Bubble Theory of Social Change: Devil 0/ Funlovers 1,000,000

Praise to you who are tender.
Praise to you who conjure joy.
Praise to you who leap speed-bumps of difference.
Praise to you who affirm others at the drop of a hat.
Praise to you who dance, sing, laugh, cry, and speak of love without restraint.
Praise to you who in social awkward moments risk embarrassment in order to connect.
For you bind, bond, play, heal, renew, weave the world again and again.
Thank you!
Those who divide (d/evil) un-do others, but in the long run there is no point to it. Hence, da devil gets NO POINT- Zero!

Here’s a new theory of social change. I call it the bubble theory. Instead of becoming one big circle, maybe we need bubbles, lots and lots of bubbles of pro-activty, moving, bumping, overlapping, saying thank you. (Did you know that hydrogen passes by oxygen 17 times till it connects to makes water?—someone check me on that…i heard it through the grapevine).

How do bodies want to organize? Like bubbles! Like atoms, molecules, cells, dividing (in creative ways) multiplying, bit by bit. They want to be both part of the fountain of life and a unique contributor.

Historic change and challenge seems to produce more bubbles. Maybe we’re a soup that is heating up. The constraints and limits of our situation are like a lid. When the lid goes on, the soup heats up. More and more bubbles. Maybe is good. Soup needs to be hot, not luke warm.

All this is to say, I think the time of bubbles is here and InterPlay is one of the bubble factories! YAY!

I see rampant indications of young and old people who are oddly bubbly (when not completely depressed). I see bubblicious actions popping up everywhere.
And these bubbles cannot be stopped. They are colliding, connecting, and multiplying-bubbles of buoyant embodied beauty, fun, and connection. The bubbles are popping up in unexpected places-halls of science, academic meetings, down in the dumps, slums, and in our homes.

Here are bits of evidence from the InterPlay Bubble Factory

· Million Connections Campaign celebrating all kinds of wonder: Our score since October nears 50,000 (and I haven’t even logged my India connections!)

· Arts for Social Change: InterPlay for Next Gen Leaders: We already have signups for the 15 slots

· New InterPlay groups starting in Kansas City, Portland, Ashland, Montana, Ohio, Chennai India, etc etc.

· Outreach to St. Mary’s Homeless Seniors in Oakland

and on and on…

Praise be to bubbles and to all the ways we are moving…

India Stories

Day Two in Bangalore, India we shared InterPlay at Vimochana Forum for Women’s Rights, a center working towards gendered justice and reaffirming the ethic of the feminine. The center is dedicated to making violence against women unthinkable. I went with InterPlayers Francoise from India, and Cassie and Trish Delaney from Australia. In the open, clean courtyard my eye rested on a metal bowl of red marigolds afloat in water. On the walls were beautiful African masks, spirit ancestors, and in the conference room library a poster with words from a Native American chief.

We sat and had coffee. One of the founders, just back from New York, shared the history of the center that started in 1979. I recalled that that was the year I married, started seminary, and met Phil.

She told of how the women’s movement in India arose from fighting against the outright violence against women. I thought of my dream of a memorial for victims of domestic violence and my own journey to renounce violence.

She spoke of women murdered, burned, of suicides and the work of the women’s courts. Then, the workshop participants started arriving. One group from a village took three bus rides to get there. Translation made teaching slow but meaningful. There were giggles as women encountered InterPlay’s practices and we began connecting, connecting, connecting. I taught the five essential freedoms: to move, have our voice, connect, do nothing, and tell our story and the five elemental movements of healthy interaction: to lead, follow, blend, change, and reconnect. At the end the women who traveled the farthest encircled us with their spontaneous dancing and we spontaneously followed them in movement, laughter and spirit.

One young woman, 17 years old, took us to her heart. She would have easily become a friend had there been opportunity. I’ll never forget seeing her stand before the poster of the Native American chief with Trish asking about each word and its meaning as she wrote it down, words that spoke of refusing to speak of God if doing so created violence, oppression, and division. Observing Trish’s gratitude I took it in as a deep meditation on the cross cultural support, wisdom, and friendship that can be sparked in such brief moments. Once again I realized, it is not only what InterPlay does in the moment, it is what results from InterPlay that is so profound- the spontaneous life, healing, and humanity. InterPlay offers sneaky-deep, homeopathic, social medicine with surprisingly powerful outcomes… stuff that our greatest spiritual teachers want for us.

