Brief notes on practices of attention and intentionality.
Movement Practice
I dance regularly - Contact Improvisation and 5Rhythms - as my integrative practice.
Contact Improvisation is a form where you stay in physical connection with another person, improvising movement together. You’re constantly negotiating weight, momentum, and space. It requires presence.
5Rhythms is structured improvisation through five energetic patterns: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness. It builds and releases energy systematically.
Both practices share something: they require you to show up fully in your body, in real time, with what’s actually happening. No planning ahead. No rehearsing. Just responding.
This is the same muscle I’m trying to build in therapeutic work and meditation practice - presence with what is, rather than what I wish it were.
Listening Intentionally
I recently rediscovered my old MP3 library. Hundreds of albums I collected over the years, then abandoned when streaming made everything instantly available.
Now I’m listening album by album. Start to finish. In order. The way albums were meant to be heard.
It’s a different experience than streaming’s endless scroll. With streaming, I’m constantly hunting for the perfect next song. With the MP3 library, I’m committed - this is the album, these are the songs, I’m here for the whole arc.
The Pattern
Whether it’s dancing, listening to albums, or sitting in meditation - the practice is the same: choosing a container, committing to it, and seeing what emerges within that constraint.
Not forcing a particular outcome. Not optimizing for maximum pleasure or productivity. Just showing up consistently to the thing you said you’d show up to.
The constraint isn’t a limitation. It’s a frame that focuses attention.
Connection to Other Work
This is the same principle I’m interested in therapeutically (Talk. Art. Therapy.) and in contemplative practice (Social Meditation - A personal and professional journey).
Working within constraints. Trusting emergence. Sustained attention over time.
Like the stone stairs worn smooth by generations of feet - something grows through the continuity of showing up.