Here is some of the feedback we received from participants of the recent workshop:

PERSONAL POWER
JUNE 24, 25 & 26
ROME, ITALY

During the workshop my definition of personal power changed from "Power is to understand myself and what drives me; power is to understand and be aware of the world around me" to "Power is acquiescence; to be full of energy, full of affection".

At the workshop I connected with some part in me that is quiet, collected, patient and aware - a part quite different from my usual self - which is busy, unaware and chaotic. And the amazing part is that I still keep this connection alive to this day.

The Director's Chair stalking exercise was very important for me this time.
Until this workshop there has been some tendency in me not to take the witness exercises into my daily life. I have made amazing discoveries about my habitual El Colmo moments and yet they remained primarily in the real of the workshops. This time the very practical and at the same time magical significance of these exercises sunk deep in me.

The tales of power of Brian and Aerin showed me how I can use the witness exercises to recapitulate and find my repeating habits and then stalk them in my everyday life.
After the workshop I moved the witness exercises from the ""something special, done only at seminars"" category, to the ""do it myself in my everyday life"" category.

The seminar brought me profound moments of internal silence.

For me, the Tensegrity workshops have this strange capability to open wide the heart. As if, each time, a passage open in the middle of the chest; as if, in an instant, I become aware of all the energetic relations that took place in the course of my life.

It's not that I become tender, I neither cry, but sometimes I have something like a knot in my throat, rationally unjustified, and an incredibly intense emotion comes to me. I feel the same emotion when I meet somebody dear to me, who I didn't meet for years: perhaps have I the same kind of encounters even in the invisible world?

Maybe the passes of the moon, with their sweetness, their capability of introspection, connected me with some very deep parts of me, that live in this state of consciousness.

Saturday evening, the atmosphere was really magic. The energy of the moon was really in all participants, males and females. The passes recalled particular forms and figures, soaked of emotions, of deep sensitivity and unconditioned affection. As a male I was surprised of how I felt at ease, plunged in this kind of awareness. For me it was a discovery: feeling in harmony, with no fears, without pushes and strange convulsions, in the middle of the flowing, light and sweet energy, brought by the feminine world.

After the passes of the 'El Colmo', that could be considered connected to a struggling, reactive spirit, the form of the moon was the natural compensation and balance. We had fought several battles, we had understood that the way of the struggle doesn't bring great outcomes, we had understood that the only way we have to follow is the one of the heart, and then the form of the moon has really shown these new modalities of interaction, new patterns of behaviour, new energetic configurations to realize.
Thank you Instructors! And thank you Moon!

I'm ready to relate about the 'Rome after seminar'. My answer, to what personal power is, changed during the workshop: before I had the sensation of power being something meaning I CAN, then I got a different answer; for me, now, my personal power is being aligned with the universe, feeling, perceiving and loving everything around me, to have power is this feeling of belonging to infinity and feeling in harmony with everything that surrounds me, everything that I have been allowed to have, the moon, the sun, the earth, the trees, people...

The 'Il Colmo' stalking exercise has again underlined, and this time with great evidence, that everything is up to me, that every time I'm concentrated on myself I lose the alignment with the stars; I relate the most meaningful thing that happened to me in these days:

In the shop where I work there is a woman who is hierarchically superior to me, she is of my age; with her I often lose alignment, I judge her, but after the workshop my point of view was different: I didn't feel anymore that she commanded me, she is only my boss, she tells me what I have to do and I execute without having any problems; but two days ago, while we were in the shop and we had to prepare the 'sales', she was about to tell me what I had to do but I, since I perfectly know what to do, how to do it and to do it better than anybody else, I had already started to arrange the goods, to set out the exposition how it had to be set out; then I asked her a very simple question: I didn't know where the tags for the prices where and, instead of answering my question, she said that I didn't pay respect to her, that I had abused her office, because I neither asked her what to do nor how to do it and nor when to do it; that it's her role, she's the one who organizes things in the shop and as it often happens I did everything alone without asking my superior, that is her...I felt heat raising in my stomach and spreading all over my body; I told her that I don't abuse her office but then I went away. I went to the bathroom and I was thinking that it was really too much, that I'm very good at doing my job and why have I always to ask her? She's the one who doesn't acknowledge MY capabilities, she's the one who wants to be in command. She doesn't like me, because I know how to do my job. I didn't know what to do, I was full of myself, may be she's jealous of me, she is ignorant and I can speak better than her and I'm better looking in front of the customers, I'm the best shop assistant…….and then I reminded Brian's account, it was really close to my actual situation, I let the rage go, I cried for a short while, I didn't know how to recover the situation with my boss, I did the sun breath and without any thoughts I went back to her, to my boss, as calm as I didn't think I could be and I asked her advice about the exposition I had to set out, I asked her about all the details; and she, very softly, gave me some suggestions and then she let me take some initiatives: 'do what you think is the best, you know how to do it well.' Only then I realized what had happened, I became aware that she is my boss and this changed everything; I was serene, content of the trust she had given me and aware that it was my judgment (me me me) that misaligned me. The challenge is always there but now I have the tool to interrupt my habit. At night I thanked the moon, and, still earlier the sun while it was setting, and both times a sweet sensation of affection embraced my body.

