Anita's work offers an opportunity for deep somatic listening, inquiry and healing.
Supporting exploration of both the individual and collective human experience, sense of connection and belonging.
15/11/2021
Winter unwinding
When we've been through so much,
when sleep is not enough,
when we need to lean in and be held,
by the earth
with others,
in the way a grove of trees roots down and leans in to support one another
in relationship
When we carve out time for compassionate reflection, gently acknowledging our own existence
and need for nourishment and care
then maybe we can rest
opening space to meet our body's intelligence
our own inner guidance
and allow what's needed for transformation and regeneration.....
Anita Lewis
These sessions offer intentional space for deep rest, unwinding and renewal: new cycle of somatic movement practice on zoom
I hope you are finding ways to take good care of yourselves, taking moments to pause and rest and center all that you love and value most in life. As we know, life is precious and fleeting and, as the poet Blake advised, we should kiss the joy as it flies (or at least find some good resources and support as we find our way through this).
We've all had to make so many adjustments over the last year and if you've felt overwhelmed....that's because it has been overwhelming. Difficult experience and overwhelm need to be given space for purposeful tending and healing. Shock, stress and grief need to be digested and assimilated through the body. They don’t just ‘heal’ with time. They need metabolizing. If we had a meal last March that hadn’t yet digested we’d be concerned and look for ways to help that process take its natural course.
So I'm here to let you know of some resources I hope will support your life and your resilience.
These weekly and monthly practices aim to slowly and gently resource us, so that we can begin to integrate and metabolize experiences that were too much for us to process when they were happening. This is gentle practice and is not about 'releasing' but about giving space for our bodies to breathe again and heal. Metabolizing can take the form of nourishing rhythmic movement, of conscious rest and slowing down......
'Re-membering Embodiment'
15 spaces. Starts Saturday 20th Feb 2021 - a few spaces still availabe
Movement that helps metabolise survival responses and supports our ability to thrive. Noticing what feels pleasurable, nourishing, engaging. We will play with non-linear, fluid micro movements, breath and sound. Space for you to resource through your body's movement expression.
Session 1) Landing and locating (element: Earth)
Rooting into our relationship to ground (earth) and gravity, we will explore and notice how this supports your experience of connection. What supports you in feeling held.
Session 2) Resonance (element: water)
Humming tones and sounds will be spaciously explored together with pausing, resting, reflecting and non linear micro-movements. The play with sound will be a personal, private exploration of how sound moves and resonates in your body. We are bathing the tissues and fluids / fascia and bones to support growing health.
Session 3. Integration (elements: air and fire)
This third session will offer space for integration of our process with micro-movements, sound and mark making on paper where inspired.
This is a 3 part workshop over 3 months. You need to be able to attend all 3 sessions on zoom to apply as this is an in person event. Requirement: you need to have worked with me before or have some experience in movement practice.
Cost: £90 for all sessions ( plus some concession spaces).
Dates: Saturday 20th February, 20th March, 17th April
Times: 10 -12.30
There will be no recordings as this is an in-person on zoom event.
10/02/2021
New workshop on zoom:
'Re-membering Embodiment'
15 spaces. Starts 20th Feb 2021
We will explore how movement enquiry helps metabolise survival responses and supports our ability to thrive. Noticing what feels pleasurable, nourishing, engaging, we will play with non-linear, fluid micro movements, breath and sound. Space for you to resource through your body's movement expression.
Session 1) Landing and locating (element: Earth)
Rooting into our relationship to ground (earth) and gravity, we will explore and notice how this supports your experience of connection. What supports you in feeling held.
Session 2) Resonance (element: water)
Humming tones and sounds will be spaciously explored together with pausing, resting, reflecting and non linear micro-movements. The play with sound will be a personal, private exploration of how sound moves and resonates in your body. We are bathing the tissues and fluids / fascia and bones to support growing health.
Session 3. Integration (elements: air and fire)
This third session will offer space for integration of our process with micro-movements, sound and mark making on paper where inspired.
This is a 3 part workshop over 3 months. You need to be able to attend all 3 sessions to apply as this is an in person event. Requirement: you need to have worked with me before or have some experience in movement practice.
Cost: £90 for all sessions ( plus 2 concession spaces).
Dates: Saturday 20th February, 20th March, 17th April
Times: 10 -12.30
There will be no recordings as this is an in person on zoom event.
Photo: Helen Edwards 2019
13/01/2021
Hello dear people,
the friendliest of New Years wishes to you.
I began this new year glad to wake up to the emerging light of a bright blue sky. Winter sunlight throwing shards of reflecting light over a frosted land. Frozen patterns of infinite, ephemeral beauty. The ordinary that is extraordinary. A blackbirds song, the company of a robin, the perfume of a flowering hyacinth, a walk amongst trees.
These encounters with nature are of immeasurable value and I wish more of this for all of us. Moments of slowing down, experiencing presence and the rich wealth of our interconnectedness.
Especially now as we collectively experience challenges we might never have foreseen or imagined. Life is uncertain. It is also full of moments of possibility and wonder.
If you'd like support accessing resources and skills to move through these times please get in touch.
From Tuesday I'll be offering more online body centred resources for enhancing our mental, physical and emotional health - both groups and individual, one on one sessions.
