Doris Maranda

SPRING 2010

doris — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:27:23 +0000

GREETINGS! Spring is such an especially beautiful time in our city – the colourful bulbs are peeking out from their winter habituation & the trees are dawning their fresh coats to salute the warmth & light emerging from the dark times. We are also celebrating the 14 bright gold medals won by our Olympic athletes! The streets are abounding in good cheer, pride & happiness. So we join with Mary Oliver:

Look, it’s spring. And last year’s loose dust has turned

into this soft willingness. The wind-flowers have come

up trembling, slowly the brackens are up-lifting their

curvaceous and pale bodies. The thrushes have come

home, none less than filled with mystery, sorrow,

happiness, music, ambition.

And I am walking out into all of this with nowhere to

go and no task undertaken but to turn the pages of

this beautiful world over and over, in the world of my mind.

from – “A Settlement”

I will be away at the Continuum Teachers’ retreat next week, returning to welcome you to the resuming of our “Winter into Spring” class series, and bringing with me new ideas for us to explore.

Classes: Fridays, March 12, 19 & 26 @Yoga on 7th from 9:30-11:45am. If you are just joining the classes, & wish to taste the Continuum experience, you may drop-in to the first class on March 12. Fee for the three classes is $84. (20% off for underemployed).

Mini-Workshop on March 27 from 2-5pm, “Tapping into Your Visionary Self.” (See www.dorismaranda.com for details)

PREVIEW FOR SPRING SCHEDULE:

INTRODUCTION TO CONTINUUM @ BANYEN BOOKS ON SUNDAY, APRIL 11TH – www.banyen.com

Classes @ Yoga on 7th: Friday mornings: April 16, 23, May 7, 14, 28 & June 4 with Mini – workshop on Saturday, May 8th. Details to follow later.

Blessings, Doris

WINTER 2010

doris — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:14:08 +0000

CONTINUUM VANCOUVER

NEWSLETTER – WINTER 2010

It is Christmas Day. I am sitting in my home basking in a shaft of sunlight coming through the window, reflecting on the passing of the darkness and the turning to the light, along with the soon to be passing of another year. What may be in store for my future and the future of our world? It is a time of gratitude for the blessings of my family and community and the abundance that we share, knowing that there are many of our brothers and sisters in the world who are suffering from the effects of war, violence, poverty and even starvation. One of the things we initiated in my women’s group last year, instead of giving material gifts, was to give each other a donation to an organization or charity of our choice which benefited some humans in greater need than ourselves. The giving of gifts is also a remembrance of the gift of life, that light burning within each soul and encourages the evolving of the inner gifts that each soul brings to the world no matter what the manifestation of their outer life.

Recently, I listened to a CD from a talk given by David Whyte, entitled “A Change for the Better, Poetry & the Reimagination of Midlife.” As usual, I am inspired by David Whyte’s insights into the human condition, in particular in this talk about the changes forced upon us by the limitations occurring in midlife. This evokes my experiences over the last two decades with the physical losses I have had to deal with and the truth of what David Whyte says in this talk, “To become a full human being, we need to confront and take it all in.” My teacher, Emilie Conrad, has said that when something passes, something else will come in to take its place. From David Whyte’s poem, “Millennium,”

The place you have fallen
refusing to rise again
becomes the spiral line of flame
where we turn
into the one desire
we have not lived.

While it is necessary to mourn our losses as something that is passing and the limitations that may follow, it is also important to keep opening up to “what else,” to other possibilities. One can see these situations as limitations and cling to what was or to see them as opportunities and challenges and began to look forward to new ways of being and perceiving. This has certainly been my learning, to be with what is, to learn from it fully and to move on with curiosity, compassion for oneself and with patience.

David Whyte quotes from “Weathering”, by a New Zealand poet, speaking to her experience of the aging process: “Now I’m in love with a place that doesn’t care how I look or if I’m happy, then happy is how I look.” “Whatever context you’ve arranged for your existence, there’s another that makes it absurd.”

With love and blessings for the new year,

Doris

December 25, 2009

Following: My offerings for this winter session – hoping you can join us!

