Navanita’s page
Remember the Body - An Embodied Mystery
"Oh yes, that thing that transports my head around".. the body.. A forgotten friend down there A friend that actually speaks and listens..Most peoeple don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. TO remember its not just an object of the mind To listen to it we connect with being present in the now. The body has an intrinsic wisdom and guidance which is connected to having a direct experience of ourself. The mind .body and soul are one and together they make a wholenes
When we actually listen to the body it tells us what it needs rather than we dictate to it what we "think" it needs To listen to it is an art of love The body loves our attention and the cells are happy when the focus is on the body To welcome it is supporting its sensitivity and aliveness. Learning new like a child-to have a relationship with the body. with respect ,curiosity and TRUST .To listen to the body is to return to living in the body:It's as if we have been looking at our house or home from the outside and feeling separate from it as we have not been actually living in it . We have abandoned it.Then we look for that love and connection outside of us that we have right here in the body . . We've been aware of our body through labels or outer imposed images created by the opinions of others .Responsibility for ones own body has often been given away to others such as the medical profession who have been telling us what is needed rather than us listening to our inner voice for eg I once asked someone what is his body saying and he replied "I am going to the doctor today . He will tell me ". Or the fitness industry has also categorized a stereotype body image and sees the body like a machine to push or remodel.
To return to being in the body or connecting with the inner body needs a new focus .Going in and seeing and hearing that we have an inner world is such a beautiful and easy way to feel safe inside where it may in the beginning feel unfamiliar.To sense, see ,feel hea rand ,come in contact with the inner we find direct doors through the body
Understanding that "Anti-Body-Culture" has seperated us from something that is always here, now, with us. Guilt, shame, mistrust have been implanted consciously or unconsciously and create beliefes that it is not ok., to enjoy our own body. To support listen ing then to we need to remember and shift the focus to "pleasure" and "comfort" as qualities or intrinsic resources within the body Imagine.. instead of complaining and judging our bodies we thank them, enjoy them, give them a "pep" talk or speak to them lovingly.. "good job".. or even possibly give ourselves a friendly hug. AHAH THIS feels good and the body hears it..This affects the cells in the whole body, affects the immune system. The body hears on a cellular level messages that we give it consciosly or unconsciously t
What we think or believe about it, affects the body, It hears it. For example a judgement like "I am too big, small", "nobody loves me", "I have to work hard to get it", "life is not easy" are unhealthy messages that the cells hear. IT is leaking and disempowering the potential healing power from within. and it can create a seperation from lifeforce vitality. Often complaining or pushing are more familiar and habitual. We even adopt beliefs imposed about the body from the outside that become familiar and even seem to be ours and are yet destructive Habits can become so well known, and familiar they seem more safe. to hold onto.rather than responding to the new without control. To become acquanted with relating to the body in a new way is to learn a forgotten language. It is a loveaffair with yourself.
IT is so simple and powerful Begin now becoming aware that in this moment, you live in this body and you are already activating a nurturing welcome. Simply noticing how the body is positioned here now: "Is it comfortable" ?and sensing how you can support it being comfortable. What does it need to be comfortable in this moment ?? Maybe it needs to take a conscious breath or simply change bodily positions You are already listening to it. This can be a regular focus and you have a direct connection with your bodily self.
To become conscious of the body is to remember,rather than learn,natural intrinsic resources, such as inner strength, presence, wisdom and live-vibrancy. We all have them within the body. To listen to the body is to cosciously recognize them . We can access them through movement IT makes sense THE BODY IS MADE TO MOVE Otherwise we would have inbuilt cushions attached to our bums so we could sit all day or wheels on our feet so we could move faster .Through movement we are listening to the body Directly translated kinaesthetic means awareness of the body through movement through beauty of movement .We have nerve endings from the body to the brain called proprioceptors and these nerves supply messages to the brain so that we have a direct sense of ourselfves . Proprioceptor translated form latin means self awareness The body is always here and now so we have a direct possibility to listen to the body TO experience ourselves in this moment.
