Dancing Molecules
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 6:06 PM 
Oh man, I feel like my whole personhood is being reorganized on a molecular level – spiritually, emotionally and physically. Scientifically, this makes a lot of sense, due to my recent experience with Lifespan Integration (LI). LI is a form of therapy said to operate on a cellular level by using principles of neuroscience whereby the body and mind work together maximizing neural plasticity to effect change. Have I lost you? My simple version is that by incorporating body, mind and spirit simultaneously, a new internal map is created in how we experience our lives and the world.
So, … I’ve been feeling slightly spacey the last couple of days, while also experiencing a heightened attunement to my intuitive skills. My right brain has been operating in high gear which has left my language skills lagging a bit behind. Even as I try to write this, I realize all I really want to do is look at pictures and listen to music. I had an irresistible urge to stop and buy daffodils on my way home from the Novena this afternoon. While it may sound as though I've lost my left-brain marbles, Spirit seems to be present at every turn and astounding moments of grace continue showing up.
Last year’s internal battle with exclusion from communion was replaced today by a clearly felt, unhindered invitation to the table. Worshiping in the beautiful chapel, images rolled like a movie through my mind and body. When the time came for a sampling of prayers to be read from the baskets containing hundreds of requests, I was touched by each reading: the nephew in Iraq, a friend with cancer, prayers for healed relationship, and so on. I don’t know about you, but in those moments I always have a little anticipatory wish that my own prayer will be chosen, and today my wish was granted. My heart overflowed as I heard aloud the prayer for my children, and I solidly felt the presence of One greater than I. Another shift in the molecular puzzle clicked into place.
It’s been quite a Lenten season and we’re only midway through. My heart is shifting. My soul is healing. My brain is re-patterning. My molecules are dancing. Who knows where I’m going… but it’s an amazing journey so far.
I’ve missed you and would love to know where you are these days. Stuck? Dancing? Floating? Wandering? Feel any molecular shifts lately?
photos from Old Ballard '10
Journey, Lent, Mindfulness
Reader Comments (21)
Blessings. May peace be with you.
Metanoia ~ change of heart. I have this sort of hightened intuitive sense, and I suppose my left and right brain are in some sort of gridlock ... LOL. This mostly leaves me wanting the company of nature, as opposed to other humans. (all those vibes!)
At this time of year, it makes me want to wander about the city and take pictures of spring blooms ~ camelias, magnolias, cherry blossoms. Each day, every year, I react to spring as tho I've never seen it, or its harbingers.
About the photo ... how interesting that I only just posted (on flickr) a similar-looking picture of a heart drawn onto a tree trunk with some white chalk. I make it a sort of game with myself to find hearts ... in my surroundings. A fitting metaphor for living?
Enjoy your week.
I loved sharing in some of your dancing today! All kinds of blessings and integrations happening over here too. :-)
lifespan integration sounds like some powerful stuff
how blessed you are to experience it
Lucy,
Seems like a post on dancing
with the micro-macrocosm --
"I solidly felt the presence of One greater
than I. Another shift in the molecular puzzle
clicked into place [...]
re-patterning. My molecules are dancing.
Who knows where I’m going?"
Graffiti heart
where the paint has pealed
bleeding white
into a crack in the board
circle of enlightenment
split at the sides
never ending - all
things traversable -
walking, laughing with me,
a Zen ensô
~ kigen
After participating in a dance prayer/witnessing activity during my yogadance teacher training, I said to the larger group that I felt changed on a molecular level. :)
Seeing that same sentiment here makes me smile for you.
I read a bit over at the LI page and am still wondering how it's different.
OH! And I am probably attending this workshop with this amazing man in July. I think you'd be interested:
http://www.kripalu.org/program/view/FOTT-102/frontiers_of_trauma_treatment
Lucy
LI sounds fascinatingly great and seems to be doing its job in terms of your experience. Sounds somewhat similar to NLP timeline therapy.
I LOVE that you're feeling the energy. I can relate. I've done a bunch of stuff that's energy related (reiki, chi gong, breathwork, etc.) but i always felt like i was missing some kind of connection. The past month or so i'm feeling this energy in a seemingly different way. It feels so much more vital and alive. I'm now experiencing it as part of who and what i am rather than an external force i sometimes feel "blessed" to plug into. It sounds very much as you describe it.
KEEP ON!! And DO keep us in the loop. I love your journey and your willingness to share it with us.
