Chamblay 2023, a memorable event with Danis Bois

Every year, at the end of August, around 250 people gathers in Chamblay in an Eastern corner of France, in order to meditate together, under the caring guidance of Danis Bois. It is a moment of warm conviviality and sharing that is opened to anyone, who is interested in developing a closer relationship to themselves in order to become more present to themselves, to others around them and to the world.  For many practitioners in the Arts and Practices of the Sensible (fasciatherapists, somatic-psychoeducators, and perceptual educators), it is a yearly opportunity to refresh, catch up with new scientific discoveries and the evolution of protocols, as well as sharing with other practitioners. This workshop is also a one-off yearly opportunity to meet Danis Bois for those interested in this work either because they are patients or learners of the various methodologies elaborated by Danis Bois over the years.  This year had a particularly international flavour with many participants from far and wide – Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Canada, Brazil, Germany and the Reunion Islands. In this workshop, Danis Bois wished to : In the mornings Danis Bois led guided meditations and developed the fundamental notions he wished to share, and there …

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Meditation live with Danis Bois – #72- Growing with impermanence

Over the next three weeks, Danis Bois proposes meditations on the theme of impermanence. Impermanence is a Buddhist concept. Buddha teaches that the cause of human suffering is the attachment to everything that does not last. Danis Bois prefers to address the theme of impermanance from a philosophical angle, as did Heraclitus, the VI century BC Greek philosopher who advocated that everything is constantly changing: “All things flow, nothing abides”; and also : “No man ever steps in the same river twice.” Danis Bois expresses these words in this way : “Everything is in perpetual motion.” With this meditation (#72), Danis Bois suggests that we explore how to grow with impermanence and how we can apply this concept within our meditation and maybe even in our daily life. Extracts : In a world regulated as the cosmos is, eternally and infinitely, you do feel deep within you that every time, everything is different. Everything changes. Everything is transient. Everything is in motion in terms of your sensations, emotions and feelings… And when things last, they continuously evolve… Nothing can become fixed… in the living world at least… I invite you to become aware of the ephemeral, when you are present to …

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Meditation with Danis Bois – #69- From listening to observing

There is in our way of meditating a particular order to things, a chronology, a gradual process orchestrated through verbal guidance. This term I am emphasizing this evolutionary process that unfolds from first listening, to observing, then feeling and finally using our capacity to imagine.This meditation centres on the shift from listening to observing. It is in two parts: the first is about listening and its resulting experiencing, and the second is about observing. You may if you wish go directly to the second part of the meditation that begins at 23mns, though the first part is an introduction to the second one. The support we have used to develop the notion of observing is the visual sense, more precisely inner sight and the light that goes with it.The roadmap we propose to conclude this meditation is intended as a way to put more colours in your life and to refrain from seeing life in black and white.Wishing you a good meditation : Listening to silence is the door into our inner sensing Little by little, as the silence settles and we begin to listen to it, we become more present to ourself We all have light within us We …

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Meditation live with Danis Bois – #68- Listening to ourself

The theme of this meditation -“listening to ourself”- is a continuation of the first two meditations during which Danis Bois emphasized the fact that hearing does not mean listening as hearing is a sense whereas listening is an art. He also underlined the importance of listening as a cognitive skill that facilitates understanding and that listening is the foundation of human relationships. The theme of this new meditation on listening is directed towards listening to ourself, becoming self-aware through silence, the inner movement and tact. To established the basic conditions necessary for the silence of meditation, Danis Bois referred to the philosopher Maine de Biran, “Life is interiority and no one will find it in exteriority”. By inviting the participants to mobilize their attention on the motionlessness of their posture, posture, he is inviting them to become aware of the shift from “I have a body” to tasting the affirmation of “I am my body”. Before we delve further into interiority, you need to know that two minutes of silence can relax us, lower our blood pressure and stimulate blood flow in the brain. Silence is more effective than any type of relaxing music. Silence is not just being quiet; …

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Live meditation with Danis Bois – #66- The various dimensions of listening

This week we began a new series of meditation guided by Danis Bois. The theme of our first meditation today centred on listening. Listening is often associated with hearing, but in truth, it is much bigger than that, and though we live in times of extreme communication, we do not really know how to listen. Having created the conditions to listen by establishing silence that is fundamental to listening, Danis Bois developed a meditation focused on the five dimensions of listening. The last three of which engage psychological, emotional and behavioural dimensions. The fifth type of listening refers to be notion of a good listening experience, of listening with empathy and benevolence. First type of listening: silence amplifies noises, and the sounds that surround us. In the silence, new sounds appear that were hidden by noise. And this includes thought that can be noise in the meditation. Full-Presence Meditation invites meditators to turn their attention away from disruptive thoughts and to redirect it more stably towards an object that is helpful for the meditation, such as the motionlessness of the body. Second type of listening: passively listening is about being distracted without really focusing on what is being said. Actively …

