The Guild has lost one of its Founding Mothers. Connie Smith Siegel passed away on August 4th, surrounded by devoted friends and students.
Among her many, many other contributions was her passion for creating a Guild for Leaders of Sensory Awareness, and she became its first Vice President and then its President from 1988 to 1992. After Charlotte’s death, she was part of the challenging decision by all members of the Guild about approval of new Leaders, and criteria for acceptance into the Guild. She felt it was important to define “Principles That Define the Integrity of Sensory Awareness”, and worked with other members to create the following:
“Our work in Sensory Awareness, alone or in groups, is an invitation to become more aware within ourselves and more responsive to what is around us, trusting our own sensations.
Through explorations based on everyday activities – such as breathing, sitting, standing, speaking, we can rediscover our innate responsiveness, as well as habits and concepts that hinder it.
We trust an innate tendency toward wholeness to renew us – not demanding improvement, but allowing inner changes to come by themselves.
The process of going deeper can show up in personal relationships, our interaction with our community and the world.”
We will never forget her playfulness, her passion about art as healing, her devotion to her students and to our planet, to sustainability, to nonviolence, to activism, to the beauty of nature, to creativity and healing.
There will be an online memorial service for Connie in October, and we will let you know about it by email.
Here is a link to a beautiful obituary: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle-sunday/20200830/282501481020182
You can also go to her website, www.conniesmithsiegel.com to see her work and meet/remember her…
For more information about The Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild, please visit https://sensoryawareness.org/
