support you if you wish to learn and find more choice for yourself with this challenge.
Questions or observations are welcome. Feel free to share…
