Men often ask us: What do you practice in a men’s circle?
In Unshakable Man – Men’s Circles, we teach men a set of somatic practices to create a brave liminal space. The structure of liminal space is what allows a man’s protective parts to relax so he can do deeper transformative work.
This work is a physical skill.
Liminal spaces are threshold spaces, spaces in-between. Men, need environments like this to allow themselves to expand and grow.
A key part of our practice is “Earth Descent” or “Grounding in The Earth.” In our circles, this is step 3.
Grounding in the eath is what allows us to clear the space. It also empowers us to make the somatic journey. There are moments when it is all too much to handle. These moments are when we need to be able to fall into the accepting ground. If a man’s relationship with the ground is one of separateness he won’t be able to hold the space or make it through certain experiences. He will eventually jettison off into the head to craft a story to protect himself.
When we begin grounding we also close the container. The men who are present are the men that will be present for the rest of the journey.
Each step allows the creation of a deeply meaningful space. Each step is intentional. This structure can be compared to the masculine structure that allows the feminine to flow with intensity and appreciation.
This is how we access parts of ourselves that are normally hidden or protected in our day-to-day life and relationships or work on our relationship with our everyday experience of life.
Just as in the somatic meditation practice of pure awareness, there are 17 steps, our circles have a structure of 7 steps.
***Within an individual check-in, there’s another cycle.
This structure allows “Something to be experienced” within that structure. It’s vast and creative and meaningful work.
The 7 steps of an Unshakable Man Circle are:
1) Arrival practice
2) Agreement setting
3) Grounding practice
4) Check-in Round 1
5) Check-in Round 2
6) Check-out Round 1
7) Inspired Integration
What is your somatic relationship with the earth?
“The only way we are going to be able to be with the increasing openness of our state of being is if we are experientially grounded in the earth beneath us, deeply rooted in her timeless, supporting, and immovable space. And this groundedness does have to be a matter of direct, personal – and relatively continuous – experience. As we practice and make the somatic journey, we need to feel like a mountain that rises up but only out of a broad base that merges down into the infinite depth of the earth. Through earth descent practice, we begin to come into that kind of awareness where the majority of our somatic “self-awareness” is in the earth below and the rest is up here on the surface, living our sometimes stormy and uncertain life… this is not dissociating… rather it is opening and extending our somatic awareness down into the earth… this practice is going to challenge the way we habitually “Think” of our awareness. “
TUM Reference: Page. 57 – The Awakening Body, Somatic Meditation For Discovering Our Deepest Life, By Reginald A. Ray