The Five Dimensions of Awareness

The Five Dimensions map is an expanding view of consciousness. It moves between the micro and the macro, and between individual and collective consciousness. Someone who is awake across all five dimensions has a fluidity and ease of movement between awareness of ‘self’ and awareness of what’s going on around them. Each dimension has its challenges and its rewards. Each of us has aspects that are naturally stronger or in need of attention. Developing across all these dimensions creates the possibility of being a fully resourced and potent human being.

The Five Dimensions of Awareness are:

1. Self
2. Other/Relational
3. Community/Environmental
4. Spirit (including ancestors/descendants)
5. Divine

The Five Dimensions – Self

Self-respect, self-love, self-care. I know who I am and what I need and I do what is necessary to take care of myself. This includes my body, heart, mind and soul. I love myself and honour the life that flows through me. In movement, we are working with awareness of the interior landscape and bringing what we find into the dance through the medium of the physical body.

 

 

The Five Dimensions – Other/Relational

I am able to look beyond my own needs and recognise the needs of the people around me. I am able to hold my own view and express it clearly whilst being equally able to hear and respond to different points of view. Essentially, this level is about clear communication involving clear expression and active listening. The practice of maintaining a relationship to the integrity of your own dance whilst opening to the integrity of another, is excellent practice for creative and dynamic relationships in every area of life.

 

The Five Dimensions – Community/Environmental

I now see my life in relationship to my local and global environment and all that is in it. My sense of family includes the natural world. I realise that I am connected with all living beings. Therefore, the choices that I make will include the deep love and sense of connection I have with the whole web of life of which I am a part. On the dance floor, this manifests as an exquisite awareness of the aliveness of space and the realisation that my dance is part of the creation of the dance.

 

The Five Dimensions – Spirit

This dimension invites us to learn from and honour the spirit world and especially our ancestors and descendants, whether we have our own children or not. Part of our work is to be able to discern unresolved ancestral stories or outmoded ideas and beliefs that we are carrying. We are supported to release what no longer serves our lives whilst strengthening the connection we have with our ancestors. We are living our lives in a wider context where we realise that all our actions have consequences for the generations that will follow and the world around us. In the dance, we are reaching out to the ‘spirit of the dance’ and the allies and guides that will support us to strengthen our circle and our integrity.

 

The Five Dimensions – Divine

Movement Medicine is a non-religious way to honour the spiritual impulse. In the dance, people often have a spontaneous and direct experience of the divine and the spiritual nature of our existence. Sometimes we recognise that there is ‘that of Source in each of us.’ In the dance, our own individual identity dissolves for a while and we disappear into or become the dance itself. We all have the potential to recognise and realise our truest nature and when we do, our experience of life and the perspective through which we live expands. For some, life becomes a prayer, a passionate expression of the deepest purpose we are here to live.