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Meditate live with Danis Bois – #63 – Personal awareness after life – 23 November 2022

In view of the importance of the question of personal awareness after life, Danis Bois decided to devote three meditations to this theme.  Before addressing the becoming of personal awareness after life, this first meditation conveys information likely to bring some light on this subject in particular that Danis Bois rarely touches on, as he is more inclined to question: is there life before death? What is proposed in this first meditation is to become familiar with personal awareness, or self-awareness, then to evaluate the connection with the unseen proposed by Full-Presence Meditation. This meditation uses a protocol directed towards the principle of continuity with the ‘greater than we are’ and with the universe that contains us while we are alive. This meditation is an exploration of the connection with what is greater than we are: It is clear that, during our lifetime, we can explore the unseen by bringing our personal awareness into it. But what happens after life? This is what we will question in the coming meditations. Thank you very much for all this work, this generosity, the sharing and the transmission. I am so happy with the progression of the themes that we are touching on …

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Meditate Live with Danis Bois – Silent meditation

The meditation guided by Danis Bois this week leaves a large space for silence.  The objective of the verbal guidance is simply to inhabit silence, to describe it and to direct meditators’ attention and observation towards the landscape emerging to their awareness. It is worth remembering that silence represents in our approach the most important support on which to develop attention, awareness and presence. In terms of the step-by-step process offered by Full-Presence Meditation, silent meditation is the highest level (Step 4) and stimulates the autonomy of the meditator..   This meditation touches on the eloquence of silence, which may seem an oxymoron, as eloquence talks of the gift of spoken words, of the art of persuasion through words whereas silence evokes the absence of words. And yet, silence may be eloquent, expressive, meaningful and convincing for those exploring the more universal dimension of silence. In this silent meditation, Danis Bois invites participants to familiarize themselves with long moments of silence that may result, for beginners, in a sense of boredom, sleepiness and at times sensations of highs and lows of concentration and presence. This meditation is above all a time of learning to tame the relationship to silence and …

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Meditation live with Danis Bois – #59 – The place of vibration in Full-Presence Meditation – 26th. October 2022

The notion of vibration has very little place in Full-Presence Meditation as it is too closely connected to spirituality, the occult and New Age. It is also a catch-all term that allows all sorts of interpretations. Despite these reservations, there is a consensus on several aspects of vibration: Fully welcoming vibration is to turn our awareness towards what we are living Vibration is a relational mode: a good energy or bad vibration Vibration defines a resonance, that is to say a sensitivity to particular frequencies Vibration is a feeling that conveys information Vibration is a force of propagation, it rayonnates For Danis Bois, the movement is primordial and vibration is the effect of the movement, and not its cause. In the meditation today, participants were able to explore three dimensions of vibration. Vibration as ambient atmosphere Vibration is connected with the qualiy of self-presence that can be enhanced by remaining silent and motionless, with eyes closed. This attitude allows meditators to observe and listen to the effect of their posture on their inner experiencing, on their state of being. It results in the sensation of a good vibration and a positive disposition. The first condition to vibrate is to be …

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Full-Presence meditation The seven Ways to access Human Warmth – Danis Bois

Danis Bois and Isabelle Eschalier’s book, La méditation pleine présence, les sept voies d’accès à la chaleur humaine (Eyrolles) with a preface by Pierre Rahbi, published in 2019, is now published in English and available in hard copy or as an e-book by following this link. It was translated by Hélène Pennel. This book present the various characteristics of Full-Presence Meditation and the innovative aspects of this practice in relation to other meditative practices, particularly Mindfulness.  Danis Bois clarifies some of the terms used in the context of meditations in general, and Full-Presence Meditation in particular such as the terms full, presence, consciousness and awareness.  He also answers other questions relating to the place of the body in meditation, and the interaction between perception and conscious awareness. This book also traces Danis Bois’s process of discovery and the elaboration of his methodology over the past 40 years, exploring in this process fields such as meditation scientific research (educational neuroscience), philosophy (humanistic thought, phenomenology of perception) and education (perceptual psychoeducation, experiential and existential learning). You will also find in this book practical tools to familiarize yourself with Full-Presence Meditation and to benefit from the unfolding of human warmth in your life. …

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