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Friday morning, January 22nd, 9:30 –
11:45am @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley). ONGOING SERIES – January 29, February 5, March 12, 19 & 26 – 5 classes: Investment $140. $50 deposit required to reserve your space.
To register for Vancouver classes contact: doris@dorismaranda.com or phone 604-254-0147.

DROP-INS – $30 – no drop in after the first class of the series unless you have Continuum experience.

WEEKEND MINI-WORKSHOPS IN VANCOUVER @ Yoga on 7th

Saturday, February 20th – 2-5pm – Theme –
JOURNEY INTO THE REALM OF THE SENSES

Saturday, March 27th – 2-5pm – Theme –
TAPPING INTO YOUR VISIONARY SELF

Investment fee: $45 each or $80 for both workshops.

DISCOUNTS: Students & underemployed: 20% off
$25 off if you bring someone new to Continuum.

DORIS MARANDA, MA, is an authorized Continuum Movement teacher (www.continuummovement.com), a Registered Clinical Counsellor and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (www.traumahealing.com). “To me, this work is a spiritual practice and has opened me up to possibilities of living embodied that I had only begin to envision in my work as a psyche/soma therapist and educator. It is the basis for everything that I do. In movement, there is no separation and as we begin to live, breathing, moving and expressing our experiences, there comes a joining and a wholeness that leads to healing and to a creative excitation that counteracts the insanity and fragmentation that we encounter in the world around us.”

PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT EDUCATION
SESSIONS WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com
Free phone consultation.

NEWSLETTER FALL 2009

doris — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:13:13 +0000

CONTINUUM VANCOUVER – NEWSLETTER FALL 2009

With our beautiful and leisurely summer time coming to an end for this year, we turn towards the lessening of the light and the approaching dark time of the year, the entry into autumn and retreating within.

Michael Meade’s latest CD, “The Light Within the Dark Times” has inspired me, as Michael often does. He speaks of two movements, ascending into light/spirit and then descending into dark/soul and the need for both. In these difficult, dark times of our world (which is being reflected in many personal lives), our souls are calling us to gather and to deepen into ourselves. “If you’re falling fast, the only way to react is to dive down deeper.” Spirit is connected to faith and we are seeing a loss of faith in the systems, in our culture’s ways of interacting with our world. The soul brings the healing, the reconnecting to the eternal world, the world behind the world, touching once again into the mysteries.

This will be the theme of my second Mini-Workshop in November, recreating the path through our somatic realm to the depths of soul and the eternal world. The initial descent is through the body, perceiving through the senses which takes us part of the way, the soul the rest. That is the place of surrender, entering endarkenment, allowing the soul, moving from the inside out, to find the way.

From Rumi, You are uneven in your opening, sometimes closed, sometimes unreachable, sometimes with your torn shirt of longing wrapped around your heart. Your discursive intellect dominates for a time, then the universal, beyond time and intelligence, begins to come again. So sell your questioning talents and buy more bewildering surrender.

Following are my fall offerings for your contemplation. Would love to have you join us – we can perceive and descend together. Wherever people gather, it is a ceremony!

With love & blessings, DORIS

August 27, 2009

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN NORTH VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Monday morning, September 21, 9:30 -11:45am @ Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy. ONGOING SERIES – September 28 – December 7 (no class October 12 & 19 & November 9) – 8 classes: Investment $225. To register for classes @ Alchemy, contact Anna Kemble, anna@annakemble.com, 604-781-6040. $50 deposit to reserve your space.

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Friday morning, September 25, 9:30 –
11:45am @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley). ONGOING SERIES – October 2 – December 4 (no class October 16 & November 6) – 8 classes: Investment $225. $50 deposit to reserve your space. To register for Vancouver classes contact: doris@dorismaranda.com

DROP-INS – $30 – no drop in after the first class of the series unless you have Continuum experience.

WEEKEND MINI-WORKSHOPS IN VANCOUVER @ Yoga on 7th

Saturday, October 24th – 2-5pm – Theme – PERCEIVING AS KNOWING
Saturday, December 5th – 2-5pm – Theme – DESCENT INTO SOUL

Investment fee: $45 each or $80 for both workshops.

