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How can we most effectively meet the challenges we face and, rather than acting on our projections or out of a compulsion to control others or to make them wrong, take actions directed by our own internal compass and grounded in our own integrity and values?

It is essential to first establish a foundational capacity to be aware of and to ride through the waves of our own emotional reactions all while being subconsciously undermined by our past traumas and conditionings . . .

There can be a denial of what emotions are there; a delusion that they are "under control"; an impulse to bypass them; a complete capitulation to them, and so many other possible internal reactions that range from stormy maelstroms to hidden, constricting tentacles reaching up from deep under the sea. All of them can limit our ability to be self-aware and to have any opportunity to make conscious decisions and to act with awareness of the reality of our true emotional state.

This is a practice for expanding our capacity to notice and then to be with our emotions so that we can not only be conscious of how they impact us but eventually transmute the energies of challenging emotions into deeper connection and heart-opening engagement.

In this practice, please bear in mind the following:
1. Our emotions are in many ways experiences of somatic responses that we have learned to interpret and label. For instance, if my belly ties into a knot, my breath becomes shallow, my chest feels tight, and my heartbeat starts to race, I can identify those collective sensations as fear. Not only are such somatic responses often uncomfortable to experience, but we have been in many ways conditioned to judge, reject, and resist them.

And so this breath holding practice is one of intentionally undergoing a challenging experience and then witnessing within ourselves how the simple act of attention and awareness brings a return to ease and that, no matter how challenging an internal experience may feel, we will absolutely survive its aftermath, and we are OK.

2. If your capacity to hold your breath out is significantly less or greater than the guidance in the recording, please adjust the time you hold your breath out accordingly so that it is challenging for you yet still achievable.

3. It is important to immediately return to an easeful, gentle breath after each breath hold. A sharp, gasping breath is a signal of struggle or overwhelm while a gentle, easeful breath is one of safety. By returning immediately to an easeful breath, you are signaling to yourself that you have the capacity to be with the challenge you have just experienced; and you are reminding yourself that, when a moment of anxiety, anger, fear, or any other challenging emotion arises, you are still OK.

4. Just as it is possible to experience a sense of vibrancy in the deepest challenge of the breath hold, it is also possible to experience that vibrancy in the most challenging emotions.

Once we are able to reframe our emotional experience in such a way, we open the possibility to have a completely different relationship with our emotions and to experience how even the most tumultuous ones can be of service to us.

5. Just because we are expanding our capacity to be with challenging emotions does not mean that we should martyr ourselves for others. This practice is a foundation for being aware of, holding space for, processing, and transmuting the energy of our emotions. Then, from a place of grounded presence, we have a deeper capacity to understand the situation our emotions were signaling us about and can discern and take what action is called for.

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This practice is one of Movement, Qi-gong & Standing Meditation that incorporates deeper understandings of Body Alignment to amplify all aspects of this enlivening, balancing, invigorating, grounding & consciousness-expanding practice. The guidance into somatic awareness and attunement awakens unique understandings and experiences through an integration of ancient modalities with modern practices and approach.

In addition to incorporating the above Breath Holding Practice, there is a deeper invitation to be in the practice of holding polarity. There are two opposite aspects of how our human world is becoming increasingly polarized. There is the blessing of how a greater diversity of voices and ways of being are arising, being heard, and taking their places; and there is the challenge of how that polarization is creating divisiveness as so many react out of their unresolved fears.

This practice invites us into activating an intentional experience of internal polarity in a way that is grounding, empowering, and expansive. As this visceral experience establishes a somatic knowing that polarity can be a potently nourishing force within us, we amplify our capacity to respond with our hearts when meeting polarity in our external world and not be swept up by the tumult of divisiveness around us.

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This 3-part course shares understandings and practices fundamental to healthy, authentic communication. These foundational teachings include:

• Listening generously with our full attention and a willingness to learn.

• Acknowledging and reflecting what we hear and expressing what we feel with empathy for ourselves and others.

• Cultivating tools to dissipate reactivity so that we deepen connection, understanding, and respect.

This course was co-created with Heather Salmon and Shems Heartwell, two of the other co-founders of AWOVEN.