Your Aging Body is a Great Read
by Pat Samples
“For too long, the bodies of the old have been the subject of
despair and ridicule. Even with the recent push for “healthy
aging,” older bodies have become the object of anti-aging
toning and tucking campaigns. But what if our bodies were regarded as treasure chests, filled with an abundance of riches
that can nourish, heal, and energize us until our last breath?
What if we were willing to learn from them? To become
curious excavators of the archive of stories they hold in their
muscles and corpuscles from our lifetime of experience? The
longer we live, the more stories await our discovery, wanting
to honored, wanting to be told.
I advocate for a refreshing and mindful approach to living in
our bodies, with an open-hearted, open-minded curiosity that
allows us to harvest their generous, life-giving wisdom as we
age. Rather than feeling betrayed by their “failings,” we become
intrigued by the mysteries they are longing to reveal. We
become aware and appreciative of our bodies as gifts, as
friends eager to serve our well-being and support our ripening.
As we uncover and harvest the deep truths that our bodies
reveal, we experience “coming home.” Aliveness is renewed.
We come to appreciate our body as a trustworthy guide in day-
to-day living. Worries and anxiety decrease. Our creative
expression expands. We find healing, integration, freedom,
peace of mind.”
This proposal, sent by Pat Samples, an EM practictioner for many years, to the organizers of TedxTalks, was accepted. On April 5, 2019 Pat embodied her own message and presented an amazing talk to a receptive and engaged audience at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Watch Pat in action.
Building Resilience, Releasing Stress (for students, teachers, and parents)
Continuing Essential Motion support for the mindfulness and well being initiative at Roeper School, Karen visited the school again from January 7-11, 2019. In addition to working with students, teachers and the administration, Karen also met with groups of Roeper parents. She discussed and shared with them the embodied awareness modalities that she and Jane have been developing for students and teachers to connect to their bodies for the purposes of staying resilient and able to manage stressful situations.
Cindy Duley, a participant in the EM Virtual Leadership group and a field experience coordinator at the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, also accompanied Karen for several days and offered insights into how these kinds of embodied awareness modalities might be applied to teacher training programs to great effect.
Twenty-four years of an EM Swedish Partnership
October 2018 marked a gathering of fifteen Swedish Essential Motion leaders. All four Swedish EM training groups were represented. At this traditional EM weekend in Stjarnsund, we celebrated Karen’s 70th birthday by sharing stories about how the work has influenced our lives and our relationships to our bodies. The enduring depth of connection that has grown out of the EM process was touchingly apparent at this gathering as evidenced by the fact that the Swedish group will be meeting again in April 2019. Karen and Jane will be there in spirit!