en*theos Academy

Here are a few of our favorite Big Ideas + Other Cool Stuff from Week 1 of Michaela Boehm's 8-week course The Art of Intimacy

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The Context

Upon moving to the United States in 1994, Michaela quickly became counselor to the stars in Hollywood, California, working with the world's best-known celebrities.

Michaela began studying with David Deida in 1997 and in 2007 began co-teaching with him, focusing on women's empowerment in the 21st Century. Michaela is currently the only counselor in the world personally trained and authorized by David Deida.

THIS WEEK, we kicked off The Art of Intimacy with an awesome session on Understanding the Principles of Intimacy.

Let's check out some of our favorite Big Ideas from this week:

Big Idea #1: Intimacy with Self

Every person has the ability to add their own humanity, flavor and distinctions to the process. In this wide, complex and lovely system, no two intimacies are alike and no two relationships are alike.

In order to have intimacy with others, however, we have to start with Self. A key start for intimacy with others is to be connected to your experience, moment to moment. Without this awareness, we may just be running our trip on other people, trying to force intimacy. When you gain the new tools of breath awareness, eye gazing, feeling the other—make sure you don't disconnect from your self, and in this way genuinely enter into relationship in an organic and unforced way.

When we start with feeling ourselves, we can then feel others. Then, a new potential opens up where we can move beyond into a much bigger and wider space. Let's take it one step at a time!

Big Idea #2: Masculine Grit. Feminine Flow.

There is a higher self with us all that witnesses, gives direction, creates structure, gives container, and gives us clarity to make sense about things.

When we connect our inner masculine with this higher perspective, we can guide our experience, direct our actions, and hold a structure over a period of time.

Having the confidence that we will attend to whatever needs to be attended to, our inner feminine is automatically liberated and we are able to flow with more energy, light, great love and understanding.

We can swirl and flow with life while being connected to our higher vision.

Big Idea #3: Feeling the Heart

Beginning in intimacy is about connecting first with ourselves. Our bodies are great sensing instruments that can give us a tremendous amount of information about the world and where we fit in it. As we connect more fully with our own heart, we can feel into the hearts of others and begin the dance of intimacy.

Here are some tools to help you connect with your heart & those of others:

• Turn towards each other.
• Look at each other.
• Connect down the midline front side of the body.
• Meter your heart & that of your partner. Is it opening or closing?

There will come a moment where it becomes too much and you want to retreat. This depends on the time of day, what you've had to eat, childhood wounds, and your personal practice. This is where the yoga of intimacy happens.

Don't close and don't turn away. Stay with the closure, hang out and breath. Like a good yoga pose, staying with the discomfort will help you stretch into fuller capacities for connection.

Other Cool Stuff

Practice for this week:

• No matter where you are, put some attention on your internal intimacy. How connected are you feeling with yourself? As you connect more deeply with your own heart, start feeling into the heart of people you encounter. You aren't trying to force intimacy, but allowing organic connection to happen as you connect more deeply with your own heart.

You may have heard Michaela talk about "stages" on the call. Here's a brief breakdown of the three stages of intimacy from David Deida.

Hope you enjoyed and see you in Week 2!

- The en*theos Team