Sharon Friedman – Vigilance and Tranquility

Buddy work: Start by standing behind your buddy and have him move his body and you doing the same. Next start walking and mimik the movement of your buddy from a constant distance. After you are comfortable doing it with two eyes on the person try doing it from each side without turning your head to look and after that from the front where you have to rely on additional input such as sound and shades and so on.

After you have been doing this for a while go to a crowd  like an air port or a place that gives away free cars and repeat this drill. Make sure you don’t fix your mind on the job so much as to bump into someone else or step on a child. Another fun thing to do is to walk side by side which creates an obstacle for others and move through a crowd creating the least amount of wake (by that I mean the pushing and sucking motion of air by a passing bus and so on) This is not a sweating drill but it is great to learn distance attention and awareness to movement and affect on others and yourself. Finish this by sitting in a fashion that is natural to a public place (reading the works of Anais Nin or drinking a cold drink of water) and minding how people react to each other. Do they move in a certain way if a person is commited totally to himself as in shouting on a mobile phone ? Do they make a rounder bypass around an attractive woman so they can look at her naturally without staring ? (I do). Do they move smother in a crowd if they have less expression such as anger or “must buy this” on their faces and bodies. Mind the clothes and check different places for that. Public laundry facilities do notharbour high fashion and so on.

Notice in the buddy work if after a time you begin to breathe together too. There are many applications to knowing the rythem of things.