So what does this have to do with the body?  Well, the body is like a map or a blueprint that shows us in ways both obvious and subtle where we are free or not free. If we are in acute physical pain or physical restriction, the body is giving us a pretty obvious signal as to where we are not free.  Less obvious, until you learn how to tune in and ‘read’ the body, is that the body will show and tell us what we are holding on the emotional, mental & spiritual levels that is keeping us stuck or ‘not free’. Often, it is the lack of freedom on these ‘other’ levels that creates the physical restriction in the first place.

Here’s an example.  Recently, a woman came to my office with pain in her neck and radiating into her eyes that was not responding to “standard” treatment.  As we connected with this pain through hands-on manipulation, breath, intention and awareness, it became obvious that she was holding a tremendous amount of fear in this area.  On deeper exploration, it became clear that the fear was caused by repetitive negative and catastrophic thoughts (ie, fear of being in a car crash, fear of being alone, fear of illness).  As a result, she described feeling tight, contracted, disconnected, and stuck in her body.  As she let herself feel these fears her body was storing, she felt herself shut down and lose feeling of her body altogether as her overactive mind took front-and-center stage.

I know how she feels.  I understand the body contraction that comes when I get angry or anxious for example.  The body naturally contracts and restricts when there is pain, disease, fear or judgement at the mental and emotional levels or we feel separated at a spiritual level.  When we can bring in awareness, compassion, forgiveness and healing at these levels, we open the doors to gain freedom in every part of our lives, which is reflected in our physical body.

So, back to my client.  What do you think happened when we moved into an expanded place of positive and loving thoughts?  Try this… think of something that upsets you and FEEL into your body.  How does it respond?  Now think of something positive, fun, something you love… what happens in your body?  (Is it easier to breathe; more relaxed; are your muscles softer?) When I asked my client to do this and speak what was present for her, the first word out of her mouth was FREEDOM!

Yes!  When we connect to what is happening in our body we find the freedom we are longing for.  By allowing ourselves to slow down, feel inside, embrace what is present, become aware of what is truly going on for us, we give ourselves the opportunity to feel our truth, which then flows into our life. Ah… doesn’t that feel good?!

It can be a bumpy road as we awaken ourselves to the Freedom we are longing for, and it is a process, not a quick fix.  However, by sensing and feeling our world through our body we are more easily able to assess what is happening to us and how to take care of ourselves.

I have deep respect for body knowledge.  When I live my life including my body, I feel the deep connection to source, and that gives me tremendous freedom.  To me, true freedom can only come when we inhabit our body and live a body-mind existence.

So… what does this mean for you?  How do you do this for yourself?  How do you access your own body wisdom?  When do you take the time to do it?  And anything else for that matter… please share your thoughts!

We also did some partnering work, which I love to teach as it is about being in relationship with yourself and with another and the girls LOVED this part of the class.  They loved being supported and they loved having someone support them.  They really got the importance of  taking care of yourself before taking care of another and how valuable that is.  One of them expressed how she felt uncomfortable that someone was crying, and I explained how when we move into the body emotions get released and it is a good thing to have them expressed otherwise those emotions can build up in us and create other issues.

I was delighted to hear how these 17 year old girls got a piece of understanding about how to connect more deeply to their body…. and that made me feel like what I do is worth it.  I encourage you to spend some free time moving/dancing and take your time to FEEL as you do. Don’t just move, move with intention and focus – your body, mind and spirit will love you for it, like the girls did. Post a comment below and share your experience?  How did it go?

That is something I feel deeply in my bones.  The Feminine has been suppressed as we all know and certainly  now women are much more “empowered” in the world…  However, as women, the feminine still needs to embraced within our body.

Too many of us operate from the more masculine energies and we are depleting ourselves of our source, the Feminine. So we feel stuck, tired, trapped, pushed in a corner or simply not living the life we know we can have.

