Rope Journal - Week 3
Januarys theme - Reflection & Intention

How do you like to prepare a space for rope (music, lighting, mindset)?

I really loved this prompt as music features so heavily in my planning of rope scenes, but having watched some really powerful scenes conducted in complete silence, just the creak of rope, the sound of breath and gentle (and sometimes not to gentle) whimpers and moans from a bottom. 

Ill be adding my full response to this in a comment, and as always I look forward to hearing your guys thoughts and opinions on this one too. 

Rope Journal - Week 2
January's Theme - Reflection & Intention

"What was your first impression of rope bondage before you tried or learned about it?"

This is always such an interesting question, it opens up the variety of ways in which we discover rope, how we are initially exposed to it and what sparked the intrigue that got us onto this journey.

As always love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments. If you are handwriting your journals in a book, feel free to just drop a photo of your response this week 🙂

Rope Journal - Week 1 
January's Theme is  Reflection & Intention

"What does “connection” mean to you in rope—physical, emotional, or symbolic?"

As part of my Rope Resolutions for this year I wanted to be a bit more reflective about my rope journey, so devised some journal prompts for each week of the year and figured it would be a great way to get to know some of you guys in the community too. This is an idea that I've been discussing with my wife for some time (and I convinced her to write the title page in my notebook as she has much better writing that I do) so with the new year upon us it seemed like a great place to start

If like me you aren't as familiar with Journaling, and this is your first time starting to journal, we have an amazing article from our Director of Education Fuoco on How Journaling Benefits Rope Bottoming

https://shibaristudy.com/blog/post/the-write-stuff-how-journaling-benefits-rope-bottoming 

To be as inclusive as possible I've tried to make these prompts appeal to both tops, bottoms, switches and self tier by being more generic about the experience of rope and allowing you to interpret it within your own lense.

Each week Ill drop a Journal prompt and Id love you to share your thoughts, feelings and interpretations in the comments, or maybe some images you feel encapsulate the weekly topic. Each month also has a common theme which ties (forgive the pun) each prompt together. I will also use the same gif so they are easy to find, if we need to and this proves popular I can create a dedicated channel.

Its also a great excuse for me to use my Shibari Study Notebook (other notebooks are available 😂) as its been sitting on my shelf for a few months and I wasn't sure how best to put it to use, so now I have a reason

Community Agreements:

1. Celebrate and embrace the diversity of thought, practice, and opinion. There are many ways to do and practice rope. The Community Discord is a way for us all to engage and interact across differences. While rope connects us all, we are still unique individually.

2. Navigate disagreement through discourse. Treat others with respect, even if you disagree. Discord is primarily a text interaction platform, please be mindful that miscommunications can happen.

3. Respect each community members’ identities and honor their boundaries/requests about how they wish to be treated. Treat others how they wish to be treated - this includes using their correct pronouns, name, and any other identifying factors that feel important to them. If you make a mistake, take accountability for your actions and try to repair any harm caused.

4. Help create safer spaces for learning and growth through mutual accountability and co-created community accountability. Accountability is mutually co-created. This space is meant to build community and hold each other in that process - sometimes that means making mistakes. Our commitment to accountability begins with a willingness to own and accept that we are all capable of causing harm. Let’s intentionally build a space where making mistakes and making things right is a part of how we operate.

5. Bring a growth mindset and be mindful of your learning zones. Check-in with yourself and where your learning zones are. Be mindful when you are in the panic zone and ask for help if you need it.

6. Actively receive in conversation before responding. Receive information down to the last word before taking the time to communicate your thoughts.

7. Make space, take space. Reflect on when you’re able to take up more space in the discord/threads/conversations and reflect on if you need to be creating more space for others. Reflect on if you aren’t participating as much or taking up space, why that might be. Try to find the courage to share your thoughts and take up space, you belong here!

8. Be mindful of the impact of your actions, not just the intentions behind them. Just because we didn’t intend to hurt or harm someone doesn’t change that they are hurt/harmed.

9. NSFW Content. We unfortunately cannot have explicit NSFW content on the community at this time. As an education platform in Shibari we do recognise some content is concerning the practice of shibari but we cannot host explicit material. We do not want to moderate heavily in this space so please be mindful when sharing photographs. 

10. This is all challenge by choice. It’s a choice of action to be here and to be participating in this space. Please participate at whatever capacity feels accessible and most authentic for you

Channel Descriptions

Within the Shibari Study Community we have a number of channels for you to enjoy, some for serious discussion about rope, others are just here for a bit of fun. Each channel has its own purpose and as the community grows we are open to adding new channels that have specific purposes. However, as we first launch we don’t want to overwhelm people with too many channels we decide to start small, focussing on the topics we feel are important to hold space for

Community Guidelines

This channel contains all our guidelines on using the community. Once you have updated your profile, we recommend you go here and take a look. Community Guidelines are usually common sense, and can be summarised with the ethos of “be kind, make space and be polite”. Ideally we want everyone in the community to feel safe and heard and the community guidelines are how we do this. If you find yourself on the wrong side of the guidelines… we will have to take some form of action. Usually in the first case this would be to remind you of the guidelines and politely ask you to adjust your behavior/contributions to the community. In the extreme, we might have to restrict your ability to participate in the community. Please do have a read of the guidelines and we trust that everyone will understand why we have to have these in place and we wont need to moderate the community too heavily. The community is a space to share and be honest and authentic, the less we have to moderate the better a place it will be.

