Somatic Movement Summit™

Dancing with Trees: Roots as Creative Resources

Elisabeth Osgood-Campbell
Gayatri: Welcome, everyone, we're so glad that you're joining us here today. I'm super
excited to introduce to you our special guest, Elisabeth Osgood-Campbell. She's a
seasoned somatic movement educator and expressive arts therapist that guides
her clients into the rich resources that reside within their BodyMindSpirit. She's a
faculty member at Tamalpa, and she is a member of the Continuum Teachers
Association. Elisabeth also serves as a Co-Chair of ISMETA's Research and
Publications Committee and also the Equity, Justice & Accessibility Committee.
Elisabeth, a warm welcome to you.

Elisabeth: Thank you, I'm delighted to be here.

Gayatri: Wonderful, and today, you have some beautiful gems to share with us. Creativity
and somatic practice combined with the arts, I just can't wait. We have actually a
longer session or a longer practice plan of a 20-minute exploration later on. I'm
really looking forward to that. Elisabeth, today, the title says, Dancing with Trees.
That just brings a whole lot of different images to mind. What are the roots of this
vision for this session for you? How did this come forth?

Elisabeth: Well, in my two decades of guiding and facilitating somatic movement

explorations, I have come to deeply appreciate that our somas are intricately
connected to the web of life that sustains us. As I have dived into my own biology,
my own fluids and the other elements of earth and air and fire within my own
bodyscape. I seem to have grown this deeper and deeper connection with the
natural world around me. I love offering these inquiries, these creative
explorations that give people the opportunity to connect their inner somatic
experience with the external natural environment. Because we are bipeds, we
stand vertically on two legs and feet most of the time, generally speaking. We have
a natural mirror in trees. Trees have trunks like we have torsos. They have crowns
like we have crowns. Trees have roots that we may not literally have. But in this
work that I love so dearly Tamalpa Life/Art Process, we engage metaphors. Even
though we are not literally trees, we can enter into an exploration creatively

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 through the arts. To receive insight, receive resources in dance, drawing, creative
writing. This is the background out of which the session today has grown.

Gayatri: That sounds so rich. I love it. We're going to be diving into more of that. Listening
to you, I have these images of different trees that I have met in my life. I remember
these big oak trees. I am in Sweden, so I like to live in the countryside surrounded
by nature. I can't recall the many, many, I mean the number of times because
there are so many that I've taken refuge in trees and with trees. They're such a
carrier of just that silent wisdom of just remaining, of just standing. As you were
saying, roots and crown. I just keep learning from trees and about trees. It really
keeps being a deep inspiration to me. I am very curious. When did you start to
deepen or explore your relationship to the natural world?

Elisabeth: As a girl, I was very connected to the natural environment and loved being in the
woods in upstate New York on the eastern part of the United States. But really in
my training with Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin at the Tamalpa Institute. It
reawakened this childhood love of mine, of feeling connected to and a sense of
belonging in the natural world. Anna Halprin was really a pioneer here in the
United States in bringing dance off the formal stage and into the streets as a form
of political engagement and activism and also into the natural world. As
inspiration for heightened creativity and also for healing. Because before Anna
developed Tamalpa Life/Art, she was a modern dancer. Then she confronted the
challenge of cancer. It was through that process of healing herself through
movement and drawing and writing that she developed this work. The natural
world and these metaphors were a profound part of that process for her that then
she shared through Tamalpa Institute and the work that I was trained in.

Gayatri: You were sharing there how your openness or your belonging with the natural
elements, it was there when you were a child. Then you rediscovered or
recultivated that when you came into the Tamalpa work. Do you believe that we
all have that when we are born into this world that this is a natural state of
communion or being in relation where the belonging to? That we then may be
forgotten then we come back to. What is that journey?

Elisabeth: Yes, I do believe. I believe it's everyone's birthright that we are born as a part of
the living systems of the animate Earth. Many cultures, mainstream US culture has
divorced itself from the living Earth. Through the processes of my education, my
family system in part but really the culture around me in these institutions that
have separated mind from body, spirit from body, which includes Earth. We come
to this tragic sense of separation and fragmentation. It is in so many cases and for
me, it has been a process of relearning or returning to a much more original sense
of belonging in the natural world.

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Gayatri: For sure, yes, me too, for sure, for sure. In your experience, what is the
relationship then between reconnecting oneself with this natural state of
belonging or to the natural elements through arts process and somatic
awareness?

