Barbara Houseman Retreat - Day 1 Reflections

This week this gorgeous group of actors will be reflecting as each day passes through the Deep Dive into Your Inner & Outer Voice with Barbara Houseman at Bodlondeb Studio & Retreat here in North Wales.

​Day one in Bodlondeb House…

We were invited to start day one with a 7am swim in the river. It was a great way to start the course, gently pushing us out of our comfort zones with kindness. It was also a great opportunity to enjoy the place we have come to start bonding as group.

Studio time started with Tai chi on the roof. I find warm ups are usually very functional and this was much more about finding your energy and being where you are. There isn’t a right way.

We’re being given a lot of permission – to accept where we are at and welcome it all in but then also to find something in that feels good to focus on.

You can choose where you put your focus. You can focus on what feels good.

Permission is a huge thing. Give yourself permission.

I felt empowered enough to walk outside and breathe for a minute because I needed to breathe for a minute.

You feel like Barbara actually cares for you and gets excited for you, but each of us specifically.

She’s really brought us back to listening to our bodies. We explored the resting breathe and a couple of us reflected afterwards that we had been surprised to discover that we didn’t need to breathe in immediately after breathing out. This was massive.

We gang up on the more vulnerable parts of our bodies/minds whereas we are the adult and we should nurture the vulnerable parts like a parent would.

We worked in pairs and used our body weight to help each other breathe deeply. We had to learn to trust ourselves and how instinctively we can respond to each others rhythm.
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The morning was a lot about beginning to unpeel layers of how we breathe and uncovering our held patterns.
This afternoon was more about applying tools and techniques.