Practical instructions for how to work with these recordings: quiet and rhythm
Above all, eurythmy is a path of love and transformation. Eurythmy is able to bring to you a feeling of meaning and purpose, because all of its movements are derived from a deep understanding of the human being. From it, you can derive a sense of joy, alignment, coordination, stress relief, vitality, grace and well-being.
To make these changes permanent in you, strive to let them become habits in you. In order to change your old patterns into new habits through eurythmy, I suggest that you dedicate time each day to these simple practices. In the beginning, you may take only 5 minutes, but as you learn more movements, you will want to take 15-30 minutes each day. For many people this augment or perhaps even take the place of a daily sitting meditation.
It doesn’t matter if you do it in the morning or in the evening, but it should be done as regularly as possible. The first key to a successful personal eurythmy practice is to develop a sense of self-movement. Although the lessons on this site are offered to you through audio and video recordings, these will only serve you to get started with the exercises. I ask you to internalize the experience and then turn off the recording as soon as you can.
Learn to practice everything in silence, training yourself to move out of your own inner core. You will evoke the inspirational picture that you just learned, and you will practice over and over again how to bring it to life within you. Your spirit, soul, life body and physical body will become aligned as you work from out of this newly awakened source in yourself. Unlike many other modern paths of meditation or movement, in eurythmy you want to work in deep silence. You will not use even quiet music as a background for your exercises. You will learn to look for and draw from the strength of stillness in your own soul, your spirit source.
How to choose your eurythmy space and what to wear
Before you begin your eurythmy practice, let’s consider what will you wear, and how you will choose your eurythmy space. Everything about eurythmy should have an element of beauty about it, for beauty invites the spirit to be present with you.
You will want to have an atmosphere of quiet, if possible. Choose a space to work in where you will have a minimum of distractions. If you already have a meditation practice or yoga practice, you’ll already understand how to make a place energetically supportive of your quiet inner work. I prefer to work in a room with a minimum of furniture and very little on the walls, so I won’t be distracted by looking at things. I also make sure that I am not looking at mirrors, because I don’t want to be looking at myself, and I also try to position myself so I am not looking out of the windows.
If possible, minimize the presence of electromagnetic fields, by turning off cellphones, laptops and other electronic equipment. In the beginning, of course, you’ll be following the audio and video recordings, but please aim to free yourself from them as soon as possible so you can work in real quiet. It’s best to work on a hardwood floor, if possible. The worst floor to work on is a concrete slab, or flooring glued directly to concrete, because ideally, your floor should have a little bit of spring to it. I also try to avoid working on carpets with thick shag, because they make it hard for me to feel the ground, and to balance.
You’re probably also wondering if it’s all right to work outside. For many reasons, I prefer to work inside. Basically, when I work inside, I can be more focused on the energy that I’m able to move, and I’m not drawn out into the beautiful nature around me. My chi can be big, but it’s not as big as the whole world of nature around me, and as a eurythmist, I’m trying to sculpt the chi that I’m able to touch. My practice is thus more centered and grounded when I’m inside.
As a trained eurythmist, I can work quite effectively and powerfully even in a tiny space that’s only about perhaps 10 square meters, and still feel that I’m moving all of infinity. As a beginner, however, you will probably like to have more space than that.
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Now consider your clothes. In a eurythmy training, we wear long, plain, silk dresses that allow us to move gracefully without being encumbered by heavy fabric that binds or restricts our movements. We also wear an overdress of silk gauze that enables us to feel the movement around our body better.
When I do eurythmy as a personal practice, however, I usually don’t choose to put on my silks. I do, however, wear loose and comfortable clothes that allow me to move easily. I always feel best wearing skirts or pants that come down to my ankles and sleeves that come down at least to my elbows. It’s also nice to have light-weight dance shoes on the feet. We eurythmists generally prefer lightweight gymnastic shoes with non-skid rubber bottoms.