Faculty 1: Movement

"Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs."  - Saint Francis de Sales

Invoking Exercises

First, invoke the push & pull!

Faculty 1 exercises set the stage for enlivening the hands, making modules, identifying points and purposefully fidgeting. Invoking a spirit of awareness as the key element for practice and learn to explore push and pull as the primary sensations at the heart of all movement.

Just like we would prepare an altar by gathering sacred items like mala beads, devotional images and fresh flowers, The Mods exercises in Faculty 1, Invoking, prepare the inner space for dynamic meditation. Seated in a variation of Lotus Position we begin with a series of hand gestures, called mudras, to build heat, engage the sense organs, increase breath awareness, clear the mind and establish a continuum of Push and Pull through out the whole body. This sequence culminates with a guided meditation to anoint a whole body of points to illuminate the path of the journey ahead.

In Anya, Invoking is more of slow build. Beginning in child’s pose to symbolize a return to the Core Story in a shape that resembles a cocoon. The cues are deliberate but gentle – posing suggestions and questions to inspire a listening practice. A simple flow of postures link together to create a vehicle for breathing, spinal mobilization and the exploration of push and pull.

Although Mods and Anya offer different styles of Invoking exercises, they share the same vision:

Enliven the hands to awaken the felt sense. Via the micro-systems of the palm centers, amplify Push and Pull as “larger than life” characters brought to life by rhythm, breath, direction, cadence and depth. When Push and Pull become familiar we are able to recognize them anywhere.

Increased attention/intention on the hands not only enhances tonality in the arms and shoulders but also establishes a push/pull cadence through out the whole body that enhances overall connectivity.