What is URI?

Uni-Verse-Soul Rythmic Intelligence(URI) is an expressive healing arts              system. Comprised of three interdependent components:

URI: A way of seeing and being in the world:
                The Rhythms of Life

Stream of Life

"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment."

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

All life encompasses rhythmic processes. From the simple pulsations of a single-cell organism to the rising and falling of our breath, life is filled with rhythm. Rhythm appears to be a universal phenomenon and a fundamental component to human behavior.

Universal Rhythmic Intelligence (URI) is the recognition and cultivation of this force. Unlike other types of intelligences such as linguistic, spatial or mathematical, Universal Rhythmic Intelligence is not exclusionary. It is available to everyone. From a neurological perspective, rhythmic intelligence is the first of the intelligences to develop: in the womb, the rhythm of the mother's heart beat penetrates the amniotic fluid which immerses us.

Like a stream of consciousness, this intelligence runs through all and brings all into existents. It pulsates through the universe in rhythmic measures and penetrates every aspect of our being. It is the same force that causes the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides, the cadence of a beating heart, and the synchronistic movement of a flock of birds. This universal rhythmic intelligence flows through you and I.

In the awareness of this space, there is no seperation and no barriers between you and I, for I am U and URI.

URI:  A movement, music & meditation practice
(MP3): A workout for the body, soul & mind

“Embrace your rhythms & let them Embrace you. Your Rhythm is Your truth and your truth will Set you free!”          Dr. Donald M. Epstein

URI’s MP3 practice, is a way to gain access to the wellspring of your energetic potential by clearing and releasing any blocks within your body, liberating the creative life force and allowing it to flow freely through you. This is accomplished through the activation of your natural rhythms. The natural rhythms that URI works with are your heart beat, breath and body rhythms such as your gait and posture. URI believes that your heart beat and breath together are a kinesthetic expression and link between the mind and the body that leads to authentic movement and self-expression.  

By engaging in URI’s MP3 process, it gradually begins to push the boundaries of your habitual patterns of thought and movement, so that you may explore new ways to move and use your body. Through these explorations, individuals will experience an increase in mental and physical flexibility, improved wellness, calm and fluidity, a deepened connection with self and others and share in the joys of a synchronistic experience.

Most interactions are non-verbal thus removing any barriers to commnunciation regardless of socio-cultral background and langauge ability. 

********No dance or music experience is necessary.********

URI: An alternative apporach to treating, educating
& interacting with children & special need populations:
Positive change through Unconditional interactions

“On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined!”

Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (Canto III stanza, 22, 1816)

So much of our treatment interventions for special need populations, as well as education for typically developing children, are based on behavior modification. How can I change, control, manipulate this behavior that I don’t like, or that is unacceptable by society standards?

What would happen if we stopped trying teach by control, but rather we taught by acceptance? What would happen if we “tuned into” ” a child’s natural rhythms and met them where they are first?

What if we stopped running our world based on rewards and punishment but rather nurtured intrinsic value and motivation?

What if?

URI’s DREAMS program:

Discoveries through Rhythm, Exploration, Awareness, Movement,and Silent space

DREAMS has been specifically tailored to meet the emotional, behavioral and social needs of children and special need populations. DREAMS nurtures each individual’s developmental process. DREAMS considers all movement as building blocks to aid in the development of language, communication, social awareness/body awareness and self regulation. DREAMS is grounded in the belief that all movement is communicative and all beings have innate rhythmic ability and potential for growth that can be accessed through movement and music in an interactive process with others.

The DREAMS curriculum has been created with a steady progression of acceleration and deceleration. Classes typically begin with an introduction and warm up, followed by the opportunity to explore creative movement, engage in rhythm exercises, and ends with a cool down and de-escalation period. Other selected activities vary depending upon class level.

Its not about rewarding or punishing the behavior that we want to see, its about working with the behavior and emotion that is present…. To be fully present with someone is a gift!