Come and discover this afternoon at 4 PM Pacific (7 EST) as I’m interviewed on the Wise Chicks Radio show….. We will be talking about how to open the door to truly successful relationships, career, balance and fullfilment by connecting to your feminine energy source through your body.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheWiseChickShow/2009/08/05/Awaken-Your-Feminine-Power-How-to-Thrive-In-Your-Life-By-Embracing-Your-Feminine-Energy

Tune in if you can… it’s going to be a good one!

In life and in my body psychotherapy work with clients (also called somatic psychology or somatic therapy), I constantly witness how we get in our own way.  How all the “noise” – the mind-chatter, the fear, the “shoulds”, the emotional backlash – covers up what we really want to do.  I was talking to a friend the other day who is having marriage problems and I said to her, “what is your truth about this relationship.  What is your heart’s desire?”  We get lost in our relationships and in our lives in our own story of the way things “should be”.

It’s easy to get caught up in the “noise” when we approach it from the mental level… we try to analyze it, figure it out, let the mind wrestle with it.  Did you know that there is a much more direct (and in my experience more effective!) way to deal with the “noise”?  Approach it through your body awareness (vs. the mind) and see what happens…

When I get lost and caught up in chaos and confusion, it’s a red flag for me to take some time and move from my mind into my body.  I take my breath into my belly and deep into my pelvis and listen.  Listen to the confusion, the noise, the upset, the disappointment, the judgments, the criticism and whatever else is in there… I stay with that for a minute, feel it, and observe it.  Then I listen a little deeper.  Because underneath all the noise is the answer.

It can take a little bit of practice and some support the first few times.  But I do know again and again that when I go inside, I find the answer.  Now, it may be that I uncover the resistance that is holding me back from moving forward (which is a blessing because then I can deal with it) or maybe I experience an insight “aha” moment that clarifies my direction or next step, or the obvious answer just pops right up.

Take the example of one of my clients this week.  She thinks she is confused about what she wants to do in life, but she actually has a very clear voice of her path… when it is given a chance to express itself.  This “voice of truth” lives underneath the other “noisy” voices and can be accessed through the core of the body.  This wise aspect is very patient; it won’t shout to compete with the “noise”, and it is willing to wait to be heard.  In her body, it lives deep within her belly/pelvic area.  This voice inside is very clear about what she is here to do and how to get there… it is simply unwilling to fight all the other aspects to be noticed.  Once accessed, it has very direct wisdom that tells her everything she needs to know.  We all have this within us.  In this way, the answers we seek really are inside us just waiting to be tapped.

So, take a moment right now and breath deep inside, letting the breath flow in and out, deep in your belly.  What is underneath all the noise in your head (or elsewhere in your body)? Wait for it.  Hold there.  Now, find that place deep within… as deep as you can go.  Connect in, and listen for the answer because it is there.

Please write a comment or email me and let me know what is your truth underneath the “noise”. Or what block is stopping you from knowing what your truth is?  I would love to hear from you.

As the body holds all experiences and our emotions it can be quite daunting to “delve” inside ourselves and uncover the wealth of information that is held inside.  More often than not there is a sense of “falling apart” which makes sustaining the attention into your body even more difficult.

The sacred decent into the body means we are going to travel past the mind, the ego and the personality that “thinks” it has  us held together. Most people have been disconnected from a deeper awareness of their body for a long time, so it takes some unwinding to open up to the body.  Our sense of not holding it all together comes from the mind.  I have witnessed in private sessions, classes and workshops how uncomfortable and distressed participants become.

One thing I will say, and I have also noticed in my practice of supporting clients to reconnect to their bodies, is that those who access their courage, willingness, determination to keep working through what comes up, are richly rewarded.  The body opens up willingly to reveal the treasures and the joy inside. However, because of the resistance the mind has to letting go of control, we often have to go through some angst, upset, anxiety, frustration,  feel our fear and maybe even experience some depression, hopelessness, emptiness, or loneliness.  The good news is that all of this is temporary.

