Healing, change, metamorphosis cannot come from the same mindset with which we lead our ordinary, busy, hectic lives.
That’s why we need to SLOW UP.
SLOW UP is an organic and transformative process that guides us back into a natural way of being that sustain Vitality and Balance, health and wellness. Slowing up doesn’t mean simply stopping and doing nothing. It means fully participating in our lives, but doing it in a different way. Becoming deliberate and intentional, making new, different and inspiring choices, and actually taking action, not just thinking about it!
In this sense, SLOW UP is more than just a process, more than a one-time choice. It offers us a framework for a healthy and balanced lifestyle to live with more Vitality. It is an ongoing process, a lifelong journey. And this journey emerges from a deep desire to take in hand our personal power to move in the direction of our own truth and let our full potential of Vitality express itself freely.
Based on the theory of the Five Phases of Chinese medicine, each step of the SLOW UP process invites us, through Qigong and other mindfulness practices, to align ourselves with the energetic blueprint of the Element concerned. For each phase, specific practices aim to cultivate the qualities required to tackle the manifestations of the specific imbalances related to this phase and to return to what the theory calls "our original state of harmony". Ultimately, the maturation of these qualities and the embodiment of this original state help us to develop the virtues associated with each phase and thus to find Balance and Vitality in our lives.
As we spiral through the process and transform, we gain deep somatic embodiment, expanded self-awareness, and true authenticity of heart.
RADICAL TRANSFORMATION
The butterfly is a universal symbol of growth and transformation. But for me, it has a special meaning since my last name – PAPILLON – means butterfly in English. I have always believed that my destiny was to relentlessly follow the path of transformation. As children, like most of us, I learned about the wondrous process by which a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. One day, the caterpillar stops eating (they eat twenty times their body weight in leaves per day!), hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body, eventually emerging as a butterfly. We delight in the beauty, the colors, the lightness of the butterfly, but we rarely recognize where it comes from, we rarely marvel at the caterpillar and all the steps it must go through. Recently, I have delved deeper into the study of the details of this transformation process and discovered the invisible and much more complex reality that lies behind this metamorphosis.
INSIDE THE COCOON
To evolve into a butterfly, the caterpillar first digests itself releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues, turning into muck. But certain highly organized groups of cells, known as imaginal discs, survive the digestive process. The imaginal discs were grew when the caterpillar was still developing inside its egg, before hatching. Each imaginal disk is coded with a part of the mature butterfly it is intended to become. — discs for its eyes, for its wings, its antennae, its legs and so on. I believe that we too, just like the caterpillar, carry deep within ourselves, like a solid rock at the heart of our being, the equivalent of imaginal discs that contain, like a precious treasure, our unique Essence, our Jing. And this Essence, this intact nature of who we truly are, is waiting to be revealed, to be activated so that we can metamorphose into the optimal version of ourselves embodying Vitality and Balance.
STOP
LET BE!
OPEN
WONDER
UNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL
STOP
LET BE!
OPEN
WONDER
UNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL
Fundamental to the entire transformation process, this is the moment to STOP and let ourself be held by the energy of the Earth. It is an invitation to cultivate presence, calm and tranquility in order to develop a greater listening and understanding of the needs of the body, to honor our inner wisdom and to develop the trust that we are already complete in our Essence. This phase consists of setting a deep intention of commitment to the transformation process and expand the vision of what’s possible for our life.
Using somatic awareness and authentic inquiry, this phase invites us to turn our attention inward to identify the Qi blockages that have prevented us from living a life of Vitality until now. Supported by the energy of the Metal element, we will cultivate courage, vulnerability, and discernment to allow what is invisible to become visible. This new awareness will guide us to choices—TO LET GROW, TO LET BE, TO LET GO, OR TO LET FADE—that allow us to feel whole and to move toward our vision of a life of Balance and Vitality with integrity.
In this phase, the energy of the Water Element inspires us to be curious, receptive, and to move with ease & flow toward our vision of what it means to live a balanced and vital life. At this stage, we are OPEN to new possibilities. We are developing clarity and wisdom about who we are, what we want, and how we want to use our energy to maintain Balance and Vitality in our life.
Living a life of Balance and Vitality does not happen in a vacuum. We all need meaningful relationships and to feel part of something bigger than ourselves. Supported by the energy of the Wood element, this phase is an invitation to cultivate a sense of WONDER and connectivity with others and the natural world, with care and reciprocity in order to feel at home not only in our body and in our life but also in communion with the whole world, thus accessing a deep sense of compassion and kindness.
This is the phase where potentials are transformed into concrete actions, where our vision becomes reality. This is the implementation phase where, using the energy of the Fire Element, we are invited to UNLEASH OUR POTENTIAL and celebrate our new life. Cultivating abundance, self-love and bliss allows the natural unfolding of Balance and Vitality in our life in alignment with our deepest self and access to more joy and gratitude.
Summer Solstice Immersion
June 21st at Spruces Campground
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«Awakening is not a thing. It is not a goal, not a concept. It is not something to be attained. It is a metamorphosis. If the caterpillar thinks about the butterfly it is to become, saying ‘And then I shall have wings and antennae,’ there will never be a butterfly. The caterpillar must accept its own disappearance in its transformation. When the marvelous butterfly takes wing, nothing of the caterpillar remains.»
~ Alejandro Jodorowsky
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RADICAL TRANSFORMATIONThe butterfly is a universal symbol of growth and transformation. But for me, it has a special meaning since my last name – PAPILLON – means butterfly in English. I have always believed that my destiny was to relentlessly follow the path of transformation.As children, like most of us, I learned about the wondrous process by which a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. One day, the caterpillar stops eating (they eat twenty times their body weight in leaves per day!), hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body, eventually emerging as a butterfly.We delight in the beauty, the colors, the lightness of the butterfly, but we rarely recognize where it comes from, we rarely marvel at the caterpillar and all the steps it must go through. Recently, I have delved deeper into the study of the details of this transformation process and discovered the invisible and much more complex reality that lies behind this metamorphosis.INSIDE THE COCOONTo evolve into a butterfly, the caterpillar first digests itself releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues, turning into muck. But certain highly organized groups of cells, known as imaginal discs, survive the digestive process. The imaginal discs were grew when the caterpillar was still developing inside its egg, before hatching. Each imaginal disk is coded with a part of the mature butterfly it is intended to become. — discs for its eyes, for its wings, its antennae, its legs and so on.I believe that we too, just like the caterpillar, carry deep within ourselves, like a solid rock at the heart of our being, the equivalent of imaginal discs that contain, like a precious treasure, our unique Essence, our Jing. And this Essence, this intact nature of who we truly are, is waiting to be revealed, to be activated so that we can metamorphose into the optimal version of ourselves embodying Vitality and Balance.