General Chat

Exactly as you might expect, the general chat channel is open to all kinds of conversations. Have a question about a specific harness? Want to know more about peoples experiences at kink events? Want to share an idea for a rope scene you might have? Seen a great film with a wholesome rope scene (i know… im stretching here a bit) then this is the place to share it.

General Chat is also where you can introduce yourself to other community members, ask a question, get some feedback on a tie you have tried, troubleshoot problems you have experienced.

This channel is visible publicly, however only subscribers can post and comment.

Bottoming

The Bottoming channel is all about the experience of being in rope, a space to share experience, tips, emotions and resources all about what its like to be tied. Do you have a routine or ritual you go through before or after you do rope, have you found specific techniques that make certain types of rope more or less sustainable, have you experienced something while in rope you arent sure about. This is the space to discuss it. 

This channel is visible publicly, however only subscribers can post and comment. We feel it is important to have this channel public to more widely share the knowledge and resources discussed on this important topic.

Self Tying

For all those among us who don't require a partner to experience rope, that embody the top and bottom all at the same time. The self tying channel is here to discuss the unique experience that happens in the intersection of both tying and being tied at the same time. Not all rope is suitable to be self tied, but time and time again we see amazing rope artists adapting ties and making it possible to tie them alone. The Self Tying channel is here to give you a space to discuss the nuances of tying yourself.

This channel is visible publicly, however only subscribers can post and comment. We feel it is important to have this channel public to more widely share the knowledge and resources discussed on this important topic.

News

Want to keep up to date with all things new at Shibari Study…. The News channel is the place to be. We will use this space to announce New Content Drops on the site, Upcoming Streamed Classes, New Features and changes to the website and any other cool things we might be working on. 

Unfortunately you can’t post here, but you can comment on posts from the Shibari Study Team.

This channel is visible publicly.

Photos & Stories

We absolutely love to see your photos and hear about your rope scenes, so this channel is here for you to appease our voyeuristic need to see what kind of fun things you have been up to. It's also a chance for you to show off your favourite rope scenes, or post a photo of something you are struggling with and need some feedback. If you’ve taken a photo of it, you can share it here. 

This channel is private, it is only visible to people with an active Shibari Study subscription, so rest assured your photos are not visible to the public. Only Subscribers can post or comment in this channel.

Feedback

Noticed a bug on the site, a broken link, or just have a cool idea that you thing might make your Shibari Study experience better, drop us some feedback. We might occasionally specifically ask for your ideas too, and this is the place it will happen. If you are having a support problem that needs immediate attention, then please do drop us an email on support@shibaristudy.com 

This Channel is Private, only users with an active Subscription can post and Comment

Memes and Off-Topic

Who doesn't love a good meme, and if you find one we would love to see it. We started this channel as a way to have a bit of fun, and the Shibari Study team have even shared some of their favourite memes about rope, bdsm and all things kinky. You can also use this for any off topic conversations too, anything non rope related, maybe you just passed an exam or your nervous about a date with a new beau… come chat about it here

This Channel is Private, anyone with a Shibari Study account can see it, but only people with an active subscription can Post and Comment

Safety, Risk, Consent and Negotiation

Have a question about safety in rope, or concerned about the risks of a certain harness, or suspension. This is the place to ask. Its also the channel to talk about consent and negotiation for rope scenes, where you can learn from other peoples experiences and share your own. We made sure that this channel is private to give people a space they can talk freely and get the advice they need. All rope bondage has risks associated to it and safety is a relative context, what might feel safe for one person may not for another and this is a nuance and diverse conversation, therefore it deserves a dedicated space.

This Channel is Private, only users with an active Subscription can view, post and comment

Student of the Month

Did you know that every month 1 Shibari Study subscriber wins a free quarterly subscription?? Naturally there is a catch. Our Education Director Fuoco loves a good challenge, so each month a challenge is set in the Student of the Month Channel, giving you an opportunity to participate. It’s usually tied (forgive the pun) to something we are doing that month, so maybe its Halloween themed, or its related to a new piece of content or a cool live class. Participation might vary each month from sharing a photo, to giving some feedback, or watching specific content on the website.

This Channel is Private, anyone with a Shibari Study account can see it, but only people with an active subscription can Post and Comment

Equipment

Want to know more about how to build your own at home freestanding suspension rig, or what the best nipple clamps to use during a rope scene are. Maybe you are curious what kinds of carabiners people use, or whether its better to keep your rope in a utility backpack  of a furoshiki. If its about the peripherals and equipment you use with rope, this is your spot. Nerd out on spanning trees for timber, load ratings for bamboo or whether the xpole, or tetruss maximuss is the most portable suspension rig.

This Channel is Private, only people with an active subscription can view, post and comment on this channel.

Update Your Profile

When you post on the community, some of your profile information is displayed, including location, bio and your profile name.

We recognise that for some people this might cause concerns around privacy and anonymisation. We fully support your right to contribute to the community under your chosen name or scene pseudonym. So before you post anything on the community here, please take a minute to review your profile.

To do this please follow the below steps.

1.  Log in to your Shibari Study Account.

2. Navigate to your Profile at the top Right and click “Profile Settings”

3. Update your information, don't forget to set your name & location to whatever you want to appear in the community. If you need to remove your location, ensure you do this before you post.