Greetings folks.
Today I have a couple more simple exercises for you to experiment with.
I offer these bodymind exercises in the spirit of experiment. Try them out a few (hundred) times and see how they effect you. After doing so, your body will remember the effects, and will remind you to do them when they will prove most helpful to you.
For example, with the face stretching, it took me stretching my face over and over multiple times a day for about two weeks. After that, I could sense immediately when my face would get scrunched up, my eyes squinting, cheeks drawn up slightly…..then the idea of stretching my face would come to mind. This was a suggestion from my body. By doing these exercises, I get more and more messages from my body, and I know intuitively when they will be the most helpful to me.
- Image via Wikipedia
Today’s exercises are inspired by my good friend James and one of my favorite poets, Walt Whitman. You can find James’ excellent site by clicking on this very sentence. Go there and check out his album. Tell him Garrett sent you.
James showed me fun ways of using a tuning fork to ground myself out and to find my own resonance with whatever was going on around me.
The Human Tuning Fork does not require the use of tuning forks, though if you can get your hands on a bunch of tuning forks, you can do an experiment to understand how the exercise works. When you ring one tuning fork, the others vibrate with the sound waves from it. In essence, they all tune in to each others’ resonance.
This same effect occurs among a room full of grandfather clocks. Over time, the pendulums of all the clocks in a room will move in synch with one another.
Tuning Fork
Now, for the human tuning fork, the idea is to resonate with the bare facts of whatever reality you happen to find yourself in. This is best done alone, but can be done quietly in public as well.
To perform the Human Tuning Fork, simply stand, sit, or lay down in a straight-backed, comfortable position. Now, hum from the depths of your belly. Move the humming around your body as best you can. Or, simply sit there humming. Again, this might sound simple, you have probably hummed a tune to yourself many times before.
This is a little bit different. For one, you are taking time out of your regular routine to perform this exercise. Two: this exercise when performed correctly includes your intention to resonate with your reality as you currently experience. This is what is meant when I say, “Enjoy Everything!”
Hum hum hum hum hum. Try it for at least 5 minutes. Do this whenever you feel a little off-kilter. it will help you tune in to your actual surroundings, inside and out.
As you may have gathered already, the Human Tuning Fork exercise can help you tune in with your friends and/or lovers. Simply sit facing each other, or stand while hugging, or whatever feels right to you. Close your eyes and hum together for at least 5 minutes. Do your best to hum in unison, or to notice how the different hums move into harmony with each other.
I have been in a few different spaces where humming was employed to unite the group. It is fascinating to notice how the group moves from multiple disparate tones into a single harmonized tone. A decent group of drummers can achieve this effect as well.
Next, the Barbaric Yawp. This exercise may also be familiar to you. Variations of it have appeared under guises such as Primal Screaming. For Creative Deconstruction purposes, I have called it the Barbaric Yawp to pay homage to Walt Whitman’s Magnum Opus, Song of Myself.
Here are but three of it’s over 1300 lines:
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
This quote provides inspiration for the Barbaric Yawp exercise I am about to explain. It also reveals a little bit of the restriction inherent in what is called society. How many of you would feel comfortable climbing up on your rooftop and sounding your barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world? That is another exercise for another day. It is one I highly recommend, bu only in places where it will not involve you with police and/or angry neighbors.
The Barbaric Yawp:
Get a thick pillow ready. Take a few deep breaths. Inhale fully. Now, scream as loud and hard as you can into the pillow. If you don’t scream, then yell into the pillow. Yell for the duration of a complete exhalation. Rest for a moment and take a couple breaths between each Yawp. Imagine yourself screaming out over the rooftops of the entire Earth. Declare your own Greatness and Creatureliness in every scream. Repeat this 5-6 times. Be careful with your voice, and don’t overdo it.
The Barbaric Yawp alleviates stress and allows you to express a more taboo part of your physiology. After completing 5-6 Barbaric Yawps, take a few minutes to yourself to feel the effects and to relax.
Enjoy Everything,
-Garrett