DISCOUNTS: Students & underemployed: 20% off
$25 off if you bring someone new to Continuum.

PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT EDUCATION
SESSIONS WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com
Free phone consultation.

SUMMER 2009

doris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:31:26 +0000

NEWSLETTER – SUMMER 2009

This we know………
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected, like blood which connects one family.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life—-he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
—-Chief Seattle, l854

These well known words from Chief Seattle speak to what I see as enlightenment – connection to self and other. How could it be otherwise? Yet though we may agree with the importance of this, how do we live that out in our daily lives, in each moment?

Through the processes and tools of Continuum and my experience in the Portals of Perception workshops with Susan Harper & Hubert Goddard, I am becoming clearer about the “how to do this.” It is through awareness, a practice of mindfulness, that anchors me in where and how I am in each moment, whether it be walking, sitting, meditating, dancing or washing the dishes. As I discovered in my month long retreat in January, 2008, this practice is the key to becoming connected to self & other.

Remember yourself – again and again and again——

“To embody the spirit of this world such that others may experience it as well is what the art of blessing is all about.” David Spangler, Blessing

With love & blessings, Doris

June 6, 2009

Summer Offerings for your contemplation. Would love to have you there!

Sunday Retreat Days

Sunday, July 26 - 12-5pm @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E7 (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley). Investment $75 (20% off for underemployed).

PERCEIVING AS KNOWING – “Continuum is life as I don’t know it.” How do we contact the mystery, reach into the awesome unknown & tap into the well of origin, the sourcing pool to innovate and experience ourselves in new ways?

In this retreat day, we will explore the myriad ways of coming to be with ourselves in the moment, be it sitting, walking, standing, laying, meditating, or washing the dishes. You will learn new tools to enhance your awareness of how you are in the moment and then to have the choice that enables you to move beyond those limited habit patterns into new possibilities that you can embrace with comfort, confidence and even with joy!

We will use the tools and processes of Continuum with breath, sound, and movement as well as the parameters of perception from the work of Susan Harper & Hubert Goddard. These tools enable us to anchor, direct & contain these new energies.

=================================================================

Sunday August 9 – 12-5pm @ Source Point Studio, 3263 Heather (between W 16 & 17). Investment $75 (20% off for underemployed).

RECLAIMING OUR EROTIC SELF – “Erotic means to be in relation, knowing what those deep relations are that engage the whole body – our heart, our mind, our spirit, our flesh. It is being exquisitely present.” (Terry Tempest William) In that moment of erotic connection, we call the inner life into play & feel pulled towards something much greater, more vital & stronger than simply ourselves. Without that erotic engagement, we feel the loss but often don’t know where & how to satisfy that longing. This is particularly true in our culture which usually defines the erotic as pornography.

In this retreat day, we will explore ways to reclaim our sensuality, our erotic connection to self and other: through following sensation in the movement of our bodies that is pleasurable, being aware & with what is, through primal undulating wave motions, expressing the spiraling life force moving within us, and through the sound waves of our breath & our voices.

There will also be opportunities to explore through expressive arts.

By connecting to this primal, sensory-based experience of movement, we allow a fuller creativity of our being and the expression of Health & Wholeness.
———————————————————————————
We offer you a unique opportunity to combine this Retreat Day on Sunday August 9, making a weekend event, with Tannis Hugill’s Authentic Movement workshop on August 7 & 8 – 10% discount if you register for both.
Details on Tannis’: tannisis@shaw.ca, www.awakeningbodywisdom.com

CONTINUUM VANCOUVER SPRING 2009

doris — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:20:09 +0000

Spring is in the air which is warming more each day. The light is enhancing the budding on the trees, the shoots of the bulbs emerging with their delicate heads from the earth and the birds are joining in the chorus of sounds drowning out the city noises (at least in my auditory sense). Such a renewal and affirmation of life! Time to tune into the seasonal rhythms & what has been buried & hibernating through the dark times in us is beginning to emerge from the “composting” within – new possibilities building on the “what was,” reseeding and bringing new aliveness to explore and express in various ways in our lives.

In this vein, I offer to you my Spring Schedule of classes & workshops.

