Starfish...

 

Back to back. Sitting, eyes closed. Feeling the breath. Feeling the skin, clothes, temperature. My partners breath. Contact points - my relationship to the environment.

Awareness of self & other..

Anchoring to the self..

Negotiation of awareness..

Touch is a central part of life.

In culture we are restricted in our touching.

Potency of touch. Skin is our communication with the outside world.

Skin is the outside of the nervous system. Many receptors.

Receptors in the organs.   Internal & external world.

Skin as a container, body as a whole.    Fundamental..

Naval Radiation Pattern

Movement in utero...  Intention-directed movement will emerge later...
Unconscious purpose of movement, pre-intentional... Through the stimulation of
movement, tough, and vibration, the potential of the nervous system
will begin to unfold... Actions appear to originate not locally, in the muscles of the
limbs, but from the navel centre of the infant's body... 

Centre of the organism..

Significance of the navel as the central organizing point...

Equality between the limbs of the starfish...

Integrated through the centre...

In utero, the head and the mouth is unimportant, importance of the navel...

Stomach and mouth are the same in a starfish...

Mush more like a starfish in 8 weeks of utero...

Movement & touch is our main sense - proprioception...

6 limbs of the body, each equal...

How this movement pattern can offer integration between centre & periphery...

Core & Distal movement...

Connectivity...

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Squashy, vulnerable centre - protecting it.

Can almost see through my limbs.

Re-remembering our centre.

The arms don't end at the shoulders, they come right into the centre.

The hand is almost like a starfish - the palm being the centre & the fingers the limbs.

Tracking in my minds eye...

Lying on front, partners hand resting on the back where the navel is. Leaving one have in the centre and using the other to trace along the 6 limbs. Allowing the receiver to play with condensing and expanding around the navel. Felt busy and warm in the centre and my limbs became longer than they are. Feeling Charly's cold hands still buzzing on my skin. Resonating. Felt really interconnected - all limbs joining in the centre.

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