Adrienne Rich said, “Violence is the failure to connect.” This is how InterPlay serves as peace-making. Anytime we make ease-filled, rich connections and foster chances for people to notice, share and celebrate the most everyday truths, we strengthen the underlying web that fosters harmony, innovation, and resource sharing. We learn things about each other we never knew. We bond. Violence becomes less and less desirable. Peace rises up in families, non-profits, organizations, on the street when this happens regularly.

For many such simple practices like InterPlay takes tremendous courage. We have good reasons to fear being open, direct, and full of life. That is why the practice of InterPlay in community is so useful. Giving people regular chances to rediscover on a body level that it might be OK to “come out” and play, work, be, and create with others is an increasing need in a world of anonymous, virtual, and isolating practices. Amazingly, those with the least to lose-the hopeless, the sick, the homeless, and the imprisoned are often quickest to respond to InterPlay. Courage to live is something they already practice every day.

InterPlay is offering elegant simple tools to more and more people all around the world. In India we shared InterPlay with paraplegics, elders, women with extreme depression, people with multiple sclerosis, teen women just out of prison, village people, school children, and leaders of NGO’s and corporations. There were so many open doors thanks to Prashant and our friends Bobby and Sampoorna.

Masankho Banda taught InterPlay in Frankfurt. Phil taught in Sydney and Adelaide Australia, and Nadia taught InterPlay in Brazil at the World Social Forum. Friends in Thailand, Japan, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Montana, and France ask if InterPlay is happening where they are… Together we are making a difference. Stay tuned.

InterPlay in the news:

Drumming Up Energy by Vishakha Avachat

Let your inner child have a free run: InterPlay Helps Participants Reach A Higher Plane Through Spontaneity And Intuitionby Joeanna Rebello

Clergy merge body, mind, soul in class by Yonat Shimron

Meditation – The Dance of Life by Life Positive

Dealing With Rape by Sanaya Chavda

Find these stories and more on the InterPlay Hot News page!

From Nadia in Brazil:

The InterPlay experience at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
I would like to share my experience leading InterPlay – art, multiculturalism, social change and cultures of peace at the World Social Forum in Brazil on January 27 and 29. The first day was at Faculdade QI College in Porto Alegre with 25 teachers, 2 computer technicians, a visual artist and  2 musicians – percussion and guitar. We had a wonderful experience, a very playful morning and in about 2 minutes all people were already feeling free to play. The second day I lead a multigenerational and multicultural group at the World Social Forum Youth Camp in Nova Hamburgo connecting people from Uruguai, Brazil and Argentina with mother earth and a lot of fun in the middle of the mud! It´s amazing how InterPlay simple forms can lead people to connect easily. As a performer with extensive training for more than 20 years, I recognize that simple forms, clear comands and incremental steps are very important to encourage people to let go the barriers and simply play. I am very happy to be part of this International community of people engaged in transformation through art. It´s a blessing to get to know people like Masankho Banda who came to Brazil and opened people´s heart with his wisdom using InterPlay forms. I understand now that whatever you do, it is always about leading people connecting heart to heart. The responsibility of starting InterPlay in Brazil is certainly something that I am aware of. I will always do my best to respect the work that has already been built by so many people and specially Cynthia and Phil my gratitude for your effort and dedication over so many years. InterPlay in Brazil is growing step by step and with this I am also growing because my main motivation is self development and the happiness of having more and more people also into a path of love, integrity and hope of a better world. Read some news from the World Social Forum official website
Sincerily,
Nadia Thalji

Social Capital

This week’s post is written by Theron Shaw, Director of Development.

I made an investment yesterday. Actually, I just added some capital to an asset that I’ve been building for some time now. And I’ve noticed a funny thing – I’m often tempted to spend out of that “fund,” and whenever I do, it just ends up being worth more.

