First Class
Hey, all---
The clinic is at 3 pm eastern time. Join if you have a specific movement question you want to explore. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81083823213
Joy! Lauren Morales, of My Memory Matters in South Carolina, is going to be joining us. I have forwarded her your bios and links. She was the one who taught me about peripheral vision loss, so I guess Patty and Lauren are Grandma and Grandpa of this venture.
I was contemplating what Zoë said about family members having an agenda--that they want their parent or partner or friend 'back.' Whereas the clown approaches the person for who they are in this moment, and all that can be appreciated and enjoyed now.
This is how Patty Schwab hooked me on dementia issues: she said that the partner can be so taken up with grief that they cannot find joy in what is, that day. And I thought: but isn't this the human challenge all the time, to be present for this moment, this day, this iteration? What if we could always be the Zoë to everyone?
Let's see how our relationship with our eyes fosters that connection!
Clarity about the tie between this series and dementia care:
Useful for practitioners to be more aware of their peripheral state
Useful for partners in much the same way but also could be a memory café approach where both partners could do some parts of these lessons together (a bit more like a 'Functional Integration' in Feldenkrais than the kind of lessons we are doing here--ankle/foot lessons leap to mind)
To assist with adaptations in early and mid-stage
There were several practical pieces of advice about instructions in the lesson, as well as some thoughts about applications with people living with dementia, that I'll put in the ‘Ideas Generated’ part of the blog, and some more general points I want to capture here:
To borrow the Zen saying, how you use any body part is how you use every body part. It is not as though you can tense your tongue without affecting the all of you. And this works in reverse, too--to relax one part--perhaps especially the hands and the eyes--tends to be to relax all the parts. This leads to....
How we embody--our 'shape in the universe'--and how that communicates itself (entrains, is contagious) to others, so that your own personal embodiment is an 'intervention' or an invitation (and how powerful that is in our culture with the eyes)
Some of you got a bit of relief from 'the eyes trying so hard'--we'll do more of that
Here's the audio! Of course take even greater liberties with the instructions if you redo the lesson--inner teacher rules, especially if they are an ambling, unambitious kind of teacher. And for sure bake your other side!
See you soon--
Carie