Revolutionary on the fitness scale, Continuum takes the healing power of movement to a higher octave. Continuum is a call to life that honors the language of the body: one with source, that language is creative. The human body and spirit are designed for the creative act of regeneration. This does not require invention. The cells of the body already know.
In Continuum, people find a safe space of surrender that allows the intelligence that goes beyond thought to be received. Embodying the water principle, Continuum explores the harmonies between human beings, movement, and the Tao. This truly can regenerate vitality without depletion.
Imagine an organism relaxed, in spontaneous play. Minute sensations spread and amplify as we attend to them. Wave motions bring the body away from a segmented awareness. At times the body suspends with a sense of lightness that seems to defy gravity. The whole organism begins to move as one coordinated whole. This is the context that allows tissue to open of its own accord, restoring suppleness.
For the participant, the sensation is to be on the cusp of BECOMING without a goal of arriving or staying. The next impulse can arrive from any vector or angle of the body taking it again as a whole into a new configuration. It is hard to describe the pleasure of these slow transformations in which the dissolving of one form is the same as the creation of another. It is a deep peace of being exactly in the moment and richly informed without a need to know what comes next or what it all means.
We often associate this sense of stillness with meditation, the polar opposite of action. For this state to emerge, the directing, goal driven mind must take the back seat. Because the neo-cortex (the part of our brain which is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought and language) is not directing the process of this movement, there is a sense of participating in the unfolding of a mystery. Within incremental movements, cells of our body are awakened to a relationship of oneness with the quantum field. Honouring the wisdom of the body’s cellular intelligence, we reawaken humanity’s link to the ancient dance of life.
It is after one of these explorations that one often recognizes the wisdom of the choices that are made by the organism when it is freed from linear, problem solving modes of assessing. Without having any destination, the body seems to know exactly how it needs to go in order to open more space and volume and to release tensions. Given half a chance, it will re-balance at a higher level of order. This becomes evident as one notices an increase of circulation, more relaxation, pleasurable sensations, and an opening of breath. Usually one feels invigorated, refreshed, and freer.
Surprisingly, Continuum brings together the super athlete, the dancer, and the physically impaired. This is particularly meaningful for someone who has lost the ability to pursue a beloved activity. Once again, a duality crumbles. It turns out that level of fitness has nothing to do with one’s ability to participate with movement in a creative and enlivening fashion. Organic explorations which follow natural impulses take the body into a plentitude of varied relationships with gravity, far from our usual center line equilibrium. Since many injuries, such as sprains and tears, occur with sudden divergences from the mid-line, the ability to holistically co-ordinate and sustain in unusual positions that are far from equilibrium is a key to building both strength and adaptability.
Even for those who recognize the realm just described, it is a leap to imagine that this form would ever produce strength. Of course, it could never replace the training required to run a marathon, or any other specialized performance, for that matter. Specific skills need practice. But then, the Tao of self-care is just as crucial. Renewal after specialized or extreme activities is essential for the longevity of our capacities. To refresh the world of possibilities after any repetitive use will restore balance to the whole.
Frequencies and vibrations has been used in many meditations over the centuries because it is one of the fastest ways to enrich an inner state of dynamic relaxation. Thus, in Continuum, frequencies and vibrations are employed as another form of movement. It helps us to feel from the inside out as a sort of bio-feedback to the system. We can feel the vibration of touch. movement and breath as it literally communicates through bone and tissue. When we become interested in these sensations and qigong movement, it has a way of organically opening and slowing breathing. As it goes with breath, so it goes with the nervous system!