Elisabeth: Well, as I mentioned earlier, it's a natural pathway from the inner somatic
awareness of our own lived embodiment. To feel the air moving in and out of our
bodies, for example, through our breath. Then the knowing that there is this
exchange between us and green plants and trees. That they produce the oxygen
that we need for our survival and that we release carbon dioxide that they need
for their essential processes to stay alive. That we're in this biological ecological
exchange. Then the arts come in and say, wow, we can use that as a metaphor to
create dances, to create visual art, to create performance pieces, to write poetry.
Because this is deeply inspiring stuff that we and the plant life on the planet
support one another's existence in a symbiotic relationship. I see them as threads
that weave together into a beautiful tapestry that can support healing from
experiences of trauma, for example, chronic illness. People I work with have these
as challenges in their histories. But also, for artists who are constantly hungry for
and seeking inspiring material to work with and play with and create with.

Gayatri: I often feel when I'm out in nature and I let myself marinate in nature. I put away
my phone and the thoughts quiet. Then after a while, I'm just with the elements.
Once that takes over and it carries me and I am moved by that I'm in relation with,
many beautiful things come forth. What was covered with the habituation or
whatever the layering of everything, it is uncovered and it can be expressed. It can
be sound or movement or like you said, poetry. I love to create from that place. It
feels so connected to source in a way. That it's purer than me in a way. It's more
connected to the origin. I always trust that kind of creation the most when I'm
really out of the way in a way.

Elisabeth: Yes, I so relate to that. It is such a blessing that we have these larger forces, these
larger contexts that we participate in, but that can also hold us in a sense. I think
so many people are stressed and distressed in this modern era because we have
forgotten that it's not all about us. That human existence, which entails human
drama and conflict and crises, is not the end all be all. That when we're going
through those challenges, we often forget that there are these larger forces
around us that can hold us. That we can envelop ourselves in and rest and receive
replenishment.

Gayatri: Soothing to follow you in your words and where you are pointing towards. I am
getting very excited to go into that practice. Can you tell us a little bit about what
is the practice you're going to be sharing with us here today?

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Elisabeth: Yes, I'm excited to share it with you. We will use this metaphor of trees and the
similarities between humans and trees to explore our root system imaginably.
There will be a movement warmup with my verbal guidance and an exploration.
There will be an opportunity to do a drawing. If you have some paper, crayons, oil
pastels, whatever works well for you. You're welcome to bring those to the area
where you are in your art studio. There is an opportunity to do a little bit of
reflective writing as well. Maybe you have a journal or a pen or a pencil. If we were
in a live class together, there would be time for sharing and exchange at the end
with a partner or a small group. I would love to receive any feedback from your
exploration or other people's explorations via email. I'm totally open and
welcoming of that. We'll go on an expressive arts journey to explore your somatic
sense of any root system in a creative conversation with trees.

Gayatri: It sounds great. Let's do it.

Elisabeth: Fantastic, I invite you to enter into whatever your movement studio space is going
to be for today. That could be sitting in a chair. That could be standing. That could
be lying down. This work of Tamalpa Life/Art, we really honor where the body is
and invite people to customize. Any invitations that I offer, please adapt as you
need to according to what is right and good for your own body. As you enter into
your movement space, you may want to deepen your breathing. If that feels good
and supportive to you, you may want to place your hands on your body as an
invitation for your awareness to enter further into your bodyscape. You may also
want to invite a softening in your joints so that you may receive the support of the
element of earth underneath you. Whether that's through the seat of the chair or
the floor or maybe you are standing on the ground itself. Breathing and softening
into this contact with the ground. Imagining a place in nature where you enjoy
spending time. Maybe it's somewhere you've been recently.

Or maybe it's somewhere you have dreamed of going where you will be able to
dance with a tree. Notice what image begins to take shape in your imagination.
Maybe you're at the seaside in a tropical place and there are palm trees nearby.
Or maybe you are in the Swedish countryside with great oaks. Or maybe you are
in California with the towering redwood trees. Or in a meadow somewhere with
trees that grow fruit. Notice where your imagination takes you. As you breathe
and sense the contact with the Earth underneath you, you may begin to notice the
size of a particular tree that was coming to join you in this creative conversation.
You may notice the contours of this tree. Its shape, the colors of the bark and the
leaves or the needles, perhaps their flowers or fruit. Noticing the temperature of
the air around you and any sounds in this scene as you are present with this
particular tree. There may be smells associated with this place. In your own way,
I invite you to greet the tree through movement or gesture.