“How can I get an investment like that?” you ask…

Well, my investment yesterday was that I took two ginger pumpkin scones and three little bags of gingerbreadman-shaped doggy treats (one for Ace, one for Blanca and one for Mina the German Shepherd) to our neighbors down the street. It was an investment of social capital, and I’ve been working on that investment since we moved here a couple years ago when I began to stop and talk to them and their three dogs anytime I walked past their house. The social capital there is my relationship with these neighbors, whom I love to talk with and whose dogs say enthusiastic (albeit noisy) hello’s to me every time I walk by.

Social capital is defined as the collective value of all “social networks” (who people know) and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other (“norms of reciprocity”). Robert Putnam said it well in his book Bowling Alone - Americans are bowling more than ever before, but not in leagues – people are bowling alone.

And social capital is a fascinating kind of capital, because unlike the capital in your bank accounts (aka “dollars” or “Yen” or “pesos”), the more you spend it, the more it’s worth. The less you spend it, the more it loses value. The more I rely on my neighbors to water my plants while I’m gone, the stronger our connection. If I get too busy and don’t stop to talk with them for a year, the connection grows cold. The social capital between us has decreased.

Makes me think of that campfire song I learned as a kid… “Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away…you end up having more.”

Turns out that InterPlay is a sophisticated technology for creating social capital. When we tell our everyday stories to another person, when we do a hand-to-hand dance, when we stand in a circle and create improvised music with our voices, we are creating social capital – connections with people around us that make our world work.

Economists and sociologists in the academic world have spent lots of time studying this phenomenon of social capital, because without social capital it’s very hard to get anything done.

Imagine if you didn’t believe that the bank was going to take care of your money when you gave it to them? That’s also known as a “run on the bank,” and usually makes headlines.

Imagine if you had to stay at the car repair shop all day while they install your new transmission, because you are afraid they might steal your car if you left the premises?

Imagine if you couldn’t ask your friend to water your plants while you’re on vacation because you’re afraid he might steal your computer and stereo system?

Social capital – the same kind of thing that InterPlay creates – turns out to be essential for making our basic day-to-day activities possible.

InterPlay’s Million Connections Campaign is about social capital investing. When Cynthia and I started a year ago dreaming up ideas for celebrating InterPlay’s 20th Birthday, we wanted a game to play that helps point out the intangible contributions that InterPlay makes to the world every time someone raises a hand to a partner’s hand. Imagine InterPlay connections like little drops in the “this-is-a-world-I’d-like-to-live-in” bucket. Will a Million Connections fix all the broken and painful parts of our world? No. Will they make the world a better place? Yes.

That’s why we created a place to count your connections- it’s a fun, easy-focus way to play a game together, as the global InterPlay community. It’s a game called “Let’s See If We Can Measure Just How Much InterPlay is Changing The World.” Join me – it won’t hurt at all, and your investments will be worth more! (And for the Shapers out there who have been asking “What counts as a connection?” – check out Phil’s explanation.) This is an easy-focus game – the goal is more about heightening our awareness, and the awareness of our communities, about how much InterPlay really is creating health and beauty and grace and ease in the world.

What if the Million Connections Campaign gave each of us the courage now and then to have the kinds of Connections that are most juicy, using the kinds of things we know how to do as InterPlayers?

What if you played “I could talk about” with your family members who you only see at holiday gatherings but don’t really know anything about (except that they’re kind of conservative and that’s a little Scary!)

What if you did vocal play in your living room with your friends and family – teaching them how to “start something, mess with it, and find an ending”? What if that was way more fun than playing Cranium after dinner?!?

What if you and your significant other could howl and cuss and swear at each other in a made-up foreign language, feel much better afterwards, and not have to clean up the mess of having actually said all those nasty things in English?!? (Thank you to InterPlayers Sharon Pavelda and Randall Mullins for that brilliant inspiration!)

Personally, the Million Connections Campaign has heightened my own awareness – and courage – to try some of these things.

Of course the Million Connections Campaign is about two goals – Raising $1 Million and Creating 1 Million InterPlay Connections, over the next three years. The $1 million is the fuel for this global social movement, and it is what will get us to the 1 Million Connections goal. We named this the Million Connections Campaign, because neither of these goals is worthwhile without the other. If we raise $1 Million, and haven’t created a single InterPlay connection, we failed. And we won’t be able to create those 1 Million Connections without some additional resources for training new leaders, for doing InterPlay outreach projects with new communities, and for administrative staff and resources across the country to keep everything moving.

