Anna Halprin was famous for saying “Your body is a microcosm of the universe” — arguably one of the foundational statements of conscious dance.

Science, of course, bears this out. Vast numbers of individual atoms are essential to your existence. Simple substances like sodium, sulfur, calcium, and carbon are what makes you tick. Somewhere you’ve got an animating spirit in there guiding you as you rock through life.

Joni Mitchell (and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young) famously put it like this:

We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

So if your moving-body-of-stardust is a microcosm of the universe, what does that make your home and the environment you live in? Might this be the garden of which Joni sings? Is your home a microcosm of the world at large?

You are dealt a hand of atoms at birth, but the elements of your living space are determined moment to moment by you. Your home is an environment where your creative spirit crafts a healthy place for your soul to shine. It’s meant to be the place where you can let your hair down, feel safe, and truly relax.

When it comes to your home, the world is your oyster. You have a great degree of control over what you choose to surround yourself with. Life’s gift is the opportunity to treat your living environment like an artist’s palette. Life as art, indeed!

The thing to watch out for is accidental items, in other words physical or metaphysical junk that clogs up the flow of your mojo. Sometimes it’s the situation or circumstances that need to be rearranged. It’s worth learning how to Feng Shui the flow of your entire existence.

Life is a balance between being out and involved in the world, and being safe in your haven where you can rejuvenate and reflect upon it. Your home reflects your dreams and ideals, the best of your adventures and intentions. It’s the charging port for your soul.

Careful curation is front and center in my life at the moment. After ages of cleanup, we’re putting our new place together from scratch, gradually wrapping our entwined aesthetic around the well-loved bones of this old French farmhouse. It’s vide grenier season here in Sarthe and the brocantes are calling!

So back to our over-arching metaphor for the day — your home as microcosm of your world at large. Zoom out to the universe and zoom in to your kitchen table, let the macro meet the micro and ask yourself how to make your home environment a place that shines your spirit. Life is a process and you are the artist!

Leaving you with more wise words from Anna:

“The body is living art. Your movement through time and space is art. A painter has brushes. You have your body.”

Much love and à bientôt till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine