sing song, we all need a place to belong

in many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. 

• when did you stop dancing? 
• when did you stop singing? 
• when did you stop being enchanted by stories? 
• when did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? 

where we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories, or finding comfort in silence is where we have experience the loss of soul. dancing, singing, storytelling, and silence are the four universal healing salves.*  






* gabrielle roth

copyright 2010 Alisa Barry

who am i?

seems like i should know this by now, for god's sake.

is it a mid-life crisis or have i finally woken up to the  fact that i know there is more possibility than i know. this is one of the rare times when doubt can actually be a surprising path of  discovery.
curiosity and uncertainty. there is a certain freedom in all of that. 

Ask yourself - Who am I? Who am I with? What is my place?

It’s only when you can instinctively answer these three questions that you are moving on the soul plane. If you know who you are, you know what you need and how to be. If you know who you are with, you know what they need and how to give it to them. If you know your place, you know how to fit in and what you have to offer. Chances are at least one of these questions is driving you crazy. It is the source of your frustration and suffering, not to mention your loneliness, lack of direction, or lack of self-esteem.

My prescription for my own healing and the healing of others is to dance.

Dance alone to discover who you are. Dance with others to discover who you are with. Dance in a group to discover your place. Put your psyche in motion and it will heal itself.”

Gabrielle Roth “Connections”

copyright 2009 Alisa Barry

love list 2010

e x p a n s i o n.
CREATivity
co+labor...ation.
fearlessness.
beauty.

here's my top 10 love list for the new year:

1. purge my closet {sell, donate, give away to friends } to make way for my lovely new feel-good collection of urban zen objects of desire. beautiful clothes for a good cause. dreaming of opening a store in my 'hood.

2. ENSO art with master kaz tanahashi i've signed up {and canceled} his classes for 3 years. this is THE year. book. installation. art. 

3. grow the business by $1 Million in sales revenue at current rate of profitability {or more!}. karmic management: setting intentions and planting the seeds. for my business, for my life. sell, then sell.

4.  everyday life as art. study, practice, create.

5.  create a new job position for myself. from CEO to CWO: chief writing officer. out of the office and onto the page. from anywhere.  as i am inspired. to inspire. i am going to outsource myself to my company. 

6. more movement. 
mine is the art of inspiring people to turn themselves inside out, transform their suffering into art, their art into awareness, and their awareness into action. - gabrielle roth

7. create books and other works of art  that inspire others with beauty + words. art books, food books, ebooks for entrepreneurs. jamming on cool projects with creative strategists, designers, artists, writers + illuminated minds.

8. yoga. happiness is only a breathe away.

9. expand my horizon. morocco, copenhagen, abiuqui, new york, charleston, an apartment in paris to write for a month, italy- just for the love of it.

10. time with family + friends. pureunconditionallove. leisurely love. 

live your life as sacred art

life is sacred. life is art. life is sacred art.

-- gabrielle roth


Gabrielle is a force to be reckoned with. I don't know her personally, but I danced in her room and I have felt her spirit. She is strong, and fragile and determined that people see the beauty in all that they are- light, shadow, possibility, humility, sacred beauty.

she calls it "ritual theater". it's tribal art. meditation in movement. connecting our individuals souls to the collective world. life is but an enactment of our art. our art is an expression of our life out loud. live it. what are you waiting for?












copyright 2009 Alisa Barry

meditation in motion

our feet are a long way from the head,
let them lead the way.

as in life, when rocky roads appear, so do
blisters and splinters,
and aching arches,
cramping toes

and then.......

tiptoe folly,
grounded pounding
the dance of the lyrical where only
joy prevails

shedding all that is no longer needed now.

quiet stillness, even as we move

this is our dance,
our meditation in motion.

the hard work of surrender

after you fall and before you land is god.

-gabrielle roth


surrendering is scary stuff.
and hard work.

it takes us to our edge
and requires that we let go

it empties us of ourselves and our egos
and gently guides us to where our soul lives

it is our muse and our mimicry.
it is our complete opening to become exactly how and who we really are,
shedding old habits, removing no longer needed masks and saying goodbye to patterns of thought that no longer serve us or others well.

it is time to fly......and enjoy the ride.















copyright 2009 Alisa Barry

opening of the heart

It is Sunday. Sacred Sunday. The fire in the studio is flaming as I sit down to honor the day.
I am in the midst of an amazing workshop called Heartbeat with Jonathon Horan, son of the creator of 5Rhythms, a movement meditation. This weekend, we are smoking the peace pipe with our emotions- embracing them as part of who we are and what we are becoming. Fear is my emotion- anxiety, paranoia, distrust. Yesterday, I danced it through my tears to reach the layer of sadness that lay just under the surface. Sadness grieving for those things I have left behind, those that will never be, and for the emptiness of not allowing all of me to live outloud. On the other side, I see a glimpse of emancipation. Liberation. Celebration. I feel the heart starting to crack open...and it is divine.

Here are Jonathon's words about Heartbeat:

My intention as a teacher, and in my own emotional evolution, is to practice staying present with feelings. So it is with great tenderness that I approach this journey into the heart, the part of us that beats and pumps and gives and receives and takes the old and transforms it into the new, purifying us, every minute of every day. Using the 5Rhythms as a map to how our emotional energy morphs and moves, we will explore our emotions as energy, as power, as part of being human.

The wilderness of our hearts scares us. We haven’t been taught to track our feelings, much less respect them. In fact, we often feel ashamed of them when they do pop up. Even in our own families we hold back, dismiss and deny true responses. Even in the dark of the movie theater we swallow our tears. This is very sad. We’ve lost our spontaneity. Why do we give fear so much power?

To befriend our emotions, to not be frozen by fear, is our destiny on this dancing path. Fear is the clearest meter of our edge, the edge where we feel comfortable and grounded. When we start to feel uncomfortable, it’s a challenge. A challenge is an invitation to move from who we are into who we are becoming. The bigger the fear, the more important it is for us to face it. It’s not just a stoplight, it’s a huge road sign: COME DANCE WITH ME.

Let’s take the time to stop the world and pay attention to our hearts. Our attention is like a spotlight. Feelings live in our body parts, and when we shine the light of our attention on specific body parts, memories crack open and move, dissolving the hard hold they have on us. Shapeshifting through feelings as they come up will open us up to their messages, their symbols and their signals.

One of the single-most powerful acts we can do is to share our vulnerability. The more we open up and dance through our feelings, the safer the environment becomes to explore our edges. These dances will be our offering to the bigger world. They will be our prayers for peace.

- Jonathon Horan





copyright 2009 Alisa Barry