Practicing Being Present: Special Course with Former BTC Instructor Kate Komidar - March 2009

It really does take practice to stay present inside your own skin, says Kate Komidar, especially in the midst of distractions, confusion, pain, or other internal or external pressures. This is a pursuit Kate facilitates, both in her professional practice (Spirit Gate Mindful Bodywork) as a chi gung tui na and acupressure bodyworker and now in a special course at BTC this session only. It has been three years since she taught here, after a nine-year stretch.

“It isn’t always easy,” she says, “but being present allows us to feel our own aliveness, make clear choices, and access the wisdom inside us.” Attitudes of patience, kindness, and curiosity are part of the practice. The work of staying present needs to be grounded in something like the breath, which you can rest in and come back to safely, she says, when sensations (whether emotional or physical) become too strong.

The course will incorporate breathing, walking, listening, and basic chi gung practices, through which students can explore what it feels like to stay aware, without judgment, moment by moment. Learning to develop awareness is a skill BTC students practice routinely anytime they open and close the kwa or twist the forearm, for instance. The course will focus explicitly on what is already implicit.

This experimental course is not teaching “mindfulness” per se as it is often articulated within specific Buddhist traditions but is informed by Kate’s experiences, especially over the past few years, with a range of mind/body training techniques. These include a retreat with the Tibetan lama Namkhai Norbu and course work at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, along with Kate’s ongoing work with Bruce Frantzis — with whom she has studied Taoist energy arts since 1995—and immersion in meditation and chi gung. Tracing her interest in exploring ‘presence,’ Kate also cites formative experiences of feeling fully alive while performing as a classical singer. She did her M.M. at BU School for the Arts and directed the voice department at Walnut Hill, a prep school for the arts. “Most people can relate to having that experience of feeling wholly present somewhere in their lives,” she says.