a lived story explaining therapeutic somatic repatterning...

Nervous systems…

Living together…

Inevitably will find opportunities for the old unprocessed stories of danger and pain to emerge, stories of when the nervous system never got to move the body to safety, when it never got to feel the experience of being seen or heard in a way that let the whole system fully release into safety, when it never got to truly resolve and settle.

And these opportunities can create new stories of the old paradigm, history brought into present.

And the spiritbodymind can get more and more tangled. Especially when two nervous systems are both trying to deal with old unprocessed woundings. The nervous system can so easily be made to believe the thing of the past is happening again. It can FEEL like it's happening again. And when this happens patterns will play out because, without other options, this is what the sensory-nervous-motor systems of the body will do: react. When this happens the body can feel simply awful, hopeless, helpless. This kind of situation can bring out all the fight, flight, collapse patterns your nervous system has as the "tools" to try to help you deal with danger and survival. Tangles and snarls.

And i am here to tell you that this kind of situation can also be an opportunity to learn to disentangle. With practice you, fully somatic human being that you are, have more options available to you than you know!!!

You CAN learn to recognize that the current situation is an opportunity to FEEL a vibration of an old unresolved pattern that needs healing.

You can learn to recognize that to FEEL this discomfort safely you MUST ground and orient your sensory nervous system into the actual literal present (NOT the firings of the stories pushing their way into your awareness, stories that explain and justify the refiring of the old familiar patterns of fear, anger, discomfort and the resulting patterned (re)actions).

You CAN learn to listen, feel, hear when these old familiar protective patterns emerge, and to actively engage with your body so that you can safely explore what the patterns need from you TODAY that will allow them to untangle a bit and eventually to transform.

Healing at this deep level IS possible.

I know because I live this in my life. It is a process for sure. I am still learning. I still get caught up in the effects of wounding that happened long ago as if it was happening again today. I struggle with the deep pain that can surface from small misunderstandings and the reactive protective patterns. I can still feel how helpless my mind becomes when this happens and it feels like it's happening once again.

AND

I have also felt the power of the practice I described above. I have felt this practice transform the very tissues of my body and allow me to have more capacity to move and act and be more whole in the present. This practice has helped me from letting that old energy and pain fully lead my mouth and my actions in my present. I have learned that i do have the power to feel and act on my deep desire to actively be more healthy and more sane, even in times of conflict. I have learned that I can be with those parts of me that are crying out or raging for help without being taken over by them. Accessing this capacity takes practice and that practice creates space for change and healing.

I live this practice.

And in my professional life as a somatic movement therapist I support others to do the same. This, for me, is the essence of my understanding of and approach to therapeutic somatic repatterning.
***********************************************************************************************

I feel like I haven’t been able to explain therapeutic somatic repatterning this clearly before outside of a one-on-one session, but a recent situation in my life helped me feel and find these words. Let me know if you have questions, are curious and want to set up a consultation to learn more. Call 573-575-MOVE or email me!

What is Embodiment? A coffee and conversation talk

This morning I share my thoughts on the topic "What is Embodiment" at a local free Saturday morning event called "Coffee and Conversation."  Here are the notes that I have prepared along with this previous blog entry. 

As embryos, fetuses, and infants we did not have thoughts or emotions as we have them as adults.    We began as an organism, a collection of cells, with sensory receptors and movement.

Our movement abilities formed from amoeba-like to the most complex of walking, jumping and running as a naturally organized process of development in response to the information we received from our environment through our sensory receptors.

Given this, embodiment is…the sensory experience of breathing and of our weight on the Earth, of pressure, texture, temperature, light, smell, sound, taste and rhythm.   These are all the things that prompted us to move in the earliest days of our existence in the body we are in.  We experienced a sensation and we responded or reacted, in pleasure or in pain, in response to comfort or discomfort.

Then we learned words.  Words give a symbolic form to our experiences, a way to communicate sensations, thoughts and emotions.  Words are valuable and words can be spoken from an embodied perspective, but words are not themselves embodied.  Similarly sensory and emotional words are just labels, not things themselves. Emotions are actually a collection of sensations we associate with a specific experience.

The map is not the territory.” A. Korzybski 

We learn, as individuals, and have learned, as a culture, to override the sensory information of our body for many reasons.  Pain.  Traumatic events we witness or experience.  Devaluation by other people’s words or actions.  Descartian split of mind from body. Some religious beliefs, especially dogmatic Christianity.  Consumerism that views sensations as something to market to.  Capitalism that views sensations as a nuisance, diminishing the value of the workforce.  Incompatibility between the design of our sensory systems & the sensory information in our environments.

My perspective is that the result is overwhelm, anxiety, depression, disease, disconnection from ourselves, each other and the Earth.  And that a  regular practice of noticing, deepening, inviting, enhancing embodiment is healing and powerful, in all ways.  This includes breath awareness, sensory awareness and conscious movement exploration to re-pattern what we have learned, as young children and into adulthood, about our body.