In what plane of existence do you hold the embodiment of your head?
From left, to right. Tilt-up, then down. The in-betweens of all that.
And then the blind spots, behind your head. In the same directions.
If you lengthen your spine a little bit, beginning with your neck, take note of how it extends this small “lump” right behind where you envision your brain to be, you find that you get to play a little bit more with a vertical kind of space.
One of my favorite little awareness experiments that I learnt from Michael Ashcroft:
Observe the space in front of you. Perhaps between the space between your eyes and the screen you’re reading this on. The distance between you and the screen. Hold it lightly.
Now take that awareness of space, and put it, right behind your head. Observe the space between the back of your head, and the closest wall behind you. Imagine the wall behind that, and observe that space too.
Now tune that awareness of space to right above your head. The tip of your hair. The space between your head and the ceiling. Imagine as though, a plane flies by, way higher than the roof.
I love this small experiment, because it shows how we can effectively play with our external awareness via observation of space as an initial medium. From there, playing with awareness is a little bit like playing with an instrument, holding notes and zones of focus. Expanding your awareness outwards, and observe the world around you, just a little bit more sensitively.
You can read more about Michael and his Alexander Techique work on his Substack, Expanding Awareness.
I was prompted by a tweet from my friend Clo, in which she wondered,
What would our cities look like, if we could move our bodies around in 3D, like we do in water?
If we could move through space like water,
I think we would be more wary of the directions that we are going.
Instead of up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards, we would need to evolve a completely spherical kind of awareness.
Our feet would become eyes to allow us to see below us.
Our hands would become our nostrils and mouths, being the most mobile, to reach towards the freshest source of sustenance.
(Or we can live the classic gaming trope of Eye-Hand Monsters)
Sensitive to the world around us.
Let’s try that.
How do we move through space like water?
If you have ever been to an ocean, or a pool. You would know how the water resists, pulls against your body. The harder your push, the more resistance.
Try that. Slightly, with your wrist.
Move through the space in front of you, in all the directions, feeling like you are being resisted by water.
Embody the tension in your body as you make waves in the 3D space around you.
Left, Right. Forwards, Backwards. Up. Down. Everything in between.
Let the rest of your body follow, like how you give yourself a push with every kick of a stroke.
Your body flows, and follows the resistance, guided by your hand.
Space happens, between your awareness and your embodiment.
Between what you become aware of, and what you hold, lies space.
Void and full at the same time.
This practice is one of the things I’ve been playing a lot with my dance. Learning to embrace the space around me.
It’s interesting playing with this thought of, moving through space like water with our bodies. It’s something that we do unaware, on a daily basis. Our embodiment, often just lies in the dimensional plane that of our head, and rarely internally within our bodies, or externally with the space around us.
Quoting The Cosmic Dance
The dance, the interaction, the rhythm, dynamism, seems to be at the center of many notions about the source, root, creation or ultimate realisation of the world.
To which I would add on in prose,
It is through the dance of space, we begin to seek a soul outside of the shell
We hold our thoughts in our heads, but not in the world
Making homes, leaving marks for the next head-holders to find
Resisting the ocean, maybe one day it’ll become mine
I will leave this with “The Poem of Atoms” by Rumi, which was also quoted in The Cosmic Dance.
"Oh Sun! Do rise so the atoms dance!
The One who causes the earth and the heavens to dance
Joyful souls, in ecstasy, they dance
I whisper into your ears where the dance is leading them
Inside the cell or out in the space
In the wilderness and in the air
Adore them cause they, too, like us are befuddled and amazed
Whether in the state of keen pleasure or in the state of deep sorrow
Each atom, by the ineffable sun,is mystified and perplexed."
- "The Poem of Atoms", Rumi
Related Links:
Clo’s Thread that triggered this thought, in which she talks more about architectural to the world
A little thread of Expansive Awareness by Michael Ashcroft
My old Substack piece on exploring Movement Through Conversations
Notes:
I wrote this with no clear idea in mind. I was just intrigued by this idea of moving through space like water. I immediately began to envision my own space like such. And wanted to share it.
I’m not really sure the direction I wanted to write this. Found it in a cross of wanting to talk about how I felt in my “space-water” state, then talking about awareness of realising I was in that state, then playing with that in my dance, then thinking about the intersection between awareness, embodiment and self-realisation.
Thank you for reading through this I really appreciate it.