When we do “give ourselves permission” or “allow” ourselves to delve into our body and we meet the resistance, the angst, the contractions, the old way of being, we discover something amazing… these things fall away and underneath them we find the flow, the fluidity, the pleasure, the connection to the universe.  We, our mind, our ego, our thoughts, or whatever is in the way, gets out of the way and we “find” ourselves. In other words we wake up and start to feel what it feels like to be fully present in our body, on this earth, connected to all while doing our individual human dance.

We find our true expression, a new point of reference, a new way to veiw life, our vulnerability, our strength and we FEEL ourselves.  We know what we want, we can move through our resistance,  judgments and upset, we can express ourselves authentically.

Expressive freeform movement has been one of my greatest resources finding my way back to my body and to my Self.  It has been an exquisite journey as I surrender more and more to “letting go” and being led.  My life has become richer, more fulfilling, more delicious and I am aware of more love and support being present.

So, may this be a message of encouragement for those of you on this body-mind journey. Keep going and stay present no matter what shows up (especially resistance!), embrace what comes up and ultimately it will dissolve and open into greater connection and a peace you may not have thought possible.

I would love to hear from you and hear your thoughts on this.  What do you do when resistence comes up?  Drop me a note and tell me what’s going on for you.  I have lots of support information for you at my website so please visit it or be e-mail me.

So dancing or moving is not just for connecting to our body or for personal expression, but it also assists us in our brain function and reverses the anti-aging effect of time on our mind and body.

Not that this is a great shock to those of us who love to move and dance… we already know we feel alive, restored and more connected when we dance!  But something about this “scientific” validation of the effect that dancing has on stimulating the systems and connections in our brain… I found this fascinating and important.

When I talk about “dancing”, I mean dance/movement, free-form dance, moving with deep body awareness, the movement of the soul through the body.  In my  classes and workshops we use dance/movement combined with somatic (or, body) awareness to come into very deep states of healing and spiritual connection. It is clear that the dance, the movement, has a profound effect on the brain, and all our systems for that matter.

Often I find in class/ workshops/working privately with people when they start to move their body it feels very foreign and unfamiliar at first. They might feel stupid, awkward, silly, like they are not doing it “well enough”. We often hold a lot of judgement about how we are moving and what it looks like.  The beauty of the movement form we use is that it is not about “how” you look but how you “feel” as you move that is important. It is about finding your own self expression through the movement.

One of my students in class said the other day that as she kept turning up and doing the work she started getting flashes of what it is like to really be inside the body.  It takes time to connect in and to listen to what is present inside. Through the practice of movement, of conscious dancing, we get glimpses of our TRUE self.  And slowly but surely we get to stay there longer and longer. Eventually (and sometimes right away!) there are longer moments of feeling the bliss of “coming home”, the ecstasy of being with ourselves, the peace, the joy, the surrender, the trusting, the knowing of our divine connection.

For me, it is so delicious to find my own flow and expression of my true self and I feel this deeply whenever I move, teach or do a healing session. As someone said in a session the other day,  ”I am amazed, you just keep asking the body and the truth keeps rolling out.”

And apparently, in addition to all these priceless benefits, we are also boosting our brainpower, maybe getting smarter or at least, slowing down the aging process. I call that a win-win.

So why not move, to save your body, your brain, and heal your life! Whether you come try one of our classes http://www.bodyfreedom.com/classes.html) or turn on your favorite song at home, close your eyes, and DANCE like no one’s watching for 5 minutes (check out the April BodyTip) … let’s heal ourselves and heal the world through dance!

Happy dancing this April!  Would love to hear your thoughts…  Let me know how your 5 minutes of dancing goes.  Please leave a comment below.

Put on a piece of music, close your eyes (or not!) and move your body. That’s right, feel the music and move.  Feel stupid, feel awkward, playful, silly and do it anyway! Shake, flow, jump up and down, roll, stretch, explore disconnected movements, try something new.  Find the fun in it as dancing/moving to music can be very playful. Pretend you are a kid, and move like  a child would, they love to free form move!  While feeding your soul you are feeding your brain!

Now… how do you feel?

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