I wrote recently (about emergence) that the river will flow if we dismantle the dam. So how do we dismantle? Especially since the patterns (dams) that interfere with our innate freedom (river) can feel insurmountable? In my experience the process of dismantling a dam, no matter the size, is really quite simple:
1. Notice it (we can't change anything we don't know is there). This is where teachers (of all kinds) are helpful, sometimes it takes outside input to reveal our dams as dams vs "just who we are", but the noticing must also involve our own awareness (our teachers can't do the noticing for us) otherwise while it may be therapeutic it is not educational.
2. Find something else. Teachers are helpful here too, as guides towards the experience of a more freely flowing river (in Alexander Technique, this is where trained hand skills come in), but the "something else" must come from our own soma (bodymindspirtself) otherwise it's just another imposition on the river.
3. Get real familiar with both the old thing and the new thing. Practice! Notice everything you can about each version so you know when you're in your habit and know the landmarks that can lead you to the new option.
4. Choose! Choose the new thing or choose your habit. Never assume your old habit isn't still useful to you, it's not bad or wrong or you misbehaving, it just may not be useful ALL the time. This is the time where you get to decide in real time, what's most useful in the present moment (vs what's been useful in the past).
One of my current teachers, Kate Morales said in a recent learning space I'm a part of "Everyone is fluent in the colonized imagination AND our bodies are trustworthy". To me this means we all have dams (personally and culturally) AND the river (our bodies or the cultural/collective body) is larger and more powerful than the dams and knows how to find it's way back to wholeness and ease.