Love
Brett
WHAT is happening in me is indescribable. I am wandering, with a penetrating focus! It is beautiful. I sat today and realized...THIS IS LENT. There is so much beauty. I am thankful for Spring shining its way thru...breaking winter's binding elements and reflecting its new growth outwardly as I feel this has occurred for me personally. It is wonderful. My heart is attuned - I am grateful.
Wow--I've never heard of LI, but I think I'll be delving further. I'm feeling some shifts myself--I'm moving out of my mind and more into body and soul. It's quite a challenge. Sending warm thoughts your way...
A biologist colleague used to talk about building neural pathways -- which is ultimately chemical, i.e., molecular. Subtly building these neural pathways by trying new things, delving into new territory has great effect on us. Think of how learning another language or artistic skill changes us. Isn't chemistry grand? ;)
thanks, maureen.
tinkerbell - thanks for all you've shared. i have a similar way in spring. yesterday as i was driving it was like 1000's of daffodils were bursting right before my eyes. (how do they do that?) i resisted the urge to stop and pluck them out of the center median and instead drove directly to the market and purchased a couple of dozen that are currently blooming in my studio :-)
christine (abbey) - dancing, integration and blessings? i can't think of a better way to experience lent (& spring)!! xoxo
kel - the really cool thing is that i got to experience LI as part of a practicum while being trained in it :-) now i can share it with others, too.
kigen - "dancing with the micro-macrocosm" i love it!! thank you for your special words of tribute to this little heart i found on an abandoned building... this heart is abandoned no more :-)
CCR - not sure to what you refer in "how it's different," but i have some thoughts. as i told my dear buddy yesterday, it really incorporates so much of what i already do and have done particularly in terms of experiential work. (i imagine this is what you feel when dancing?) my therapeutic process is always more impacting and long lasting when some form of "experience" is included (i.e. when i step into right brain and quit THINKING so hard.)
the "difference" with LI (it's signature trademark so-to-speak) is the use of lifespan cues used during the process which help build a "new map" in the brain connecting the dots through time and space. for those with trauma, there are often gaps in time and LI helps the person experience moving from an event (quickly) through time until integration occurs.
ok... that's enough in a comment. i'd love to chat more if you're interested. also, the training you mentioned looks fabulous!
I do believe in molecular reorganization and I am glad you are experiencing it.
I felt it the first time I walked to Santiago de Compostela -- for 68 days. I said to someone that I felt my DNA had been altered (hopefully for the better) and I assume it is something like this that you feel.
I must say this Lent is the most extraordinary inner adventure I have had since that first Camino. I have had others, but not as powerful as this one.
OK, coming home tired and reading about neuroscience and neural plasticity? Gonna have to tackle the LI website when I have more energy ;-)
But I LOVE your descriptions of your experiences these past few days and the beauty of the prayer experience.
Here's to you and your dancing molecules and your healing!
brett - i love your description here:
"I'm now experiencing it as part of who and what i am rather than an external force"
so cool! that way you get to carry it with you all the time :-)
jennifer - reading your comment makes me feel all warm inside. my hope is it does the same for you! xo
karen - i know for me, it was a gigantic shift when i started learning to move out of my head and more into my body. it had been sending me signals for years, but i didn't know how to translate. i love having tools to help me do that!!
barbara - i never thought i'd hear myself say this (and have an inkling that i knew what i was talking about), but yea, "chemistry is grand!!"
claire - thanks for sharing your own molecular shift. this lenten season has indeed been something special. so glad to share it with you!!
tess - ah come on... no, neural plasticity after a full day of work? what's up with that?!?!??! ;-) xoxo
Hi Lucy,
Just popping to offer many blessings upon the Lenten journey. It's interesting how you right about having trouble with your left brain, I didn't notice it at all. There is a beautiful flow of energy and grace that imbues this particular post. Very exciting and I wish you all good things for this wondrous season.
Love....
Obviously, I'm wandering. I've done some writing, reading, painting, watched a movie, had a pedicure, prayed, slept, exercised....wandering. I'm thrilled to read this post, particularly after our wonderful conversation. Life is so so full even when it "seems" to be in the wandering stages:) Perhaps it's the waiting stage rather than the wandering one. We are blessed!
xoxoxo
wow great post. I tend to only read the blogs that I find interesting .
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it.
I'm in an uncannily similar space as you. I've been doing Byron Katie's "The Work," which is profoundly altering my thinking.
Simultaneously, I'm reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and his statement that to be more in the Now you have to go into body awareness has been a revelation for me. He says the only access point to Being that we have is the body, and I've been loving realizing this.
Thanks for asking!