I liked a lot the magical passes learned at the seminar and I found particular sensations in all of them, but the dialogue between the three celestial bodies, earth-moon-sun, was the most enthralling novelty; while I was interacting with the other two celestial bodies there was silence around and within us; I felt my body answering without former thoughts about how to answer, my body moved on it's own. Whatever celestial body I was, I responded to the sensations that I received from the others, with what came from inside my body, from the womb and the heart, there was neither head nor thoughts. It was wonderful to close the seminar with that marvelous song dedicated to the earth and the sun, I love singing, but, besides this, it was a general emotion, we never stopped, I could feel my emotions and the others', somebody had misting eyes like me.

Thanks for the help, for the affection, for the smiles... with all my heart.

This Tensegrity workshop brought me in a condition of deep silence and receptivity. Since when, at the very beginning, I stepped into the Esperanza Hall, everything changed, the frenzy of the days and moments previous to the workshop disappeared in an instant.

The form of the sun, made me perceive both the radiant energy of the sun and the one of myself and the one of the people around me, this incredible strength of the sun is inside every being, it's wonderful!

The form of the moon has really activated the direct perception of the womb; I felt the power of the universe coming towards me, like the flowing of a wave.

I put a lot more attention in this last workshop on the fact that the warrior must intensely participate both to ordinary reality and to the warrior's way. This translates into keeping a foot in daily life and the other in the magic dimension of the warrior.

The whole workshop has been a particular moment because sharing the experience together with the other practitioners has made me feel connected with infinity: with the earth, with the sun, and with the moon.

The global sensation left in me by this workshop, differently from other workshops which I took part to previously, has been of a great lightness, rather than a strong boost of energy. I observed a great ease in learning all of the passes that were shown, and furthermore I noticed that I was able from the start to enter into the spirit of the workshop.

During these three days of the workshop, my body perceived that the result of the magical passes that were executed was to literally open the energy body. I felt a sort of expansion in my chest, stomach, belly, womb, and back that gave me a sensation of intense well-being, as I could feel I was breathing better. The intuition I had was that the intent of the passes was to open the body so that it could welcome power and defeat the second enemy of the warrior, that is clarity.

Specifically, thanks to the magical passes of the Il Colmo and to the Stalking exercises I saw that clarity is what shows us things only from one point of view, limiting our possibility of action. When the power comes to us and we are acquiescent, our body is open to receiving it, we are able to defeat clarity because the power gives us a way of seeing new aspects of the situations. It allows us to see how in every situation we occupy a precise role, and often it is not the others doing us something, but we are the ones standing still in our clarity, repeating to ourselves, "It was he/she," "it is all his/her fault," "they are doing this and that to me." And we don't change, we don't take a decision, because in our "clarity" we don't see it. Not only that, but we look for a confederate who reinforces our view of the world, further limiting our chances to act. So, this is the moment to take responsibility for our actions - what is my part in the scene? what is my body position, the dialogue? When we understand that we ended up in that condition that weakens us largely for our own fault, then we can also get out of it. Seeing new facets of the world, new possibilities of action, means to have the opportunity to observe how usually we use our energy and to re-channel it in directions that make us stronger. Taking a pause before acting means to align oneself, and so connecting oneself with power to use our energy in the most functional way.

And in these three days I came to perceive power as the connection with the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, and the beings around us, a connection that is so strong that at a certain point the borders between us and the rest are lost, and we have the awareness of being all the same thing. Power is to bring this intimate connection in every moment, in every interaction with others.

Just like it happened to me on Sunday morning when we practiced the Sun form on Vivaldi's notes. The music seemed to come from a mysterious place, it was infused with power, I could perceive it in the womb and in my whole being, and it seemed we were all running towards the light. I could feel the connection with the sun through the stomach and the palms of the hands burning and throbbing, and I could feel that I was connected to all the beings surrounding me. A great sense of trust and intent filled me up. The magical pass that I felt closer to was the Earth Form because it recalls to my body a great sense of affection towards this serene, splendid, silent being that hugs us. And the marvelous tales of power, each sentence was like a wave clashing against my body and making it burn.

