5Rhythms®

5Rhythms is the name given to Gabrielle Roth’s lifetime body of healing movement work. It is a practice, a discipline, a language for moving through life’s layers. It is an awakening and welcoming of the body, heart, mind, soul and spirit to be fully present.

Curiosity

Curiosity fuels me and my creativity. I consider life to be an adventure and am fascinated by what it has to offer. I’m always questioning why things are a certain way and what would happen if they were different. I’m interested in the free flow of ideas between people rather than deciding that things have to be one way or another. My whole life is about moving away from constructs that limit me.

Paradoxes

Motion and stillness — part of me is always in motion, even if my body is still. In my stillness, I’m aware of my life force, the energy of creation moving through me and of being connected to that which is greater.

Dancing, moving without a menu of thought, without stops brings me to an internal stillness. When there’s a free flow of energy moving through my body, there are no compartments, no separations.

Spirit

I identify Spirit as the life force that flows through and around us. My own spirit is a gift and a responsibility. For me, Spirituality is the practice of being present with whomever and whatever is in front of me.

My connection to spirit is personal, constant and permanent. It’s in everything I do: the way I treat others, make choices about how I live and invest my time.

I appreciate the gift of my life and live as open-heartedly as I’m able.

Emotions

Feelings and emotions are integral parts of who we are. Sometimes they’re comfortable and feel supportive; other times, they’re uncomfortable and indicators of the need to look deeper, perhaps to examine old survival strategies that no longer bring us to our joy.

I’ve found that one of the many benefits of my movement practice is a greater sense of agency, to make choices that are in my best interests and highest good and that bring me back into my joy.

Birthright

People have the right to emotional and spiritual health. We have the right to feel and be whole.

Many of us have been directly or indirectly taught that we don’t have value or that we have to earn our value in certain ways. I disagree. Everyone has inherent value. It’s our birthright.

When you come to class, you’re invited to hear, feel and move in ways that break old patterns and create new ones. You’ll form new neurological pathways that lead to deepening self-trust.

— Lisa DeLand

When we compartmentalize ourselves, it may serve as necessary protection; it can also limit our wholeness. When we welcome all of ourselves to show up in the dance, we’re actively healing. 

The practice of being with what’s uncomfortable over time allows us to be with what really is — which in turn gives us the ability to make the changes we want.

Our bodies hold innate wisdom that this practice helps us cultivate.