So go out and be a Social Capital Investor!

For those of us who actually have lots of social capital in our lives – InterPlay connections, family connections, friendship connections – we are in a position to be social capital investors! Just like a venture capitalist is looking for a place to invest some money in order to create more money, social capital investors can look for a place to invest our social capital where there is the greatest hunger for connection, community, relationship. And by investing your social-capital-building efforts, you’ll end up with more than you started with! And don’t forget to tell us about your connections- it’s more fun that way!

Thanks for all the Connections you create in the world,

Theron

P.S. And for all you techno-curmudgeons out there who think that Facebook is the death knell of human connection (and I confess that I have tended to be among this curmudgeonly lot!), science has proven that Facebook is good for you! http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html

P.P.S. I’m sure there’s a connection somewhere between social capital and helping out the folks in Haiti whose homes and cities and lives have been ravaged by the recent earthquake. If you haven’t already, join me in sending them a financial contribution through Partners in Health, an organization that has worked in Haiti for over 20 years, providing health care in some of the most remote parts of that country.

Fearful?

This week’s post comes from Phil Porter!

I once taught a week on “fear” using InterPlay as a way of exploring the subject. We described the physical sensations that go along with fear (body data), we noticed the things that created that response in our bodies (body knowledge) and we gathered the learnings we had about how best to deal with fear (body wisdom.)

I noticed that although I don’t consider fear to be a controlling experience in my life, I could sense the large and small fear responses that flashed through my body on a fairly regular basis. It turned out that my biggest fears (after we had eliminated some of the categories like spiders and steeply slanted sports arenas) were the fear of being embarrassed in public and financial fear (from years of being a freelancer.) I realized that I had a number of excellent strategies for dealing with fear. (I’ll have to write about those and then charge ya!)

One of the things I know is that the only way to deal with terrorism is to proceed through life with courage (which means, of course, being afraid but doing it anyway). Terrorism isn’t about harm so much as sowing fear. For one person who might be hurt, a million get scared. We can spend a gazillion bucks on the latest anti-terrorism gadgetry to try to solve the problem but then the terrorists will already have won. All they need to do is disrupt the order. They don’t even need to kill anyone, just make us think that that might be a possibility. Look how much psychic energy we’ve been using since the most recent airline incident! What a lather we’re able to work ourselves into!

Security can’t be bought. It can only be woven through relationship.

So take a deep breath and use the tools you have to quiet your fears. My guess is that you already know what to do! And, if you are still a little afraid and you need a virtual hug, click here.

This Year: Time to Get Carried Away?

A teacher once told me, “Hopelessness has more energy than hope.” It sounded counter-intuitive, but she was a recovering alcoholic ballet dancer and knew the power of hitting bottom. When you hit bottom you get something to push off from.

Maybe your new year is full of hope, maybe not. Either way, maybe its time to surrender and get carried away? Love yourself wildly. Be insanely good to yourself and others. Don’t abandon your body. Breathe! Rest! Play! Check out Chantal Kreviazuk singing “This Year”

My new year is carrying me away to InterPlay India with Trish Watts, Alison Lee, Tony Hole, and Trish DeLaney from Australia, CathyAnn Beaty and Diane Christopherson from the US. We’ll join new InterPlay leaders in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Kerala, and Mumbai as we share InterPlay with NGO and corporate leaders, victims of prostitution, domestic violence, and healing communities in our 3rd annual InterPlay Global Exchange for Peace. Please dance on our behalf as we travel and teach January 6-21. Visit the blog and pictures of the 2009 trip.

That’s just the beginning of getting carried away in 2010. A menu of workshops will take us around the US, Australia and Brazil. We have a new August 2-13 program for 18-25 year olds Art & Social Change: InterPlay for Next Gen Leaders. Know someone in this age group you’d like to help sponsor? Let us know.

Phil and I are jazzed to assist groups to move beyond the machine metaphor to understand and use the best of the group’s body wisdom in GroupDevOne: The InterPlay Group Development Toolkit.

CathyAnn Beaty’s workshops offer CEUs if you want to learn How InterPlay Tools Are Useful in Therapy. Masankho Banda leads InterPlay to Teach Peace, and I offer InterPlay as Soulwork.