There are always squeaks and squawks letting us know "hey I need movement"when we listen to the signals and take care of them the need that was calling us relaxes.When this happens it is easy to conncet with the silence within TO nourish the body then is a door to meditation.Tensions from the bodymind are released through activity and flowing life force happens in the body which is .health and .Wellbeing. We learn to participate and be connected with our bodily self .Learning through the body how to love and care for ourself is a n experimental journey.
To sense ourself through movement creates a wholeness and connection because what were once many separate parts are now a connected whole again.Many separate MEMBERS are RE-MEMBERED as one .
Through impulsive or natural movement we activate the autonomous nervous system This is to move freely without control ,listening to and allowing the body its spontaneous flow. Activating the reptilian brain which has an ancient body wisdom that is returning the body to a state of wholeness or health The nervous system unwinds itself from tensions that have been held and the life force can flow easily again
Rather than controlling movements we allow natural movements.. We free the body and listen by allowing how it needs to move. . New possibilities and ways of moving are opening up, aliveness recharges and vitalizes the system.
Playfulness is a very powerful resource. I have seen many times its vibrant power. and aliveness. activate new life .A beautiful example in one group, we had a businessman, who planned his life rather than lived the unknown beauty of life He had come because his wife had sent him. Very slowly relaxation happened and his playfulness exploded one day during a healing-dance. He had seen his gallbladder, which had been removed appearing and his gallbladder and liver danced together. Joy bubbled over and he explained that he experienced a sense of wholeness when he saw them. From then on he became very playful and innocent. There was a sense of him being connected to himself and at the same time he reached out with his bliss and shared it. Like a child full of wonder and gratitude for life.He even called his boss and told him that he was not coming to work because he was learning to listen not only to the organs in the body ,also to the cells .The boss supported him and told him he could teach him when he came back to work.
Allowing impulsive and instinctual movements frees vitality and also supports EASE Rather than being DISEASED in this fast paced active society we practice and remember being at EASE Follow the body Listen to its simple GUI-DANCE:Staying connected and sensing ourselves whole. We return the focus to ourselves here and now in a body that normaly has to think and sit a lot. Noises are all around us and inside of us.The art of listening to the body is to create a quiet silent space that we can hear the inner voice , Maybe we need to cosciously let og of tensions in the body for eg. through shaking loose or consciously let og of tensions in the mind for eg,through jibberish or let go of tensions in the heart for eg.through laughter.Finding out what the body needs through experimenting so that we connect with its inner voice .
The body is focused on life or on healing. The longing to be whole is what the regenerating force is from within. The body speaks and creates symptoms that are calling for attention to come "back home" to the inner, to be connected. What are often missunderstood or missinterpreted as illness are actually symptoms or signposts, giving messages to reconnect to ourself .. For example a headache when taken care of can reveal the need for a rest, a hug or a cup of tea served to you, rather than fighting it with a pill.Through the nourishment what it is calling for we have the space to reconnect with the inner essence.. Illnesses are not something to get rid of, fix or evaluate they are rather the inner needs, being communicated to help us to "return home". All sickness is homesickness. Another way to listen to "ILL" is to understand it is "I Lack Love".
We can have fun using the clues and signals of the body as signposts to the inner healing. We are simply "Spiritual Healing Detectives" focused on the light. and listening to the clues.
The body is speaking and we need to learn its unique language Listen ing to what it needs is a mystery-tour. It may speak in pictures, colours, sensations, feeling, s ounds, smells, memories, dreams, impulsive movements...It will reveal itself. All we need is a clear focus and trust. To be available, passively receptive and listening.
For example: Once I asked the body, what was needed, what it revealed, was a picture of water sideways. Well... you can imagine, the mind could really analize this if it wanted. .. I didn't... I waited. And than the message came to go for a walk. Ok., so I did. I arrived on the lake, near by my house. It was a sunny autum day and the lake was quiet. Than the body signaled to lay down on the pier, I was standing on. Of course I could than see water sideways. That was already touching. What happened next was magic. The sunlight came dancing along the water and seemed to caress me. I was filled with gratitude and a sense of being connected to the whole. This came through the guidance of my body, It is always surprising how the body speaks and directs you. The art is to listen and trust to its grace and wisdom. Innocent as a child and wise as an ancient mystic.
