Awareness Through the Body

|| About ATB || ATB Levels || ATB Instructors || ATB USA || Book |

Teachers, dancers, yogis, body workers, and practitioners of all kinds. A new, integral system of learning offered in the US. Please contact us concerning workshops.

Awareness Through the Body (ATB) is a comprehensive sequence of exercises to raise awareness and enable individuals, whether children or adults, to become conscious of their own perceptions and abilities so that they may become self-aware, self-directed individuals. The activities are creative and often fun, combining known and unknown approaches to encourage concentration, focus, relaxation, a sense of accomplishment, and well-being.

ATB offers ways to discover the existing connections between mind, emotions and the physical body and to organize these different parts into a more harmonious whole, centered on the inmost being.

Book

Marti, Aloka & Sala, Joan. Awareness Through the Body. 2006. SAIIER. Auroville, India. New revised edition $32 plus postage. This book may be purchased at the workshops or ordered by emailing: info@pondi.biz. Or phone (845) 679-2926.

“This book provides a wealth of material in a systematic manner related to the theme of ‘awareness of awareness’ and the ‘witness consciousness’ through the exploration of the powers of the physical senses … and increasing contact with the subtle body, and the inner realms of consciousness.”

Kireet Joshi
Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research

ATB web site: www.awarenessthroughthebody.wordpress.com

Article in Ode Magazine about ATB: www.odemagazine.com

YouTube video

Instructors

Aloka: I was born in Catalonia, Spain in 1951. In 1971 I moved to India to live in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and teach contemporary dance in the Ashram schools. During these years I studied Hatha Yoga, Tai Chi, and breathing therapy. Since 1991 I have been living in Auroville, teaching dance and, with Joan, creating and implementing a program in Awareness Through the Body for children in the Auroville Schools. Presently I am offering workshops on Awareness Through the Body for teachers and other adults in Europe and the U.S. Since 2003 I have been studying water body work and deepening my practice of Tai Chi.

Ashaman: I was born and raised in Auroville. After completing the International Baccalaureate at a school in South India I departed for the U.S. and spent the next 13 years in Bellingham, Washington. In ’98 I completed a university degree in classical guitar performance and continue to pursue music as a passion. Awareness Through the Body is my constant preoccupation. For the last fifteen years I have made bodywork and movement a life practice, working and teaching internationally. Drawing on a sustaining study of the eastern martial arts, I teach traditional Thai massage, as well as Healing Dance, an aquatic bodywork modality. I am recently married and divide my time between Hawaii and Auroville.

ATB Levels
ATB I	Provides a basic orientation to Awareness through the Body and is a prerequisite for all more advanced workshops. The topics include: Sensory awareness—opening and refining the senses Attention and concentration—directing and focusing attention, and increasing the length and depth of concentration Exploration of the different planes of the being Breathing—developing awareness of the breath and the effects of breathing Relaxation—enhancing the ability to relax, physically, emotionally, and mentally Plate work—experiencing inner and outer space, and being present in both simultaneously
ATB II	Deepens and integrates the basics of ATB introduced in ATB I and adds: Emotional exploration Collective aims in group dynamics Awareness of how the physical structure develops control over contraction and relaxation in the body
ATB III	Explores the principles of ATB and their practical application including how to lead an ATB session, develop a sequential program, and address the needs of specific children and specific groups. Activities include: Moving over, under and around objects in structured settings Throwing and catching bamboo sticks to develop peripheral vision and a sense of rhythm Balancing plates with candles to deepen the simultaneous experience of inner and outer space Working with the elements
Certificates will be awarded upon the successful completion of each workshop and may be used to apply for CEUs. Graduate credit from Antioch University is available for ATB II and III for an additional fee. Contact Heidi Watts for more information: hwatts@antioch.edu