InterPlay is used for so many things! Perhaps you’ll step or dive in to a class, Untensive Retreat, or Life Practice Program. (Read what Phil has to say about “jumping into the pool” on the new InterPlay blog!)

Antidote for Self Doubt

What if I told you that self-doubt, fear, hesitancy, immobility, and anxiety are normal, that insecurity is appropriate until you feel safe enough to play in the world?

What if I told you that you are the best one to know what your body needs, that your will and willingness are keys to life?

What if I told you that fear gets exacerbated when you lack affirmation, playmates, guides, and simple freedoms to move, breath, connect, notice, speak, voice, be still and just be you?

What if I told you that self-help isn’t enough, that you are communal to the core, that sensing a group, you and I hungrily question whether we belong?

What if I told you that lacking common songs, dances, and stories, a new social glue is needed, that the world wide web begs the connective tissue of body wisdom to be graceful?

What if I told you that “making” is your birthright, that creating beauty, whimsy, and bridges to new places on behalf of greater things can ignite purpose, that there are irreverent, playful, soulful types ready to laugh, cry, tell the truth and reach beyond themselves and that changing the world requires listening to your body and dancing with others?

What if I told you that the InterPlay Life Practice Program, a community experience spread out over a few months, could be the antidote for self-doubt? It’s tools, ideas and practices can help harness freedom to heal, be bold, tender, wilder, more grounded, just, live life, and get seen without ridicule or the obligation to perform. It can leave you feeling more like you, more artful, wise, connected, and clear and give practical tools not taught in today’s schools or religions.

What if I told you that people do the program more than once because it is so rich and useful?

What happens in a life practice program?

The Secrets of InterPlay three-day workshop gives the overview of the InterPlay Practice. Many people take it to learn about the program. Some take it at the end as a review. Both work.

The Secrets of InterPlay teaches the small, basic steps to access your artfulness in everyday movement, voice, stories, stillness, and connection. In the process, an unspoken embodied vocabulary for respect, self-care, and wisdom emerges.

Going on to do the multiple weekend Life Practice series, gives you an adept InterPlay leader and a consistent community of practice in a small group of 5 to fifteen people. You begin to use the InterPlay practices as containers into which you pour life questions, needs and desires. Confidence in your body wisdom increases as you get familiar with InterPlay’s improvisational structures and discover your ability to spontaneously shape experiences that welcome your unique limits, strengths, and needs. The most surprising, revelatory aspect of the program is the focus session. Here, the community takes time to witness and affirm each participant, reveling in the incredible answers, insight, reassurance, and beauty available when we take brief moments to dance, voice, tell or notice our wisdom with other.

As the program evolves, many claim InterPlay as more than an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body. With ideas and practices that tap community resources it becomes more than a personal program. It’s a community building tool kit, international community arts network, and global social movement that gives people a new way to connect to the world and move beyond self-doubt as supported players in a challenging but beautiful world.

The Life Practice Program begins in January in Oakland, Raleigh, and Iowa and in April in Minnesota. Find out more!

Be each other’s healthcare

Play like you mean it! Life depends on it.

On Friday, twenty of us set a rhythm with feet, one step right and one step left. Over the beat, we spoke desires and concerns. That’s when Nika said, “Be each other’s health care.” What a beacon in the midst of US health care wars and the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

As an artist, family member, and teacher, I’m dedicated to health in body and soul. Meanwhile, my husband’s outpatient surgery, Mom’s Alzheimer’s, my athletic dad’s pacemaker, my siblings tussles with stress from success at work, and my communities’ big waves of disease and depression, I know I am one of the lucky ones. I have health care.

“Be each other’s health care.”

You are my body. Frank Forenich states in “No Body is an Island”, “our health is profoundly extrasomatic or beyond the body… Emotions are not just experienced by individuals, but shared, unconsciously and unintentionally, across social groups… and so-called “non-communicable” or “lifestyle” diseases may in fact be “spread” through social networks, influence and mimicked behavior. To say that heart disease, diabetes and obesity are matters of “lifestyle” misses the point because lifestyle itself is highly contagious. An enormous percentage of our health and disease is “catching,” one way or the other.”

