Over the last weekend, we participated in a workshop organized by the Italian Aikido Federation of the National Olympic Committee (FIJLKAM) in Palermo, Sicily. So we took a day-off and visited this amazing town and its beauties with our lovely friends who hosted us. While visiting a shrine, located into a wet cave in which St. Rosalia lived secluded, we heard a child whispering to her mother: “My body is cold, not me”.
During the workshop, led by Marco Rubatto Sensei, we experienced the “embodied dialogue” practice, which is a powerful tool that allows us to recognize where our “system” crashes due to its hidden critical points.
During a simplified Aikido practice, our partner keeps us moving and -literally- bombs us with questions. All of them beginning with “how”, “what”, “where”. All of them chained one each other. Sooner or later, it happens that some question reaches some blocking point hidden in our being, in our conscience. In that moment, the body refuses to keep flowing and stops. Even for some instant.
Furthermore, the one who answers, sooner or later, shifts from reasonable answers to feedbacks which seem illogical at a first sight.
Sometimes, it happens that such phenomena occur to the interviewer…
So, besides the many technical aspects that we investigated during the workshop, such practice led to a deeper understanding of how our system operates.
A level of awareness that children spontaneously experience: “my body is cold, not me“.
Discovering a real “me”, under the layers of the body, culture, mind, feelings, languages, techniques.
As this discovery proceeds, understanding evolves as well as movements, thoughts, feelings, languages, techniques and…federations.
New beginning always starts from inner roots.
Discalimer Photo by Thom Holmes on Unsplash