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There may be a sound or a particular breath that sends a message of greeting to
this tree being. The tree may receive your greeting. There may be a rippling in the
leaves. Or just a felt sense that the tree is aware of your presence. You may notice
the length of its trunk, the width. You may sense into your own torso. Allow your
torso to move or converse nonverbally just for a few breaths with the trunk of the
tree. You may in this imaginal scene want to travel very close to the tree. Perhaps
you even want to lay your belly or your back against the trunk of this tree. Or you
may be dancing with it from a distance. When you feel ready, you may notice the
branches, the shapes of these branches and scents into your own arms and hands
and fingers. Allow your limbs to dance just for a few breaths here with the
branches or limbs of this tree. As you continue moving, you may also sense into
the crown of your head as you take in the crown of this tree. Perhaps there's a
canopy of leaves or a collection of blossoms. Allow the crown of you to sense and
play for a moment with the crown of the tree.

As you continue moving, you may also visualize the roots of this tree from the tips
of its branches through its trunk down into its roots that grow into the soil or the
sand as the case may be. Allowing the tree to drink in nutrient-filled fluid from the
soil, from the Earth. This is how trees sustain themselves. Through this mineral-
rich water that runs through a vessel system similar to our circulatory system.
They drink up water from the ground, delivering nutrients through the trunk into
branches all the way to its crown. As you visualize the roots of this tree, you may
also imagine that you have roots. Perhaps growing from the bottoms of your feet
if you're standing. Or from the tip of your tailbone. Or the bottom of the bowl of
your pelvis if you're sitting. Or if you're lying down on the Earth, maybe roots are
growing from various other places along your spine or elsewhere. Just take a
moment here. Perhaps pressing gently into the ground or surfaces of support
underneath you. Imagine that you have roots that allow you to receive deep
nourishment from the Earth.

Then in your own way, you may do a dance here. For the next minute or so of the
tree. Of you drinking in nutrients through your roots. Maybe it's just a tiny sip. Or
maybe you have a taproot that goes deep, deep into the ground and you have a
long drink. Notice how your system wants to receive nourishment. Letting your
whole body perhaps participate in this dance of drinking in through your roots.
Taking another few breaths here to see if there's anything else that you would like
to explore or receive through your root system before we pause. Allowing this
dance with this tree to find its own way to relative stillness. When you're ready,
perhaps thanking the tree for this dialogue or duet. Perhaps placing your hands
back on your body if that feels good and right. To sense your whole self from your
crown to the tips of your branches or fingers. To the tip of your tailbone all the
way down to the bottoms of your feet. Noticing sensations, images, perhaps colors
and any roots that are alive in your mind's eye and your embodied experience.
Allowing these sensations and images to flow onto the page in a drawing.

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 Or a sketch for just a few minutes whenever you're ready. Knowing that in the
Tamalpa work, it's not about what it looks like. It's about the process of authentic
embodied expression. Noticing if there are certain lines or shapes, certain colors
that want to be included in this image of your dance with trees and your own
roots. Closing your eyes as you pause if you want to. Maybe pressing gently back
into the element of earth underneath you. Listening for any other elements that
may want to be included in this sketch before we pause in another minute or so.
Knowing that you can continue with the drawing process later, of course, if you
don't feel done. I invite you whenever you're ready to shift from sketching into
just a couple of minutes of reflective writing. Continuing to activate your
imagination and considering the possibility that this image or sketch could speak.
First of all, what name would it give to itself? What would it call itself? You can
write that on the front of the image or the back of the paper or in a journal if you'd
like. What name would this image give to itself? Then allow it to continue
communicating with you through words. Listening for what it has to say to you
about receiving nourishment from the Earth. If this image could speak, what
would it say to you about drinking in nutrients through your imaginal roots?

Again, taking a moment to listen for any other messages that the image would like
to share with you. Are there any other words that feel essential to include?
Knowing you can continue writing more later if you'd like. Perhaps looking over
the words that have emerged onto the page. Identifying a few keywords that feel
particularly potent in conveying whatever this image has to say to you. Are there
a few keywords that feel extra juicy? You may circle those or underline them or
highlight them somehow. These keywords could be nuggets through which you
begin a poem, or you play with them in movement and create a dance piece, right?
Or take these words back into the drawing process. In this way, we're pausing the
art making process here. But it can just continue to flow on infinitely in all these
various directions as these different art modalities feed and fertilize one another.
Hopefully, generating an insight, a discovery, a resource that you can then take
with you out of the art making process into your daily lives. That is really the
essence of Tamalpa Life/Art process. This idea that the lives we lead shape the art
we make. But also, that the art we make can inform and resource the lives that
we lead.

