Author Archives: Paula Josa-Jones

Mar13

one-to-one

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Engaging the artist within is one-to-one coaching for those who want to jump-start their creative practice.  Sessions include body dharma strategies (how to engage the body and let it inspire your work), improvisation & creative alignment practices.

My background as a movement educator, improvisational movement  and theater artist, writer and somatics practitioner gives me unique ways of helping you to engage your deepest, most embodied creative self.

The other part of my background is that I spent many years having an out-of-body experience.  This year marks 33 years since my last drink, and 25 years in recovery from eating disorders.  I have been on the planet for a while.  So for those of you for whom the body is not necessarily friendly territory, I get it, and I can help there too.

Beginning March 15, I am offering FREE COACHING CALLS.  These are introductory 30-minute sessions to help you optimize your creative goals.

I will only offer 10 of these, so if you are interested, contact me soon.  To make an appointment for a free call, either email me or fill out my form.   

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Mar12

the jack

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Photo:  Pam White

This is Liam, the Jack Russell.  I have a complicated relationship with him.  This morning when I was letting the dogs out, Liam, who sleeps with us, charged the front door where our feral cat, Mamacita, was patiently waiting to be fed.  I heard his teeth hit the glass.  Hackles up, growling. This is the part I don’t like.  I don’t like the constant barking, the grabbing at our gentle greyhound Jules’s mouth when they go out.

We have tried the Cesar Milan “sshhht” sound, clicker training, the water squirter.  Nothing works.  He will sit but the moment our attention leaves, he is back into his jack mania.

For years Pam wanted a Jack Russell.  Our vet at the time said she would not treat him if we got one.  One day we were traveling on the ferry back to Martha’s Vineyard with our three greyhounds.  Up on deck we met a man whose Jack Russell had just died after seventeen years.  “You must be devastated,” we commiserated.  “Oh, it’s ok, he said, “it was actually a relief.”  He told us how every day for seventeen years, the dog had barked and jumped and attacked everything in sight.  I was sure this would put the Jack Russell issue to bed at last.

Then one day we went to a barn to visit my horse Goliath who now belonged to a friend.  In one of the stalls were four tiny Jack Russell puppies, just brought back from Ireland by the stable manager.  Our daughters raced in and five minutes later, Chandrika, the youngest, came out cradling a puppy.  “This is my baby sister who died,” she said.  Adopted from Nepal, she in fact did have a baby sister who had died.  At that moment, my heart sank and Pam, I am sure, did a mental fist pump.  Of course we bought the puppy, and named him Liam.

As I said, my feelings are complicated.  There is also  tame, sweet Liam who dives under the covers to snuggle behind my knees at night. There is creative muse Liam who sits on the floor at my feet when I write.  There is the Liam who has an interesting, obsessive relationship with our cat Tallulah.

It is not really that complicated.  I don’t love (some of) what he does.  Do I love him?  You betcha.

Mar10

the donkey’s tale

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Photo:  Pam White

Last summer Pam and I went to Bedlam Farm to interview Jon Katz for my book, Horse Dancing.  I had been reading his blog posts about Simon, the donkey that he and his wife Maria rescued.  The story he was telling in his blog was about a man who loves and knows dogs stepping, no falling, into the equine world.  I wanted that story to be a part of my book.  His book Rose in a Storm, which I read in a storm, is my favorite animal story of all time.

We have been trying to connect since summer and managed a meeting today in Rhinebeck.  It is interesting to move from a virtual relationship to a physical one.  For me it has been mostly the other way around.  But Jon and Maria have been taking friendly shape for me through their writings – Jon in his Bedlam Farm Journal and Maria in her Wulf Howling blog.  Today Jon, Maria, Pam and I stood outside at the farm where we board our horses.  I had just ridden Capprichio, and he stood with us as if he was hearing and understanding everything.  Interestingly, he was not obsessed with getting his nose in the grass, but kept gazing around the little circle, taking in his human herd.

We talked today about connection and finding and creating community through the internet.  About privacy and what we reveal, and how we control the message.  About what one’s story is and how that is shared.  About sharing an artist’s life in this intimate, anonymous way.

I do not always have a clear sense of my audience, and if it is growing or how much I should care about that.  Mostly, I try to find the thread for the day, the thing that I want to push into and explore.  Today felt like friendship steeping, taking on a richer color and fragrance.  Another beginning.

Mar9

body dharma 3

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Ingrid Schatz in Pony Dances           Photo:  Jeffrey Anderson

 Body dharma is a fierce practice. It is not for the timid or the lazy.

Attending to the body is not just cosmetic ministrations and ablutions.  It is not just practices, classes or disciplines. It is not only poses or techniques.  Because you can do all of that and still have never entered the body.

Movement is the body’s language and voice.  Breath is the body’s anchor.  Heart is the body’s center.  When you invite the body to move – without judgement, without hurry, without direction – you have begun to practice body dharma.

A recipe for entering the body:

Attention:  because the body is precise.

Listening: because the body is subtle.

Kindness:  because the body is tender.