InterPlay and Body Wisdom, Inc. arose because Phil and I realized that modern thought, language and practice dismiss the creative, curative power of total physicality. Treating the body as an abstract problem to fix reduces health, joy, ideas, and love in individuals and groups. Nations? Yes. When the poor are ill, I am ill. When a prisoner is tortured, it comes back. When I treat earth as abstract, I become abstract. Connectedness is a fact. Our health depends on each other.

So here’s a little Rx for being each other’s health care:

Look for good: Something good crosses your path? Savor and pass it on like multivitamin.

Affirm. Praise others randomly, especially at home. Humans expect chaos. Random praise disrupts theories of suffering and reminds us of life’s benevolence.

Play like you mean it: Step over speed bumps of self-consciousness. “Out” your playfulness once a day. music, dance, word, food, doodle, silence, sport, games, make faces, wear costumes.. Embodying permission to play encourages the play genes elsewhere.

Forgive like a 7 year old: Dogs do it, so do second graders. Relax complaint. Get over “shoulda’s.” Move on. When someone can’t play nice, let them be.

Bring soup, hold hands: When things get real bad, showing up for 5 minutes or more if needed counts.

Hard to get over speed bumps, reactivate play, affirm body wisdom, or show up to beauty and health? Maybe, you are trying to do it alone. Don’t!

Check yourself into an InterPlay life practice program: multiple sessions in friendly groups with great leaders. Life changing, world changing health connections!

“…civilized human beings are alarmingly ignorant of the fact that they are continuous with their natural surroundings. It is as necessary to have air, water, plants, insects, birds, fish and mammals as it is to have brains, hearts, lungs and stomachs. The former are our external organs in the same way the latter are our internal organs.” Alan Watts -Does it Matter

Plays Well With Others Award

Tree Image of the Internet

Cynthia’s 2009 Plays Well With Others Awards

Ta da da da!
May I personally acknowledge two groups?  InterPlayers who do what they do best—play well with others, and those who play well with us!

Given the spirit of affirmation the “plays well with others” awards could be endless. There’s a dozen event organizers, 15 life practice program leaders, Untensive and class leaders in 50 cities, a flock of international partners in 8 countries, 800 InterPlay graduates from the Life Practice Program, hundred plus people in the leader’s circle, twelve wily new national board members, a lean powerful staff, several performance companies dedicated to outreach, a powerful corps of generous contributors in our Giving People Wings Society, and since October, 42,592 Creative connections made between people using InterPlay. YOU ARE ONE IN A MILLION!

Three unique lights got sparked to remind the world how important it is to play together with ease, compassion, and creativity:

The Million Connections Campaign: “Dream big or stay home,” said some crazy person. Theron Shaw, our new development director helped us identify that “connecting” is a primary act of InterPlay. We connect people, spirits, intentions, ideas, countries, resources. Thank you, THERON, YOU ARE ONE IN A MILLION!

The InterPlay Inspiration Deck: Anita Bondi in Pennsylvania did it again. First it was InterPlay jewelry! Now she’s given us the InterPlay Inspiration Deck!  The best intro to InterPlay yet! ANITA, YOU ARE ONE IN A MILLION!

The Free Wheeeeeee: Nika Quirk, InterPlay board president offers “We’re Alive” InterPlay on the phone each Monday morning. Register and get the call-in number and PIN so you can call in each and any week. NIKA, YOU ARE ONE IN A MILLION!

I also thank the people who lift InterPlay up by doing similar work! All are ONE IN A MILLION!

Applied Improvisation Network: They spread the transforming power of improvisation through chapters and a conference. Great people open to all kinds of improv, they are a community of practitioners and clients who value the use of improvisation skills in organizations to improve relationships, increase authenticity, promote spontaneity, foster trust, build communities of practice. Listen here to Nick Owen’s keynote on storytelling and heart.

Apocryphile Press: John Mabry believes in promoting work that doesn’t quite make it in the “canon.” He published my memoir, Chasing the Dance of Life.

Art Cart: Lauren and Lisa founded Art is Moving to provide art that reduces the distance between strangers and opens the doors of the art world wide open. In July their Art Cart created 1200 works of art on the street. See it documented in this book!

Art and Soul Radio: Catherine Foster and Sheryl Allen interviewed Sharon Bowman and me. Two gals gung ho about creative spirit.

