#richardstrozzi-heckler

[artistsintheclassroom8]

Mission of Somatics - Richard Strozzi-Heckler

[artistsintheclassroom8]

...What I want is leaders to face into their shadow; the unconscious wishes, hopes, and desires buried deep in the recesses of their psyche. I want them to look at what is lurking in the dim alcoves behind the stage lights? What are the background narratives, emotions, and moods that are secreted behind ideologies and cheerleading spectacles? I want leaders to face into their dusty, sightless back rooms. I want to hear what they’re afraid of, where they need help, what are the triggers that turn them into conditioned patterns of reactivity, what are they running from, what do their partners say about them, what are they learning? What are the background impulses of the righteous finger pointers and condescending fist pumpers? The leaders we see on the media are upholstered versions of what true authenticity can be. If there is no sincere effort to struggle with our inherited perceptions, prejudices, and biases that we assimilate through an indiscriminate cultural process with no single author, we are more apt to lean towards violence, prejudice, hate, and domination. No thank you. --------- I want leaders who have the courage to open the windows and doors of the hidden, unattended rooms, scrub them clean with a wire brush until they see what’s there, and claim it with love. The more we are aware the more we are in choice.

Richard Strozzi-Heckler

[artistsintheclassroom8]

Strozzi Institute: Embodied Leadership

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By Richard Strozzi-Heckler

From the article:

Commit to your practices.   This is the glue that maintains the connection to your aliveness, what you care about, what you stand for, what matters to you. What we practice is what we become. We can cultivate right thinking, right feeling, right speech, and right action through the discipline of our daily practices.

Commit to notice when you begin to anaesthetize yourself. This will take the form of contractions, squeezing, holding the breath, micro clenches, and our attention drifting into the trivial. When we bring our attention to the life of our body we have immediate, direct experience of how we guard against feeling and perception.

When you notice the numbing return to the present moment by engaging the breath, centering, mindfulness, commend to the practices that restore aliveness. Connect with your networks of support. Don’t isolate. You are not alone.

Taking action is one of the best medicines for fear and helplessness. Take a stand, literally, for love, justice, equity, and peace-that which moves us towards life. Find a group that is active in letting their voices be heard. Remember that democracy is an effort of participation and action.

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Take It Easy But Take It

[artistsintheclassroom8]

We act according to the narratives and beliefs we've embodied. When we speak we set things into action.

Richard Strozzi-Heckler