Blue Belt Day 3
Blue Belt Principle #4, Developmental Anatomy, is a beautiful practice that takes us through the five developmental movement stages most of us went through as children. It’s a practice of self-healing for the body, the mind, the emotions and the spirit. The classic form of the practice is to do one minute in each stage every day. The stages are: Embryonic, Creeping, Crawling, Standing and Walking.
Developmental Anatomy can also be used as a practice for asking the body for the somatic truth about where one is in relationship to anything. For example, Debbie asked us this afternoon, if the ideal is that every time I get ready to start my class, the first thing I think of is the Joy of Movement and I say to myself, “Oh goodie! I can’t wait!” then what is my relationship to that ideal.
We moved in each of the developmental stages and let them tell us which stage we were in in relationship to the Joy of Movement. Then Debbie told us to love the stage we were in. Love it. Love it because this is our foundation from which to develop. Love it because this is where we are the strongest.
During my first Blue Belt, I loved this practice of somatic truth telling. It felt natural, easy and illuminating. But today, I wasn’t sure if I was sensing the somatic truth or if my mind was taking charge. I felt awkward, out of touch, stupid. I am still feeling vulnerable and afraid. My critic comes in and tells me I don’t deserve to exist on the face of the planet.
It occurs to me I’m probably in embryonic. I’m probably embryonic in relationship to the practice of Developmental Anatomy. Embryonic is, by definition, a new place, a place I have never been before. I have never been in this relationship with the Developmental Anatomy practice, or with Nia, or with myself, or my body, or the moment, or with Brown Belt, with the road to Black, with my husband, with the path, or with the Mystery.
Can I love it? Can I love this new place I’ve never been before? Can I love myself in the unknown? Can I love the unknown? Can I love this never-before-seen bend in the road to Black Belt? Can I love myself no matter what? Embryonic.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Creta // May 6, 2008 at 8:31 am
Dear Rachael,
So here you are, a little black and white monitor sheds the only light in a darkened room and you feel chilled and worried. The wand slides through the gel and here on the monitor a tiny bird flutters in the darkness, “there’s the heart”
the tech says, startling you a bit (sound where there was deep silence). The wand circles like a prayer pressed against the skin, and there on the screen is a perfect, tiny, face- and then a perfect tiny hand brushes that face. You laugh out loud and you say, “there she is” inside, in your own heart, you say, “there she is- there I am”. The whole world is love.
2 Ruth // May 6, 2008 at 4:49 pm
“This new place” What you say is SO profound and touches me deeply. If I actually live in the moment sensing the newness then I would be in embryonic where everything is new. My adult mind doesn’t grasp that much newness fully. You have given me a feeling to begin.
3 Back Home: Embryonic // May 10, 2008 at 10:15 pm
[…] At the end of the final day, after we received our certificates and our blue belts, I realized why. I’m Embryonic. […]
4 11: I’m Back! // Nov 14, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[…] lit candles. We did the Five Stages of Self-Healing — embryonic, creeping, crawling, standing and walking — based on the developmental […]
Leave a Comment