Now, in the life of every day, it is not always easy to maintain this sense of connection, but you gave us tremendous tools to recall it, the magical passes to remind us of our connection with the planets, the stalking exercises that remind us how much we are connected to the other beings that show us new points of view for acting in connection with the spirit, and above all the certainty that that connection exists, it cannot be taken away; it is our strength, we just need to remember it.

Infinite thanks!

Since the beginning of the seminar I felt a great fluidity and much silence; interacting with the other practitioners of the work team was like doing another seminar contemporary to the workshop. I really felt a great energy moving during these interactions. In spite of the fact I used to come back to the everyday life, from other workshops, full of elation, this time I felt a certain self-confidence, stemming from stillness, peace, silence...as if I was on the right way -- el camino con corazon . Today I still have these sentiments and when I lose alignment I close my eyes, I breath and I bring my attention to the structure, to the connection among all us practitioners, you instructors, the moon, the earth, the galaxy and this brings me back to that position of peace and silence.

The pass 'El colmo' and the other exercises about stalking have especially underlined how we are repetitive until sickness and how much energy we waste defending our positions and points of view ( because I'm in this way, me, me, me, and this is mine; and here I'm the boss, etc. etc...) existing only in our mind. They stop existing when we realize we are connected among ourselves, with nature, with the galaxy, in front of infinity.

The most intense moments of the seminar ( I can't say: the preferred ones, the whole seminar was wonderful!) were, for me, Aerin's story, the non- verbal communications of the galaxy and the music, when the all of us where singing, perhaps this last one was the moment when I most felt the power of the mass, the whole cohesive structure, looking in the same direction. A sublime moment.

To all of you, to all practitioners and to INFINITY, thank you! Thank you!
Thank you!

Before the seminar, I was under the impression that personal power was a matter I could handle or use to my convenience, use it for my purpose, almost at will. As the seminar went by, this notion was transformed, until I was certain, at the end that power is overall "something that comes to us", that comes to our encounter and we can perceive it if the fog from our judgments and daily routines is diminished. Then we can acquiesce and accept its plans even though they don't meet our expectations or preconceived ideas.

I would like to illustrate this with an event in my life:

Approximately a month ago, having to compete with a relocation of work, I was sent to another center of education. I am a professor and have been assigned for the following course to a new center in a different location, which starts in September. Those that were familiar with the location began to talk about it and not in the most pleasant way "a neighborhood with many delinquents, drugs, problem students, etc".

As I was receiving the news I was feeling misaligned. So one day I got courageous and I went to the new center. I got off at the corresponding train station where the center is located and the first observation was that the Institute is 100m from the station and that it didn't have a great appearance: it was full of graffiti, dirty, with holes on the walls. Once at the center, a professor from the area where I work at, he kindly helped me and during two hours informed me of the details, schedule and the center's characteristics. I left with very good sensations and we agreed to meet in 15 days to organize the new class.

Fifteen days had gone by and in view that they had not contacted me I called and was told that nothing had surfaced so to wait. I started to lose patience and was having the following dialogue: "for sure they are having the meeting behind my back, without letting me know and this way I will have the worst schedule". I was suspicious of the professor that so kindly helped me "he is a fake, a hypocrite". My body was tense, my back overall, my shoulders and neck were tight. I was practically not breathing. That night I peaked out into my balcony and I observed the waning moon. I had a thought from Haarlem: patience and wait, it is not a moment to decide but to reflect. So I took it calmly and I breathed deeply and I did some passes that gave some sobriety. Some days had gone by and just when the new moon was starting I got a call to attend the meeting. When I arrived at the Institute, in the hall I saw the following scene: Nine well dressed men with their elegant suits and ties, who were pleasantly chatting about projects, deadlines, carrying out courses… Shortly after the director of studies from the center attended me and was taken to a room where after twenty minutes the meeting took place. I was interested in the men I had seen at the beginning and I was told that they were the architects and head of construction for the new center that was replacing the present one. Everything was possible due to the increase in students and to the quality of life from the expanded neighborhood for the new residents (something new comes into my life).