Gayatri: Wow, Elisabeth, that was so enriching to go inside and find the tree in me and to
be with the tree in my imagination. It was such so beautifully guided. Each of the
pieces, the movement, the being in relationship with, the drawing, to bring that
out. Then writing and each piece connected to the previous. It was really very
insightful. I feel so resourced now because I have all the nourishment overflowing.

Elisabeth: Wonderful, that's my intention. My hope and my prayer in sharing this work that
I've developed over the past number of years.

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Gayatri: Beautiful, there's more I want to hear about that. I had this funny message that I
was writing down. I'm just going to share that one little piece. That is the deep
nourishment is ever present and that you are overflowing. This is now the funny
piece. That a tree was telling me, your leaves are green and your roots are stable
and your branches are supple. I will take refuge in that and support from the trees
to be reminded of that goodness that is available to me. Thank you so much for
those insights. That also, of course, everybody has their own unique realizations
in this process. I just thought to share that little piece.

Elisabeth: Thank you for sharing. I love it. I feel honored with getting that glimpse into the
creative process. Yes, what I love most about this is that that came from within
you and your body-based imagination and creative process with this living tree in
your mind's eye. In the creative art making space that you entered into so willingly
and beautifully, thank you for that. It's not me. I'm just holding the container and
offering these invitations and look what emerges.

Gayatri: There was a lot of imagery or imagination here. What is the connection between
imagination and this somatic exploration in this way? How can we use that for
self-healing? I know you've already spoken a little bit about it. But now that we
have explored it as a first person, then we can go a little deeper into that.

Elisabeth: Yes, the imagination is so critical, I think, to somatic work. Many different somatic
modalities use mental imagery because we can't literally see inside of our own
bodies. There are medical drawings. There are now films, videos with tiny
microscopic cameras traveling inside various parts of the body. But really, when
we are tapping into our subjective first-person experiences of our own bodies.
Which is what somatics, it's a large part for me of what somatics is about. We have
the opportunity to invite our imaginations to really come alive. This is where
creativity can so support somatic exploration and healing and growth. In terms of
receiving images that can inform our nervous systems, for example. That can
inform our cardiovascular systems. There is all of this evidence through mirror
neurons that when we observe certain things, parts of our brains light up as if we
are actually performing those actions or engaging in those activities. When we
receive these images through creative processes. I believe they are having impacts
on our regulatory systems in our bodies and really are making supports the
parasympathetic nervous system and the vagus nerve. Which is designed to help
us sooth and settle, can be supported. Respiratory rate decreases. Our heart rates
can slow down. Circulation increases. All of these biological responses support
better immune function. There's so much research coming out now that images
can have this very literal biological impact on our wellbeing.

Gayatri: That's truly amazing.

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Elisabeth: Yeah, I feel ancient cultures knew this all over the planet. That in every continent,
pre-agricultural, pre-industrial cultures made art. As avenues towards individual
wellbeing and collective wellbeing. Our ancestors danced and sang and drew and
drummed and eventually wrote also. Like we are reclaiming an important lineage
that existed all over the globe in doing these kinds of explorations.

Gayatri: Indeed, and we got to practice that today. We got to explore that together today.
Thank you so much for that embodied somatic journeying that you guided us
through. Now that we're coming towards the end of the session, is there anything
that you would like to leave the listeners with? An encouragement or reminder?

Elisabeth: Connecting with resources in the natural world for me is as simple as returning to
my breath. Remembering that I am alive through the support of the natural world,
elements of earth, air, fire, water, these trees and plants. We are all participants
in this marvelous and mysterious web of life that offers resource for our wellbeing
and for our creativity. That is essential as we continue to evolve. That's my hope
and my prayer is that we continue to evolve.

Gayatri: Yes, may we do that. Elisabeth, when people want to learn more from you and
study with you, where can they find you? What kind of offerings do you have?

Elisabeth: I teach through Tamalpa Institute. Tamalpa.org is a place to see where upcoming
class series are and workshops. I have my own website as well,
elisabethosgood.com. I spell Elisabeth with an S instead of a Z. I have a monthly
newsletter that you can sign up for through that website. You can also reach me
by email, contact@elisabethosgood.com. I would be delighted to share with you
in a group setting, through classes and workshops or in one-on-one sessions. I
guide people's individual explorations as well. I'm just deeply honored and
delighted to share this work whenever I can.

Gayatri: That is very evident. Thank you so much for your time and for being here with us
today.

Elisabeth: Thank you, it's a delight. Best wishes.

Gayatri: We thank you all for listening here today to this great session with Elisabeth
Osgood-Campbell, thank you all.

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