Urban Shamanism

I've mostly stayed home during these months of confinement. I'm grateful for the time I've been able to invest on bonding with my eldest sister, our communication now is beyond awesome, and I've been pretty much fine with the movement restrictions in general as well, because internet access, means for creative expression, oracles and meditative visualization are essentially all I've required to keep in touch with the world around me. However, I've made it a point to take at least a short walk every couple of weeks to let out some steam, and that's been sufficient, but as July drew to a close, I started seriously feeling the urge to open up, to move and dance, to get back in touch with my friends and explore the city at length once more. Above all, I wanted solitude, time for myself.

This week, I finally got my chance.

In my previous posts, I've mentioned in passing my martial arts training. Starting last year, I became a member of a training team specializing in historical weapons such as swords, knives and clubs. While our main focus is HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), based on the teachings of a 14th century Swiss fencing master called Joachim Meyer, we're actually interested in a broad range of combat-related topics and battle practices, from warfare strategy to meditative exercises; from Japanese Kendo to Venezuelan Stick (garrote), and not just for the purely physical aspects, but also for the philosophical/scholarly knowledge. It's a truly fascinating area of exploration and it's helped me enormously in my journey of self-discovery.

Of course, due to the pandemic we've had to stop training together, but my teacher's been taking good care of the place we use, and on Thursday, he allowed me to stay for the night. We talked over weed and soda, brainstorming about our projects; we sparred for a while and I got a chance to discover that my capacity to flow had increased exponentially even despite my forced inactivity, thanks to spiritual practice. Then he left and I had the whole place to myself, I was able to train at leisure, meditate, dance... it was so good to truly exert my body again, and then relax, hearing nothing but the silence of the night.

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At one point I laid down beneath an altar dedicated to Lord Shiva and used one of Wim Hof's simple breathing exercises to get fully present. I began feeling every muscle, every joint, my brain's electric signals and the blood flowing through my veins and arteries. If you've ever done something like this, you might've noticed how your body undulates, as if you were made of waves and not skin and bones.

After some time, however, I realized that there were areas of my body that weren't relaxing as much as they could, such as my right shoulder and the back of my neck. I reflected upon them, connecting the dots with other experiences I've had recently, where I've found myself reliving feelings of grief, shame and guilt for situations I'd lived and decisions I'd made years, even decades ago.

The tension I was sensing was very localized, and it was neither strong nor entirely unpleasant, but it was deep and enduring. I had to make a deliberate effort to loosen up those spots, and I've had to do the same with certain postures that I adopt when at rest, and movements I do when I walk and sit. Through trial and error, I've already found that there are clear connections between these unconscious codes in my body and my emotional state, my social life and even global situations. Since I'm certain that everyone has the same issues, I decided to write this in order to give you my perspective on how you can work through your bodily awareness and thus gain further insight into your life, balance and health.

First, get moving

We're moving all the time. Even when we're sitting still, our internal organs are constantly active and our whole physical structure vibrates. However, these kinds of movements are routine, performed automatically, and that applies to almost everything we do throughout our day, which means we do most things unconsciously. In order to get a real sense of what's going on with our posture, our muscles and our bones, we need to break these unconscious patterns by performing motions that we're not used to, that demand intention and dedication.

Once you start moving differently, you start experiencing your bodies differently too, and that's when you notice the pain in a knee, the tight knot in your back, the habit to put your arms beneath your torso when you sleep and things like that. You become more mindful of the intricacies of your material system, and this boosts your attention in your environment, your reflexes and self-control, on top of giving you an opening to work on your well-being.

Here are some practices you can establish for this purpose:

• Many here already practice Yoga and can attest to its benefits. This practice is mostly about adopting certain positions in slow motions, sustaining them for a period of time, and breathing.
• Sports can be great methods of entertainment, and they provide motivation to sustain regular activity for prolonged periods of time.
• Martial arts are effective for spatial awareness, and they often require moving in specific patterns or with a specific intent, especially if they involve weapons. Most types of combat also demand sudden, focused and quick bursts of energy, which are excellent for getting a reading on particular areas of our system.
• Dancing is always great fun, it calls forth our inner child, helps us explore our sensuality and, if performed in groups without a choreography, such as in Biodanza, it can be extremely liberating at an emotional level.

All of these practices can be explored intermittently and simultaneously, as their effects are compounded. They all have the potential to take us to a state of meditation and thus, they can all lead to spiritual realization.

Listen to the noises, quiet them down

Once you're aware of where the tension is, you have to start working on relieving it, and for that, you have to listen to what your body is telling you. This is a constant process because, as you know, habits die hard, subconscious codes are sneaky and stealthy, they don't retire easily. This is where discipline wins the day; any physical practice you're engaging in, turn it into a daily routine, and mix it with the rest of your exercises such as musical creation, drawing or reading. Ritualize everything, elevate it. This will help you gain a more holistic approach, a larger panorama of your life.

Listening to your body will also reveal needs that you didn't know you had. Perhaps you've stopped consuming sugar, but you feel that your body asks for something sweet, and has been for some time. You may register that you're lacking more vegetables, meat or carbs in your diet, or that you really could use a beer. In fact, you may feel energized, without requiring to eat anything at all, and that's totally OK. Don't guilt-trip and get what your body's asking you for, it doesn't have to be an excess and there are usually very good reasons why your system demands such things. Of course, you should always drink some water and rest when you have to.

This might seem unrelated, but while you're listening to your body, your intuition may tell you there's a peculiar connection between your strained leg or your distressed bowels, and a person, a group or a place that you have frequent contact with; or that you should really get rid of that object in your bedroom that's been bothering you for the past couple of months; perhaps you've been keeping a secret or holding back on a conversation that's long overdue; maybe you observe that every time you think about a particular responsibility in your job, your neck starts to hurt. I guarantee you, these connections are usually worth looking into and acting upon, and listening isn't just about passive observation, but about taking the necessary steps toward resolution and closure. The better you are at listening to your physical integrity, the more you'll realize how accurate your intuition is. Pay attention, I can tell you for a fact that your harmony will improve at all levels.

Separation is illusion

We're not divided. The mind and the body, the spirit and the heart are one and the same. Whatever you think reflects in how you feel, and both have an immediate impact not just on your flesh and blood, but also on your surroundings, the partnerships you hold, the reality you see, the beliefs you cherish. That's the wonder of our physical system, that it provides us with a tangible, very clear map into our subconscious, our ideas, our emotions and all of those abstract things that are much harder to grasp on their own.

I hope you can find something of value in these words and I wanted to leave you with this song by one of my favorite bands, Depeche Mode. I feel it nicely comprises the message in this post. Thank you so much for your attention!

All pictures taken and edited by me

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