With love & Blessings, Doris

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Friday morning, January 30th, 9:45am – 12 noon @Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th

ONGOING – Friday mornings @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley). 9:45am-12noon. April 24, May 8, 15, 29 & June 5 – 5 classes – $140 – $50 deposit

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN NORTH VANCOUVER

9:45 am – 12 noon @ Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy, N.Van. (exit off Hwy #1 @ Main St. & right onto Mountain Hwy). Series – April 20th, 27th, May 11th, June 1st & 8th, 5 classes $140. Optional class on May 18th $28 (Monday of Victoria weekend.) To register for classes @ Alchemy, contact Anna Kemble, anna@annakemble.com, 604-781-6040. $50 deposit required to hold your space.

DROP-INS – $30 – no drop-ins after the first class of the series unless you have Continuum experience.

DISCOUNTS: Students & underemployed: 20% off
$25 off if you bring someone new to Continuum.

WEEKEND MINI-WORKSHOPS IN VANCOUVER

Saturday, April 18th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Saturday, May 16th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Investment – $42 each or $75 for two.

DEEPENING INTO CONTINUUM MOVEMENT
Weekend of March 21st & 22nd ,2009 – Saturday & Sunday – 12-5pm @ Source Point, 3263 Heather St. Investment fee – $110-$150. $50 deposit required to hold your space.
An opportunity to explore Continuum for an extended period of time.

MOVING MEDICINE – with EMILIE CONRAD in SEATTLE, WA –
MAY 1-4. FOR REGISTRATION, CONTACT DORIS MOSLER, (not Doris Maranda) – 206-782-0120, dhmosler@aol.com. Canadian rates.

AWAKENING THE BODY OF CREATIVITY – CONTINUUM & ART with BARBARA MINDELL – We welcome Barbara back to Vancouver for another amazing weekend workshop with her unique blend of the processes of Continuum & the creation of the play of colour & form in Art.
Dates – June 12th -14th, 2009 (Friday evening, Saturday & Sunday) @ Source Point Studio, 3263 Heather.

CONTINUUM VANC0UVER -WINTER/SPRING 2009

doris — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:32:32 +0000

NEWSLETTER – WINTER/SPRING 2009

Solstice greetings to All!!! Looks like someone dreamed up a white Christmas for us this year. I returned from sunny, warm California to a chilly -5 C. Mostly, I am appreciating the beauty and softness of the white blanket world as it enfolds us in its mysteriousness and its quietude. It feels like a continuation of the journey I have been on in the “Welcoming Dark” Continuum Intensive which I just returned from on Monday night.

As I entered the amazing cave/womb created at the Continuum studio for our 48 hour allnighter, I experienced a powerful shift in my sensing and how I was locating my body & myself in space. Finding myself pausing at the doorway, then crawling into the room until I adjusted to this new environment, I felt this in a reverse way that it must be for us as infants, emerging from the wet womb/cave in which we hibernated and grew for nine months. With this change in context, there came a different sense of myself, or rather a questioning of who I am or what I am or even the disappearing of identity and form. Somehow that did not even matter.

In my twentieth year of Continuum, I continue to learn new insights into how I have been operating both in Continuum and in my life. For the past few years, with the onset of the deterioration of my hip cartilage and the ensuing hip replacement operations, I who was a doer and a giver have been learning to ask and to receive from my family and friends. It truly has been a gift (even though I didn’t see it that way all the time). In the retreat I realized that in some ways, I have been “doing” Continuum and that it is extremely important that I open up receptivity on the biological level as well. Otherwise, if the tissue is not receptive, no new information and consequently, no new growth or evolving is possible. Learning to receive at deeper and deeper levels allows the penetration and sourcing to take place.

What I also learned in the next few days of the retreat is how strong the habits and the old defensive mechanisms still operate even after this profound insight. It is almost like there is a recoil into the habitual defensive patterns which once served me but now limit me. Peter Levine once stated that we let go of old patterns and holdings when we are resourced enough. I truly feel blessed in the resources in my life, in my community, in the natural world around me and in my inner world. I have never liked myself as well as I do now; it took 71 years but here I am!