There was a teacher absent in the meeting due to the fact she had just had a baby and her schedule could not be set. I was in a rush to end all this and my dialogue was "we can decide for her". Before I said anything I decided to keep quiet. I want to know how they would resolve this and they taught me a lesson of collaboration. The called her and between all of them a schedule was elaborated to everyone's satisfaction. Instead of the me, me, me I found myself with us, us, us. I remembered from Rome's seminar that in dreaming "we, we" exists

So at the beginning this was a negative situation, "going to a marginal place, delinquency" it was being transformed into "going nearby, where I was welcome, it was being completely renovated and somewhere where I could learn about collaboration". Power had arrived. The following day I was told that I was admitted to a class to study English (one of my second dream-projects for the present cycle) an academy where I had no hope of being admitted. These within the position of the moon, where dreams are being gestated, something new like a seed into my life. Thank you,

Also, the stalking exercises during the seminar (the Director's chair) have allowed me to see that within the relationship with my son S. : being that I am his father I assumed that I knew best for him. The dialogue is "I know more, I am better and have more experience, therefore who better than myself to know what he needs to do" Chest puffed-up, shoulders are raised, chin is high and certain with decision. Therefore if I propose that he needs to study and accomplish courses, he can not turn this down. But he rejects it and I become enraged. How dare he say no!, " This is el Colmo; Now I am infuriated, I insult him "you're worthless, lazy, a poor devil living at my expense". Hastily speaking, almost choking and rapidly moving more one side to another without knowing what I am doing, almost not breathing and without awareness of my extremities.

The Director's Chair, once the body position was shifted, deeply breathing, it has revealed that I need to listen to him, that he is going through stages of change and step by step he will find his path, the things that he likes. I need to trust him. When I was his age I did something similar like him and my dialogue that I have for him is the same that I have for myself. "I need to dream him".

My favorite part of the workshop is the mood of joy and positiveness and fluidity I felt during those days. Just exquisite! I liked the Sun Form a lot, giving me a sense of not just being on, but being really active from inside! With lightness and a power and joy of just being alive. It gave me a different sense of ME in a connected awareness.

The non-verbal Galaxy communication is something my body seemed to be longing for so long...........I could perceive the other beings without being ashamed to look at him/her, just without any chattering of my judging mind, just as he/she is! That's marvelous!!!!!!!!!! And in the same way I feel free to move too, although being observed by others! It's like seeing the essence of the being.

The music was a real art, the way the played/communicated together was just as harmonious and alive as anything could be!

Sure enough that the stories of the Instructors are moving - not at least my assemblage point - and are a deep navigation into awareness.

Personal power - according to my view from the Rome workshop - is having a choice and being aware of it…and to act accordingly.

Looking on my daily life after the experience of Rome means to take things not too seriously…I repetitively see myself in El Colmo states with a smirk afterwards and with more suspicion towards my usual beliefs about life, there is an inkling that things can be different...

When I was stalking these usual beliefs about myself with the exercises you suggested I could find an underlying pattern which I habitually use in interactions with other people. I wasn´t aware of it.

As Aerin mentioned during the workshop we love those Toddler's games ….I found myself acting out the role of a little princess, a role I already adapted when I was in Kindergarten and which I have been using since then. It is a princess that assumes a superior position according to her nature and who is mortally offended if anyone happens to ignore the fact that it is a special nature. The princess is convinced that her nature deserves to be acknowledged and expects an appropriate treatment. If this doesn´t happen it´s time for an "El Colmo" moment….Also the princess loves to stage her encounters with other people…they are supposed to play the assigned part in a play which is directed by her, for the advantage of everybody….I was suddenly very aware when we worked on my situation during the stalking exercise that I was staging the people I interacted with and allotting roles and expectations to them and they had to fulfil them.

How funny to have the opportunity during the workshop and afterwards to use this habit of sitting in the Directors Chair for stalking reasons! And this time it worked! It was very funny to see myself from the outside…it didn´t need a lot of words for explanation - it was indeed self explaining. After shifting I could see that it was me who ignored the nature of the people I interacted with. While I was occupied with being offended because my nature wasn´t acknowledged, I ignored the nature of others. I didn´t really see the beings in front of me. It helped a lot to realize that in every El Colmo moment I am making a contribution, I have a part in it; I contribute to the mess! Whenever I realize my part in it I start to feel free because that gives me a choice…it is very empowering.

What I preferred about the practice of the Magical Passes at the workshop was the non-verbal communication in the Galaxy, that is, the movements of the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon in which there was a more impersonal being together…and this sensation is what was left in me after the Rome workshop, the possibility to be more impersonal in everything we do… with more detachment and, consequently, more lightness. Especially lightness is what I felt mostly with the Galaxy practice, by the way, the name is beautiful! I did not understand at the workshop that it was called like this.

