carola gaining perspective AHHHHHH Alaska

trust your intuition

I’m excited to share my enthusiasm,
compassion and LOVE with YOU!
How? Receive a 15 Minute Intuitive Reading
by Me as a Gift to YOU!

The past 5 years while living in Ashland OR,
I listened to my heart, felt my breath and cleared
my mind. PooF!
25 years of counseling, ecstatic dancing and facilitating
Awe-thenticity shape-shifted into a Tarot Deck with my
Original Crayon Art and Complete Guide to Being Awe-thentic.

I have 3 Requests of You.
1-Receive my Gift of a Personal/Intimate Reading.
2-Trust Your Intuition.
3-Forward this E-mail to your nearest and dearest friends.

Word of Mouth is the Best.
Albert Einstein said “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

Best Selling Author of ATTRACTOR FACTOR and ZERO LIMITS,

Joe Vitale says
“I’ve known Carola for almost twenty years.
I’m constantly amazed at her ability to listen,
hone in to unconscious issues, and help unravel
the mystery with intuition, wisdom and love.”

Call me to receive your reading.
512-925-0625
www.carolamarashi.com
(evolving website)

I offer intuitive counseling in person, on the phone,
and e-mail.
30 years professional experience counseling, extensive training
in Psychodrama, Expressive Arts and Movement Counseling.
Author of Sensual Eating, Sacred Tarot Deck and Guide,
Facilitate Awe-thenticity Manual.

Dancing Peace One Twirl at a Time,
Carola

P.S. Always Affordable. $1/minute. Your 15 minute reading is FREE.

My First Ecstatic Dance

Off I go bicycling downhill all the way to downtown Houston Texas. Mmmm, my favorite part, the museum district next to Hermann park on this balmy spring morning. I’m at home here cruising these densely urban narrow streets on Sunday morning. Old trees, old houses, run down apartment districts with screaming kids running around like ‘wild Indians’. Yeah, just like downtown San Antonio where you can actually smell the old wood from the houses as you ride by real slow on your bike. Where in the daytime you go “oh how sweet this neighborhood is…” and then at night the hood is crawling with people in altered states of consciousness. Like as if they were rodents scurrying about and then it doesn’t seem so sweet.

I arrive 11 am on Sunday morning. Sweat Your Prayers. I’ve heard about it for probably a year now from my eating disorder clients who felt moved, more than traditional therapy did for them. They compared it to dance therapy, psychodrama, and art therapy all mixed in one. The woman who started Sweat Your Prayers just offered a workshop called ‘God, Sex, and the Body’. Anyone who puts those three words in one name, I gotta check this out!

We dance in an old building. It’s made out of concrete, with one round wall full of square blocks of glass. To enter, I climb wide concrete steps turning charcoal gray from years of Houston pollution. Walking through the doors, I get it right away-it’s like I’ve imagined dance studios- rough wood floors, tall ceilings, tight little corridors with black drapes for changing clothes. There’s posters everywhere about dance: ballet, modern, ecstatic, African.

I enterthe large room toward the right of the entrance with the circular glass wall. It’s bright this Sunday morning. There’s twenty-ish people. Some are stretching, talking. Some are alone and quiet. The dance attire ranges from running tights to dance leotards. One girl’s wearing hot pink ‘butt floss’ and pale pink hose with dance shoes. Some people (like me) are wearing running shorts, running shoes, and a baggy t-shirt.

A ‘cool’ looking woman wearing a gathered flowery skirt, tights, t-shirt, and bandana across her forehead asks us to huddle up. She describes what we’re doing today. She quickly lists the archetypes that she borrows from her mentor Gabrielle Roth. “Archetypes” she says, “we all have inside us.” How does this relate to dancing? I’m curious. Some of the archetypes I balk at Mother, Father, and Mistress-that’s my stepmother! Not me! Holy Spirit- Hmph! Way too new agey. She says “Today we’re dancing the archeytype Wild Boy.” Okay. Now we’re on to something I can relate to. WOOO HOO! We’re dancing Wild Boy!

She demonstrates the ‘rhythms’ we’ll dance through-flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. She moves fluidly, boldly and makes body sounds like wild percussive breath, drooling slobbery sounds, sing song like, and hush shush. I’m entranced. She’s so graceful. I feel welcomed from her risk exposing herself so freely. I look around the room and everyone’s quiet and still, intently watching her too. The dancers age range from mid twenty’s to forty-fifty-ish.

