Peter Payne
What are the Bodymind Practices?
These are simple practices that show you how to release body, breath, and mind—-sitting, standing, lying down, moving, and interacting.
Bodymind Science LLC brings together traditional Asian bodymind practices and Western somatic education and therapy, with the latest neuroscientific understanding of the primary role of body movement and awareness in resolving stress and trauma.
We have created a unique and powerful set of scientifically tested practices which can help you function better in all aspects of your life.
These are simple yet profound practices which take almost no time.
We have designed them to integrate seamlessly with your daily life activities of standing, sitting, lying, moving, breathing, and interacting.
These practices show you how:
- to deal with acute or chronic stress
- to handle challenging or even traumatic situations
- to recover from past trauma
- to move towards health, well-being and optimal functioning in your life
By working with
- posture
- movement
- breathing
- inner awareness
- imaging
- attention
You can find
- calm and ease
- confidence and grounding
- a stronger sense of self
- lightness and effortlessness
- skill in relationships
How does it work?
Our videos offer a graduated approach to learning. Workshops and in-person seminars can offer deeper and more targeted practices for specific groups with particular needs, such as LEO, military, first responders, families of children with autism, medical professionals, and business executives.
Would you like to try a guided practice?
Read slowly through the practice below, and let the feeling sink in. Be aware of how great it would be to be able to move further into this state at will. Enjoy and learn at your own speed.
A Gift: “Just Standing”
Stand with the feet a comfortable distance apart, weight over the whole foot.
Knees not bent, not locked,
Tail hanging comfortably,
Shoulder-girdle wide,
Head floating lightly on top, as if suspended from above.Leave your eyes open, seeing the whole field of vision.
Leave the breath alone.Feel the plumb line of gravity passing through your body from high above to deep below.
Let your weight drop down through the body to your center of gravity, through hips into legs, feet, and down deep into the ground.
You become light, and your head floats free, shoulder-girdle floats, the whole rib cage and spine float
free, your awareness opens up to the spacious sky above you.
Now you can let yourself open out into the space all around you, connecting with what- or who-ever is there.Rest in this effortless state.
This is the Natural State; it is waiting for us whenever we stop getting in the way.
You can learn to take this state with you walking, sitting, moving around doing things, and interacting with other people.
You can get a deeper understanding of our system by watching and feeling along with this introductory Bodymind Training video. It explains briefly the basic concepts of the Preparatory Set and the Natural State which underlie our approach.
(Our peer-reviewed paper on the Preparatory Set is available as a free download here:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00178/full
We offer this 4-minute Bodymind Training video, a brief introduction to the Preparatory Set and the Natural State (see HERE for more explanation).
As you watch, you are taking it in at both a conscious and an unconscious level; our videos are designed to encourage this.
Notice the subtle shifts in feeling that may come; the Natural State includes groundedness, lightness, and openness.
For updates on new videos, sign up for our mailing list here.
You must be logged in to post a comment.