In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to lose touch with ourselves, our emotions, and our body. David Brower’s ‘Alivefulness’ movement offers a fresh approach to reconnecting with our inner selves through creativity, sensory engagement, and mindfulness.
Discovering Your True Self
David Brower’s journey began with an unexpected failure in law school, which led him to Paris on a quest for self-discovery. Over the past 33 years, he has come to believe that we continually find and lose ourselves throughout life. According to David, this cycle is a natural and crucial part of our evolution and personal development. Embracing the ebb and flow of our identity keeps us refreshed and engaged in a creative, variety-filled life.
Introducing Alivefulness
David’s Alivefulness movement is centered on reconnecting with our bodies and emotions through sensory experiences. He believes that our brains can often bully us with overactive, anxious thoughts. By engaging in activities that stimulate our senses, we can escape our heads and anchor ourselves more firmly in the present moment.
For David, cooking was a gateway to sensory engagement. The act of cooking requires the use of all our senses, demanding presence and pulling us away from the egoic mind’s gravitational pull. This concept can be extended to other activities such as dancing, singing, painting, or even just walking and observing our surroundings with heightened awareness.
The Power of Different Intelligences
David emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and balancing our different intelligences: brain, heart, and gut. Each offers unique insights and perspectives. Our brain handles logic and analysis, our heart provides emotional wisdom, and our gut offers intuitive understanding. Balancing these intelligences can lead to more holistic and wise decision-making.
Often, the head dominates our reactions, driven by fear, control, and caution. By practicing mindfulness and body-aware techniques like breathing exercises, meditation, and sensory engagements, we can allow our heart and gut intelligences to come into play, helping us respond more wisely to the world around us.
Releasing Emotional Energy
Our bodies store emotional energy from all our experiences, especially those we’ve suppressed or repressed. This trapped energy can block us from living fully and authentically. David suggests several methods to release this energy, including laughter, crying, and various forms of bodywork like breathing exercises, acupressure, and somatic healing practices.
By allowing ourselves to feel and release these buried emotions, we can expand our capacity for peace, power, and authenticity. It’s about being gentle and compassionate with ourselves, holding space for our emotions rather than confronting or fleeing from them.
Practical Tips for Reconnecting with Yourself
David offers some practical tips for anyone looking to start their journey towards reconnection:
1. Attend a Breathing Session
Engage in a one-hour somatic breathing session. This deep, rhythmic breathing to music can unlock and release long-held emotional energy, providing powerful healing and reconnection.
2. Dance for Hours
Allow yourself to get lost in dance for an extended period. Physical exertion helps soften the head’s control and drops you into your body, opening pathways for emotional expression and release.
3. Practice Mindful Meditation
Focus your meditation on breathing into your heart and belly. This can help you connect with and process emotions that might have been suppressed.
Resources for Creativity and Mindfulness
David highlights the importance of curiosity, voluntary deprivation, and embracing discomfort to deepen one’s creative and mindful practices. Cooking, for instance, offers daily opportunities for creativity and presence. Exploring fears and engaging in activities outside your comfort zone can expand your capacity to handle life’s challenges.
Traveling to new and challenging destinations can provide fresh perspectives and stretch your understanding of the world and yourself. Instead of always choosing comfortable or familiar paths, seek out experiences that push your boundaries and offer new insights.
Alivefulness
David Brower’s Alivefulness movement shows us how to reconnect with our bodies, emotions, and deeper intelligences through sensory engagement and mindfulness. By balancing our brain, heart, and gut, and releasing trapped emotional energy, we can lead richer, more authentic lives. Whether through cooking, dancing, mindful breathing, or traveling, there are myriad ways to rediscover and embrace the fullness of life. Let’s take the first step today towards a more creative and connected life.
For more on David Brower and his Alivefulness movement, follow him on Instagram at @SensorialGuy.