She quickly breaks everyone up into ‘gangs’. In other words, randomly chosen groups. My heart is pounding. I’m alive. I’m glad I rode my bike. I’m pumped up ready to go! There’s five of us in our gang and there’s four gangs total. Our gang gets the group leader’s bandana and tosses it around to each other. I’m especially attracted to a tall red head woman in our gang as she leaps and lunges across the floor with full force. Her movements and vocal sounds keep me playing hard to keep up with her. We harass and tease the other gangs. Yea! We’re the best! I’m so completely caught up in the activity. I’m in. I’m needed. I’m good. I’m accepted.

I give my gang all I got to keep the the dance leader’s bandana. Then the dance leader stops the music retrieves her bandana and puts it back on her forehead. Pulling us all together to one side of the room, she sets an imaginary stage. It’s the huge open space on the other side of the room against the glass block wall. She asks each group to create a human sculpture expressing our gang. Ugh! I ‘m shaking. Can I participate in this and have these strange people see me? My heart’s pounding, my jaws tense up, I’m holding my breath.

My gang goes into the center of the room first. One by one, they leap onto the stage. The tall red head immediately sprawls belly up to the ceiling- horizontal, long and lithe. She pauses regally while each gang member comes out to join her, touching some part of her body. They slowly make one formation. One unit. One gang expression. I’m last. Gulp! I’m stinging from head to toe. I run toward my gang sculpture and position myself at what feels like the helm of our human sculpture. I stretch out my right fore arm shooting my middle finger-giving the sign-what I do best. Screaming silently “F-CK YOU! DON’T F-CK WITH ME!” and then, Eek! Gads! My heart thumps. I sink into my feet. My head goes light. My shooting finger shrinks back, curls up, disappears into a fist. Bam! Slam! I’m back into the room.

Dance studio. Downtown Houston. I’m a professional. I’m a therapist. I silently ask myself “Did I offend anyone? What do they think of me?”

After each gang takes their turn, we circle up to share our experiences. I’m mute. I’m shy. I’m wanting to be invisible. I wiggle around sitting nervous, listening to ‘them’ share connections between the dance, their relationships, their work, their life. Sighing, dropping my shoulders, slipping further down to the floor…I get it that there are massage therapists, psychotherapists, artists, office types of people around me. I feel this softness between us, as I listen to my fellow ‘gang’ members hearts’ speak. Intimate sharing like “I wish I could be that aggressive with my boyfriend. I always envied kids in school that were bold like I was today. I can’t believe you got us to play in gangs.” We share our names in our circle and the dance is over.

I ride my bike back home. Now it’s up hill all the way. I’m exhausted. All I can do is drag my bike into the garage, and flop on the couch. I feel heavy like concrete. I just want to close my eyes and sleep as I recall the dance and judge myself for flipping the sign at everyone. GAWD! At my first dance!

Click here to view the embedded video.

AMAZING ELIZABETH ROJAS is Facilitating Body Choir at the World Wellness Expo!

Saturday May 31st from 10 am to noon.

thank you Elizabeth for sharing your love and beauty! your courage is contagious!

www.worldwellness.org/Calendar

Body Choir. Artistic Facilitator: Elizabeth Rojas
Saturday, May 31, 2008

Meeting Room 2
500 E. Ceasar Chavez St.
Austin, TX 78704

Know What You’re Getting Into:
Have some idea of the ‘scene’ you’re showing up for to dance, then have a good time, shake your booty, and leave imagining you’re welcomed to return…

WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON.

Usually the dance is 2 hours long.
It’s drug, alcohol, smoke free.
Casual and barefooted.
People friendly, diverse ages and fitness levels.
Open to new comers, great place to meet people.

THE DIFFERENCES:

INTENTION:

Facilitated-someone verbally guiding the dance.
Free-open style-someone is ‘spinning the discs’ with no verbal guidance.

THE INTENTION GOES EVEN DEEPER:

It’s a social gathering! food, even games or raffles.
OR spiritual journey, non-verbal, held in sacred space.

MUSIC:

The unfacilitated dances usually have the music as the focus, like featuring the dee jay, the genre of music-80’s or 60’s or WORLD music.

Facilitated dances and ‘dance journeys’-the music is ‘holding’ the intention-
following a musically rhythmic wave for a playful-spirited, or emotionally cathartic, or physically exhausting (rave-techno) dance experience.

BOUNDARIES:

More dances have the strong unexpressed agreement that you dance ‘alone’ not ‘touching’ usually a vertical dance, standing upright.

Some dances encourage connection through touch like a kundalini or puja groove or tantra dance.

More dances are becoming wide open to each person defining their own boundaries, so you can dance alone or with another, or keep changing your boundaries with the intention of ‘exploring yourself’.

Most importantly be open to connect with yourself and others. Say Yes! to dance.

