Et laboratorium for rumudvidelse og udforskning af grænselande

A laboratory for space expansion and exploration of frontier lands

of Katrine Annesdatter-Madsen | PRACTICE | March 4, 2015

A "place where experiments and studies of various kinds are carried out". This is the definition of a 'laboratory' according to ordnet.dk. I imagine that the MBSR course is such a laboratory...

A laboratory where we are all taken out of our busy everyday lives and for a while, two and a half hours, are together in a room where we conduct experiments and studies of ourselves and each other. At first glance, these studies and experiments may seem navel-gazing or selfish, but I actually believe that they are fundamentally directed towards something outside of each individual; towards something that is perhaps greater than the individual. To me, it seems intuitive that when you expand the space within yourself, you not only expand the space for yourself, but also for other people and the world. And I think that this is, among other things, what we train in the MBSR course.

In this diary entry, I refer to activities from some of our teaching sessions. They form a smaller part of the process, but I still consider them important and extremely rewarding because they simultaneously invite us to explore the borderland within ourselves in a gentle way.

Flick in slow motion
In the laboratory we all come from different lives and with a baggage filled with just as many different things. I imagine that in the process we explore and learn about different aspects of the inner space.

For our third lab meeting on Monday, I explored the aspect of movement and the body in interaction with others. We were to do an exercise that consisted of the group lifting and turning a person around in a vertical slow-motion flip-flop movement. Peter is a seasoned athlete, and it was really nice to feel his experience in this field, and that he has probably guided hundreds of people through such an at-first-sight wild exercise. At the same time, I also think it is incredibly nice to feel Hanneli and Peter's commitment to developing their creativity in a slightly more unconventional MBSR exercise that only helps to enrich the process with a kind of 'tailoring' to the needs of the group. If you wanted to be turned around, you should try to relax and trust the others in the group who were turning you. The exercise involved a lot of physical contact with each other, and if you were to be turned around, you got especially close to the others and their touches on your body.

Exploring the inner borderland
When I explore this aspect of the space, I become more familiar with it, and I gain more courage to venture into such games with others that I don't necessarily know very well beforehand. It's as if it's not only a greater physical openness and comfort that I'm training when we, for example, do flip-flop exercises, play boundary-setting games or sit back to back and breathe. But as if I'm also practicing becoming better at noticing so that I can say no or yes when I feel the need to during the exercises we do. Maybe it's because I'm getting to know sides of myself better so that I gradually find out where my boundaries are.

Katrine Madsen: læser Nordisk sprog og litteratur med særlig interesse for litteraturhistorien og svenske og norske forfattere. Litteraturen er fantastisk, fordi den på en måde er et studie og en udforskning i andre menneskers bevidsthed og livsopfattelser, og selve dét er et enormt berigende og udbytterigt hav at kaste sig ud i. Udover litteraturen holder jeg meget af at lave mad, gå ture i naturen og især mindful yoga, der kan gøre mig helt blød i knæene.

Katrine Madsen:
I study Nordic languages and literature with a special interest in literary history and Swedish and Norwegian authors. Literature is fantastic because it is in a way a study and exploration into other people's consciousness and views on life, and that itself is an enormously enriching and rewarding ocean to dive into. In addition to literature, I really enjoy cooking, going for walks in nature and especially mindful yoga, which can make me completely weak in the knees.

The founder of the MBSR program, Jon Kabat-Zinn, accentuates in his book Full Catastrophe Living the importance of going to the limit and crossing it – to look the catastrophe in the eye and get to know it as the prerequisite for becoming good friends with it. We examine the limits in the MBSR process and also cross them, but never with the feeling of being pushed into extreme borderland within ourselves. Perhaps it is precisely the feeling of always having a scaffolding around you that makes you dare to step out into unknown ground in the MBSR room. I certainly feel a kind of kindness and empathy among the group when we are all gathered in our gentle laboratory. Perhaps it is related to the willingness and courage to let go a little, expose yourself and venture out into your inner unknown land; Perhaps it is because of the mutual unspoken understanding for this important work. Or perhaps - it could also be related to the fact that the physical aspects that are central to the MBSR process, for example through body scanning, yoga or a joint exercise, can connect with a heartfelt feeling that points both inward in the individual, but also outward in the group.

In this way, I not only train myself to be more comfortable in my body or explore my awareness of it, but I also train, become familiar with, and expand my inner heart space for the benefit of myself and others.