If you are frontline NHS staff (or know someone who is) I have a number of one on one support sessions available (for free).
Group sessions on zoom continue, starting this Tuesday at 8pm. Details below. Please e mail me to book a space.
Tuesday 8 -9.30pm - support for sleep
12th, 19th 26th January and 2nd February (£60 for 4 sessions). Some concession spaces for those with reduced income
Sunday 10-11.30am - Fluid Spine, gentle movement for enhancing spinal health and nervous system renewal.
17th, 24th, 31st and 7th February (£60 for 4 sessions). Some concession spaces
You can mix between the Tuesday and Sunday sessions.
Take care of yourselves,
23/11/2020
I'll be continuing the community zoom sessions, offering awareness tools and movement practices that support breathing and health.
Small group sessions offering weekly connection with a warm and friendly space.
This will be the last group of 4 sessions this year. As so many of you have expressed how much these sessions have supported you I'll keep them going into 2021.
If you can't make all the sessions of one series you can mix with another series of sessions or just drop into one or two.
e- mail me if you'd like to book a space.
Thanks,
anita
Dates:
Tuesdays - practices for supporting restful sleep and immunity.
24th November, 1st, 8th, 15th December - 8-9.30pm
-£60 for 4/ £20 drop in
Thursdays - yoga awareness practices to support nervous system health.
26th November, 3rd, 10th, 17th December 5.30-6.30pm
-£40 for 4 or £15 drop in
Sundays- fluid spine - movements that enhance resilience. fluid body and spinal health
29th November 6th, 13th and 20th December - 10am -11.30am -£60 for 4 sessions /£20 drop in
19/10/2020
Embodied engagement with ourselves, our communities and the world around us.
Horses rely on company to thrive. They are highly sensitive and attuned to their environment and each other. They are great co-regulators and will collectively modulate between alert states and rest through moving, twitching, neighing, yawning etc. Breath, movement, respectful boundaries and relational play interweave to create coherency through the herd.
I’ve learnt a lot about myself and my own nervous system being with natural herds of horses. Human bodies also respond collectively and like any other animal we send and receive messages through our bodies with gestures; the twitch of the mouth, a tightening of the jaw, a movement of a hand, a yawn, a long breath out...... bringing awareness to this through movement explorations can help us understand more about ourselves and how we grow capacity for responsiveness, for the flow of life force, for being with ourselves and in relationship with respect, dignity,tenderness, awareness, and care. Growing our ability to nourish our cells and input new movement messages and expressions that feed the body and brain. This grows health and our ability to slowly and gently digest and assimilate old overwhelming experiences.
In the zoom sessions I’ve been offering we’ve been noticing a lot of benefits practising in our home space and yet still sensing connection and community within the group.
I’m offering more sessions this month and next and there’s still time to join.
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being in your body invites us to look at the dynamic process of being present with ourselves, in our body.
how this process of being present is cultivated and nurtured inside ourselves, within our relationships, community and within the cycles and rhythms of Earth, our natural home.
how we mend and reclaim our natural belonging in our body, in the cycle of life. I believe deep healing happens as part of a collective, community process that includes the greater community of Earth. We need the support of each other to survive and thrive. Our nervous systems are made through and for collaboration. Our hearts and souls are made for connection and our true deep happiness relies on this. If we look at what happens when we are isolated we can learn much about connection.
there is a movement of collective consciousness that recognises the interconnection of all beings seen and unseen. Our own health and future survival depends on us all understanding and recognising this and contributing our own unique selves, gifts, skills and voices into the potency of collective wisdom. After all, our own knowledge, wisdom and experience is grown from the contributions of many.
over the years I've worked with many people who’ve found it very difficult to be in their body. For all of us, being embodied isn't always easy and we are more or less in our bodies at different times. Anxiety, activation, dissociation and shut down are adaptive responses to difficult experience and are protective. But long term, affect and restrict the fullness of our lives. We can do something about this. We have access to skills and resources that help us remember and relearn ways back to our natural state of being. Sometimes it’s necessary to have others alongside us to support us in this.
When I think of trees, I’m continually fascinated by the interconnection of roots that form a forest floor. How those roots sustain and support a whole eco system. How messages are sent and received through those roots. Our nervous systems are so much like those root systems. We are constantly receiving information through neuroception about ourselves, our environment and others. Through understanding our nervous systems we can explore what makes us feel safe, connected, grounded and more able to be with the experience of our body. More able to attune with others and engage with life and have resources when things are tough.
I am also curious about patterning. How our experiences create physiological patterns and how patterns can be changed through breath, movement, song, sound, kindness, friendship, being with the land, in nature, shifting our responses and felt-sense of self. Being in your body is a process that can be tended and nurtured. There are many accessible skills and resources that support this returning home to ourselves. Our body as home. We are a reflection of mother nature, our home on earth. We have a wild life force and inherent capacity for love, health and joy. We are multifaceted creatures with wild minds. There is much we can do to heal our disconnect and separation, to gently, tenderly be with our broken and damaged places. To be real and human, together.
I hope these practices offer space for sharing and learning from each other, for inspiration, insight, wisdom and understanding for our greater earth community.
