The following weeks we meet in a pergola so that we are protected from the sun as the weather warms up. Then we realize that this space belongs to other units and we have to move again this time back to the unit. In the unit’s hallway. “J” brings his guitar and so we initiate the warm up yet soon enough we are all sitting listening to “J” playing and singing. Specifically, the guitar helps us stay focused while the unit around us is noisy and hectic accomplishing a similar loosening up sensation as we had on the grass.
Unit 2 Thursday Morning
Patients are adult depressed patients age 18-70. Until now, we met once a week in the hospitals’ basement where there is a comfortable space to move around. Along with various new hospital regulations not only were we unable to maintain our indoor movement sessions, we had to find a space where we can maintain two-meter space between us. Again, our only option was under the tree. I placed a circle of chairs, placed the speaker in the middle and here we begin to move in nature. Nature became part of our session and in addition to increasing our awareness to our body we included the fundamental experience of sensing nature. For example: some took their shoes off and felt the grass, others reached their arms so they could touch the branches of the trees, or we listened to the birds while we breathed. Nevertheless, we had a few distractions as we were moving around the hospital grounds. I remember staff members observing, staring at times, and the themes such as safety, secrecy and intimacy in the group were hardly kept as the boundaries of the setting were broken. Nevertheless, we practiced the vitality of not only our bodies but also nature.
