do you know where your back space is?

,

Just landed in LA.

Got on a shuttle to go get our rental car at Budget. 

Am now am sitting in the parking lot at Budget, waiting for the car, with many other people who are also waiting for their car.  I think we are going to be here awhile.

The view is highways, parking lots, and hotels…that is all we have seen of LA so far: the LAX airport and the Budget parking lot.

My niece, who I am taking to VidCon, says - right after taking a deep breath and having a  look around -

“This is where I belong.  These are my people.  Just look at those palm trees!” 

There is a huge smile on her face, and we have not even left the Budget Rental Car parking lot yet.  

The above has nothing to do with your back space, but I just wanted to give you some context, for no other reason than, why not?

Okay, your back space:

Do you know where it is?

Have you spent some time there lately?

No?

Me neither, at least not today. 

I have been in forward mode all day, trying to get from here to there and then back again.

Sitting here in the Budget Parking Lot while Maddie and Glen wait in line to get the car, I am going to focus on my back space.

Keeping both sitz bones on this concrete bench with old gum, cigarette stubs, and bits of trash all around me, I notice my breath.    

I don’t change anything about my breath, I just notice it.

I notice the smells around me (very different smells here in the Budget Parking Lot in LA than at home), and I notice how I feel, which right now is just fine.

I lengthen my spine, just slightly, and look behind me, twisting to the right, and leading the movement with my left shoulder.

I don’t push it all, since I have been sitting all day, just a little movement to get me sensing my back space.

And I do the same thing, twisting to the left, and leading the movement with my right shoulder.

Now you try.

First off, where are you?

Can you describe it to me in a few sentences?

How does it smell?

How does it feel?

Who are you with?

Now feel your sitz bones again, lengthen your spine, just slightly, and do the backstroke.  See how long your eyes can follow the movement of your arms as you swim in the air behind you.

Let’s move on to your dance mission for the week.

Can you do it right now, rather than waiting?

I will do it too, right now, in the Budget Parking Lot in Los Angeles, CA.

Dance in your back space, whatever that means to you.

No music this time.

Let the sounds of environment you are in be enough.

Okay, stepping away from my computer and doing it now……….

How did it go for you?

It went pretty good for me, not great - very hard to focus in this environment - though I did get an image of human beings inserting themselves throughout the parking lot in odd and irregular positions.

 

Oh, and there is the car, so gotta go and get registered for this strange gathering of you tube connoisseurs. 

With Warmth,
Joanna
of
Joanna and The Agitators
sweetly agitating/persistently upending

ps: that discount I am offering for the fall session of classes ends on Friday.  Sign-up here if you want to get the most bang out of your buck (did I really just say that?? It must be this LA air I am breathing…..)

xo jo