As I return to my home and my life here in Vancouver, I realize upon reflecting and sharing with friends, that what I discovered in the retreat is all part of a process. What has been occurring in my life over the past while, especially with my six month sabbatical, personal retreat from January to June, has resulted in my opening up to trusting, trusting that I’m not alone, that I have a community not just of the wonderful people in my life, but also the universe. Increasingly, I have been experiencing that when I attend and participate as fully as I can, I can then trust that the universe will provide and assist me, maybe not in a way that I anticipated but for my and the greater good. Even through the difficult global times we are experiencing, we need to build that inner heartfelt trust that we are part of it all and that it was all meant to be. It is not so much the events we encounter in our lives, but our response to them that we realize our potential both in ourselves and in our world.

With love and blessings for now and for the coming season,

December 18, 2008 Doris

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Friday morning, January 30th, 9:45am – 12 noon @Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley).

ONGOING – Friday mornings @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (see above) – 9:45am-12noon. Series – February 6th – April 3rd (no class March 13th – 8 classes – Investment $225.

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN NORTH VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Monday morning, January 26th, 9:45 am – 12 noon @ Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy, N.Van. Series – February 2nd – April 6th (no class Feb 23rd & March 16th) – 8 classes – Investment $225. To register for classes @ Alchemy, contact Anna Kemble, anna@annakemble.com, 604-781-6040.

DROP-INS – $30 – no drop-ins after the first class of the series unless you have Continuum experience.

WEEKEND MINI-WORKSHOPS IN VANCOUVER
Saturday, February 14th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio – 3263 Heather (between W16 & 17 Ave)
Sunday, March 8th – 2-5pm @ Yoga on 7th – 156 E 7th
Saturday, April 18th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Saturday, May 16th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Investment – $42 each or $150 for the series

DISCOUNTS: Students & underemployed: 20% off
$25 off if you bring someone new to Continuum.

DEEPENING INTO CONTINUUM MOVEMENT
Weekend of March 21st & 22nd ,2009 – Saturday & Sunday – 12-5pm
@ Source Point, 3263 Heather St. Investment fee – $110-$150.
An opportunity to explore Continuum for an extended period of time.

AWAKENING THE BODY OF CREATIVITY – CONTINUUM & ART with BARBARA MINDELL – We welcome Barbara back to Vancouver for another amazing weekend workshop with her unique blend of the processes of Continuum & Art.
Dates – June 12th -14th, 2009 (Friday evening, Saturday & Sunday) @ Source Point Studio, 3263 Heather St. (Flyer will be sent later.)

DORIS MARANDA, www.dorismaranda.com, an explorer, mentor, elder and counsellor for many years, enters into her 20th year of Continuum practice and teaching. Following a six month sabbatical & personal retreat, she brings renewed energy to her living of Continuum as her spiritual, mindfulness practice and passion to her teaching, as guide and sharing the journey in community of others.

PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT SESSIONS
WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com

UPDATE November 2008

doris — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:26:37 +0000

GREETINGS! The dark is settling in along with the rain, the trees are becoming bare with the last glimpses of brilliant colour beginning to fade & yet there are days like yesterday when the sun shines through. All is good! I so appreciate the changability of the outer as well as the inner world and more and more am able to greet each day with whatever it brings.

There are two events I wanted to bring to your attention:

Due to the efforts of Anna Kemble of Alchemy Centre (www.alchemycentre.ca; anna@annakemble.com), I will be teaching a Continuum Movement class at Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy., North Vancouver) starting next Monday for 2 Mondays – November 17 & 24 from 9:45-11:45am. To register, please contact me or Anna. We hope to continue this class in 2009.

The other is Susan Harper’s upcoming workshop February 20-23, 2009, once again at the Memorial for Peace Centre @ 16 & Burrard. Penny Allport is organizing this event and will be away until November 20 & to register you can contact her and she will get back to you at that time: 604-893-4607 or pennyallport@gmail.com. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the workshop, you can contact me.

