Testimonial by Margrietje
A life changing experience !
This retreat has taught me to feel and connect with my body, down to earth so I can feel the connection with others again and bring more joy in my life.
Thank you so much, Pingel and Peter!
Testimonial by Alexa and Arnaldo
Peter and Pingel are so special! It was such a treat to stay in their sanctuary.
Their farm is an oasis of abundance, peace, love and healing in the magical mountains of the Sierra Nevada. We were comfortable and able to fully relax into the experience as they took such great care of us with delicious, nutritious and creative food, kindness and great conversations.
Using tango as a metafor to understand the relationship dynamics was poignant and fun.
Pingel is incredibly intuitive and a powerful medicine woman. It often felt like she could see right thru us to the core of our embodied experience and this invoked a lot of trust for me. Peter has super positive, easy going vibes and was a pleasure to be around.
The authenticity, wholeness and uniqueness of their mission was obvious. We were very pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the experience.
Testimonial by Angelica Escoto
Dear Pingel,
I just wanted to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the amazing dancing retreat that I attended recently. Your guidance and instruction were truly transformative for me. Your big heart and warm personality made me feel safe and supported throughout the entire retreat. I learned so much about accepting my emotions and processing them through dance. The practices and exercises you introduced us to have had a profound impact on my life. I feel like I have grown so much emotionally and mentally since attending your retreat. Your encouragement, patience, and enthusiasm were infectious and helped me push past my comfort zone. The dancing was invigorating and full of emotions, and I truly felt alive and connected to myself during those moments. I would highly recommend your retreat to anyone who is feeling stuck emotionally and needs a safe space to let things out and process their emotions. Thank you for everything you do, Pingel. You are truly a gift to those who have the privilege of learning from you.
With deepest gratitude,
Are you kind to yourself?
Today I participated in a pruning course for hundred-year-old olive trees and young olive and fruit trees. We have a lot of old olive trees that were treated in such a way that they are screaming for help. I wanted to know for myself if pruning can be an act of kindness. I have seen horrendous things happen when chain saws and eager farmers come together to assure as many olives as possible.
Actually I learned what my heart already knew. Now my mind knows how to follow both my heart and that of the tree. Basically, there are two ways of pruning: One is about a productive tree. The tree serves only as a production machine for olives and has no other value to the farmer. A bit like how animals are treated in the bio-industry. It hurts me terribly to see that. Afterward, there is a stumpy tree that has been robbed of its soul and shape, where first there was a proud big grandpa tree of 100 years. They call this the hard way.
There is also a way of pruning that is about collaborating with the tree. You listen to the tree its growth wishes. You help the tree find its structure again, by creating order out of chaos so that the nutrition can get from the roots to the branches. In this way, the tree has a clear focus again and can remain healthy. It can grow in such a way that it has an equilibrium. It’s called pruning with a heart for the tree. And you see the tree flourish when you prune.
What does this have to do with people and movement? Everything!!!
Our bodies have more in common with a living being like a tree than with a machine or a robot. (Did you know that a tree also has a kind of nervous system in its root system?) I just have to look at the way many of us have become alienated from the body and force the body to look and move in a way that ignores its intelligence and design… Turning a deaf ear to the body’s messages.
In the somatic movement classes of Feldenkrais, we are like the pruners working with the tree by gently pruning away neural ‘branches’ that get in the way of our resilience and growth. We listen with curious attention to the body, to its desires in movement, and to the ´noise`: The habits that interfere with its ability to move freely. We explore the internal relationships that have been disrupted by what we have learned in the past, by pain experiences, emotions, our thoughts, etc.
And we ask the nervous system ´What are the neural patterns behind these habits and how can we rewire or unwire these gently?´
Pruning is then looking for ways of moving that the body enjoys, helping the nervous system see new neural network options and remove neural connections that do not contribute to efficiency, and pleasure in the body. In this way, we help the body to move again as it was meant to move: with pleasure, ease, vitality, and sensuality.
Would you like to explore a Feldenkrais lesson with me? You can find my free Feldenkrais introductory series Your compass to wellbeing and vitality here
A Musing about being connected to the rhythms of life
One of the awe sensations of living in your body is being connected to the rhythms and movement of life.
There is no movement without rhythm. All in life is rhythm.. universal rhythm, cosmic rhythm, earth rhythms, the rhythm of you, the rhythms in you, the rhythm of me of us together, the symphony that we -earth beings create in interconnectedness, the rhythms that transform ordinary movements in a dance, and the rhythms that turn ordinary sounds in a symphony.
We are all both the music and the dancer, in every moment of our lives.
And every time when we find a way to move with more pleasurable, more ease, more variety, more expression, more wonder, we come back to our very own nature and gain more artistry in dancing through life.
I love the video about human rhythm
Watch until the end to see some rhythm and dance that will leave you in awe.