There are many possibilities of recognizing and connecting with it Seeing the inner can begin with imagining the anatomy or looking at anatomy pictures so we become familiar with the world within .Then it helps us. We have in our pelvis or middle little bones called auricular bones They are ear shaped bones connected to the sacrum AHA a definite clue that we are listening from the belly IN fact scientists have now prooved that we have a nervous system independent from the brain in the head This 2nd brain is alive in the belly and relaying messages to us We just need to listen To move and play with a focus on this belly or hara area activates awareness and yummy resources are found Groundedness, relief, presence, lightness, space,a sense of well-being, OK ness and coming back to the moment are some of the many qualities and resources participants have found All attributes of being in the body.It's easy to imagine these cute litlle bones are listening to the music as the music invites the rhythm to come form the hips and illiac crest base TO watch the smiles come onto the faces soon spreads to seeing the whole body smiling Easy to plug into base and move from our instinctual center or from our 'guts' We also have an independent nervous sytem in the hands Easy to experince when we start to listen and become aware of them through movement and through touch Try it Touch the surface close to you ,close the eyes and listen Suddenly you are connected to it rather that simply labelling it You are living with it .Then we have these amazing feet thet listen Some animals such as the elephants communicate through stamping and listening through the legs and feet They can speak to each other from miles away We have this too Only thing is we wear shoes and often walk on concrete which means we have lost contact with it . Easy to regain .So take off the shoes and sense through the feet Listen to the different materials in the area around us by touching them with the feet and moving.Listen to the music with the feet MOVe and through the movement the listening power is activated Breath and you can hear the life force with your breath and you can hear the dancing rhythm of it life dancing through us.
How I support beloveds return to the incredible friend is to share my trust and love of this journey To create a safe space supporting the inner journey of discovering love is inside There is no pressure to love the body as this creates an effort or idea that you do it Loving the body is an unfolding journey It happens through the connection with it as it is natural Love is the stuff it is made of IT is an amazing instument and love is the life force that is dancing through it IN fact the body is the teacher or guide connecting us with it .We only need to practice and trust listening to it.
AS one participant said I when I saw her dance into now and asked her how she had understood what I was teaching"Its not what you say although the words help a lot .Its what you are communicating between the words I don't get it with the head I get it with the body " Navanita teaches Natural Dance Meditation and Remembering the Forgotten Language of the Body,,Body and Inner body awareness,Experiential Movement,connecting with the Nobody within the Body,, Sahaj Stretching,and Playfulness.All focused on experimenting and loving life as a dance Of trusting the GuiDANCE that is dancing through this instrument or temple called a body .
Healing through Dance
Interview with Navanita Harris
There is a playful intelligence in the way she looks back at you. Her face is fresh, alert and mischievous. Navanita Harris, is a radiant Australian who has been dancing since childhood. Her courses - replicated throughout the world - are widely known as lively, transformative events. And fun. Not long ago she almost lost both her legs, and the profound healing that emerged from her near-death experience changed her life. In this talk, she shares her story.
Would you say your work is about a balance between relaxation and movement?
The essence of my work is to help people to connect with the space inside the body - the "temple of the beloved" we call it - and to remember that connection. And then let the dance dance through it. First this temple has to be welcomed - it has to be received, acknowledged and loved. This is where relaxation comes in.
Tell us why dance is so important for the body?
So much is going on in your body -- blood coursing through you, the lungs breathing you, thoughts flying across the screen of your mind. Just to see how the body responds to our feelings and thoughts is incredible in itself! The spine is the core of the body, so in my work, I start with the spine - sensing how it moves and feels; what the inner body looks like. Becoming conscious of this inner body is a profound healing on its own. Just by bringing awareness to the inside, the magic happens. I don't do it, I'm just a facilitator, that's the beauty of it. I support consciousness and the experience of connecting with the body, and then watch how each individual is somehow danced through.
You say you "bring awareness to the inside". How does this work?
Letting go is a major part of it. We usually live outside our body without experiencing it from the inside - a bit like seeing your house from the outside only, even though you live inside it. It takes time to learn to look at the body from the inside, and to become familiar with it. If you enter the body-mind system on the cellular level and let go and just be, accepting what is going on without judging it, the whole system understands that this is significant, this is the dance of life. It's a gift people can experience directly: just by becoming conscious of, for example, your hand, watching as it floats through the air, letting it do whatever it needs to do - this already connects you to the watcher.