Carolyn North included us on Green Visions radio and shares healing improvisations at InterPlayce.

Conscious Dancer Magazine: Mark and Aspen give a face to movement as a life practice! InterPlay advertises and shares articles. This month they reviewed my newest book, Dance: The Sacred Art.

Creative Everyday: Leah Piken Kolidas blogs her artwork, thoughts on living a creative life, and hosts challenges: The Creative Every Day Challenge and the Art Every Day Month Challenge. InterPlay was featured in August.

Kudo-Malawi/ One World Children’s Fund: Visit Masankho Banda’s village, Tukumbo, and meet his dad. The village needs goats, seed, scholarships and more. Donate online. Lillie Barrows is the champion helping us contribute!

MuseCubes: Gretchen Wegner’s MuseCubes are used in classrooms, with grandkids, boards, and spiritual directees.

Skylight Paths Publishing gave InterPlay a shot in the arm with excellent editorial support and publishing. They share spirituality from a variety of traditions.

Transforming Rage: Ruth King promotes joy with an offer of 10 Ways to Avoid Holiday Rage!

Last, three sources that inspire me on the web:

Coach Broyles Playbook for Alzheimer’s: Trynn, an Alzheimer specialist, pointed me to this simple, wise, playbook for one of the hardest games around.

Exuberant Animal: Frank Forencich founded a natural fitness practice and is a devout researcher of all things “body.” His article  No body is an island: a new formula for health is a winner!

Pronoia: Rob Brezny’s astrological falderall continue to promote the opposite of paranoia.

And, lastly, you. YOU’RE ONE IN A MILLION! YOU COUNT! Thanks for playing! Who knew that a little more play could matter so much?

InterPlay and Miraculous Weight Loss

I am pretty sure that someday I will write an essay on the InterPlay miracle stories about Cathy Ann Beaty, Susan Pudelek, and others.  Here’s one about miraculous InterPlay “weight” loss…

Miracle on Carroll and 4th Streets: Huge Woman Slims Way Down, Then Naturally Expands
Reported by Kathryn Sparks of Washington, DC

During the weekend of October 1-4, 2009 a huge woman was caught playing in 2 beautiful locations of the festive village of Takoma Park, Maryland.  The story goes that she was taking part in a variety of secret activities at a church called Seekers and quite by accident realized later that she had lost about 65 lbs of weight over the course of just a few days.  At the time of this interview, the woman (who shall remain anonymous) said that a good friend of hers had told her it would eventually happen but that she was skeptical.  She also said that she didn’t think it would happen so dramatically.  Upon reflection however, she realized that in actual fact she had taken incremental steps all along to get to this point.  During my discussion with her she cited “easy focus, body wisdom, and looking for the good” as major steps in the weight loss program, though noticing herself instead of critiquing herself was also a key factor in the transformation.

Apparently there were 15 witnesses of the miracle, but since the whole group was playing together, i.e. having fun, she didn’t really stand out in the group as someone who needed much help.  In her own words, she says “I can’t believe how light I feel: tingly, buoyant, alive, and energetic.  It’s such an amazing feeling that I’m not quite sure if I need sleep or if I’m hungry.”  Clearly, her new body-spirit, or coherence (as it is sometimes called), will take some getting used to but she says she is really looking forward to the challenge.  When asked about this cryptic “challenge” she merely laughed and said something about not being as afraid of bears as she once was.

The woman’s history might provide some clues as to how the weight was gained in the first place.  An independent source told me that she comes from a good family of people who have worked hard for change and goodness in the world, but that there was still some lack in her upbringing.  I also discovered that in her 20s she dealt with an illness that claimed most of her energy for that decade of her life.  I learned that the dead weight consisted of trying to do things the “right” way, carrying heavy loads of responsibility, and an obsession with “figuring things out” disguised as endless time and energy spent on discernment and “call.”  In addition to this I also discovered that a major source of her pain and suffering was an excessive dependence on others’ opinions of her, and she readily admitted that she is not proud of this.

