By Pamela Luedtke, Certified Brain Gym Instructor, Dance Instructor, Certified Pilates Instructor & Creator of em.bodi.ment 

The Fire Element symbolizes our passion for life through the quality of our relationships with others. The connections we make with each encounter is a balance of giving and receiving unconditional love with others and with ourselves

Our heartbeat accelerates with every emotion or physical action we take or slows down to a peaceful waltz during a quiet moment of meditation. Noticing our heart field and imagining our heart field expanding into the space that surrounds us is an opportunity to direct our unconditional love outwards towards others.

The heart field is an energic connection that reaches from our heart space through our distal reach and can expand as far as we can imagine. Noticing our heart field also provides insight to our abilities to receive unconditional love. To create true balance within our heart field, we must be able to give and equally receive love.

The following integrated movement from em.bodi.ment provides the imagery and physical gesture that explores our heart field.

The Fire Element is one of five elements of the Element Wheel. Each element has one action referred to as an integrated movement. This action is repeated multiple times and provides a movement experience that focuses on personal choice-making. Authentic movement is movement that you choose to make however slow or fast you wish to move. The impulse or motivation to move is based on your breath, eyes and internal affirmations creating a reflective process of movement.

The single movement that is repeated is a starting point, where your gestures take you is a precious moment of choice and expression of your authentic self. The movements are based on Brain Gym ® and Touch for Health ® concepts of integrated movements.

Integrated movements are specific movements that correlate to specific areas of the brain. For example, when we walk, we move through cross-lateral movements which activates both hemispheres of the brain while moving our right arm only, activates the left hemisphere of the brain. The potential of daily movement is not only valuable to our body but also to our brain.

In the following video, join me in exploring our heart field of the Fire Element through the em.bodi.ment  actions from the Element Wheel.

Fire

Meridians: Heart/Small Intestine (Unconditional Love & Assimilation) and Pericardium/Triple Warmer (Bonding & Harmony)

• Standing in neutral placement, feet parallel with the knees unlocked. Take a moment for intentional breathing and place your hands over the heart or lower abdominals. Slowly extend the arms outward and then return to the surface of the body. Breathe in open your eyes and exhale and close your eyes. Breathe in open your eyes and internally state or speak out loud “I am” as your internal affirmation, exhale close your eyes and notice one word that may come to mind. Repeat your inhale with eyes open stating “I am” and exhale notice your key word that may complete this simple but powerful phrase.
• The integrated movement begins by noticing your heart field. Through the gesture of reaching out and returning to your heart center, notice how far your heart field expands. Does it extend to your fingertips, pass your fingertips, through the walls or does it extend miles away?  Allow the eyes to look outwards with your reach and bring your focus closer following the return to the surface of your body. The gesture of extending out is to direct your intention of giving unconditional love, the gesture of drawing the hands back to your heart or lower belly, embodies your acceptance of unconditional love. Layer this movement experience with your breath pattern described previously, along with your internal affirmation of “I am”.
• Reach out into your distal space which is as far as you can reach to your fingertips. Our personal space includes the distal reach of our front/back, side/side, up/down and diagonal front/back space. Each direction we reach out into has three levels, low, middle, and high. Expand your heart field by reaching in different directions in a variation of levels. Your authentic movement may expand this gesture into stepping into the direction where you reach. This action of stepping also challenges leg tracking of your gait and balance.
• Finish by arriving in stillness, take a deep in-hale and ex-hale in stillness to conclude. I find value in taking a moment to write and reflect on your movement experience recalling imagery, emotions or inner dialogue drawn out by the affirmation of “I am”. Observe your reflection through the viewpoint of a witness and not of judgement. Consider exploring this Element for one week.

Join Pamela in her upcoming 11 Video-On-Demand Series: em.bodi.ment Shen & Ko Cycle & One Private Session learn & register HERE

Begins Monday, February 14th – April 25th | Videos are uploaded each Monday; Practice when it’s convenient for you!

Pamela Luedtke NCPT-CPT completed her Comprehensive Pilates Certification through Studio B Pilates/Balanced Body in 2014 and Balanced Body Master Instructor Training, Sacramento, CA, in 2020. As a Pilates Instructor at Studio B, she has worked with individuals of various backgrounds and abilities in both large group classes and with clients in one-on-one consultations. Pamela was certified as a Brain Gym® Instructor in 2005 and continues to integrate the theory into her teaching which inspired her to develop a movement exploration titled em.bodi.ment.  em.bodi.ment  links movement development and reflexive repatterning  that creates a physcial exploration of layered  activities that can enhance and support your  physical practice of authentic and integrated movement.

Pamela completed the 500-hour certification of Brain Gym ® through the Educational-Kinesiology Foundation teacher program in 2005.  As a certified instructor (2005-2010), Pamela facilitated trainings through-out Central Wisconsin instructing; Introduction to Brain Gym ® and Brain Gym ® 101 course work for elementary and high school educators. She has also consulted schools to bring more movement into the learning process by accessing Brain Gym® activities in the classrooms. As a Practitioner, she continues to advocate the integrateation and implementation of movement into our daily lives to enhance comprehension, focus, organization, and emotional health. For additional information about Brain Gym ® visit www.braingym.org to learn more.

Pamela is an active artist in the Central Wisconsin community for more than 20 yeasr. She is the founder and artistic director of Point Dance Ensemble, a co-founder of The Artist In Residence Project (AIR Project) and a founding member of Shuvani Tribal Belly Dance. Pamela was a soloist with the Mary Anthony Dance Theatre in New York, NY for eight years, during which time she also worked with such dance luminaries as Anna Sokolow, Bertram Ross and Agnes de Mille. She is currently a Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where she teaches Ballet and Modern Dance technique, as well as a Pilates Mat class.