What do you mean by the watcher? - not an audience, surely!
What in meditation we also call the witnessing self - the part of you that's observing whatever's going on but not identified with it, not caught up in it. Watching is important, but before we are able to watch, we must first love and accept the body. Loving the body creates the relaxation which opens the door.
The love we've been looking for is there inside us anyway, it's just a matter of recognizing it. This recognition itself brings the energy back to the body. Once you open the body-instrument to love, you connect with whatever supports you in living love and you let go of whatever stops love's flowing. You have to keep asking yourself how to allow the love through, so you can receive it? Then you receive the love and as it flows through, you give - you receive, you give.
We are conditioned only to give out, rather than moving in this circular way where there is no separation between giving and receiving. Learning how to love is an art which involves knowing how to receive as much as how to give. And it's important to know it's safe to receive, that when you receive, it feels good, and that it's ok to feel good. If we feel happy in the body then we are ready to listen to it.
What I've understood over the years is that as we learn to listen to the language of the body, we discover it has its own special guidance - in fact listening to and connecting with the body is the special guidance. By listening to what it's saying, we find it has a way of providing whatever we need to keep connecting us back home.
But it's not that you just sit and close your eyes and say "O.K., body, do your thing!" It may mean that sometimes your body needs a good shake or a good cry or a good cathartic release, so as to create space for you to connect with that guidance. When we ask the body to tell us what's needed, it could mean just moving a shoulder or arm a little, and it may be no more than that that connects you homeb& this is how the body speaks to us. And dancing is about allowing the body to reveal what's needed for this healing.
What do you mean by healing here? Do we need to be sick first?
By healing I mean becoming whole. This is not about healing sicknesses so much as about healing the wounds of our contractions - emotional stuff. Although being ill or damaged comes into it, of course.
You talk about the body being a temple. How did you arrive at that idea?
My own discovery about how the body is a temple began with a longing to find that which is not the body. It must sound strange because everybody assumes they are the body - it's a worldwide conditioning.
For example, I was a trained sprinter, being pushed to international standards. Then at 18, I moved into bio-energetics and then I became a fitness instructor. I was always looking through the body, but still looking for something that was beyond the body.
Being so body-focused I became aware of how I couldn't get the distance; I couldn't see myself as anything more than the body. I knew there was a door, but hadn't found a way to open it. That became a quest for me, to know what this "nobody", this being is.
Where did you learn dancing?
I was always a natural dancer, not a trained one. As a kid, I used to dance on my own in the bush in Australia. I experimented with classical technique but found it was not for me. For a long time I was searching for what in dance I was looking for until someone directed me to this Indian spiritual master, Osho, who uses dance a lot in his meditations. And that's how it all started. I was still looking for this way when I was initiated into Osho's work. And now here I am teaching it!
I also have a diploma in dance and in dance teaching, but I've actually learned by living dance. Life is always teaching me about dance.
I've been like a butterfly, taking a little nectar from this flower and a little nectar from that - aerobics, bio-energetics, martial arts, Feldenkrais, aikido, yoga, fitness training, basically taking from many disciplines and synthesizing it into what I call a dance of the being.
You had a bad bus accident in 1994 - in which you broke your back and almost lost the use of both legs. In terms of discovering you are not your body, how did that affect you?
I was already hungry in that quest, but the accident was the actual click.
And you had a mystical revelation at the accident that changed your life?
I was in India, and the bus crashed and broke my spine - I was unconscious and I saw myself at the scene of the accident from a place outside, up above the bus. You've heard stories of out-of-the-body experiences - it was like that.
Suddenly, I knew that my being and my body are separate - I'd received the gift of non-attachment. I saw that I was not my body.
But there was also compassion. When I looked down at my body I felt a love for that body - that was another gift.
My spiritual master once said that when somebody leaves the body and comes back, they experience freedom from the body. And, it's true, this freedom is always with me now. It's clear that consciousness lives in the body but I am not the body. But it took me months to be able to put this understanding into words.
The healing journey that followed my accident shifted my focus towards gratitude for life. Since then there has been a continual teaching from existence reminding me to reconnect with this space inside that is not my body. This is not about any technique; it's understanding that when I stay connected to the source, what is needed for healing comes along of its own accord.
What did the healing process involve directly after the accident?
There were seven major operations - and each one was a powerful experience. There was an incredible amount of pain. Even so I remember being grateful for the life force that I recognized. By learning to watch pain and not fight it, the pain actually turned out to be a gift which strengthened the watcher in me and gave me the distance from all my identifications with the body.
For the year after the accident, I had to be 100% present, or I would have either ended up in a wheel chair or had a limp and probably never have danced again. My focus was on healing, and the healing was existential - being whole and attuned to existence was what healed me. The word grace comes in here too. For the first time I loved the embodiment of the meditator in me who was clear that, for example, she wasn't going to give energy to mind games and self- pitying thoughts. All the energy I had was needed to heal. I didn't really know what that meant, but I knew I was going into the unknown with trust. The courage to watch the physical pain made it possible for me to allow feelings that before I'd labeled "painful". This was not about trying to fight or fix the pain, but about letting it be. By giving painful feelings space, the energy involved in resisting them was freed up. I'd found the key, and what had been heavy became light.
In my present life, this allowing also means accepting my ego, my personality, all the roles I play in life - the image I have created to protect myself. For example: owning it when I've made a mistake. It's important for me to be real, and that may mean that sometimes difficult things in myself are mirrored back at me. When that happens, I look. I may need support to look, but then I ask for help. The ego plays its games, the personality might say: "Oh, I get off on you noticing me; please look at me!" Then it's important just to see it going on inside me. This is what I call "watching".
What it means to live love is still a learning process - now and again I feel really vulnerable with it. But the focus is always on allowing it: seeing, for example, that my intuition is really beautiful, yet recognizing it's not mine but a gift given by existence to be shared with other people. This is humbling.
After your accident, were you able to laugh at things at all - any of it?
Oh yes. My sense of humour was very important. Without a quality of playfulness I wouldn't have survived.
While I was in hospital, I could often laugh in unexpected situations - like whenever I saw how my suffering was only a movie.
Laughter comes from an inner freedom. When I connect with that kind of spaciousness, it's always joy for me. And it releases a kind of energy of its own.
You've used it several times. What do you mean by energy?
Joy is energy! - energy is also joy. The life force flowing freely! You don't even have to learn it. Like with children, it's a returning to innocence: remembering it, forgetting it and remembering it again. When you tap that energy, it's a very powerful way to connect with the essence - and suddenly there is joy. Joy is like a fuelling system, on its own it radiates out to all the cells in your body and fills you with healing force.
What about the healing power of playfulness itself?
I know how valuable it is not to take yourself seriously; to be able to watch the personality and know that that's not you. And being able to laugh at the assumptions that come from your mind. When you put the focus on lightness, something takes you and expands on its own.
It's important to point out that playfulness doesn't mean being shallow or silly - there's a sincerity to it. When I need to go into a strong situation, I go there. And I am not going to laugh my way out of something to cover it up.
Tell us about the relationship between dancing and breathing?
The breath supports the inner spaciousness. There are millions of cells in the lungs, but most people only use one-third of them. That doesn't leave much space for existence, or the Life Force, to come in.
They go together - the dance helps the breathing, and the breathing helps the dance. Also I love the breath as a teaching. What it tells us is that everything expands and everything contracts -- neither is right nor wrong.
It is beautiful to remember that life's dance is like the breath. We move between being wide open and being contracted - which is not necessarily negative. It's just a gathering back home of the body's resources, and connecting with the stillness. Like the ocean - the wave comes up and the wave goes down, yet the wave is still part of the ocean.
Do you use singing in your courses?
Sound and movement together, yes - but at the right moment. Then sound expands the dance. We don't use it in the beginning, though, because I feel people have powerful conditionings around sound and singing. They've been told that their voice is not okay, or that they mustn't make so much noise, and I don't want people to go into their fear in the beginning.