The woman, entirely self-actualized at the time of our discussion, was practically beaming and happy to talk about the change.  “My weight was really a habit, even addiction, of contracting and playing small in the world.  It’s ironic to me that playing small actually made me huge but that getting this weight off has allowed me to naturally expand into my full self.  Granted, the habits are pretty ingrained and might be easy to slip back into, but I am hopeful.”  When asked about this hope and what she will do when she falls into the old habits, the woman talked about exformation and laughter as important spiritual practices she intends to engage in frequently to ward off the demons.  She noted several changes made already which signify to her that she’s on the right path: unsubscribing from numerous do-gooder email lists, eating only part of a pint of ice cream instead of the whole thing, confidence in her abilities and increased satisfaction in her work, which now seems fun.

Reported with deep gratitude to:
Tom, Ginny, Kate, Carol, Mary, Mary, Amy, Sarah, Hank, Del, Sharyn, Bernadette, Laura, Tricia, Sheri, Phil, Cynthia – and in memory of Karen Blomberg.

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The Tools of InterPlay have been lifting spirits and lightening loads for twenty years. As you head into your holidays do what one 83-year-old InterPlayer did on Thanksgiving. Instead of over-indulging, she took time to dance and lay still. Her body needed it so much more than sugar, carbs, and alcohol. Check out Dance: The Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as Spiritual Practice from Skylight Paths Publishing. Better yet, get thee to InterPlay in DC, Sydney, Mumbai, Kalamazoo, or at the mothership…InterPlayce in Oakland.

Epilogue to story: There was one last thing that the woman really wanted to say to those who might be reading this article and considering playing, especially on a Sunday.  “My dear Dad, a Presbyterian minister, called me when I got home from the weekend to tell me he had met someone that knew about me. When I observed that it was World Communion Sunday he asked if I had served communion in my capacity as an elder of the church I attend.  I said that I had not even gone to my church today but instead had been dancing, making music, resting and telling stories. Somewhat dismayed at my answer, Dad asked me to explain this to him since he is a Calvinist through and through.  I said to him, Dad, it’s not in your world view, but just trust me…I went to church today.”

InterPlayful Gift Giving

Gifts love to move. When a gift passes between one person and another a bond happens. That’s why I have notorious gift giving tendencies. Connection is too much fun!

When Anita Bondi gifted InterPlay with 100 sets of the InterPlay Inspiration Deck, a new 21 card deck and 42 page booklet based on the principles and practices of InterPlay, I immediately gifted a set to my sister. She has a great sense of humor and works hard at a corporate job and as a fun-loving mom. She emailed,  “So I brought my fun pack of round cards.  I was drawn to the Loosely and Tightly card…..I am thinking take it loosely….yeah…relax…then take it tightly….yeah….strangle it…till it can’t breathe…..back and forth back and forth…loose and tight. And then I turned the card over……Loosely and Lightly.  Aaaaah.  Ok.  No strangling involved whatsoever….interesting concept.  I am having to rethink this whole thing now….soften my grip and relax.”

Phil and I used the deck at the Oakland InterPlay Leaders Reunion. After partners did a dance-talk on a project or concern, each person picked a card. Each card has a principle on one side (e.g. side by side), a story with character, color and symbol to bring it to life on the back (see the Virtual Friday Morning InterPlay on Nov. 20th for the story of side by side). A tiny booklet shares what InterPlay says about the tool and gives 3 “try this” exercises to use in day-to-day life. The leaders reflected on projects or concerns from the point of view of the tool they picked: witnessing, easy focus, affirmation, etc. In the group each person shared their tool and how they might apply it. Leaders loved the cards. We sold 33 sets!

Will they work for non-InterPlayers? “Yes.” Anita says, “We have people using them in doctor’s offices, hair salons, with their families.” See examples on FACEBOOK or at www.anitabondidesigns.com or www.mandaladesignworks.com

For InterPlayers or InterPlay wannabes, how ’bout an InterPlay gift certificate? We’ll send the person of your choice a gift certificate in any amount for a Body Wisdom produced event, Untensive, Life Practice Program, Training, class or workshop, and we’ll include a green feather and a “You’re one in a million” button. Call us with their name, address, and your method of payment.

Of course, we have other cool stuff. People are sharing Dance: The Sacred Art: Discovering the Joy of Movement as Spiritual Practice as a companion for anyone looking for a new way to pray, heal, or soulfully connect or to renew their passion.

You can order the Inspiration Deck, Dance: The Sacred Art, and other books and CDs from the InterPlay website.