At the question: "What is Personal Power for you?"
At the beginning I had answered: "It is the possibility to be Silent"… quite an easy pursuit!
The second time, I answered: "Remembering to BREATHE!"
At the end of the Workshop I simply answered that I would have liked:
"To be Free like the Wind."

Stalking through the "Director's Seat" I understood that a very strong pattern in my life is that I am often too compliant with others and that, rather than creating problems, I often accept doing things I don't like. I simply should learn to say "no" when I don't want to do something. The worst thing is that every time I say "yes," a terrible inner dialogue takes place, glorifying itself about how good I was not listening to my ego that would have wanted to impose its will…but instead, it's only that I cannot say "no!"
Now I try to keep my attention on this aspect of my character and try not to fall into it as much as I can. I believe that having seen this is already a great result.

With joy, I am remembering the first two days of the workshop in Rome, the dynamic magical passes have been presented and taught.

My point of view concerning personal power has changed so far, as at the beginning, I considered personal power as something, we received as a gift which we then use for our tasks and daily interactions.

During the workshop and especially afterwards, I realized step by step our responsibility, which we assume in order to bring this power correctly into action, in accordance with the eternal power and the spirit. The point is not, to live my ideas, opinions and moods without controlling them, but I have to observe how to behave myself in each situation, in order to act accordingly to the objective power, because I don't possess the personal power but I can only use it. In some situations, I ask myself, if it is really my right to be moody or to blame others, when something is not working, and to be angry. I realized, that I am abusing the "personal power" in these moments. I try to avoid this, in any case, e.g. when I recently wanted to give a lecture and the projector, I needed was not available. There were 20 minutes before the event began. A friend of mine had borrowed it, but not returned. I was just starting to get angry about him and to rebuke him. I took a deep breath and then understood, that I should have assured myself in time, if the projector is available and there would have been enough time for him, to return it. Very calmly, I called him and he told me, where I could pick up the projector. The event had started only 5 minutes later than foreseen.

The part of the seminar that I liked most?… The song 'The chant of the earth'... moved something in me... while it was played. I went away from the hall because I was crying...the song expresses what I felt during the seminar... the feeling of being part of something and the pleasure of feeling that sensation. For the first time in a seminar, I felt the group of practitioners as a whole structure and it was pleasant being part of it... on this earth that spins even for us...

The flavor of the seminar still remains in my being as I return home and into what seemed to be a known place.

Personal power had seemed to me something huge, in the sense something that it was almost unreachable but during the workshop, re-asking what personal power was to me, from something quite far, something that I reached sometimes; it became the ability the breathe when the body asks for more air; to pause when the wave is about to hit a rock; to thank the Spirit when these moments do come; to become available and allowing it to come through into your actions; to simply smile; to realize that every being in their own way connects to power - from a cook and the magic she/he puts into her/his food to an engineer that has to think of the best structure that will support the roof over my head.

To me the "El Colmo" stalking exercise has become an ally, a friend, I am always thinking if its moods, and as Reni said during the seminar, I never realized that I had so many "El Colmo" moments during one day! Especially in my car when I am on my own and with my family, with them my assemblage point seems to go even faster to the "El Clomo" spot. I even had an "El Clomo" moment in my dreams, with my eldest brother. We were traveling and had just arrived at an airport and had to rush to another check-in booth to catch another plane, I wanted to go straight to the booth, but my brother didn't, so in one second I started screaming at him. "You are always late!! You're never on time! I can't stand this we are going to lose the plane because of you!!!" At a certain moment I realized what was happening and said "Oh my oh my! I am having an "El Colmo" moment in my dreams!!!" and I started laughing so much that I woke up! Another discovering is that I find myself in the position if the confederate very often (I hadn't realized that is was a role) and that often I would not listen with my whole being, often I would not listen! I was always worried about what would be the best response so that the one telling me the story would; a)like me b)still like me c)think I am the best of friends!! So much energy is used to keep that up. I have already been in a confederates position once since I returned home, and it was very interesting, I put my hands over my womb, and listened, in silence, I would see the internal dialog come by with opinions and judgments, I let them go through and I realized I could not answer my friend at that moment, so I remained silent, breathing and listening. She gave up trying to convince me.

The magical pass of the sun had a very strong impact with my being, I find myself doing some of the magical passes of this form mentally when I am in a place I cannot do it physically (the airplane for example or when driving), it feels as if we start with the sun rising, we reach its peak and as the sun sets it throws lighting on all that is around with its last rays of the day.