So first I create a safe space, which doesn't use sound, and then slowly, slowly I bring sound in. And then we begin by simply listening. You can start listening to the sound you make, witnessing the sound, rather than forcing the sound out of yourself. When you bring a quality of witnessing to the sound, it's ecstatic - it's truly a wonder where it can take you. And then I make the connection between sound and movement. We bring musical instruments into it so we can experiment with how sound touches the body from the inside. This is were the dance and movement follow on from listening with the whole body and allowing the body to respond.
Your accident was more than nine years ago. Looking back, what were its most important lessons?
The gift of witnessing - I really understand now how powerful it is to "watch", to allow whatever is going on and not try to change it. Trusting and responding to the moment.
I'd been lucky because when I was about twenty I suddenly understood that the body speaks: In the relaxation phase of stretch yoga, I asked the body a question, and the answer came! Then more questions came and there was an understanding that the answers were all inside.
I continued with this meditation for many years, so when the accident happened, the body communicated clearly, precisely, and as if present on that night. The trust that I have in this meditation of listening to the wisdom of the body is something I share. I don't teach it as a technique, I teach it as something I know in my bones and live out.
I was really touched by the last meditation my teacher Osho created. It was called Reminding Yourself of the Forgotten Language of Talking to Your Mind and Body. When I was trained to lead this I got the feeling that he was trying to find out how best to teach us. He was so available to suggestions, he even experimented on some people quite directly, to see whether it worked this way or that way - the very last stages of this meditation were still being polished when he died.
So for me my bus accident was like an intense training in trusting, listening and talking to my body. And I understood that directly experiencing the body meant moving it also. So even when the rest of my body couldn't move, my toes danced continuously. And that was a huge resource point for me. I could acknowledge that something was dancing, even if it was only my toes. It meant: I'm alive.
And then I began talking to the body by physically tensing and relaxing parts of myself to help the body-mind system to relax.
Then came dance, learning slowly - like with latihan *- a very gentle way of unwinding tensions. And experimenting slowly, slowly, as I started to move again, asking my body what it needed to connect with that healing power inside.
For me it's been a gentle process - discovering that through opening this door to whatever is happening, a wonderful surprise is waiting. Normally, we think that if we connect with what we're feeling, it's going to hurt like hell. So we stop ourselves because of some past memory that feeling means hurting. So better to protect and stay safe and not open this door. But when we get little tastes that are anchored in a good feeling, things start to feel great. Then healing happens and this gives us the courage to give space to pain also.
When you allow yourself to feel the pain, things heal on their own. Basically we bring what's been hidden away in the dark into the light, but before you bring anything into the light, you need to have the connection to your source.
So in my courses in the beginning a lot of energy goes into making sure the participants feel secure in the room, so they can access that source. And I can be quite protective, like a mother. If somebody hurts somebody else unconsciously, I'm right there to keep the space safe.
You take your dance work all over the world. Do you find peoples' cultural conditionings to be very different?
Yes, from teaching in many different countries I've had to find different ways of talking about this to suit different kinds of backgrounds. For example, in Italy with the Catholic conditioning the unconscious collective is against the body. So I had to design dances that go step by step, at each stage phoning into the body's cells, telling them, layer by layer, "you're welcome."
Energetically people defend themselves against enjoying their bodies because somehow they feel it's not allowed. When that happens I need to find a way to enter into the process so it is safe enough, so the body feels welcomed. This can be explored through touch, trance work or guided relaxation, or even writing stories, drawing pictures or singing songs - whatever helps.
You've made a video about stretching. What is it exactly?
It's about conscious meditation techniques. My focus is not so much on positions and methods, but on communing with the body to help it open and expand and relax. It's about noticing what tension is and what relaxation is - and that both are ok. When we become conscious of tension, it starts to melt on its own.
We just made a promotional video called "Step by Step Into Now," in which I speak about my work - and there are dancers there demonstrating. You'll see in the dancing that quality of innocence. It also expresses how powerful dance is as a meditation. This is important - I often hear people talk about dance as a way of expressing their creativity, or people who dance "to get out of it". This is not my focus.
We dance to get into it! This is what the video shows.
And so? Does the dance goes on?
Yes it does! And I just feel grateful to be doing what I love so much. This work continually helps me deepen the spaciousness inside. And if I keep on listening to my inner guidance, then as soon as it's time to change I'll know.
But for now, this is my great joy!
