Taught by the Dog
On Sunday I was walking our dog, Luna, as I do most mornings. We had gone only a short distance, when she noticed a smell at the side of the path which was particularly riveting, for some reason only known to her. So I was obliged to stop.
It was sunny, warm, there was no wind. The autumn sunlight was filtering through the trees. It was a reminder – ‘Oh yeah, Luna, you are right. This moment here and now, is pretty special!’
If you know Luna, you’ll know that her walks are not about the exercise, it’s about the olfactory experience, which she enjoys to the full, so stops are frequent.
So, I decided to play along and take those same moments. To feel the delicious sun on my skin, warming my bones. There was a bee buzzing around some rosemary. Then the aroma of someone’s breakfast from an open window. There were two fantails doing cartwheels in the air around a Pohutakawa tree. Some Tui up high were calling out in that curious beautiful way, trying to out-do each other. There was child in a driveway playing with someone’s crutches. But generally there were few people or cars about.
Each step I took moved the scenery, so the view was changing moment to moment, foreground trees and houses, shifting against background hills - always interesting. My feet were meeting the ground, my hips rolling through the movement, arms and shoulders swinging in counter-balance. Feeling good in my body, even as I had to breathe harder on the up-hill bits.
Three-quarters of an hour passed like this. And when we returned, Luna went to curl up for a nap and I made a coffee, I realised that hardly any judgements nor plans nor worries had passed in that time. It was just presence and enjoying the moment. And I was ok with that. Did it feel like a waste of time? Nah. Am I doing it again today, and tomorrow? Absolutely. Thanks for the lesson Luna!
More Training
I was grateful to get away to Christchurch this month for some more Zero Balancing training and peer review with students from NZ, Australia and the USA. In particular, we were rebalancing the organs of the whole torso, and more work on the skull. The course emphasised absolute presence on the part of the practitioner, how this amplifies healing potential for the client, not by doing more, but paradoxically by relaxing and doing less.
I’m already putting the new material to good use.
If you know anyone who would like to learn Zero Balancing, there will be a ZB 1 course in late January in the Palmerston North area. Just ask me for details.
However, if you would like to learn a 5-minute Zero Balancing exercise that you can learn do on your friends and family, while they are seated, just ask me. It’s great for relaxing and bringing someone back to presence if they’ve had a difficult day, or a stressful moment. Even kids could learn this!
Pro Bono Days
Ngaio - Tuesday 28 May (5 spots left)
Upper Hutt - Wednesday 29 May (2 spots left)
Please share my website, or this page, with anyone you know that may benefit. Or click on this link to book now.
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With caring and kindness,
Rhys Dwyer
If you know anyone, from kids up who maybe struggling with body-held tension, energy levels, stress, anxiety, or choices, then please ask them to check me out. Bodywork and present moment awareness may just make a big difference.
Note that bodywork is always complimentary to prudent medical care.