Translation available in Spanish

I was recently traveling in Europe teaching Breema workshops. Halfway through the journey it became clear that I needed to make a decision whether to stay in Europe or to go back to the States. The borders were closing. A friend sent me an email asking, “Are you home? Where is home?”

I had just completed an introductory evening of Breema where a group of mostly new students had gathered to find out about Breema. The requirements for social distancing had not yet come to Stockholm. Still the influence of the media made the people a little nervous to get too close to each other. They were a bit apprehensive to find themselves in a group of strangers. 

It didn’t take long before the participants settled in. Instead of giving into worries and fears of the mind, they were invited to connect with the body through the simple movements of Self-Breema exercises. There was a drastic change in the atmosphere when the connection with the body was well established and the mind could take a break from all the worries and uncertainty of the future.

Throughout the weekend workshop, I would observe this dynamic between giving into worry and fear and then seeing how—when I came back to the body— the capacity to be present, clear in my mind, and open in my feelings was available and a trustworthy place to stand in myself. A sense of Being home.

At the conclusion of the workshop, it was time to make a decision whether to stay in Sweden or to return. Again the question my friend had asked earlier came alive again. Where is home? The strong experiences of body-mind connection during the weekend were still alive. I saw that my true home is in the body in the moment when I am present.

Two days later, back in the States, I walked into the garden to do some weeding. As I turned the corner to the backyard, a swarm of bees from one of the nearby hives hovered above—the air a thick cloud of bees swirling to find their next home. I came back to the body as I watched the swarm buzzing here and there till it finally settled in a wild rose bush.

The beekeepers came quickly to collect the swarm. In awe I saw how they approached the bees delicately and deliberately without protection. How they carefully and confidently removed the branch the bees were sitting on to offer them a new home. The attentiveness in each movement reminded me to come back to my own body. Firmness and Gentleness, No Force were alive.

I was filled with gratitude, to again be reminded that home is in the moment, when I am present.

Birthe Kaarsholm is a Staff Instructor at the Breema Center in Oakland, California.