INA JAIN
ABOUT
I believe in small acts of remembering that organically become part of our daily experience and over time gently expand the space we allow ourselves to take up in our own lives.
CREATIVE RESONANCE
Creative Resonance is a term that grew out of my own journey. Within that I found that for the creative fire in its beautiful intensity and wildness needs gentle and safe spaces to be tended and nurtured, so the creative process becomes sustainable rather than burning me up. This might seem paradoxical in our common perception of creativity but I found that to be an integral part of untaming and allowing to tap into the wild flow of my creative essence. Building the trust that I can hold myself in the intensity of my creative exploration and expression gives me even more space to express and shine and create in my very own way.
ON THE WAY HERE
The exploration of the dance between mind and body has been an ongoing journey for me throughout my life so far. Although not always conscious, I was always aware of its´ presence. Telling stories was an integral part of my upbringing and I still remember the sense of infinite space opening up for me the moment I mastered the skill to write as a child. Since then writing and storytelling have been constant companions on my path, and have held space for me finding my own voice and within that to reclaim the right of telling stories in my own way and from my perspective.
Growing up I knew that they were an essential part of who I was and what I wanted to do and create in my life. Until I graduated from high-school my answer to the question what I wanted to be when I grew up, always was „a writer“. The responses were rarely ever encouraging, and I set out to find ways to create a living and find a place in the world, I tried to find a compromise between the aspects that felt so essential to me and the creation of outer structure and stability. I studied literature, history and media in the hope to find doorways into shaping that compromise into a life path. In my final thesis I explored the different pathways and connections between reading and writing processes and self-exploration.
I journeyed both into teaching and journalism in the hope to find pathways into building a life true to what I felt passionate about while contributing in a meaningful way.
By 2014, writing and storytelling had been constant companions on my path. For years though they had gradually slipped away into the secrecy of my inner worlds. They had become pathways to escape from outer life. Hereby I separated my life from my creative essence, a process that led to the experience that my creative energy more often than not endangered the outer formats I tried to put them in and created the sense of complete absence of resonance in my life. What felt so essential to my being, seemed impossible to live. Whatever I did became draining, never enough and always too much. My creativity became something that I tried to hide but would then burst out in spurts that would again and again burn me out.
EMBODIMENT
But in that year, I traveled from Europe to Thailand with a sense that something vital was missing in my life. It was on this other side of the world that I encountered the practice of DANCEmandala, and I knew instantly that I had found the missing link.
My journey so far had been mainly about the mind. In DANCEmandala I found a pathway into my body that held the same wild soul resonance that writing opened up for me into my mind.
When I write I feel the words in my body. Movement that tingles in my mind. Between the wild whispers I listen to the stillness, make space for the ripening flow and allow my fingers to dance over the pages to the rhythm of worlds turning inside out.
UNWINDING THE PROCESS
I focus on the process rather than the outcome, my passion is to un-tame creative expression as an individual artist as well as in collaboration with others in resonance and connection.
I seek to open up pathways for allowing us to expand the space for being ourselves in our lives.
Since then the relationship between writing and movement, body and mind has been a deep journey of conscious exploration for me and has gradually taken me over threshold after threshold into transforming how I live and create.
On this path I have been fortunate to encounter resonance in so many forms and shapes and have learned how powerful it can be. Through all that I create and share I seek to open up pathways for allowing us to expand the space for being ourselves in our lives, in resonance with universal rhythms as well as our very own individual pace.
Within that, I found that it is vital to cultivate and nurture safe spaces for creative exploration for myself in my own space, which has led to creations like the Portal Timer, as well as in a shared space with others like holding space for DANCEmandala, Embodied Storytelling and Moving Words Workshops and the Magic Theatre Poetry Reading.
Every time I dance, every time I write, I re-member who I am. Both remind me of the sacred journey and commitment that it is to live a life true to me
KEEPING CREATIVE SPACES
Ina Jain is a storyteller, writer and keeper of creative spaces. She holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature, History and Media Studies and is a certified DANCEmandala and SHEdance facilitator. She combines her passion for creative exploration with her work as a dance mediatation facilitator. She is a founding member of the Magic Theatre Poetry Reading Series, Chiang Mai and its annual publication the Magic Theatre Poetry Reader. Her work has appeared in publications like About Place Journal, The Wild Word, Federwelt and MYP Magazine.