With love & blessings, Doris

NEWSLETTER FALL 2008

doris — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:35:44 +0000

Greetings to All:

As summer is nearing its end, the season turns to the coming of fall, back to school days, the diminishing of the light, the anticipation of the shedding of leaves and the hibernating time of winter in the wings. For yours truly, coming from the leisurely expanse of my sabbatical/retreat time from January to June, I am back into planning, teaching, and counselling.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Retreat Day and classes at Source Point this summer and they provided me with a wonderful sliding into the “back to work” mode. I find the challenge of staying with my practice of “following impulse,” to be more difficult with the scheduling rather than the actual teaching and sitting with my clients which I find enriching and stimulating. So the challenge continues with paying attention to my somatic & feeling response to planning, scheduling and being “on” as teacher, guide and facilitator. The sabbatical also reinforced how absolutely necessary it is to continue to make time for myself, in my own practice, my study and my rest time. When we get busy it is so easy to slide into ways of rewarding oneself that are not particularly nuturing.

From an amazing evening with the incredibly human & knowledgeable Daniel Siegel on June 18, I was struck by how many practices promote mindfulness, which Continuum certainly does. So much of my practice for myself in January was in this vein – following impulse, paying attention to my somatic responses with curiosity, love & compassion & without judgment. As one does this with oneself, it then extends outward to others. Seigel himself came to this awareness through his psychiatric work with families.

Seigel spoke to the importance of relationships in mindfulness – to the interpersonal attuned mind. The social circuit of the brain is the regulatory circuit and social circuits are thicker in mindfulness practitioners. Practice generates a state of mindful attention in the present moment and promotes the integrative, transformative growth of the brain, those functions being primarily in the pre-frontal lobe of the brain. In addition, there is evidence of healing of a variety of clinical conditions with mindfulness practice as well as increasing the immune system and the neuroplasticity of the organism, the ability to shift & respond to changing context.

I leave on Saturday to join the amazing “Miss Em” for her “Moving Medicine” workshop at Hollyhock. I plan on extending my time on Cortes Island for another week of dipping into the retreat & playtime space at our cabin on Gorge Harbour.

Come and join me for a free introductory (or refresher) session on Friday morning, September 19 @ Yoga on 7th followed by an ongoing class series. I am also offering a Retreat Day on Sunday, September 28th, another approach to my popular theme of “Relationships Through Heart Wisdom.” Although the theme is repeating, we will explore in different ways. AND for something new, I am offering an opportunity to spend an extended time deepening into the Continuum process the weekend of November 8th & 9th.

With love & blessings, Doris

Continuum is a powerful and subtle inquiry that enables us to shift the context of our awareness so that we see ourselves as fluid movement. To inhabit ourselves in this way wakes us up and enhances the dissolving of habitual patterns, opening to new possibilities through enhanced neural connections. This occurs at the physical level as well as psychically and spiritually. In biological movement, there is no separation. “We do not move. We are movement.” (Emilie Conrad)

As well as delighting in the journey into our more expanded selves, Continuuum offers us unusual pathways into healing and creativity.

We use the mindfulness practice of sensation awareness tracking, the zen of breath and sound, as well as intrinsic micro-movements, wave motion and more dynamic movements.

DORIS MARANDA, www.dorismaranda.com, an explorer, mentor, elder and counsellor for many years, enters into her 20th year of Continuum practice and teaching. Following a six month sabbatical & personal retreat, she brings renewed energy to her living of Continuum as her spiritual, mindfulness practice and passion to her teaching, as guide and sharing the journey in community of others.

PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT SESSIONS
WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com

Summer 2008

doris — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:30:56 +0000

Greetings for the summer season, slowly but surely approaching! As the warm breezes become more prevalent, warming us up inside as well as outside, we think of summer plans as well as the lazy, hazy days, non-planning and non-doing that this season generates in us.

Coming out of my 6 months sabbitical, I offer to you the following schedule for the summer. As well, in July I will be resuming my counselling practice and will be making appointments in June.

RETREAT DAY @ SOURCE POINT – SUNDAY JULY 13TH, 12 – 5 PM.
Source Point Studio is located @ 3263 Heather between W 16th & 17th. Investment: Sliding scale: $60-$80.

