What Is Your Sacred Practice? (By Beverly Molina)

Have you been lucky enough to find a practice that brings you into the Now Moment, your personal Truth Place, your authentic Heart Space?

And if you have, have you surrendered to it in its entirety?

Have you let it take you on its expansive journey into the unknown and creative flow that makes you feel... And therefore feel alive?

Maybe you have found your practice in hiking, gardening, jogging, painting, snowboarding, surfing, drumming, cross-fitting, meditating, or being in nature. Your practice is the one that feels right to you.

And have you ever wondered what might happen if you fully devoted yourself to this personal passion for even a short amount of time, whatever it may be?

I got to find out, firsthand, recently.

If you've known me even for a short time, then you know that free form dance is the sacred practice that does it for me!

I've been free form dancing for seven years, once or maybe two times a week - but I recently found out what happens when I spend a concentrated amount of time with my favorite practice.

Find That Which Reveals Yourself to You

Exactly one month ago, I found myself aboard the first ever Ecstatic Dance Bus Tour - a weeklong tour made up of myself and 31 other colorful people, for whom ecstatic dance (also called conscious dance or free form dance) is a passion and a practice.

For 9 days and 8 nights we travelled over 2000 miles up and down the state of California and brought our ecstatic dance practice "to the people." We danced in other ecstatic dance venues and connected with ecstatic dance tribes in 9 different cities. We danced on lakeshores, beaches, mountains, and parking lots. We immersed our bodies in authentic dance expression, shared what dance meant to us, and danced with others in hopes of inspiring.

I got to dance for hours everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. This intense immersion in free form dance was a first for me, and I am feeling the rhythmic reverberations inside me still today. I've been processing these significant changes within me for the last month and I want to share some of those with you.

It was 11 pm on a Sunday night when I finally made it home from the bus tour, and I had to work the next morning. That next day on duty, and in the week that followed at home were intense. I was suddenly feeling deep reservoirs of emotions - all kinds of emotions - pulsing and rising up to the surface. Sadness, fear, anger, resentment - they all came pushing their way up out of an unbeknownst well, which had up to this point remained mostly invisible to me. And they actually felt good to be spilling out all over the place. But why now, why did these emotions, all of a sudden, decide to show up and demand to be seen and felt? What did it all mean?

The Truth Will Set You Free

Over the next week, the answers came from my heart:

For 9 days you dropped out of your conditioned mind and habitual routines.

You entered your body, allowing yourself to be moved through the practice of ecstatic dance.

You listened and allowed the body to inform you.

And your body became the Teacher.

And you became the Dance.

And your movements showed up authentically, freely, and radically true.

You experienced Being your pure, personal truth.

I spent 9 days in this radically true and free space, free to be myself at a very deep and profound level. And when I came back to my life as I knew it, my body was still informing me from this place of truth.

Unaddressed, suppressed, stuffed, and forgotten feelings and emotions, therefore, came bubbling to the surface. And they were grateful to be finally seen and felt. Even now they continue to be addressed, healed and released.

I am learning that it is actually a welcome surprise to be greeted by joy, silliness, sadness, fear and anger on and off the dance floor.

I am grateful to feel the essence of myself alive as these juices of life - all feelings and emotions - pour through me.

I get that my dance practice is perfect for me. When I dance I am able to freely access my truest self, somehow more easily than when I get caught up in the busyness of everyday life.

I get that I want bring this authenticity off the dance floor and into my life - always.

I get that once my body and soul have experienced truth and authenticity, it's hard to turn back.

I wish this for all of us, that we may find whatever it is that lifts our souls. What would happen to us individually and collectively, if we all lived from our authentic heart space in every moment?

May you find joy in the discovery of your own sacred practice and truth.

May you welcome and feel the spectrum of emotions coursing through your spectacular human body.

May you feel alive!

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