The boundaries, agreements of the dance, and etiquette are changing in community and open dance jams. Contact Improvisation, Tango, even NIA dance are all merging into the community dance arena – so the game rules are changing.

Define your own boundaries and allow yourself to explore moment by moment. Then you can have fun.

Howl like a monkey

Flop like a fish
Squirm like a worm

Fly like a duck
Honk like a goose
Squeal like a pig

Dive like a dolphin
Wag my tail like a beaver

Laugh like a hyena
Leap like a frog

Sniff like a wolf
Play tricks like a coyote
Steal through the night like a bat?

WHERE CAN I

Move from

blue to bliss,
paralyzed to bouncing off the walls,
beastie bad to heavenly divine,

from one inhale to the next?

BODY CHOIR

check this article out!!!
REASONS FOR SEX

in the latest may june SPIRITUALITY HEALTH MAG.
you can get the mag on line or at most stores.
here’s a small excerpt from it.

i wrote the small column
dancer explores her inner bonobo.

http://www.spirituality-health.com/spirit/

a prayer for SEX
Humans are the only species that prefers
sex in private, while all other animals, especially
our closest relatives (chimps and
bonobos), have sex in public. and while
bonobos frequently enjoy the “missionary
position,” it is only humans for whom
the face-to-face sexual encounter seems
to be the norm. these characteristics
make human sex unique and intimate in a
way that is lacking in other animals.
yes, we are animals and clearly we have
a lot in common with other primates, but
the idea of jada, which makes any sexual
encounter a potential encounter with
the Divine, is mirrored in most, if not all,
religions. and those negative elements,
those stories we’ve learned to tell, the
myths we have ingested about the sin of
sex are neither in our biological make-up
nor at the core of our religious stories.
S&H

“a dancer explores her inner bonobo”

i’m almost 50 years old, and I’ve been dancing with
community continuously for 18 years. I’ve gone from
dancing defensively — “DON’T TOUCH ME”

— to dancing with full-body contact; arms, legs, and hair
entangled, or rolling all over other people in a puppy
pile on the floor.

I have started community ecstatic dances in several
different cities and still ask myself what’s going on?

Does the dance endorse inappropriate touch?

Are my boundaries getting lost?

Is all this touch consensual?

What about my partner?

How can I jump in and not get hurt?

How do I know whom I can touch?

What is safe touch?

If I did this in a “public” dance, would it start a brawl?

If we’re so spiritual, why are we dancing like wild savages?

To explore all these questions would take a book, but I
do know that you can unleash your inner bonobo in dance,
enhance a monogamous relationship,

and feel welcomed to return. It all starts with your intentions:

Dance innocently / Be curious. Be authentic. Be spontaneous.

I wait until I’m moved to move by the dance.
Each dance is fresh and new.

Dance with integrity / Be committed to exploring
yourself even when you’re dancing with someone else.
Remember, you are your primary partner for life!

You are the center of your universe. Know yourself.

Stretch your boundaries / Your boundaries are
elastic just like your heart muscle.

Be generous in giving and receiving love.

This is your sacred playground.

Play fair. Take turns.

Dance barefoot / You’ll feel more grounded barefoot.
You will also be more willing to fall off balance

and be swept off your feet.

Keep your eyes open / Be responsible for yourself.

Open Eyes, Open Heart! Be willing to see and respond.

Our body language speaks louder than words.

See what you’re saying and see what others are saying with their bodies.

Dance selflessly but indulgently /

Imagine everybody expressing their own unique magic,

their own form of love. This is how we create peace on this planet.
Being free requires responsibility.

We’re all responsible for creating a magical time.

bare your Soul /

Imagine communicating so clearly from your heart

that your words and your body gestures
say the same thing.

What if we’re evolved bonobos in a human suit?

“Monkey see, monkey do.”

I am moving through the world with my eyes and heart wide open.

I bare my soul and all the while I am selfless and indulgent. S&H

Carola Marashi, founder of Body Choir, has established dances in Austin TX, SantaFe, Seattle, Houston, and Ashand, Oregon. email carola@bodychoir.org.

i need a place to show up real.

i need a place where i discover myself, again and again, new and different.

i need a place where i feel my presence makes a difference.

i need a place
to remember i’m more
than my small thoughts, my small fears.

i need a place to remember that i’m more than my limited understanding
of my experiences in daily life.

i need a place where i can witness
others being real, taking risks of showing up a little different,
outside the ‘box’ of social norms.

i need a place where i can stretch myself
-with sound and movement and feel accepted,
or just witnessed, not evaluated.

i need a place where i can surprise myself
and challenge myself to break out of my fears,
my self imposed limitations.

i need a place to share all of me,
and feel my presence makes a difference
to this planet, and to humanity.