MOVING FROM DEPRIVATION TO ABUNDANCE – Summer is a time of fullness, an expansion of the composting time of winter which has moved into the seeding, the budding of new visions and beginnings of the spring. In this retreat day we will ask what helps to lead you to a fuller sense of yourself in your life and what stops you from coming to a realization and expression of your true essence.

Through Continuum’s intricate sound sequences accompanied by movement explorations, we connect to our inner, dynamic fluid selves. We inculcate environments designed to elicit new creative responses, like a “movement tour,” expanding our range of interaction and encourage new “plays” within our bodies and with the environment. We will interweave this creative sourcing into the play of our dreams and dreamtime images, ritual and expressive arts.

CONTINUUM MOVEMENT CLASS SERIES – 4 Thursdays 9:30-11:30AM – July 24-August 14
@ Source Point Studio. Investment for series: $110. Drop in $30 (with Continuum experience).
I have never held classes in the summer but am eager to resume my teaching again & pass on some of the latest innovations from Emilie Conrad & Susan Harper, as well as some of the elements I have been exploring in this sabbitical/retreat time. I am hoping you will join me and we shall see what emerges from our individual expressions and the field we create together.

REMINDER – Moving Medicine with Emilie Conrad @ Hollyhock, August 24-29.
Contact: registration@hollyhock.ca or 1-800-933-6339.

With love & blessings, Doris

NEWSLETTER SPRING 2008

doris — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:31:17 +0000

Today is Mother’s Day – May 11, 2008, an auspicious time to be sending out this newsletter. Since returning from Emilie Conrad’s wonderful 4 day Continuum workshop, “Moving Medicine” in Seattle, I have been immersed in house hunting, a daunting task and quite a challenge to retain some of the incredible dropped down and aware state I reached through the time with Emilie and my two weeks in April at Cortes. So much of what I’m learning is how to modulate and balance the “doings” that a busy active life in Vancouver demands, with the processes that drop me in that rich inner life which we all long for.

Since embarking on my six month sabbatical, I have wanted to write an update and let you all know how my experiment was progressing. However I haven’t felt the impulse. Then towards the end of my two week stay at our cabin on Cortes, it came upon me and I wrote and wrote. Following is what emerged. I will be returning to my counseling practice at the beginning of July and also sending out another message with my Summer Continuum schedule.

Cortes Cabin, Cortes Island —- April 24, 2008 —– LET IT BE

Running through so many of my thoughts and those of the authors I have been reading, comes the theme of being fully in the present moment. Think back to Ram Das’ first book in the “60’s, “Be Here Now” and of course, Eckhardt Tolle’s “The Power of Now” (made famous by the power of Oprah Winfrey). I’m sure each of you could think of many who speak to this. Then why is it so difficult? Deepak Choprah states that 97% of our thoughts are in the past (even thoughts of the future anticipate what will happen based on the past).

When we are fully in the present moment, it’s amazingly rich and peaceful. I have been reading Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s, “The Call” and she points out that the difficulty lies in our resistance to the reality of impermanence. Everything is always moving and changing – the basic tenant of Continuum being “We do not move, we are movement.”

So to be in the fluid, present moment, we look at the nature of water – always moving, shape shifting and changing depending upon the context – from solid, to fluid to vapour. As I watch the view from the windows of our cabin, I note that while everything I see is changing, it is the water in the ocean that changes and moves rapidly from moment to moment, combined with the air and the wind. I look away and back – it’s different. The other elements – the trees, the rocks, the earth are also changing but albeit so slowly, we can’t capture it with the eye. The creatures I see – the birds, the ducks and the squirrels, are also in constant motion. They fly in, swim in, run into my view and then they’re gone. They, like us, are composed mainly of water – dynamic, alive & moving.

In Continuum, we speak of the influence of our breath on the waters inside of us. Why do we resist these organic, biological rhythms and movements of change and cling so tenaciously to what is familiar, even if it is something we hate, are bored with, or cause us incredible pain??

When I first came to our island cabin for two weeks in April, I realized quite soon that my experience this time was quite different from the month I spent here in January. For one obvious reason, I had a whole month compared to two weeks. For another, there were many “to-dos” at the cabin this time – carpenter ants to be dealt with, hydro poles needing replacement, details to be attended to with the subdivision we are planning and so on and so forth it goes.

