Bearing Song and Gifts
Bearing Song and Gifts
Mindful Moves
Mindful Moves is a reflection of Sarah’s holistic approach to life, blending her musical expressions with her physical and emotional explorations. Developed during a transformative period of yoga and introspection, this program invites participants to connect with their bodies through music-driven movement. Each session is a journey through the chakras, guided by Sarah’s own experiences and the rhythmic narratives of songs, offering a unique opportunity to explore personal growth and well-being in a creative and supportive environment.
Mindful Moves: Exploring Embodiment
During Mindful Moves, we practice embodiment. As Brené Brown explains in Atlas of the Heart, "Embodiment is the awareness of our body's sensations, habits and beliefs that inform them. Embodiment requires the ability to feel and allow the body's emotions. This embodiment awareness is necessary to re-align what we do with what we believe."
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Our Approach
Sarah creates thoughtfully curated playlists that guide participants through different embodiment practices. Recently, she has focused on Chakra exploration as a framework. Each Chakra has distinct characteristics:
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Location in the body
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Associated element
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Developmental stage
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Personal right
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Color
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Central issue and goal
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Relationship to self
Each musical selection serves as a container to explore the character of a specific chakra through movement. We ground ourselves by connecting with each chakra's location and associated right:
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Root (Base of spine): The right to be here and to have
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Sacral (Lower abdomen): The right to feel and to want
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Solar Plexus: The right to act
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Heart: The right to love and be loved
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Throat: The right to speak and be heard
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Third Eye (Forehead): The right to see
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Crown: The right to know
While the specific prompts and formats may evolve as Sarah develops her practice, the core intention remains: connecting with our embodied selves through movement and music.
Sarah continues to learn from Open Floor International, they believe that we move and include. We are not trying to break free from ourselves but we are trying to embrace our experience and move with our experiences and go to a new place within ourselves. By moving our bodies in a new way we can move our mind a new way.
Chakra Overview
The seven chakras represent energy centers in the body, each connected to different aspects of our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being:
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Root (1st): Earth, Survival, Physical Identity, Self-Preservation
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Sacral (2nd): Water, Emotions/Sexuality, Emotional Identity, Self-Gratification
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Solar Plexus (3rd): Fire, Power/Will, Ego Identity, Self-Definition
Heart (4th): Air, Love/Relationships, Social Identity
Throat (5th): Sound, Communication, Creative Identity, Self-Expression
Third Eye (6th): Light, Intuition/Imagination, Archetypal Identity, Self-Reflection
Crown (7th): Ether, Awareness, Universal Identity, Self-Knowledge
For deeper exploration, see Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self by Anodea Judith
Mindful Moves Playlists
​Inspiring Resources for Holistic Wellness
Book: Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith, Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to Self.
As I was first designing the dance prompts I wanted more structure and found it in her unique explanation of how the chakras align with our psychology. The subtitle for her book is, “Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self.”
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Look for this at your local library
https://www.overdrive.com/media/507335/eastern-body-western-mind
Tai Ji Quan Movement for Better Balance
New Occupation: Tai Ji Quan Movement for Better Balance, a research based program, brought to Petersburg by the wise and wonderful Community Health Department of PMC hired and trained me to be an instructor. It has given me the opportunity to guide others in movement 2 hours per week. The teaching experience is helping me feel confident in guiding others. In the meantime I love the balance work, the consciousness of movement in group. https://tjqmbb.org/index.php/tjqmbb-instructional-clips/
Yoga with Pam Lau and Johanna Lang
During Yoga with Pam Lau and Johanna Lang which I started attending in roughly 2020 (free online yoga classes Sunday through Friday 7 am or 8 am) I felt my impulses to dance with others began to grow and take shape from ideas which had felt anchor-less. I asked my yoga teachers if they knew where I could learn more about improv dance and psychology. Johanna Lang directed me to several dance groups which explore therapeutic and somatic connection by offering a space in which people dance freely but with the goal of improving psychological well being.
Open Floor International
I have since attended two, 30 hour dance immersion in Bellingham, Washington June, 2023 and Port Townsend November, 2023. August 2024, I went to England to attend a Ground Floor Lab, also 30 hours over the course of 6 days, from Open Floor International I learned about Core Movement Resources, the movement cycle, using an embodied anchor, the dimension of embodiment, the continuum and different exercises which accentuate the explorations.
True North Counseling
I have been able to talk out my hopes and fears and processing with support from professionals at True North Counseling.