And Yes, it is spring and January was in winter, in the composting, hibernating time, while spring is beginnings, what was hibernating coming awake, alive and needing to be tended to.

The difference – in January, I became more immersed in and attentive to the spiritual and creative parts of myself, culminating in the deep, dropped down, slowed down and aware state, where, for example, my compulsive eating habits disappeared. I was aware of being hungry, enjoying what I ate and then completely stopping because I was full, no matter what was left on my plate. I even could have a half of a square of chocolate and put the rest back because I didn’t want it. For someone who’s been a compulsive eater since 13 years of age, this was an amazing, freeing and empowering example of how I was in touch with my needs.

During the month of January, I rested a lot, I read a lot, I meditated through Continuum & sitting for 20 minutes a day, I watched my beautiful ocean view with the diving winter ducks on the water, I had periods of days Continuum silence, I exercised every day, went for short walks, I played with painting & collage & photograph and some writing. I attended to the fire (a constant in January) and so on. But mainly, I practiced following impulse and watching my response both physically and emotionally without judgment but with love and compassion and curiosity. I practiced a loving, curious attentiveness towards myself and the situation I was in.

The overall result was totally amazing! I have never felt so peaceful, so rested, so alive, so connected to myself and other. The difference was obvious to myself as well as to others. A side benefit was that I also began to feel stronger physically and more energized.

Returning home in February after a horrendous snow storm where my neighbour had to tow my car out of the driveway, I realized that the intensity of this period would diminish but not disappear as I reentered my life (but not my work) in the city. I needed to put into practice (and still do) all the things I’ve learned over the years of exploration and to trust what I know. I am so grateful for the gifts and the resources that I have accumulated from various teachers and processes and to my community of friends, family and colleagues who support me and I them.

Even though I was alone most of the time in January, I never felt alone. When we drop down and surrender deeply into silent awareness, under the emptiness, we find the fullness of being connected to self (body, soul and spirit), to our community and to our planet and universe. So I feel at all times (well, mostly) that my loved ones are with me, like microtubules supporting the skeleton of my being.

These are the main practices that I carry with me:
(1)the loving & curious attentiveness while following impulse. It is important to learn to be still enough to really feel the impulse and to move & follow it while staying attentive to self and other (context), rather than moving from habit. However, if it is a habitual impulse to move (so much is) it is important to still follow it with loving, curious attention. Soon, you will begin to learn the difference from your response, physically, energetically and emotionally.

(2)to trust myself and practice what I know now, rather than searching the next “goodie” – method, book, workshop, job, relationship, etc.

(3)to never feel alone (I never am anyway – I am intrinsically interconnected and held by my larger “Self”) and to make use of my community of friends and family—to reach out when I’m needy (having the health problems I’ve had in the last few years, especially during my surgeries has helped me to learn the benefits of receiving as well as giving).

So here I am, in a good place at the end of these two weeks of retreat and reflection, and in a different place from the end of my retreat in January. “It’s all good.” And so it is much about knowing when and for how long one needs to withdraw from our busy lives, to tap into those inner resources, to that rich inner life that we have denied ourselves so much of our life. It’s taken me over 70 years to find the place I’m in now and then to keep finding it anew in each moment which involves letting go, making space for another possibility to come in. Combining this with holding myself as part of the greater whole, the community of beings —-

More letting go – I have sold my condo and will be moving at the end of June. I finally made the decision after many back & forths, finding it difficult to let go of my home that I love. However, once I was able to say, if it is meant to be, it will sell, and if I’m not meant to move it won’t, it sold to the first person who came to see it – we didn’t even have an open house!

So too with my beloved companion of seven years, my cat Emily, I went back and forth with finding a loving home for her, and finally again surrendered – if it was meant to be, it will be. Then a wonderful couple answered my ad on Cortes. They have a lovely 5 acre waterfront property, next to a park – sort of cat heaven! She’s most happy and settled in quickly. “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be.”

We do what we can to invoke, invite the inner wisdom, then let go of expectations and be open to whatever, give it over to the Greater Being, to the Mystery.

With love and blessings, Doris